0188: Making Money Simple: The Complete Guide to Getting Your Financial House in Order and Keeping It That Way Forever with Peter Lazaroff

EA interviews episode 188 inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's expert Authority Effect interview. Have you ever wanted to grow your business? I'm sure you have, but what about the personal side of things? Do you want that new car? Do you want that new house? Do you want to go to that event? You know, maybe it's that new advertising campaign, maybe it's any and all of the above. And that's why I'm excited to have chief investment officer off of Making Money Simple. And we're going to be talking about how to avoid self sabotage with your finances for your business and your personal life. Get rid of getting rid of that lifestyle creep. Okay, Getting rid of the business creep that comes in there. Maybe it's we need to do this, we need to do that. No, no, no, no. We're going to get down to it and learn how to how to stay focused on our financial goals both personally and in our business. With Peter Lazaroff. Right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's free businessbook publishingcourse.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Peter Lazaroff. Peter, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great. How about yourself?

I'm feeling wonderful and I'm excited to hear what you have to say because there's so many people in expert authority world who have business goals that want to achieve the best for their business and their families. And I want to know your thoughts on it because I saw something about that lifestyle creep and you know, the business creep. And would you say there's a lot of things to distract us from staying on track?

Absolutely. It's kind of this sneaky financial phenomenon that derails all these wonderful business plans. Derails all these wonderful personal financial planning plans. Lifestyle creep. It happens in such a way that we don't notice. It's kind of like if you put your hand into a bowl of water and you start to heat it up, eventually that water is going to get so hot that it hurts. It burns you, but you don't notice. It's incremental. Now when you take your hand out of that warm water and dunk it into a bowl of ice water, you notice that what that is like is trying to stomp out lifestyle creep. After years or decades of it happening. And so what's really important is to identify what these areas of lifestyle creep are in the early stages so that you're not dunking your nice warm hand into some ice water later.

What are some areas that across the board, you can identify as lifestyle creep and how do we prevent them?

Well, so keep in mind that most of your income gains are going to come in your 30s and 40s, and then you peak out in your 50s. That's just what the research shows, whether it's from the Federal Reserve or the Department of Labor. And it starts out with little things that candidly aren't that big of a deal. Maybe it's a slightly nicer bottle of wine or better seats in an event, whether it's a sporting event or a theater event, or perhaps it's an upgrade in your hotel room or just a slightly nicer birthday gift for your loved one. All these things individually may not be that big a deal, particularly if you are earning more income over time. It's really the collective of all of them that you don't notice that you're doing it, particularly if you've been a good saver. And the most common outcome that I see is someone gets near retirement and maybe they have been a good saver and they've had some lifestyle creep, and they realize they're living differently now than they were five, 10, 20, 30 years ago. But they are dramatically underestimating their expenses. If you're a business owner and you push expenses through the business, which is pretty common, it does make it hard to identify what do I need to live on after I've sold the business or had part of the succession plan kick in.

Where do you think it stems from? Because when you were saying the nicer hotel rooms and the nicer food and nicer things, I remember some of the first things I did when I started making more years ago. And it's like, you know, there's that delayed gratification. And I believe everyone should do it starting off because you're. You're not going to win in all areas. And it's like if you really believe in what you're doing, you know, there will be a turning point. If not, well, yeah, you're just cutting out a lot of stuff in your life, but you start going for those nicer things and building up and building up. Do you think it essentially forms a habit or is there a deeper driver? You. You know, it kind of sounds like keeping up with the Joneses personally, and keeping up with. I don't know, I'll just say the newest shiny object for business.

