The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning

NON FICTION BOOK REVIEW  

360  words

Title:  The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to 
Successful Financial Planning; by David Chilton; Publisher, 
Stoddart; Paperback; 205 pages; $14.95; 

Reviewer: A. T. Connellan, "The Wealthy Barber is an investment 
guaranteed to return a dividend. I liked this book, and I'm thinking 
of giving it--to my barber." 

Wealthy Barber is more than a catchy title

Other than a very catchy title, what is it about a Canadian book 
that has sold over a half-a-million copies of 31 editions in three 
years, and occupied a high spot on everyone's Best Seller List 
for more than a hundred weeks? What it is, is an everyman's/woman's 
plan for amassing wealth.     

David Chilton, the 32 year-old former stockbroker of Kitchener, 
Ontario, found one way. He wrote a 204 page volume, sold over 
500 thousand copies at $14.95. It doesn't take a MENSA IQ to 
calculate that if he lives to a hundred and ten, this fellow will never 
be strapped for the cost of a haircut. 

Writing in a pragmatic, colloquial, easy to understand fashion, 
the author spins his tale through a six month time block of periodic 
encounters in Roy Miller's Sarnia barbershop. Mr. Chilton is 
sneaky-smooth in the way he uses this scene to slide 
understanding into the readers subconscious to implant the 
process, and desire, for wealth acquisition. 
           
Wealthy Barber Miller, a devout believer in the true-isms "A dollar 
saved is two dollars earned," and "the value of compound interest," 
serves up a practical plan among the hair-clippings for Dave, 
his sister Cathy, and friend Tom to the murmured assents of two of his 
"graduates." In the process, the most complex elements of the
 financial market place are rendered into cognitive quotients. 
           
All of the usual investment vehicles are trenchantly examined along 
with wills and tax planning. The result is the shaping of a individualized 
approach driven by enlightened self interest. 
          
 Most of us fail to follow our self-dictated instincts. We allow others 
to intimidate us into inertia. Others who, if they were that smart, would 
be rich and golfing not selling. If nothing else, this is the book that 
will neutralize the smooth blandishments of 
Mutual Fund/Stockbroker/Insurance/Real Estate Salespeople, 
provide a financial yardstick, and instill the self confidence of being in charge. 
         
The Wealthy Barber is an investment guaranteed to return a 
dividend. I liked this book, and I'm thinking of giving it--to my barber.