Recently we’ve been talking more about investing internally at Automattic and it’s personally of interest to me, and we created an internal “watercooler” blog about this topic. My colleagues are chiming in to share their own resources and since you know how much I like podcasts (check out my Guide to Podcasts and my other podcast recommendations), I started looking at which personal finance and economic podcasts there are out there.

Here are a few I’ve found and I have started listening to. The jury is still out on the most useful ones, so I’ve included some pros & cons of what I’ve observed from listening so far.

If you have a podcast or resource to suggest, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

CNBC’s The Suze Orman Show [iTunes | site]

• Pros: The real-life stories are interesting, and the “Can I afford it?” scenarios take into consideration the person’s entire financial situation and have been good reflections for me when thinking about big(ger) purchases myself. You can also watch the video instead of just the audio.
• Cons: The audio is coming from her TV show which means there can be some wild audio interludes (which I imagine looking like a wealth of explosions and money on fire). Some of the “girlfriend!” exclamations and her sayings can be endearing…or annoying.

NPR Planet Money [iTunes | site]

• Pros: Shortish (~20 minutes) episodes mean they are quick bites, on interesting topics which are economic / financial in scope and may speak to larger issues. Usually not directly personal finance advice. Also an associated blog.
• Cons: Episodes are hit & miss for how useful they are to me…topics vary from personal to global finance and economics, which depending on where you are in your financial / investment journey, may or may not be informative.

The Dave Ramsey Show [iTunes | site]

• Pro: Practical episodes, with many real stories he bases his advice on, and he has a bit of a formula (his ‘baby steps’) which can be helpful to remember his advice.
• Con: One of the things I thought was weird is that his feed in iTunes is only 1 episode! Which means you can’t go back and glom onto episodes which I think sucks. There’s a little God/bible talk so that might bother you if you’re not Christian (his belief).

Money Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life [iTunes | site]

• Pros: I like the short bites of episodes she presents, so a listen isn’t a long affair. The issues presented are pretty practical for personal finance, and wide-ranging.
• Cons: Her voice can be kind of annoying (not ideal for a podcast) and she has a lot of ads which are sometimes hard to know are ads at first, because it’s always her presenting them. Hearing a single person talk for an entire episode can be a bit boring (I would recommend she incorporate some interviews sometimes).

APM Marketplace Weekend [iTunes | site]

• Pro: They do a economic recap in 20 seconds at the beginning of each show. This was APM Marketplace Money, which is now rebranded to APM Marketplace Weekend. The information presented is going to be from news perspective vs. a personality or expert presenting this.
• Con: It’s weekly, and the focus is more global / economics at a higher (enterprise) scope vs. personal finance. They try to make these larger issues relevant to individuals (‘how do banks’ liquidity affect me’?)

I downloaded Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer but just the intro (full of explosions and guitair riffs) has already made me not super interested in listening. Anyone a fan?

A few others I’m checking out since publishing:

• Jill on Money – CBS Senior Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger has a call-in radio show – she gives interesting advice and (I’m a sucker for) a pretty soothing voice.
• Listen Money Matters – “Not your father’s boring finance show” – a bit of a younger and edgier viewpoint on finance. I imagine they will answer a lot of the same questions people approaching personal finance will have.