The Barefoot Investor

The only thing that is briliant is the name....

 

lol @ the snobbery here. You're not his demographic. It tremendously helped my partner (through my reading of it) because she had two superannuation accounts, and one of them being with AMP Super which was chewing up a lot in fees.
How many people ask their new partners "Hey, how many super accounts do you have? What are the fees on those?". If it wasn't for this book, I probably would've lapsed many many months not thinking about her nitty gritty financial situation.
But the crux of it all, is that he's there to help those with credit card debt, and every day financial struggles. i.e. he's anti credit cards, full stop. You guys have a use for them, I'm sure. He's anti borrowing to invest. And his final steps once you have your PPOR down to a manageable level is to just top up your super to $20k/yr, and put the rest into low fee LIC/ETF.
He'd never "recommend" that people use their equity to invest in an IP, nor borrow to get shares. Because his demographic is those that can't afford the repercussions of going a day over their interest free period on their CC, or those that would sell shares in a slight downturn.
But it's that demographic that has sold him something like 300,000 copies of his book.

 

That sounds like a worthwhile thing, don't need problems building up over basics like this. I am sure she enjoyed the dinner and time alone as much as making sure all on same page

 

@Tink - I'll give you a 'highly commended' for your post

The book is probably a great stocking stuffer for school leavers and many who simply have NFI what to do (goal setting) or how to start/continue from what their parents have given them.

Even the basic info in BFI's introductions to the topic are full of useful info.

 

Many people are bagging out the simplicity of what is being said by BFI, the above example though is a much less formal or structured version of the countless monthly financial reports/project meetings/leasing meetings etc which all businesses run.

Different format but same agenda - get the house in order, review current situation, manage and review the financial plan, update/take corrective action & have a good lunch/dinner (just ask the Reserve Bank Board).

 

BFI is not the most exciting strategy and many on here are way beyond it.

But.

Anyone who follows it cannot go wrong. There is no downside to his advice. It's all "good stuff".

Scott genuinely cares too. His whole business is based on integrity and I've seen no instance of him deviating from that in the last decade.

Whatever you think about his financial advice, Australia is a better place because of people like BFI.

 

Once a month. Anymore than once a year and half the savings would be gone - divorce likely. And god forbid if I attempted this whilst out for a nice meal well I best make sure my funeral plan is arranged.

Seriously though another important message with all this is that every time you make investment decisions and look at setting up complex structures etc consider how your partner will manage it all when you’re seriously ill / gone!

I’ve been progressively simplifying our investments and structures overtime so it’s relatively easy for my wife to manage without the need for excessive legal, advisor, acounting advice / fees and requires minimal time / effort. My wife is very intelligent, highly educated, had a highly successful career and ironically was involved in investment decisions worth Billions during during her career but she hates anything to do with personal investing. So don’t just consider what you partner is capable of but what will minimise things they hate doing and have no interest in.

In fact the last week has been spent getting the important stuff such as wills, POAs, Share spreadsheets / contract notes, tax records, final instructions etc etc up on Cloud Storage. Share data has been transferred from personal finance software which requires quite some time to learn to simple spreadsheets.

Even ignoring the depressing estate issues I’ve found simplifying one’s investments and life in general extremely rewarding and satisfying. And I believe I’m a much better investor now because of this.

So getting back to BFI and similar basic investing books / articles there’s important messages in there that even experienced investors need reminding of.

 

When you're starting out, you haven't got the cash to outlay on advisors for all of your decisions so this is a hand up.

 

When I was in my 20s I read Noel Whittaker's Making Money Made Simple - apologies if I have got the title wrong but it was quite a few decades ago. As a very green new Australian it explained concepts like paying off the mortgage early and compound interest. I still check in with Noel and barefoot because sometimes simple common sense is what I need.

I am very much enjoying Alex Straker's posts but unfortunately only understand one word in three. My goal for 2018 is to understand one word in two.

 

Oh yes, agree. Sometimes a reminder of the basics is good. And I too have no idea about what goes on in @Alex Straker's posts either. Just a general feeling though. It sounds like he knows what he is on about!

 

Nothing wrong with that, plus this site only has a few hundred active members so it's not really heavy advertising.

 

You may say only a few hundred active members, but the readership level of this site is huge. For every active poster there will be several lurkers or casual users.

 

I get TBI newsletter and its mostly entertainment value for me. I love the crazy questions he gets and how he responds to them.

 

@Heinz57 & @Gockie Lol and taa Got some online based education courses on using relative strength analysis happening in the new year with personal mentorship (this part is easy to use and very effective!). Happy to help you get a better understanding of how to use this stuff for yourself, let me know if you are keen to learn.

 

Not taking anything away from Simon but huge is subjective.

Nice one, you must be super grateful to the Somers for the leg up.

I was talking about active members who actually post.. as a casual participant since 2002 on SS, it seems to be a few hundred people maximum who are making most of the posts (apart from newbies who join to ask a few questions before disappearing. Some long term members here NEVER ask a question, they only reply (unless they have another account for their questions?).
PS: I think mathematics would be better than science to calculate figures : )

 

You forgot to mention the trolls. There a good number of them floating about.

 

Well...I have read the book and bought my 4 kids a copy each.

Common sense approach, relateble and achieveable by anyone. Success breeds success and with the basics in place you can then extend your education.

Its not about get rich quick or imaginative strategies. I think he does it well.