YouTube · Personal finance
Top Personal Finance Creators to Follow in 2026
22 of the most-followed personal finance channels on YouTube that still teach: budgeting, debt payoff, index funds, retirement accounts and money audits.
Short answer
The most-followed personal finance channels on YouTube that still teach, rather than sell, make a shorter list than the subscriber charts suggest. This list has 22 of them, grouped by what they help with: getting out of debt and budgeting (4), money basics and index investing (7), retirement accounts, Social Security and taxes (5), money audits and call-in shows (3), and evidence-based explainers (3). Every entry links one recent video to start with.
This list is for anyone who searches “top personal finance YouTubers” and wants to know which of the big names still teach a money decision on screen: a budget built in a spreadsheet, the math on a mortgage versus the market, what to confirm before claiming Social Security. The creators below are the most-subscribed channels in the niche that passed our rules. Several even larger channels did not, because their recent uploads are economic-news reaction, “turn $500 into…” titles, or walls of affiliate links.
“Top” here means the most-followed channels in personal finance that are still active in October 2026, not an order. Each entry says why the channel is here and links one video to start with, and the entries run alphabetically, because this isn’t a ranking: a call-in show about debt and a portfolio manager explaining the life-cycle model serve different viewers, and putting them in order would say nothing useful.
Which personal finance creator should you follow?
Start with the decision in front of you. Everyone in the table is on the list below, and within each row they’re alphabetical.
| If you need help with… | Creators to start with | What their videos do |
|---|---|---|
| Getting out of debt and budgeting | George Kamel, Rachel Cruze, The Budget Mom, The Table With AO | Emergency-fund math, a paycheck budget built in Google Sheets, a five-phase debt plan, and money habits sorted from myths |
| Money basics and index investing | Damien Talks Money, Humphrey Yang, Marko - WhiteBoard Finance, Nischa, The Financial Diet, Vincent Chan, Your Rich BFF | What $100 a month becomes over 40 years, mortgage-versus-market math, whether index funds distort the market, IPOs explained, and the lessons they wish they’d known at 22 or 25 |
| Retirement accounts, Social Security and taxes | Devin Carroll, Erin Talks Money, Holy Schmidt!, Rob Berger, Tae Kim - Financial Tortoise | 457(b) plans, the mega backdoor Roth, five things to confirm before claiming Social Security, what retirees fear most, and index funds versus the active funds that beat them |
| Money audits and call-in shows | I Will Teach You To Be Rich, The Money Guy Show, The Ramsey Show Highlights | Real couples and callers working through their own numbers with the host, from a caller with nothing saved at 53 to a couple still fighting about money on $185K |
| Evidence-based explainers | Ben Felix, The Plain Bagel, Two Cents | Ten personal finance myths against the research, finance TikToks reviewed by a registered portfolio manager, and a fact-checked PBS show on the worst advice online |
If you’re starting from zero, the budgeting row and the money-basics row are the gentler places to begin; the retirement row assumes you already have accounts to optimise. Nearly every channel here says in its own About text or descriptions that the videos are education, not advice; the section further down explains why that distinction matters.
The 22 creators, A to Z
Ben Felix
- Covers
- Evidence-based investing and personal finance decisions
- Why they’re here
- His About text says he is a portfolio manager and chief investment officer at PWL Capital, a CFA charterholder and CFP professional, and that the channel’s content is produced and owned by the firm. The video to start with works through ten pieces of repeated personal finance advice, from saving as much as you can when young to renting being throwing money away, with a chapter per myth and a references list linked in the description. He posts less often than most on this list.
- Start with
- The Biggest Myths in Personal Finance
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- Covers
- UK index funds, investing and household money
- Why they’re here
- A UK channel whose About text promises weekly videos on getting out of debt, household budgeting and first steps into investing. The video to start with asks whether index funds are distorting the market and walks through closet indexing, concentration risk and the Grossman–Stiglitz paradox, chapter by chapter. Broker links in the description are each marked as affiliate links with a capital-at-risk warning.
