Cash talk! 5 TED Talks that you need to hear to alter the way you think about money

Money matters are complicated. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources to turn to that will teach you the basics.

Here are five TED Talks that could alter the way you think about money:

David Burkus
Transparent salaries




In his talk at TEDx University of Nevada, David Burkus poses the question: “What would happen if we had total pay transparency?“ A management researcher and author, Burkus says that at companies where salaries are is kept secret, employees generally feel they're being underpaid and discriminated against.

In this talk, Burkus presents research to back up his claim that keeping the salary a secret within an organisation could lead to what economists call a “total market failure.“

Daniel Goldstein
Present vs future




We have “two selves": the present self and the future self, behavioural economist Daniel Goldstein explains in his TED Talk. Every day, we make deci sions that have good or bad consequences for our future selves -often, our decisions satisfy the present self and “trounce all over the dreams“ of the future self, he says. “Saving is a classic two-selves problem,“ Goldstein explains. “The pre sent self does not want to save at all. It wants to consume.

Whereas the future self wants the pre sent self to save.“

Keith Chen
Language of saving




The behavioural economist says that languages without a concept for the future correlate strongly with high savings rates. On the other hand, if you speak a futureless language -where the present and future are spoken about the same way --it is easier to save in the present moment for the future. This subtle difference could help explain why citizens of the US (English is a futured language) save much less than people in other countries.

Cameron Herold
Making kids entrepreneurs




Making kids entrepreneurs If you want to teach your kids to be rich, entre preneur Cameron Herold's TED talk will give you something to chew on. “I think we should be raising kids to be entrepreneurs instead of lawyers,“ Herald says. He shares his own child hood entrepreneurial endeavours, from starting a caddy business to buying and reselling soda pops to a bridge club of 70-year-old women.

Neha Narula
The future of money




“Money isn't anything objective,“ Neha Narula, director of research at the Digital Currency Initiative, a part of the MIT Media Lab, says in her TED talk. Actually, the value of money is a collective fiction that citizens of the world have agreed upon.

Using modern cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, we can take this concept a step further, Narula says, and redefine how we value, and ultimately exchange, money.