{"id":568759,"date":"2025-11-14T00:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568759\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T00:54:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T00:54:16","slug":"the-wealthy-barbers-david-chilton-has-a-message-for-younger-generations-you-can-do-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/568759\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wealthy Barber\u2019s David Chilton has a message for younger generations: \u2018You can do this\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

David Chilton wants his new book, ‘The Wealthy Barber,’ to bring some clarity and optimism to Canadians in their 20s and 30s.Supplied<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough out there. Many people\u2019s incomes haven\u2019t kept up with living costs \u2013 let alone home prices. The temptation to spend and borrow is everywhere. Even making good decisions is more complicated, with more financial products than ever making it harder to know what to prioritize.<\/p>\n

The Wealthy Barber has noticed. Some 36 years after publishing his seminal personal finance bestseller, David Chilton is back with a new edition full of fresh advice and a hopeful outlook for a new generation of Canadians.<\/p>\n

The narrative device is the same one that captivated millions of readers when the original edition of the book first came out in 1989: A fictional barber, Roy Miller, teaches the basics of personal finance to those gathered in his shop. The core principles are also the same, such as the concept of paying yourself first by setting aside 10 per cent of your paycheque as soon as it lands in your bank account.<\/p>\n

But the reality in which those fundamentals apply is different. And Chilton, who is also widely known to Canadians from his Dragons\u2019 Den chops, is offering a fully updated suite of strategies to help people build long-term wealth despite today\u2019s challenges. <\/p>\n

Among the takeaways: Budgeting doesn\u2019t work for most people; watch your investment fees; renting isn\u2019t a waste of money; and, if your parents can help you buy a home, let them.<\/p>\n

As he did with the first version, Chilton thoroughly workshopped the book as he was writing, testing various parts of it with his target audience and incorporating the feedback. Only this time, the process was much longer, he said, because there are many more financial products, possibilities and hurdles to discuss. Instead of six months, as planned, it took him nearly a year and a half to finish the book, he told me in an interview last week.<\/p>\n

But the meticulous rewriting and editing pays off. On any given topic, the book encapsulates and addresses the full gamut of common questions, doubts and what-abouts that I\u2019ve heard from readers in nearly a decade of covering personal finance. <\/p>\n

The result is a personal finance tour de force that is at once comprehensive and in depth \u2013 yet never gets too into the weeds. The book is as breezy and colloquial as it is packed with insights and concrete tips, the kind you can read at bedtime but will also likely fill with sticky notes so you can come back to it over and over.<\/p>\n

It is also deeply empathetic. \u201cHopefully, a book like The Wealthy Barber, told in that format, can bring some clarity and some optimism\u201d to Canadians in their 20s and 30s, Chilton told me. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve noticed, but the first chapter was [Roy, the barber] saying \u2018you can do this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an edited excerpt of our conversation:<\/p>\n

David, what prompted you to write this latest edition of <\/b>The Wealthy Barber<\/b>?<\/b><\/p>\n

I had so many friends\u2019 kids and so many friends of my kids asking me financial questions that you could see there was a thirst for information. I thought that if I went back to that formula of using the conversation, making it more accessible, trying to take the dryness out and wrap some humour around it, that it could really resonate.<\/p>\n

Early in the book, Roy talks about how budgeting didn\u2019t work for him. But later on, he talks about the power of \u201cspending summaries.\u201d What\u2019s the difference?<\/b><\/p>\n

A spending summary is a look backward. You\u2019re summarizing, at the end of, say, a two or three-month period, everything you\u2019ve spent and then you\u2019ve categorized. I started pushing a lot of people to do it as I put together book two [The Wealthy Barber Returns, 2011] and continued to do it over the last 15 years.<\/p>\n

To this day, I\u2019m blown away by how everybody who does these comes back and says to me, \u201cAmazing. We saw where we were wasting some money, so we\u2019re saving more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPay yourself first\u201d works well when you have a regular paycheque and steady employment. Is it still doable for people with fluctuating incomes or someone who doesn\u2019t know whether their, say, six-month contract will be renewed?<\/b><\/p>\n

