For this week’s MVP, we’re chatting with The Wealthy Barber author and finance expert David Chilton.

Celebrated author and Canadian financial god, David Chilton discusses a recent financial mistake, the state of Canadians’ finances and more.

By Rosemary Counter

Thirty-six long years after the original was published, no-nonsense finance guru David Chilton has finally updated his seminal guidebook, The Wealthy Barber. Some two million Canadians have bought the blockbuster book about main character Roy, a knowledgeable barber dispelling common-sense money advice to his clients. Two of Roy’s favourites: wealth is about savings not income, and you should skip impulse shopping to save—and wisely invest—10% of every paycheque. 

In this week’s MVP, we ask the super-successful Chilton about the confidence of youth and why you be wary of money advice from TikTok influencers. We also convince him to ’fess up to a money mistake. 

You self-published a phenomenally successful finance book at age 25. Where and how did you get your confidence? 

I look back on all that now, and I’m astonished I decided to follow that path. I was teaching a course to teachers on financial planning. Not for them to teach their students but for them to manage their own money better. I used a lot of humour and a casual delivery that was really resonating. So I thought, “Can I move this to book form?” 

I started out writing one book, The Ultimate Guide to Losing Money, which was kind of a humorous look at all the mistakes we make and how to remedy them. But I got the idea for The Wealthy Barber while watching the TV show Cheers. I thought, I’m going to use a novel format and set it in a bar. It was called The Wealthy Bartender when I first drafted it, but because of the alcohol, I ran into all kinds of problems. Within a few weeks, I switched to the barbershop, and off we went.

When did you realize your book was going to be as big as it became? 

I knew that something strange was happening about 15 months in. In April of 1990, I went out to Halifax to give a speech. We were expecting four or five hundred people, which was a big crowd for a finance speaker—2,200 people showed up. At the same time, the book was taking off in sales. It had sold maybe 40,000 copies altogether to date, but within a year or so, it was selling 25,000 a month. Word of mouth had taken over.

Thirty-six years later, you’re back with a fully updated version. Why now? Is money advice all that different than in 1989? 

If I don’t do it now, I’m going to be dead. That’s one reason, but the other is that it’s just time. 

There are so many more products and accounts out there now. When I wrote the book, there were RRSPs. Now, of course, there’s RSPs, TFSAs, and FHSAs. People need not only to understand their merits and drawbacks, but also how to prioritize them based on their own situation. 

Plus, let’s be honest—it’s tough out there right now. Younger generations are battling a high cost of living, with high real estate prices in particular, but also they’re up against the algorithms, social media and all of these different techniques that are trying to get us to spend our money at all times. 

Do you think people are better or worse at managing their money now?

It’s all over the map, and everybody I meet seems to be different. Some people know a little, some people know nothing, some people know a lot. It’s very difficult to summarize. I do think it’s harder out there now, but I’m not sure it’s because people are worse with their money. 

The other interesting problem is there’s almost too much information out there now. Hundreds and hundreds of influencers on all social media platforms are talking finance, doing extreme things like trading and options. Obviously, a short video can’t cover off any of the nuances and the exceptions of those approaches to investing. 

OK, I get it, you’re massively successful and great with money. But have you ever made a financial mistake? 

I’m looking out the window right now at the biggest financial mistake of my life: a shepherd puppy. He has basically destroyed everything I care about—including my house and my car. He’s a rescue dog I got at the shelter. Just getting him home, he ate the seat belt out of the back of my car. So now I’m looking at him, and he’s out in the garden digging a hole. He’s just nuts. I love him, but at this moment (he laughs) I’d like to give him to you and love him from afar. 

Rosemary Counter is a Toronto-based writer and journalist whose reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Guardian and others.

Read more from this issue of The Get:

1. True or false: It’s more rewarding to pay off debt than to save money
2. What do I need to know about the new Federal Budget?
3. Will AI take your job?
4. Did you overpay your utility bill?

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