Peter Egolf, CFP^®

Why work with me?

I love working with clients whose unique situations I can help plan, simplify, and improve. I am particularly interested in preparing for and entering 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.

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. 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 and financial 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. You can 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 far 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 and investing = bad outcomes. In the decades following, I invested using index funds, influenced by Vanguard’s John Bogle. 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 worked as a scientist in Vermont, but I spent evenings and weekends trying to optimize my personal financial picture. About a decade ago, I unexpectedly had the unfortunate (yet 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 continued on to graduate school, earning my master’s in business administration (MBA) from the University of Toronto, focusing on sustainability and entrepreneurship. I then returned to Vermont to help aging family members by overseeing their finances, healthcare, and end-of-life planning. At that time, I learned of One Day In July. Up until that point, my family was only benefitting from my financial and investing experiences. One Day In July's mission was the perfect opportunity for me to use my personal experiences and financial knowledge to help other people improve their lives. In the years since, I’ve helped hundreds of families.

Office locations

I’ve spent most of my life in Vermont and Pennsylvania. I grew up on the Philadelphia Main Line and spent summers living with family in Vermont. I live in Burlington, Vermont, and spend my remaining time in Pennsylvania. Wherever you are located, I am happy to meet you at either office. I work with clients across the United States.

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.

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 most recently weight lift. 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 most are depreciating assets) and would like to enjoy a 981 Boxster Spyder before too long. To me, driving means going anywhere I am not stuck in traffic. This is one of the reasons I live in Burlington, a walkable city. If I weren’t in the US, you’d probably find me in Copenhagen, Demark.

Explore Articles by Peter Egolf: