Despite my youthful looks, I’ve been around a while. It’s been five years since I wrote my break out best-seller the ‘Barefoot Investor’….(last edition, Korean) and in that time I’ve had many TV executives talk to me about taking Barefoot to the tube.

Yet invariably the ideas seemed to centre back to giving lame ass budgeting tips that insulted both my intelligence… and yours.

Thankfully, the world’s leading financial news channel, CNBC, is letting me loose to develop my very own show, which I’ve been busily preparing over the past few months.

The first episode of “Barefoot Investor” airs on Saturday 29th of August (for those of you who don’t have Foxtel, each weekly episode will be available for download).

There’ll be no talk of clipping coupons, or saving and suffering till you’re in your sixties.

This is an interactive show! Each week you can call in and get answers to all your money questions — no bias, no sales speak, no b.s — just 100 per cent honest, straight forward advice and strategies that we can all collectively learn from.

In each episode we’ll also profile and celebrate people who are ‘treading their own path’. These are everyday people just like you who have been able to escape their office cubicle and do truly cool, amazing, authentic things – and earn good dough while they do it.

Over the first series (26 weeks) you’ll hear from people who have: earned big bucks while they travelled the world, dug themselves out of serious debt, started multi-million dollar businesses from scratch, bought their own homes on a tiny income, successfully turned their passion into profits, and developed multiple streams of income that allowed them to do more of what they love. Then we break down how they’ve done it — and show you how you can achieve similar results.

In a nutshell, the show is about giving you the strategies to take control of your money so that you can start doing the things that will make a real difference in your life…right now.

HOW TO BECOME (SLIGHTLY) FAMOUS

Have you got a money question you’d like me to answer? Well, here’s your chance. Simply send me an email at scott @ barefootinvestor.com and give me three pieces of info:

1. Your name: eg. Kevin Rudd

2. Your question: eg. I’ve been spending a bit lately. Any tips on how would I go about paying off our deficit? (ask any question – they’re all for learning).

3. Your contact telephone number: 1800 KEV07 (one of the Barefoot crew will contact you ASAP).

Please send me as many questions as you have. It’s not just a awesome opportunity to get a (free) answer to your money questions — its a great way for all of us to learn along with you, so send me an email at scott @ barefootinvestor.com NOW!

My Sunday morning ritual starts by being woken up (by the panting of my
labrador retriever, Buffett), pulling on a tracksuit, grabbing The Economist
magazine from my front lawn, and heading to the beach for a read.

The prestigious weekly, which has been around since 1843, is required
reading for key decision-makers (and everyone else) throughout the world.

A recent edition carried an article called ‘Competitive Failure’ which
discusses consolidation in the global funds management industry, which as
you’d expect is quite a dry subject, making quite a boring article. That was
until I got to the following paragraph, which states, quite
matter-of-factly, exactly how fund managers rob billions of dollars a year
in management fees from people like YOU:

“Retail fund managers compete on past performance rather than price (fees).
Alas, a good performance one year tends not to be repeated the next; but the
fees carry on. [And] because of their inertia, retail investors tend not to
buy funds; funds are sold to them.

Fund managers must pay banks and brokers to distribute their products, and
they claim back that money from investors. As a result the bestselling funds
often have the highest charges; other things being equal, they represent the
worst deal for investors.”

I’ve long understood that the ’wealth management’ industry is fundamentally
about transferring wealth to the manager through fees, and complicated
performance rewards. That’s why I’ve long advised investing in traditional
Listed Investment Companies (LICs) and index funds (a whole universe is now
available - the best trade on the New York Stock Exchange).

Yet since travelling through the US and meeting Buffett (the investment
legend, not the dog swimming in the beach on a 9 degree day), I’ve changed
my approach — slightly. Like me, Buffett is a critic of fund managers and a
fan of index funds, but he also advocates directly investing in good-quality
companies that are selling at a reasonable price, and holding on to them
forever.

This is, after all, what allowed him to start with nothing and amass a
multi-billion-dollar fortune in his lifetime.

I’ll email you soon with more on the evolution of a Barefoot Investor.

Tread your own path!

Last night on my regular gig on ABC radio’s Nightlife I was joined by my good mate, consumer property advocate Neil Jenman.

Top of the bill was discussing the recent property predictions that house prices are set to increase 20 per cent over the next few years.

It was always going to be a fun show.

Jenman’s a man who speaks his mind so freely that his wife has made him promise he’ll only be sued for defamation once a month.

As a twenty year property veteran, he has built up a multi-million dollar property portfolio over his career — much of which he is now in the process of selling, because he believes that property prices are overvalued.

Across the country people called in to get our advice, from first homebuyers to property investors. For an hour we had perhaps the straightest discussion on property you’re likely to hear:

http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/stories/nightlifepodcast.htm

(Tuesday Nightlife – Barefoot Investor)

Last Sunday’s newspapers ran the story that Mark Philippoussis had run out of dough, with a finance company seeking $1.3 million, costs and possession of his home after he served a few faults on his mortgage.

The playboy, who between sets lived in mansions, drove Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Paris Hilton, apparently didn’t see that his wayward spending would soon catch up with him. OK, so a sports star flushing his dough down the dunny is a cliche – The Poo wasn’t the first and he certainly won’t be the last. That said, there were a couple of learning lessons for all of us.

The Dumb Person Advantage

In the interview Philippoussis was quoted as saying: “I didn’t understand that maybe I should ask questions about this or that or check things”

One of the wealthiest guys I know has a strategy he calls ‘dumb smart’. In any form of financial negotiation, he doesn’t try and impress the other party with how much he knows (which is generally always a lot more than the person he’s talking to). Instead he’ll say things like “Sorry, I just don’t understand, can you explain this to me really simply?”, or “What do you think is the worst that could happen here?”

Doing this takes the pressure off him and puts it straight back on the other person. The more they talk, the greater the chance they’ll say something stupid, and reveal the ace they’re trying to keep up their sleeve.

Income Doesn’t Equal Wealth

The most important lesson to be learned from the Scud saga is not to confuse a high income with wealth. My job puts me in contact with people who earn mega incomes, but they also have mega expenses. In many instances these people are poorer than the administrative assistants who do their dirty work and earn $40,000 a year.

Now at the age of 32, The Poo has had ‘game, set and match’ called on his estimated $10 million fortune.

He’d be wise to get a copy of my first book, The Barefoot Investor:

It contains a solid, reliable, no-nonsense plan for managing your money that anyone can start immediately today.

Tread your own path!