The Barefoot Investor: The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need

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I say ‘almost’ because most of the current funds have their target date set at age 65, when you retire. (If I was a cynic I’d say it’s set at that age so you go see a financial planner.) If you have read Pape's previous books you may be disappointed as this book is a lot of the same, however the influence of Pape's own experiences in life have clearly shaped the changes in this edition as we can see his perspective is now far more family focused with new chapters on leaving a legacy for your children and notes on insurance that will protect your family if something happens to your income.

Scott Pape OAM (born 1978) [ citation needed] is an author, television presenter and radio commentator focused on personal finance. He is best known through the persona, The Barefoot Investor. He also fails miserably when talking about the "average wage", and bases some of his advice around the idea that a lot of his readers will be (or should be) earning around that amount of money, which is obviously wrong. Use the median wage, perhaps? There were other instances in the book where he distorts the truth to get his message across. Probably well intentioned but ultimately not helpful. Thankfully, in last year’s budget the Government announced they’re building a new comparison tool called ‘YourSuper’ which is slated to be available by 1 July this year. For a finance book, his message is refreshingly anti-materialistic: do you need a BMW when a Holden will do? Why are you wasting your money on a business-class flight when you could build a buffer for old age? But also: don’t be a tight-arse. You should still go to the pub, take holidays and give to charity.This book is amazing. It's clear, practical, effective and an easy read. After reading Unshakeable and MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom, this was a bit more easy to implement as it is specifically targeted towards Australia, where the above two books are targeted towards the American economy. Additionally, Scott provides advice that is easy to action. As long as you own your own home, you can live a meaningful, purposeful, retirement with much less money. After all, we have the amazingly good fortune to be living in the greatest country on earth, with a strong social safety net based on the aged pension plus subsidised medical and aged care. It sounds like you have an awesome dad. So learn from his wisdom, plan for the worst, and hope for the best.

Reason being, in the current climate there’s a very real possibility that you could be underwater for many years.This is, admittedly, a little higher than my Don Bradman figure, but that’s mainly because I encourage retirees to keep working at least a day a fortnight to supplement their income.)

Hopefully now that one of the world’s biggest fund managers – with a relentless focus on lowering costs – has set up shop, they’ll keep everyone on their toes. Still, that’s how most of our biggest super funds roll: they throw everyone – young and old – into a one-size-fits-all investment pot. First, Vanguard has said they’ll look to lower their fees over time as they grow. I’m inclined to believe them, because that’s what they have a history of doing. Well, the Government just released a (long, confusing, boring) report card on your super fund card - it’s called the APRA External Report ( www.apra.gov.au), and the worst super funds are hoping that you never read the report.Also, not a fan of all these different bank accounts he says to make for this and that. It makes it so much more complicated than it needs to be. Much easier to keep it all in one good interest account and make sure there's enough there for emergencies (which he calls mojo) etc. Pape has also hosted and produced the shows Money School and Money Movement for Foxtel. [6] Newspaper column [ edit ] Find the super fund with the lowest fees and roll everything over to that. The author recommends Hostplus. The recommendation is also to salary sacrifice into your superannuation so that 15% is going in. If you're in the public service you won't need to do this, but the rationale is that the mandatory 9.5% is often insufficient to build a big enough nest egg for retirement. So now is a very good time to talk about what’s going on with your super fund. And a word of warning: it’s not good news if you’re in one of the large, top-performing funds … That all seems fair enough, but I don’t know how little Benny’s braces would apply to any of these.