12 Great TED Talks About Money

Have you ever watched TED Talks? They’re short, powerful discussions delivered by professional speakers in front of a live audience. Speakers share personal experiences or scientific research.

Today, the TED archive contains expert discussions about almost every topic under the sun, including personal finance. The best part? Anyone, anywhere has access to this encyclopedia of knowledge. Here are 12 great ones to get you started.

No. 1: 6 Ways to Improve Your Relationship With Money

Speaker: Thasunda Duckett

Where to watch: See Thasunda Duckett's talk here

Does your money control you? It’s time to take charge.

Taking control of your finances can spur uncomfortable, difficult conversations about your relationship with money. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Thasunda Duckett, President & CEO at TIAA, talks about how to minimize money shame. We need to be kinder to ourselves in order to start an honest conversation about how to spend and save smarter.

Speaker quote/takeaway: Money is not the end-all be-all. It's the mechanism to accomplish whatever your goals are. It does not define you. It's just a mechanism to accomplish what matters to you most.

No. 2: Financial Empowerment

Speaker: Rahkim Sabree

Event: TEDxHartford

Where to watch: See Rahkim Sabree's talk here

Pay it forward. That’s the concept Rahkim Sabree discusses in his TEDx Talk. Sabree is an author, speaker, financial coach, and advocate for financial literacy. He details how growing up poor led him to change his money story. Anyone can be empowered despite the struggle to reach financial stability and satisfaction. Just don’t forget to pay it forward once you become successful.

Speaker quote/takeaway: If you are in a position of knowledge, particularly around personal finance, have that conversation with your neighbor, your peers, your family. This is a conversation that should be had at every dinner table, in every classroom, over the course of every holiday.

No. 3: 3 Psychological Tricks to Help You Save Money

Speaker: Wendy De La Rosa

Where to watch: See Wendy De La Rosa's talk here

In theory, everyone wants to save money. In reality, we’re spending more and saving less.

Wendy De La Rosa, an Assistant Professor at The Wharton School, discusses how we can change our negative money behaviors to improve our financial health. Her talk provides a guide to help revamp our habits, saving effortlessly in the process.

Speaker quote/takeaway: As human beings, we can be irrational when it comes to saving and spending and budgeting. But luckily, we know this about ourselves, and we can predict how we'll act under certain environments. Let's do that with saving. Let's change our environment to help our future selves.

No. 4: Let’s Get Honest About Our Money Problems

Speaker: Tammy Lally

Where to watch: See Tammy Lally's talk here

Why do we hide our money problems? It’s time to change this.

Tammy Lally, a money coach and author, talks about how financial mismanagement is common, yet we’re rarely open and honest about our struggles. Lally shares her personal story about her brother’s unexpected death and the importance of validating others’ financial hardships. She encourages us to end “money shame” and stop equating our self-worth to our financial lives.

Speaker quote/takeaway: We have to get honest with each other that we're suffering with money issues, and let's get real -- we have to stop numbing out our pain. In order to uncover the painful parts of your money story and your money history, you can't be numb.

No. 5: The Future of Money

Speaker: Neha NarulaWhere to watch: See Neha Narula's talk here

What does the future hold for how we access and use money?

Neha Narula, Director, of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, talks about the future of how we buy and sell. Narula discusses our collective fiction about money and a future powered by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

With the rise of cryptocurrencies, we are eliminating the need for traditional financial institutions, like banks and currency exchanges.

Speaker quote/takeaway: Cryptocurrencies are the first step to a world with global programmable money. And in a world with programmable money, I can pay anyone else securely without having to sign up or ask permission, or do a conversion or worry about my money getting stuck.

No. 6: Why We Take Financial Risks

Speaker: Elise Payzan-LeNestour

Where to watch: See Elise Payzan-LeNestour's talk here

Risk avoidance is both genetic and environmental. So why do we still take chances?

Speaker Elise Payzan-LeNestour, a Scientia Fellow Professor of Finance at the University of New South Wales, questions how we decide between safe bets and dangerous gambles. She discusses risky financial behavior through observing a computerized game of chance.

