Rabbi Evan Moffic goes through one of his favorite passages from Ecclesiastes. He gives us lessons on what it teaches us about managing risk in various aspects of our lives. Risk is everywhere and sometimes we don’t recognize it because it seems very minimal. He implores us to think long-term as what we do now helps determine our futures. He discusses why we should create multiple streams of income to prepare us for inevitable downturns and encourages us to focus on small habits.
Announcer 0:02
Welcome to the Solomon Success Show where we explore the timeless wisdom of King Solomon and the Bible as it relates to business and investing false prophets and get rich quick schemes are everywhere. Let’s not be distracted by these. Instead, let’s go to the source, the eternal principles that create a life of peace, power and prosperity. Here’s our host, Jason Hartman.
Rabbi Evan Moffic 0:33
Welcome to the Solomon success Show. I’m Rabbi Evan morphic. I’m a friend and client of Jason’s and he was kind enough to invite me to co host this show with him. This show explores the principles that will make us wealthy and happy and fill our lives with meaning and purpose. What better goal can we have then to live a life filled with that greatest gift, the gift of meaning the gift of purpose and the gift of wealth, they go together. Because when you invest with Jason, when you learn from Jason and even if you haven’t yet worked with Jason, you are all trying all of us are trying to live a life of meaning and purpose and wealth. And there are so many fake gurus out there, giving us insight, three step programs that what we need to do. But here in the Solomon success show, you will find guiding, two and 3000 year old principles and wisdom, time tested in history, proven to be true, helping create Western civilization as we know it. You’re going to find those principles here. They work. They speak to the deepest in human nature, and they help us get to where we want to go And today, we are going to look at some really insightful information. credible advice Solomon gives us. And this is the kind of advice that people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get in books and in seminars today. This is the kind of advice that people have won Nobel prizes for. No, there was a famous Nobel Prize given about called the Sharpe ratios and how to get the highest risk adjusted return in our investments. And this one is the Nobel Prize, I believe in the 1950s gentlemen from the University of Chicago, but Solomon, King Solomon, the wisest person in history was talking about these principles thousands of years ago, and they have to do with risk and how we measure and deal with risk. And don’t you want to know how to deal with risk because life is risk. All of us we have risks we face every day, whenever we get in a car, there’s risk. Whenever we make any decision, there’s risk sometimes the risk is minimal. You know, the risk of getting hit by a meteorite is you know, point oh, 1% right now, but it’s still a risk. Everything is filled with risk. And one of the reasons we do income property investing is to lower our risk because it’s the best, there’s still risk, but it’s much less risky than investing for appreciation. It’s much less risky than investing in the stock market. Now, but we’re not going to talk this is not an income investing, seminar or show this is a show about biblical wisdom, but it always, you know, part of what Jason teaches is a lot of the ways of investing are rooted in basic principles. So that’s why we have this Solomon success show. But here is Solomon’s wisdom on risk investment. This is gold. This is just incredible. I mean, I remember the first time I read this I you know, I mean, I’d read it before, but when I read it with eyes, that were a little bit more financially astute, I began to realize how incredibly wise Solomon was. Here’s what he writes in the book of Ecclesiastes. Remember Solomon writes the book of Ecclesiastes is the book of Proverbs. The song of song Solomon is credited with much of the Bible and here’s what he writes this In chapter 11, verses one through five, cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days, divide your portion to seven or even eight streams of income. That’s my addition. For you do not know what the miss when misfortune may occur on the earth. If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth, and whether a tree falls towards the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies. He who watches the wind will not so and he who looks at the clouds will not reap justice, you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman. So you do not know the activity of God who makes all things. Now, let me unpack this for you. Because this is profound. I see at least five lessons in this text, at least five and they’re all captured in these words. The first is where it says number one this this is the first part of this First, cast your bread on the water and it will come back to you sometime in the future.