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Devin Carroll, CFP®
- Covers
- Retirement planning, Social Security and taxes
- Why they’re here
- A practicing financial planner, per his About text, covering Social Security, taxes and investments for people near or in retirement. The video to start with takes new research on the five things retirees worry about most, from inflation and healthcare costs to running out of money, and argues they are symptoms of one underlying problem with one fix. His descriptions say nothing is personal advice and disclose that some links pay a referral fee.
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Erin Talks Money | Erin Moriarity
- Covers
- Retirement accounts, Social Security and investing
- Why they’re here
- Weekly videos on money and investing with an extra emphasis on retirement and Social Security, as her About text puts it, with a note that the channel does not provide financial advice. The video to start with is a complete guide to governmental 457(b) plans: how they compare with a 401(k) and 403(b), the 2026 contribution limits, Roth versus traditional, rollover rules and the early-withdrawal feature, with a chapter for each. The description opens with a link to her team at Root Financial.
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George Kamel
- Covers
- Spending less, debt payoff and money myths
- Why they’re here
- Co-host of The Ramsey Show and Smart Money Happy Hour, according to his About text, which promises three uploads a week that bust money myths with facts. The video to start with works through money habits submitted by members of the Baby Steps Millionaires Facebook group, from legitimate tips on down. Sponsors are listed under their own heading in the description and the video carries YouTube’s paid-promotion label.
- Start with
- 14 Habits Broke People Think Are Normal
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- Covers
- Social Security, Medicare and retirement income
- Why they’re here
- Geoffrey Schmidt, a CPA per the channel’s About text, posts three to four times a week on Social Security, Medicare, taxes and retirement income, with a weekly live stream. The video to start with lists five things to confirm before claiming Social Security, with chapters on your earnings record, the 40 work credits, claiming age, the survivor benefit and the earnings test. The description says the channel has only three affiliate relationships and names two of them, and the video carries YouTube’s paid-promotion label.
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Humphrey Yang
- Covers
- Investing milestones, budgeting and money explainers
- Why they’re here
- A former financial advisor (Series 7 and 66, per his About text) making explainers for beginners and intermediates on investing, budgeting and keeping what you earn. The video to start with goes over the different problems you run into at three levels of monthly investing, $500, $1,500 and $5,000, with a chapter for each. That video is sponsored, disclosed with YouTube’s paid-promotion label, and the description says some of its links are affiliate links.
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- Covers
- Couples’ money conversations and conscious spending
- Why they’re here
- Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich and host of Netflix’s How to Get Rich, per Wikipedia and his About text, publishes long conversations with real couples about their money. In the video to start with, a couple married 16 years with four children keep having the same fights about money, and he challenges them to stop arguing over individual purchases and make financial decisions as a team. The format is a money conversation rather than a tutorial.
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- Covers
- Mortgage, investing and tax decisions with the math
- Why they’re here
- Personal finance, stock market and real estate investing drawn from his own experience as an investor, as his About text describes it. The video to start with runs the numbers on paying a mortgage off early versus investing: the same $400,000 loan at two interest rates, side by side, plus the three questions to ask first (emergency fund, rate, taxes and penalties) and the order of operations if investing wins. That video is sponsored by Policygenius, named in the first line of the description, and carries YouTube’s paid-promotion label.
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Nischa
- Covers
- Personal finance basics, saving and investing
- Why they’re here
- A former investment banker with an accountancy qualification, per her About text, covering personal finance, self-development and business. The video to start with covers the financial basics that apply at any age, framed as the eight lessons she wishes she had known at 22. Her descriptions carry a disclaimer that she does not provide tax or investment advice and say they contain affiliate links; the About text promotes her free investing workshop.
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- Covers
- Budgeting, debt payoff and family money habits
- Why they’re here
- Host of The Rachel Cruze Show, which her About text describes as teaching people how to get out of debt and win with money, starting with a budget. The video to start with is short and practical: how to calculate an emergency fund, with the goal of three to six months of essential expenses and a reminder that the number looks different for every family. Descriptions list the other Ramsey Network shows and her books.
- Start with
- How to Calculate Your Emergency Fund
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Rob Berger
- Covers
- Index funds, retirement planning and planning tools
- Why they’re here
- A former securities lawyer who has written about personal finance since 2007, per his About text, with a weekly Five Question Friday format. The video to start with answers five viewer questions, including why he still uses index funds when some active funds have beaten the index, whether a target-date fund can replace a bond fund, and how to plan for big, lumpy expenses in retirement. The description links the backtesting tool and the fund pages he refers to.
