Open university new 'personal finance' module

mell61

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I'm interested in the new Personal finance course offered by the open university, starting this Autumn
http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01iDB123

I realise that this is a new course so no-one can evaluate the course yet, but I'm wondering if anyone has feedback on the Business elements / modules from any of the Open university courses and how relevant they have found them?
 
What would be your goal in doing such a course and could you not learn as much using some of the many free resources that are out there?
 
Mell61.....I studied Financial Strategy with the OU as part of an MBA and it was great. I obviously haven't done that course that you allude to but I would have to believe that the quality should be very good.

Clubman...there's nothing like a few assignments and exams to help focus the mind!
 
My goal is to acchieve financial freedom, to get to a point in the next 10 years or so where I have options open to me that aren't dependent on the next pay packet.
I want to get my family finances aligned with our goals, sufficient pension coverage through work + AVCs, make additional payments against our mortgage so that if there is a 'correction' in the market / interest rates we are in comfortable position, get our rainy day savings in place, and when our SSIAs pay out re-invest in equities to ensure that we aren't dependent on the property sector.

Our long term goal is getting into property development, preferably in the residential sector initially (perhaps in the longer term into commercial), where I would like to be in a position where there is a return that will cover the initial loans, void periods, expenses and still generate some 'profit'. It doesn't seem to be a position many landlords take at the current time, but I'm looking for the longhaul buy to let with re-investing in properties not banking on capital gain.

I'm investigating a lot of different forums, online and in some books, in personal finance reporting in the media, and from reading about those who have managed it...

I want to plan for all the contingencies that we expect / fear, an area that is very personal in real terms (finacially how would we cope with a growing family / redundancy / illness...), and I would like to gain as much education in finance so that I will understand all the options, pitfalls, benefits that are possible. We are already looking to meet with an AA in the coming 6-12 months, so I don't need the guts of finance, jut to be sure that I have sufficient understanding to evaluate what options we are offered.

I've been looking for a starting point for gaining this education, and this course seems to give me an opportunity to get a lot of the ground work for doing this.
If anyone is aware of a similar course that offers similar sorts of education I would be interested, but the only other one I've found to date is a professional one that was 3 years (there was a thread recently re how to be eddie hobbs but I couldn't find it today to link).
 
Mell61...from the language of your thread it seems that you are already well up on many aspects of personal finance (or, at least, have a good awareness)....I'm now wondering if the OU course may actually be too basic for you! It might be good to give the OU a ring and discuss the course content in detail to ensure that it's aligned with your needs.
 
Mell61

I did an OU course in business a few years ago. The course had a large financial content and was very good i.e. accountancy & finance, NPV, financial ratios etc. These are accountancy principles which can be applied anywhere.

As the OU is a UK based institution, all the content has a UK bias e.g. references to various legislation, taxation rates, stamp duty rates etc. I would suspect that a personal finance course would rely heavily on this local information.

I suggest that you contact the local OU branch in Dublin or in Belfast, and ask to speak to a tutor or get a the contents page or sample from the course literature, to determine whether the material is relevant for the Irish market

Regards

SM