Do I Have To Give Maaser On Investments Like Stocks & Bitcoin?

Rabbi, do I have to donate my investments? uh if you're talking about giving mael like giving 10% uh mael then uh or if somebody gives but uh when a person wants to get blessings on uh on their money then the says as the says that if somebody gives 10% of their income uh to its publicizing tra to its Torah scholars to its kiru things like that Then uh if they give 10% they're assured that they're not going to lose their money. They won't become poor. Uh and if they give they're assured uh that they will be uh become wealthy and so much so that uh this is the only thing that Hashem says to us clearly that we're allowed to test them with this test them with the mas. So now uh as far as what you have to give ma on you have to give ma on any money that you're getting. So if you're getting a salary from your job or if you're a contractor, you're getting a payments, you uh give 10% uh of of what you got. Uh now, as far as expenses to deduct, only deduct the cost of doing business. Meaning that if it's your income, let's say you make uh $2,000 a month, uh then uh and it didn't cost you any money to make the $2,000. All you had to do is show up to work and you got the $2,000 then you have to give 10% off the $2,000. Now if uh they deducted taxes out of it and after taxes you only had a,000 left and you give 200 out of the thousand whatever you got in your hand. But if let's say you sold something, let's say you sold a car uh for for uh for $2,000. Now obviously that $2,000 is not all profit because the car cost you something. So, let's say the car cost you $1,500, which means you only have $500 out of the $2,000 that's really profit. So, now the 10% has to come out of the $500 profit. The same concept goes with stocks or bonds or real estate. If you sell a piece of real estate or you sell a piece of a stock for a profit, you have to give m uh you have to give 10% of uh the money that you've profited. But you only have to give uh that 10% uh that male after you've sold it, not while you hold it. So let's say for example, you have a stock that you bought for a dollar and the stock miraculously went to $100. So you have a lot of profit and you bought I don't know a bunch of shares and you have I don't know $100 million in profits. Now, you don't have to give mas until you sell it because so long as you own it, it could always fluctuate in price and it could potentially go back down to one. So, you don't have to sell it so long as you own it. But the moment you sell it, you have to give m if you want to follow the Tua, you want to get the blessing. What about your Oh, so whether the money that you have is in a regular uh account, I guess you stock trader, uh whether it's in a in a regular account or it's in a retirement account, you need to give male on it. It doesn't make a difference where the money is. Now, I understand that the uh you know, if somebody, let's say, for example, bought a piece of property uh for for, you know, for $100,000 and they sold it for $500,000, that's a $400,000 profit. They have to give MV off of that. The same concept goes with you invest in stocks. You invest $100,000, you sold it for uh $500,000, you have to give MV off of that uh off of that uh money. The problem is that uh I guess the point of your question is what if that money that you have profits is in some form of retirement account which means that you know if you take the money out of the retirement account then you are uh then you are um going to be subject to taxes because you took money out of some 401k or some uh uh some uh uh IRA account. Uh so you could do one of two things. Uh one, you could uh take it out of a different account that's not an IRA account. Meaning you have the uh profits. Let's say you have uh uh $100,000 in profits that uh you got in the uh in your retirement account and you sold everything. So you locked in the $100,000 profit. Uh so you now if you give him a sale, you give 10%. That's $10,000 you give a sale. So that $10,000 you can take it out of a regular account that you have. I'm sure you have some type of money in regular accounts uh that um that are uh that you have $10,000 in and uh you give them asset from that account. That's one way to do it. Uh another way to do it is uh is to actually take it out of the retirement account. Take it out of the retirement account. then yes, you don't have to take all the money out of the retirement account, but you take the money out of the retirement account and uh pay the penalty. Now, you don't necessarily need to do that. There's other options. Uh so, I mean, you could also do something where let's say, for example, you have $100,000 in profit and you want to give $10,000 in Mar, but you currently don't have $10,000 in your uh checking account because you're waiting for some this and you're waiting for some that. You just don't have it. So you could have a IOU note to yourself that as soon as you get the money you'll give it. So let's say you don't have it now but you expect to get it in let's say two months from now. So as soon as you get the money in two months from now you give the at that point. Try not to extend it too much. Usually the best thing to do is to uh is to give it uh the same year. Uh not let pass without giving uh that masel. Uh but needless to say, the sooner you give the maser, the better for you because that maser that you give, the moment you give it, you're in essence fueling the next blessing. Meaning that $100,000 that you have has to be invested again. You want it to work out also the same way the first $100,000. So you obviously you want the blessing as soon as possible. So, I understand that, you know, there's some people that ask me about, you know, they want to donate, but they have their money in uh, you know, offshore or they have their money in Bitcoin or they have their money in all types of things. Uh, you know, there's different ways to uh there's different ways to donate. Uh, but a person can certainly certainly uh donate. um you know you can even you know with with uh with our organization we have a way now to now to accept uh stock to accept um Bitcoin to accept cryptocurrency. So you can donate even the asset itself which sometimes is a uh major benefit for people uh financially and tax- wise. Uh but point being is is that for all intents and purposes of your question as far as whether you have to give money out of profits you're making in your retirement account the answer is yes once you've locked in the profits means meaning once you you bought something you sold it that means at that you know you have to give uh money from the you have to give m from that profit now in your case since you're I guess a trader of some kind no you just like to trade you're not a trader okay So in your case that since uh you trade uh then if you're more than let's say the average long-term investor where you're not you know you don't buy and hold for a few years you usually you know buy and sell regularly for you to give m out of every single trade will become very cumbersome difficult and sometimes even detrimental to the strategy of investing that you have because usually capital is uh trading is int is is capital intensive meaning the more capital you have the more uh um uh ability you have to to do what you do. So if you're an active trader uh then what you can do instead of what I just said which is to give male once you've sold um you can actually give masel let's say every so often whether it's a uh uh every few months or even once a year um I recommend to do it you know every few months and not once a year just simply because it's becomes more difficult to give masa once the amount becomes bigger uh the works harder. But the point is is that if you give the masel uh let's say once a year or every few months then that means you can tally all the trades because I'm sure you have some you know winning trades but you also have some losing trades. So you could calculate the total of those trades since you're an active trader uh at at that time during the year uh and then you know the ones that you've uh already locked in gains or losses on and then give m off of that dollar amount um and yes even that is same thing in regards to uh it doesn't matter whether it's a uh IRA or 401k or a regular account or partnership doesn't make a you give mas no you don't have to necessarily give mas specifically from that account just like I said you know you could collect the profit in the retirement account but pay the uh the maser from a regular account doesn't make a difference where you pay the masel which is the point is spiritually speaking it's as as long as you pay the masa you give the masel you it's that's it's a different type of investment you have the investment of stocks and real estate And whatever people invest in today and then you have investment in you know your spirituality which is publicizing and supporting that's a different type of uh but where you give it from doesn't make a difference. So you can keep all your money in that account and give it from a different account. You could take everything from that account give another one doesn't make a difference. We are meant to be a light unto the nations not to follow their misguided practices. Remember, every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays, even if they seem harmless. It's a zil disrespect to the Torah and could lead to chalashem, desecration of God's name. Stick to our holy Torah in our own holidays. That's the path of a true Jew.