About Scott Phillips
Investor. Author.
Business commentator.
I’ve spent much of my working life thinking about businesses, investing and how ordinary people can make better decisions with their money.
My work sits at the intersection of investing, business and communication: understanding what makes companies tick, thinking about markets and economics, and trying to explain those ideas clearly and usefully.
What I do
Investing
I’m Chief Investment Officer at The Motley Fool Australia, where I spend my time analysing businesses, thinking about portfolios and helping investors make better long-term decisions.
Writing
I’m the author of The One-Page Investing Plan, a practical guide to sensible long-term investing and the behaviour that makes a good plan work.
Media & conversation
I regularly talk about investing, business and economics across radio, podcasts, interviews and events — with a focus on making complicated ideas understandable.
A little background
Business first. Investing second. Then back again.
I’ve been managing my own investments for more than 20 years and have been part of The Motley Fool community since 1999.
Before joining The Motley Fool Australia, I worked in sales and finance roles in industry. That gave me a close-up view of how businesses actually operate — the incentives, the trade-offs, the good management decisions and the bad ones.
That experience still shapes how I invest today. The numbers matter, but so do the people, culture, competitive position and capital allocation decisions behind them.
I hold a Bachelor of Commerce (Management) and a Graduate Diploma of Accounting.
How I think about investing
Think long term
Markets reward patience far more reliably than they reward constant prediction.
Focus on what matters
Good businesses, sensible diversification, reasonable costs and a sound process matter more than most market noise.
Behaviour matters
Knowing what to do is only half the job. The harder part is doing it when fear, greed and headlines are pulling you elsewhere.
I’m much more interested in preparation than prediction. Good investing is usually about making a handful of sensible decisions, then having the patience and discipline to stick with them.
Beyond the numbers
Business, economics and better decisions.
Investing is part of a much bigger picture. I’m interested in why businesses succeed or fail, how incentives shape decisions, how economic policy affects people and companies, and how we can make better choices when the future is uncertain.
That’s what I try to bring to my writing, podcasts, radio and other media work: useful context, clear thinking and a willingness to say “I don’t know” when the evidence doesn’t justify certainty.