ON THE MONEY
Scott Pape, aka The Barefoot Investor, is on a mission to help Aussie kids learn the meaning of money, writes Siobhan Duck
AT a recent book signing, a woman bowled up to Scott Pape gushing about how much she relied upon his work. The Australian author and radio commentator – best known as his professional persona The Barefoot Investor – was flattered by her rave review. But when she added that his chicken cacciatore recipe was her favourite, the penny dropped: once again he’d been mistaken for chef Jamie Oliver.
But it’s not just boyish good looks that Pape shares with
Oliver. Like the celebrity chef, Pape has also made it his mission to educate children about a subject close to his heart – in his case, that’s money. While Oliver has been teaching British kids all about nutrition, Pape has been working to improve financial literacy in Aussie schools.
With many households drowning in debt, Pape believes it’s never too soon to start learning to manage money, and he chronicles this mission in his new television series,
Scott Pape’s Money Movement.
“What I really want to do is make sure that every kid learns real-life skills that they’re going to be able to use every day of their life,” he explains. “After I wrote The Barefoot Investor, the number-one question I got from readers was: ‘ Why didn’t I learn this at school?’ It’s time they did.”
Pape is encouraging parents to give their kids jobs to earn pocket money and then split the money into three jars – one for saving, one for treats and the other for donations. This simple system, he says, means children get a tangible idea of family fi nances and ensures they develop a strong work ethic to prevent them from becoming “entitled brats”.
“Our kids face an uncertain future – high youth unemployment, high house prices, and in most cases a general lack of fi nancial knowledge,”
Pape says. “My aim with Money Movement is simple: teach the kids, help the parents, change a nation.”
Sky News business editor
Ross Greenwood has a similar strategy for getting kids on board with household budgeting this financial year. “Pay them… and show them how to [budget],” he says. “One of the greatest lessons for any person is to see their savings grow or diminish. Every loss is a lesson. Every win is a victory.”
She’s On The Money author and fi nancial adviser Victoria Devine urges people to analyse their spending habits and think carefully about what is important to their lifestyle. “I adore cooking, and I would struggle if someone said to me: ‘ Victoria, you’re spending too much on groceries and you need to cut back,’” she says. “That approach might work for someone else who doesn’t care so much about food, but they may be heartbroken if you took away their gym membership.”
Devine says television programs such as Pape’s and Greenwood’s, and podcasts such as My Millennial Money, Equity Mates and her own She’s On The Money, provide user-friendly tips without all the hard-to- decipher business speak.
But she scoffs at the notion that dramas set in the financial world could provide viewers with tips for improving their real-life bank balance. She laughs as she says, “That’s like asking a surgeon whether they get tips from watching Grey’s Anatomy.”