Rabbi Evan Moffic 5:07
Maybe this is a more poetic way of saying what goes around comes around. And when it comes to Investment and in risk, we have to think long term, the things that we do now, right now, we’ll create the future, that we enjoy the future. Now I’m going to get really philosophical and theological for a second, the future doesn’t really exist. It’s a possibility, and the actions we take now, create the possibility we desire so we can create our future, cast your bread upon the water, and it will come back to you. sometime in the future, take action, do something, that if we don’t take any risks in life, we’re going to live a miserable life. We need to take thoughtful, meaningful risks we need to take action. in the longer term, we think the better. We want to leave a legacy. We don’t just want to get through the There are some there are some times in life where it’s our goal to just get through it one day at a time. I’ve counseled many people, when the healthiest to think one day at a time. But when we’re at our best, we need to think long term, we need to recognize that we create our future. And we can leave a legacy for the future. The second lesson of this verse, this is perhaps my favorite, cast your portions to seven or eight because of misfortune. In other words, create seven or eight different streams of income, spread out our money in different ways. We may have a job that pays a W two income, we may have a side hustle that gets more income. We may have real estate or income property investments that provide one source of income. And maybe some of those income properties are long term. Some of them are short term. Perhaps we have a book I’ve written books and I get royalty checks. Those royalty checks are relatively small, but they’re still nice. We may have other types of investments that We should create as many streams of income as possible, because we never know what might happen. What if we enter into a recession? What if we work for a small business and the small businesses hit with a major legal claim and the owner has to sell it? We don’t know the world is filled with uncertainty. So the more ways we can find ways of supporting ourselves and not depending on others, the better Solomon, the richest man in the world realized this 3000 years ago. And I think many, many more people are realizing that today that we can’t just rely on one job or one position to sustain us. That’s not enough. We don’t live in that kind of world anymore. Maybe for a short period of time after World War Two, when unions were at their strongest people could have a job that was secure for life. That’s no more. We have to think creatively. We have to find different streams of income. Solomon says at least seven, I was talking to a guy I know happens to be a pastor. He puts on conferences, he writes books, he told me he has 10 different streams of income. think creatively. Number three clouds. Poor rain when they are full. Hmm. Patience, patience. We can look up and see clouds in the sky and it still doesn’t rain. A cloud rains at the right time. We have to wait for certain things to come to fruition. Remember that commercial for jG Wentworth? It’s my money and I want it now. We’re an impatient people. We always want something we want it right now. We need delayed gratification. Jason has talked about this many times. One of the secrets to life and happiness is delayed gratification, but it is hard. In Hebrew, the word for patience is south la nuit. The word for suffering is also South la nuit. Patience can be a form of suffering waiting. Waiting is hard. The late great Tom Petty said that Waiting is the hardest part. It’s hard to wait. But boy does it work out. You know, Jason sometimes talks about income property and he uses the analogy of a cruise ship, that a cruise ship. You can’t even feel it moving. But it’s moving slowly an airplane goes 500 miles an hour, and get you where you want to go. a cruise ship moves very slowly, but it’s consistent. And it gets us to where we want to go. So in life, this is an investing This is in our relationships. This is in our work. consistent, small, consistent action gets us to where we want to go. One of my all time favorite quotes. I think I originally heard it from Bill Gates, but he probably heard it somewhere else. He said, We overestimate what we can get done in a day. we underestimate what we can get done in a year. We severely underestimate what we can get done in five years. If we take consistent action we can accomplish so much. We just have to have Patience and getting there. Number four, a tree falls to the north or south. Wherever it falls, it lies there. Hmm. Think about this for a minute. I think this is saying, there’s so much we don’t control. You know, we shouldn’t gamble for if we see a tree and a tree is about to fall, we shouldn’t bet on which way it’s going to fall. Because it’s going to fall somewhere. Wherever it falls, it lives there. But rather we should invest in what we know is certain the tree is going to fall, don’t gamble. In other words, we should pursue the most likely path to success. So if we want to bring this back to income property, when we invest in income property, it has gone up over time over history, there are small blips, but almost inevitably, I think almost almost every 10 year period, real estate has gone up in value. We don’t know when it’s going to go up. We can’t time the market, but we can time that it will eventually go up. Now, again, nothing 100% certainty, the future may not always look like the past, but it’s got a much greater likelihood of looking. The more data we have, the more confident we can be in predicting the future we can never be 100% confident. So try not to gamble. Try to focus on where there’s certainty there can be certain jobs will always exist. So we’re always going to need firemen, policemen garbageman people will always need a place to live. People may not always need hotels, people may not always need retail shopping centers. There’s