15 Online Finance Courses in 2024
Proper money management is one of the most important skills everyone, especially young people, should have today. Without this skill, you risk making bad financial decisions and getting into a lot of debt. Learning about finances can help you achieve some of your financial goals and might be the best investment of your time. It is also very easy to self educate in finances because there are a lot of online finance classes available. After reading this article, you will discover what are the best free online finance courses and the best cheap finance courses in 2023.
Start investing right now with Interactive Brokers!eToro Trading Academy - Best Free Trading Course
eToro trading academy
Stock trading and copy trading are some of the most popular ways of investing among young people. But if you truly want to master these skills, you should have solid knowledge about them and lots of trading experience.
To help beginner traders learn the basics of stock trading and copy trading, the popular online broker eToro created a free trading course for them.
This course consists of over 100 educational videos and readings that explain trading terminology, how to use copy trading, how to trade stocks with the eToro broker, how to do your market research, how to pick stocks, and other essential trading tips.
This course also explains how to trade or invest in other financial assets as well, such as cryptocurrency, commodities, currency pairs, indices, and CFDs. This is one of the most comprehensive free trading and investing courses in 2023, and you will not regret taking it.
Trading Nasdaq and Nyse Stocks
Online course on trading NASDAQ and NYSE stocks
Stock trading is a very useful skill that can make you much money if you truly master it. Today, NASDAQ and NYSE are the biggest stock exchanges by market cap, and millions of traders worldwide trade on these stock exchanges.
To help beginner traders learn how they could also trade stocks on these stock exchanges, the popular online broker RoboForex created a free NASDAQ and NYSE stock trading course for them.
This course is taught by Serge Berger, a trader with over 20 years of trading experience, and consists of 13 video lessons. In those videos, Serge Berger explains in depth what are the main categories of US stocks, what types of stocks to choose, how to use the RoboForex proprietary platform, R StocksTrader, and also explains how to use a few trading strategies.
Personal Finance Masterclass - Easy Guide to Better Finances
personal finance masterclass
If you want to learn how to better understand finances, save more, reduce debt, invest smarter, and retire earlier, this Udemy course is for you.
After completing this course, you will know how to create a smart budget that helps you increase savings, reduce expenses, make more money, save and invest for retirement, take a car loan or mortgage, and other essential financial advice.
This course regularly costs $84.99, but you can sometimes buy it on sale for $9.99.
Stock Market from Scratch for Complete Beginners
stock market from scratch for complete beginners
If you are looking for a great trading course that clearly explains how the stock market works with simple examples, and teaches you how to invest your money, you will probably like this course.
This Udemy course consists of 56 video lessons that will teach you what are some of the most popular financial instruments and how to invest in them. It also explains basic trading concepts, how to choose a broker, and how to choose the best financial instrument to trade or invest in.
This course costs $44.99, but you can find it sometimes for $9.99. It has a four-star rating, and almost all of its previous students are happy with it and recommend it to others.
Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision-Making
This finance course created by the University of Michigan aims to teach its students basic financial concepts, such as what is a loan, a stock, a bond, the time value of money, how to evaluate different types of loans, and other information to improve their financial literacy. This course also has different examples of how to implement the information taught in the course while making everyday financial decisions.
You can choose to take this course for free, but you have limited access to the course materials, and you do not receive a certificate. But if you enjoy the course and you want to have unlimited access to it and receive a shareable certificate, you can choose to pay $49 for it.
Financial Freedom: A Beginner's Guide
This free online financial freedom course available on Alison.com will teach you how to get and remain on top of your finances, how to create financial goals and stick to them, how to prevent bad decisions in personal finances, and how to save for a better future.
This is a complex course that has five modules that focus on different essential finance topics. Some of the simple topics taught in this course are how to increase your income, how to reduce your taxes, and how to reduce debt. It also teaches you about mortgages and how they are paid off.
After completing this free course, you will know how to manage your finances better and how to increase your net worth, and you will also receive a digital certificate that you can include in your resume.
The Complete Personal Finance Course: Save, Protect, Make More
the complete personal finance course: save, protect, make more
This Udemy course is advertised as 3 courses in 1 because it teaches its students three important skills, which are: how to save more money, how to protect more money, and how to make more money. It is taught by Chris Haroun, who is an award-winning MBA professor and best-selling author. He is also one of the highest-rated professors on Udemy and has sold over 1,000,000 courses.
