– Q. See questions above. Do I have to give all of the tzedakah at once or can I invest some of it and spread out the payments?

A. Horav Yaakov Hirschman Shlit’a maintains that if the poor are there, one should give immediately.

On question 2531 we were asked:
“If I am putting a certain percentage of my salary into an IRA or other retirement account and I won’t be using the money for many years, when do I take maaser? Before I put it in?

If I have to take maaser before I put it in, do I have to keep calculating every year how much it went up and taking maaser on that? Or can I put it into the account without maasering it and then just take the maaser when I take it out to spend it?

And I have the same question if I take a percentage of my salary to invest in stocks – do I take off maaser before I invest and again every year? or just at the end? thank you.

To what we answered:
“Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that in both cases, It is better and simpler to do the mitzva as soon as possible, and donate the maaser when the money is earned.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.