He is a millionaire under 30, but only entered the capital market a year and a half ago
Ben Lavi, 28, defines himself as a "serial entrepreneur" and has only been investing for a year and a half. He prefers a simple strategy of indices and crypto, focusing his energy on his businesses rather than active trading.
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Every week we interview new investors in the capital market and trace their investment patterns and insights alongside their personal story. Interested in participating in the section? Write to us at Invest@Globes.co.il
Who am I
Ben Lavi, 28, lives in Netanya. After his military service, he turned to the world of entrepreneurship. Currently, he is the owner of apps and AI ventures.
Portfolio structure: 70% in indices, mainly S&P 500, and 30% in cryptocurrencies.
"Most of my money does not come from investments," declares Ben Lavi at the beginning of the conversation. "I believe in investments, but you don't create capital from investments; you preserve and grow capital from investments, but first of all, you need to have capital." He is only 28 years old and defines himself as a "serial entrepreneur." In 2023, he made a "half-exit" by selling 50% of the media production company Perspective, which he founded with a partner, to the digital company Laos Media at a valuation of about 1 million shekels. "Later, I sold another company I founded that built an app for automatic subtitles in Hebrew."
His goal is to make 100 million shekels by the age of 30, but he is not counting on his investment portfolio to accumulate this capital for him. "When I was discharged from the army and saved 30-40 thousand shekels from preferred work, I realized that it doesn't really matter if I invest this amount and make 10% a year. In the end, it's another 4,000 shekels a year, it's not a lot of money. For the average person, it's the right thing to do, and call me naive, but I knew I was going to make a lot of money."
On October 7, he was drafted for reserve duty for over half a year, and when he was discharged, he founded the nCode academy for training in app creation. In the meantime, a good friend managed to convince him to put money into indices: "I have a friend from the world of entrepreneurship who is very strong in the world of investments, and she kept telling me, 'Why don't you invest?' I explained to her that in the end, all I need is one business that will make me a million shekels in turnover a month, and I will be left with 300 thousand net in hand. No investment in the world will reach these numbers. Starting to learn now how to deal with investments and stealing the focus from doing business that makes me a lot of money — it's not smart. I looked at the richest people and saw that none of them created their capital only from investments. They created cash flow through businesses, and then they invested that money to preserve the capital and grow it. The friend didn't give up on me, and we continued to talk about it... but to this day I don't understand it too much."
When I started to get interested in the capital market
"I entered investments about a year and a half ago. When I started making a lot of money from my ventures, I didn't want to have millions of shekels in my current account, and then I started investing. I said, 'Okay, now I need to put this money aside because it's an amount I don't want to play with.' But even then, I went for something that doesn't require too much effort and tracking — indices. My investment strategy is the simplest and most generic strategy. I do have Bitcoin, but that's also because, as an agenda, I believe in this currency. My other investments don't require any energy. I chose an investment strategy that won't take away from the focus I put on the business world, which is ultimately what I do in life and what brings me the most money.
I have a reminder in my calendar every month to make a transfer to the investment portfolio, but I don't stick to it. Usually, 100-200-300 thousand shekels accumulate in my current account, and then I stop and realize that I have a problem and deposit it."
Why did you decide to put 30% of the money into crypto?
"One of my big clients at the production company was a multi-millionaire and lived at a very high standard of living. He taught me about crypto, and I understood that I believe most in Bitcoin and Ethereum, and that the risk versus reward is worth the risk to me. Despite this, Bitcoin has now crashed, so its volume in my portfolio is decreasing."
How I stay updated
"I don't stay updated at all, and I'm not interested in being connected to it, to the point that even with the first investments, I asked that same friend who introduced me to investments and another friend who understands the field where to put the money, and I simply did what they told me without checking. They told me to put it in the S&P 500, recommended a specific company that they say is the most profitable company for Israelis in terms of taxation — an Irish index through Excellence, and that's what I did.
I almost never look at the investment account. It doesn't interest me. As far as I'm concerned, it's money that doesn't exist. I'm not interested in whether the market is going down or up, except for Bitcoin, which I hear about all the time whether it went up or down because people around are talking about it."
Lesson I learned
"Not to listen to friends who don't really understand. When I was in the army, I put 10,000 shekels, which is all I had, into Ripple (XRP, a digital currency intended to serve as a fast and cheap means for international money transfers, ed.). I bought when it was at its peak, and it crashed like crazy, and because I didn't understand what I was investing in, I just impulsively took the money out, and all the money went down the drain. So I told myself that I wouldn't deal with investments until I understood it a little, or until I was making so much money that it wouldn't matter."
Quick questionnaire
Twitter (X) or Telegram
"Twitter. I live on X, because that's where real technology happens and pulses. Today, the entire technological world, all the biggest CEOs — the owners of Anthropic and Elon Musk and everyone who is important — are on X. They are not on Telegram. They publish their posts on the network that is considered the first line of defense in the battle for public opinion."
Bitcoin or Ethereum
"Bitcoin, because in the end, investments are buying what you believe people will believe in. It's not necessarily what will succeed technologically, but what will succeed psychologically. Ethereum has better technology on paper, but the market is much more educated towards Bitcoin, and that's where the money will continue to flow."
TA-35 or S&P 500
"I'm in the S&P because that's what was recommended to me, and I don't have the energy to invest resources to learn about the subject of indices. I can't say that this is my recommendation compared to TA-35."
Indices or stocks
"Indices are what I do, because it fits more with the style of investments I wanted, and the fact that I don't want to and am not free to engage in day trading and follow stocks. I'm also not free to learn about every stock in depth, and therefore the indices do it for me."
Bank account or investment house
"I chose an investment house because I trusted two of my very good friends who researched it a lot and in depth. And they say that the conditions there are better. I suggest to anyone who has the time for it to check what they are given when opening an account and choose the best conditions. Not everyone has friends they trust with their eyes closed like I do."
I will never invest in...
"I will never say that I won't invest in something, because if I learn about it, I'm sure I'll learn how to make money from it. You can make money from everything, so why rule it out in advance across the board? I don't connect with sweeping statements like 'never' and 'in my life'."
Something I still need to learn
"Everything and nothing. I can learn everything because I don't understand anything about investments, but it doesn't interest me. I have a few dozen hours of learning. In my first video editing business, I filmed a lot of people who teach investments, so I do know the field a little, but I'm far from being an expert, and in the end, again, the big money doesn't come from investments, so I also don't want to spend unnecessary time on this learning. Warren Buffett, the greatest investor in the world, didn't make his money from investments. He made it from a company that makes investments in businesses. Business is the way to make money."
Want to share how much you made?
"Not much at all. About 10% in the index since I started about a year and a half ago, and if you take into account the crypto, there's a chance I'm at a loss. Since I put a lot of money into the index, this 10% is also a lot of money, but it's not a particularly impressive return in percentages.
I'm not counting on the investment portfolio. Investments are great for those who want to be millionaires at 60, not for my goals. My goal is 100 million shekels by the age of 30."
Tracking recommendation
"I really like artificial intelligence, and these worlds are growing a lot, so if I understood investments a little better, that's probably what I personally would look at — AI infrastructure. There is a bottleneck in the industry because there isn't enough energy in the world. So infrastructure is what will make big money soon. A lot of money is flowing there in the world."
Interested in participating in the section? Write to us at Invest@Globes.co.il
