Barefoot Investor Scott Pape warns Aussies to do four things this Christmas: Read his very surprising advice

Bestselling financial advice author Scott Pape is urging Australians to forget the cost of living crisis on Christmas Day and spend big on a big meal with loved ones.

The year drawing to a close has been a difficult one for borrowers. The Reserve Bank raised interest rates for the thirteenth time in eighteen months in November, bringing the cash rate to a twelve-year high of 4.35 percent.

Inflation has eased from a 32-year high of 7.8 percent, but October's monthly figure of 4.9 percent was still well above the Reserve Bank's target of 2 to 3 percent.

But Pape, better known as the Barefoot Investor, said Christmas should be a time to forget the cost of living crisis and not worry too much about overspending on that one day of the year, even though borrowing costs rose at the fastest pace since 1989. .

To achieve this, he suggested that those who struggle to afford gifts should instead put resources into making Christmas Day special so that the children would remember a happy day instead of their parents becoming stressed.

“First of all, don't be so stiff this Christmas,” he said.

'It's been a tough year. Life is for living, so spend lavishly on good food and drinks (or mocktails for us teetotalers).

'You get a similar dopamine rush from anticipating and enjoying a nice spread than you do from that soap-on-a-rope gift set. So go all out for the Christmas pudding.'

Christmas is also a particularly difficult time for young people hoping to buy their first home. The average house price in Sydney has risen 12.5 per cent since January to an even more unaffordable $1.397 million, despite aggressive rate hikes.

But Pape said thinking about that would only make the situation worse.

“Second, don't focus on the economy, or on house prices, or on interest rates, or on your boss – you have no control over that,” he said.

“Instead, focus on what you can control, and take some small but decisive steps to build your confidence and control.”

His advice coincided with a new Compare the Market survey showing that younger people born from 1981 onwards are most concerned about the cost of living crisis: 68.2 percent of millennials want to save more by 2024, compared with 76 percent of generations. Z consumers born since 1997.

Australians aged 43 and over were less concerned that only 46.4 per cent of Generation X plan to save more, while only 24 per cent of baby boomers have that goal in mind.

Australia's national vacancy rate is also at a very low level of 1.1 percent, while immigration is at record levels.

A survey of a thousand tenants by InfoChoice showed that 60 percent of them had spent less on Christmas gifts due to rising rents, while 13 percent could not afford presents, and three of them did not even have money for a Christmas tree.

Recommendation for Christmas gifts

But with Christmas less than a week away, Pape recommended The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma by Mustafa Suleyman, who founded an AI company bought by Google.

Pape, Australia's bestselling author of the 2010s, said the DeepMind founder's book was stressful to read.

“So this one comes with a warning: It really stressed me out,” he said.

'And not just me. A member of my unofficial book club told me he couldn't get past the third chapter: “It was just too scary, I couldn't handle it.”

Suleyman founded DeepMind Technologies, a London-based AI research company, in 2010 before selling it to US tech giant Google in 2014 for $486 million – or just over $500 million when the Australian dollar was still worth more than 90 cents.

Pape said Suleyman had the authority to predict what AI could do.

“Suleyman is not a hard-boiled author trying to sell a few books by scaring the hell out of us,” he said.

“He's committed to it all because he co-founded one of the world's most successful artificial intelligence (AI) companies, Deepmind Technologies.”

Suleyman's book, co-written with Michael Bhaskar and published by Penguin, predicted a future where AI could even make you rich.

“AI is going to fundamentally change the world, and faster than we think,” Pape said.

Pape was particularly impressed by 'litmus test' for AI'that is to instruct it to “make me sell $1 million on Amazon.”

The book told readers about how an AI bot would scan Amazon for the most profitable products, have it made in China, put it online, write all the ad copy, manage fulfillment and customer service… and then put $1 million on your bank account would be deposited. . Crazy, huh?'.

Unlike humans, AI would be resistant to the temptations of alcohol because it would dominate our lives.

“Over the next decade, AI will infiltrate our lives, driven by the fact that it will get smarter and faster, and it won't get drunk and make a fool of itself at the office Christmas party,” Pape said.

“This guy knows what's coming through the tunnel. Read it to find out what (maybe) happens next.'

Suleyman's predictions go beyond what ChatGPT is now capable of as an AI program that can scan thousands of pages of text and come up with a concise summary.

Existing major language models are expected to fill white-collar jobs, from junior paralegal work at law firms to consultancy work now being done for government departments.

Unemployment was still low at 3.9 percent in November, but there are fears that AI could replace jobs and make people dependent on government benefits, leading to calls for taxes on AI beneficiaries to achieve universal to finance basic income.