Money Clubs: A Neighborly Twist on Personal Finance

Every month, about two dozen people in Calgary get together, just as they’ve done for two decades.

The group skews older, but includes people in their 30s, too. Beginning at 7 p.m., they work through about a half-dozen agenda items before adjourning at 9.

Tonight’s topic: money.

The topic is always money at the Calgary ShareClub.

Where people go to talk about money

Personal finances are top of mind for millions of Canadians. About two in five Canadians (41%) said they sought out some kind of financial advice over a one-year span, according to the most recent Canadian Financial Capability Survey, conducted by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada in 2019.

Seeking out advice sometimes means working with a financial advisor. It can also mean leaning on friends and family members for advice. The internet is another popular destination for information. More than 1.4 million people subscribe to r/PersonalFinanceCanada on Reddit alone.

But routine in-person meetups — a realm usually reserved for activities like running or biking, not financial literacy — are different.

Joining a personal finance discussion group requires more commitment than downloading an app and provides less anonymity than some may be comfortable with.

Those who participate, though, say the investment of time and effort can result in valuable returns.

Why talking about money is important

“It’s a pet peeve of mine, just how badly trained people are with finance and how they get taken advantage of right, left and centre,“ says Aaron McCay, who’s been a Calgary ShareClub member for 10 years and is now a co-chair of the group.

It’s hard to disagree.

Only 47% of Canadians describe themselves as financially knowledgeable, according to data collected by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) in 2023. About half of households reported using a budget — implying the other half does not.

Nearly one third (32%) of working Canadians have never saved for retirement, according to a 2023 Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan survey. And, among homeowners, a group often associated with financial stability, two-thirds report having trouble meeting their financial commitments, the FCAC found.

ShareClubs offer a way for individuals to combat these and other financial challenges by tapping into the financial wisdom of neighbours.

It’d be foolish to suggest that joining a personal finance group is an apt substitute for a financial advisor or tax preparer in every instance. However, these groups offer a mix of qualities you won’t find in other venues.

Venn diagram of financial advisors, internet message boards, family and friends. — *Image generated by NerdWallet using ChatGPT.*

Inside a money meet-up

A typical ShareClub meeting opens with updates from the group’s stock market game, in which members compete to see who can earn the highest one-year returns in fictional portfolios. It’s like fantasy sports, but for investing.

The majority of each meeting is reserved to discuss current financial events, hear from guest speakers and pose questions to one another.

McCay says that some of the people who attend are “there for necessity” because they feel a pressing need to take control of some aspect of their finances. There are others who value sharing what they know. “They’ve got wisdom to impart,” McCay says. “They’ve learned from the school of hard knocks.”

Direct access to this diversity of experiences is hard to duplicate.

Multi-millionaires and corporate executives may sit alongside people just beginning their careers or otherwise starting from square one, financially. Regardless of background, everyone can participate in some way.

“I encourage everyone to come in for the first two meetings, sit back, relax, just listen, you know — soak it in,” he says. “And then I say, ‘start asking questions because it’s almost a certainty there’s somebody in this room who’s had to deal with exactly what it is that you’re bothered by.’”

Calgary isn’t the only ShareClub around. They started in the 1990s with advertising support from the magazine Canadian MoneySaver (which no longer provides publicity). Chapters sprouted up throughout Canada, but, aside from a common name and philosophy, they are completely independent from one another; there’s no national office or central organization.

Each club is set up according to the preferences and skillsets of its members.

There are some differences from one club to the next. For example, Calgary ShareClub is free to attend while the Edmonton ShareClub charges $25, which funds honorariums for guest speakers and a traveling trophy for the winner of the annual stock market game.

And not everybody attends in person — since the pandemic, Zooming in has become a preference for some.

Many of the people join these groups because they’re already interested in personal finance. But there’s no baseline of knowledge required. “If you stick with it,” McCay says, “you will be able to pick up an awful lot through osmosis and through asking questions.”

The inimitable wisdom of the crowd

Nobody’s promising that going to a meeting is a surefire way to become wealthy. And there’s no guarantee that the advice you receive is actually the best advice for you.

So what do members stand to ultimately gain?

For some, it could be the confidence and motivation needed to make a positive financial decision. For others, it might be the ability to ask more informed questions of themselves or of the financial professionals they work with.

Other benefits are harder to measure, like a well-timed piece of advice. You never know, McCay says, when “one tiny little tidbit of information gets passed…that saves you a whole heck of a lot of pain.”

Looking neighbours in the eye and hearing their personal stories and ideas is a refreshing counterpoint to the notion that financial literacy is a mountain you must climb by yourself, in secret.

There’s also a practical side to learning in groups; advice that’s embedded in the richness and complexity of an individual’s lived experience is probably a more compelling way to learn about, say, retirement planning, than reading a pamphlet from your bank.

Net gain

At year’s end, one ShareClub Calgary member is crowned champion of the group’s stock-picking game. In 2023, the winner’s fictional portfolio gained 45.6%, thanks to big returns from Uber, Amazon and Alphabet.

But in the real-life game of managing one’s personal finances, there’s no limit to the number of people who can come out better equipped to make smart financial choices.

Instead of winners and losers, money becomes a positive-sum game in which the entire group can come out ahead.