Barefoot Blueprint - Scott Pape?

[cookieater]

I've read Barefoot Investor and I was quite impressed despite how much it concentrated on debt which isn't relevant to me. He has had some good articles that are emailed out if you subscribe to his site.

Now he is releasing this Barefoot Blueprint which will supposedly show people how he invests his money and what are the recommendations to invest money with a team of experts. It is AU$197/yr subscription. See this promotional video here:

http://www.barefootblueprint.com/how-i-invest-my-money

What does everyone think. I am new to trading and have begun researching long term investment strategies. But this could seem like if there are a lot of followers it could bloat his recommended shares to make him/them rich because people follow blindly?

I am considering buying a subscription. If he wasn't so well known I would think it's a scam. Any ideas?

 

[Julia]

Re: Barefoot Blueprint - Scott Pape???

Scott Pape has been a regular guest on ABC Local Radio for some years and I've only ever heard him talk complete sense.

 

[prawn_86]

Re: Barefoot Blueprint - Scott Pape???

While i agree that he does make a lot of sense, it is obvious a subscription service would be for his financial gain, so im not sure if the 'advice' is worth paying for.

I know he charges a fortune for personal speeches as tried booking him once...

 

[McLovin]

Re: Barefoot Blueprint - Scott Pape???

I've caught his show on CNBC a couple of times. It's fairly common sense finance stuff; avoid debt, come up with a savings plan, budget, diversify. No idea how good his investments are because he never gets into that sort of detail...

The presentation is a bit over the top to be honest. I'm not sure I can really trust someone who calls themselves "one of Australia's leading financial commentators". I can't imagine many people even know who he is.
Seems he's just selling a value investing newsletter.

 

[cookieater]

Re: Barefoot Blueprint - Scott Pape???

To be honest, I was more interested before I watched the presentation; based off what I had read in his previous emails. But $200 for a year isn't too much money to throw away if it ends up useless. But I would hope to see some useful information.

 

[prawn_86]

Re: Barefoot Blueprint - Scott Pape???

But $200 for a year isn't too much money to throw away if it ends up useless.

So then what exactly are you asking about? You have answered your own question

 

[cookieater]

I was just wondering what everyone else thought? As if it is a money making scheme for the owners. And if anyone else was considering it?

 

[Julia]

I was just wondering what everyone else thought? As if it is a money making scheme for the owners. And if anyone else was considering it?

Well certainly it will be a money making scheme for the owner and no reason why not.
If you see value in what he's offering, then it's no different from purchasing anything else.

If I were wanting to buy advice from someone, I'd rather it were Scott Pape or Marcus Padley than pretty much any of the other hundreds of others out there purporting to give you the secrets of investing.

 

[So_Cynical]

Ive never heard of him before, listened to the presentation and came away feeling a little ill...he's another "value" type hand holder aka Roger M...Scott's gona give you all the answers, empowering you to live life on your terms LOL. and all for the throw away price of 200 bucks a year. :bandit:

 

[Julia]

Ive never heard of him before, listened to the presentation and came away feeling a little ill...he's another "value" type hand holder aka Roger M...Scott's gona give you all the answers, empowering you to live life on your terms LOL. and all for the throw away price of 200 bucks a year. :bandit:

Until I read this post, I hadn't looked at the link above. Decided to do so, thinking that, as usual, I'd disagree with So Cynical.

On the contrary, I also felt really disappointed to see someone whose views I'd previously respected spruiking like that awful bloke who says on TV "But wait, there's more", and goes on to offer the steak knives.

To say that now is the time to buy when it's entirely possible we'll see a fall to around 2000 points, is not at all the sort of advice I've heard him offer in the past.

What a shame. Just another self serving spruiker.

 

[cookieater]

Haha yeah. The only thing it was missing was the four easy payments of $49.95 to a Nigerian bank account.

I've since re-thought about the idea of purchasing the subscription and decided not to continue.

He seems like he has sold himself out. As his book was all about "treading your own path".

 

[itty84]

What made me sus about this was the $500 FREE brokerage with e-trade. I'm new to trading and don't know much about e-trade but everything Scott Pape has said in the past is to be wary of people selling products exactly like he is doing now.

 

[freebird54]

This is one of the few I have not subscribed to and if he is willing to publish his results I would subscribe - anyone aware?

For all I have paid in the past it works out better to use a full service/full advice broker as I am doing now. [Especially as doing options here and USA on practically a daily basis and I need my life back]

I still like eureka and a few others for general advice

I've read Barefoot Investor and I was quite impressed despite how much it concentrated on debt which isn't relevant to me. He has had some good articles that are emailed out if you subscribe to his site.

Now he is releasing this Barefoot Blueprint which will supposedly show people how he invests his money and what are the recommendations to invest money with a team of experts. It is AU$197/yr subscription. See this promotional video here:

http://www.barefootblueprint.com/how-i-invest-my-money

What does everyone think. I am new to trading and have begun researching long term investment strategies. But this could seem like if there are a lot of followers it could bloat his recommended shares to make him/them rich because people follow blindly?

I am considering buying a subscription. If he wasn't so well known I would think it's a scam. Any ideas?