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- Covers
- Index funds, retirement accounts and building wealth slowly
- Why they’re here
- Steady, step-by-step personal finance in the spirit of the tortoise in his About text, which also says he is not a financial adviser and the videos are educational. The video to start with is a step-by-step guide to the mega backdoor Roth: how it differs from a regular backdoor Roth IRA, the two contribution limits that stack, how to check whether your 401(k) plan allows it, the execution, and whether it is worth it. A free PDF guide is linked in the description.
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The Budget Mom
- Covers
- Paycheck budgeting, debt payoff and savings tracking
- Why they’re here
- Run by an Accredited Financial Counselor, per the About text, with a daily lesson series on budgeting basics running alongside the main videos. The video to start with is an hour-long tutorial of her Budget by Paycheck system in Google Sheets, with chapters on setup, the debt payoff schedule, sinking funds, the net worth dashboard, and tracking expenses and credit card spending month by month. Everything happens on screen in the spreadsheet.
- Start with
- Budget By Paycheck Google Sheet Tutorial
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The Financial Diet
- Covers
- Money, culture and class for young adults
- Why they’re here
- Education and commentary on money, culture and class, as the About text puts it, from influencer culture to financial privilege. In the video to start with, Chelsea looks back at her mid-twenties and walks through the money lessons she wishes someone had told her at 25. That episode is sponsored by Credit Karma, named in the first line of the description, and the video carries YouTube’s paid-promotion label.
- Start with
- What I Wish I Knew About Money at 25
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- Covers
- Wealth-building strategy from two financial advisors
- Why they’re here
- Hosts Brian Preston (CFP, CPA) and Bo Hanson (CFA, CFP), as every description credits them, with full episodes, livestreams and highlight clips. The video to start with makes the case against trying to beat the stock market. Descriptions link the show’s free resources and a page for becoming a client of their advisory firm, so you know where the business is.
- Start with
- Stop Trying to Beat the Stock Market
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The Plain Bagel
- Covers
- Investing and personal finance with some economics
- Why they’re here
- Richard Coffin, an investment analyst with CFA and CFP designations and registered as a portfolio manager with the Ontario Securities Commission, per the video’s description. The video to start with reviews a batch of finance TikToks, prompted, as the description says, by the market news and concern of the moment. His About text says the channel is educational only and that he does not provide recommendations; videos arrive about every two weeks.
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- Covers
- Call-in show clips on debt, budgeting and retirement
- Why they’re here
- Clips from The Ramsey Show, the call-in radio program hosted by Dave Ramsey and a rotating group of co-hosts, per Wikipedia; the About text says the channel collects highlights, debt-free screams and guest interviews, and gives the number to call in. The clip to start with is a caller who is 53 with nothing saved for retirement. Sponsors are listed under their own heading in the description and the clip carries YouTube’s paid-promotion label.
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- Covers
- Debt payoff plans and first steps in investing
- Why they’re here
- Anthony O’Neal’s show, which his About text says is about getting on a path to a debt-free life. The video to start with lays out his five-phase plan: work out your own financial number using the 300 rule, clear consumer debt first (one chapter shows how a $60K salary can eliminate $43K of it), build three to six months of take-home pay, and only then invest. His book, coaching circle and app are promoted in the description, and the video carries YouTube’s paid-promotion label.
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Two Cents
- Covers
- PBS explainers on personal finance and money traps
- Why they’re here
- An educational show about personal finance made for PBS Digital Studios, hosted by Philip Olson, a CFP, and Julia Lorenz-Olson, an AFC, with a writer and a fact checker credited on each episode. The video to start with sorts the financial advice on social media into the useful and the dangerous, with its sources, the SEC, the FTC and the CFP Board among them, listed in the description. Episodes arrive a few times a month.
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Vincent Chan
- Covers
- Investing basics, the first $100K and money mistakes
- Why they’re here
- An economics graduate who left Wall Street to teach what he learned there, per his About text. The video to start with follows what happens when you invest $100 a month from day one to year 40, then the biggest mistake people make and how to start. The description says some of its links are affiliate links and includes a brokerage sign-up offer.
