Best Financial Independence Documentaries and Videos
Let’s face it…some of us don’t like to read. We have found some seriously amazing Financial Independence Documentaries and Finance Videos that we consider the best. We’ve also collected numerous motivational TV Shows and Movies related to business, happiness, and investing that you won’t want to miss…especially if you haven’t seen them since discovering FI. These films may finally be speaking a language you understand.
Disclosure: This page may contain Amazon or affiliate links where theFIway.com receives compensation of some sort. Any benefits received do not influence our decision to post a video as we consider the resource of great value to achieving Financial Independence. These links solely provide us a means to keep generating free financial education for the next generation.
Best Financial Independence Documentaries
Minimalism is about living with fewer material possessions and how the philosophy can help you achieve a sense of freedom by focusing on what truly makes you happy. Dan Harris, Ryan Nicodemus, and Joshua Fields Millburn take you on an adventure about life as a Minimalist. It’s a Documentary about the important things in life and gives you an inside look of families, entrepreneurs, architects, artists, journalists, scientists, and Wall Street brokers that have adopted the lifestyle.
Pam Krueger of the PBS series MoneyTrack, interviews the legendary Vanguard founder and innovator of low fee index funds. Bogle reviews the 2008 financial crisis and what occurred on Wall Street. He provides valuable advice for the everyday DIY Investor. Bogle is renowned throughout the FIRE communities and loathed by high fee Money Managers. His philosophy on investing appropriately dubbes his followers “Bogleheads“.
An in production documentary where viewers will travel with Scott and Taylor as they leave a once perceived “dream life” in California and transform their lives into a new one which costs 70% less. They will examine FIRE’s practical spending and investment philosophies and its underlying goals of optimizing happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in life. “Playing with FIRE” will capture the truths and dispel the myths of what it feels like to embrace FIRE – the elation, stresses, joys, fears, realities, etc.
A documentary that blends comical animations with real world American struggles with retirement savings. They also interview economists, policy makers, and financial experts to evaluate why many are unable to build a “nest egg” that will support them in their twilight years.
How to Win the Loser’s Game
A documentary serialized on SensibleInvesting.TV that interviews some big names of the investing world. The film talks with Vanguard’s founder John Bogle, Dimensional Fund Advisor’s founder David Booth, and even economist Nobel Prize winners. “How to Win the Loser’s Game” provides practical investing advice with staggering evidence as to why passive index investing is the go to strategy to attain financial independence.
Best Money Motivation Shows
Gail Vaz-Oxlade helps a variety of people get out of debt with simplistic exercises that focus more on mindset alteration than practical application. We’re not sure how much this show is staged, but the budgetary fundamentals are there. Gail cracks the whip like a mother of each participant and tries to make them understand how they got into debt in the first place. She then creates challenges to reinforce the fundamental tactics to get out of debt and repair any family problems resulting from financial hardship.
President Donald Trump hosted this top rated show in 2004 that continued successfully for many years. It eventually migrated to a Celebrity focused charity show, but the earlier seasons detailed various entrepreneurial challenges that are inspiring. You’ll see contestants with competitive personalities going head to head in Side Hustle competitions and board room debates. Sometimes you need to fight to succeed and Trump’s proteges deliver.
Each Season provides an inside look of those looking to make it on Wall Street. This includes hedge fund managers, brokers, hustlers, rookies, commodity traders, bankers, and more. Witnessing the intense competition and cut throat nature that defines Wall Street should make us all the more motivated to stay on theFIway to wealth. However, it’s an entertaining look through the eyes of those trying to thrive on Wall Street. As of this listing, Season 1 is on Youtube.
Ex Patriots is a very inspirational 13 episode series from Reserve channel in cooperation with Travel + Leisure. The show chronicles Americans chasing their dreams and earning a living abroad. Sometimes you can’t wait until you are financially independent to pursue your passions. These Americans did just that showing the highs and lows and pros and cons of living outside the United States.
Best Personal Finance Videos
SIMPLES
SIMPLES is an animated web series created by the Minimalists that show the negative side of consumerism and putting more value on the important things and people in one’s life. The minimalism movement is growing and has similar tenants to financial independence.
Best Finance Movies and Films
HBO’s riveting account of the 2008 financial crisis based on the bestselling book by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The film provides an inside look on how the crisis began and what the powerful people involved accomplished to ensure the world’s economy remained in tact. The movie centers on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his efforts working with Wall Street to avoid a total collapse of the market and investment banking system.
A documentary of Enron’s massive scandal and collapse in 2001 which put thousands out of work and vanishing $60 Billion into thin air. So many shady activities are detailed, such as the California electricity crisis and duping Employees to only invest in Enron stock. This is a great example of Executive stock manipulation and why diversification is so important. The film won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature and the muse for the hilarious movie Fun with Dick and Jane.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up for a recounting of the life of New York Stock Broker and founder of Stratton Oakmont Jordan Belfort. This docudrama shows how Belfort went from scamming folks on penny stocks to manipulating Stocks and IPOs. He takes advantage of investors through charisma and mastery of the sales pitch. After watching this, you’ll never trust a hustling stock broker again.
A similar story to the “Wolf of Wall Street” and also inspired by Jordan Belfort, but completely fictitious. Boiler room shows how young stock brokers can manipulate average investors into buying worthless securities. The film follows a college dropout who joins the ranks of a small stock brokerage firm and witnesses the blatant exploitation of investors.
A heart warming biographical drama of Chris Gardner overcoming adversity and homelessness with his son. His journey from struggling salesman to risking it all on an unpaid stockbroker internship, with minimal chances of success, is truly amazing. His inspiring story will motivate you to bust through life’s struggles, achieve your goals, and find your path to happiness.
No Finance movie list would be complete without the original classic “Wall Street”. Many first time watchers in the 80’s may think it’s boring, especially if you don’t understand the terminology or how the markets work. If you’re reading this, rewatch this movie and it’ll instantly become a classic. Just like many involved in the stock market of the 80s and 90s. Wall Street is the tale of a rookie stockbroker taking on a well respected investing tycoon. The film has become the archetypal portrayal of 1980’s investing.
An unnecessary sequel to the Academy Award Winning “Wall Street” movie, but entertaining nonetheless. Part 2 of this story follows Gordon Gekko’s release from a 23 year prison sentence and focuses on the 2008 financial crisis. This time Gekko takes the well deserved role of the antihero rather than a villain, and tries to fix the relationship with his daughter and her fiance after the ending of the first movie.
