Ce livre devrait être une lecture obligatoire aux élèves du secondaire! Tout est expliqué très simplement et si tout le monde suivait les simples règles d'investissement décrites dans ce livre, personne n'aurait aucun problème à sa retraite. Personne!

Mon seul regret : ne pas avoir lu ce livre dans ma jeune vingtaine (ou avant)! Chacun de mes enfants vont avoir une copie de ce livre, c'est une promesse!

Really good starting point for financial literacy.

Highlights of the book are that:
1) our school system is failing miserably at teaching youth about how to handle their personal finances
2) it’s never too late to start planning for a better financial future
3) pay yourself first (take money out of your pay check automatically before you ever see it and put it into an investment account).

This book is a good simplistic guide to financial planning at any age. Some of the topics include saving strategies, leveraged financing and dollar-cost averaging. Being written in the US, some of the verbiage and laws surrounding investment vehicles are different than what we have here, but overall the themes are relevant.

4/5 because the presentation was pretty cheesy. Lots of awful one-liners and drawn out banter about nonsense.

Quote:
n  n   

“Wealth beyond your wildest dreams is possible if you follow the golden rule: Invest 10% of all you make for long-term growth. If you follow that one simple guideline, someday you’ll be a very rich man."

n  n

Synopsis:
The Wealthy Barber is a financial planning book franchise by Canadian author David Chilton. The first book in the series was in the business fable genre, using the story of fictional characters to convey financial advice.

My Take:
Although the Wealthy Barber was originally published in 1989, almost 3 decades ago, I still believe the message of the book and the sound principles the author conveys, still apply to this date.

This book has been recommended to me by my Goodreads bestie and book-buddy Celise who read this as part of her 1 book a week challenge. I highly recommend following her on Goodreads and checking out her new BookTube channel on YouTube.

My first impression going into the first few chapters was "more of a story than a financial planning book".
This is due to the author dedicating the first chapter or two on setting the scene and introducing you to his family and his barber. This works for some readers who prefer being eased into the book and like the "novel" approach to connect with the characters.

At first, I thought I did not like that approach but as the book progressed I come to like his unique and entertaining way of presenting dry financial topics as a series of visits to the local barber who mentors the main characters of the bok to their financial freedom.

The book shows its age and financial era when discussing funds and the recommendation not to invest your savings in the stock market directly, but instead to go for the safer option of managed Mutual Funds. It is a bit outdated as Mutual Funds are very costly by today's standards and has been proven to underperform the market. You are better off using an index fund than using a mutual fund which depends heavily on the performance and judgement of a human, the money manager.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it is one of the good financials reads I come across since Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Think and Grow Rich.

I will be reading the follow-up and newer edition of the author's book: The Wealthy Barber Returns and making notes this time of the golden nuggets the author shared with us.

Quotes:
n  

"A dollar saved is two dollars earned."

n
n  

"Over the past fifty years borrowing has gone from a shameful vice to the national pastime."

n
n  

"The only thing worse than a bad investment is a bad investment made with borrowed money."

n
n  

"Curiosity – I find that’s the most commonly seen characteristics of happy people. They’re curious. They love to learn, they love to read, they love to travel, they love to listen to other people’s opinions, they love to learn! If you can teach your kids one thing, I think it will lead to happiness, is to develop curiosity."

n

This one might have been better in book (versus audiobook) form. The framing device of an ongoing conversation about financial matters between (obnoxious, faux humorous) people in a barber shop was excruciating. Suddenly, Stephen King's admonitions against adverbs in On Writing made a WHOLE LOT OF SENSE. And the narrator's self-description at the beginning makes him sound like a total jerk--I didn't WANT this guy to be financially successful! However, buried in the dialogue is really good, straightforward, useful financial advice, which is why I kept listening. So, aces on the information, but boo to the sharp pieces of glass on the ground through which one needs to crawl to get the useful bits of information.

This book got me thinking about my financial future - and did so in an entertaining way. Although a little outdated, the principles still apply today. Some pieces of advice were more basic/seemingly common sense while others were definitely more complex, requiring more research and expert advice. Would recommend to someone with no idea where to start with finances and looking for general knowledge.

Full notes to come. Less boring than it sounds and I actually feel kind of glad that I read this. I'm sure there are specific things in this book that have changed- perhaps the stance on what to invest in, but I feel like the fundamental principles must be the same.

I had to read this book for work but skimmed most of it and didn't enjoy it. I'm sure for many with no financial background, this book may be helpful.

My old CEO and mentor (James Currier) gave me this book for christmas after I first started work at his company. He said they handed it out at HBS and it was a simple but very powerful intro to managing your finances. And it was. So forget Personal Finance For Dummies (which I also read) - start with this.

Personal finance is something that isn't taught in school, but is incredibly important - and the basics aren't very hard. I found this book invaluable as a young software engineer, when I was making a salary and didn't know how to invest it, and I would recommend it for anyone in their 20's. Even if all it does is get you to start to think about compound interest and what starting to save can do for you - that's *huge*.

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

2.5 ⭐️ for the writing, 5 ⭐️ for the advice.

Wish I read this years ago.

Phenomenal book. Offers SO much practical and timeless advice on a wide range of financial topics. I'd 100% recommend this book to anyone who wants to expand their financial understanding and or learn how to optimize their income! It’s an easy read with lots of humour sprinkled in. Doesn’t give the penny pinching, pull your hair out type of advice most people would struggle to follow. Well worth the read and will certainly be a re-read when I could use refreshment advise on home ownership, purchasing new investments, retirement planning etc… One thing that’s good to be aware of, is a lot of the accounts + services they mentioned in this book are only offered in the states. Governments in most other countries offer equivalents to the accounts + services mentioned – just named differently if you take a little extra time to research. Makes all the advice 95% applicable if you live outside the US like mel!