Well, here's a good example with myself is I used to wait to upgrade my cell phone until the point at which my current cell phone basically didn't work. Nowadays, if I want a new cell phone every three years or even every two years, I go ahead and do it because you know what? I feel like it, and I feel like I've gotten to a place financially where I can afford to do that, but I recognize that that's a change in my, in my habits in that sense. But really one of the important. And also let me also put in there that I don't think you should deprive yourself. That's. That's not really what I'm getting at. I think it's just being more aware that as humans, it's our human nature to be quite adaptable. And the novelty of different items tends to wear off pretty quickly. So my new iPhone, with its great camera and its faster processing speed, one month, two months later, I don't really notice it. And it kind of goes back to what I led with, with the hand example in a, in a bowl of lukewarm water. If you keep heating it up, you don't notice the incremental changes. It's the big changes that we notice. So I would say there is some sort of inherent human nature involved here. And that's what's always so challenging with money is basically everything about our DNA and genetic makeup has us making poor money decisions. And a lot of that's very deep rooted in the way that we evolved as a species. But even when you look at more recent research where they say, do the brain scan and they can identify that we think of saving for our future selves as the same way that we think of giving money away to a complete stranger. So if we know that if we had to make the right decision by doing something that feels like giving money away to a complete stranger, how can you make that disconnect go away with lifestyle creep? You know it's gonna happen. And again, I don't think you should deprive yourself. I think it's just being aware that it's happening. And as you increase your spending in small categories or you take advantage of some lifestyle luxuries because you've earned it, what's really important is that you also have a way to systematically increase what you're saving to help offset some of that. Because by saving more one, you, you're going to be better prepared at the time that you want to be financially independent. That's kind of the obvious piece. The perhaps less obvious piece. If you're saving more, you can't spend more. So it's a way to sort of prevent yourself. It acknowledges that you can't take the human nature out of humans. So how can we acknowledge those human flaws that I'll call them and work around them in a way that isn't so painful and is easier to stick with than perhaps having to fill out a budget every single day?

You are just dropping all kinds of wisdom here. And there's two things that I wanted to ask you about and there's like three more that I picked up on. One, how come humans are just don't like doing it? Two, how do you break the disconnect of the saving for yourself and having the disconnect of someone else? And I can attest to the saving more and more putting it away. Because there was one year I got my taxes back and there was like there was over $8,000 of stuff I didn't notice. And I was like, huh? That was kind of like a huh. I mean, it's not a ton of money, but it's not 20 bucks either. And you know, when you do start saving more and it's more fun because what I've been doing, what I started doing and I'm still doing, thankfully paying for stuff in advance, like a month in advance, a quarter in advance, a year in advance. And it, you know, you get less notifications and you get a better deal. So when you were talking about the lifestyle creep and all this, I also wanted to ask about, is there a percentage that you feel you can also save across the board, you know, from doing it ahead of schedule instead of after the fact?

Well, I'll answer that question first. There is not a one size fits all answer here. And I think in general, the best thing you can do if you have no plan as of right now is set an arbitrary number like 10% of income and go ahead and set that aside. But also plan to increase that by a percentage point every year so that you're going to 11%, then 12%. You maybe stop at a point there'll be a natural barrier resistance based on your lifestyle that you're unwilling to make.

Additional increases to that saving percentage. Like you might reach 20% and say, look, there's no way I can save more income. There are all these things I want to do and that's okay. And the whole point of financial success, it's not really magic, it's just simple Engineering. And there is no perfect answer. So I would, you know, anytime you're discouraged, know that there's a workaround and that nobody's perfect with this. Which kind of goes back to your other, you know, the first point you'd made is, you know, we as humans tend to make all these poor decisions with money and we have these wrong instincts. And I think the best way you fight those is you automate. You try to automate as much as humanly possible, remove all ability for yourself to make the decision. And automation we all think of as technology. But if you look up the definition of automation.

Hiring a human to do that work for you also falls under the camp of automation as well. And so any sort of line coaching of any kind always improves outcomes, whether that's a health coach with your eating or a fitness coach with your professional, excuse me, your physical health, your professional coach, you can get a financial coach, which everyone knows as a financial advisor. These are all ways that you can improve your outcomes. And when you think of automation, yes, technology is essential. And it's never been easier to automate your finances. On the technology front, I know personally the system that I talk about in my book Making Money simple, the system that I talk about on the podcast Making Money simple on my blog, you know, everywhere talks about automation. And originally it was hard for me to put that system in place because you couldn't automate as much as you can today. But really automation is your best friend. It prevents you from getting lazy. It prevents you from deciding you don't feel like making these changes or sticking to a plan. That's really the best way, in my opinion, to get around our human nature.

