Ep. 107: Achieving Your Financial Goals & Making Money Simple | with Peter Lazaroff

Today our expert guest is Peter Lazaroff, chief investment officer at Plancorp which manages over $4 billion for its clients and author of the book Making Money Simple. He’s here to share complex issues and make them manageable to just about anyone.

At a young age, Peter knew he had a future in investing. On his 12th birthday, he received a single Nike stock from his grandma. While it seemed disappointing at first, he was impressed by these $1 checks he received in the mail every quarter. He continued to receive stocks for companies he was familiar with each birthday up until age 18.

Peter had a great mentor, who taught him that he had to learn something new every day. He started taking notes at every meeting, and at one meeting he ended up being asked to send his notes to the president of his company, and then eventually he was sending them out to everyone in the company. He used his writing, which naturally led to his book

This was the book that Peter had in him, and he wrote it in the evenings, outlining his philosophy on building wealth, and the system he uses.

How do you make money simple?

• Try to focus on the endgame: What are your goals? The neural patterns in our brain view saving money the same as giving it away to someone you don’t know. Find meaningful goals and prioritize them.
• Budget in reverse: automate your savings once you know what your financial goals are.
• If investment seems overwhelming, don’t be afraid to hire a professional. They will find things that you might miss, but you will also be buying back time.
• Make sure you’re asking an advisor the correction questions.

Getting your finances under control doesn’t have to be difficult or overwhelming. Peter’s best piece of advice is to just start. Small actions can make a big difference, so discover your financial goals and work backwards to start achieving them.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“The most important thing is to start now. There is something that everybody can do to improve their finances, even if it’s small. One of the things we don’t respect is the power of compounding. Small habits compound over time, and if you start today, I assure you there is something that can change the rest of your life in your finances.

There is probably something that you’re thinking about that you’ve been putting off. Whatever that thing is, go home and block some time off on your calendar and do it.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Learn more: peterlazaroff.com
• Read: Making Money Simple
• Worksheets: peterlazaroff.com/resources
• Find a CFP: letsmakeaplan.org/choose-a-cfp-professional/find-a-cfp-professional
• Broker Check: brokercheck.finra.org
• Smart Money Quiz: smartmoneyquiz.com
• Twitter: twitter.com/PeterLazaroff
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/peterlazaroff

The Daily Helping is produced by Crate Media