Lakewood resident Eli Fried is the founder of Leatherback Investments, a boutique investment advisory firm. He is also the founder of Geltguide.com, which provides financial information, tools and resources for the frum community. As Mr. Fried will be addressing the subject of parnasah at the Agudah Convention 2024, which is scheduled to take place this weekend in Stamford, Connecticut, I invited him to our Lakewood offices on Sunday, where we spoke about the financial challenges facing the Orthodox Jewish community.
Please describe what you do. I know that you help others with their parnasah, but what’s your profession?
I have a company called Leatherback Investments, which is an investment advisory firm focused on institutions and is registered with the SEC. One specialty of mine is 401(k) pensions, and I also manage endowment fund money.
So you advise institutions on where and how to invest.
Yes. Hedge funds, real estate, mutual funds, stocks…
And aside from your profession, there’s also what you do for the tzibbur with Gelt Guide. What exactly is that?
It’s financial awareness and education for the frum community. It started as a side hobby writing for The Voice of Lakewood. I give them credit, because they helped develop me as a writer when I didn’t know that I had that talent. My sister saw an ad saying that they were looking for a business writer, and she told me to give it a try. I did that for about seven years, stopping about two years ago because it was very Lakewood focused, and I knew that this was something that had to go much bigger. So that weekly column turned into the Gelt Guide weekly email that goes out to over 7,000 recipients every Sunday. All of my back articles are available on my website, geltguide.com. I also do a lot of posting on LinkedIn, where I have over 12,000 followers.
I get a tremendous number of responses from men, women, rabbanim, businessmen, professionals and students. They come from people across the entire spectrum, and they’re all seeking to improve their knowledge. I even have very big entrepreneurs and accountants thanking me for the articles, because no one knows everything. As part of Gelt Guide, I started something called The Parnasah Podcast a couple of months ago. That gives me the ability to go more in depth on the background of the challenges, the potential solutions and various pieces of advice that I can give.
Do you usually answer the people who ask you questions?
I answer every email and text myself. But I don’t know if I can continue doing that. You have to remember that klal Yisrael is very large. I’ve come to realize that my particular koach is in mass media, and the podcast has brought me to a new audience. Zoom is going to allow me to reach mass audiences for education. Working one-on-one just isn’t an efficient use of my time.
But you’ve been doing it.
I have, but I need to do it less.
What’s the general focus of your articles?
Anything related to parnasah: how to earn more money, invest more wisely, be disciplined in your budgeting, minimize your taxes and think about insurance. My scope is very broad. I try to take one complex topic per week and educate people.
What do you speak about with regard to insurance?
How to purchase the right kind without overpaying, overinsuring or underinsuring. Health insurance is a huge issue today, and people need to know how to protect themselves without going bankrupt.
Money is complex and that’s the reality. Every person is earning money, and if you’re earning money you have to think about taxes. Everyone is also spending money, which means that you have to think about not overspending, saving and investing.
Is this strictly pro bono?
So far, it has been negative profit, not just nonprofit, because I have an assistant who helps me with the posting and scheduling. I didn’t open a 501(c)(3) because I don’t take donations for it. So it’s basically a chesed to help the frum community be better at money.
You deal with the world of institutions, which isn’t necessarily Jewish, and then you focus on the Jewish community to help with parnasah. Do these two things ever overlap?
The expertise overlaps. Actually, I’m very careful not to market my business in any way, shape or form. Leatherback Investments is SEC regulated, and they’re very strict about advertising, so I don’t advertise or promote the business with Gelt Guide. In fact, I constantly refer people to others. People often say after reading my articles, “I understand that it’s important to invest. How should I do it?” In general, I try to give people do-it-yourself advice. Today, it’s very easy to go to companies like Fidelity or Vanguard; there are fantastic mutual funds out there. I strongly encourage anyone who is able to self-educate and has the interest and ability to do it himself. It’s like going to Home Depot. You don’t always have to hire a contractor; you can do it yourself. On the other hand, there are people who are either in a more complicated situation or simply don’t have the time and patience to deal with it. In those cases, I refer them out at no charge.
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