The Trust Factor
A daily lesson that focuses on achieving unparalleled success in life using ancient wisdom in modern times.
We will be discussing critical concepts as they are laid out in the book Sha'ar Habitachon - The Gate of Trust. Written 1000 years ago, the author reminds us of the values and wisdom that have allowed humanity to thrive throughout history.
The concept of trusting in a higher power that exists purely for our benefit, puts us in the drivers seat with absolute confidence to achieve greatness.
Eliminate: Fear, Hatred, Anxiety, Depression, Jealousy, Greed...forever!
* Note that some terminology will be in the original Hebrew or Aramaic which I will always follow with the English translation.
The Trust Factor
Episode 179 - How To Use Extra Money With Faith And Wisdom
A simple truth can reset how we handle money: the more we clutch, the less secure we feel. We open with big news—Mark Halpern joins us Friday—then dive into a timely, practical conversation about trust, extra income, and the delicate balance between saving, spending, and sharing. If you’ve ever told yourself you’ll give “when the big money comes,” you’ll hear why generosity gets harder as accounts grow and how to train that muscle now, when the amounts are small and the impact is real.
We walk through a clear framework for using surplus: take care of your needs and your family first, then widen the circle to friends, community, city, and world. Along the way, we explore how trust in God reframes the fear of the future, easing the endless chase for “more.” Nature becomes our teacher: fallen leaves feed the soil that feeds the tree; water rises, rains, and renews; herds graze and the grass returns. Money works the same way when it flows with intention. Hoarding breaks the system. Balanced giving keeps it alive.
You’ll learn why anxiety thrives on “what if,” how to set simple guardrails for giving and saving, and how to enjoy the fruits of your labour today without sabotaging tomorrow. We also share a sobering story about desperation and fraud that underscores a universal longing for security—and a call to meet real needs with wisdom and compassion. By the end, you’ll have a practical path: put essentials first, automate modest generosity, invest in your capacity, and keep your heart close to people, not just numbers.
If this conversation helps you rethink money with purpose and peace, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can find it. Your support keeps the flow alive.
Until next time, have a spectacular day!
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Trust Factor. This is the podcast that guarantees your success when you implement its divine age old teachings. By now you have heard the news. By now you have seen the promo piece. If you know, you know. And if you don't know, I'm about to tell you, Friday, my friend, Mark Halpern. It's a big deal, guys. It's a really, really big deal. I can tell you now, before it even happens, that Mark is definitely going to be a repeat customer. In other words, he's gonna be on the show multiple times. Mark is an individual that has a wealth of not only knowledge, but life experience and an ability to share it and to guide people and to help those around him achieve levels of greatness. I've seen it myself. I've had the privilege of knowing Mark for 20 years. I could tell you that I've seen that myself firsthand. He's going to be on the show on Friday. Mark surrounds himself with all the right people to discuss the very subject that we're discussing over here. Trust in God. A lot of what we talk about over here is based in money. The number one yeatzer, the number one desire that we have as human beings has to do with our money, our finances. Then there are few people in the world better suited to talk about this than Mark. You should be looking forward to it. I certainly am. Let's get into the fourth area of distinction, which talks about how do we use funds. We run into extra money, and I'm not talking you win the lottery over here. That could be part of the conversation, but it doesn't have to be to that extent. It could be you got a raise. It could be now you're making an extra thousand dollars every month. It could be that you got an inheritance, it could be something small and insignificant or something massive. A lot of people might think that when I make the millions, when I win the lottery, that's when I'll give. That's when it'll be easy for me to give because you know it'll be a lot of money. It'll be much more than I'm used to, or that what I need, and that's when I'll give. And the answer is wrong. Absolutely wrong. The more you have, like we've been saying, the harder it becomes to give it away. That's just how it works. If you want to figure out how you can prime yourself and condition yourself to be the person who gives away when you make the millions, start when you're not making the millions. Start when you barely have what to give away. Take care of number one first, take care of your family, and then start to go out in concentric circles. Take care of your immediate family, then take care of your friends, then take care of your community, then take care of your city, and then take care of the world. That's how it works. But you've got to start. There's no prerequisite for how much I need to be worth and how much how many extra funds I need to have in order to start giving. If you don't start when you're very, very young, then you will never learn. That's why, by the way, as you may know, when a child is born, we give them what's called an upsharing. At three years, we cut their hair for the first time, right? There's a very common tradition that when we cut their hair for the first time, we give them a small charity box, we give them a roll of coins, and everybody that gets to cut some of the hair gives that child a coin, that child then takes it and puts it into a charity box. The idea is to start conditioning the individual from a young age to give. I get and I give, I get and I give. It's a world of give and take, my friends. It's very, very important to recognize that it is a very well-balanced system. If we're not plugged into that delicately balanced system of give and take, then we can cause that system to fall apart. Let me give you guys some examples because I've given this over the holidays and it just came up into my mind now. So maybe it's worth