This is one of the most comprehensive online finance courses for beginners because it teaches all the financial concepts and tips everyone should know to save more money, make more money, protect more money, and invest their money.
This course usually costs $84.99, but you can often get it on sale for $9.99. It is also one of the most popular online finance courses, being purchased by over 120,000 people worldwide.
Personal Finance by Khan Academy
personal finance by Khan Academy
Personal Finance is a free finance course offered by Khan Academy in collaboration with the Bank of America. Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that aims to educate young people on how to make wiser financial decisions.
This course consists of nine chapters, and each of those chapters has multiple lessons that explain in depth a certain topic. The information is structured in short videos and text readings that clearly explain financial concepts and how to apply them.
While taking this course, you will learn how to spend your money more efficiently, how to save your money, how to invest in a retirement account, should you buy a house or rent, how to do your taxes, how to manage your credit, and other useful financial advice.
FX Academy
FX Academy
Forex trading is a common way for many people to invest a part of their money and make an extra income, and it could be effective for you, as well.
One of the best free Forex trading courses available today is the FX Academy course. It was developed by Huzefa Hamid, a Forex trader with many years of experience.
The FX Academy course is taught through a series of videos and articles that cover fundamental concepts in Forex trading.
The course is free, and it has everything a beginner Forex trader should know in one place. Although it is not an advanced forex trading course, it is great for beginners, and you can learn a lot of useful information from it.
The Fundamentals of Personal Finance Specialization
the fundamentals of personal finance specialization
The Fundamentals of Personal Finance is a free specialization available on Coursera. Being a specialization means that it is made of a few different courses. This specialization is made up of five courses, which are: Introduction to Personal Finance, Saving Money for the Future, Managing Debt, Fundamentals of Investing, and Risk Management in Personal Finance.
You will be able to apply the knowledge you are learning in every course through exercise worksheets that make it possible for you to adapt personal finance principles to your current financial situation, such as creating a budget, setting financial goals, and improving your savings strategy.
If you complete an exercise worksheet for every course, you will receive a shareable certificate upon completing the specialization.
Basic Personal Finance Masterclass
basic personal finance masterclass
This Udemy course aims to help young people learn the fundamentals of financial literacy through over 30 interesting videos that each explains a different finance topic using simple examples. It can also help adults learn how to reduce debt and improve their credit score.
While taking this course, you will learn how to set financial goals, how to save more money, how to create a budget, how to understand credit, how to invest, and other useful financial tips that can be easily put into practice and improve your financial literacy.
This course costs $19.99, but you can sometimes find it on sale for $9.99. Overall, this finance course is a great option for almost everyone who wants to easily understand finances with real-world examples.
Introduction to Corporate Finance by the University of Pennsylvania
introduction to corporate finance by the University of Pennsylvania
This course was created by the University of Pennsylvania as part of a few specializations to help people understand how corporate finance works. Some of the financial information taught in this course can be implemented by regular people in their daily lives, but there is a lot of complex information that is more suitable for people who have a business, want to start one or want to apply for a job that requires corporate finance knowledge.
Some of the topics explained are time value of money, risk-return tradeoff, interest rates, retirement savings, auto leasing, mortgage financing, capital budgeting, discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis, asset valuation, net present value, internal rate of return, payback period, and others.
It costs $79/month to access this course and the other courses from the Introduction to Finance and Accounting Specialization, but you can also try it for free with a 7-day free trial. You will also receive a certificate after completing the course.
Finance Essentials
Finance Essentials is an online finance course created by Imperial College Business School in London to help students all over the world prepare for their MBA. But some of the information in this course can be implemented by most people in their daily lives, while some information is more suitable for finance professionals.
Some of the basic lessons you can learn in this course are how to budget your money for a project, such as buying a house, how to allocate assets for retirement, and some other financial topics. But this course also teaches a few complex financial concepts for people who need them for their jobs or business.
You can take this course for free, but if you want to receive a certificate upon finishing this course and have unlimited access to the course materials, you have to pay $79. If you take the course for free, you have limited access to its materials.
Financial Planning for Young Adults
financial planning for young adults by the University of Illinois
This course was created by the University of Illinois to help young people understand the importance of financial planning through multiple interesting videos, readings, and quizzes. The information in this course is taught by three professors from the University of Illinois.
This course is divided into eight modules that cover different fundamental financial concepts that can be implemented by everyone, no matter their age or occupation.
This course will teach you how to create financial goals, create better budgets, describe and apply capital investment methods, recognize the importance of debit and credit use, spend your money more efficiently, and create risk management strategies.
