The Barefoot Investor: The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need

In his book Affluenza, author Clive Hamilton states: Sixty-two per cent of Australians believe they cannot afford to buy everything they really need. When we consider that Australia is one of the world's richest countries and that Australians today have incomes three times higher than in 1950, it is remarkable that so many

Your Mojo Bucket, however, now sits inside your Grow Bucket. And what's more, it will go from having three months of living expenses to three years of living expenses. Huh? Sounds like a lot of money, right?

What the process of losing everything did teach us was the art of conscious spending.

Well, let's look at what the hard research suggests: the nation's longest running and most comprehensive survey on happiness, the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. After 15 years of detailed research, the author of the survey, Deakin University Emeritus Professor Bob Cummins, says he's finally cracked the code to wellbeing, which he has dubbed the

True and lasting success is knowing deep in your bones that you have the freedom to tread your own path in life, and the ability to protect those you love.

You're not free. Your debt controls every minute of your day, from the moment your phone alarm bleats and bounces around your skull first thing in the morning. Debt is slavery.

Rule 1: You must have the banker off your back This strategy only works if you retire debt free … as in no mortgage (which is why we've already dealt with paying off your mortgage in Step 7). Even better, the age pension doesn't take into account the value of your family home. (Which means that, theoretically, James Packer could cash in his chips w

They traded precious hours with their families and friends — hours they'll never get back — just so they could buy crap they'd eventually toss out.

a dirty weekend away each month for a year (with spa treatments), an award-winning Sonos sound system, a Grand Master bed (the highest rated bed online), luxury Boll & Branch linen (highest grade, long-staple organic cotton), a Dunlopillo (as used by James Packer), and eight pairs of ultra-comfy Bonds socks and jocks.