Lessons for other countries from Israel’s vaccine rollout

At the time of writing this article, Israel has delivered 7.44 doses per 100 people, and is powering ahead at a pace of around 1.75 doses / 100 people per day. At this rate, given that we need to do about 135 doses per 100 people to cover the entire eligible population, we could be …

Launching: The Comprehensive Guide To Pensions And Retirement In Israel

Long have you waited for a guide that can make sense of the discombobulating sprawl of the pension system in Israel. Wait no longer. This page needs no introduction, as it has its own introduction page. It is more an entire section of the blog than just a page (I might even publish it one …

How much does it cost to own a car in Israel?

We all know that Israel is an expensive place to own a car. In fact, expenditure on vehicles is the second largest spending category of the average Israeli household, closely following housing. Heavy purchase taxes of 97% (including VAT on the purchase tax) greatly inflate the cost of buying and insuring a car, and a …

Do Israeli apartments outperform the stock market?

In previous articles we’ve seen the high long term returns of the stock market. The historical total return (with reinvestment of dividends) of the S&P 500 since 1928 has been roughly 7% per year after inflation. But I keep hearing it claimed that buying an apartment in Israel to live in is also a great …

Navigating Israeli Bureaucracy – Cheat Sheet

Bureaucracy is scary because your life (and particularly your financial life) is often dependent on successfully navigating through it. It makes you feel out of control: per the etymology of the word, your life is being ruled by desk-sitters. The remedy for this is to arm yourself with information and regain control. To preface all …

Index Fund Investing, Israel Edition – Part IV: Tax Considerations

This post is part of a series: How do I start investing in index funds? Israel edition. Read the posts in order here: Part I: Introduction Part II: Assets, Securities and Funds Part III: Brokerages Part IV: Tax Considerations – this post Before making Aliya, I went to a lecture about arranging finances in Israel. …

Index Fund Investing, Israel Edition – Part III: Brokerages

Remember the supermarket analogy from the introductory article? Once you’ve thought about what funds you want to buy, you need to pick the supermarket at which you buy them – and an investments supermarket is called a brokerage. It might also be called an investment platform, and in Israel another name is  בית השקעות Bet Hashka’ot – Investment House (you’ll also see just 'ברוקראז).

Index Fund Investing, Israel Edition – Part II: Assets, Securities and Funds

Selecting what you actually want to invest in is the most important stage. The brokerage you use and the way it will be structured tax-wise are secondary considerations.

There are a few major asset classes:

How do I start investing in index funds? Israel edition – Part I: Introduction

A few times now, friends have come up to me and said they have some spare money and would like to invest it for the long term. Great news! These friends have the right attitude. The earlier you begin investing, the longer your money can simmer in the cholent pot of wonder, which you will …

Investing and Retirement Funds in Israel: Terminology

The purpose of this post is to cover the main Hebrew terms used in the Israeli investment and pension scene in Israel. Hopefully it will help clear up confusion between structures that have very similar terms but different rules. My definitions here are necessarily brief but I hope this drives people to read further and …