Now more than ever, understanding how personal finances work is important for living a more stable and more comfortable life. It gives anyone the ability to have control over their own money and see to it that they know where it goes and how it is actually spent.
Many people have already been able to recognize the importance of creating educational materials about subjects of financial concern, and the availability of published content pertaining to this broad topic can be overwhelming. Forbes, Fortune and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance are just some of the best magazines that share the lime light in terms of learning about finances.
However, learning about money isn’t only limited to printed articles in newspapers, magazines and books. Those who are in need of financial guidance can now have a more comprehensive understanding of personal finances with the help of online materials, from well-constructed articles to highly engaging video tutorials.
Accessing this massive content database is just a matter of fully understanding the topic and determining which sites provide the perfect content that matches your needs. Now, prepare to go on a journey to better financial literacy. Unveil the secrets of the world of finance with these five online learning materials.
New York Times’ Your Money
New York Times is one of the most compelling newspaper companies in the United States. What sets it apart among other reputable resources is the keen understanding of how money goes around and comes around. The Your Money section in the newspaper is one of the most read pages in the US since it provides up-to-date news about financial regulations and changes in the financial outlook for the country.
The section has migrated online to provide longer, more instantaneous narratives about budgeting and finance. In fact, the website now holds hundreds of articles pertaining to budgeting, investing and saving. In terms of credibility, these articles are written by experts and columnists such as Ron Lieber and Tara Siegel Bernard, both of whom tackle personal views about individual financial management.
One of Your Money’s aims is to update readers about financial trends and discuss how these trends can affect people in their daily lives. Such articles are highly effective because they are specific and relatable. Recent articles include topics such as a piece on renting or buying a home, the realities of student loans after graduating, and rainy day saving, just to name a few.
Personal finance learning should not be limited to listening to financial coaches and reading about the topic in books and magazines. Sometimes, the best kind of learning comes from regular people who share the same problems. This is how Wise Bread began. Now, it has become one of the biggest learning sites in terms of finances. They’ve also got some excellent videos which you can use a video converter to be able to watch for free, forever.
Wise Bread is composed of a community of bloggers that help other individuals live their lives to the fullest with proper financial management. Its personal take on a wide range of financial situations makes the frugal living tips much easier to understand. However, the personal answers don’t necessarily sacrifice the depth of discussion of the topic.
Articles such as the “5 Ways to Turn Credit Card Rewards Into Real Wealth” show how one can take advantage of a rewards card to make a couple of hundred dollars on the side. Another notable article is the “How to Live a Retired Life Before Retirement” piece where the author discusses in detail how financial preparedness and clever planning can be advantageous as part of an individual’s short term and long term goals.
Investopedia’s Investing 101 tutorial
Another aspect of learning about finances is understanding how investing works. This online learning tool can help anyone interested in investments, even those who have no background in the field.
While this can be taken within a full year as part of a degree, Investopedia’s Investing 101 tutorial has made the program much more engaging and fast-paced, narrowing the science down to an 8-step course. It is a comprehensive guide that allows people to fully digest the importance of investing as part of their financial lives, and how it can be done successfully.
The first and second part of the tutorial introduces the learner to the idea of investing, discussing how it is a tool for building wealth. At that point, anyone can answer the question “What is investing?” Along the way, the course helps the audience to understand the concept of compounding and how it relates to one’s spending habits.
Eventually, the types of investments are discussed, as well as the concept of investment portfolios and diversification. At the end of the tutorial, the learner should get have a good understanding of the investing world and be able to identify effective techniques that are useful in real life investing.
Entrepreneur Channel on YouTube
Video lectures prove to be one of the best ways for people to learn. Not only do they engage students to learn and participate in their own ways, they are also proven to help in problem solving and memory retention as well as independent critical thinking. This is the technique applied by Entrepreneur Online in teaching people about how to make more money and increase savings.
This YouTube channel offers a variety of tips that anyone can utilize in their daily lives. What separates this from other channels is that the articles are based from business ideas in Entrepreneur Magazine and Entrepreneur Network partners. As such, the videos boast expert advice and comprehensive content.
Small Business Owners can get a whole lot of expert information from this channel. By simply clicking on the specific videos on the list, anyone can access a wide array of topics. The channel includes videos on business technology, business psychology and debt management. It gives the viewers a chance to expand their understanding of business techniques that they can then employ in their own companies.
Another advantage of video lectures, especially in Youtube and other online video platforms, is that it can be easily shared with other people. With the use of any specialized video downloader, learners can save their videos in high definition for offline viewing or for information dissemination with other people who have the same interest in the field.
Money Tree Investing Podcast
As video tutorials make their way along the path to being of the more effective learning tools, audio lectures and podcasts are also engaging aspiring learners. This is what Money Tree Investing Podcast tries to employ in its discussion about money, investments, passive income and personal financial management.
Money Tree sets up a panel of experts to interview a special guest and ask a set of questions pertinent to the topic at hand. After which, the panelists open a discussion on what can be learned from the special guest and the whole program.
One of the more recent episodes includes a discussion about retirement planning, paying down student loans and taxes. In this podcast, they shared with their audience the variety of tax strategies anyone can employ in planning their retirement, as well as defensive allocations, and investments if they have the money to work with.
In another episode, they discussed the worst financial advice they’ve heard. Hillary Hendershott from Profit Boss was the special guest at that time, and she noted the worst financial advice she ever heard. She talked about discounted life insurance, house-flipping seminars, cash envelope systems and the “Bucket Investing” strategy.
Given this type of academic conversion, the podcast becomes more engaging and highly relatable to the viewers because the video shows real personal stories and genuine opinions on the topic. On top of that, the answers are drawn from expert knowledge of the subject and could prompt listeners to do their own research for a better personal understanding on the topic.