by Scott Pape
Then, do payday (three minutes is all it takes!).
Everyone pitches in and does the dishes.
Now you’re climbing!
Congratulations!
One of the biggest questions parents ask me is how they should save for their kids.
Well, you now know exactly what you should be doing. And in just one night, you’ve kicked off a set-and-forget investment plan that’s going to help you give your kids a head start in life—without turning them into Donald Trump Junior (or Senior).
What’s more, your kid’s taken the powerful step of opening up a savings account for their first home . . . which instantly puts them ahead of 99 per cent of young people (who would rather whine about it).
But tonight is bigger than that.
By completing this Money Meal, you’ve officially completed the Barefoot Ten.
Just by following the simple steps in this book . . . and having a handful of specific, memorable moments . . . you’ve equipped your child to handle absolutely anything life throws at them.
And that is worth celebrating!
‘We made an investment for their future that we’ll never regret’
Fi and Rob Ball, Perth, WA
I remember the day my son was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
It’s not something you ever expect to happen to one of your children. It means his life expectancy is not the same as his twin brother’s. Most boys with this disease end up passing away before they’re thirty.
Knowing that you only have a limited time changes your perspective on what matters.
We love the Barefoot Ladder strategy to encourage our kids to save up for a house deposit. We’ve set up investment bonds for each of them, and we plan to use them to match their savings and teach them good behaviours.
But at the same time, we’re more conscious than ever that life is about more than the money.
So we saved up and bought a caravan, and went travelling around Australia for three months with the kids!
We’ve had some amazing experiences: snorkelling with turtles, swimming beneath a waterfall and feeding baby lambs at a farm stay.
The best part is the quality family time we’ve spent together. We’ve had a lot of laughs on the road and we’re getting to know our kids at a deeper level than ever before.
We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know that we’re doing our best to model to our kids what’s really important—knowing not just the value of money, but also of experiences.
And that’s an investment we’ll never regret.
PART III
Off and Running
Everything gets easier from here.
You’ve taken your first steps—learned the fundamentals—and instilled them in your kids in just three minutes a week.
You’ve created some magical moments in checking off each of the Barefoot Ten—and armed your kids with the money skills that many people never learn.
And now, we’re off and running.
Remember, as a parent you can afford to get a lot of things wrong . . . so long as you get a few big things right.
And by following this plan, you’ve done everything you possibly can to prepare your children financially for the world that awaits them.
That’s why, in this final part of the book, we’re going to shift the focus to you.
Yes, you.
Specifically, we’re going to focus on the legacy you’ve built, and how to protect it.
In this final part, we’ll cover:
•the Fearless Folder . . . the final way to say ‘I love you’
•the $69 purchase that’ll literally keep your loved ones safe
•the most important letter of your life.
But to begin with, you’re going to cut loose and have a Victory Dinner!
So get your sandshoes on and pick up the pace . . . it’s time to part-ay.
The Victory Dinner
You should be as proud as punch at what you have achieved for your kids.
And so it’s only right that our final Barefoot meal is a Victory Dinner that celebrates your financially fit family.
Here’s how you probably picture it going down:
You walk into the dining room one evening, and instantly notice something is different.
The good plates are on the table . . . and there are . . . serviettes? Why are there serviettes on the table?
Your entire family is seated, decked out in their Sunday best.
You look over and see that your son has his head buried in his phone (hey, some things don’t change).
And then he hits play on his phone.
‘We Are the Champions’ by Queen starts blaring.
Then your son gets up, and with tears running down his cheeks he gives you a great big bear hug.
You sit down, overwhelmed with emotion, and your kids raise a toast: ‘To the best parents in the world!’
Okay . . . so that is NOT going to happen.
With parenting, there isn’t a lot of positive reinforcement.
Not a lot of pats.
But there is a lot of door-slamming.
A lot of ‘I hate you!’ . . . ‘How dare you?!’ . . . ‘You are so embarrassing.’
Bottom line: there’s more ‘you ruined my life’ than ‘you changed my life’.
Someone much more philosophical than me once described parenting as ‘the art of letting go’.
Yeah . . . nah.
I think it’s more like running a 20-year marathon, with no directions, and a kid attached to your hip, screaming.
The truth is that once you get through the Barefoot Ten—whether that takes you 10 weeks or 20 years—you will have done more than what 99 per cent of parents do to prepare their kids for a rapidly changing world.
