Read Doug’s articles originally printed in The Jerusalem Post.
Profile Perspectives
Proper financial planning can change your relationship with money.
What You Need to Know About Rolling Your 401k to an IRA
When you change jobs, everything you need to take with you can be neatly packed into a box – except your retirement plan. When you leave your job, you need to think about rolling your 401(k) into an IRA (Individual Retirement Account). If you left your job to make aliya,… Read more
How to Make a Good Investment Decision
Since one person’s good investment choice may be a huge mistake for someone else, what factors should you consider when deciding upon a potential investment?
In investing, the only hard and fast rule is that past performance never guarantees future returns. Though you should try to understand why a security acted in a specific way in the past,… Read more
What You Need to Know About Asset Allocation
Was Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote fighting imaginary windmills or market volatility when he said, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket?” Putting all of your assets in one basket doesn’t keep them as safe as you might think because there is always a risk that you might lose them all at once…. Read more
The Things Not to Do With an Inheritance
When you get an inheritance, your first question may be, “What should I do now?” But a better question is “What shouldn’t I do now?”
Getting an inheritance arouses many emotions. Sometimes, people get too excited and they spend all the money without thinking about the best uses for it…. Read more
How Can You Increase Your Retirement Income?
How can you increase your retirement income and avoid risk? Many people simply put their money in the bank. But the good news is that there are other options for reducing risk and generating more retirement income.
While banks present a lower risk than the markets, bank deposits historically have low yields…. Read more
What Happens to Your U.S. Brokerage Account When You Leave America?
The good news is that if you are an American expat, or you are not a U.S. citizen at all, you can still benefit from having a U.S. brokerage account. (For more information about managing your American brokerage account from abroad, download the Profile Toolkit.)
Why have an American brokerage account?… Read more
What Should You Do With Money in the Bank?
Recently, a couple asked me what they should do with their money in the bank. I hear this question quite often. However, as every individual investor’s situation and circumstances are different, there is no standard response that fits everyone. To figure out an answer for this particular couple, I asked:
What’s the intended purpose of this money?… Read more
Are You Guilty of This Portfolio Management Mistake?
At an initial meeting, a new retiree told me, “I’m not really sure what stocks I own.” When I asked how he had put together his portfolio, he explained that some of the positions came from an inheritance, while others… “Well, I’m not really sure,” and a couple of stocks were recommendations from “this guy who sits next to me in shul.” When I asked him if that guy still thinks they’re good stocks,… Read more
How Can You Maximize the Tax Efficiency of Your Retirement Accounts?
As a U.S. Certified Financial PlannerTM sitting in Jerusalem, I work mostly with immigrants who keep their assets in American investment accounts. When a recent oleh listed the various retirement plans that he held in the United States, he mentioned:
- Individual Retirement Account (IRA),
- 401(k) retirement plan from an old employer,
What You Need to Know Before Buying Bonds
If you are looking for an investment with a steady yield that is generally considered more predictable than the stock market, consider buying bonds. To watch a short explanatory video about bonds, go here: Profile-financial.com/bonds.
What are bonds?
When you buy a bond, you essentially lend money to a government,… Read more