Barefoot Investor’s super warning amid fears of a stock market crash: ‘Rubbish’
Financial commentator Scott Pape, known as the Barefoot Investor, has dismissed fears that a US stock market crash should prompt Australians to alter their superannuation strategy, telling readers such panic is "rubbish". His comments come amid growing anxiety among investors about volatility in American markets and its potential knock-on effects for retirement savings held in super funds with exposure to global shares.
Pape's core advice is that super is a long-term investment, and reacting to short-term market swings by switching investment options or withdrawing funds typically does more harm than good, since it risks locking in losses rather than riding out the recovery that has historically followed downturns. He reiterates his standard guidance of sticking to a considered, diversified strategy and ignoring the noise of daily headlines about market turmoil rather than making reactive changes based on short-term fear.
- Barefoot Investor Scott Pape rejects crash fears as reason to change super
- He calls panic-driven reactions to market volatility "rubbish"
- Advises sticking to long-term strategy rather than reacting to short-term swings
New here? Start with this
Scott Pape is an Australian personal finance writer and TV presenter better known as the Barefoot Investor, whose books and columns on money management have made him one of the country's most widely followed financial commentators. Superannuation, or "super", is Australia's compulsory retirement savings scheme, into which employers pay a percentage of workers' wages, and much of that money is invested in shares, including on international markets such as the United States.
Concerns have been growing among everyday investors that turbulence on Wall Street could signal a bigger crash, raising fears about what that might mean for the value of people's super balances. This matters because millions of Australians have their retirement savings tied to the performance of these funds, and sudden drops in share markets can prompt people to consider changing how their super is invested, sometimes out of fear rather than considered strategy.
At the centre of this story is the tension between short-term market anxiety and long-term investment planning, since superannuation is designed to be held for decades rather than reacted to day by day. Commentators like Pape regularly weigh in during periods of market volatility to advise the public on whether to adjust their approach, making his views a reference point for how ordinary Australians think about their retirement savings during uncertain times.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Long-term investors have good reason to back Pape's approach: superannuation is typically a decades-long investment, and history shows that markets which fall sharply have consistently recovered and gone on to new highs over subsequent years. Switching to cash or defensive options during a downturn crystallises paper losses and risks missing the often-swift rebound, since some of the best trading days cluster immediately after the worst ones. Behavioural finance research also shows that individual investors who chase headlines and time the market tend to underperform those who simply stay invested, so counselling calm over panic reflects sound, evidence-based practice rather than complacency.
The case against
Others reasonably argue that blanket reassurance can understate genuine risks facing today's investors, particularly those nearing retirement who have little time to recover from a prolonged downturn and for whom sequencing risk is a real threat to their nest egg. Current market conditions, including stretched valuations in US tech and elevated geopolitical uncertainty, may differ meaningfully from past cycles, making historical recovery patterns an imperfect guide. For these savers, a considered rebalancing toward more conservative or diversified holdings is not panic but prudent risk management, and dismissing all caution as "rubbish" risks conflating sensible portfolio adjustment with reactive, fear-driven selling.