Are you not as confident with your money management as you’d like? If so, there are free resources out there that can help!
It’s never too late to start getting a better handle on your finances. We’ll highlight some of the best personal finance courses you can sign up for today.
What Is Personal Finance?
If you’re a beginner, you might wonder what personal finance even is. Put simply, it’s a catchall term that covers everything related to money management. This umbrella covers saving, investing, banking and budgeting, as well as planning for retirement, tax payments and your estate.
The Best Free Personal Finance Courses
Most people don’t receive much, if any, personal finance education when they’re in school. If this is the case for you, you can start learning how to manage your money on your own.
Here are 10 of the best personal finance courses that can get up to speed – and ahead.
1. Personal Finance 101: Everything You Need to Know
As the title of this Udemy course suggests, Personal Finance 101: Everything You Need to Know teaches all the basics that a person needs to know to get control of their finances. Some topics covered include:
- Building credit
- Managing debt (including student loan debt)
- Planning for big purchases (a house, car, etc.)
The course lasts for three hours and is totally free. It’s a great place to start if you want an introduction to money topics.
2. Personal Finance and Family Planning
Available through Coursera, Personal Finance and Family Planning is an in-depth course that includes 15 hours of information, broken down into weekly topics with quizzes to test your understanding. It helps you learn about building credit, managing risk and setting yourself and your family up for a strong financial future.
If you want, you can upgrade this course and pay for a certificate that you’re able to share on LinkedIn once the course is finished.
3. Financial Planning for Young Adults
Throughout the country, millions of young adults are struggling to understand their finances. From student loan debt to maxed out credit cards, young people need financial advice and they can get it through this free Coursera course.
Financial Planning for Young Adults is taught by certified financial planners and helps young adults plan for the future and set themselves up for success. It lasts four weeks, with four hours of lessons each week.
There is a paid upgrade available that provides you with a LinkedIn certificate, too.
4. Personal Taxes
Most people these days know very little about their taxes. They don’t know why so much is being taken out of their checks or how much to set aside if they work in a freelance position.
If this resonates with you, this Personal Taxes course from Khan Academy can help. It lasts just 40 minutes and covers a variety of topics, from tax brackets to marriage penalties.
5. Planning for a Secure Retirement
You’re never too young to start thinking about retirement. If you haven’t been actively setting aside money for your retirement, now is the time to start.
Planning for a Secure Retirement from Purdue University can help you learn about different types of retirement accounts and make a savings plan for yourself. All materials for this course are free, and you can work at your own pace.
6. Behavioral Finance
Have you ever wondered about the psychology behind your financial decisions and mistakes? If you want to learn more about the why behind what you do, Behavioral Finance, available through Coursera, is a good course to consider taking.
This course provides insight into how the mind works and can help you overcome your bad money management habits. It lasts five hours and comes with a paid upgrade for a LinkedIn certificate.
7. Future Rich
Future Rich is a free course available through Planancial. It’s taught by a certified financial planner and can be started at any time. This course lasts for seven days and has seven lessons, each of which covers a different financial planning topic, such as managing debt, retirement planning, and estate planning.
8. Introduction to Simple and Compound Interest
An understanding of different types of interest is essential if you want to get out of debt and stay on top of your finances. Introduction to Simple and Compound Interest, available through Alison, is a three-hour course that helps you learn the basics of keeping up with your bills and prioritizing payments so you can come up with a plan to become debt-free once and for all.
9. My Financial Mountain: Understanding Your Path to a Solid Financial Foundation
It doesn’t matter where you start on your financial literacy journey. My Financial Mountain from Skillshare will help you learn the seven steps needed to take control of your money and begin working toward a financially stable life. It features 13 videos and lasts just 24 minutes, so it’s easy to incorporate into your day.
10. Housing
If you’re interested in buying a home one day, the Housing course from Khan Academy will help you learn the basics of mortgages, insurance, and more. With this information, spread out across 19 lectures, you can feel prepared and confident when the time comes to make that big purchase.
Try These Free Personal Finance Courses Today
If you didn’t learn as much about personal finance and money management as you’d like, you’re not alone. Luckily though, there are lots of financial courses online that will help you to get control of your finances, make better decisions, and plan for the future.
Keep this list of free personal finance courses in mind so you can choose one that works for you. In the meantime, check out our blog for additional advice. Consider this article on money management for kids next, so you can introduce the little ones in your life to basic financial literacy.
Featured Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay.