Investopoly

Stuart Wemyss & Campbell Wallace
  • 4.9 (538)
  • Investing
  • Updated Weekly

Investopoly is a twice-weekly podcast designed to help you make better financial decisions and build wealth with clarity and confidence. Hosted by Stuart (tax adviser, financial adviser, and mortgage broker) and Campbell (senior financial adviser), each episode delivers concise, practical insights grounded in real-world strategy, research, methodologies, and case studies. You will get two episodes each week: a main episode that deep-dives into a single wealth-building topic, and a Q&A episode that answers listener questions and real scenarios. Send your questions to questions@investopoly.com.auWe also writes a weekly blog, and many podcast topics build on those ideas and frameworks. Stuart's forthcoming book, Wealth by Design, will be available in July 2026.

  1. Eight Rules Revisited #2: Your freedom number has 3 levers

    1 day ago

    Eight Rules Revisited #2: Your freedom number has 3 levers

    Pre-order Wealth by Design Here Episode two of Eight Rules Revisited continues the Thursday series comparing the eight golden rules from Stuart's 2018 book Investopoly with the updated versions in his new book, Wealth by Design, released on 28 July. Rule 2 states that you must know how much income you need and by when. That principle hasn't moved. What has tightened considerably is everything surrounding it. The two goals now have proper names, the freedom number and the freedom date, and the underlying framework has shifted from a single retirement cliff to three distinct phases of working life, reflecting that most people today want to ease off gradually rather than stop abruptly. Stuart explains why holding too little outside superannuation can quietly lock people into the all-or-nothing retirement they were trying to avoid, and why planning for at least 30 years of post-work life means growth assets need to remain part of the strategy well into retirement. He also breaks down why a $100,000 income target implying $5 million in assets is far less daunting once it's understood there are three separate levers available to pull, not just one. The episode closes with a one-page exercise listeners can complete this week to produce a first version of their own freedom number and freedom date. The full worksheet and modelling method appear in chapter two of Wealth by Design. My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    17 min
  2. Ep 414: The 4 decisions that determine 95% of your financial outcome

    2 days ago

    Ep 414: The 4 decisions that determine 95% of your financial outcome

    Read Full Blog Here Pre-order Wealth by Design Here Most people assume building wealth requires making hundreds of good financial decisions. In reality, a small number of choices do almost all of the heavy lifting, and this episode identifies exactly which ones. The first is the choice of partner, arguably the most important financial decision a person will make. Alignment on spending, saving, and investing dramatically simplifies wealth building, while misalignment creates the stop-start behaviour that derails even well-designed strategies. Divorce, by contrast, is one of the most financially destructive events that can occur, often setting people back further than they can ever fully recover from. The second is career choice, where lifetime earnings compound dramatically based on income level, and genuine enjoyment of work tends to drive higher earnings over time rather than the reverse. The third is a spending-saving philosophy, not a budget, but a guiding approach that avoids both extremes of overspending and joyless deprivation. The fourth category covers the tactical decisions that compound over decades: the first property purchased, where the family home is located, how superannuation is invested, the methodology used for investing outside super, and whether to seek professional advice at key decision points. Notably absent from the list are the decisions the financial media obsesses over: stock picking, market timing, finding the next big winner. The real insight is liberating: get a handful of decisions right, and the rest mostly takes care of itself. My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    26 min

  3. 3 days ago

    Q&A: Inheritance windfalls, home upgrades, and capital efficiency

    Pre-order Wealth by Design Here This episode brings together four listener scenarios united by a common theme: significant financial capacity, but genuine uncertainty about which move to make next and in what order. The first comes from a Sydney couple earning $540k who feel house-poor despite their income carrying a $1.9m mortgage on a home bought partly for its duplex potential, with a medium landslide risk and an $800k–$1m overseas inheritance on the way. The questions span inheritance allocation, debt recycling, cash flow management through private school fees, and how to restructure once the husband's income shifts to lumpy partner distributions. The second involves a Brisbane couple with a $7.8m property portfolio, strong equity, and a clear land-value-focused investment philosophy, now weighing whether to knock down and rebuild their current home, sell and buy in a premium riverside suburb, or hold a vacant subdivided lot for future development ahead of the Olympics. The third scenario is a Bondi couple renting in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, earning up to $440k in a good year, with $630k in combined assets and a first child on the horizon, deciding whether to stretch for a $2–3m home now or continue building an investment portfolio through rentvesting. The fourth comes from a 49-year-old with a $12m property portfolio, $6.3m in equity, and a 15-year horizon to reach $25–30m in net worth, asking whether to stay the course with leveraged property, recycle equity into ETFs and super, or begin deleveraging for higher passive income. My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    34 min
  4. Eight Rules Revisited #1 - The risk nobody warns you about 

    17 June

    Eight Rules Revisited #1 - The risk nobody warns you about 

    Pre-order Wealth by Design Here This episode is the first in Eight Rules Revisited, a Thursday series running alongside the regular podcast. Each week, I take one of the eight golden rules from my 2018 book Investopoly and compare it with the version in my new book, Wealth by Design, out on 28 July. Some rules have changed, some have tightened, and some have simply been confirmed by eight more years of evidence and client experience. I'll tell you which is which, plainly, each week.  We start with Rule 1: think in decades, not days. The rule itself hasn't moved. What has changed is how I think about risk and volatility. In 2018, I told readers to ignore short-term market movements. That was true, but incomplete. I now define risk as the probability of failing to reach your goals, not the chance of watching prices fall. Seen that way, holding too much cash is risky, and refusing to invest in growth assets because they wobble is risky too. Volatility is simply the price of admission for long-term returns, and I put some numbers on how bumpy you should expect the ride to be.  I also share the four-question filter I now apply to every major financial decision, and a short exercise you can do this week on your next three big decisions.  If you find this useful, the full frameworks and worked examples are in chapter one of Wealth by Design. Pre-order before 28 July and you'll also receive the Investopoly Research Assistant, an AI tool trained on a decade of my writing.  My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    17 min
  5. Ep 413 : What financial advisers really do with their own money

    16 June

    Ep 413 : What financial advisers really do with their own money

    Read Full Blog Here Pre-order Wealth by Design Here Financial advisers often manage their own money quite differently from the clients they advise. After more than two decades of observing both groups up close, those differences have become a reliable indicator of what genuinely good financial decision-making looks like in practice. In this episode, Stuart shares nine observations drawn from that experience. Most financial advisers hold their superannuation entirely in growth assets, understanding that short-term volatility inside super is largely irrelevant when the money cannot be accessed for decades. They welcome falling markets rather than fear them. They use debt deliberately, neither avoiding it entirely nor using it recklessly, and they invest consistently from surplus cash flow rather than waiting for the right moment that rarely arrives. Their household finances follow a clear structural discipline: invest first, then spend what remains. They track their net worth regularly and understand what the numbers actually mean. They treat superannuation as a serious wealth-building vehicle from early in their careers, often choosing wrap platforms or SMSFs for the control and transparency they provide. And they largely ignore the daily noise of market movements, checking their own portfolios far less frequently than most people would expect. Some of these patterns sit at odds with conventional industry practice. That tension is worth examining, both for investors choosing how to manage their own money and for those deciding whether their adviser truly practises what they preach. My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    31 min

  6. 15 June

    Q&A - Housing wealth in retirement, super timing, and the 20-year plan

    Pre-order Wealth by Design Here This episode brings together four listener questions united by a common challenge: knowing which lever to pull next when the financial position is solid but the path forward feels unclear. The first comes from a retiree who connected with a recent episode on underspending in retirement, but raises a dimension that wasn't covered how to factor substantial debt-free property wealth, including a principal residence and a beach house, into retirement income planning. The question is whether to sell, rent, or consider a reverse mortgage to unlock equity before those assets simply pass to the next generation. The second involves a 60-year-old about to access a $2.1 million superannuation pension, with a part-time working wife five years from her own preservation age. The question is whether additional contributions to her fund over the next two years represent the highest-value use of surplus cash flow. The third is a detailed scenario from a 43-year-old with a $2.65 million home, a Geelong investment property, $200k in shares, and two children in private school asking how to prioritise debt reduction, renovations, asset allocation, and ownership structure across a 20-year runway to retirement at 60. The fourth involves an SMSF holding a Townsville investment property with a $375k LRBA loan, and the strategic tension between building liquidity inside the fund versus aggressively paying down debt alongside a broader question about whether downsizing the family home should factor into the plan. My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    33 min
  7. Ep 412: Beware: Commercial property values look stretched

