About

Welcome to Wise Investor, a free content and resources site on index investing and financial independence for regular people.

My name is Elie and I’m the founder of this blog. I shall fully introduce myself shortly; but first, let’s discuss a few things about you.

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What Are You Struggling With?

Let’s face it: personal finance can be quite daunting, whether you’re currently in debt or have excess cash and don’t know what to do with it.

If you are struggling with money, you’re not alone. I have been there myself a few years ago. If I could turn my situation around with no prior knowledge about finance or investing, I see no reason why you wouldn’t.

Which of the following best describes your money challenges?

How Will You Support Yourself When You Stop Working?

Most government and employer pension plans are no longer adequate to support you in retirement. Moreover, if you live as an expat, you lose access to your home country’s pension plan.

Therefore, you have to take things into your own hands and plan for your retirement. I’ll introduce you to a simple framework to do that.

Is Your Money Sitting Idle in the Bank?

If you are stashing your savings into a bank account, your money will be slowly losing its value. With today’s record-low interests rates, inflation will be eroding your money’s purchasing power.

Therefore, if you really want to grow your wealth, you need to leverage the power of compounding. I’ll show you how you could do that by investing.

Does Investing Intimidate You?

Investing in the stock market could seem complicated, risky, and scary. The mere thought of stock traders in front of screens with complex charts and numbers could put you off. You also might have heard about people who lost all their money in the stock market. Therefore, you might prefer to stay away from it.

Truth be told, successful investing doesn’t have to be as risky or as complicated as you might think it is. I’ll walk you through a simple and sensible investment strategy that anyone can implement with no prior knowledge.

Confused By Investment Jargon?

The investment world is full of cryptic terms that would deter newcomers: stocks, bonds, commodities, mutual funds, ETFs, options, futures, derivatives… It’s an endless list!

The good news is you don’t need to understand all that buzz to be a successful investor. Once you cut through a few basic concepts that I explain here, you should be cruising smoothly.

Getting Conflicting Investment Advice?

Your friends, family, or colleagues have different opinions or “hot tips” on what stock or crypto to buy. They might have the best intentions, but oftentimes, their advice is either hit or miss.

You will learn here about an investment strategy that is not based on any speculation or intuition. It is instead rooted in Nobel prize-winning academic research. In addition, it was proven to work better than all other alternatives for building long-term wealth.

Is Your Money Trapped in a Saving Plan?

If you have money in a long-term saving scheme or insurance-linked investment plan, you’re not alone. I’ve been there myself until I realized my mistake. It was by far my most expensive lesson in personal finance.

Avoid getting your money locked in a rigid plan with high fees, mediocre returns, and hefty surrender penalties! I’ll share with you a more flexible, cost-effective and superior way where you’re in control. Your money will be working harder for you rather than for the companies that sell those plans.

You Don't Have Time For This?

You’re probably thinking that investing requires a considerable time, effort and skills: keeping on top of the economy, researching and analyzing stock charts, or reading companies’ earnings reports…

What if I tell you that you could invest more effectively and without doing any of this? All you need is about an hour or two per year to manage your investment portfolio and you’re golden!

Why Wise Investor?

With the lack of financial independence resources specifically tailored for people in the Middle East, I made it my mission to spread financial literacy in the region.

My aim is to proclaim the simple rules of wealth that we should have learned in school. No one should be left behind or taken advantage of by the financial industry ever again!

No matter where you are on your financial journey, your age, or your current income, I’m here to help. I’ll provide you with the knowledge, framework, and tools you need to transform your financial life.

You’ll be empowered to take full control of your money, achieve financial independence and live life on your own terms.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

Uncover What the Financial Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Understand the industry’s trade secrets and claim back hundreds of thousands of dollars into your retirement bucket. Learn about the hidden fees and commissions that plague most investment products typically sold in the region.

Avoid overpaying for underperformance! Cut the middleman, save tremendous costs, and invest more effectively on your own.

Define Your Financial Independence Goal

You can’t hit a target if you don’t know what it is. Learn how to analyze your current situation and quantify your financial freedom goal. I’ll then show you how to put together a clear, simple, and actionable plan for achieving it.

Build & Manage Your Investment Portfolio

Learn how to open a brokerage account and build a portfolio of low-cost, globally diversified Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Select the funds that best match your particular requirements and risk tolerance.

Once this is in place, just keep adding money regularly on auto-pilot! Only spend an hour or two per year to make sure that you’re on track.

Outperform The Majority Of Professional Money Managers

Effortlessly beat the vast majority of professional traders and fund managers by following a simple, passive investment strategy. The best part is that you don’t need to follow the news, the economy, nor to analyze any financial statements. No prior knowledge or skills required!

