Barefoot Investor reveals the three ‘simple’ things he invests in to make money

The Barefoot Investor has revealed the surprising way he invests his money, which he believes will ultimately deliver high returns with little effort.

Scott Pape, 46, wrote in his newsletter that he keeps ‘roughly 95 per cent of [his] net worth’ in low-cost exchange traded funds (ETFs).

‘An Aussie shares index fund, and a couple of international shares index funds. That’s it,’ he said of his simple trading philosophy.

‘While I’m classified as a “sophisticated investor”, I believe in my bones that keeping things simple is the ultimate high net-worth strategy,’ Mr Pape added.

‘And one which will deliver higher returns than the vast majority of professional fund managers.’

The Barefoot Investor said that his simple strategy has another benefit besides making money.

‘Even better, it means I spend as little as four hours a year managing my investments,’ he said.

Mr Pape explained that he saves time each year by refusing to have an investment app on his phone – for the same reason he doesn’t have social media ones.

‘When I’m on the throne, the only thing I want to be scrolling is toilet paper, not TikTok,’ he said.

‘I don’t want to check my share prices every day, or even every week. It’s a trap that leads to stress, and overtrading, and ultimately, to flushing your returns down the toilet.’

The investor said he instead has all his investments on ‘autopilot’.

The 46-year-old explained that his automatic set-up means a fixed amount gets paid each month into each of his investments.

‘It used to be expensive to do this, but today you can trade for a few bucks, or in some cases for free,’ he wrote.

As part of reducing his time spent managing his investments, Pape said he just has to keep track of the dividend pay-out dates.

‘When you buy, you can google their historical payout dates and put them in your calendar, like I do,’ he said.

‘And that means I check my share prices just four times a year… like this week when my dividends come through. That way you can do something more productive with your time… even scrolling TikTok on the tot!’

What was once an activity for wealthy people, trading has become more accessible with many apps allowing Aussies to do smaller trades.

Aussie trading app Superhero recently changed their $100 minimum trade to $10, costing just $2 a trade, with Aussies able to buy Wall Street shares for a $2US fee, with a minimum spend of $10US.