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- Covers
- Money and investing explainers for younger adults
- Why they’re here
- Vivian Tu, founder of the financial-education company Your Rich BFF per Wikipedia and a former Wall Street trader per her About text, hosts the weekly Networth and Chill podcast on this channel. The episode to start with explains what actually happens when a company goes public, why IPOs have been a losing bet since 2019, and how to think about the risk if you buy one. Many of the channel’s recent Shorts promote her Ask Dolly app, so start with the podcast episodes.
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How we checked each creator
We screened about 65 channels, found through YouTube search with this-year and this-month filters, searches for well-known names, and a couple of published round-ups used only for names. For each channel that made the list we:
- Checked reach on the channel itself. We read the subscriber count shown on each channel’s own YouTube page in October 2026 and kept only channels above a floor we set for this list. We don’t print that floor or those counts (see below), and they decided nothing except who was big enough.
- Checked they’re active. At least three uploads in the last 90 days, confirmed against the channel’s public upload feed. Most post weekly or more; the two that post least often, Ben Felix and The Plain Bagel, still cleared it, and the entries say so.
- Read the last 15 titles. We were looking for get-rich-quick, guaranteed-return, “turn $1,000 into…”, day-trading, options-flipping or crypto-pump content, and feeds that are mostly affiliate pushes. This is where most of the very large channels fell out: economic-doom titles, “buy these assets” lists, a turn-$1,000-into-$3-million title, a feed of podcast clips with a paid brokerage link at the top of every description, and one money-audit channel whose titles and descriptions frame its guests as spectacle.
- Picked one real video and confirmed it with YouTube. Each “start with” video’s exact title and channel come from YouTube’s own oEmbed endpoint, and all but one are from the last 90 days.
- Wrote the entry from what the video says about itself. Each “why” comes from that video’s own description and chapters and the channel’s About text, plus, for three famous names, one identity clause from English Wikipedia. We did not watch every minute of every video, and we didn’t read the comments on any channel; both are on the list for the next quarterly review.
What we left out on purpose: tax channels whose recent titles are wealth-promise framing for business owners, retirement channels whose descriptions are only a sales funnel, and one UK planner whose only recent video used “guaranteed” in the title (it was an annuity explainer, but the rule is the rule). A few good channels sat just under our floor, among them MeaningfulMoney, PensionCraft and FIRE Psy Chat, which is why there is no FIRE-specific channel here. Our methodology covers the rules every list follows.
There are no subscriber counts on this page. We only publish YouTube numbers that come from the official YouTube Data API, with the date they were checked, refreshed or removed within 30 days. The counts we read from each channel’s page were for selection only. Subscriber totals also say less than you’d think about a money channel: several of the largest channels we screened have drifted from teaching to news reaction, and nothing in their lifetime numbers tells you that.
How to follow money channels without getting sold to
Every channel here makes money somewhere: sponsors, affiliate links, a course, a book, an app, an advisory firm. None of that makes the teaching worthless, as long as you can see it and you know what you’re watching. Five checks, in the regulators’ own words:
- Know the difference between education and advice. The SEC’s Investor.gov puts it plainly in its note on finfluencers: they “likely don’t know your personal financial situation, or how much risk you’re willing to take when it comes to investing, or even your investing goals,” and “they likely are not registered investment professionals.” Most channels on this list say the same thing about themselves in their About text. Use a video to understand a decision; don’t use it as the decision.
- Look for the sponsor disclosure in the video, not just under it. The FTC’s endorsement guides say a disclosure only in the description is “not enough on its own because consumers can easily miss disclosures in the video description,” and that it “has the best chance of being clear and conspicuous if it’s included in the video itself.” YouTube’s paid-promotion label and a sponsor read near the start are what to look for; many of the videos linked here carry both.
- Treat affiliate links as what they are. The FTC’s example of an adequate disclosure is as simple as “I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post,” and several descriptions on this list say almost exactly that. The links to watch are brokerage sign-up bonuses: fine when labelled, a warning sign when they are the point of the feed. Our guide to disclosing affiliate links and sponsorships has the full rules, and the checks in how to tell if an AI tool review is honest apply to money videos just as well.
