by Ted Richards Click to listen to the latest episode of The Richards Report featuring Jobe Watson.
Former Essendon captain Jobe Watson had an incredibly successful football career, but in this discussion we concentrate on his life away from the game – most notably his thoughts on investing and some of the investments he has made.
During his time playing football, Jobe also worked for a property group and buyers advocacy called Infolio. We speak about the advantages of using a buyer’s advocate and how Jobe became involved in the business. He went on to invest in the business and works for Infolio three days a week, with the remaining days spent focusing on his other investments.
Jobe retired from AFL about six months ago but he certainly hasn’t been sitting idle since then. He famously worked at Hole in the Wall Cafe NYC in Midtown during his year away from footy and we chat about how he found that experience and what he learnt. He subsequently invested in the business and they’ve since opened their flagship café in the financial district not far from Wall Street. After the success of this café they plan to open more stores in New York. His cafes model themselves on the Australian café culture for coffees and eating out for breakfasts. As this Australian café culture gains popularity Americans are quick to label it the “new American style”.
He has also gone onto another investment in New York, diversifying into the gym/fitness space with F45 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which will open in May. The F45 chain focuses heavily on functional training and will be quite different to a traditional New York gym. There is a bit of a theme here with his investments, and that is seeing something work in Australia and taking that concept overseas.
BITCOIN AND CRYPTO-INVESTING
Our discussion moves on to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. I know Jobe has a small amount of money invested in in cryptocurrencies, and he’s relatively active in the space. He kindly gives us some insight as to what drove his interest in cryptocurrencies and why he decided to invest in them.
My thoughts on bitcoin are well known and I’m certainly not sitting on the fence – I’m not touching them. However, I’m also not so arrogant to think I can predict the future – I could be proven wrong! Jobe counters some of my thoughts, and I respect that.
Not everyone has the time or capital to make direct investments and manage a portfolio of assets like Jobe’s. What I admire and respect is that he isn’t intimidated by learning something new about investing like entering the hospitality space. Some people think investing is too hard, or they’re too worried about the future and they end up doing nothing. Jobe isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and learn about something new or take up a new skill.
At Six Park, even though we invest our clients across different asset classes we have a somewhat similar investment philosophy to not put all your eggs in one basket and to diversify your investments. We invest in assets such as international shares, property, infrastructure and bonds.
If you’re in New York you can find the Hole in the Wall Café in Midtown and the Financial District. You can also learn more about his property business Infolio, and F45 Williamsburg.
If you would like to set up your own investment portfolio with Six Park you can read about our performance in 2017.
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