More TV Shows That Teach Personal Finances

I've posted a few times on the various TV shows that my family watches that teach some aspect of personal finances. I'd now like to add a few more to the list. They include:

• Income Property -- In this show the host takes a part of a home (usually a basement) that is meant to rent out to tenants but can't be because it's in rough shape. The host gives the owners a couple different design options to choose from. Once they select one, the team overhauls the space and makes it look stunning. Then they get a real estate agent in to estimate the new value of the home as well as the income potential from the newly designed space. It often works like this:

-- Purchase price of entire home: $500,000
-- Redesign cost: $40,000
-- Reappraised value of home (after design change to rental suite): $600,000
-- Expected monthly rent from rental suite: $1,200

So the homeowners benefit in two ways -- the overall value of the home goes up and they have a part of the home that makes them money. My kids and I love the show and almost always discuss the pros and cons of the two options, the impact of the change on the home's final value, and the benefit of having part of the home earn an income. Quite a few money-related conversations occur because of this show.

• Selling LA and Selling London -- Exactly the same as Selling New York (which I mentioned previously), simply different cities. Still expensive and still marvelous homes. We watch this primarily for the unbelieveability factor ("It costs THAT much"???!!!) but also to see the stunning homes. We also often talk about the prices of the homes shown here and how they compare to our part of the country. As you might imagine, the discussion of "where you live has a big impact on your costs/finances" comes up quite often.


• Secret Millionaire -- We encourage our kids to give to help others whenever possible. This show helps in our efforts in two ways: it shows people who are far less fortunate than we are (which is often an eye-opener for the kids) and shows how one person's generosity can make a difference in so many people's lives. There's also the side benefit of seeing the various ways of how someone can accumulate great wealth (the Secret Millionaire). All of these combine into a compelling (yet admittedly sappy) show that we all love to watch.

How about you? Do you like/watch any of these shows? Or are there others you like that teach your family about money?

Comments

[Catherine]

I've enjoyed some of these shows, but they don't teach personal finance any more than Cupcake Wars teaches one how to bake.

The only show I've seen that actually teaches is
Till Debt Do Us Part.

[[email protected]]

I absolutely love the show Secret Millionaire but end up crying every single time! Its a good idea to have your kids watch these shows for financial knowledge purposes, but I like that you included the secret millionaire to teach them about the value of humanity and helping others less fortunate than ourselves. Too many people are stingy with the money they have- It's not going with you when you die!

[Keith]

I like to watch "Shark Tank" and "Secret Millionaire" and "Undercover Boss". I viewed "We Owe What?" a couple of times only to find it too depressing and I will not likely watch it again.

[Brent Pittman]

Check out Biz Kids, its on public TV.

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I love income property and wish there were houses like that in Florida. However, Florida has almost no houses with basements so there wont be an income property like the TV show in the near future for me.

[Matt]

I love "Flip this house" This is where people try to buy real estate low fix up and sell high. Some are good at it, some run into ALOT of problems and some loose.

The reason I like it is hard work and alot of headaches happen in order for you to earn money. Some of it big and some of it not so much.

Plus it shows how ill prepared and ignorant some of these peoples ability to flip and what sort of mistakes they make along the way.

[Squeezer @Personal Finance Success]

I loved watching Pitchmen because it featured rags to riches stories. Too bad it no longer airs.

[Lurker Carl]

I wish HGTV would revisit featured properties 5 years later and follow up, especially those involving redecorating and landscaping. I doubt of many of those whiz-bang projects hold up over time.

[GranTorino]

"Sharktank" rocks. You get a feel for each shark's negotiating tactics, and you see how emotion affects decisions.

[Old Limey]

Now and again I come across Suzy Orman on TV answering viewer questions. What I really like about her is that she doesn't hesitate to tell viewers that "They can't afford something" when it's pretty obvious they cannot.

[Matt]

Unfortunely Suzy is a good sales person who knows the flavor of the day. What really turned me off was back prior to 2008 she was really heavy into good debt, bad debt.

Debt is just plain debt. There is nothing good about it.

[Old Limey]

Matt:
When I was a 29 year old husband with 2 kids and another on the way we really needed to move out of our 2br duplex into a home of our own. My job was very secure so in 1963 the brand new 4br home we liked in a really nice tract was $26,950 and by putting 20% down we qualified for a conventional loan at 4.5% for 25 years. I consider that to be good debt. We sold it in 1977 for $89,950 and bought the home we are still living in for $107,500. Now, of course we are debt free and our two home purchases that cost us a total of $26,950 + $17,550 + interest, closing costs, improvements, maintenance and property taxes over the years have resulted in a home now worth over $1M. So I think there's a case that buying the home you live in used to be an example of good debt unless you go completely overboard and buy far more house than you need.

What's bad debt? Maybe it's going into hock for very fancy furnishings, or maybe it's borrowing in order to send your kids to private schools when your own free public schools have excellent test scores.

[KH]

HGTV shows are fun to watch, but totally unhelpful for learning anything about finances. The main issue is that they don't charge for the labor of doing any remodel. The shows make it look like anyone could fix up their place and make a ton of money afterwards on their renovated home, but of course outside of TV land you have to pay for professional labor which is typically 100% or more of the cost of the materials. Add in the labor and they aren't increasing the value of the home at all.