When you don\u2019t have steady income, you have to make an adjustment. That\u2019s unfortunate, and it\u2019s the reality. Now, on the fluctuating income, at least most people have a minimum they\u2019ll earn every month. <\/p>\n

We still want them to pay themselves first and set up some savings, based on that minimum. The alternative is to say, \u201cbecause I have a fluctuating income, I\u2019m not going to do that. I\u2019m going to rely on budgeting or whatever else during the better months.\u201d That doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question about it: It works for a teacher much more effectively than it works for someone whose income goes up and down with freelance work, but I\u2019d still say it\u2019s better than the alternative of not doing it.<\/p>\n

Your chapter on housing is so expansive that it\u2019s hard to summarize in a few sentences. But can you give us a sampling of the takeaways?<\/b><\/p>\n

Realistically, you\u2019re probably gonna have to live with your parents as you build the down payment fund. I talked in the book about how, especially when home prices are rising fast (though we don\u2019t have that right now) a smaller down payment \u2013 going in when you have the five or 10 per cent instead of trying to get to the 20 per cent \u2013 actually makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n

One of the things that the chapter pushed twice is trying to earn some extra income. Some people are pretty darn amazing at turning these little hobby-type businesses into $500, $1,500 or $2,100 a month. If you\u2019re paying 30 per cent in tax, and all of a sudden you\u2019re making $1,500 more, well, great, that\u2019s $1,050 extra a month. Think of what that does for your mortgage. <\/p>\n

You also tell people it\u2019s okay to accept family help, especially to buy a house.<\/b><\/p>\n

The reality is, these are very tough times. Some parents are lending probably more than they should based on their own retirement situation. But a lot of parents are realizing, if they have the money, what a great way to enjoy it: If you have more than you need, and you give it to [your kids] now, you get to see them benefit from it.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the On Money newsletter<\/p>\n

Are you reading this newsletter on the web or did someone forward the e-mail version to you? If so, you can sign up for On Money here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Erica\u2019s personal finance reading list<\/p>\n

The link between expensive housing and falling birth rates<\/a>Do high housing costs cause people to decide to have fewer \u2013 or no \u2013 babies? Intuitively, the answer seems obvious. Proving that one causes the other is far less so. But a recent paper out of the University of Toronto attempts to do just that. The conclusion, based on U.S. census data, is that \u201crising costs since 1990 are responsible for 11 per cent fewer children, 51 per cent of the total fertility rate decline between the 2000s and 2010s.\u201d (Hat tip to Toronto developer Brandon Donnelly<\/a> for highlighting the research.) The perils of aging in place<\/a><\/p>\n

Many people want to age in place. But society also nudges us toward that choice. A sharp analysis here by policy expert John Stapleton on why Canada should make it easier to downsize.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your \u2018burn rate\u2019? (Paywalled)<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s how long your household would last without a paycheque. Whether or not you have an emergency fund to fall back on (and I hope you do), there are ways to reduce that rate so you can stay afloat longer. Here\u2019s a good list of where to cut from The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

Chart of the day<\/p>\n

New products that caught my eye<\/p>\n

You can now send money internationally<\/a> from your Wealthsimple account through the Wise platform, which will avoid the typically steep exchange rate markups of most other financial institutions.<\/p>\n

Another big bank challenger that has partnered with Wise? EQ Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ICYMI<\/p>\n

Sonder\u2019s abrupt shutdown<\/a> leaves travellers stranded and neighbours relieved <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: David Chilton wants his new book, ‘The Wealthy Barber,’ to bring some clarity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[9884,51,474,45867,45863,141761,2499,45872,45865,45869,45871,141762,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-568759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-appwebview","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-high-interest-saving","12":"tag-newsletter","13":"tag-onmoneynewsletter","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personal-finance-advice-canada","16":"tag-personal-finance-canada","17":"tag-personal-finance-newsletter","18":"tag-personal-finance-planning","19":"tag-saving-strategy","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}