And that is an amazing achievement—one that you should be genuinely proud of.
So when you tick off the last Barefoot Ten, don’t wait around for a parade.
I want you to have your very own Victory Dinner . . . and leave the kids at home!
THE VICTORY DINNER
It’s time to raid your Smile account and go somewhere posh. You’re going to blow the doors off it. If you’re a single parent, take along someone who’s helped you through the tough times. Whatever your situation, this is your Victory Dinner—and you’ve earned this night a hundred times over.
I’m going to dispense with the entree, main and dessert, and go straight to the booze.
Please charge your glasses:
•You’ve showed your kids the joy of hard work, and they’ve volunteered in their local community. These two experiences have shown them what true success looks like. In a world of spiralling depression, victim blaming and middle-aged flogs on Facebook, your kids will have perspective. And they learned it from you.
CHEERS!
•You’ve given them a powerful reputation to live up to. Getting them to be your chief ‘negotiator’ for household bills, and having them pack a zero-fee, high-interest savings account in their purse, has systematically built up their financial confidence. And because of you, they’ll never, ever fall into the debt trap. You’ve ingrained ‘I am good with money’ into their belief system.
CHEERS!
•You’ve set them up in a high-growth, low-cost super fund from their very first day of work. That alone will add hundreds of thousands of dollars to their retirement balance and it’ll look after them (and your grandchildren) long after you’re gone. That is HUGE.
CHEERS!
•And they’re stepping out into the world with one very specific, life-changing financial goal: to buy their own home. Better yet, they’ve got you holding their ladder as they step up to financial security.
CHEERS!
Oh, and one more thing . . .
As you return from your Victory Dinner, please tell me what victory felt like. Brag to me about your kids. Let me know how your Barefoot Ten worked out for them. Email me: [email protected]
Your
Legacy
You’ve done some amazing things for your kids.
Really, you’ve created your legacy—the stories they’ll tell at your funeral.
So you may be thinking this is really tough to top . . .
. . . and you’d be wrong.
See, everything you’ve done in this book has been about protecting your children from the tough times they’ll face throughout their lives.
Well, now you’re going to put something in place to protect them from the toughest time of all.
I’ve shared this with literally thousands of people and they all say it changed their life.
I call it the Fearless Folder, and it’s the final way you’ll say ‘I love you’.
Introducing: The Fearless Folder
I face death—through the eyes of people who contact me—almost every week.
See, I’m the guy who parents write to when they get bad news . . . and it is absolutely heartbreaking.
They all say the same thing: that they never thought it would happen to them.
At moments like these I think about my own family, and how they’d go through it without me.
It’s too painful to think about.
This fear rattled around in my brain for years, until I had this realisation:
I can’t control when I die, but the one thing I can control is having everything sorted and prepared for my family.
Imagine this
Stop for a minute.
Read the next few lines slowly and play along with me:
I want you to think about your family.
It’s two weeks after your funeral. Everyone has moved on . . . except them.
Everything’s a mess.
They have no idea if you had a will.
They have no idea what you wanted for your funeral.
Each day brings another frustrating conversation with another frustrating bureaucrat who gives them a frustratingly long list of things they have to do to administer your financial affairs.
None of it makes any sense!
They slump into a cold, lonely bed at night, exhausted and overwhelmed.
They grab their phones and flick on Facebook . . . and your face beams back at them. They can’t work out how to shut down your profile and delete all the random posts and chatter from weirdos who barely even knew you. It’s just another painful reminder of the never-ending list of things they have to get sorted.
They’re at the lowest point in their life . . . and their grief is being compounded because they have to deal with all this . . . crap.
Now, listen up: I’ve seen this happen in real life, over and over again.
I’ve helped too many distraught, overwhelmed widows, and widowers, fumble through the financial fog.
This situation is actually normal.
Now, imagine this
In retrospect, your decision to ‘run with the bulls’ in Spain when you had a pulled hammy wasn’t one of your smartest ideas. And stopping for a selfie when the bull was right behind you . . . well, that was just kinda dumb.
But, hey, we all gotta go sometime, right?
Your partner back home in Australia is devastated.
She walks to your study, grabs a key from the top of your bookshelf and unlocks your fireproof, waterproof safe.
As she opens the safe she sees a folder. The cover reads:
Fearless Folder—Everything in One Place—Jim Smith
She takes the folder out of the safe, sits down and opens it. The first page reads:
I love you.