And I'm glad you brought that up about the person because that there's also that accountability. And when you're paying someone and investing, because not an expense, it's an investment, you're also more accountable to yourself and what you pay for, you pay attention to.

I know that's true for me. Anytime I've had a gym membership, I use the gym.

Absolutely.

I know when I wrote my book, I tried to write a book on my own. And it wasn't until I hired a project manager and all this person did was send me text messages and emails and I was paying them about $500 a month to bully me into writing. And if I'm going to pay that much to have somebody sending me texts telling me to go write, you know I'm going to eventually do it. So, you know, I think, yeah, anytime you're hiring and I'm obviously biased. I am a financial advisor. I'm an owner of a financial advisory firm. I obviously am biased in thinking that that's a great investment. However, I also have a financial advisor. I have hired a financial advisor despite my own knowledge, just knowing that it's a good, good, like you said, a good investment in myself to get all those nudges, to have an unbiased party there and, you know, the outcomes undoubtedly are better since making that decision than when I was just doing it myself.

Well, I'm glad you're sharing that with us because there's a lot of people who I love investing and stuff that's going to one, get an ROI and two, make, make me a better person.

You know, because wisdom is the only real asset we have. I mean, the building, the house, the cars, all that stuff can burn down, blow up whatever the case may be, or get washed away. But when you, all the stuff you invest in in your brain, as long as that thing's still working, you're good. And if it's not, well, it's not really a problem anymore.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one.

What, what other investments can you make financially? Well, what else would you say is a good investment? Whether it's for yourself, your business in the financial arena?

Well, that's a great question. If, if we're going to narrow it to the financial arena. You know, I think any sort of prioritizing your retirement is always the number one goal in my mind. And I don't think retirement for people saving today looks the same as retirement even 20 years ago. You know, it's not just a big 30 year vacation. It's really this financial independence where you have the ability to walk away if you want to, or work less if you want to largely do whatever you want. That's what financial independence is. And I do think that it will become more normal for people to work until they're 70 as opposed to 60 or 65. And so no matter what, if you can invest in accounts that give you some sort of tax break that are designed for retirement, whether that's a 401k or IRAS or HSAS, or if you have a business and you can do a cash balance plan, that's typically someone who has a lot of excess cash and needs to put away tax deferred dollars, those are tools that really can enhance your well being over the long term. When I think of investing in myself beyond finances and just being a good saver. A comment you made earlier that I think resonates is continual learning is extremely important. I don't know anybody who is good at their, at their craft or their profession who doesn't continually learn. And we also know there's a lot of research that shows that continually learning stimulates the brain and helps prevent cognitive decline, which is, morbid as it sounds, is something we're all going to have to deal with at some point in time. And so I think exercising, eating healthy and learning, those are all things to show that have shown to really increase your brain health and increase those neural connections and strength, strengthen them and prevent that cognitive decline that so many people unfortunately have to deal with.

I'm glad you brought that up. And after I said it, I didn't want to interrupt you, but I was like, why did I say financial? Because there's a lot of stuff outside of that that's also good for business and personal. And like you're saying, as we age there's things to consider and not just preventing them now as much as humanly possible, but also being prepared, prepared for it in the future. And I was actually going to ask you, do you think when you're talking about the retirement, do you really think that retirement is an age or. Because I've heard people say, well, I want to retire at 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 seems to be like the new from people I hear, maybe not so much in business, but like if I can get out by 55, that would be like know you get five, seven more years and you're saying most people are going to work till they're 70. Is that because they have to or because they want to?

I think if we're talking about the United States in aggregate, that's because they have to.

Okay.

