7 Financial TED Talks That Will Inspire And Make You Think

You’ve probably heard of TED talks before. If you haven’t let me take a moment to tell you how much I love TED talks and why I think they are so amazing.

First of all, what I like most about TED talks are that they are short, educational, and inspiring lectures on pretty much any topic you can think of.

Financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works. These TED talks are sure to enlighten and teach you about how to manage your personal finances. Don’t miss these talks on financial wellness, financial independence, and investing your money.

TED talks are a great way to learn about all sorts of ideas, in a short amount of time. They can cover everything from finances, science, raising children, to the next big tech idea!

Each TED talk will leave you feeling motivated and full of ideas for how you can improve and change your own life. I find them great to listen to while in the car or while I’m doing daily chores.

And while there are plenty of powerful talks that you can choose from I’ve put together a list of my top 7 financial TED talks.

These talks will teach you information about various finance principles through entertaining stories and introduce you to new ideas and perspectives.

1. One Life-Changing Class You Never Took- Alexa Von Tobel

This talk is a must! Alexa regularly gives talks about money, personal finance, and financial education. In Alexa’s Ted Talk, she emphasizes the importance of financial education.  

She explains that most of us learn about money on a trial and error basis and points out how most people never took any personal finance class in school.

Alexa walks us through a typical financial situation of an average American student who has loan debt, consumer debt, and no retirement savings. She points out how education and knowledge could have prevented this negative financial situation.  

Check out TED talk HERE!

2. Saving for Tomorrow, Tomorrow- Shlomo Benartz

There’s a difference between knowing you should save and actually doing it. As a result, just one-third of Americans end up saving in a 401(k) retirement plan, and only 10% of Americans are saving a sufficient amount for the future.

Benartz identifies the biggest obstacles to saving enough money for retirement and then questions “How do we turn this behavioral challenge into a behavioral solution?”

Check out TED talk HERE

Are you looking to start a 401(k)? If so, don’t miss this article!

3. Sell your crap. Pay your debt. Do what you love- Adam Baker

I absolutely love this TED talk -it reignites my spirit each and every time I listen to it. In 2008, after the birth of his first child, Baker and his wife decided to sell everything they owned, pay off their consumer debt, and spend a year traveling abroad as a family.

Adam explains that that we don’t need “things” and how he and his family were able to achieve happiness through “freedom”. His inspiring story of selling everything, paying off debt and packing their remaining belongings into backpacks will make you think!

Check out TED talk HERE

4. How To Buy Happiness- Michael Norton

Michael Norton shares fascinating research on how money can indeed buy happiness. He reveals the results of his studies showing that spending money on others rather than on yourself increases your happiness.

He put this hypothesis to the test by having one group of people spend money on themselves and a separate group of people give money away. Listen to this Financial TED talk to hear his surprising data on the many ways pro-social spending can benefit you, your work, and (of course), other people.

Check out TED talk HERE

5. Could your language affect your ability to save money?- Keith Chen

Could it be that the language you speak really predicts the way you think about the future? UCLA Professor and behavioral economist, Keith Chen, discusses how the language we speak could be holding us back from getting rich.

His research has found that languages without a concept for the future “It rains tomorrow,” instead of “It will rain tomorrow” — correlate strongly with high savings rates.

Keith explains if future feels more distant from the present, it’s going to make it harder to save money.

However, with futureless languages where the present and future are spoken without differentiate it makes it easier to save in the present moment for the future.

Listen to TED talk HERE

6. The battle between your present and future self- Daniel Goldstein

Daniel Goldstein, behavioral economist talks about the unequal battle between our “Present Self” and “Future Self.” He says it is difficult to save money for the future when we have a hard time imagining what our future might be.

Every day, we make decisions that have good or bad consequences for our future selves — “The present self does not want to save at all. It wants to consume. Whereas the future self wants the present self to save.”

He then discusses how we can stop neglecting our future selves and start making decisions that will result in future financial success.

Listen to TED talk HERE

Are you interested in trying Audible?

7. Why You Should Know How Much Your Co-workers Get Paid- David Burkus-

Do you ever discuss your salary with your colleagues? What would happen if we had total pay transparency?

Whether or not people should be aware of how much their colleagues earn is an ever ending debate.

In this Financial TED talk, David Burkus questions the cultural assumptions around keeping salaries secret. He makes a compelling case for transparency with an emphasis that it makes the workplace better for both the employee and the organization.

David feels that the transparency would increase the sense of fairness and collaboration inside a company.

Listen to TED talk HERE

Final Thoughts

Do you enjoy listening to TED talks? What are a couple of your favorites? As mentioned above I love TED talks so I’d love to hear some TED talks you’d recommend I listen to!

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