David Chilton is the author of The Wealthy Barber and The Wealthy Barber Returns and a former Dragon on CBC's Dragons' Den. This collection gathers his own words from published interviews. — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370.

Infographic for "Lessons from David Chilton".

Core Principles: The Foundation of Financial Success

  1. On saving before investing: David Chilton: "You can say, well, mathematically, if you double your return rate from X to Y, it might be more important than doubling your saving rate depending on the specific numbers, et cetera, but the bottom line is you can't invest if you don't save initially." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  2. On savers not being cheap: David Chilton: "I always felt like I think most people think if somebody is a very good saver, they're miserly or even cheap, and they just don't want to – it's not that way at all." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  3. On how much you spend: David Chilton: "When I started out on stage, I would always say to people, I don't care how you spend your money as long as you're saving the appropriate amount." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  4. On tricky financial strategies: David Chilton: "The good news is most of the complicated, tricky stuff doesn't work, as you three know." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  1. On paying yourself first: David Chilton: "The idea is to take out the money before you have an opportunity to spend it." — Why The Wealthy Barber's David Chilton says the advice model needs to change (The Globe and Mail).
  2. On saving when income fluctuates: David Chilton: "We still want them to pay themselves first and set up some savings, based on that minimum." — The Wealthy Barber's David Chilton has a message for younger generations: 'You can do this' (The Globe and Mail).
  3. On spending summaries: David Chilton: "Spending summaries are probably one of the best things people can do: chronicle everything you spend money on for three months." — The Wealthy Barber Is Back (Maclean's interview, March 2026; his answers, excerpted).

On Debt and Spending: Avoiding Financial Pitfalls

  1. On paying off credit card debt: David Chilton: "Obviously, if it's credit card debt and somebody is paying 21% on that debt, non-deductible interest paid off, and that's a guaranteed 21% return after tax, even the best of the long-term performance isn't going to come close to that." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  2. On waiting before buying: David Chilton: "The most old-fashioned spending tip we all got from our grandmothers, but I still think maybe the best, is to inject some time between the decision to buy something and the actual purchase." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  3. On feeling the pain of cash: David Chilton: "It was better back when you had to reach into your wallet and grab cash." — The Wealthy Barber Is Back (Maclean's interview, March 2026; his answers, excerpted).
  1. On buy now, pay later: David Chilton: "Credit is already strangling so many Canadians." — The Wealthy Barber Is Back (Maclean's interview, March 2026; his answers, excerpted).
  2. On the availability of credit: David Chilton: "In fact, maybe even more so because again, of the availability of credit that we spoke of earlier, people can get themselves into more trouble now than they could when I first started out in 1987, 88." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  3. On one-click shopping: David Chilton: "One of the great tips that a lot of them have given is do not set up all your account information on your favorite websites because it's too easy to hit the one click then, it's too easy to buy." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  4. On Canadian household debt: David Chilton: "Real estate costs have made things worse, for sure, but we’re among the highest debtholders in the world." — The Wealthy Barber Is Back (Maclean's interview, March 2026; his answers, excerpted).
  5. On human nature and easy spending: David Chilton: "All of this stuff now is so easy that it's easy to give into human nature and get yourself in deep trouble." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).