Successful business owners, I think if you're working till 70, it's because you want to. And the word retirement is something that everybody understands, but in reality, I think the thing that people are shooting for today is financial independence. It's two words, it's longer. Not everybody necessarily knows what it means. So we always just default to the word retirement. But to me, when somebody comes to me and they're 55, they want to retire when they're 55 or 50. I think to myself, yeah, right, like this successful person's not going to do any work starting at age 50 or 55. You know, that's just not a real thing. People who are driven and successful and are able to achieve that type of goal want a 40 year vacation on the beach. That's not what they're looking for, they're looking for the freedom to do what they want, when they want. And so in that sense, I think you see a pretty broad spectrum. But when you remember that the vast majority of the population lives off of Social Security for retirement, you know, yes, I do think that a lot of people will be working till 70 and beyond out of necessity. But also I do think there are going to be a lot of people who just failed to save early and often enough and they'll still have a nice lifestyle. And hopefully we know more about health in terms of taking care of ourselves, that our 70s should be better than people living in their 70s 20 years ago. We know that smoking is bad for you. We know that exercise is important. There's a lot of real low hanging fruit out there for us to make a better use of our time here.

Excellent. Well, I'm so glad you were sharing on all of that because it does resonate and it's things to think about. You know, when you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, it's like, hey, you can be hard charging and do all these things, but what are you gonna do 20, 30 years from now? And when you were talking about just sitting around, it's like, I am nowhere near 70 and I can tell you that even around Christmas or New Year's or whatever. And it's just like, okay, is there, you know, like some charitable thing I can be doing or it's just like sitting around literally doing nothing?

Yeah, I like to be productive. Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like relaxing and doing stuff with family and friends, but, you know, I'll just leave it at that. You should have purpose and a passion. Even if it's not work necessarily. There's a lot you can be doing to make the world a better place with your time of talents and abilities. So as far as your clients go, obviously, you know, you're a rock star with this, but what's the main thing you're really helping them with? What would you say is if you were to take 80, 20 of your clients, what are they mainly coming to you for?

Well, let me give you a little bit of background. So I serve as the Chief investment officer at Plancorp and we work with people across 44 states. We manage a little over $4 billion. And I always tell people that a good financial advisor can change your life. It can really make a big difference. But a bad financial advisor can also change your life in a bad way. And I think the big way that we differentiate is with tax planning. So I and we are really big believers that you should pay your fair share of taxes, you should pay your IRS bill to what you owe, but you don't need to leave them a tip. And so for about 80% of our clients, I am most proud of the tax planning work we do. And we manage portfolios the way that most people think a financial advisor should. But a lot of people leave money on the table, particularly those kind of in their peak earning years and in the years just leading up to retirement. And right now there are a handful of legislation that are in place that are going to sunset after a couple of years. Anytime a new law is passed, there's always some new little tax loophole to play with. And so I think the way that we're really helping people is minimize the taxes that they're paying and make the entire financial picture work together. So when you get your financial house in order, in order to keep it that way forever, it's not just a portfolio, it's not just a tax return, it's not just a single insurance policy, it's everything. And so trying to interconnect those, I think that's what makes us special. And the 80% of our clients who come to us, I would say they're delegators and they recognize the value of creating time for themselves. And they also are generally pretty good about understanding that they don't know what they don't know. And again, that's why you hire professionals, why you go to a doctor, it's why you'd hire an attorney to argue a case for you in court. It's just, again, I come off as biased saying this because it's my profession, but I also, again, I eat my own cooking in the sense that I also have an advisor, that advisor being plan group.

That is excellent. And it's interesting what you're saying about that and I'm glad you did because it's not a single one time thing like you set it up and it's good for 50 years because you said it, the tax laws change. So even if you're as protected and best case scenario right now, next year it's going to be different. The year after that it's going to be different. And would you say that's why it's good to have someone that knows what they're doing and is constantly in it, who can stay up with it?

Absolutely. And you can do a lot of this stuff yourself. It's not rocket science, but it is a full time job. So it's not. You read the paper every so often you have to read the tax law, which I'm fairly certain not that many people do for fun. The people here who are CPAs and our tax experts, they really enjoy that stuff. So give it to someone who's enjoying it and getting deep in it and can give you proactive advice. It's one less thing you have to worry about. And here I'm focused on the tax side. My role's primarily tied to investment strategy. And I think one of the things that people struggle with there is they see somebody smart on tv, make an eloquent argument for, for one specific point of view that takes one specific set of inputs and data points and they think suddenly they understand the world. Similarly, you read the Wall Street Journal once and suddenly you think you have special information that the rest of the world doesn't know. But the more that I study markets, the more research that we do on a regular basis, the more I realize, gosh, there's so much to learn. And so giving it to someone who has their finger on the pulse of the market as well as the latest academic research that really can lead to a lot better outcomes.