I love you so much that I’ve prepared this folder for you.
It has everything you need to manage my passing.
As she reads through the Fearless Folder she feels a wave of relief wash over her . . . everything really is there.
You’ve included the contact details of people you’ve hand-picked to help her.
You’ve attached your will and documents allocating your power of attorney and your ‘medical attorney’.
You’ve written out a statement of your net worth—a handy guide to make sure all the assets are accounted for.
You’ve detailed all your bank accounts, investments and insurance policies, and all the login details.
You’ve included the password to your email (which you funnel all your day-to-day receipts through), so she can log in and find all your household bills.
There’s the password for your Facebook and social media accounts, so they can be memorialised straight away.
Your partner turns the next page, and stops. She can’t believe it. You’ve actually taken the time to write down specific answers to the questions that are now swirling around in her head: whether you want your organs donated, any specific funeral instructions, and more.
And then she turns to the final page and reads your final message . . . and bursts into tears.
This is the power of the Fearless Folder. And this is what we’re going to do right now . . . in three simple steps:
Step 1: Collect your important documents.
Step 2: Invest in a fireproof, waterproof safe.
Step 3: Write your last letter.
Let’s do this.
Step 1: Collect your important documents
‘Collect your important documents’ sounds like something your mother would say, right?
Relax . . . I’ve created an idiot-simple checklist, and you’ll be able to get most of this done in one night.
Rather than manually printing out all your statements, there’s a simpler way: from this day forth, change all your bills to be delivered via email. This way, you just need to leave your executor (and your loved ones) access to your email address—and they’ll have all your latest bills.
Go to: barefootinvestor.com/resources to download your Fearless Folder checklist.
THE FEARLESS FOLDER
* * *
Fearless answers:
Who will raise our kids if we both die?
At what age should the kids receive their inheritance?
What happens to my assets if the whole family dies?
Who should make medical decisions on my behalf if I can’t?
Who should make financial decisions on my behalf if I can’t?
When do I want the plug pulled?
Do I want to donate my organs?
Who will take care of my pets?
What are my funeral wishes?
People who can help, and their details:
Executor
Accountant
Lawyer
Financial planner
The Big List (account & login details)
Email
Social media (Facebook, Twitter, other)
Government stuff (Medicare, MyGov, TFN)
Bank accounts
Super accounts
Investment stuff
Insurance stuff
Medical stuff
My net worth
Assets:
Blow (home, cars, boat)
Mojo
Grow (investment properties, super, etc.)
Liabilities:
Mortgage, car, loans
Personal documents (attach these):
Signed will
Signed enduring power of attorney
Signed medical power of attorney
Birth/marriage/change of name certificates
Copy of passport and driver’s licence
Property deeds (or details on where they are located)
Step 2: Invest in a fireproof, waterproof safe
Where do you store your Fearless Folder (and any other important documents)?
Some people suggest leaving your will on the kitchen table when you go on holiday . . . just to be extra cautious.
Clearly, you don’t want to go on holidays with anyone who does this. Seriously, they’re the sort of people who travel to New Zealand and hide their traveller’s cheques in a bum bag.
Instead, what I want you to do is go to Bunnings and buy this bad boy:
It’s called a First Alert Fire Safe and Waterproof Protection Chest, and (at the time of writing) it costs $69.
What I like about these chests (other than the fact that they’re fireproof and waterproof) is that they’re small enough for you to pick up by the handle if you have to evacuate your home.
Here’s the thing: we lost everything when our house burned to the ground . . . except our important documents. Having all those docs made the process of rebuilding our financial lives that much easier.
So here’s what I want you to do this weekend:
First, go to Bunnings and shell out the $69.
Second, place your Fearless Folder inside the safe, along with your passport and other important documents (see checklist opposite).
Third, choose your own super safe spot that you’ll quickly be able to grab it if you have to evacuate.
Finally, and this is important, give your executor the spare key that comes with your chest.
That way your executor (or your backup executor, who doesn’t live with you) knows you have a Fearless Folder, and they also have a key to eventually open it.
Step 3: Write your last letter
The last step of all is to write your last letter to your family.
I’ve shared this with thousands of people, and they say it’s one of those moments in life when you actually take stock of what’s really important.
Picture your loved ones opening the safe and reading your letter—because one day they will.
Write with your heart.
Write like it matters—because it does.
Then, print it out and put it on the top of your Fearless Folder.