6 Best Personal Finance Courses

Article published on July 23, 2021. Updated December 13th, 2022.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only and are not endorsed by Credit.com.

With personal finance, it seems that many people are unaware of the best techniques they can use for budgeting and saving money. So, even more experienced people tend to make simple finance-related mistakes they could have avoided quite easily.

The problem here is often in the fact that kids and teenagers don’t actually get taught basic personal finance skills. This leads to so many adults having the same financial management issues they had when they were younger. Luckily, there are many great personal finance courses available online. They can help you learn to manage your finances better, and here are six of the best.

#1 Khan Academy’s Personal Finance Course

Khan Academy’s Personal Finance Course is by far one of the best free personal finance courses currently available online. Khan Academy is an educational platform that has been around for many years. And, it’s known for its high-quality courses in topics ranging from computer programming to history. This is why it’s so obvious that their personal finance course, despite being free, is just as good as any one of their other courses.

This course relies on video lectures, readings, and interactive quizzes to help you learn the material and develop the necessary personal finance skills. It’s broken down into different parts. And it covers such topics as: saving and budgeting, interest and debt, investments and retirement, income and benefits, housing, car expenses, taxes, paying for college, and keeping your information safe.

#2 edX’s Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision-Making from the University of Michigan

EdX’s Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision-Making is another amazing course for studying budgeting and personal finance. edX is a renowned educational platform with numerous world-class universities providing free courses on it. Finance for Everyone is offered by the University of Michigan and taught by the Professor of Finance Gautam Kaul (from Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan). Though the course itself is free, you can pay a fee to get a certificate confirming your completion of it.

The course materials include weekly learning sequences made up of short videos, interactive learning exercises, and tutorial videos. You can also talk to other students and ask questions on the dedicated online discussion forum. The course is perfect for beginners and those with basic levels of knowledge in the field of personal finance. Upon completion, you’ll have a good understanding of the way the world of finance functions. And you can to use the acquired finance-related skills for professional and personal needs.

#3 Coursera’s Personal & Family Financial Planning from the University of Florida

Coursera is an online learning platform offering coursework in a range of topics, from cybersecurity to graphic design. It’s designed to help you gain new skills, and jumpstart a career in high-demand fields. You can explore over 1,600 courses offered in partnership with over 200 universities and companies all around the world.

Coursera’s Personal & Family Financial Planning is another great course to consider when looking to learn personal finance skills. Like edX, Coursera is a popular educational platform with top universities offering courses. One of these is the University of Florida which is offering this Personal & Family Financial Planning course taught by Michael S. Gutter, Associate Professor at the University of Florida who has previously studied at the Ohio State University. The course is free, but you can purchase a certificate upon completion.

The materials are similar to those from Coursera and include videos, readings, and quizzes with a total of eight modules and one bonus module. The modules include understanding personal finance, financial statements, tools, and budgets, managing income taxes, building and maintaining good credit, managing risk, investment fundamentals, investing through mutual funds, and personal plan of action.

#4 edX’s Managing Personal Cash and Credit from the Indiana University

EdX’s Managing Personal Cash and Credit is another great personal finance and planning on a budget course offered by the same platform as mentioned earlier, edX. This course is offered by Indiana University and taught by Professor Todd Roberson, Senior Lecturer of Finance at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and the Professor of Finance Kenneth Carrow, Executive Associate Dean of Faculty and Research at the same school. The course is free, but you can purchase a certificate of completion.

The course materials are similar to edX’s Finance for Everyone course with a similar structure. The syllabus includes four core modules: managing liquid assets (savings, checking & other liquidity products), open consumer credit (credit card features & costs), obtaining & managing credit (credit analysis, reporting & prudent use), and consumer loans (loan features, sources & uses).

#5 Coursera’s Financial Planning for Young Adults from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Coursera’s Financial Planning for Young Adults is a personal finance course specifically aimed at a younger audience and offered by Coursera (as one of the courses above). The course is offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and taught by Associate Professor Nicholas Paulson, Consumer Economics Educator Kathryn L. Sweedler, and Director of Academic Programs and Initiatives Charles R. Chaffin. The course is free with an option to purchase a certificate of completion.

As the previous Coursera course, this one also offers learning materials in the form of videos, readings, and quizzes. There are a total of eight modules. This includes: setting financial goals and assessing your situation, budgeting and cash flow management, saving strategies, the time value of money, borrowing and credit, investing, risk management, and financial planning as a career.

#6 Udemy’s The Complete Personal Finance Course: Save, Protect, Make More from Chris Haroun

Lastly, Udemy’s The Complete Personal Finance Course: Save, Protect, Make More is one more personal finance course to consider if you want to learn how to save for big purchases or increase your income among other things. Udemy is an educational platform similar to edX and Coursera with a wide variety of courses. This one is taught by Chris Haroun, an award-winning MBA Professor, Venture Capitalist and Author. The course is a paid one, but it’s definitely worth it considering its 4.5-star rating and thousands of past students.

The course is offered in lectures with a total of almost 16 hours of content covering a variety of finance-related topics. Upon completion, you’ll have practical saving and budgeting skills and increase your earning potential by implementing the techniques from the course.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, personal finance skills are definitely some that can be learned. People aren’t immediately born with great financial management skills – they acquire them with learning and experience.

But if you find yourself unable to manage your personal finances well, you will definitely benefit a lot from taking one of the courses above. So, you can learn how to manage your personal finances more efficiently.

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