A review by kaitlynnecook
The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning by David Chilton

3.0

I give this about 3.5 stars. It isn't a well-written book from a fictional perspective, but it wasn't really meant to be taken in as fiction in the first place. I think Chilton was brilliant for making a "financial self-help book" something more digestible to the average financially-illiterate Canadian. However, I still have to say that the extra, meaningless dialogue and interactions between characters made me eye-roll more than I normally allow before I put the book in my donation box. I get that Chilton wanted readers to be able to identify with a character in some way, but it was poorly executed in my opinion. There's sports talk. There are poor attempts at not being sexist that end up just feeling like jokes. There are dated references (my fault for being young I suppose). That's really all I can remember from all my skimming I did when I encountered those passages.
BUT! The financial bits that you actually read the book for are good and I liked the different perspectives each character gave as to drive the point that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how you should plan your finances. I'm glad I read this as my first step to understanding how to plan my finances as I get older and I now think everyone should read this, or something maybe more recently published, before they finish their undergrad at the very least. While some of the characters in the book dreamed of becoming millionaires, I just want to be able to feel like I can live comfortably in the future, especially as I pursue a career that isn't known to make large amounts.