Scan barcode
A review by letitiaharmon
The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning by David Chilton
2.0
This was recommended to me when I said "I know nothing about finances or investing and I want to learn" but I'm honestly not sure why because it's SO dated. Even I know the maximum annual contribution to an IRA has changed since 1998.
But being dated is not the worst part. You know those employee training videos from the 90s where they hire a friend with nice hair and a former frat boy who took drama in college and force them to convey a point through stilted dialogue peppered with dreadful jokes? This is that in book form. It's. Awful. Add in a dash of misogyny (apparently it was still ok to body shame pregnant women in the late 90s and just out and say that you preferred a son because you wouldn't be able to relate to a daughter???), combine it with the author's clearly high opinion of his wit and mocking of the sister who makes more in a year than he and his dad combined (which leaves me wondering where is HER book???), and you have...The Wealthy Barber.
Ok, so it's that bad, then why not rate it 1 star instead of 2? Because BECAUSE two things... 1. There is some evergreen good advice in here that is not completely irrelevant (although it becomes irrelevant the moment you start talking specifics because every law concerning everything from mortages to tax brackets has significantly changed), it's just that it can be found in other more current, less cringe-worthy sources.
But 2. This book does do something that I haven't seen other financial planning or investing advice books do. I was already doing this, so it's not revelatory, but I was glad to see it all the same. This book does NOT tell you to live an ascetic life and have no fun so that you can retire and live it up. No, finally, this book honors that if you ARE saving for retirement, if you DON'T have debt other than mortgage or education, then why the heck are you budgeting yourself down to pennies every month and waiting to live your life until you're 75? Live now. I have watched all my biological grandparents reach old age, retire, and be shocked and devastated to discover they didn't have the health, knowledge, or travel buddy to do all the things they had promised themselves they would do once they retired. They subsequently had a boat load of money and a lot of regrets. While saving makes sense, saving to the point of just waiting for the day you retire to start enjoying life has always seemed backward to me. I'm grateful to this book for pointing this out.
But there, you just got all you needed to know from my review sooooooo...read it if you really love dad jokes, I guess.
But being dated is not the worst part. You know those employee training videos from the 90s where they hire a friend with nice hair and a former frat boy who took drama in college and force them to convey a point through stilted dialogue peppered with dreadful jokes? This is that in book form. It's. Awful. Add in a dash of misogyny (apparently it was still ok to body shame pregnant women in the late 90s and just out and say that you preferred a son because you wouldn't be able to relate to a daughter???), combine it with the author's clearly high opinion of his wit and mocking of the sister who makes more in a year than he and his dad combined (which leaves me wondering where is HER book???), and you have...The Wealthy Barber.
Ok, so it's that bad, then why not rate it 1 star instead of 2? Because BECAUSE two things... 1. There is some evergreen good advice in here that is not completely irrelevant (although it becomes irrelevant the moment you start talking specifics because every law concerning everything from mortages to tax brackets has significantly changed), it's just that it can be found in other more current, less cringe-worthy sources.
But 2. This book does do something that I haven't seen other financial planning or investing advice books do. I was already doing this, so it's not revelatory, but I was glad to see it all the same. This book does NOT tell you to live an ascetic life and have no fun so that you can retire and live it up. No, finally, this book honors that if you ARE saving for retirement, if you DON'T have debt other than mortgage or education, then why the heck are you budgeting yourself down to pennies every month and waiting to live your life until you're 75? Live now. I have watched all my biological grandparents reach old age, retire, and be shocked and devastated to discover they didn't have the health, knowledge, or travel buddy to do all the things they had promised themselves they would do once they retired. They subsequently had a boat load of money and a lot of regrets. While saving makes sense, saving to the point of just waiting for the day you retire to start enjoying life has always seemed backward to me. I'm grateful to this book for pointing this out.
But there, you just got all you needed to know from my review sooooooo...read it if you really love dad jokes, I guess.