Yuval Schwartzman (40) was on the right track to a promising career in Israeli high-tech. He served in a technological unit in 8200, was discharged from the army, was accepted to a successful high-tech company in Herzliya Pituach and earned much more than his peers. However, shortly after he began his job, one of the company's veterans was fired for his high salary, and Schwartzman was shocked to the core.
The move made him realize that his time in Israeli high-tech is also borrowed, and no one promises him that in a few years he too will not be fired and will find himself jobless. Out of stress and shock, he began to acquire a financial education, as well as buy and sell apartments, so that he could achieve financial freedom, and do what he really loves - study acting and become an actor.
Today, almost two decades later, he is a successful actor living in London and owns a company that helps people do just that – get out of the rat race they are in for financial freedom. He also shares the knowledge he has accumulated in a successful and amusing podcast, "Economic Clowns", which has received tens of thousands of listens.
Schwartzman was born and raised in Rishon LeZion to parents of Russian origin who immigrated to Israel in the 70s and made a living as music teachers. "My parents are wonderful, hardworking people. There was nothing missing in our house on the physical level, but on the level of consciousness, because both of my parents grew up in poverty, there was always a sense of lack," Schwartzman says candidly.
"I was scared to death"
"I was raised to work hard, save money and be diligent. But the second part of the equation – leveraging, saving and investing – I didn't get at home. On the contrary, I was taught that the capital market and real estate are dangerous, and you have to look for work so that someone will take care of you until you retire, and this is one of the 'lies' of Western culture today. Maybe it was true a few generations back, but today not only is it wrong, it's dangerous."
In his own way, photo: Tammy-Scheffler-Kazan
In accordance with the education he received, Schwartzman served in a technological unit and began, as mentioned, to work in high-tech. "Three-quarters of people who work in high-tech do so because it's their way of making a living without physical labor and earning handsomely. Most of them despise it," he claims.
Schwartzman also did not like the work, and therefore, according to him, was mediocre in it. "You can't give your head to something you don't like. And at that point I also realized that I wanted to be an actor," he says. "When they fired the executive at the company where I worked, I asked him to sit down with him for an honest conversation. I didn't understand why he was fired, he was one of the founders of the company. He told me, 'I've become irrelevant to shareholders.' His salary was high, he was older, and you could pay someone who just left a technological unit a quarter of what he was paid.
"I couldn't digest it, because my whole life I've been taught that it's the right way: get a degree, look for a job, advance and safely retire, and someone has to take care of you. And lo and behold, he was sitting there, having devoted his best decades to the company, and he was thrown out the window like old Nike shoes. He had a family, children. I was shocked, and I couldn't fall asleep that night.
"Then, with a strong catalyst, I began a process of personal development. Everyone told me I wasn't normal, but I wanted to get out of this job and become an actor. I was scared to death."
The book that changed my life
Schwartzman set himself the goal of reaching the same income he had in high-tech, only passively, without working from morning to night. "I didn't know how long it would take me, but I decided I was cracking this thing. I got the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it opened my mind. Most people reading this say, 'Come on, interesting, but that's the end of it.'"
Nvidia Building and Yokneam Industrial and Hi-Tech Park Photo: Shutterstock,
"Everyone told me it wasn't safe, it was scary and it was dangerous. But I realized that not being financially educated, not creating multiple sources of income, is the riskiest thing you can do. Because once you don't come kindly to your boss, you can be replaced. I started the process with zero cynicism, with the goal of leaving high-tech, becoming an actor in the theater, making film and television and moving people."
After a year and a half at the company, during which he learned about money, economics and investments and read books on personal development, he resigned. "Today there are so many Kharta-Bertha mentors on the shekel that you no longer know who to listen to, and you don't know what's true and what's not. Even today, I say to everyone: We don't leave a job in Zbang and we're done, but build the bridge.
"I went on a journey, and the goal I set for myself on a note was to bring in NIS 9,800 a month, exactly the same net salary I earned in high-tech, within ten years, regardless of my time. In fact, I got to it in seven years."
"In 2009, I bought my first apartment for investment for 300,<> shekels in Ramle. Until I started my acting studies, during which I bought four such apartments in housing complexes, in the same Ramla neighborhood where I interned. I negotiated dozens of properties, and anyone who wanted to sell and was willing to come to me at a price - I bought.
"After the first two apartments, I ran out of money, and then I took loans from family members, gave them a monthly standing order and started buying everything I could find. While I was studying acting, the value of each of these four apartments increased by 100,1 shekels a year, for a total of 2.12 million shekels, while I studied acting intensively for <> hours a day.
"That's when I understood the value increase factor. If you are an employee who only receives a salary - you will never enjoy it. Even if I worked in high-tech and didn't leave and go to study acting, and I saved everything, I wouldn't have reached these sums in three years."
