Finance & Investing
Courses on money: personal finance and pensions, investing and markets, accounting and financial analysis, and the economics underneath them.
Verified courses first, then the rest of the category
A twenty-four hour course on investing, published by a university rather than by a firm selling a product, which is unusual in this subject and the main reason to prefer it. Free from The Open University, startable without signing up, with a free statement of participation on completion.
Verification record: TMC-2026-00033Verified Re-check due Direct course review
Accounting used for strategy and control rather than for reporting, closing Illinois’ accounting sequence. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
IESE’s principles course in financial accounting, taught from a European business school perspective. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
The accounting that produces a company’s published figures, taught from first principles rather than assuming a finance background. Free from Saylor with a free certificate.
Not independently verified
Accounting used to run a business rather than to report on it, which is a genuinely different discipline from financial accounting. Free from Saylor with a free certificate.
Not independently verified
The foundations of corporate finance, covering how money is valued over time and how funding decisions are made. Free from Saylor with a free certificate.
Not independently verified
Managing a firm’s capital and investment decisions, the graduate counterpart to Principles of Finance. Free from Saylor.
Not independently verified
Finance across currencies and jurisdictions, the international counterpart to the corporate finance courses. Free from Saylor.
Not independently verified
Modelling a business in spreadsheets and interpreting what the model says, from Wharton. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
An orientation to the career paths available in finance, published free by the Corporate Finance Institute alongside its paid certification programmes. An account is required and no credit card is asked for. Useful mainly for deciding which direction to pursue rather than for building a specific skill.
Not independently verified
Duke’s deep treatment of decentralised finance, one of the few university-taught programmes on the subject rather than industry promotion. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
The risk-focused course in Duke’s decentralised finance sequence, which is the part most industry material skips. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
The building blocks of decentralised finance, taught as the foundation for the other two Duke courses in the sequence. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
How individual markets, firms and consumers behave, taught as a standard first university economics course rather than as business advice. Free from Saylor, readable as a guest without an account, with a free certificate on completion.
Not independently verified
The economy at the level of growth, inflation, unemployment and policy, the companion to the microeconomics course in the same catalog. Free from Saylor, readable as a guest without an account, with a free certificate on completion.
Not independently verified
A course on the harder questions about monetary systems, unusual in an open catalog and a genuine complement to practical personal finance material. Free from Saylor, readable as a guest without an account, with a free certificate on completion.
Not independently verified
The history of money itself, which is the context most personal finance and investing material assumes without ever teaching it. Free from Saylor, readable as a guest without an account, with a free certificate on completion.
Not independently verified
A foundational course asking what money actually is, aimed at people who want the concept before the mechanics of managing it. Free from Saylor, readable as a guest without an account, with a free certificate on completion.
Not independently verified
US federal taxation for individuals and sole traders, taught at university level and directly relevant to anyone self-employed there. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
Wharton’s quantitative modelling specialization, aimed at analysts who build the models rather than read them. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
McMaster’s finance specialization for a general audience, deliberately pitched at people with no finance background. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
IESE’s finance course for managers who have to read and act on numbers without being accountants. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
Emory’s version of finance for managers without a finance background, covering statements, budgets and the vocabulary. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
Finance explained to people whose job is something else, from UC Irvine. Delivered through Coursera; the browse listing publishes no price.
Not independently verified
About this subject
Courses about money: household finance and pensions, investing and how markets behave, accounting and financial analysis, and the economics those subjects rest on. Much of this catalogue comes from universities and non-profit publishers rather than from firms selling a financial product, which is worth knowing before you start. Every listing states whether it has been independently verified; most have not.
Guidance
Verification tells you that a course delivers the material it advertises. It cannot tell you whether the approach it teaches is right for your money. These are the things worth checking yourself.
A course can explain how index funds, pensions or company accounts work. It cannot know your income, your debts, your tax position or your timeline, and nothing in this directory is a personal recommendation. Be especially careful with material that moves from explaining a mechanism to telling you what to buy. In many countries giving individual investment advice is a regulated activity, and a course is not a substitute for someone who is authorised to give it.
A university course on portfolio construction and a brokerage course on portfolio construction can cover the same theory with different incentives behind it. Neither is disqualifying, and vendor material is often the best source on that vendor’s own tools. It is simply a fact worth having. Each listing here names the publisher, and where a course is taught around a company’s own product the summary says so.
Tax, pensions and consumer protection are national. A course on retirement accounts, tax-advantaged wrappers or filing obligations may be precise and current and still be about somewhere you do not live. Personal finance courses are the most affected; corporate finance, accounting principles and economics travel much better.
This catalogue spans household budgeting through to graduate corporate finance and quantitative modelling. Someone deciding what to do with a first pension needs something quite different from someone learning to read a balance sheet professionally. The level on each listing is recorded from what the provider states, and the summary usually says who the course is pitched at.
Interest rates, tax rules and pension regulations change, and a course recorded some years ago can be accurate about principles while out of date about numbers. Where a provider publishes a last-updated date we record it. Where they do not, the listing shows only the date we checked the page, which tells you about our research rather than about the course.
Standards
The published standard applies unchanged. These are the checks that tend to matter most in this subject.
A verification says nothing about whether the strategy a course teaches will make or lose you money, and nothing about whether it suits your circumstances. We do not assess investment merit and we never will.
Questions
No. Verified means the course is real and broadly matches what it advertises. It is not a judgement on the financial approach being taught, and it is not financial advice. If you need advice about your own money, speak to someone authorised to give it where you live.
It depends on the subject. Accounting principles, corporate finance and economics travel well. Anything touching tax, pensions or regulated products is usually written for one country, and the listing names the publisher so you can judge.
Universities and non-profit publishers account for much of this part of the catalogue, and they publish openly. Where a course is free to take but charges for a certificate or an exam, the listing says so rather than describing it simply as free.
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