Entrepreneur Eric Malka had to completely shift his mindset when he sold his company and became an investor. Since then he’s learned many lessons he’s now passing to his kids.
When The Art of Shaving — which Malka and his wife Myriam Zaoui founded in 1996 — was bought by Procter & Gamble for a reported $60 million in 2009, Malka realized he needed to educate himself.
“When an entrepreneur like me is lucky enough to have a liquidity event, then we’re faced … with managing assets without proper training,” he told CNBC by video call. Investors must focus on being patient and on long-term returns, whereas company founders often look at a short-term plan, “almost an opposite” mindset, Malka said.
He took courses on wealth management, read books on investing and now has a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, private equity and real estate, with about 10% allocated to riskier investments. In 2014 he founded private equity fund Strategic Brand Investments.
The lessons learned when you lose are more valuable than the ones when you succeed.
Eric Malka
Co-founder and CEO, Strategic Brand Investments
When it came to educating his children — sons aged 14 and 16 — about money, Malka’s attitude has been to help them learn from the ground up.
“One of the challenges I faced with my teenagers early on, is their belief that it’s very easy to make money by investing through social media and through what they hear from friends,” he said. His older son thought he could generate a 20% monthly return, which Malka described as “very concerning.” So, Malka let him invest a small portion of his savings, hoping it would provide an opportunity to learn — and his son lost 40% of that investment after trading currency futures.
“I hate to set up my child for failure, but sometimes, you know, the lessons learned when you lose are more valuable than the ones when you succeed,” Malka said.
It’s a point that resonates with Gregory Van, CEO of Singapore-based wealth platform Endowus. He and his wife have children aged eight, six and three. He said he’ll be teaching them that it’s important to make mistakes when the stakes seem large to them, though may be small in reality. “The emotional muscle, and humility required to be a good investor is something that people need to develop on their own,” he said.
Teaching kids how to invest
For Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, president and co-founder of real estate company Flag Luxury Group, educating kids early about money is key.
She and her husband allocated a “low risk” sum of money to each of their three children in middle school for them to pick companies to invest in. “Our children chose Apple, Amazon, Google and Alibaba. All but one had terrific runs. As long as they kept their money in the market and continued to be thoughtful in their approach, we added every year to their nest egg,” she told CNBC by email.
Olarte de Kanavos said her experience in real estate investing taught her the value of patience. “It influenced my business approach by emphasizing long-term strategy over quick gains,” she said. The mother of three described her own investments in the stock market as “very conservative, in order to best manage the huge risks that we take in our real estate business.”
Give them an allowance no later than the first grade.
Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos
President and co-founder, Flag Luxury Group
She suggested having children explain why they want to buy certain stocks, because it “can demystify investing and make it an exciting and integral part of their education,” she said.
Van said he talks to his young kids about the tradeoffs of investing in their own terms. “I ask them: ‘If we invest this $100 and it goes down by $70 next year, how will you feel?’ ‘Do you want to spend $100 today on a toy, or have it turn into $200 in 10 years when you are 16?’,” Van told CNBC via email. “Surprisingly, they are very rational and always go for delayed gratification,” he said.
Van and his wife have investment portfolios for each of their kids, mostly made up of gifts they’ve received during holidays such as Chinese New Year. “Given their long investment horizon, they are in very diversified, multi-manager, low-cost equities portfolios,” Van said, and he shows his children their portfolios’ performance — positive or negative — whenever they ask.
Budgeting and saving for children
Age-appropriate advice is very important, Malka said. His focus right now is teaching his children about budgeting, providing them with a fixed allowance per month.
“In the beginning, you know, they would spend in 10 days what they were supposed to spend in 30 days … now I’ve been doing this for eight months or nine months, now they’re really managing it properly, and I think that’s a skill they don’t realize they’re being taught,” he said. He recommended the book “Raising Financially Fit Kids,” by Joline Godfrey, which provides advice by age-group.
“Give them an allowance no later than the first grade,” is Olarte de Kanavos’ suggestion. “The purpose of an allowance is to allow them to learn to make their own decisions about money and to manage the repercussions that come with their choices,” she told CNBC. “As they get older, teach them about saving, the concept of interest, and the difference between good and bad debt,” she said.
For Roshni Mahtani Cheung, CEO and founder of media company The Parentinc, long-term thinking is important. She and her husband opened a fixed-deposit account for their eight-year old daughter for the money she receives at Chinese New Year, and at Diwali she receives a gold coin. “My goal is for her to grow up financially savvy, confident, and ready to make her own decisions,” Mahtani Cheung told CNBC by email.
Talking to kids about their inheritance
A concern for the wealthy members of advisory network Tiger 21 is how and when to talk to their children about their inheritance. “They are most concerned about their kids leading independent productive lives and don’t want knowledge about the wealth they will inherit to distract them or take them off course,” said Tiger 21’s founder and chairman Michael Sonnenfeldt in an email to CNBC.
Around 70% of the network’s members want to wait until their kids are close to 30 years-old and have established careers to detail what they might inherit — and when, Sonnenfeldt said. “However, about 30% of members want to begin working with their kids in their late teens or early 20s to teach them to become responsible stewards for the wealth they will inherit,” he said. Both approaches are valid, he added.
“I suggest that parents encourage open, values-driven conversations about money and investing,” Sonnenfeldt said.
