Keeping it simple: The Shofar and investments
As originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post on September 18th, 2020
Rosh Hashanah has arrived!
As I have written nearly every year, while there are many symbols that highlight Rosh Hashanah for me, it’s all about honey cake. Yes, I like honey cake, but in my family, the problem is that I am the only one. Everyone else thinks it’s “gross.” Well, if any family members are reading this, how about throwing me a bone this year and make some honey cake for me!”
With apologies to the apple and honey fans, and even though we are only using it once this year because the first day of Rosh HaShanah is the Shabbat, the Shofar is the main symbol of Rosh Hashanah.
Why do we blow the Shofar?
There are many reasons given as to why we blow the Shofar.
One reason given that I would like to focus on is that on Rosh Hashanah, the first of the Ten Days of Repentance, we are awoken from our spiritual slumber by the sounding of the Shofar. The Shofar is like an alarm that calls on us to examine our deeds and correct our ways, as we return to God.
Back to Basics
It is interesting to note that when a nation would coronate a king or go off to war, they would blow a trumpet to rally everyone. The Shofar is different. It’s not the kind of instrument you will find at the philharmonic. It’s a ram’s horn. It is as basic as you can get. The simple sounds of the Shofar are a wake-up call for us to get back to basics.
We need to break with our behavior of the last year and focus on what is really important. It’s a reminder that this is the time to stop rationalizing how great we have been acting and be true to ourselves and reflect; maybe we aren’t the amazing people we think we are.
Simplicity is key
Earlier this week, I was interviewed in a webinar about investing for a secure financial future. I was asked a great question to tell the participants about the worst investment that I had seen.
I gave the case of a man who came to my office about 8 or 9 years ago. He was a 1/6 partner in an apartment in Haifa. His partners were his brother in law and father in law. As he explained details of the partnership and other particulars, I got a headache, literally got a headache, and excused myself to take some Advil. He told me that one of the partners had taken out a loan to buy their share of the apartment, even though it wasn’t officially registered in Tabu (land registry); I was confused at the time and remained so.
The man ended up coming back to me 2 years later and told me that the investment hadn’t ended well and that they took a loss on the property. I was not surprised to hear this and. I remember telling him Dave Ramsey’s famous line that “your mother in law’s Thanksgiving turkey sure tastes better when you don’t owe her any money!”
There was no reason to make an investment deal so complicated!
I told him that if he wanted to invest in real estate, that he should buy an apartment in his name only. If he wished to invest in the stock market, then there are ways to do it in a way that would be easy to understand and easy to follow. For a few people, the more convoluted the investment, the better, but for 99% of the population, investing in complicated schemes is not recommended.
As I told the participants on the webinar, keep your investments chocolate and vanilla. It helps if you understand what you are investing in. And if the time comes to tell someone the details of what you have invested in, it shouldn’t give them a headache trying to understand the program.
Perhaps our modern technological world has mentally trained us to accept that most of the new wonders of the world are too complex to be understood by most people, and therefore, anything that is complex must be good.
As Dhirendra Kumar, CEO of Value Research, writes at the Economic Times, “No matter what product or service we’re buying, nothing impresses us more than features, jargon and complexity.”
Unfortunately, in personal finance, this idea is fatally wrong. In the case of personal finance products, simplicity is not just something useful; it is an absolute necessity.
May we all merit a happy and healthy new year. Ketivah v’Chatimah Tovah.
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 author of the book 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, FSI. For more information, call (02) 624-0995 visit www.aaronkatsman.com or email aaron@lighthousecapital.co.il.
