Whether you’re an experienced investor or a novice, there’s an investing podcast for you. These digital audio programs have become a convenient way for Americans to download and tune in to expert analysis and opinion.
This year a whopping 112 million Americans are listening to podcasts on all sorts of topics, including investing — an increase of 11 percent from 2016, according to a study by Edison Research and Triton Digital. An estimated 42 million Americans, about 15 percent of the U.S. population, listen weekly, according to Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, a digital marketing company headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana.
Although no numbers exist for audiences of investing podcasts, these audio deep dives can make you financially literate and a smarter investor.
Like visiting the doctor, you’ll get more out of podcasts if you already have a sense of your investing health than if you know absolutely nothing, says Brad Cederberg, vice president and financial advisor for D.A. Davidson & Co. in Missoula, Montana. That same knowledge and awareness can help you in consultations with a financial advisor. “If you’ve been listening to a podcast, when you go to a financial advisor you will be able to sniff out who is just throwing jargon at you and who is using actual data to make informed decisions,” Cederberg says.
[See: 7 Things Your Financial Advisor Should Not Tell You.]
He likens finding the right podcast to joining a running club with participants at all different levels of ability. “It will help you as an investor if you hear from millionaires as well as people in so much debt they can barely breathe and people who made a whole lot of progress,” Cederberg says. “You want to hear people who are in your situation and those who are ahead of you and behind you to help motivate you.”
To get an idea of which podcasts investors should listen to and why, we talked to the experts — financial advisors who are podcast listeners.
Planet Money
Website: www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money
Find it on: iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn
Co-founded by journalists Adam Davidson, now at the “New Yorker,” and Alex Blumberg, who went on to co-found podcasting company Gimlet Media, “Planet Money” launched in September 2008 as the financial crisis became apparent. Now led by a rotation of NPR journalists, the twice-weekly podcast on business and economics features more than 800 episodes, including one recently about potential changes to the corporate income tax rate. Cederberg, a “Planet Money” fan from the start, kept listening as the financial crisis unfolded to understand how bad things were and the toll they might take on investors. He still listens today to get a sense of the economy. “If you want to be an informed investor, you need to know a little bit about how the overall economy works,” he says.
[See: 10 Skills the Best Investors Have.]
Masters in Business
Website: www.bloomberg.com/podcasts/masters_in_business
Find it on: iTunes, TuneIn
Bloomberg View columnist Barry Ritholtz interviews money managers as well as top financial experts from academia, government and business to discover the people and ideas shaping markets, business and investing. Interview subjects have included legendary investor and stock picker Mario Gabelli of Gabelli Asset Management and technical researcher Louise Yamada, managing director of Louise Yamada Technical Research Advisors and a pioneer of evaluating securities with statistics. This weekly conversational-style podcast airs Fridays and is a favorite of Cederberg and Morningstar’s director of personal finance, Christine Benz. Since “Masters in Business” began in November 2014, there have been nearly 150 episodes, ranging from less than an hour to nearly two hours.
The Dave Ramsey Show
Website: https://www.daveramsey.com/show/archives/2017-08-15?mode=listen
Find it on: iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher
Investors with debt should tune into “The Dave Ramsey Show” podcast, based on the syndicated 25-year-old radio show with the same name, says Cathy Gearig, a partner at LifePlan Financial Advisory Group in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The podcast, which began in 2005, takes content from the three-hour, five-day-a-week radio show (airing live at 2 p.m. ET) and turns it into hourly episodes, with more than 9,000 to date. Topics range from a millionaire theme hour in which Ramsey, a New York Times best-selling author, talks to those who have crossed that threshold, to everyday investors who want to know how to make more money and reduce financial stress. Although Ramsey almost never discusses stocks, it’s a great way to listen to a seasoned pro answer questions about everything from IRAs to budgets, says Cederberg, also a fan of this podcast.
Financial Advisor Success
Website: www.kitces.com/blog/category/21-financial-advisor-success-podcast/
Find it on: iTunes, Stitcher
Although directed at financial advisors, the podcast about professional success stories, is a good way for investors to learn more about how the investing industry operates. Airing weekly on Tuesdays, “Financial Advisor Success” features host Michael Kitces, a certified financial planner in Reston, Virginia, who has nearly 50 episodes under his belt since the podcast began in January. Jason Howell, a fiduciary wealth advisor in Vienna, Virginia, says the podcasts help you learn from other people’s mistakes because it asks guests about how they got started, what their business is like today, and the achievements and mistakes made along the way. Because financial advisors are looking for better ways to educate their clients, some of the podcast’s discussions about how behavioral assessment tools can help people build wealth and how financial wellness organizations counsel investors in a group setting apply to a lay audience, too.
Invest Like the Best
Website: http://investorfieldguide.com/podcast/
Find it on: iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn
Host Patrick O’Shaughnessy explores unconventional investments, from cryptocurrency to tech companies outside of Silicon Valley to quantitative hedge funds. O’Shaughnessy, a principal and portfolio manager at O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, a quantitative money management firm, has a background as unconventional as his investing topics: He studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Notre Dame. “Markets are just people after all,” he writes on his website, The Investor’s Field Guide. Airing weekly on Tuesdays, the podcast has more than 60 episodes since it began in September 2016. Episodes range from 50 to 80 minutes. The podcast is a favorite of Morningstar’s Benz.
[See: 7 ETFs That Let You Invest With the ‘Smart Money’.]
Investing Insights From Morningstar.com
Website: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/investing-insights-from-morningstar-com-audio/id278128007?mt=2
Find it on: iTunes, Stitcher
This 20- to 35-minute weekly podcast, which debuted in 2008, is hosted by Scott Halver, Morningstar.com’s senior video producer, and features a number of Morningstar experts who take turns giving investing tips, interviewing fund managers and discussing their picks for stocks and funds, including exchange-traded funds. The podcast, which airs Fridays, is great for do-it-yourself investors because it usually dissects a sector, like banking, and gives investment ideas, Gearig says. “If you’d been listening, you’d know that emerging markets have really done well this year.” That, in turn, helps remind investors of some important basics, she says, such as “why we create diversified portfolios, how we assess risks, why we rebalance and why we have certain processes in place.”
More from U.S. News
Avoid These 8 Rookie Investing Mistakes
The Top 10 Investment Portfolio for Millennials
8 Things to Consider When Choosing an Online Broker
6 Investing Podcasts Advisors Recommend originally appeared on usnews.com