discussing. I just want to give you a couple of examples. Number one, you walk into a forest. This I got, by the way, from a book called Emuna by Rabbi David or David Saperman, a wonderful individual in Toronto. And an amazing book. You walk into a forest. You go into a forest that's been around forever, and you're going for a walk in the summertime or in the spring, better yet, in the fall. And what do you see under your feet? Truckloads and truckloads of freshly fallen leaves that are sitting on the ground. And the question should pop into your mind. This forest has been here for hundreds of years at least. Every year during the fall, the leaves fall off the trees and they hit the ground. There is no leaf cleaning crew that comes in to rake up the leaves in the middle of a forest. Yet, every year we come in, we can walk through very easily. There are no obstructions. In other words, what we should be expecting is that those leaves that fall every year pile up on each other and pile up and pile up continually every season, that the trees drop their leaves, they collect on the floor. So there really should be no reason that you should be able to walk through that forest unobstructed. You should be walking through a wall of leaves that have collected over hundreds of years or thousands of years. Why isn't that the case? And the answer is that those leaves are designed to be biodegradable. They fall down to the floor and they get degraded and absorbed into the earth. The very same earth that feeds the trees, the very same earth that gives nutrients, vital nutrients to the same trees that just dropped their leaves, uses the leaves as a form of fertilizer. It goes back into the earth, gives nutrients to the earth, that allows it to go right back up into the very same tree to continue its life cycle and bring new leaves that again it will drop in the fall. Do you understand how beautifully delicate that whole system is? And that system that I just explained to you applies to the entire planet. It applies to water in the ocean that evaporates and turns into clouds and then becomes rain. It applies to animals grazing in a field who are dropping waste, and that waste becomes fertilizer and it allows them to have fresh green grass to be able to continue to graze. If any one of the partners in these systems of give and take stop doing their part, then the whole system falls apart and everybody dies. The trees die, the ground dies, the animal dies, the grass dies. That's how it works. The whole system comes to an end. So we have to understand that it's a system of give and take. If we're only hoarding for ourselves, if we're only just worried about whatever falls from the tree, I keep, it's mine. And there's no give back, then you will have a hand in, God forbid, bringing that whole relationship to an end. Not a good thing, my friends. That is the system of the world that we are in. Now it says over here one who does not trust in God does not see the world and all that is in it as being sufficient for his livelihood and for the satisfaction of his needs. In other words, it says, no matter how much money he has saved up, it's not enough. Oh Hev Kesef Lo Isba Kesef. Somebody who loves money will never be satiated from the amount of money that that person has because he is worried about what the future might bring, the root cause of all of our anxiety and stress. What will the future bring? We're so hung up on tomorrow and next year and 10 years from now and 30 years from now that we're not focusing on today. We're missing the boat. He is thus too protective of his money to use it to fulfill his obligation towards the creator and towards other people. He's so worried about not having enough tomorrow that he won't use his money today. What a shame. Worked so hard, gave up so much of your time and energy, earned a living, earned money, even if it's extra money, you cannot come to do the right thing with it because you're so worried about what's going to be tomorrow. But rather than gaining anything, he's actually harming himself because before he knows it, he will lose his money or it will be given to somebody else, like we said in a previous podcast a long time ago. You think you're hoarding it for yourself, you do not take it with you. It stays here after 120 years. And nine times out of ten, it's gonna go to the people that you didn't want it to go to, anyways. The very same people that you did not want to spend it on while you were alive will get it when you're gone. It'll go to the government, it'll go to family members that you didn't want to give it to, it'll go to all of these people and places that you didn't want to give it to when you were alive, eventually it will go to them in your passing. Why? Why not enjoy from it today? Why not take the fruits of your labor and enjoy for yourself, your family, and then give it to other people who cannot afford to enjoy this life. Do you know how many people are out there struggling, especially in today's economy? Paycheck to paycheck. If they have a job, I was just online yesterday. Maybe I'll share this with you guys at one point, speaking to an individual in Africa who was trying so hard to cheat and steal online. And I got him to open up to me in the middle of the night, not something I normally do, but we ended up having a conversation, and I got into his head, and I'm trying to understand this individual. And bottom line, the reason he's doing it is because he doesn't have money, he's living a hard life, he's in Africa, he has no means, and he's he's resorting to criminal behavior in order to get the money that he so much desires. Guys, he might be an extreme scenario. What I'm talking about over here is every single one of us, we all have the obligation to worry about our brothers and sisters. We all have an obligation to be a part of that delicate system of give and take. If you're on only one side, even if you're just a giver, my friends, remember the Torah put limitations in place on how much we can give because you cannot operate in the extremes. You can't give all your money away, and you can't just be a taker. It needs to be a fine balance. The more you find yourself in a position of perfect balance in 99% of the things in this world, the better your life will be. Have an amazing day, my friends. Looking forward to tomorrow and really, really looking forward to Friday.