You can take this course for free, but if you want to receive a shareable certificate upon graduation, you have to pay $49 and pass all the course assignments.
Practical Lessons on Personal Finance
practical lessons on personal finance
This free finance course was created for people who want to improve their money management skills and financial literacy. This course will help you understand how to reduce your expenses, save more money, how to set financial goals, what are the differences between credit and debit and what are their pros and cons, and how to become more financially independent.
Each lesson from this course contains a few simple and proven financial tips that can be easily implemented by anyone to improve their financial situation and grow their net worth. This course also briefly explains how to invest your money and compares a few investment strategies.
How To Choose a Finance Course?
A finance course is rarely one size fits all, and you should choose one that you will enjoy the most. Here are some tips you should keep in mind before choosing a finance course:
Choose a course that fits your knowledge requirements
Before choosing any finance course, free or paid, you should make sure that the course explains the financial topics you want to learn. For example, if you are a beginner in finance, you should start with a course that explains basic finance concepts you are interested in. Then, if you want, you can take a course that explains advanced finance topics.
Read reviews from previous students
If you want to take a paid course, you should first read reviews from previous students to have a better understanding of how valuable that course is and how much it might help you. If you see a paid finance course that has too many low-star reviews, it is recommended to avoid that course.
Money-back guarantee
Before paying for a paid finance course, you should check if it has a money-back guarantee. This is just in case the course is not what you expected it to be, and you do not want to lose the money you paid for it.
Do Free Finance Courses Work well?
Yes, there are lots of free finance courses that offer the same value as many paid courses, and sometimes even better value. You have to understand that cost is not a guarantee of quality all the time, and you can find lots of great free finance courses. So, you should not avoid free finance courses, but view them as a great opportunity to get valuable information for free.
Summary
Nowadays, everybody, especially young people, should learn how to effectively manage their finances and avoid money traps if they want to have a better financial situation later in life or when they retire.
Free finance courses are a great place to learn these skills because most of them cover almost all the finance lessons you should know. Nobody has ever regretted learning useful financial advice for free, and you should take at least one free finance course or even a cheaper one.
FAQs
Are finance course certificates valuable?
Depending on what finance course you have taken, that certificate can be a great addition to your resume while applying for a job position related to finances.
What is financial literacy?
Financial literacy means having some skills and knowledge that enable a person to make reasonable and smart financial decisions with their funds.
Do finance courses teach you how to invest your money?
Usually, most finance courses teach their students about the importance of investing and what investment options they have, but they rarely go in-depth about this topic. So, if you want to learn specific information about investing, you should take a separate course that teaches you how to invest in the stock market or other ways.
Can I learn how to improve my financial literacy without taking online finance courses?
Yes, you can do that by watching YouTube videos that explain finance topics or reading articles online. But a finance course is usually better structured and has a bigger amount of information in a single place.
Team that worked on the article
Oleg Tkachenko is an economic analyst and risk manager having more than 14 years of experience in working with systemically important banks, investment companies, and analytical platforms. He has been a Traders Union analyst since 2018. His primary specialties are analysis and prediction of price tendencies in the Forex, stock, commodity, and cryptocurrency markets, as well as the development of trading strategies and individual risk management systems. He also analyzes nonstandard investing markets and studies trading psychology.
Olga Shendetskaya has been a part of the Traders Union team as an author, editor and proofreader since 2017. Since 2020, Shendetskaya has been the assistant chief editor of the website of Traders Union, an international association of traders. She has over 10 years of experience of working with economic and financial texts. In the period of 2017-2020, Olga has worked as a journalist and editor of laftNews news agency, economic and financial news sections. At the moment, Olga is a part of the team of top industry experts involved in creation of educational articles in finance and investment, overseeing their writing and publication on the Traders Union website.
Olga has extensive experience in writing and editing articles about the specifics of working in the Forex market, cryptocurrency market, stock exchanges and also in the segment of financial investment in general. This level of expertise allows Olga to create unique and comprehensive articles, describing complex investment mechanisms in a simple and accessible way for traders of any level.
Olga’s motto: Do well and you’ll be well!
Mirjan Hipolito is a journalist and news editor at Traders Union. She is an expert crypto writer with five years of experience in the financial markets. Her specialties are daily market news, price predictions, and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Mirjan is a cryptocurrency and stock trader. This deep understanding of the finance sector allows her to create informative and engaging content that helps readers easily navigate the complexities of the crypto world.