• The Open University
  • The Open University Business School

Finance Fundamentals: Financial Planning and Budgeting

With household budgets feeling the pinch this course shows how to bring order to your finances and make good financial decisions.

71,893 enrolled on this course

A coin sits on top of a line graph on a piece of paper – a metaphor for financial planning.
  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours
  • Accreditation

    AvailableMore info

Find out how to manage your income and expenditure more effectively

This online courses explore how current economic conditions impact household finances, before showing you how to manage yours more effectively.

You will find out whether you have bad financial habits and how to address them; discover a simple four-stage model for making sound financial decisions; examine the two components of household budgeting – income and expenditure – and how to manage them; and look at a key area of household spending – insurance.

The Open University’s Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance created this course, with the generous support of True Potential LLP.

What topics will you cover?

  • Financial planning over the life course
  • Prioritising plans
  • Human behaviour and financial decisions
  • Applying a financial decision-making model
  • Income and inflation
  • Income and taxation
  • Government benefits
  • Factors influencing household expenditure
  • Creating and managing a household budget
  • Understanding when to buy insurance products
  • The range of insurance products

Who is this accredited by?

EOCCS
EOCCS:

This course is accredited by EOCCS, the first international quality benchmark for online courses in business and management education.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Identify and understand how financial needs change over the life course
  • Identify, understand and apply a model for financial decision-making
  • Identify and appreciate how human behaviour affects financial decisions
  • Identify and understand the impact of inflation and tax on incomes
  • Apply and appreciate the social and economic factors that influence spending
  • Design and manage a household budget
  • Identify and understand insurance products and when to buy them

Who is the course for?

For further information about registration, the final assessment course, your eligibility and the BA in Business Management, visit the Open University website.

IMPORTANT! If you are aiming to use your study of courses in the Business and Finance Fundamentals program to obtain academic credit, please be aware that the final planned presentation of the Open University Assessment Course BXM191 Business and Finance Fundamentals in Practice starts October 2020. Please ensure that you allow yourself enough time to obtain all eight Certificates of Achievement from courses in the program before registering for the Assessment Course. Details of runs of the relevant FutureLearn courses in 2019 and 2020 are available here.

Who will you learn with?

I am Director of the True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance (PUFin) at the OU Business School. Previously I was Treasurer of Nationwide Building Society.

Moderator for certain online Business courses.

I am an Associate Lecturer for the Open University and an educational writer

Who developed the course?

The Open University

As the UK’s largest university, The Open University (OU) supports thousands of students to achieve their goals and ambitions via supported distance learning, helping to fit learning around professional and personal life commitments.

  • Established

    1969
  • Location

    Milton Keynes, UK
  • World ranking

    Top 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

The Open University Business School

A pioneer in flexible learning for over 30 years, The Open University Business School delivers transformational, high quality business and management education which is quality assured.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Learner reviews

Learner reviews cannot be loaded due to your cookie settings. Please and refresh the page to view this content.

Get a taste of this course

Find out what this course is like by previewing some of the course steps before you join:

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...

You can use the hashtag #FLBFbudgeting to talk about this course on social media.