UnitedHealth Group saw some of its insiders step in and purchase declining shares this week.
Kristen Gil, a director at the firm, bought 3,700 shares worth roughly $1 million on Thursday.
Shares of UnitedHealth plunged nearly 11% to $274.35 on Thursday following a report in The Wall Street Journal that the Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into possible Medicare fraud.
UnitedHealth Group , whose stock has been in a tailspin amid a tumultuous period for the health-care giant, saw some of its insiders step in and purchase declining shares this week. Kristen Gil, a director at the firm, bought 3,700 shares worth roughly $1 million on Thursday, while Timothy Patrick Flynn and John Noseworthy, also directors, scooped up about 1,500 and 300 shares , respectively, on Wednesday, according to InsiderScore, which tracks regulatory filings from corporate insiders. Shares of UnitedHealth plunged nearly 11% to $274.35 on Thursday following a report in The Wall Street Journal that the Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into possible Medicare fraud. The stock rebounded 6% Friday, cutting its weekly losses to 23%. UNH 5D mountain UnitedHealth The reported investigation also follows the surprise exit of UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty, who will be replaced by the company’s former longtime chief executive Stephen Hemsley. Shares of UnitedHealth Group are down roughly 43% this year following a string of setbacks for the company. The company has been grappling with a historic cyberattack, higher-than-expected medical costs and a torrent of public blowback after the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, on January 30, 2024.
Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Images
The Federal Reserve will look to reduce its headcount by 10% over the next couple of years, including offering deferred resignation to some older employees, central bank chair Jerome Powell said in a memo.
“Experience here and elsewhere shows that it is healthy for any organization to periodically take a fresh look at its staffing and resources. The Fed has done that from time to time as our work, priorities, or external environment have changed,” Powell said in a memo obtained by CNBC.
The central bank chief added that he has instructed leaders throughout the Fed “to find incremental ways to consolidate functions where appropriate, modernize some business practices, and ensure that we are right-sized and able to meet our statutory mission.” One method for shrinking the staff will be to offer a voluntary deferred resignation program to employees of the Federal Reserve Board who would be fully eligible to retire at the end of 2027.
The central bank said in its 2023 annual report that it had just under 24,000 employees. A 10% reduction would bring that number below 22,000.
The memo comes as the Trump administration has pushed for cost cuts across civil service agencies, spearheaded by Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has previously called the Fed “absurdly overstaffed.” Powell’s memo did not mention Musk or DOGE as a factor in the decision to shrink headcount.
The planned staff cuts were first reported by Bloomberg News.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Applied Materials — Shares of the semiconductor manufacturer dropped 6% after Applied Materials posted disappointing fiscal second-quarter revenue. The company’s revenue of $7.10 billion was below the LSEG consensus of $7.13 billion. Semiconductor revenue of $5.26 billion also disappointed the $5.31 billion analysts were looking for. Take-Two Interactive Software — The stock slid 1.8% after the video game company gave weaker-than-anticipated guidance for full-year bookings, expecting the figure to come between $5.9 billion and $6 billion. That missed the $7.82 billion StreetAccount consensus. Take-Two also projected bookings of between $1.25 billion and $1.30 billion for the current quarter, while analysts had penciled in $1.28 billion. Vistra — Shares of the power producer gained 3% after the company purchased seven natural gas facilities from Lotus Infrastructure Partners for $1.9 billion. The gas plants are located in the PJM market, New England, New York and California. Constellation Brands — Shares of the Corona and Modelo importer climbed 1.4% after Berkshire Hathaway disclosed doubling its stake in the company, putting its position at around $2.2 billion in value. Galaxy Digital — The Mike Novogratz-led crypto firm began trading at the Nasdaq on Friday, opening at $23.50 per share in a direct listing. Galaxy Digital has traded in Canada since 2020 . Cava — The eatery chain’s stock dropped more than 2% after the company reiterated its full-year guidance for same restaurant sales, implying a slowdown from first-quarter results. Cava said it achieved 10.8% same store sales growth. However, it maintained a full-year projection of 6% to 8% improvement in that category. Cava’s earnings per share of 22 cents for the period was ahead of projections for 14 cents per share, according to LSEG. Fiserv — The financial services provider jumped more than 4% as the stock recovered some of its steep losses for the week. Fiserv is down more than 9% this week and is one of the most oversold names on Wall Street, with a relative strength index below 30. Coinbase — The crypto exchange jumped more than 9%, recovering losses from the previous session. Some Wall Street analysts called the sell-off overdone and a buying opportunity . On Thursday, the company confirmed the Securities and Exchange Commission has been investigating whether it has misstated its user numbers , sending the stock down 7.2%. Novo Nordisk — Shares stumbled 3% after the pharmaceutical company announced that CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen would be stepping down from his position , citing recent market challenges. Jørgensen, who was in the position for the last eight years, will remain “for a period to support a smooth transition to new leadership” as Novo Nordisk searches for a successor. Doximity — The health care platform issued weak guidance, sending the stock down 11.8%. Doximity expects adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter to come in between $71 million and $72 million. That’s short of the $74 million expected from analysts polled by StreetAccount. Revenue guidance for both the first quarter and full year also missed expectations. — CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel, Lisa Han, Jesse Pound and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
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