A free personal finance course that you can trust.
When searching for answers to your personal finance questions, it easy to be overwhelmed by the information provided. There are many online resources available that can help you improve your financial literacy and understanding of various financial topics. However, with all the information available at your fingertips due to Google and other sources, it’s hard to decipher what is legitimate and relevant to your situation.
McGill University has partnered with RBC Future Launch, and The Globe and Mail to create the Personal Finance Essentials course. It has been designed as a free course to give a basic understanding of many aspects of personal finances, for beginners, or for someone looking for a refresher.
https://www.mcgillpersonalfinance.com/
This free online course is designed specifically for Canadians and has broken up the information into 8 modules, plus a few bonus modules.
- Introduction to Personal Finance – A simple introduction and why taking time to learn about personal finance is an investment in yourself.
- Budgeting and Saving – Learn the importance of creating a budget and get tips to make informed budgeting decisions that can help you successfully reach your goals.
- Your Money: Today and Tomorrow – Learn whether your money is worth more today, or tomorrow by understanding the time value of money.
- Understanding Debt and Borrowing – Learn of the different credit sources available, the reasons people may need to borrow money, and how it can affect your credit.
- The Art of Investing – Learn of the differences between stocks, bonds, mutual funds, GIC’s, and ETF’s.
- Retirement Planning – Understand why planning for retirement is so important, the different sources of income available to you during your retirement, and different scenarios that show the long-term implications between starting your retirement savings early and waiting until closer to retirement.
- The Realities of Real Estate – Compares renting vs. buying and which can be the better investment long-term through a few different sample scenarios.
- Behavioural Finance – Explains how your emotions can affect your investment decisions.
The end of each module, there is a simple 10 question quiz that ensures you has grasped the basic concepts from each module. There is no time limit on the quizzes, and there are unlimited tries. With each incorrect or correct answer, an explanation is offered to help you understand further.
In addition to the course work, McGill University offers a variety of articles, videos and tools that could help expand your personal finance knowledge beyond the essential knowledge provided in each module. The articles come from reliable sources such as CRA, Royal Bank of Canada, Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, and more.
Upon completion of the course, you should have a basic understanding of basic personal finances that hopefully you will be able to apply to your own personal finances.
If you feel like dealing with your debt has become the main component of your personal finances, there are options to help you tackle your debt and move forward.
If you are looking for advice, or a second opinion about your debt, it does not cost anything to talk about your options. Every financial situation is unique and viable options can differ from person to person. A conversation free of judgment is the first step to determine options for debt that make sense to you. For a free consultation, please call or text (506) 645-1814 or email jaime@tackledebt.ca; or visit www.tackledebt.ca.