Keren Kozlov, 27, a Tel Aviv resident and field reporter for Keshet's V1 news app, says she is building a long-term path to financial independence through a self-managed investment portfolio and a content-creation side business. She has already used gains from her portfolio to buy a stake in land for investment in Hadera, near the sea.
Her portfolio is split into 45% in an Irish-domiciled P&S fund, 30% in bitcoin through the iBit ETF, 20% in stocks including Tesla, Palantir, Meta and Oracle, and 5% in the TA-125 index. Kozlov says she prefers a relatively cautious approach and believes in broad indexes over the long term, even though she also holds high-risk technology and crypto assets.
She said her interest in investing began only after years of working while young, starting at 17 as a researcher and producer for Kan 11's "Dakatayim." After military service in Galei Tzahal and a discharge in 2020, she took an investment course with Ronen Margolis, later read "Investing for the Lazy," and deepened her knowledge after studying in Canada and returning to Israel in 2023. A sports injury in 2024, when she was 25, pushed her to take investing more seriously and to make regular deposits into savings and investment accounts.
Kozlov says the key lessons were to set up automatic monthly investing, avoid selling in down markets, and keep money out of the portfolio unless necessary. She withdrew NIS 50,000 to invest in the Hadera land deal, but says she would not have done so if she had enough liquid cash. She also recommends opening an independent study fund for self-employed workers, calling it "money on the floor" because of the tax advantages.
Looking ahead, she says her portfolio is still far from her financial goals, but she expects to reach her first million in eight years and NIS 1.3 million by age 37, assuming average annual returns of 10%. She warns against chasing hype, says she would never buy SpaceX just because it is popular, and says she does not want to be tempted by riskier strategies such as day trading or currency-hedged funds with higher fees.
