9 Podcasts That Will Teach You About Investing

Although the podcast landscape is replete with money, debt, and personal finance podcasts, there are fewer shows that address investing topics. Here's a list of investing-related podcasts you can check out. These are not ranked in order, and all deserve a listen.

The criteria for selection is as follows:

-- Each has a host with investing-related experience or credentials.

-- Each is dedicated to investing, or is a money-related show with coverage of investing topics.

-- Each covers a variety of investing approaches and strategies.

-- Each is aimed at the reasonably intelligent listener with a moderate understanding of investing. You'll find investing-related analysis, tips and information in each selection.

Money for the Rest of Us. Episode 73: "Why You Shouldn't Trade."

A simple description of important money and investing concepts for the average individual -- how it works, how to invest it and how to live without worrying about it. Overtrading leads to lower investment returns -- Vanguard and others have the research to support this thesis. Host J. David Stein is smart and personable with a conversational style. He was easy to listen to, with well-researched content.

The takeaway from this episode is that trading is speculative. Stein explains how automated computerized investing algorithms have overshadowed the former human traders of the past. With the programmed intelligence of the computers, it is practically impossible to compete and beat the bots. "Seventy percent of the trades are machines talking to one another," he says.

Index Investing Show with Ron DeLegge. Episode: "The Single Most Important Thing You Should Do Right Now"

The concept of the show is "margin of safety." DeLegge, founder of ETFguide.com, discusses the details of the what, whys and hows of the "margin of safety" concept. His conversation is current, with references to the recent market volatility and decline. He explains that a margin of safety in investing is similar to a safety net for your money. Beyond the typical investment asset allocation, the investor needs a pool of cash that will not be touched by investment market movements.

This episode dives into a topic that is helpful for the average investor. DeLegge is promotional, offering an analysis of the listener's portfolio. He is easy to listen to, intelligent and helpful, all the while putting a new spin on an important investing concept.

Sound Investing . Episode: "How Much Risk Should I Take?"

Host Paul Merriman is a well-known fixture in the investing landscape, with decades of expertise and accolades. This episode answers two investing questions:

-- How can I assess what I can afford to risk?

-- How to come up with my personal standard deviation?

This topic is extremely important in light of the recent stock market drop. Merriman begins with a few simple investment risks to avoid, such as putting all your money in one company. Although this sounds like common sense, many people who buy just one company stock may unknowingly be in this risky position. He also warns against putting all of your money in one sector. For example, you may think health care is the sector of the future. Even if you're 99 percent certain, don't put all of your capital in one sector; spread it around, instead.

This episode takes the listener beyond the risk capacity quiz into an in-depth, thought-provoking conversation about risk. Merriman is another accomplished expert who manages to explain investing concepts in a clear manner.

The Disciplined Investor. Episode 430: "The Fed Blinked"

Host Andrew Horowitz begins by engaging with the listeners and discussing recent emails. This humanizes him and draws the listener in. On the flip side, the episode, which discusses the Federal Reserve board's decision not to raise interest rates in September, drifts toward the complex. Beginning investors may get a bit overwhelmed by this discussion.

Horowitz analyzes the current economic climate, including a discussion of the global headwinds impacting the interest rate decision. He explains how the global unrest is creating uncertainty and may be causing the Fed to hold back on raising rates. His commentary, although complex, is well-reasoned and easy to listen to. Time will tell how his interest rate expectations play out.

The Motley Fool Money. Espisode: "Spicy Stocks & Tools for Smart Thinking"

This podcast focuses on current economic reports and their interpretation and follows up with stocks in the news. This episode's hosts were Jason Moser and Jeff Fischer of the Motley Fool. The podcast starts with the disappointing jobs report. Next is the labor participation rate -- the lowest since 1997. After the labor topic, the hosts move into auto sales and close the economics portion with a chat about economic indicators.

