Rise of the Barter Economy

When Toronto-based financial planner Shannon Simmons offered her expertise to a professional clown, it wasn’t exactly business as usual. Simmons advised her new client to switch from a “couch fund” to a high-interest-bearing account with limited market risk. In exchange for her advice, Simmons received trapeze lessons.

Surprisingly, it isn’t the weirdest way that Simmons has been paid in the last year. Since leaving a full-time job at investment management firm Phillips, Hager & North in 2010 and embarking on a year-long experiment as a barter-only financial consultant, she’s been compensated with a tutorial in butter-churning, a large bag of toiletries, and a chance to perform with the University of Toronto cheerleaders. “I had a guy come up to me once and say, ‘I’m a fire-breather and I’d like to barter with you,’ ” Simmons says. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I can say no to that.’ ”