JB-  The holiday season coming and this is usually a time when people get into debt…

DC-  Absolutely.

JB-  Is it because it’s so commercialized or do we just feel this is a time to give?

DC-  You know what, it’s a combination of the two.  But it’s amazing now how much we like to give at Christmas relative to when we were kids.  I’m 44 and I’m amazed looking back at the Christmases when I was young how different it is now; the expense of the gifts – and I mean, by the way, even after taking inflation into account.  Kids nowadays, what they get for Christmas relative to what we did.  And this isn’t one of those “good old days” speeches and “it’s changed too much”.  It’s just an observation that society spends a tremendous amount of money on things around Christmastime, even as a percentage of income, it’s gone up.  And a lot of it is because people love technology.  And a tremendously high percentage, in the last few years especially, of the Christmas dollar has gone towards the techno-gadgets - from the iPods to the computers to large screen TVs, etc.  Society in general is much more affluent than it was 10, 20 and 30 years ago.  It’s a society of abundance.  A lot of people are choosing to spend that on a variety of things around Christmastime and that’s fine.  Does some of it stem from a desire to give?  Sure, absolutely.

JB-  How many of those gadgets does Dave Chilton have?

DC-  Well, amazingly I can’t type, first off.  I wrote the whole “Wealthy Barber” and printed it in longhand.  So I don’t have many.  (I have) a Blackberry, and I use it because I always want to get hockey scores and I love that part of it.  You can always get the hockey scores off of it.  But I don’t have a large screen TV.  I don’t have an iPod.  I don’t have too, too many of them.  I’m an incredibly simple guy.

JB-  Let’s say you’ve got an extra hundred bucks in your pocket, what do you do with it?

DC-  Let me think what I would get into.  Um, certainly books.  I love books, that’s one thing.  I’d probably go to A&W, that’s a great way to invest your money.

JB-  Umhmm.

DC-  No doubt about it.  Two Teen Burgers and a large root beer.

JB-  Can’t go wrong.

DC-  I’d do that five days in a row.  Can’t go wrong with that.  I don’t know.  Again, I don’t really have one area that I would spend a lot of money.  If you look at my end of year expenses, (you would probably see) that I spend probably too much— it would be that I love going to sporting events in Detroit.  I grew up in Sarnia and we’re huge Tiger fans, Red Wing fans and Lions fans and Pistons fans – not just me, but my whole family.  So we’ll often go down to the games, and I enjoy that.  Probably that’s one indulgence that I’ve really given into over the years.  And I play golf and of course that’s a very expensive hobby.

JB-  What’s the most important thing that you have in your life?

DC-  Unquestionably, family.  I’ve always said on stage that you won’t meet a luckier guy than I am.  You know, I’ve got a very close-knit family, I’ve got two great kids.  My parents live 10 minutes away, they see my kids almost every day.  I’ve been really blessed.  So I think health and family, and I don’t mean to sound corny, but it’s a true answer.  I’ve been very lucky.  I’m not really a money guy, strangely.  Even though I wrote “The Wealthy Barber” I never aspired to make tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars.  A lot of people have asked me, “Why didn’t you exploit the brand more and write a second book?” or “Why didn’t you sell the brand off to a financial institution, etc. when it was at its peak in brand awareness?”  There was no real desire to turn it into more than what it was.  And I’ve obviously been lucky too, I’ve done well, the book has been a success and I’m financially secure, but I have no desire to be way beyond that.

JB-  What is it that’s different about this book that has been so successful?  I mean, you go into a bookstore and there’s shelves and shelves of this sort of book.

DC-  No, you’re right, it’s a highly competitive genre, no doubt about it.  I think, not trying to sound modest, but truthfully I was a little lucky in some ways in that when I came out with “The Wealthy Barber” back in 1989 there was only two other books at that time that had Canadianized their content.  Even though it’s very competitive now on a customized-to-Canada basis, it wasn’t when I wrote the book.  Demographics were right on side.  I wrote a book at a time when the baby boomers were looking for financial advice and was able to ride that wave to some extent.  Beyond that, I think that the story format and using the characters and drawing them in with humour and the conversation definitely, again, took the intimidation out and made it much more enjoyable for most people than the standard dry financial text.  And I think that when all those things came together I gained critical mass with the book—everybody starts talking about the book, the word of mouth just took off.  I know when I wrote the book I was hoping to sell 10,000 copies.  And in Canada even when it hit 40 and 50,000 copies I thought, “Geez, I might make 100,000 copies sold.”  I never envisioned it becoming what it did.  It was a lot of fun, it was a once in a lifetime type thing.

JB-  We see the ads everywhere for the multimillion dollar jackpots.  Do you play the lotto?

DC-  I’ve never in my life purchased a lottery ticket.

JB-  What do you think about the people who spend lots and lots on gambling?  Is it worth it or just a waste of the money you could be saving for your future?

DC- Well, mathematically it’s not worth it at all.  The expected value is horrible.  It’s a voluntary tax tool to a large extent.  Yes there’s the odd winner, obviously, but for the most part it gets some people in trouble.  And I have no issue with people who play the lotteries for a little bit of fun, a little bit of excitement.  So what?  It’s no different than going to a movie, it’s part of the entertainment spending.  But you’re right, there are a number of people out there who buy tickets to the point that it’s borderline addiction, and it definitely impacts their finances negatively and it’s too bad.  And in some instances it’s the people that can least afford to do that.  You mentioned beyond lotteries, (it’s) gambling in general now.  Casinos have popped up all over the country, you’ve got Internet gambling available.  If you talk to a lot of the counsellors out there they will tell you that gambling is becoming a much bigger issue in society now because of course it’s so much more available.

No matter what you talk about, whether it’s the gambling, the lottery tickets, avoiding credit cards – the common denominator in all these things is self discipline—how much you have.  And that’s a tough one.

JB-  More and more these days we’re being asked to give.  Charities are popping up all over the place.  Should we be so quick to open our pocketbooks and give?

DC-  I think that’s more of an individual decision, I really do.  I think everybody has to make their own judgment call on how much they want to save for their own futures relative to how much they want to give to help others.  You’re right, the world is open to a tremendous number of disasters and the requests for charity have gone through the roof.  Most of them, by the way, are very worthwhile.  And again, I don’t think any book can answer that, I think that’s very much an individual question.