The 'My Dinner with Andre' of Canada-specific financial planning

There is some very good, general information here that just about anyone can benefit from. I did, however, hate the presentation. It's all presented in a painfully cheesy conversation between a barber, 3 30-somethings in need of knowledge, and a couple of old farts who live in the barber's shop. It made me want to slap someone.

Still, I must recommend the book for there was good information inside. It's fairly well rounded, providing value to just about anyone.

The Wealthy Barber is a Canadian classic I've finally got around to reading. The core concepts are fantastic, however with time some of the assumptions of the 35-year-old book have started to show their age (20% GIC? I wish). Despite this, it remains a good read for anyone looking to learn more about financial literacy presented in an interesting way.

David Chilton uses the idea of facts being laced into fictional story. If you don't wanna read it, I can summarize it as such: Save 10% of each paycheck before anything else to be compounded, and then max out your RRSP. While there is more nuance than just that, it does the trick.

An oldie but a goodie and still after all these years one of the first books I recommend to someone starting out :o)

Thank you to Brian Preston and Bo Hanson ("The Money Guys" podcast) and their "on point" podcast about the key financial books you have to read. This is a primer, an easy read, a well-meaning story about getting financial advice that isn't going to overwhelm you. The human element seems to be what separates a great finance book from a typical pressing of finance information.

The story revolves around a young naive man Tom who goes to his local barber known for the best money tips and haircut snips. From a story perspective, it's really ingenious, we know enough about Tom for his questions about insurance, 401ks, and college savings account questions to come in an organic and organized manner. The book walks the lie of finance knowledge that is prudent and safe with ideas about saving 10% long term, dollar cost averaging and distinguishing needs and wants. It's the type of personal finance book 95% of us need to read multiple times in our lives, and just stay that solid course.

Finance gets trickier if you let it. There are ETFs, derivatives, commodities, and all kinds of investment vehicles to get you where you want to go..but these investments are no silver bullet. Like anything worth attaining; prudence, discipline, and staying the course are the invaluable attributes to bet on. There may be short term gains to be made in market timing, or aggressive technical analysis, but what kind of plan is that anyway.

It's true that 1996 looked a lot different than it does today. Our barber's long term concerns about real estate look quaint when you look at the catastrophic events of the 2007 crash. College tuition rates are unfathomably high. And the difficult job market that exists today is hardly even acknowledged as a possibly in the book's contents. All of this is pretty funny or sad depending how the coin lands, but ultimately it doesn't detach from the book's approachable and simple truths. "The Wealthy Barber" was written in kinder economic times, and fortunately it's wisdom is all the more salient, now that many of us have less room for failure.

While some information is dated, the essential points in Chilton’s book are timeless wisdom for realizing financial success. The 10% rule is probably the key lesson. Chilling also has a great view on budgeting that will probably simplify that daunting idea for those who recoil at even the thought of a budget.

I tired of the story format pretty quickly, but found that it was easy enough to ‘skip the small talk’ and find the financial advice without difficulty. But it probably makes the topic more digestible for people who aren’t familiar with financial concepts. In fact, the popularity of this book stems from the way a Chilton has made this topic so accessible for the average person who hasn’t had a financial education.

I would highly recommend this book - especially to anyone who has never read financial planning books or really wants to do better financially. There is an updated version that would probably be worth reading instead at this point.

extremely saccharine dialogue but good advice in between

i needed this. good, easy to understand personal financial advice for a beginner.

Transformative.

It's the best word I can come up with. Mr. Chilton promulgates a plan, without shilling for certain brands' funds, and best of all, he takes the very complex and makes it very simple. He teaches you using plain English.

I now have five co-workers following his advise, and I can't think of a higher compliment.

This booked KICKED BUTT! This has given lots of very realistic, easy tips on financial planning. It is written in a very witty way, almost as a story about 4 guys just chatting, which makes it easy to follow.

Hard to get through as it is horribly written fiction even if it has good advice.

Excellent. Down to earth. Good analogies! Just order the new one! Looking forward to more words of wisdom. Not too dry as some finance books can be!