Peter Egolf, CFP^®

Working with One Day In July

You are likely reading this because you want to find someone you trust to help you or your family invest and plan, simplifying your life to enjoy your time, health, and wealth.

The problem is you haven’t found this person. As an investor, you may feel choice overload.

If you have worked with another advisor in the past, you may be left feeling skeptical, burned, or downright confused – and rightly so.

The financial industry has purposely made investing complex, time-consuming, and costly because the complexity drives profit. As an investor, you deserve to know how to avoid conflicts of interest and fees that unnecessarily hurt your returns and learn the behaviors that will maintain and grow your wealth.

Here’s where I come in. I was in your shoes.

I became a financial advisor, specifically at One Day In July, because of my experiences as an investor. The industry ignores your unique needs, charges excessively high fees, and doesn’t prioritize your interests – whether you have $1,000,000 or $10,000,000. As an advisor, I work with investors who want a permanent vacation from this madness.

My goal is to care about your financial outcomes more than you do, but ideally, to help you get what you want out of your life – so that your money is the lever working with your time and health, not against it.

It starts with focusing on what drives returns (hint: it’s not paying high fees) and ignoring all the other noise. Many investors fail to adequately address the costs, taxes, and behaviors necessary for their desired outcomes. I’ll help you maintain a formal investment plan (not just one in your head) that adjusts to your life.

I speak with many investors who know they want to make a change but still delay the decision because life gets in the way. Delaying a decision is a decision – that opportunity cost compounds. Let’s make sure it compounds positively.

Becoming a client at One Day In July is easier than you think. Send me a message, and we can meet to see if there is a mutual fit.

Why I am a financial advisor

I didn’t plan it. But looking back, it was inevitable.

My first stock was General Electric, a gift from my grandfather – perfect for a 4-year-old! I held onto this stock for too long, partly because it was a gift and partly because it was doing so well. I missed the peak and learned early that emotions + investing = bad outcomes.

In the decades following, I started index investing, influenced by Vanguard’s John Bogle, who was down the street. I liked the simplicity, low costs, and knowing I was getting my share of the index’s returns.

I went to university in Canada (education is challenging yet inexpensive there) to study science. I then worked as a scientist in Vermont, but I spent many evenings and weekends trying to optimize my personal financial picture.

Unexpectedly, at 26, I had the unfortunate/fortunate opportunity to work as a fiduciary as an estate executor. Personal finance went from a hobby to the entire focus of my life. I managed physical assets, investments, accounting, taxes, and external stakeholders while balancing the high emotions of the situation. Little did I know, but this experience would be the foundation for the next chapter of my life.

I pursued graduate school, earning my master’s in business administration (MBA) from the University of Toronto, focusing on sustainability and entrepreneurship. I returned to Vermont to help aging family members by overseeing their finances, healthcare, and end-of-life planning.

I learned of One Day In July at that time. Until then, my family members were the only people benefitting from my financial and investing experiences. One Day In July's mission was the perfect opportunity for me to use my unique experiences and technical abilities to help other people improve their lives. In the years since, I’ve helped hundreds of investors and plan on assisting many more.

Office Locations

I’ve spent most of my life in Vermont and Pennsylvania. I grew up on the Philadelphia Main Line and spent every summer living with family in Vermont. I now live in Burlington, Vermont, and spend my remaining time in Pennsylvania. Whether you are in VT or PA, I am happy to meet you at either office. I also work with many clients across the United States.

My interests outside of investing

I love winter. I downhill ski/skin (Sugarbush, Bolton, and Elk Mountain), cross-country ski, and pond skate. In the warmer months, I mountain and gravel bike, hike, run, chop wood, and, over the past few years, now weightlift religiously. I enjoy everything about the natural world and find myself at home outside.

My favorite morning and evening pastimes are cold plunges in a tub or the lake and sauna. I am a Philadelphia sports fan, and after living in Canada for school, I became an even bigger hockey fan. I’m slowly trying to visit every NHL stadium.

I have been studying building science for years, covering everything from cost-effective building techniques and design to energy efficiency, indoor air quality, building assemblies, and envelopes. I dream of the perfect wall assembly, and eventually, I’ll use this knowledge in a house build.

I love cars (even though they are depreciating assets) and am eyeing a B7 RS4 or 981 Boxster Spyder before they go extinct. To me, driving means going anywhere I am not stuck in traffic. This is one of the reasons I live in Burlington, a walkable town.

If I weren’t in the US, you’d probably find me in Copenhagen, Demark.

Why work with me?

I love working with clients whose unique situations I can help simplify and improve. I am particularly interested in retirement, significant inheritances/wealth transfers, complex situations, and clients with high aspirations that don’t include keeping up with the Joneses.

I believe clients who work with me benefit from:

• Simplicity – It’s the ultimate sophistication and the opposite of what the financial industry preaches.
• Experience – I’ve studied it, lived it, and helped others do it.
• Humility – I don’t know everything, far from it. I’m here to listen, not to hear myself talk.
• Continuous Learning – There is a difference in experience between decades of doing the same year over and over again and having decades of different years. It’s too easy to learn something and hit autopilot, or even worse, never apply what you learn.
• High Expectations – I have greatly benefited from others’ expectations of me and setting my own lofty goals. I challenge my clients’ expectations, including resilience when things don’t go according to plan.
• Focus – Besides my own health and well-being, my focus is on my clients. I don’t have children, so that helps!
• Detail – I grew up in a family of lawyers, scientists/engineers, and professors. This is my natural state, but the details are only helpful with a sound plan.
• Clear Communication – I will keep you informed, explain things, and close the loop.

Advice

The best investors have a formalized plan that minimizes their fees and involvement. They delay gratification, automate their savings to their investments, purposefully ignore the daily market news, and learn how to spend down their assets without psychological ruin. If this is you, and you aren’t seeing significant results, something is wrong.

The truth is that these people are few and far between, much more so than I ever imagined. However, with a little help and some time, I think this is attainable for most people.