Excellent. Well, I appreciate you for sharing those expert authority insights. I want to ask you about the biggest transformation you've been able to give someone. You don't need to use names or specifics. Well I'd like some specifics in like ROI, percentages, dollar amounts, but you don't need to name names. Who's been one of your biggest success stories that came to you and you just were able to do a 180 in the good direction for them?

Well actually so I'm going to talk about somebody who came to us about six months ago and a couple in their 40s, wife who's attorney, husband was corporate executive I guess for lack of a better word, he's paid in. He had equity compensation, so he had non qualified stock options and he had some.

In espp. So employee stock purchase plan. And what's really interesting about this couple is they're entering peak earning years. They have two kids, one of whom I think is in high school and the other one is junior high. And they were doing everything right. They had never had an advisor but they were maxing out all their retirement accounts. They were really good savers. They had a great grasp on how much they were spending. So we let off talking about lifestyle creep. They probably had lifestyle creep but they knew to the dollar what it was. However, when we were speaking to them, they realized they were getting busy and they needed to outsource. They felt like maybe there's something we can be doing more. And in having these conversations they kept bringing up and making these somewhat self deprecating jokes about how they used to travel more before the kids and oh, I can't wait to. When the topic of college would come up, they say, well, once they go to college we can finally travel again. And eventually we asked you, well, why don't you travel with the kids? And it was always felt like they couldn't afford it because they were such rigid savers and they thought about their careers and you know, I think the success here ultimately for them was they knew what they were supposed to do. They knew they were supposed to go be professionally successful and save a lot of that money and then things would work out, but there wasn't a lot of intentionality behind it. And so as we built out a financial plan for them and gave them some real projections on where they were headed, one that allowed us to find some more unique techs opportunities. And again, they were doing really well on that front to begin with. Two, it suddenly made them realize, oh my gosh, we're gonna have way more money than we need. We need to live life a little bit. You know, we need to travel. We can afford to take the two kids on these lavish overseas trips. And when I say lavish, I mean just going to what feels like exotic places. But they felt like if we had to take four people instead of two, that it just wouldn't work out. And you know what was the most rewarding phone call? And I remember the comment being made to them somewhat casually because they kept joking about it and bringing it up. They called when they were on their way to the airport, they're headed to Asia. They were going to hop around a couple different countries with their two kids. And they had done a lot of travel in the states with the kids. They ski, they do the beach. But they were so excited and they called to say thank you. And to me that represented a type of success that is really fulfilling because I know that the earlier we reach somebody in their life, the bigger the changes we can make in terms of you let compounding work for multiple decades. If we make some changes at the margin, those changes are going to be massive after 20, 30, 40 years. But here's somebody who's doing everything right and having a lot of success, yet still wasn't getting the most out of their money that they wanted. And I think I referenced in my book a lot of the happiness Research as it pertains to money. And this is one of those wins to me that allowed these people to turn around their view of their finances, which I think they knew were strong, but they were borderline paranoid that they weren't as strong as they couldn't be and as they could be. And they looked around their peer group thinking, well, we have to do this, that and the other in order to live this life that will make us successful. But then really opening their eyes to the things that they were saying themselves that they wanted, they just didn't have the confidence there to really grab it.

Yeah. And you said something in there and it's interesting. What a role, what a role confidence does play. Because when you just casually said, we're going to have more money than we need, we can travel, I mean, clearly they were doing good, but they didn't think they were. And I've seen that in my own clients and in myself also. Where, where it's like, what is wrong with you? You clearly did a 180 over the last five or 10 years. What the problem is right now and there is none, it's in your head.