The second section is all about sectors, stocks and recent earnings reports. For the stock picker, there's useful recap and analysis. The stock conversation covers earnings for Costco Wholesale Corp. (ticker: COST), and a discussion whether COST stock is overpriced. They recommend Costco as a quality company, worth buying on price dips.

The stock conversation continues with discussion about the sectors and individual stocks; retail aluminum and apparel rounded out the sectors.

For stock pickers and proponents of the Motley Fool site, this is a good podcast. But for index fund and passive investors, this one's not for you.

The Motley Fool Rule Breaker Investing. Episode: "5 Ways to Think About Investing in a Kurzweilian World"

These are short podcasts which average approximately 15 minutes each. This investing podcast is a nice alternative if you just have a few minutes to listen. The episode begins with a beautiful story, sourced from Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil, American author, computer scientist, inventor and futurist. The overview is that the ability to project what the world will be like in the future is diminishing.

According to show host David Gardner, the window of predictability has diminished from 10 years to two years due to the increases in technology and innovation. Gardner carries this thesis into investing and claims that the "old school" investing valuation metrics are out of date. He suggests that investors and rule breakers need to think about the future, and he believes the new technologies and advances are creating opportunities for investing.

Although the podcast was a bit promotional in support of the Motley Fool investing approach, Gardner has fresh, creative thoughts and insights. Only the future will prove whether his investing hypothesis prove correct.

Stacking Benjamins: Earn, Save, and Spend Money With a Plan. Episode: "The Lie Wall Street Wants You to Believe with Bobby Monks and Ron Jaffee"

This is a money and investing podcast inspired by "Car Talk," "Plant Money" and late-night talk shows, and features current discussions of economic news, stocks, sectors and politics. The show starts with the two co-hosts, Joe Saul-Sehy (a former investment advisor) and OG (a current investment advisor) discussing the headlines, economic news, and Wall Street. The next segment brings on their guests; Bobby Monks and Justin Jaffee, authors of "Uninvested: How Wall Street Hijacks Your Money and How to Fight Back."

Saul-Sehy is a first-rate show host with excellent questions and follow-up for the guests. This episode revolves around the thesis of the book, which suggests that managing your own money is easier than the Wall Street industry wants you to believe. They pull the veil back and uncover the dark underbelly of the Wall Street Kool-Aid.

The show ends with a roundtable discussion by financial bloggers about related topics. This show is a full hour with stimulating guests and excellent investing and money content.

InvestED: The Rule #1 Podcast. Episode 23: "Events, Margin of Safety and Moat Numbers"

The underlying premise of Rule No. 1 is don't lose money. Phil Town and his counter-balance daughter Danielle Town touch on the fundamental investing principals of renowned value investor Benjamin Graham. Each episode goes deep into explaining an investing concept related to Rule No. 1.

Phil Town's ideas are in the value investing camp, in stark contrast to those of the Motley Fool's Gardner. He looks for companies with only upside potential. In short, buy a company at a significant discount to its true value by using fundamental analysis principals.

This episode gives a detailed explanation of the margin of safety and moat concepts when investing. This tutorial is superb and a wonderful study for the investor looking for in-depth stock analysis information based on tried-and-true principles of value investing. Danielle Town's questions lend a nice contrast with the educational nature of the podcast. Each of the episodes goes into other value-investing concepts.

Similar to quite a few of the podcasts, there is a promotional element, which given the fact that the podcasts are free, is understandable.

Young and Oldish Money. Episode 6: "Pot Pros and Cons, Cash Alternatives Robo-Advisors, and Productivity"

Hosts Bobby Lee, a personal finance expert, teams with this writer to tackle a variety of current investing and money topics. This episode covers the current state of marijuana and whether there are viable investment opportunities related to the newly legalized (in many states) industry.

Another popular investing topic is the robo-advisor and how it's disrupting the investing industry. The hosts educate about the pros and cons of this new investing platform and touch on who benefits from a robo-advisor adding in overall smart investing strategies.

Barbara Friedberg has appeared as a guest on "Stacking Benjamins" and is co-host of the "Young and Oldish Money" podcast.