Scott Phillips: The stock picker who doesn’t think you should pick stocks

Scott Phillips (0:00)

There's a crash coming, of course there is. When? I don't know. How bad is it going to be? I don't know. Most people shouldn't be buying shares individually. I don't think properties and investments are particularly attractive. I'm not selling my house.

Alec Renehan (0:08)

What's your counsel for people looking at the market today and feeling a bit nervous and maybe delaying getting started or continuing to invest?

Scott Phillips (0:15)

Invest anyway, because I don't know what happens next.

Bryce Leske (0:20)

Welcome to another episode of Equity Mates, a show where we explore what's possible in the world of investing. If you've just joined us for the very first time, a huge welcome to our community. My name is Bryce.

Alec Renehan (0:30)

And I'm Ren. And today we are talking to Scott Phillips. He's the Chief Investment Officer of The Motley Fool. He's just written a book, The One Page Investing Plan. He runs a stock picking service, but his plan tells a lot of people not to pick stocks. We're going to unpack that tension and how he thinks everyone should be investing in today's episode.

Bryce Leske (0:50)

That's right. Scott is one of our favorite guests and has been here at Equity Mates. He's been on the show a couple of times. He's an incredible speaker. He's an incredible writer. He keeps things very simple and digestible. And I always love hearing his view on investing.

Alec Renehan (1:05)

Yeah, he's one of the original Australian Finance podcasters. He's been speaking about investing for over a decade. We've listened to him for a long time. He's got strong opinions, doesn't pull his punches. So we're going to ask him more than just about investing ATFs, how everyone can be a lifelong investor. We're going to ask him about property, the budget, and whether property is an investible asset class in Australia going forward.

Bryce Leske (1:30)

Can't wait. So if you'd like to pick up a copy of The One Page Investing Plan, we'll put a link in the show notes. But with that said, let's get to our conversation with Scott Phillips. Well, Scott, welcome to Equity Mates.

Scott Phillips (1:41)

Thank you, Bryce. Thank you, Alec. Great to be back with you guys in different circumstances.

SPEAKER_4 (1:45)

Different circumstances, yes.

Scott Phillips (1:47)

Mate, you guys have done exceptionally well. So congratulations on your success and thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_5 (1:50)

Well, thank you, Scott.

Alec Renehan (1:52)

Now, we want to say congratulations to you because you've written a book. It's called The One-Page Investing Plan. People watching on video, I'll hold it up. I do have a criticism to kick things off, though.

This book's a lot more than one page.

SPEAKER_4 (2:03)

Boom. Exactly.

Scott Phillips (2:05)

Hopefully, sound effects will come with that podcast in post.

Alec Renehan (2:09)

Give us the one-page plan.

Scott Phillips (2:11)

All right. So here's the thing. None of it's revolutionary, right? It's really simple. But the idea of the plan was to give people something they could use to start and then stay investing when things get tough. And that's why it's one page. Why is the book not one page? You know Morgan Housel is a great writer, right? You guys know him. I'm sure your listeners and viewers know him. He wrote a tweet, generally, about Warren Buffett. I say, if I disagree with Warren Buffett, I'm normally the one who's wrong. And it's pretty much true with Morgan Housel, except for this one where he wrote years ago. He said, most books should be an article, most articles should be pamphlets, most pamphlets should be tweets, and most tweets should never be sent, which is a great line, right? Then he's gone and written two books, by the way, so you know.

But the point of it, and I always disagree with him at the time, and more so having written the book, which is humans are story creatures. We learn and we remember and we adapt by stories. And so saying to someone, do these things is fine. Give them a shop and they'll send them away. It could have been a one-page pamphlet.

But then when times get tough, I know you guys have had Andrew Page on before, and he talks about you can borrow an idea, but you can't borrow someone's conviction. And the rest of the book is basically the conviction bit. It's why do you say that? Why does it matter? How do you support that? And when times get tough, have I actually internalized it? And have I got something to return to when I go, that's right, I knew I would feel like this. I knew this might happen. And that's kind of the difference. So the basic one page is all the stuff that you guys have been banging on about for years, and I've been banging on about for years, hopefully just in a format that people can digest, which is start, keep going, be sensible, be diversified, stay the course.