The Barefoot Investor

I picked up this book a while ago in 2019. Nothing particular nor anyone recommended it but since it has 1.6 million copies sold, it must be a good one, right?

So, let’s just skim what this book about. The title “The Barefoot Investor” seems to tell something about being an investor, the easy way – the barefoot way. It is actually not far from that but if I could put it in a few words, and I hope I do enough justice to it, it is about how you could learn about your home finances from how to do your saving, choose your bank, to making an investment property and stock market. So that’s from the 1000 feet view. Well, not convinced yet?

Well, let put it this way, most of us are working, and of course, there are few of us running our own businesses. All of these activities help us to earn money to live. This book teaches us how to manage the money we earn. Still not an interesting subject?

In its beautiful way, with great narrative and plenty of jokes (and actually funny), this book teaches about how to start taking care of your finances by organising your money, save up to buy a property (or two), and planning for your retirement. Again, I’d like to emphasize the word beautiful, it is really easy to understand by most of us who don’t know anything about money.

I have survived this life so far without this book. Earning some money, save up for the property, and finally purchase our own. Unfortunately, I learned it from hearsay, the Internet, and many other sources that seems doesn’t quite fit my life scenario and I had to struggle to understand it.

This book does just that, it teaches anything about the money you need to know. It teaches how to save up your money, how to do your banking, and organise your savings account. Although it seems impossible for some people to purchase a dwelling, this book teaches about the framework for you to be able to save up for a deposit. Growing your portfolio (if you don’t know what it means, the book tells you what it is) and eventually retired with enough money in the bank and still enjoying holidays and owning an almost new corolla. Are you getting this?

It’s not teaching you how to be rich! It teaches you how you could live your life, a decent one.

I have purchased extra of these books and gave those to my friends and family members knowing that this could be the best book to teach them about managing the hard-earned money.

One only catch is. This book is written in a very practical way for people who live in Australia. The bank name, financial products, and references are mostly for Australian readers. However, I purchased this book and send it overseas knowing that the principles are the same.

If you have a finance education background or perhaps a finance literate person, this book may not necessarily for you. And, If you think this book just another boring book talking about money, wait until you read the part about undies. And I’m not kidding about it!

The book title is “The Barefoot Investor” written by Scott Pape (don’t worry about the Fifty Shades of Grey).