Amazon. We’re not going to always need malls. We’re not going to always need restaurants. But we’re always going to need a roof over our heads. So when we invest when we make choices, try to take the least risky approach. Don’t gamble. And this is important, man. Is it hard to avoid that? There’s so much hype in our culture, people are always trying to sell us something the next hot thing, it’s so much better just focus on what’s true. Tried and True. That’s why we get inspiration. That’s why we listen to shows like this. That’s why we listen to teachers like Jason, to give us inspiration to stick with what’s tried and true. That’s why we read the Bible. You know, I read the Bible several times a year. Why do we repeat it over and over? Because we need to be reminded of this. We need to be reminded of these truths. So often our culture is focusing on what’s new, what’s now but we need to return to what’s enduring and what’s true. Number five, this is the last part I want to focus on this, Ecclesiastes, he’s quote, he who watches the wind and rain, well, not so. And he who watches the clouds won’t reap. You don’t know how bones form in a pregnant woman, nor do you understand the activities of God. This one’s a little more vague, but what I think it’s saying here is, we’re never going to know when the condition is perfect to act. I remember at my synagogue, this was about 10 years ago, I was talking to a member of the synagogue, who we had invited To be the president of the synagogue that’s kind of like the head of the board of elders. It’s really the highest ranking lay leader in the synagogue. And he said, you know, Rabbi, I’m really busy. He’s an attorney, he’s got so much going on. I don’t know if this is the right time for me to serve as president of the synagogue, I said, Look, there’s never going to be the perfect time, there’s always going to be something, you’re always going to have something at work, you’re always gonna have something in your family, you’re always going to have other pressing needs. But now’s the time that we have for you now is when we need, you know, there’s no perfect time. But you need to act when the moment is right. make hay while the sun is shining. And I think that’s what Solomon is saying here. If we wait for the perfect conditions, we’ll never act. We’ll always be second guessing ourselves. And then we’ll look back five years later and say, why didn’t we act then? I mean, that’s true in real estate. That’s true in relationships. You know, people look back and say, why didn’t I tell my wife? I loved her more. Why didn’t we go on that trip? You know, we think back and we Have these regrets. Let’s try to live without those regrets. net. Don’t take needless risks. But don’t just wait for everything to be perfect. Okay? It’s a balancing act. We need to live with delayed gratification. We can’t get everything we want right now. But we can’t just keep delaying do we think everything’s perfect? We have to be wise in our actions. We have to think that’s why we study. That’s why we pray. That’s why we look for guidance from wise elders, because life is not complicated. But it’s not simplistic. It’s what I like to think of is it’s finding this simplicity on the other side of complexity. It’s recognizing that there are deep and profound truths we need to figure out. Those truths are revealed to us in the Bible. They were revealed to us by our teachers, but they take time and learning and discipline to master. And that’s what I hope we’re getting here. some inspiration and guidance on living with real truths that will bring us wealth and success and happiness because it is possible for everyone, you know, I’m going to be talking at Jason’s probably It’s in paradise conference. And the truth is, we live in an abundant world. wealth and happiness are out there for us to embrace, to grasp. But we just need to open our eyes and get there. And that takes constant inspiration and insight. That’s what Solomon teaches. I mean, I really do think, why would the Bible tell us that Solomon was both the wisest man in the world and the richest man in the world? Why would we learn those two details about Solomon? I think because the two go together, when we have wisdom, we find wealth. And remember, when I talk about wealth, I’m not just talking about material wealth, I’m talking about true happiness of the Spirit, a true sense of living a life of meaning and purpose. That’s what Solomon teaches us. Money is just, it’s just currency. It’s just a form of energy that can help us find meaning, but it’s not the end in itself. The end in itself has a life of meaning and purpose. That’s true wealth. And if we follow Solomon’s principles, if we delay our gratification, if we invest where it makes sense Not trying to gamble, not trying to know things that are impossible to know. And also not not waiting till everything is perfect taking wise prudent action we can get there. We have teachers, we have inspiration, we have insight. I hope you enjoyed this look at one of my favorite passages from the book of Ecclesiastes. Remember the overarching lesson is we have to take risks. If we live a riskless life, we live a boring life. We don’t live a real life, we have to take risks. But let’s make those risk prudent risks. Invest where it makes sense. diversify our sources of income, diversify our sources of meaning. There may be periods in our life where we find great meaning in study. There may be periods of our life when we find great meaning and building a business. There may be a seasons of our life where we find great meaning in sports, we’re not robots, but when we have a diversity of experiences and when we consciously embrace those experiences with prudence and with an understanding of what our ultimate purposes are will live a life of meaning and happiness. That’s what Solomon teaches us. That’s what we need to be reminded of. That’s what’s possible for us to achieve each and every day shallow.
Announcer 17:10
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