The Chronicles of Zik: After being exposed — the blogger who reached financial freedom reveals everything

Like tens of thousands of Israelis, this week I watched the episode about the capital market revolution of "Under the Tiles" hosted by Shaul Amsterdamsky. I knew most of what was said there, after all, I come from the field, but then, at the 26th minute, I suddenly discovered something new — I learned who Zik is.

Zik is one of the only interviewees I have had the chance to interview here, on the pages of this newspaper, without knowing his last name and what he looks like. I knew him through his popular financial blog "The Chronicles of Zik", where he writes anonymously about things like early retirement, investment portfolios, and tax optimization.

Even when I interviewed him on these topics, I respected his anonymity and simply introduced him as the author of the popular blog "The Chronicles of Zik". I knew, of course, what he sounded like and realized that his first name is Itzik, but that's about it. He didn't volunteer more details and I didn't ask.

But this week, when on the small screen in front of Amsterdamsky sat an interviewee named Itzik Shiruki who "understood the trick long ago, started investing at a young age, planned well, diversified investments and went into early retirement", all the pieces connected. Shiruki (41) told Shaul how he managed — after less than 15 years in the labor market, and thanks to aggressive saving of 50% of income and wise and diversified investment of savings — to reach a capital of about 6 million shekels and a situation where two years ago he went into early "retirement". Really early.

I would have recognized this voice even with closed eyes — it's Zik. On the screen. With an exposed face.

As you can imagine, the entire financial sphere on Twitter was in an uproar. Reactions, tags, and even a supportive post from the popular anonymous financial blogger in Israel, "The Solid". Itzik really has a unique voice that is hard to miss, so anyone who listened to his podcast in the past could connect the dots, even if in the program itself Shaul and Itzik didn't refer to the "exposure" at all — intentionally.

Two days after the episode aired, and after Zik had already managed to "come out of the anonymity closet" officially with a detailed post on the blog, we sat down for a short conversation about what it means to be a financial blogger, why anonymous, and what are his six commandments for a beginner content creator in the finance field.

The Chronicles of Zik

"It all started about seven years ago," says Shiruki, "when I realized I wanted to reach financial freedom. I realized that to do this I need to set goals and strive for them. If I share this, and get feedback from readers, the interaction with them will create commitment. As part of my journey to financial freedom I developed tools, wrote posts, and wanted more people to be exposed to this and use it." So he started building the site itself in 2019, and in 2021 "The Chronicles of Zik" went live.

But opening a blog is easy — getting people to read it, and even when no one knows who you are, that's a different story. "At first it was really Sisyphean," he says. "The hardest thing is to reach the first hundred followers." But after three or four months the circulation grew and the word spread by mouth. "Everything is organic, I didn't spend a single agora on sponsored content."

How much is "everything"? A Facebook group with about 40 thousand members, a Facebook page with about 11 thousand followers, a Twitter account with about 11 thousand followers, and about 50 thousand visits a month to the site. But throughout all the years, all this happened under one name: Zik, a small play on words on It-zik.

So why expose yourself? "The decision to come out into the light brewed over time," he says. "With all the serious things I did over the years, some kind of jealousy was created here, that they see in Zik someone who did great things, but no one knows it's Itzik." The second reason is trust. "There are limitations in anonymity," he says. "I am trying to raise a venture in the financial field, and raising a venture anonymously is not good. People need to know who the address behind the product is."

And then came the approach from Kan 11. To Zik of course, after all they didn't know who Itzik was. At first he refused altogether. "I asked if it could be done anonymously, with face blurring," he says, but the answer was no. Either you are filmed, or you don't participate.

What tipped the scales was actually his son, Hagai. The researcher knew an old clip they recorded together, "Father and son talking about money", and suggested that he also participate. "I thought the decent thing would be to inform him about the offer, and I saw his great longing for this exposure," he says. "He dreams of being a financial influencer on TikTok or Instagram. And then I said, okay, everything connects."

Six commandments for the financial blogger

Just before we finished, I asked Itzik what his tips are for all the other people who dream of being network influencers in general and financial influencers in particular. We summarized for you the six commandments for the beginner financial blogger:

1. Do not stop and maintain consistency. Even if the first posts get four likes. If you don't do it consistently, you disappear.

2. Do not flood. Even if you have a lot to say, readers have a limit. Anyone who presses their audience too much discovers very quickly that the audience knows how to press mute.

3. Quality before quantity. Quality content with two likes can be worth more than mediocre content with a thousand likes.

4. Value before money. Many push mainly content that can bring them income. It is allowed to earn, but the audience recognizes very quickly when you come to give them value and when you are mainly trying to sell them something.

5. Maintain boundaries. Even when tempting offers arrive, you need to know what not to go for.

6. Diversify platforms, but not to spread out. Not everyone consumes content in the same way, so later the podcast and YouTube were also added.

On the other hand, you need to know where the point of burnout is: "Maintaining a WhatsApp group now, and TikTok, and Instagram, and Facebook, in the end a person is finished. He is already a slave to it." And yet, above all platforms, from his point of view, the blog is the most important thing.

"It's an asset that is yours," he concludes. A post on the network can get two thousand likes and after a few hours disappear from the feed; a post on the blog remains, accumulates, and Google, and today also AI, continue to identify it. The networks bring the people, but the home is the blog.