Peter Lazaroff: The Perfect Portfolio: A Proven Guide to Smart Investing for Long-Term Success

Find me on Substack!My guest today is Peter Lazaroff, CFA, CFP®—the Chief Investment Officer of the $10-billion-plus RIA Plancorp, chair of its investment committee, host of The Long-Term Investor, and author of Making Money Simple, and a new book The Perfect Portfolio, whose central message is that the best portfolio is not the historical winner but the one tailored to an investor’s goals, capacity for risk, and ability to stay disciplined.

Peter Lazaroff's first stock arrived on his twelfth birthday: a single share of Nike from his grandmother. He was disappointed until a one-dollar dividend check showed up in the mail. "I didn't even have to work for this," he recalls, and he was hooked. Today, as CIO overseeing more than $10 billion and author of The Perfect Portfolio, he argues that the best portfolio isn't the historical winner but the one built for your life.

He opens his book with a steak dinner, burned on a cheap grill in the backyard of his first home, because the perfect portfolio, like the perfect meal, is personal. He tells the story of a client whose blue chip stocks and mutual funds were chosen to impress others rather than to fund his goals. A portfolio, Peter says, is "a piece of their identity," and it changes over a lifetime as your human capital, balance sheet, and heirs come into view.

On market timing, he reminds us that "You do have to be right twice," and that taxes can turn a bad call into a "permanent bear market." Rather than predicting declines, plan on them. He explains exposure therapy for investors, why narratives scare us more than percentages, and why our instinct to run from the rustle in the bushes makes beating the market so hard.

Peter reveals his own guardrail, "It's to not do it yourself," shares why bond indexes lend the most to the most indebted, and makes the case for goals-based benchmarks: "am I still on track?" He closes with a controversial plea to read twenty minutes a day, and with the idea at the heart of his book: the perfect portfolio is the one you can stick with.

Podcast Program – Disclosure Statement

Blue Infinitas Capital, LLC is a registered investment adviser and the opinions expressed by the Firm’s employees and podcast guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of Blue Infinitas Capital, LLC. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice.

Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.