Seems too good to be true? Don’t take my word for it, I’ll show you the hard evidence!

Master The Psychology of Money

Understand your natural biases and learn to control your emotions. Avoid making common behavioral mistakes that could jeopardize your financial future.

Take Control Of Your Own Finances

Grab the steering wheel! At the end of the day, it’s your money and no one will care for it better than you, be it your banker, insurance broker, or financial advisor.

My Story

My name is Elie Irani, an IT professional by trade and a personal finance enthusiast. I was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon and currently live in Dubai, UAE with my wife Cassandre.

I graduated from St. Joseph University in Beirut with a master’s degree in Business Computing. My 25+ years professional career has been in Information Technology: from software development, systems administration, training, to consulting and professional services management.

This was to say that I had zero knowledge in finance or investing. However, that changed just a few years ago when I started educating myself about the topic. As a result, I have learned about a simple passive investment strategy in low-cost index funds. This made me realize all my money mistakes as you’ll about to read in a moment.

My Big Fat Money Mistakes

In my defense, I have always lived below my means and had no debt (for the most part). However, I never knew what else to do with my savings, so I kept them in a term-deposit account in my home country. At the time, Lebanon had attractive interest rates (>10%) and a seemingly stable currency that was pegged to the USD.

If you follow the news, you probably know what happened next. Starting late 2019, the Lebanese Pound started to fall hard, losing nearly 95% of its value within just a couple of years. As a result, I have lost a good portion of my life savings in Lebanon!

Prior to that and early in my earning years, I did what I thought was smart. I bought a life insurance & savings plan from an insurance company. A few years later, when my income increased, I added a similar plan from another company with a higher premium. Then again, after I got married, I bought yet another one with, you guessed it, a much higher premium! I thought that I was diversifying and solidifying my retirement plan. Boy was I wrong!

My Enlightenment

A few years ago, I was compelled to change my financial situation and started researching about personal finance. After reading several excellent books on the topic, I have noticed a few recurring patterns. I learned the importance of owning assets instead of “stuff”. I also realized that I can’t earn my way to riches by just saving in a bank account. The way to building wealth boils down to this: earn more, spend less, invest the difference, and let compounding do its magic over time.

Most importantly, I finally understood how the financial industry misleads you into overpaying for underperformance. This made me realize how unsuitable my insurance saving plans were. It became obvious that they were primarily designed to make money for the brokers and companies that sell them, in an industry that is rigged against the individual investor.

The conclusion was clear: the best way to build wealth and achieve financial independence is by taking control of my own investments.

A Proven Strategy

When it comes to investing, everyone has an opinion on what to invest in. This was not good enough for me! I needed a proven strategy that works consistently without relying on any luck or speculation.

Having read more than 20 books on investing, I have noticed another common thread: buying and holding low-cost index funds trumps all other alternatives in building wealth over the long term.

This approach was pioneered by The Vanguard Group founder and individual investors’ advocate John C. Bogle. It is also backed by an overwhelming amount of empirical evidence: from academic researchers, Nobel laureates, to investment legends including Warren Buffett himself.

But there was still a small catch. While it was relatively easy for US investors to access index funds in their retirement accounts, other investors from outside the US (particularly from the Middle East), are not that lucky. For the rest of us, the only practical way of accessing index funds is through buying and holding low-cost Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) using an online trading platform.

Finding My Calling

Following my life-changing discovery of passive ETF investing, I made it my mission to share what I’ve learned about this simple yet transformational wealth-building tool.

With my newfound passion, I joined SimplyFI Common Sense Personal Finance and Investing, which is the UAE chapter of the Bogleheads®. I was initially browsing through the posts on the SimplyFI Facebook group to learn more about the topic, but then I quickly found myself contributing, sharing what I have learned, and helping other members.

A few months later, I was given the opportunity to become an admin and a board member of the group. This paved the way for me to author the group’s free ebook “Index Investing & Financial Independence for Expats – Getting Started Guide” with the help of other board members. This guide became so popular that it actually made it to the official Bogleheads® list of recommended start-up books for expats or those residing outside the US.

Building on the above, Wise Investor is my way of enlarging my circle of reach to empower you to take control of your finances and to achieve financial independence.

It's All About You!

I’ve created this site to serve you. All blog articles and resources are designed to provide you with the knowledge, tools, and strategies you need to transform your financial future.

Although the concepts and strategies I explain here are timeless and universal, I’ll be mostly focusing on the specifics for those investing in global markets from the Middle East.

Ready To Start Your Financial Independence Journey?

Here’s where to go from here: