4 TED Talks to Help You See Your Money in a New Way

Are you poor? Swimming in debt? Overwhelmed by words like budget, interest, or savings? The good news is you aren’t alone. The bad news is that your money situation is an emergency and needs immediate attention.

We’ve written about money management before, like how to learn personal finance the easy way. Indeed, personal finance is a skill everyone should practice. However, though there are tons of money mobile apps out there, it’s important to understand that there are no shortcuts to proper money management.

Not sure where to begin? Start with these TED Talks. While we recognize that TED Talks aren’t optimal for direct education, they are good for priming your mind and helping you understand the WHYs of personal finance before pursuing the HOWs.

Change the Way You Think About Money

“Debt used to be a four-letter word.” Meaning, debt used to be a profane idea that everyday people would avoid to the best of their ability. Contrast that with contemporary first world culture: debt is the norm and you’re given the stink eye if you are loan-averse.

In this 14-minute talk, Preet Banerjee makes a case for why we should revert our mindsets back to a time when debt was undesirable. “We need to start hating debt again,” he says. The key to climbing out of a money hole is to change the way you think about money.

One Life-Changing Class You Never Took

Allow me to ask you two simple questions. First, has anyone in your life ever taught you the fundamentals of personal finance? If so, how many of those lessons do you live by on a daily basis? For most of us our answers would be, “What the heck is personal finance?”

In this 11-minute talk, Alexa von Tobel explores why over 75% of Americans feel out of control with their money and why so many people in this country worry about money every day. As it turns out, we aren’t as poor as we think we are; we’re just bad at managing our money.

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