Read Doug’s articles originally printed in The Jerusalem Post.
Profile Perspectives
Proper financial planning can change your relationship with money.
Seniors, Beware of Financial Fraud
One of the most heartbreaking phenomena among senior citizens is investment fraud. Unfortunately living in Israel is not an insurance policy against financial deception. Recently I met with several victims of financial deceit to see what damage control can be done and what they could do to protect themselves in the future…. Read more
How to Protect Yourself in a Volatile Market
As every investor knows, it’s hard to protect yourself in a volatile market. But what about crazy uncertainty, like when the media tells you that corona virus will shut down the economy for months – or maybe years? What is the best way to plan in a climate of uncertainty?
Asset allocation
Asset allocation means don’t put all your eggs into one basket…. Read more
How Disruptive Technology Can Make You Rich
Innovative and high-tech companies have a reputation for growth and the potential to make investors rich. How do they do it? In some cases, the most successful ones completely shatter all common business paradigms by creating “disruptive technology.”
Disruptive technology
A great example of disruptive innovation is Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1450,… Read more
What You Need to Know About Strategic Investing
Strategic thinking isn’t only useful in games, but can help increase your assets. Carefully applying the skills of a chess grandmaster to your finances can yield benefits.
Evaluate your current position
First things grandmasters do is evaluate their position. Look at the entire board before considering your next move…. Read more
The Most Important Thing to Do Before You Retire
One of the most important things you should do before you retire is pay off your mortgage. However, your ability to do so may be affected by how many years it has left.
Generally, if you want to pay off your mortgage faster, you either increase payments so that they finish over a shorter period,… Read more
What You Need to Know About Timing the Market
Market timing is essentially the opposite of dollar-cost averaging.
Pros who believe they can put their money into the market at “optimal” times monitor trends and other financial criteria. They believe that markets follow predictable patterns and that market timers can select stocks before they shoot up. One problem with this strategy is that even when a person has wisely chosen a sector or correctly analyzed a cyclical pattern,… Read more
The Dollar Cost Dilemma
Sometimes when you invest a dollar, you can gain more. Continuing our three-part series on investing strategies, this column focuses on dollar-cost averaging.
Dollar-cost averaging
Investors use dollar-cost averaging when they own a stock/fund and want to buy more. Followers of this strategy invest a fixed dollar amount at regular intervals to buy additional shares…. Read more
Investing Strategies 101: Buy and Hold
One of the main keys to successful investing is strategy. In the financial world, there are various approaches and strategies for handling your money, and it’s always a good idea to research them to find out whether they could be useful to you.
Over the next three weeks, I will explain the nature of different investment strategies and how they work…. Read more
The Real Meaning of Average Annual Return
Is “annual return” a good measure of how your investments are doing?
If your investment account is returning average returns, you might be satisfied with your investments. After all, doesn’t that mean “you’re not losing money?”
But while average is fine in some areas of your life, it may not be enough if your investments give you an average rate of return…. Read more
Bad for Business: How to Make Sense of FATCA and FBAR
My op-ed piece in The Jerusalem Post outlines the potential fallout from these two regulated regulations, including the potential for small and medium-sized foreign banks to divest completely from the U.S. market.
Since these laws force American expatriates to disclose and pay taxes on most of their foreign financial holdings,… Read more