Review: The Barefoot Investor

Author: Scott Pape

This book assumes you know nothing about how to accumulate and manage wealth, and is written at a beginner reader’s level.  It takes care to make the points slowly and spends a lot of time chewing the cud with anecdotes supporting his premises.

I hope I can get my kids to read this book when they are about aged 16 so they can have the knowledge to begin their own journey in wealth accumulation.  I was pleased to find that we were already doing 95% of what was advised, 2.5% I am doing now, the other 2.5% I am confident we are doing something better for our family.

The financial literacy I have developed has come from years and years of paying close attention to teachers (both formal and informal), the value of hard work I gained from my parents, and a spirit of minimalism towards consumerism.  If we continue the path we are on my wife and I are going to have genuine wealth by the time we retire.  We will have enough money to support our kids as they build their own wealth as they grow.

I would recommend this book to one and all, and the younger one gains this knowledge the better.  I would say the ideal age to read this book would be about 16 when you were just about to start earning your own money.  It might be the only book about growing wealth one ever needs, as the advice is conservative and time tested.  The methods are not a get rich quick scheme but require slow and sustained effort.