Key Information
About the content
Gain the skills to manage your personal finances: managing budgets, debts, investments, property purchase, pensions and insurance.
With real incomes falling and personal debt at a record high, there has never been a better time to improve your personal financial skills – Managing My Money aims to do just that.
This free online course starts by giving you practical guidance on how to compile a budget and use it to make good decisions about your spending. You’ll explore debts and investments, and find out how mortgages are used to finance home ownership. The critical issue of pension planning is explained, with guidance on different pension products.
The course concludes by examining different types of insurance and offers practical advice on how to make rational decisions about which insurance products to buy.
Using up-to-the minute data from the UK, you’ll develop financial skills and approaches that are relevant globally. The course is rich in high-quality text, images, video, audio and interactive elements to support your learning.
Syllabus
This course is intended for those with an interest in developing their personal financial skills to make good decisions when managing their finances and buying financial products. The course does not require any previous experience of studying this subject.
Instructors
- Martin Upton
Content Designer

The Open University (OU) is a public distance learning and research university, and one of the biggest universities in the UK for undergraduate education. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based throughout the United Kingdom and principally study off-campus; many of its courses (both undergraduate and postgraduate) can also be studied anywhere in the world. There are also a number of full-time postgraduate research students based on the 48-hectare university campus where they use the OU facilities for research, as well as more than 1000 members of academic and research staff and over 2500 administrative, operational and support staff.
The OU was established in 1969 and the first students enrolled in January 1971. The University administration is based at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, but has regional centres in each of its thirteen regions around the United Kingdom. It also has offices and regional examination centres in many other European countries. The university awards undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as non-degree qualifications such as diplomas and certificates or continuing education units.
Platform

FutureLearn is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform founded in December 2012.
It is a company launched and wholly owned by The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. It is the first UK-led massive open online course learning platform, and as of March 2015 included 54 UK and international University partners and unlike similar platforms includes four non-university partners: the British Museum, the British Council, the British Library and the National Film and Television School.