5 Fantastic Family Finance TED Talks You Don’t Want To Miss
Sometimes, when we’re on a journey to get our family finances on track, we need to hear some fascinating ideas to spark our interest, or to keep propelling us forward toward our goals. These five family finance TED Talks do just that.
They’re interesting (really – finances can be a fascinating subject!), and they’re relevant to everyday people.
1. How to Buy Happiness
Michael Norton goes against popular opinion in this TED Talk, suggesting that you can buy happiness. You might be surprised at how much you need to spend (or how little), and on whom you need to spend it.
Are you putting yourself first?
Have you given enough to others?
One of the small ways I spend on others is by having craft supplies handy (currently mostly glitter glue, markers, and paint because that’s what my two are into these days). Once they move beyond the random scribbles and blobs of glue stage, we’ll be making princess wands and dinosaur fossils. They get so much joy from the time we spend creating, and that makes me a happy mama.
Drop a comment below. I’d love to hear whether you’ve followed Michael Norton’s advice. How has it improved your happiness?
2. Let’s Raise Kids to be Entrepreneurs
Cameron Herold speaks on his experience growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and the lessons he’s learned along the way. He inspires parents to encourage rather than stifle the entrepreneurial spirit of children.
In my opinion, he’s a little heavy on the emphasis of making money, and light on how to use that money to be a compassionate, community citizen, but as long as you’re imparting your personal values along the way, I’m certain we can all learn a lesson about the ingenuity of children by allowing them to follow their ideas.
Do your kids have the creative problem solving tactics of an entrepreneur?
Have they started any money-making ventures? How did you guide them in that process? What lessons did they learn along the way? Share in the comments below.
3. How I Learned to Read – And Trade Stocks – In Prison
Though the title might have some shock-value, Curtis Carroll uses his real-life experience to encourage others to be more financially savvy.
Do you know how to read and trade stocks? I don’t. I’m at the mercy of my financial adviser. He knows what he’s doing, so I just collect the annual reports to see how things are going. Perhaps we all need to take a closer look.
Do you have a financially literate lifestyle? Is becoming savvier with your money part of your family goals? Let me know what you’re doing to help you achieve that objective. (If not, you can start small, by implementingmoney saving meals, or start meal planning.)
4. The Battle Between Your Present and Future Self
Many of you have some financial goals that you’re working toward. You (hopefully) have a budget in place. You’re working toward repairing your credit, or learning how to get out of debt, or saving for the future. You’re constantly making choices that affect the financial health of your family’s bank account.
Sometimes those choices are hard to make – do you make yourself happy now and buy that pack of gum you want? Or do you make your future self happy by saving that dollar?
It’s only a dollar, after all… right?
In this family finance TED Talk, Danial Goldstein shares the tools he’s created to help us visualise our future selves based on the spending and saving habits of our present self. Once you’re on board with saving for your future self, check outthese money saving tips.
What do you think about the tools he presents?
5. What Consumers Want
This TED Talk is a little different than the others in the list in that Joseph Pine is directing his speech at business owners rather than consumers like me and you. However, I think it has a great deal of value, as it’s telling us exactly what businesses are doing to target their marketing, so we will give up our hard earned dollars in exchange for what they’re offering.
By making yourself aware of these tactics, you’ll be better able to resist them.
You’ll be able to make a conscious choice how to spend your money – whether you want to pay a premium for an “authentic experience” or whether you’ll settle for creating your own authentic experience for a whole lot less.
I’d love to read in the comments how you create your own special experiences or rituals, without buying into the capitalist marketing of so-called “authentic experiences”.
6. Why We Make Bad Decisions
In this bonus TED Talk (did you notice this was the sixth link in a list of five family finance TED Talks?) Dan Gilbert presents some interesting research on how people make decisions based on comparison, and how that results in bad decisions.
Are you surprised by the results of the studies he presents?
What has your experience been?
Leave a comment below on how these six family finance TED Talks have inspired you. Which do you find most relatable? Which was most inspiring?