    9 June

    Ep 412: Beware: Commercial property values look stretched

    Read Full Blog Here Pre- Order Wealth By Design Here Commercial property is being actively promoted as a compelling alternative to residential investment, particularly as higher interest rates reduce borrowing capacity and tighter tenancy laws make residential property less attractive. On the surface, the pitch is appealing: higher rental yields, tenants paying most outgoings, and the potential for capital growth. But in Stuart's assessment, current valuations make the risk hard to justify. This episode examines commercial property through a valuation lens, explaining how cap rates work, why current pricing looks stretched relative to historical norms, and how the spread between commercial yields and the 10-year government bond rate has compressed to levels last seen before the GFC. At recent auction prices, some properties are selling on cap rates below the risk-free rate, meaning investors are accepting less income than a government bond while taking on substantially more risk. The analysis models what happens to investor equity if cap rates revert toward their long-term average of 3.5% to 4.5% above the bond rate. The results are stark: at 70% leverage, a reversion to historical norms could wipe out most or all of an investor's equity. Stuart also explores why cap rates have stayed compressed despite rising bond yields, and why the structural forces holding valuations up may not last. Commercial property can be an excellent investment, but only at the right price. My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    33 min

  8. 8 June

    Q&A - Listener scenarios unpacked: Perth timing, seven properties and no shares, and a retirement direction check

    Pre-Order Wealth by Design Here This episode brings together three listener scenarios that each involve genuinely complex financial positions, multiple moving parts, significant income, and decisions where getting the sequencing right matters enormously. The first comes from a 34-year-old specialist trainee doctor in Sydney, engaged, planning a family, and facing a highly unusual income trajectory, moving from $250k now to as low as $130k during a London fellowship, before returning to Perth as a consultant earning potentially $600k or more. The central question is whether to buy a stepping-stone property in Perth's middle-ring suburbs before income rises, renovate it during an 18-month stay, then rent it out while overseas, or wait, save, and buy a better asset closer to his forever suburbs once borrowing capacity is fully established. The second involves a 49-year-old earning $475k with seven Melbourne investment properties worth $6.77 million, net debt of just $330k, and $920k in super, but almost no share exposure. She is three years from being able to retire on rental income, but is questioning whether her heavily concentrated, all-property strategy leaves too much on the table in terms of tax efficiency, liquidity, and long-term portfolio resilience. The third comes from a couple in their early fifties with a nearly paid-off home, a modest investment property in a good school zone, $1.2 million in combined super, and $100k in underperforming shares, asking for honest clarity on whether early retirement is realistic and what the best path forward looks like across property, shares, and super contributions. My new book is available for pre-order now: Pre-ordering the book will help me get it into bookstores. So please do me a favour - please consider pre-ordering now - links and pre-order bonus are available here: https://prosolution.com.au/book-preorder-bonus Do you have a question for the podcast? Email us at questions@investopoly.com.au. If you're interested in working with our team and me, discover how we can work together here: https://prosolution.com.au/family-office-services If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating on your favourite podcast platform. Subscribe to my weekly blog: https://prosolution.com.au/stay-connected IMPORTANT: This podcast provides general information about finance, taxes, and credit. This means that the content does not consider your specific objectives, financial situation, or needs. It is crucial for you to assess whether the information is suitable for your circumstances before taking any actions based on it. If you find yourself uncertain about the relevance or your specific needs, it is advisable to seek advice from a licensed and trustworthy professional.

    32 min
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Hosts & Guests

4.9
out of 5
538 Ratings

About

Investopoly is a twice-weekly podcast designed to help you make better financial decisions and build wealth with clarity and confidence. Hosted by Stuart (tax adviser, financial adviser, and mortgage broker) and Campbell (senior financial adviser), each episode delivers concise, practical insights grounded in real-world strategy, research, methodologies, and case studies. You will get two episodes each week: a main episode that deep-dives into a single wealth-building topic, and a Q&A episode that answers listener questions and real scenarios. Send your questions to questions@investopoly.com.auWe also writes a weekly blog, and many podcast topics build on those ideas and frameworks. Stuart's forthcoming book, Wealth by Design, will be available in July 2026.

Information

  • Creator
    Stuart Wemyss & Campbell Wallace
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    547
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Investopoly
  • Show Website
    Investopoly

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