Why You Should Have Friends with Benefits (in Finance)

Friends with benefits. I LOVE this new trend I’m seeing.

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I got a really cool call the other day. A young fellow asked, “Hey, Mr. C, will you speak to our group?” I started out, “Well listen, I don’t want to fly much anymore and I charge a fair amount.” He cut in and said, “No, no, it’ll be over Zoom and we don’t have any money. It’s just a group of six of us at work and we formed a club to learn more about money management.” “Well,” I responded, “you are on the right track. And that you’re not going to pay the speakers. That saves you some money.” Look, I love this idea and I’m seeing more and more of it. Heck, right here in our own group is a great example. Aidan, right over here, who LOVES learning about financial planning and investing, walked Emily over here through TFSAs and FHSAs and even helped her to open an account at an online platform.

Why is this peer-to-peer financial-planning education suddenly growing so much? Hey, times are tough and everyone knows it. If a wise friend can help, people are more than willing to listen. Money is becoming a far less taboo subject and that’s a good thing. Also, there are so many resources now – free material like ours – that can easily be shared – the World Wide Web. I still love saying that. Many money-passionate young people are throwing themselves into this field and then they’re eager to share their knowledge with their friends. Or often they take them on the learning journey with them. It’s fun. And it’s contagious. People hear about it, they want in. I’m seeing book clubs dedicated to only the top-rated financial-planning and investing books, like “The Wealthy Barber.”

It’s fantastic! And now, with all these online, intuitive, easy-to-use platforms, a knowledgeable friend can walk a buddy all the way through opening his or her account, and making the investments like Aidan did for Emily. That’s helping the fire to spread. Again, I LOVE this new trend. Seriously, get involved. Start with the book-club idea or a twice a month zoom call. It’s a great way to learn. It’s comfortable. It’s inviting even. You know, I had Mo over here, let me into her account saying I was going to teach her something but instead I transferred $7,000 to my TFSA. And there was a good lesson there for her: Trust no one.