LEARN ABOUT MONEY
This is a course about how to accumulate, borrow, spend, invest and save money. Some people have an intuitive ability with money, where everything they touch turns to gold, others need to take a much more conscious approach to handling money if they are to maximize their assets. It aims to improve your ability to make the right decisions about managing finances.
Throughout the course the student will develop their ability to make better decisions with respect to the following sorts of problems, such as:
- How to better invest money.
- How to capitalize on your home
- How to buy more economically to cut food bills.
- How to minimize taxation.
- How to bulk buy to minimize costs.
- Deciding how much to keep in reserve for a "rainy day".
- How often to restructure your personal budget.
These and more problems are dealt with throughout this comprehensive guide to money management.
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
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Understanding Financial Terminology
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Financial management Goals
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Financial terminology/language
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Financial statements
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Planning and Managing your Cash
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Budgeting
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Cash flows
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Profit and Loss
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Balance sheet
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Financial records
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Problem solving
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Borrowing : for goods and against property, assets, etc.
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Why borrow?
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Types of loans and Sources of funds
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Getting a mortgages to suit you
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Credit card control
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Debt Management
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Buying
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What to look for
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Hidden traps
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Consumer protection
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Deciding when not to buy on credit
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Forms of credit.
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The Money Market
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Introduction
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Sterling Money Market Operations
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Reserve Averaging Scheme
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Standing Facilities
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OMOs
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Money
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Investment
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Investing
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What is an investment?
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Investment Types: Housing, land, stocks, bonds, trust funds, antiques business investments, insurance (annuities) and more.
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Buying shares
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Spreading your investment
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Investment appraisals
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A lifetime guide to money matters: Managing your cash, debt, insurance, housing, strategic planning
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Making your own money
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Using your money
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Keeping your money
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Counting your money
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Enjoying your money
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Investing in shares
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Buying or starting a business
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Risk and Superannuation -Lump sum, roll over etc.
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Handling lump sums
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Investment options
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Superannuation for:
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Employees
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Employers
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Reducing Costs -Cutting down on expenditure. Getting better credit card rates.
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Methods of cost saving
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Alternative Living
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Reducing the cost of credit
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Use your property
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Organizing your finances
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Banks -How they can help you.
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E-commerce
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Bank clearing house
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Choosing a bank
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Types of banks
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Bank fees
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Getting the most from your bank including reduced credit card rates.
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Communication
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Introduction
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Understanding Financial Terminology
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How to deal with financial advisors
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Understanding Communication
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Interpersonal Communication skills
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Develop an understanding of the nature and scope of financial management, and key terminology used.
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Discuss planning the management of financial resources.
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Differentiate alternative sources of finance.
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Determine appropriate and affordable purchasing.
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Describe the nature and scope of the investment market.
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Compare investment options
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Discuss personal financial risk management
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Identify ways of reducing expenditure without seriously affecting outcomes.
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Choose and use banks more effectively.
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Improve communication skills in order to more clearly interact with people providing financial services.
Three Goals for Financial Management
Whether you are managing money on a small or large scale; and whether in a business or personal context, there are always three things you must aim to achieve:
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Increase Assets Total assets (e.g. Money and investments such as property, shares, etc) either increase or decrease, but never remain constant. If assets decrease and continue to decrease, eventually there will be no assets (or finance) to manage.
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Sustain Cash Flow Assets need to be used in order to survive. Businesses use assets to sustain activities that generate income. People use assets to sustain their existence. If cash flow stops, a business stops doing business. If personal cash flow stops, there is no money for food or shelter.
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Organise Finance Effectively Finance must be organised and controlled well if you are to optimise gains and minimise losses. Financial activities (business or private) are subject to legal controls (e.g. everyone pays tax, and everyone must be able to account for how they handle their finance).
BUDGETING IS IMPORTANT
Budgeting is all about planning your management of finance. It considers the money you are likely to get and then determines the spending you should be carrying out. There should be a properly considered balance between what comes in and what goes out.
The world of finance is of course never completely predictable; so any budget plan is likely to need some adjusting and monitoring as time moves on; but whether you are handling your own personal finances, or the finances of a business; a budget is always going to be better than no budget. You will come to understand and appreciate that better as you progress through this course.
There are many different types of budgets: simple and complex; short and long term, and dealing with just one sector of financial activity, or many sectors.
Example: Cash Budgets for Business
A business cash budget looks at the future cash inflows and outflows of a business. The cash budget is very important for trading businesses because of the considerable investment made by management in the inventory sold by the business. The success of a trading business is generally determined by the ability of management to turn its investment of stock into cash on a regular basis.
Because many businesses purchase their stock on 30 or 60 days credit, it is very important to be able to know the expected cash situation of the business in the approaching months.
A cash budget may be prepared on a yearly basis, but can be more useful if divided into monthly intervals. The monthly intervals allow for greater control, as there is added detail relating to the timing of receipts and payments, and also greater frequency of reporting which leads to more frequent comparisons.
Benefits of a Cash Budget
Predicts the likely cash position of a business
- Reveals expected receipts and payments
- Warns of cash shortages
- Identifies any idle funds
- Helps in identifying seasonal fluctuations
- Pin-points problems with cash receipts or payments
- Improves business planning
- Provides a useful source for comparison
The preparation of a cash budget must take into account all future inflows and outflows of cash.
Anticipated cash inflows (receipts) for a Business
- Cash sales of inventory
- Collections from debtors from credit sales made previously
- Loans (e.g. from banks, finance companies)
- Cash contributions by the proprietor (i.e. additional capital)
- Extraordinary revenue (e.g. interest revenue, commissions)
- Cash receipts from the disposal of non-current assets
Anticipated Cash Outflows (payments)
- Cash purchases of inventory
- Cash withdrawals by the proprietor
- Repayment of loans
- Payments to creditors for credit purchases made previously
- Cash payments of expense items (ordinary and extraordinary)
- Cash payments for additional non-current assets
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