Yeah. And I think what's really challenging for people who are successful is when you have an objective third party. They can sit there and say, look, you objectively are doing great. And if I project these things that you're doing today out into the future, this is what it looks like. And I think it's just that projection into the future, when you're kind of building out a financial plan, that tends to catch people off guard because our brains don't think exponentially, they think linearly. And compound interest is an exponential. And when you put that in place and you're plugging in all these inputs, a lot of people are just adding and subtracting annual contributions or annual expenditures in their head thinking, is this going to be enough? And it's really when you go through the planning process and you build in all sorts of conservatism where you can take deep breaths and say, oh my gosh, yes it is. Now of course you can also go through that exercise and realize you don't have what you think you did. And there are turnaround stories I could have shared there and I think those are perhaps the more obvious ones. But to me it's really those ones, the people who are finding ways to make the most of the hard earned wealth that they've obtained over the years, those are really rewarding.

Well, I appreciate you for sharing that with us because I'm glad you used that one too because I'm sure you have dozens and dozens, if not hundreds. But I love hearing the ones where it's like hey, you're bringing the families closer together or you know, you just gave them five or 10 years back or hey, maybe just how about this? Every single day is more enjoyable and you're not stressed about it. You have that confidence. I mean that's a huge win regardless of the dollar of the out.

Yeah, it's priceless. Priceless feeling right there.

Alright, so I have one more fun thing before we thank our sponsor and it is the wheel of whatever. And I love this thing because it always gives the right qu. That wasn't enough of a spin. Here we go. It always lands right where I need it to. What's that?

I need a big powerful spin there. I like that. It's really going now.

Almost fell. It always ends where it needs to. Right on the right question, right at the right time. And here's today's so I want to ask you, with all your knowledge of taxes and all the people you've been able to help, you created this one, by the way, you created this one about eight minutes ago.

What do you think the US could do better with taxes for businesses to stimulate the economy but also reward the business owners? Do you think we should keep doing a whatever it's called, a graduated tax or should there be a flat tax nationwide?

Well, I think one thing, let me put a little context here is that we often, I say we, I'm going to say the collective nation often go back and forth over taxes being at some perfect level. I don't think there is a perfect level. And I think when you look at long term history, our rates are actually quite low. Now I'm saying that with no sort of trying to take sides of an argument of should they be higher or lower. Just let's all remember that they are actually historically low. I think simplicity would be the best option for tax policy. And I think that our biggest issues are not necessarily the graduated tax or flat simple tax or the level of which we're paying tax. I honestly think the biggest issue we have is that we have not addressed the retirement crisis in our country. Something as simple as Social Security by it's a problem that's very fixable but the longer we wait, the more painful it's going to be. So we have lifestyle creep of Social Security. If you just increase the retirement age, if you increase the amount of wages at which people had to be paying taxes on or you do some means testing. When you actually do the benefits, the whole system looks a lot different. And that's kind of one of the bigger pieces of why we have. I mean taxes cover a lot of stuff but I think when people are thinking how do we pay for something like Social Security, that alone does not that much to the tax policy side but also takes a lot of the pressure off of the need for that sort of fiscal cash raising. I also will say I did write one of my Senior Economic these ECs on sales tax.

A national sales tax is actually quite attractive unless the government treats it like a piggy bank. And I do know that overseas there, there's the VAT and those governments do treat it like a piggy bank. So I like that concept, but not if we're going to abuse it.

Well, I appreciate the honesty and fair answer. And when you were talking about all this stuff you were earlier, I was like, oh, I know what I'm going to ask him. So thank you for that. And it wasn't to get it politicized or anything. I just legit wanted to know because it seems like no matter if you have a business or don't or whatever, the second you start paying taxes, everyone, it's on everyone's mind.

No one likes paying taxes. But you know, that's the whole point. Let's pay our fair share.

I like when you said but don't tip them.

Yeah, don't leave that IRS a tip. You just pay your bill. Be done after that. Yep.

All right, well this has been great. We're going to thank our sponsor and come back for the impromptu perfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why you should visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having an idea and a possibility to actually.

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I've worked with Mario over the phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rocio, there's no way in the world I would have been able to to do this with somebody else. Again, I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficini or Bill Benner.

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He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started now. And I look forward to hearing your transformation as the next video success story. Once again, that's free businessbook publishingcourse.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Peter, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Let's do it.

