'Money, Children and Happiness' with The Barefoot Investor, Scott Pape

**Scott Pape** (0:00)
My biggest fear as a father of four is that my kids are going to be spoilt brats, you know, that really have no concept of how good they've got it. And so I've kind of thought deeply about how do you actually instill that with your kids.

**Tom** (0:13)
Welcome to the latest edition, the June edition of our What Matters podcast. I'm joined by some very special guests today, but of course, I'm always excited to be joined by our MA co-founder, vice chairman, founder of this podcast, and author of What Matters, and very pleased Sydney Swans chairman at the moment, Andrew Pridham. Good morning, Andrew.

**Andrew Pridham** (0:32)
Good morning, Tom.

**Tom** (0:33)
Now we're in Melbourne today, very excited, because I mentioned our special guests, and in particular, I speak of Scott Pape, better known famously as the Barefoot Investor. He's the author of The Barefoot Investor, which is the number one, number one all-time bestseller with over 2 million copies sold and counting in Australia. I think it's now approaching 3 million. His most recent book, Barefoot Kids, has been the fastest-selling debut book in Australian publishing history. It's incredible. Scott, welcome to What Matters.

**Scott Pape** (1:02)
Thanks, guys. Good to be here.

**Tom** (1:03)
Scott, joined by Arun Abey. Now, just for some context, Scott and Arun last night presented at a YPO event here in Melbourne on Money, Children and Happiness, From Surviving to Thriving in the Cyber Age.
A central question in all that, is our life only as happy as our least happy child? I thought it was a great one to get them on the podcast to discuss and expand upon that presentation. Arun, for context, many of you will be familiar as the executive chairman and co-founder of Walsh Bay Partners. He's been a financial adviser and wealth manager for some 35-plus years.
In his earlier professional life, co-founded IPAC. He was also then the head of strategy for AXA Asia Pacific Group. He's the author of a very successful book, How Much Is Enough. It's obviously referring to money. And these days, of course, Arun is providing well-being and wealth advice, a trusted advisor to a whole host in the background of some of Australia's most prominent individuals and family officers. Arun, it's a very warm welcome to What Matters.

**Arun Abey** (2:03)
Thank you.

**Tom** (2:04)
Well, we're gonna get to the important topics in a short time.

**Arun Abey** (2:08)
Yes.

**Tom** (2:08)
But there's some key issues to deal with off the top of this podcast.
Andrew just reflected on it. You are in fact a Melbourne supporter, which is, I guess, synonymous with being a financial expert.

**Scott Pape** (2:18)
The genesis of this is that I grew up in a little town called Oyin, and the Oyin robes were the Melbourne colours. So that's how I became a Melbourne supporter.
My father is a St Kilda supporter, so I sort of dodged a bullet there.

**Andrew Pridham** (2:30)
So resilience is something in your family.

**Scott Pape** (2:33)
So...

**Andrew Pridham** (2:33)
Success is not so...

**Scott Pape** (2:35)
So my eldest is a Collingwood supporter. You'd be happy with that.

**Tom** (2:38)
Very happy with that. You've seen the light, seen the sense.

**Scott Pape** (2:40)
But all my other kids are Melbourne supporters and tragically Melbourne supporters too. We go to nearly every game and we're fully on board the red and the blue.

**Tom** (2:51)
The other key question we've got to ask you off the top, Scott, the Barefoot Investor. And I want to touch on where did that come from?

**Scott Pape** (2:56)
It was just a fleeting idea of kick off your shoes and tread your own path. And in my weekly columns that I write, the catch line is tread your own path and it's just walking to a different beat. So I thought Barefoot Investor sounded good, not really understanding that it was going to lead to what it did.

**Tom** (3:12)
Scott, I mentioned your resume. One thing I'm intrigued by is that your advice is relevant for generations of Australians, multiple generations, people at all levels of the spectrum of financial literacy, turn to you for advice on basic financial concepts and management of their personal finances. I know my wife mentioned to me this morning, you know, highly literate financial people in our organisation tell me they read your book, and not only do they read it, they're reading it again. They use it as a reference point in their life. There's an insatiable appetite for the type of content which you've so skillfully developed.

**Scott Pape** (3:47)
But a really interesting thing for me was that after people read The Barefoot Investor, the number one question I get is, why didn't I get taught this when I was at school? Why am I only learning this when I'm 20 or 30 or 40 or 50? You know, why am I learning this now? And if I had have learnt this when I was at school, life would be so much different.