Investing: A Simple and Steady Approach

  1. On keeping financial planning simple: David Chilton: "Keep it simple as the best advice in personal financial planning." — 'There is hope': Dave Chilton updates The Wealthy Barber for today's generation (CBC News interview, his answers).
  2. On index funds and fees: David Chilton: "There’s no perfect way to invest, but the evidence shows that the combination of low-cost index funds and watching your fees is the most sensible way for equity investors to gain access to the markets." — Why The Wealthy Barber's David Chilton says the advice model needs to change (The Globe and Mail).
  3. On easing into the market: David Chilton: "When you start easing in, if the markets pull back, it's just human nature to think they're going to pull back even more and you're going to pause even though you're buying low at that point." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  4. On options trading: David Chilton: "Well, I can tell you: don’t take on an options strategy." — The Wealthy Barber Is Back (Maclean's interview, March 2026; his answers, excerpted).
  5. On high-cost mutual funds: David Chilton: "If you have a 23-year-old looking for financial advice and to set up that first tax-free savings account, if they’re put into high-cost mutual funds, that could hurt them – that could take away 25 to 30 per cent of their retirement capital down the road." — Why The Wealthy Barber's David Chilton says the advice model needs to change (The Globe and Mail).
  1. On the news and your investments: David Chilton: "I pay a lot of attention to the news, but I don’t roll it into the way I handle my investments." — The Wealthy Barber Is Back (Maclean's interview, March 2026; his answers, excerpted).
  2. On advisers who promise to beat the market: David Chilton: "I've said for years, if your financial advisor is saying that he or she is going to add value through investment selection and outperforming the broad market averages, run." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  3. On the TFSA: David Chilton: "You have TFSA, if you don't like TFSA, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of arithmetic." — 'There is hope': Dave Chilton updates The Wealthy Barber for today's generation (CBC News interview, his answers).
  4. On equities over the long term: David Chilton: "I think in general, when you study it carefully and you look at the long-term performance of the various asset classes, it's pretty tough to argue the math of saying, hey, go into equities full bore if that's what you're trying to do." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  5. On putting a windfall in the market: David Chilton: "To suddenly take all of that and put it in the markets is dangerous because if the markets do have a pullback, I would argue that person may be a little bit more inclined to panic and think, I just got all this money." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).

Financial Planning and Life's Realities

  1. On powers of attorney: David Chilton: "Powers of attorney are as important as wills, especially as you get older." — Why The Wealthy Barber's David Chilton says the advice model needs to change (The Globe and Mail).
  2. On insurance beliefs: David Chilton: "I think my insurance beliefs really didn't change a whole lot between now and then and trying to look for the most tax-efficient ways to save." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  3. On the costs of home ownership: David Chilton: "I don't know why, but I've been fascinated for 20 and 25 years by all of the expenses associated with home ownership and all of the arguments made for renting, against renting, all of it." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  4. On convincing yourself you need a home: David Chilton: "Some people convince themselves ahead of time that they can't be happy without owning a home." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  5. On the squeeze on income: David Chilton: "Then add in the cost of real estate and a higher percentage of people's income has to go to supporting their rent, supporting their mortgage." — The Wealthy Barber is closing up shop (Closer Look podcast; David Chilton's turns, machine transcript, excerpted).
  1. On cash value insurance: David Chilton: "A lot of people obviously were pushing cash value insurance and I think believed wholeheartedly, by the way, that it was the right way to go." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  2. On choosing your parents wisely: David Chilton: "That's why, sadly, probably the most important advice in financial planning now is choose your parents wisely." — The Wealthy Barber is closing up shop (Closer Look podcast; David Chilton's turns, machine transcript, excerpted).
  3. On employer matching: David Chilton: "On a very basic mistake I see that is absolutely a killer, the number of Canadians who don't take advantage of their employer matching on a group RSP." — The Wealthy Barber is closing up shop (Closer Look podcast; David Chilton's turns, machine transcript, excerpted).

Mindset and the Psychology of Money

  1. On the race to materialism: David Chilton: "When you're not caught up in this race to materialism and always having to have the best and the biggest, it's a very healthy thing." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  2. On businesses built to make us spend: David Chilton: "And now with the algorithms and all the scientific research, there are a lot of very clever, adept businesses trying to get us to spend money." — Why The Wealthy Barber's David Chilton says the advice model needs to change (The Globe and Mail).
  3. On comparing yourself to others: David Chilton: "In the old days, we tended to compare ourselves to our neighbors and to our coworkers." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  4. On what makes a successful life: David Chilton: "I think honestly, you've had a successful life if you think you've bettered other people's lives, you can feel that you've made a positive difference in people's lives." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  5. On what mattered most about the book: David Chilton: "I think this sounds corny, but the most important way it changed my life was it helped a lot of people." — Dave Chilton (The Wealthy Barber): Timeless Financial Advice, Rational Reminder 370 (his turns).
  1. On not being a stuff guy: David Chilton: "In general, I’m not a “stuff” guy." — The Wealthy Barber Is Back (Maclean's interview, March 2026; his answers, excerpted).
  2. On what we spend on cars: David Chilton: "There's one area I am pretty judgmental on, and that's what a lot of people spend on cars." — The Wealthy Barber is closing up shop (Closer Look podcast; David Chilton's turns, machine transcript, excerpted).