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While everyone has to manage their money and be financially literate as adults, most schools do not cover how to invest or handle money. Instead of learning about finance through mistakes and personal experience, individuals can check out these TED talks for innovative, unusual takes on finance. With short presentations of less than 20 minutes, these talks are ideal for anyone who wants a refresher on finance or a new approach to the way humans use money.
1. Poverty, Money and Love
In this TED talk, Jessica Jackley covers how microcredits work. She is the founder of Kiva.org, which is an organization that provides non-traditional loans to the poorest individuals. A few years ago, Jessica Jackley was one of the people who needed extra help to get out of poverty. At the time, she was listening to a speech by Muhammad Yunus about microcredits. The speech changed her life and inspired her to create Kiva. Today, individuals can get loans for as little as $25 on the website.
2. What’s in a Name? How We’re Doing Credit and Debit Cards All Wrong
In this TED talk, David Birch looks at the way our names connect to our identity. Birch is an identity and digital money consultant who finds it odd that our identity is still connected to our name when it comes to money. For chip cards and PIN cards, we are limiting the security of the system by using a name. Likewise, embossed cards make it easier for criminals to steal identities. If the criminal is in a rush, they can use a pencil to create an engraved image of the card. He believes that the embossed details ruin the security of the card, and Birch wants the name to be removed from the front of the card. While the cardholder already knows their name, the main concern is that criminals can learn it from the card when they attempt to steal money. Birch wants these details to change so that the money system becomes more secure.
3. How You Can Get Ahead by Saving Tomorrow, Not Today
Behavioral finance expert, Shlomo Benartzi, knows that people have a present bias when it comes to money. People are naturally inclined to look at their happiness in the present instead of planning ahead for future happiness. The way people think about the presence is one of the reasons why it can be so hard to save money.
In response to the problems with saving money today, Benartzi wants to create a plan that allows individuals to save tomorrow instead. Basically, he wants to teach employees to allocate money into a 401(k) so that saving is less painful. Additionally, he believes that people are more likely to save if they plan on using their raise for only savings. By doing this, the process of saving money is painless since the individual’s income remains the same as before.
4. Post-Crash, Investing in a Better World
Geoff Mulgan is an entrepreneur who likes to look at the way the economic crash affected the world. Since the crash, he has considered ways that mid-level entrepreneurs and investors can put their money to work. In particular, Mulgan talks about why the bailout did not focus on small-time investors.
5. Use Future-less Language and Save More Money
Behavioral economist, Keith Chen, wants to know how language affects saving patterns. From his research, Chen discovered that time-based languages like English make it too hard to save money. In English, the past, present and future are clearly separate. For Chinese-speakers, there are no chronological grammar differences that separate the future from the present. Interestingly, Chen’s research shows that future-less language speakers have an easier time saving money and save a higher percentage of their income.
For the most innovative ideas about money today, check out these TED talks. Featuring entrepreneurs and economists, these talks cover the ways we use money and how we can change the current monetary system.