Now if you're a Collingwood supporter, you're probably quite comfortable with losing, so you may only need three years of living expenses. If you're inclined to freak out and sell at the bottom of the market, shoot for having five years of pension payments.

You: Also, I don't want my super contributions eaten up by the cost of paying for this insurance, so can you tell me how much more money I need to put into super to cover the cost of the extra insurance?

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?

And here's the kicker: AFIC's fees are around 90 per cent less than the fees of managed funds — and yet AFIC outperforms the majority of these funds. (Kind of strange, isn't it? You pay more for these other funds and get less … that's quite often the way in the financial world.) And once you've got your toes wet with AFIC, you can start building yo

cornerstone of an effective financial education, and pays lifelong dividends. Give: this is a life lesson in contentment — after all, the happiest people on the planet are those who give. It also teaches children that by living in Australia they're already among the richest people on the planet, and it puts money in its proper perspective. Older ki

That's fine. Then again, your brother-in-law hasn't achieved a mind-boggling 1 598 284 per cent return over his investing career now has he? The truth is this: Debt always makes things more complicated.

By the end of Barefoot Step 6 you've: made a commitment to boosting your current salary by at least $5000 in the next 12 months got a paint-by-numbers approach to saving for a deposit and avoiding lenders' mortgage insurance called your super fund and put your retirement savings on autopilot at 15 per cent, boosted your end payout by potentially hu

Next, scroll down to the ‘Fees and charges' section. Your super fund should be charging you less than 0.85 per cent a year in fees — total. If it's higher than that, you should seriously think about switching to a cheaper fund.

Chances are they're no smarter than you, and they may not work much harder than you. What's different is that they'll be doing one of two things: leading people, or ‘bringing home the bacon' (providing the goods, marketing the goods or selling the goods).