Why the Frum World Is Becoming Financially Unsustainable
Meaningful People
Meaningful Minute
4.8 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2025
⏱️ 87 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this Meaningful People episode, financial advisor Moshe Alpert and community advocate Shmuly Hartstein unpack why many frum “middle‑class” families earning $200–300K still feel underwater—tuition that rivals a salary, yom tov and camp costs, seminary and simcha expectations, and the quiet creep of credit‑card debt. They debate income‑based tuition and communal funding versus personal responsibility, and share practical moves: make a real plan, build a budget, ask for a raise or start a side hustle, prioritize local schools in tzedakah, consider lower‑cost simchas or out‑of‑town living, and protect your family with insurance and a will. A candid, solutions‑oriented conversation about money, values, and making frum life sustainable.
Moshe Alpert is a Financial Advisor at Ceremian Financial and author of the book ‘Frum Financial Planning: The Easy-to-Read Money Guide for the Orthodox Jewish Community’. https://a.co/d/hsRZrEe and Ceremian.com
Shmuel Hartstein is the founder of Bsefer Chayim, an organization that promotes signing up for Life Insurance in our community. https://www.bseferchayim.org/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I personally believe that the middle class is getting killed, honestly. |
| 0:03.5 | I don't know if there's not a kind of controversy here, maybe a little bit. |
| 0:05.7 | It's going to be controversial. |
| 0:07.1 | Someone who's making $200,000 can be considered a low income in the firm world. |
| 0:13.2 | People love to complain. |
| 0:14.5 | 99.9% of people just want to complain, but nobody actually wants to do anything. |
| 0:17.9 | Most middle class people are not living comfortable. They're tight month to month. They're not saving a lot of money. And that's the good situation. It's not expensive coffee. It's not even like eating out. It's the big expenses like Yomtif and camp. Camp is a big one. Financial advisor, Moshe Alpert, has spent over a decade helping from family stay afloat, while Shirley Hartstein, founder of Bersafir Chaim, has seen firsthand what happens when the system fails. Together, they break down why so many middle class from families. People who are earning two or even $300,000 a year still feel like they're drowning. They talk about the crushing cost of tuition, Yantiv, camp, seminary, from credit card debt to the illusion of wealth, they ask the questions no one wants to face. Has the middle class in the firm world become unsustainable? And if so, what, if anything, can be done about it? Yantif could cost $3,000 to $5,000 of family. Everything's just going up. Tuition is like one salary. The money has to come from wealthier people to the poor people for it to be sustainable. Maybe there is a way to charge tuition based on income. The higher income earners. That's kind of like socialism. You're going to take someone who's not socialism. Socialism that everyone pays the same. Okay, fine, but this is this is like taxing the rich. Isn't that the way we get taxed in America? Hey, everybody, welcome to this episode. We're getting to it in just a few seconds to let you know that you can win money just from commenting below in this episode. This is what you're going to do. This is an episode with opinions, ideas, thoughts. I drop some. They definitely drop some. So do you agree or disagree? start your comment with one of those words. Agree, you could list your reason, disagree, list your reason. And one of you will win $300,000. I mean, $300,000. So love to give you $300,000. One day, one day, with $300 be gifted to one of the people who comments down below on this video. So happy to do this episode. |
| 2:01.7 | Hopefully we can make some change in our circles, in our community. |
| 2:05.1 | Go ahead and enjoy it. |
| 2:07.4 | Okay. |
| 2:07.9 | This is exciting. |
| 2:09.7 | You know, the last time I did something like this was literally, I think, |
| 2:12.4 | Pesach, I ran panels in the hotel. |
| 2:15.1 | I have like, you know, start off, get there, a Pesach |
| 2:18.0 | phones ready for a very, very controversial conversation. I don't know if there's |
| 2:22.9 | a kind of controversy here. Maybe a little bit. What do you think? Depends on you. Okay. |
| 2:29.1 | It's going to be controversial. Yeah? Yeah. Oh, that's a good clip. My wife warned me with my life, no controversy there. |
| 2:36.0 | So let's see what happens. |
| 2:38.0 | I have a shed if you need a place to see. |
| 2:40.0 | Yeah, for how long? |
| 2:42.0 | How long you need. |
| 2:43.0 | You can stay in my house. |
... |
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