Pesach: Choosing freedom over financial slavery
As originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post on April 12, 2024.
“Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.” -Alexis de Tocqueville
Keep delaying. The cleaning can wait. You still have a bit more than a week until showtime! That is what we keep telling ourselves as Seder night quickly approaches. It’s important to be focused on the main goal; after all the hard work we get to enjoy a meal with bitter herbs and cardboard flavored matzo!
On Pesach we celebrate that we have gone from being slaves to being free. But today in 2024 can we really relate to being slaves? For all of you kids’ reading this, your parents asking you to help clean is not slavery!
Our unique situation of being at war helps our freedom feeling. After all, notwithstanding the brutal attack of October 7th, we have our own country and army to fight this war. Something very unique in Jewish history over the last 2000 years.
As I have quoted before, speaking about the aura of Seder night Rav Ezra Bick wrote, “In the modern world, we tend to take freedom for granted, and perhaps that is why it seems so shallow and empty at times. Halakha sends the Jew back into slavery every year (or perhaps it would be more correct to say that Halakha recognizes that man slips back into slavery every year), so that he can be liberated anew. Freedom is a journey, a station on the road, and without the experience of liberation, without the living memory that NOW you have just left the house of bondage, you are not really free.
If you do not free yourself every year, you slip back into subjugation – one either increases freedom, or becomes enslaved. At the very beginning of the seder, we cite a halakhic rule – “the more one tells the story of the exodus, the more meritorious it is.” Freedom is an inner struggle, a process, a path, not a static state; and the more one relives the moment of liberation, the farther one travels on that path.”
In Proverbs (22: 7) it says, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” For those who want to exit financial slavery and enter the world of financial independence, now is the time to roll up your sleeves, and get to work cleaning up your financial mess. Like cleaning the oven, it’s not always an easy thing to do. As Rav Bick wrote” Freedom is an inner struggle, a process, a path…” Go back and reassess your financial goals and dreams of how you would like your future to look, and then create a financial plan to get yourself back on track to achieve your goals and dreams.
Once you have defined your goals, it’s time to look at your financial situation. Are you in debt? If the answer is yes, then what are you going to do to get out of it? A few years ago, I received a call that I have yet to forget. A single man called asking me for advice. He said that he owned a couple of properties in Northern Israel, but they were mortgaged, and the rent was all going towards his monthly payments. He had a part-time job that didn’t pay much. He wasn’t able to make ends meet on a monthly basis, because his rent and other normal monthly expenses were more than his small salary. I suggested that maybe he sell off one of the properties and with the proceeds pay off the other mortgage. He refused. He then asked me if he maybe should think about getting a higher paying full-time job. I said that that was probably a good idea! Since then, I keep wondering why on earth he had to call me to “get permission” to get a higher paying job?
Do you have a budget? If not sit down with a pen and paper and write down how much income you have and then figure out your expenses. You can go online and search for expense tracking websites and apps if that makes it easier. There are many that will even connect straight to your bank account and make budgeting and tracking your expenses a snap.
Do you have an investment portfolio? If not, the earlier you start investing the more secure a financial future you will enjoy. If you have investments, how are they doing? Have you skewed from your optimal asset allocation? Is your portfolio a hodgepodge of random stocks that were bought on a whim, but with no underlying strategy?
Be smart about your investments. Owning random stocks with no strategy is a recipe for disaster. Statistically, asset-allocation is the best way for most investors to grow wealth.
Like moving from slavery to freedom, there is no shortcut to building wealth, it’s a process. The way to build wealth is to buy quality assets and hold them over time. By allowing the wonders of compound interest and the growth of the stock market to do their thing, over time there is a good chance that you will achieve financial freedom.
Now, get back to the bleach and Sfog HaPeleh!
The information contained in this article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. or its affiliates.
Aaron Katsman is the author of Retirement GPS: How to Navigate Your Way to A Secure Financial Future with Global Investing (McGraw-Hill), and is a licensed financial professional both in the United States and Israel, and helps people who open investment accounts in the United States. Securities are offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. (www.prginc.net). Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, SIFMA, FSI. For more information, call (02) 624-0995 visit www.aaronkatsman.com or email aaron@lighthousecapital.co.il.