 

[joku]

It's fairly common sense finance stuff; avoid debt, come up with a savings plan, budget, diversify. No idea how good his investments are because he never gets into that sort of detail...

I also felt really disappointed to see someone whose views I'd previously respected spruiking like that awful bloke who says on TV "But wait, there's more", and goes on to offer the steak knives.

These two quotes summarize my thoughts on Scott Pape

 

[Happy2be]

The link above to the website is now returning a 404 page error.

Aside from that, he is good to start with for the majority of people who don't have a clue and as your knowledge improves and grows then move on and do your own thing. Easy!

 

[freebird54]

YES There is so much free education around, you just have to sort out the best [and only deal with those that show you their results and invest in everything they tell you to.

Like most financial planners ? hehehehehe

The link above to the website is now returning a 404 page error.

Aside from that, he is good to start with for the majority of people who don't have a clue and as your knowledge improves and grows then move on and do your own thing. Easy!

 

[Gezzanator]

I'm assuming that none of the people that gave their opinion on the Barefoot Blueprint have actually read it. Its fine to speculate but I think its a bit like a movie review from someone that hasn't seen the movie yet.

That being said I was also skeptical at first, especially considering the obvious self interest in getting cash first and then offering the information. A friend got a copy of all the issued blueprint reports allowing me to see first hand what you get for $297.

Each month a new report is issued covering a different company/stock each time. I found the advice was accurate and bull**** free whilst discussing both positive and negative perspectives. A clear valuation is offered letting you know what price is good to buy below. Good for someone that doesn't have much experience or not enough time to value a company themselves.

I personally purchased $16,000 worth of shares using my superannuation in November 2013 and have already made a profit of $600 which is all the convincing I needed to part with my cash and sign up.

Scott Pape certainly has his own style of doing things which isn't to everyone's taste.

Hope this helps anyone looking for some feedback on the Barefoot Blueprint.

Happy Investing

 

[GlobeTrekker]

I personally purchased $16,000 worth of shares using my superannuation in November 2013 and have already made a profit of $600 which is all the convincing I needed to part with my cash and sign up.

I think its a little early to be hailing success after just 3 months!

I get Scott Pape's free email each week, he is clearly targeting those who are not great with personal finances and those don't have a lot of knowledge or experience in investing. From what I've seen though, it all seems to be perfectly reasonable common sense advice explained simply for that type of audience. I have no idea what his paid service is like so I don't know whether its any good or whether it adds much value for those with a little more experience.

I've also signed up for the Motley Fools free emails, those guys are much more of a hard sell than Scott Pape. To them, every day is a great day to buy, regardless of the situation, get in quick! When the market is rising, get in right now or risk missing out on the bull run. When its falling, get in right now or risk missing out on great value in the cheaper stocks. Makes me laugh every time I get a new email from them, but they do have some good advice sometimes in between the hard sell. Again, I don't get their paid service so I have no idea if their stock tips are any good, they certainly hail their successes in the free emails, probably not so much their failures!

 

[DJG]

I'd hope no body listened to Motleys "qualified yes" to invest in Forge Group when it was about $4.20.

 

[Serpentis]

I did have a Barefoot Blueprint subscription from the very start, read every single issue, but I cancelled it. The advice is good and sensible, but it's targeted more towards the typical Aussie person, struggling through credit card debt and mortgages as the average Aussie is. Which isn't applicable to me. The difference between the paid service and the free one is that the paid one just goes in to more depth, has actual stock picks, and tracks a portfolio. And there is a support network you can contact, or something, but obviously limited since they can't give financial advice directly.

If you're looking to get down your debt, start investing for your future and want to start leaning the financial world then you could do a lot worse than signing up for Barefoot Blueprint, but it has little to offer once you want to advance up to the next level.


As for Motley Fool, I also have a subscription with their Share Advisor service, back when they were selling it cheap. It's kind of like a more detailed and focused version of their website, with regular stock picks and tracks a portfolio. I wouldn't say it's a bad service, but I don't think the picks are "clever" enough to justify the cost, so I'm going to let it expire.

I like the free fool.com.au site though. Don't get me wrong, a lot of rubbish has been appearing on there lately, and they sure like to bang on about the same old stocks and repeat things over and over. But they do highlight some interesting smaller companies every so often. I wouldn't invest purely on their advice, but it's a nice way to be introduced to some smaller stocks that you may not have found elsewhere. I was introduced to MTU on there, I bought in and my investment has since more than doubled, so that's nice.


These days I find most of my information on this website and HotCopper, and I've found that the information/discussions on stocks there to be just as good, if not better than any paid subscription I've tried. I guess on free sites you have to be more wary about the credibility of the people behind the opinions, but then again, it's not like I have any reason to believe the guys behind the paid subscriptions are any more credible. Anyone can make a sensible and detailed argument to invest in nearly ANY stock. I've never seen any proof that these 'professional' stock pickers are better than the people giving away their thoughts for free.


So at the end of the day, neither of these services are 'bad', it's just that you can get pretty much the same information for free anyway. Big thanks to all the people who contribute to the stock discussions