Boost Your Money Mind
4 Gift giving, stock market investing and retirement planning press you to make smart money decisions. Want to improve the outcome of your choices? Up your personal finance knowledge with money tips.
You may associate learning with career advancement. But lifelong learning applies to your money, too. Go-to resources to boost your knowledge about investing, personal finance or leadership. Other resources can also help you make informed personal finance choices. From online courses to workshops, there’s a class for everyone.
Have a financial advisor? It’s still important to find money tips and learn. A better knowledge of markets and personal finance will help you get the most out of meetings with your advisor.
› Use continuing education sites. Continuing education websites like Coursera and Alison offer courses in personal finance and offer other money tips.
Duke University Professor Emma Rasiel teaches a behavioral finance course offered through Coursera. Behavioral finance studies the role of psychology in making money decisions. The threeweek, self-paced course focuses on how biases impact consumer choices.
Learning about psychology “helps you predict the way in which you will make an error (with your money),” Rasiel told. “You will make assumptions on what will happen in the future based on what you’ve seen in the past.”
Knowing how your mind works “helps you recognize when you’re making a decision that’s likely to be an error because of what we know about our psychological biases,” she said. “And once you’re more familiar with the errors, you’re more likely to prevent yourself from making them.”
Rasiel says the online course is open to anyone looking for money tips. If you’ve taken an introductory economics course, you’ll be more than prepared, she said. But it’s not necessary to have prior knowledge. The course is free, but if you require a certificate, it costs around $50, Rasiel says.
› Start young. Another online source for money tips is Alison.com, which offers a free Financial Literacy course. Spokesperson Nikki Kelly told the main goal of the course is “to help young people — particularly young, marginalized youth — to understand the importance of understanding how to manage and use money wisely.”
But she added that the money tips taught are universal.
The course touches on everything from personal budgeting to bank accounts to credit cards to the importance of having a good credit history, Kelly said. The lesson is 90-minutes long plus a 15-minute assessment. Kelly says nearly 80,000 people have taken the class so far.
Other websites to consider when looking for money tips: Udemy, Khan Academy, Udacity and Skillshare.
› Go back to college. Universities, too, are offering tools with money tips. Purdue University Extension offers free access to a site filled with money tips called Planning for a Secure Retirement.
Naomi Bechtold, extension specialist in the family resource management department, also holds free brown-bag lunch-and-learn sessions in Indianapolis to discuss many of the topics available on the website. But money tips abound online, too. Bechtold says the site covers 10 modules including subjects such as expenses in retirement, income needed in retirement and Medicare and health benefits.
Other universities offer more structured classes with assessments. For example, the University of Arizona has a free 15-hour course in the essentials of personal finance that you can complete at your own pace.
› Tap personal finance learning. If you’re looking to learn more about investing in the stock market, University will get you going. University will teach you how to read stock charts to better understand trends in the markets. And you’ll find out how to evaluate when to buy or sell stocks.
If you’re looking to up your knowledge on personal finance topics, check out Personal Finance center. Here you’ll find the latest insights on everything from finding smart ways to generate income to knowing how to properly buy mutual funds. And if retirement money tips interest you, you’ll find information ranging from 401(k) contribution limits to IRA withdrawals in Retirement center.