No matter your investing approach, experience in the markets, or portfolio objectives, popular financial podcasts can be an invaluable resource. Typically available for free, they are also a highly-convenient way to discover new investing ideas/strategies, and improve your overall financial savvy.
If you are just starting out investing, podcasts can provide foundational knowledge you can use to help build and grow your nest egg. For more experienced investors, financial podcasts can be a useful tool in investing idea generation. Whether you are a value investor, growth investor, or focus on a particular niche in the market, there’s likely a podcast out there discussing worthwhile individual stock opportunities in tune with your investing style.
Even if you are simply a “set it and forget it” index investor, podcasts can help you achieve your personal finance/investing goals. Offering insights on financial, tax, and estate planning, these types of financial podcasts can help maximize wealth for passive investors.
So, what are some of the best popular financial podcasts currently out there? Consider these seven, all covering a wide variety of finance/investing-related topics.
Animal Spirits
Produced by Ritholtz Wealth Management, Animal Spirits is an entertaining yet insightful bi-weekly podcast covering the latest market trends. Guests provide deep dives into specific stock market strategies, as well as light-hearted banter about more general topics.
Hosted by Michel Batnick and Ben Carlson, both advisors from Ritholtz Wealth Management, this podcast is a great listening choice for newbie and experienced investors alike. Although not a strong resource for individual stock ideas, this program can help keep you up to date with the market, and introduce you to investing concepts you may not have been previously aware of.
Recent episodes have covered topics such as index investing, thematic investing, and even the pros and cons of investing in “sin stocks.” Along with their podcast, Batnick and Carlson’s respective blogs, The Irrelevant Investor and A Wealth of Common Sense, are worth a look as well.
Focused Compounding
Although perhaps not “popular” among investors overall, Focused Compounding is one of the more popular financial podcasts among those in the micro-cap and value investing communities. As the podcast title suggests, this show is produced by Focus Compounding, which initially started as an investment research provider, but in recent years has become an investment firm in its own right.
This weekly program is hosted by the firm’s two principals, Geoff Gannon and Andrew Kuhn. In each episode, Gannon and Kuhn discuss general investing topics, as well as more topics within the micro-cap and value investing niches.
Clocking in at around two hours per episode, Focused Compounding is longer compared to many of the financial podcasts discussed above and below. That said, if you’re looking for very specific insights, like what is “the Best Warren Buffett stock screener,” you may want to give this show a listen.
Invest Like the Best
Are you looking for a financial podcast that provides interviews with leading investors/businesspeople? If yes, then Invest Like the Best may be the financial podcast for you.
The show’s host, Patrick O’Shaughnessy of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, may not be a household name. However, this popular investing podcast attracts an A-list lineup of guests. Guests in the past year have included Wall Street strategist Michael Mauboussin, Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE:FCPT) CEO Bill Lenehan, and Hollywood heavyweights Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Although Invest Like the Best covers broad topics, not individual stocks, this podcast is well worth tuning into.
Why? Through these interviews, this program enables you to “pick the brain” of leading names across multiple fields and industries. You never know when these nuggets of knowledge could come in handy. Down the road, they may play a major role in an important business/investing decision.
Investing for Beginners
As clearly stated by its name, Investing for Beginners is tailored towards those new to investing. Co-hosts Andrew Sather and Dave Ahern started the show in 2017, after realizing that there were (at the time) no popular financial podcasts covering this group.
Nearly six years later, this bi-weekly program has become one of the most popular investing podcasts out there. While focused on market beginners, don’t assume that means oversimplified, watered-down discussion. This show dives into many advanced stock investing topics, albeit in an approachable way.
In recent episodes, Investing for Beginners has tackled topics like price-to-earnings (or P/E) ratios, dollar cost averaging (or DCA), and has even provided listeners with a “birds-eye view” of Visa (NYSE:V) stock. If you are looking to become more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of investing, this is definitely a podcast to add to your listening list.
The Meb Faber Show
If you’re looking for a financial posting featuring both top-tier guests, and sophisticated investing insights, tune in to The Meb Faber Show. Meb Faber, the host of this podcast, is co-founded and CIO of Cambria Investment Management. Cambria manages both individual accounts, as well as 12 exchange-traded funds (or ETFs).
Each week, Faber invites notable investing thought leaders to discuss various investment themes/topics. Some relatively well-known guests as of late have included short-seller Marc Cohodes, Professor Eugene Fama (the “father of modern finance”), and hedge fund manager Harris “Kuppy” Kupperman.
Besides listening to new episodes of The Meb Faber Show each week, you might want to check out the show’s archives section. Faber has categorized his past episodes by theme/topic. These run the gamut from the Best Investing Ideas, all the way to an in-depth look into startups in Africa.
We Study Billionaires
We Study Billionaires teaches listeners how to apply the investment strategies of famous billionaire investors to grow their own portfolios. Hosted by Stig Brodersen, Trey Lockerbie, and Clay Finck, this is one of the most popular financial podcasts out there. Total downloads of episodes of this podcast have topped 100 million.
Not surprisingly, this program has devoted an extensive amount of time analyzing the most famous billionaire investor of all, Warren Buffett. Most recently, We Study Billionaires dived into more obscure aspects of Buffett’s personal life and investing career, analyzing their impact on his investing process.
That said, We Study Billionaires is more than just a never-ending discussion on Warren Buffett. Past episodes have analyzed other Wall Street heavy-hitters. These include Peter Lynch, Ray Dalio, and Howard Marks. On occasion, the program will also devote an episode to individual stock analysis.
The White Coat Investor
To cap off this list of the best financial podcasts, let’s look at one that’s admittedly more focused on personal finance than individual investing. Not only that, a podcast that targets a specific profession.
As you can probably tell from the name, The White Coat Investor is all about investing for doctors and other medical professionals. An offshoot of the popular Whitecoatinvestor.com website, Dr. Jim Dahle each week discusses various ways busy high-earners can seamlessly save and invest more of their hard-earned money.
But while doctors may be his target audience, Dahle’s podcast may also be useful for lawyers, small business owners, and other high-earners. The show’s extensive coverage of tax-planning topics, such as tax-advantaged retirement accounts (including cash balance plans), is one such reason to listen in. If you’re stuck in the high earner, not rich yet (or HENRY) category, The White Coat Investor may be the right podcast for you.
On the date of publication, Thomas Niel did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