Today people have a lot more awareness.
"Today people are waking up. If there's anything I want them to understand, it's that they're responsible for their lives, for their results. Not the state, not the government. If I'm not happy with my situation in life, it's me. It is always easy to blame someone - the government, the boss, the housing situation; I'm too old, too young. If you tell yourself in advance that you can't - that's what it will be.
"All the success is not from real estate or from the game, but from the place of mind of what is required of me to get results, to reach the goal I want. It means not being afraid to bust your ass, not being afraid to try again and again," he stresses. "Failure is only if you stop trying. It took me seven times to get into acting school. Today I understand that it was a gift from heaven, because I went and did real estate and came there from a much clearer and more relaxed place."
While studying acting, Schwartzman managed to make a living from the apartments he purchased, and had a lot of free time that allowed him to focus on his studies. After graduating from acting school in August 2013, he began acting professionally in the Psik Theater, and at the same time began helping his classmates buy apartments, after they heard him during breaks talking to realtors and bankers. "I couldn't help more than one person a month. I realized that I could do a great business in the world and help a lot of people, and that's something very fundamental. Most people start a business to make money, and that's not true. Not that there's anything wrong with making money, but it has to come from giving value to others."
The fastest way to earn, photo: Dudu Greenspan
Thus, Schwartzman became one of the first in Israel to open a business accompanying investors. "It started in Ramle-Lod, and then expanded northward, to buy an apartment in Krayot or Be'er Sheva. People with a higher budget could also find bargains in Jaffa and Tel Aviv, and it grew and grew.
"I did it for a few years while being an actor in the theater. I wanted to make people happy, excite people and inspire people. So I thought I was doing it in the theater, but now I understand that it's also about finances – I feel like it's the same thing, just in a different way. To make people happy, to excite people and to give them meaning."
Schwartzman currently lives in London with his wife Natalie and 3-year-old son Neve-Lev and is developing his acting career. From there he also manages the real estate business and accompanies his investors in Israel. He owns many assets, a respectable passive income and a successful business.
Today, everyone tells themselves that in the situation of inflation and interest rates, it is impossible to do what you did, and if they had done it only two or ten years ago, they would have succeeded.
"All the people who said this, in 2022, ate it, because in that year alone there was an average increase of 20% in real estate prices. In Israel, there is little land, and everyone wants a bite of this cake. Today people tell themselves that they will not enter because the market is down. But the market is not timed – not in stocks and not in real estate. You enter when you have the option and when you find a good deal."
Taxation is high today, money is expensive.
"If you own an asset for the long term, taxation is dwarfed. I mean 8% purchase tax today and 25% capital gains tax. I quickly realized that buying and selling was not the right way, because all these apartments I sold also cost a lot. If I can reach a situation where I own a lot of apartments and they increase in value, then instead of planting a lot of trees, I planted an orchard."
"The power in the buyers"
To date, Schwartzman has helped more than 700 families purchase an apartment, or even several apartments. "I tell myself that if I made money it was nice, but I changed their lives. Each of these greets us today. It's not just me anymore – we've built a team. I'm the face of the business, but it's not just me, there are a lot of people who have been working with me for years."
His YouTube channel already has millions of views. Early last year, he began recording a successful and humorous podcast, "Economic Clowning," and marketing himself on Instagram and TikTok. According to him, he does not invest money in advertising, and people listen to him because of the quality and interesting content he uploads.
You claim that you reached financial freedom before the age of 30, a dream of many people. What do you see as economic freedom?
"It's my ability to build my life the way I want. At a young age, I defined for myself what I wanted my life to look like. I get up in the morning, what I do, what I do. Financial freedom is living life the way you want. Success isn't if you're rich or have a big house or a luxury car, or a spouse – success is when you understand what you want to do."
And that's what you're teaching people today?
"Our program in 100 days of real estate is based on mindset and fieldwork from week to week. If you don't come to buy an apartment - don't come. If you don't come to do field work - don't come. I'd rather have two people in a class come out with results than a lot of people who come for coffee because they're bored."
The situation in 2023 is nothing like it was in 2008. What would you recommend today to those who want to achieve financial freedom?
"First of all, learn. Invest in the mother of learning in financial education, personal development and mindset. Gold is in the mindset. Because if your head is tuned correctly, all the kaffas that life throws at you will be temporary. And if you think I don't get spoons, you're wrong. But grow from that. It's like a gym.
"God's way of helping you grow is to present you with more problems. I'm always bigger than my problems. You have to learn, invest - in the mindset, in personal development.
"You have to read at least ten pages a day, ten minutes a day, and every year do at least one personal development workshop, one money workshop – whether it's in the capital market, real estate, business or alternative investments."
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