Mining YouTube for Personal Finance Gold Print
Tuesday, 10th July 2007 (by J.D.)This article is about Self-Improvement, Spare Change
I waste a lot of time on YouTube, watching videos like old Whose Line Is It Anyway? skits (warning: time sink!) and Gnarls Barkley played on the theremin. But YouTube isn’t just a place to goof around. There’s a lot of useful stuff there, too, including videos on personal finance and self-improvement. I’ve already shared Michael Fischer’s series on Saving and Investing. I’ve recently begun to unearth other useful personal finance videos:
- Michelle, The Wall Street Geek, has a friendly, engaging style as she takes a look at various stock market topics. She uses stories to make financial concepts easier to understand. Episodes include:
- The Wall Street Geek explains when to buy stocks
- The Wall Street Geek explains stock analysis
- The Wall Street Geek on profiting using little money
- The Wall Street Geek on profiting with pennies
- The Wall Street Geek on financial markets
Michelle hasn’t posted in a couple of months; I’m hoping that she’s merely taking an extended summer vacation.
- BetterLifeCoaches offers short videos that tackle individual topics quickly. These are professionally-produced clips featuring top-name experts.
- Daniel Pink: Help! My resume has too many jobs!
- Keith Ferrazzi: How can I be more outgoing?
- Stephen Covey: Goals and priorities
- Harvey Mackay: Overcoming obstacles
- Brian Tracy: If you could achieve one goal in 24 hours
- Les Brown: Why people fail
- Jack Canfield: Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want
- Terry Savage: How can my spouse and I resolve money issues?
- David Batstone: I’m in a soul-deadening job
- Jim Rohn: How to avoid being broke and stupid
I could watch these bite-sized motivational videos for hours.
- David Pogue from The New York Times has a series of videos offering how-to tips and product reviews. For example, have you ever wondered if noise-canceling headphones actually work? I have. Pogue reviews them to find out. He also has advice about converting video tapes to DVD, using the iPhone, and more.
- Scam Expert offers advice on how to avoid scams and identity theft.
- Several months ago, Consumer Affairs posted a series of videos wih warnings about credit counseling, extended warranties, and on-line scams.
- Wall Street Training Self-Study has a series of videos designed to help train future investment banking employees. They make my eyes glaze over, but you might find them interesting.
- Meanwhile, The Consumerist has an entire category at their site devoted to the YouTube videos. As you might expect, they find and post clips that expose the scammy side of business.
I’d love to find more video series like these at YouTube (or at Google Video). If you know any, please drop me a line.

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July 10th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Thanks for the links; now I’ll have a much more productive way to waste my time online!
July 10th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Thanks for the great list JD. This is going to keep me occupied for a while. I agree with Angie, if you’re going to watch videos online, at least watch videos on money!
July 10th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
I didn’t get past the line about the Whose Line clips… off to YouTube…
July 10th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Wow, I am surprise to find out that You Tube is not only a place to see some funky stuff and nice soccer goals… I will definitely take a second look at this site and find out more about finance on You Tube!
Thx!
FB.
July 10th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
That Gnarls Barkley thing is seriously cool!
July 10th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I too can sink a lot of time into Youtube. At least now there are some good educational links i can look at
P.S. Setting a countdown timer can help break the tube trance.
July 11th, 2007 at 12:32 am
You can find anything in YouTube! I love it! But it takes huge amount of time! :((
July 11th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Ahhh, the theremin! Now that’s brave.
Really though, thanks for the links. This really changes the way I view my personal finances
July 12th, 2007 at 1:08 am
This one isn’t totally PF one but about living in NYC and how expensive it is - it’s a homemade video about a song by LCD Soundsystem called “new york i love you”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQphuL0RMNU
July 13th, 2007 at 11:08 am
[...] Mining YouTube for Personal Finance Gold. ”… YouTube isn’t just a place to goof around. There’s a lot of useful stuff there, too, including videos on personal finance and self-improvement.” [Get Rich Slowly] [...]
July 14th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
I’m not necessarily looking for productivity stuff all the time, but I do have a good site for better-quality videos in a bunch of different categories:
http://withabrain.com
July 14th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Dude, I learned a long time ago that YouTube was the TV from Hell. All these parents talking about how kids are losing 6 hours a day looking at televisions . . . please!
Here’s my story, I was surfing the web and I came across this website featuring old Saturday Morning Cartoon stuff, right. They had H.R. Puff and Stuff and the Bugaloos . . . man I hadn’t seen the Bugaloos in like 25 years . . . so it take me to YouTube right. That was at 9:35AM (I was just taking a break from work right?) at 10:55PM — you heard me! 10:55 at NIGHT! I MADE myself shut off the computer.
That isn’t . . . right, man! I stay away from YouTube.
Signed
YouTube junky.
July 15th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Personal Finance Roundup…
A Look At The Consumer Action Handbook [The Simple Dollar] “I thought I’d give this free document a walk-through similar to one of my book reviews.” Building a credit history is about to get harder [USA Today] “For years, adults……
July 19th, 2007 at 12:38 am
[...] Mining YouTube for Personal Finance Gold ? Get Rich Slowly Some great YouTube video’s to check out! (tags: video videos youtube finance money toread investing personal) Posted by kolby on Jul 18 2007 under Uncategorized [...]