Mario, first question, what is the fastest path to the profits?

I think it's automation. I think automation works around all those human tendencies that make having good financial decisions happen. A lot of times they don't. You automate something, whether it's via technology or you outsource somebody else to take care of it for you, that's undoubtedly going to be the best way and fastest way to achieve results.

Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Broadly speaking, it's overconfidence. Whether it's overconfidence in their knowledge, overconfidence in their personal capability to earn or to live or to work, it's a lot of not knowing what you don't know. And that's a really dangerous thing. And so I think the best way to fix that, it's not easy, but it's just trying to learn and have multiple perspectives. Again, coaching, whether it's on the financial and you asked about my prospects, so we're acting there as the behavioral coach, as a financial coach, it's a financial life advocate. But regardless of what part of your life we as a species evolved due to overconfidence, the caveman who went out and attacked the giant beast, that group of people lived, they were confident they could do it. The people who cowered behind did not evolve. And so we're an overconfident bunch. I think it's recognizing that and trying to get help to uncover those blind spots that you have.

So if you read the Wall Street Journal, don't go saying you're a financial advisor the next day and have a course on it.

Yes, I would say you would not believe the level of competition in markets we could have spent hours talking about that alone. But when you remember that there are millions of market participants, many and many of whom are very highly incentivized and have customers, mobile apps to track data on people and use satellite imagery, and they have so much information, you know, the competitor on the other side of every trade you make, you got to be remember that there is someone on the other side of every trade you make and chances are they have a lot more information than you do.

I would love to dive into that. I'm trying to stay focused for this last little bit here.

We'll do this next time.

Yeah, that is fascinating.

Customer lifetime value. That's it. What is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

I'm a big believer, regardless of the business, that you should be able to do at least two of three things, hopefully all of them. One is to make life simpler, one is to solve a problem, and one is to help them make more money. So I think if you can solve a problem, make life simpler, help someone make more money, that is really the ultimate thing that you could deliver to your customer. And I think that's true for just about anybody with any business. Whether you're selling shoes, financial advice, or fitness, those are all accomplishable things.

That sounds like a win, win, win.

Oh, no doubt. I mean, any good relationship, whether you're selling a product or service, ought to be a win win. And in reality, not all things are that way, but I think those are all. If you can accomplish two of those three things, and I think anybody that I sit down with, I try. I think we have the ability to do all three here. I want to at least do two things, but I've never met someone who doesn't have a problem. I've never met someone who we can't help make life a little simpler for. And most people you'd like to think we're putting in a position to help them make more money or at least grow their net worth more optimally.

Excellent. What are some books you could recommend that have made a difference in your life?

Okay, so on the investment side, again, because my specialty is investments, the classics like Winning the Losers Game by Charles Ellis or Random Walk Down Wall street by Burton Malkiel or the Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle. Those are all kind of classic investment things that have made a big difference. I think Atomic Habits is a more recent book that I give out to more people by James Clear. I think that's wildly useful regardless of your profession, but those are the things that immediately come to mind before we go really deep into the geeky stuff on the investment side.

All right, excellent. Well, I appreciate you for sharing. I've gotten a lot of all this and no Expert Authority World has. Where can they learn more?

So you can go to my website, PeterLazarOff.com and then basically every social media platform. I'm Eterlazaroff. The real trick is spelling Lazaroff, but if you put it into Google, Google's pretty smart. They know who you're looking for. So you can check out my podcast Making Money simple or the book Making Money Simple. I try to put everything though, in the end on my website.

Excellent. And I'll make sure it's on your show notes page on eainterviews.com as well with all the links to all that. So it is simple for everyone.

All right, well, thank you again, Peter. It's been great and it's a pleasure having you.

Mario. Thanks for having me. Love to do this again.

All right, Expert Authority World, we have another great episode today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless. You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate and qualify leads while increasing profit for you 24 7? And if so, how well are you promoting it? With the Expert Authority Effect publishing method, it's easier and faster than ever. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started now. Once again, that's freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.Com hey, thanks for listening to today's episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven't done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show and also be sure to check out eainterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you tomorrow.