- Know what a fiduciary is before you pay anyone. Investor.gov’s page on investment advisers says they “are required to act in your best interest and not put their interest ahead of yours,” and elsewhere calls that obligation a fiduciary duty; brokers are held to the best-interest standard “when making a recommendation.” A firm’s relationship summary (Form CRS) has to state “the required standard of conduct” it works under. A YouTuber owes you none of this unless you become their client.
- Check the person, not the subscriber count. Investor.gov’s search tool sends you to the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site, where “you can find out if your investment professional and his/her firm is licensed with the SEC, with a state(s), and/or with FINRA,” and on to FINRA’s BrokerCheck for brokers, which “provides an overview of an individual’s work history, as well as their firm’s history.” Several creators here state their credentials in their About text (CFP, CFA, CPA, AFC, Series 7); those are the ones you can look up.
What to do next
- Starting from zero? Pick the row in the table that matches your next decision and watch two creators from it, ideally one explainer and one call-in show, so you hear the rule and then hear it applied to a real caller.
- A brand looking for creators? Read how to vet a YouTube creator before a sponsorship before you reach out to anyone; the checks above are the ones we ran.
- Looking for other niches? Our AI tool reviewers list uses the same rules, and all our lists are reviewed every quarter.
- Know someone who belongs here? Suggest a creator. Suggestions go through the same checks as everyone else, and we review this list every quarter.
Frequently asked questions
- Who are the best personal finance YouTubers in 2026?
- It depends on the decision in front of you. For getting out of debt and budgeting: George Kamel, Rachel Cruze, The Budget Mom and The Table With AO. For money basics and index investing: Damien Talks Money, Humphrey Yang, Marko - WhiteBoard Finance, Nischa, The Financial Diet, Vincent Chan and Your Rich BFF. For retirement accounts, Social Security and taxes: Devin Carroll, Erin Talks Money, Holy Schmidt!, Rob Berger and Tae Kim. For money audits and call-in shows: I Will Teach You To Be Rich, The Money Guy Show and The Ramsey Show Highlights. For evidence-based explainers: Ben Felix, The Plain Bagel and Two Cents.
- Did any of these creators pay to be on this list?
- No. Nobody pays to be included, inclusion never depends on using or promoting any product, and nobody on this list was asked to mention one. Each channel is here because it is among the most-followed in personal finance, is still posting, and links a recent video that teaches a money decision; the entry says which one.
- How did you choose these personal finance creators?
- We screened about 65 channels, kept the most-subscribed (read from each channel’s own page in October 2026, against a floor we set for this list), confirmed at least three uploads in the last 90 days from each upload feed, and read the last 15 titles of every one for get-rich-quick, guaranteed-return, day-trading or crypto-pump content and affiliate-heavy feeds. Those rules removed several very large channels. For each entry we picked one recent video, verified its title and channel with YouTube, and wrote the entry from its own description and chapters. Our methodology page has the details.
- Why are the creators listed alphabetically?
- Because this isn’t a ranking. “Top” here means the most-followed channels in the niche that are still active and passed our rules, not an order. A call-in show about debt and an evidence-based investing channel serve different viewers, and ranking them against each other would say nothing useful. Alphabetical order also makes it obvious that no position was bought or traded for anything.
- Why are there no subscriber counts on this page?
- We only publish YouTube numbers that come from the official YouTube Data API, dated, and refreshed or deleted within 30 days, as YouTube’s developer policies require. The counts we read from each channel’s page were used to decide who was big enough and are not published. Until API numbers are in place for this list we’d rather show no number than a stale or estimated one.
- Is a personal finance YouTube video financial advice?
- No. Most channels on this list say so in their own About text or descriptions: the videos are education, made without knowing your situation. The SEC’s Investor.gov says finfluencers likely don’t know your personal financial situation, your risk tolerance or your goals, and that most are not registered investment professionals. Use the videos to understand a decision, and check anyone you would actually hire through Investor.gov’s search tool or FINRA’s BrokerCheck.
About this list
We review every list each quarter. This one was last reviewed on . Every number is dated and says where it came from. How we pick creators.
Spot a mistake? Email corrections@topfluencers.co and we’ll fix it within 48 hours.
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