Updated on August 15, 2022

Reading about personal finance and following the advice of budget/finance hackers have hugely changed my life so much. And thanks to Youtube, I watch a few channels to keep the spirit going because the road to financial independence can get really lonely and tiring.

I tend to pick Youtube channels that are less on the trendy, alarmist side. You know, the ones that constantly scream that the stock market is melting? Yeah, not my jam. I also tend to be wary of channels that heavily promote financial services. I like Youtubers who are not weighed down by an agenda to make more money through sponsorship deals. Not that I think they’re evil, but it tends to make me wary of their advice.

The international Youtube channels I love and highly recommend lean heavily on offering content that will help you be a better money manager and investor. Watch these Youtube channels:

If you want to strengthen your foundation in finance

These are my favourite Youtubers to go to if you want to learn unbiased foundational knowledge about managing your finances well.

Ben Felix (Canada)

Canadian-oriented financial educational channel. Ben works in an investing firm, which makes this even more interesting because his content often highlights the shortcomings of the financial industry. But that’s what I like about Ben — I feel that he has no agenda except to empower you with education to make the best financial decision for yourself. That means he gives the upsides and downsides of every investment type, even if it makes financial institutions look bad.

Plain Bagel (Canada)

I am starting to think that Canadians are the centrists of the financial world! Jokes aside, like Ben Felix, Richard Coffin is an actual finance professional. A CPA and CFP, to be exact. He won me over with his videos on cryptocurrency, when I was desperately trying to understand it but can’t seem to get a straight answer from the crypto community. His content is very much like Ben Felix’s, in that he strives to make you understand how financial securities work so that you can understand whether it’s the right thing for you.

Patrick Boyle (United States)

I live for Patrick Boyle’s dry, sarcastic humour. They are the highlight of my Youtube watch day. As a hedge fund manager, a university professor and a former investment banker, his content is deeper and more academic, but he is never boring. I like how he comments and explains the “how” and the “why” behind the current financial events of the day — for example, events such as Cathie Wood’s ARKK funds rapid decline, Sri Lanka’s economic decline and Elon Musk’s Twitter (almost) buy. It’s thorough yet simple enough for beginners to understand, but always accompanied with a dash of spicy sarcasm.

If you want to manage your finances better

These are the Youtubers that will give you tips and hacks to pay down debt, budget better and adopt a financially healthy mindset.

Budget Girl (United States)

There are several things that attracted me to Budget Girl’s videos and is the reason why she’s so inspiring:

• She became debt-free earning a low salary
• She was a journalist (represent!)
• She’s so darn optimistic despite her (initial) tough circumstances

Budget Girl had a huge wake-up call when she lost her journalist job. She had no income coming in and over US20k in debts. After that frightening experience, she told herself that she’ll never be this terrified ever again. So set out to change her financial life.

She reminds me a lot of myself. Back when I decided to do the crazy thing by completely eliminating my six-figure debt in 2008, I was earning only (wait for it) RM3,500.

See, a lot of times people get discouraged when they find out that a person got rid of their debts because they were earning a high salary. Many then have the mistaken belief that you need to have a high income to achieve financial independence. People like Budget Girl (and me!) demonstrate that you don’t have to earn big bucks to alter your financial destiny. The one thing you need to do is this: START NOW.

Dollar Dude (United States)

Personal finance a dry topic? Pfft! Dollar Dude is anything but boring! This guy is hilarious, makes videos with great content – what more do you need?

He is proof that you can turn your life around in a massive way – he was a self-confessed slacker who had a light-bulb moment one day and realised that it was time to turn his life around. And what a turnaround – he became valedictorian, earned a degree, got a great job and then paid down his debt and became debt free.

Watch him to be educated and entertained.

The Financial Diet (United States)

Slick, polished and oh-so-useful. I love the content, which ranges from financial to career advice, even if it’s geared more towards millenials. Sometimes, however, TFD has been accused of pushing content that is priveleged and disconnected with the masses, but ignore those — lots of gems in the channel.

If you want to learn about investing

The investing world is overwhelming amirite? These Youtubers will teach how to invest better, whether you choose value or growth stocks, index funds or real estate. And they don’t make it boring!

Minority Mindset (United States)

Jaspreet Singh’s videos are not just educational but highly entertaining. I watch him mostly to understand the financial issues affecting the United States because as the saying goes — if the US sneezes, the world catches a cold! He also talks about investing in cryptocurrencies, stocks, real estate and more.

Jarrad Marrow (United States)

I admit it. I tend to gravitate towards people who have the same style of investing like me. Namely, index fund investing. And Jarrad is big on that. And while I believe he does have sponsored content, it is not the entirety of his content. He gives fascinating and often challenging views about his chosen style of investing — index fund investing.

Mark Tilbury (United Kingdom)

Mark is the grandpa you’d like to learn money stuff from! He believes that everyone can become financially free and wealthy by combining and entrepreneurial mindset with solid financial education. His videos are both fun and educational. He talks about entrepreneurship, investing and wealth creation.

And Mark comes from humble begginings — he left school at 16 with “no qualifications and no money”. He started with a $2 per hour job but now runs a multi-million dollar business.

Tracey Edwards (Australia)

Tracey is based in Australia makes videos about making money, saving, investing and other personal finance topics. She is into dividend investing, so her investing advice is skewed towards that. I follow her for content catered more for those in their 30s and 40s.

Everything Money (United States)

While they are big into value investing, the Everything Money guys also highly recommend index investing, which I really appreciate. They have an “8 pillar process” to evaluate what stocks you should buy. As I’m not a value investor, I can’t comment how accurate they are, but I do like how they carefully explain investment strategies. They tend to be on the spicy side of things, meaning, they are not afraid to criticise popular finance Youtubers.

The Fifth Person (Singapore)

This Singaporean channel shares content about investing, financial literacy and intelligent money habits. I like watching this channel to get more relatable tips about investing, even if our neighbours down south have way more investing opportunities and services than we do (sobs quietly). They sometimes talk about Malaysian-related topics.

If you want to retire well …

Honestly, millennials are the reason why we have a wealth of personal finance information now. However, their content is often catered to folks below 30 who have a long investing time horizon. What about us folks who have only 10 or less years to retire?

Rob Berger (United States)

He tends to post long content. Like, one to two-hour videos! Fortunately, Rob has shorter videos for impatient folks like me. Really down-to-earth advice for all ages, though I appreciate that his content is skewed towards those in the middle age or near retirement. He carefully explains how you can decide what to invest in confidently. His advice will prevent you from being sucked into trendy investments (without good reason) or swayed by financial advisors who do not have your best interest at heart. Watch him if you want to learn how to make financial decisions with full clarity.