My Story and Philosophy

 

 

My parents always taught me that if you work hard, you can achieve the American dream… a nice house, vacations, a college education and, especially, a worry-free retirement. However, as I grew up I realized that just working hard wasn't enough. Most people do work hard, and actually wind up retiring with very little or they have to depend completely on Social Security benefits.

Case in point was my parents. Both of them were from immigrant families. My father and mother married when they were only 19 and 17 years old. My father was a civil servant for the city of New York and my mother was a housewife. My dad also had to work several part-time jobs at night after work and on weekends to support himself, his wife and three children. Eventually he started investing in real estate and his income and net worth jumped in leaps and bounds. He bought old three- and four- family houses, fixed them up, rented them out and sold them for a good profit.

I had the pleasure of accompanying him on these refurbishment endeavors. In fact, that was the only time I really got to spend with my dad. While other fathers and sons were going to baseball games and fishing, I was rolling linoleum and handing my dad tools that I had no idea how to use. I watched him work very hard. He would say "This house is going to be for your college,” or “This house is going to be for my retirement.”

My father continued with his plan throughout the late 1960's and all through the 70’s. However, he over-extended himself! Eventually the real estate market bottomed out.

My dad called his so-called “Financial Advisors” (who really turned out to be his attorney and his insurance agent). Other than charging him large fees for refinancing and selling him new insurance policies, he never really got any good financial advice. To make a long story short, my father had to declare bankruptcy. My family fell apart after that and my parents got divorced after 32 years of marriage. So in essence, I saw my parents go from rags to riches and back to rags!

As for me, I wound up paying for my own college education. My biggest fear was ending up with no money. That fear drove me into financial planning and investment counseling. I wanted to know everything there was to know about accumulating and building wealth, and how to keep it safe and protect it! I studied as much as I could about money and acquired every financial license I could think of. One of my greatest learning opportunities came from Sir John Templeton. He was a financial hero to me and I got to pick his brain in a one-on-one session – something I’ll never forget!

My practice is not merely a business to me - it’s my passion! I want to share my knowledge and give as much information as I can to as many people as I can. I love to teach financial information! I believe in the old adage, as told to me by my father, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime”.