DB123 helps you make informed financial decisions. It develops practical financial skills and your understanding of the rapidly changing social and economic context for them. The course looks at all the key topics of personal finance (e.g. borrowing and debt, pensions, savings and investments and insurance). The course uses interactive tutorials on a DVD-ROM and an innovative textbook.
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the largest and fastest growing global professional accountancy body, supports and endorses You and your money: personal finance in context as making a major contribution to the development of financial literacy and its education across the UK. The ACCA supports the development of a financially intelligent society, and believes that this Open University course can play a major role in helping to educate people about the crucial issues of personal financial management.
The course is for anyone of any age or background who has an interest in personal finance and money, or of the news coverage of business and economics. It is also very relevant for anyone who works in financial services or who teaches personal finance in schools or college. Only very basic numeracy is assumed (i.e. that you can add, subtract, divide and multiply). A course guide will help develop your study and numerical skills. This Level 1 course also provides the skills needed for both higher education and distance learning, to help you progress to courses at Level 2.
This sample study calendar shows how the workload for this course is organised, the range of course materials and the deadlines for the assignments.
This section introduces some recent changes in the financial services industry. This is part of a larger section looking at wider economic and social change. This is important in order to get a deeper understanding of personal finance matters. It includes an Activity that asks students to stop and think.
This section is looking at the way couple can manage their money within households. This is part of a major section of the book which looks at the process of creating, and sticking to, a budget.
This section introduces the idea of investing in shares, and explains what they are and how they can rise and fall in value. Later sections look at how shares have performed and more detail, and strategies to minimise the risk of investing in shares.
This section introduces an important tool that is used on the course - the 'financial balance sheet' - and ways it can be used to help assess an individual's or a household's financial well-being. It also links back to some earlier chapters in the book.
This short section looks at ways in which people can use their homes to provide an income in retirement. It's a small part of a large and important chapter about retirement and pension planning.
An example of one of the electronic tutorials on the DVD-ROM. The tutorials help you to explore further the topics and debates you meet in the course textbook.
A video advertisement for the course (QuickTime movie, 3.2Mb).
Once you have registered on a course you will have access to Learning with the OU at www.open.ac.uk/learning. This link provides information on topics such as getting started, study strategies, personal and career development, planning studies and moving on.