Speaker quote/takeaway: We are lured into gambling even when we perfectly know we should not, because we cannot resist the temptation to seek more reward. More sugar. More cheese. More money.

No. 7: Why You Should Know How Much Your Coworkers Get Paid

Speaker: Dr. David Burkus

Where to watch: See David Burkus' talk here

Do you know how much your coworkers earn? According to Dr. David Burkus, you should.

Burkus is an Organizational Psychologist, contributor for the Harvard Business Review, author, and keynote speaker . He questions why our culture values keeping salaries secret and why this practice doesn’t benefit employees, companies, or society. By sharing our compensation level, we could solve greater financial issues, like the gender wage gap.

Speaker quote/takeaway: It turns out that pay transparency -- sharing salaries openly across a company -- makes for a better workplace for both the employee and for the organization.

No. 8: How I Learned to Read -- and Trade Stocks -- in Prison

Speaker: Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll

Where to watch: See Curtis "Wall Street" Carroll's talk here

Financial literacy has the power to impact meaningful change. Just ask Curtis Carroll. In Carroll’s talk, he discusses his personal journey and the power of becoming financially literate.

Now known as "Wall Street,” Curtis Carroll was incarcerated at 17-years-old. While incarcerated, he taught himself how to read and track stocks.

Now, he is the founder of Project Feel, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting financial literacy through the philosophy of Financial Empowerment Emotional Literacy.

Speaker quote/takeaway: Financial illiteracy is a disease that has crippled minorities and the lower class in our society for generations and generations, and we should be furious about that.

No. 9: Know Your Worth, and Then Ask for It

Speaker: Casey Brown

Where to watch: See Casey Brown's talk here

Does your paycheck represent what you’re worth? The answer is likely no.

We are rarely paid what we’re worth -- but rather, what our bosses think we’re worth. Casey Brown, a pricing consultant, author, and speaker, discusses how to earn your true value. She shares personal stories to help you learn to better communicate your value and receive adequate compensation for your skills and experience.

Speaker quote/takeaway: No one will ever pay you what you're worth. They'll only ever pay you what they think you're worth, and you control their thinking.

No. 10: Does Money Make You Mean?

Speaker: Paul Piff

Where to watch: See Paul Piff's talk here

It’s fascinating what you can learn about social behavior from a simple game like Monopoly, especially when you’re winning and feeling rich as a result.

Associate Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Berkeley, Paul Piff, shares his research on how human behavior changes when people regard themselves as wealthy. Hint: inequality is built on selfishness. The good news is that there is a solution: we must build financial empathy.

Speaker quote/takeaway: How might that experience of being a privileged player in a rigged game change the way you think about yourself and regard that other player?

No. 11: Saving for Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Speaker: Shlomo Benartzi

Where to watch: See Shlomo Benartzi's talk here

We’ll save money next week, or month, or year. But the present, that’s too hard.

Shlomo Benartzi -- a Distinguished Senior Fellow for the Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles -- says a lack of patience is the largest hurdle to saving for retirement. We are programmed to want immediate gratification. So how can we turn this challenge into a solution?

Speaker quote/takeaway: We have to understand why people are not saving, and then we can hopefully flip the behavioral challenges into behavioral solutions, and then see how powerful it might be.

No. 12: Poverty, Money – and Love

Speaker: Jessica Jackley

Where to watch: See Jessica Jackley's talk here

Poverty is treated like a dirty word. Rather than confront the stigma, we often throw money at poverty or avoid its reminders all together. Maybe the problem is our attitude.

How can we change our perspective to recenter people in poverty and not overlook them?

Jessica Jackley, Professor of the Practice of Social Entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business, had an aha moment. Her attitude shifted and she began handling microloans that empower people in financial distress.

Speaker quote/takeaway: If we can catalyze a supportive community to come around these individuals and to participate in their story by lending a little bit of money, I think that can change the way we believe in each other and each other's potential.

The Bottom Line

TED Talks are discussions with the power to educate and inspire. Check them out!