Investing money doesn’t have to be intimidating or confusing, according to Fox Business anchor Liz Claman, who has made it her mission to “democratize investing” through her popular TikTok.
Claman, 59, attributes her TikTok success to being able to explain concepts without being condescending. She said in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, “All these people on TV are trying to be smarter than you, smarter than the viewer – and who wants to watch that?”
She also revealed that the secret to becoming a savvy investor isn’t a secret at all, but a simple Warren-Buffett-approved method that anyone can use.
“Everyone cares about their money. They want to keep it, they want to grow it,” she said, explaining that it’s much easier to grow it than people think.
‘My motto in finance is to start early. I only wish I had started sooner, because the value of so-called compound interest is so important.”
Business news boss: Liz Claman gave an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com about her popular TikTok page and the investment advice she learned from Warren Buffett
“If you talk to Warren Buffett, he’ll say it’s so easy. He shares everything he does, but people struggle to imitate because of one problem: discipline,” she said.
A trusted ear of financial genius Warren Buffett, Claman has known the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway for years. The 92-year-old has made no secret of how he amassed his wealth and has an eye-watering net worth of $121.8 billion.
“If you talk to Warren Buffett, he’ll say it’s so easy. He shares everything he does, but people struggle to imitate because of one problem: discipline,” she said.
Claman revealed two main pillars of Buffett’s investment advice: never overpay for a stock and buy good stocks in bad times.
She warns investors not to shy away from days when the stock market is in a slump, as it can be an excellent time to pick up good stocks on the cheap.
“It’s the only place where people run screaming when everything is on sale because they get scared. Big companies are going through tough times,” she said.
It’s true that some companies never bounce back, but Liz points to Starbucks as a great example of this advice in action.
Around the time of the 2009 financial crisis – at the bottom end of the market – Starbucks closed 600 stores in the US. The stock was down to single digits,” she recalled.
“I scratched my head and said, you know, if I were Buffett, I’d think Starbucks is not go bankrupt. It’s a good company going through a bad time. And sure enough, found his footing again. Today, let’s see, Starbucks is at $100. I mean, you could have bought it for 10!”
It’s this kind of real-world practical advice that has made Claman the highest-rated female presenter in business news with her ultra-popular Fox Business show, The Claman Countdown.
Recently, she has transformed her signature style of distilling the complicated financial market into easy-to-follow news and turned it into a TikTok success.
Claman’s TikTok account, which began as a pandemic-era project, now has more than a quarter of a million followers. What’s perhaps even more impressive than the numbers is that her social following doesn’t share the same demographic as her show… Claman is teaching a younger generation financial literacy in their own space.
Social Star: What’s perhaps even more impressive than the numbers is that her social following doesn’t have the same demographic as her show… Claman is teaching a younger generation financial literacy in their own space
“I don’t have a business background,” Liz said. “I worked really hard to understand it and I’m self-taught. I thought it was incredibly unfair that no one spoke the language of ordinary people.
“And when I say regular people, I don’t mean stupid — I mean doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, CEOs of all kinds of companies … (everyone) except Wall Street,” she added.
The lion’s share of financial news focuses on the financial world and, to be honest, Liz found that stuffy. It’s just not fair that the big, big money on Wall Street feels like it knows more than the rest of us. It’s just not true,” she said.
Her first TikTok episode was about test driving and buying a Telsa, a relatively new concept in 2020, and the video immediately went viral, gaining 700,000 views.
Liz was stunned at the time because she thought the app was just a place for gen-Z to dance. However, she found her footing and embraced the fact that her younger followers affectionately refer to her as her mother (she calls them her Children of the Corn.)
“Taylor Swift is a financial genius,” she laughed, referring to a recent viral video about how the pop star made her living. “That got a lot of views.”
Part of what makes Claman so capable of explaining the money market to non-financial brethren is because she has no financial background.
Liz has wanted to work as a television reporter since she was in sixth grade, starting out as a production assistant for veteran news personalities Ann Curry, Paula Zahn (pictured) and Jim Lampley, working in Midwestern markets to gain a foothold.
The California native is one of five children, the daughter of a surgeon and formally trained Shakespearean actress. Claman was educated at Berkley, but has humble news beginnings.
Liz wanted to work as a television reporter since she was in sixth grade. She began as a production assistant to veteran news personalities Ann Curry, Paula Zahn, and Jim Lampley, working in Midwestern markets to gain a foothold.
When CNBC came calling hard news after nine years, she was unprepared when it came to business, but devoted herself to learning the ins and outs. Heeding her father’s sage advice to “fake it till you make it,” Liz plunged headlong into the world of finance.
Following her success on CNBC, the Emmy award winner had decided to step back from the world of finance when Fox Business called.
“I said, ‘No thanks. I don’t like the way business news is presented,'” she recalled. “They said, ‘We want to do it differently.'”
Ten years later, Liz still believes in that vision and has been given the space to look ahead to what is not yet spoken about.
“I was the first broadcast journalist to gain access to SpaceX when it was in an abandoned aircraft hangar in El Segundo, California, and no one was paying attention,” she said of Elon Musk’s space program.
She describes the early days of Space X as a high school science project with ex-NASA brains sitting around eating a bunch of aluminum foil granola bars.
“It’s very important to say to yourself: I matter, my money matters,” added Claman. “Buy a piece of the market and I tell you, you’ll be amazed in the long run at how it grows, because American business is always something you can calculate.”
“There was a mock-up of the Dragon capsule and (Musk) said, ‘We’re going to put people in there and it’s going to the space station.’ And I thought, “Awe, what an interesting guy he really thinks that’s going to work,” she recalls, adding, “He wants things to happen and that’s impressive to me.”
Ultimately, Liz advises that investing shouldn’t be complicated when you start out. It’s not worth getting caught up in the doings of mercurial CEOs or what the bustling companies do.
“When you invest in the broader market, you can buy a piece of the entire S&P 500. The 500 Most Solid Stocks in America. You can buy a piece of that and then watch it grow. That’s what Warren Buffett suggests.
“It’s very important to say to yourself: I matter, my money matters,” added Claman. “Buy a piece of the market and I tell you, you’ll be amazed how it grows in the long run, because you can always count on American business.”