Financial Guru
Helping people manage their money is David Teitelbaum’s avocation, and he has been very successful working with them one on one. With his new book, he hopes to reach many thousands.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
WASHINGTON, D.C.
David Teitelbaum remembers his first experience in comparison shopping. He was spending the day with his grandfather and had bought himself a ballpoint pen for $1.49. A little later, grandpa took him into another store and showed him a pen on sale for five cents.
Teitelbaum thinks his interest in financial management began on that day, and he dedicated his first book to his zadie, Philip Ringel.
The Procrastinator’s Guide to Financial Security: How Anyone Over 40 Can Still Build a Strong Portfolio — and Retire Comfortably, published by AMACOM (American Management Association), hit the stands in March. The experience is already changing Teitelbaum’s life.
"I’m up there with [financial gurus] Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett," he says excitedly. He is preparing to do book signings and an interview on Bloomberg TV, the 24-hour cable network covering financial news.
An economist and benefit-cost analyst at the Federal Aviation Administration — and member of the newly organized Local 953 (Council 26) — Teitelbaum has always been captivated by numbers. In college, he majored in math, but decided on economics for graduate school. "I didn’t like theory. I wanted something practical, hands-on."
RARE GENE. Eight years ago, an accountant’s error got his synagogue in trouble with the IRS. The steering committee asked Teitelbaum for help.
"I have a rare gene," he says. "I enjoy doing tax forms." When he solved the synagogue’s problem, friends and co-workers began coming to him for tax and investing advice — the start of a part-time financial planning business.
"I’ve been told that I can take complex material and make it simple and understandable," Teitelbaum says. He did a regular guest shot on a radio show and began writing weekly newspaper columns on money management — 250 of them over five years. "That way I could focus my thoughts on a particular topic." Then a client asked if he had ever thought of writing a book.
Teitelbaum decided to give it a try, particularly "because something deep within me is very upset over the public’s lack of understanding about finances. Most baby boomers do not know beans about financial planning." As with any job, it takes training and encouragement to learn to invest. His 300-page book provides both.
It offers some painless ways to start saving and shows how to make those savings grow. It considers family issues: paying for college, buying a house, dealing with long-term illness costs. Teitelbaum compares options in the various categories to help the reader decide what works best. With his practical tips, the book can easily pay for itself. It also serves as a useful reference for financial jargon.
Teitelbaum is proud of his accomplishment, and he enjoys it when co-workers stop him to give their congratulations. But he is most deeply touched by his mother’s response to the book. "She kvelled — that’s Yiddish for burst with pride," he says, grinning broadly. What greater praise could any son want?
