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Money & Business
Free courses
MSE’s Academy of Money
Session 1: Making good spending ...
3 Your preferences and your spending ...

Course content

Session 1: Making good spending decisions
Introduction and guidance
- What is a badged course?
- How to get a badge
Acknowledgements

Session 1
Introduction
1 What is your financial personality?
2 The social influences on spending
Current section:
3 Your preferences and your spending decisions
4 Your personality can seriously affect your spending
5 Understanding the marketing forces that can affect our spending
6 A decision-making model to take control of spending decisions
7 Half-time quiz
8 Why do we buy insurance?
9 Applying Steps 1 and 2 of the decision-making model to insurance
10 Applying Steps 3 and 4 of the decision-making model to insurance
11 Mobile phones and insurance
12 Shopping online
13 Being a smarter online shopper
14 End-of-session quiz
15 Summary of Session 1
References
Acknowledgements
Glossary

Session 1: Half-time quiz
Session 1: End-of-session quiz
MSE budget grid File

Session 2
Introduction
1 Income and taxation
2 Understanding income tax
3 National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
4 Half-time quiz
5 Understanding tax codes
- 5.1 Do I need to make income tax returns?
6 Why do I need to budget?
7 The income side of the budget
8 Turning to the spending side of the budget
9 Building your budget
10 Your own budget
11 Trimming your spending
12 End-of-session quiz
13 Summary of Session 2
Acknowledgements

Session 2: End-of-session quiz

Session 3
Introduction
1 The boom of borrowing in the UK
2 Good debt vs bad debt
3 Credit reference agencies and your credit history
4 Half-time quiz
5 Who are the lenders?
6 The debt supermarket: get to know the products
7 How much does it cost to borrow money?
- 7.1 Annual Percentage Rate (APR): the key comparator for borrowing decisions
- 7.2 Setting interest rates and the role of the Bank of England
8 Low cost and high cost borrowing
9 End-of-session quiz
10 Summary of Session 3
Acknowledgements
Glossary

Session 3: Half-time quiz
Session 3: End-of-session quiz

Session 4
Introduction
1 Getting a mortgage: how much can I borrow?
2 Half-time quiz
3 Mortgage choices: offset, flexible and portable mortgages
4 Managing your mortgage: overpaying
- 4.1 Moving to another deal
- 4.2 Ditching a fixed-rate mortgage
5 The other costs of buying a property
6 Mortgages: understanding and managing the risks
7 End-of-session quiz
8 Summary of Session 4
References
Acknowledgements
Glossary

Session 4: Half-time quiz
Session 4: End-of-session quiz

Session 5
Introduction
1 Why should we save up for the future?
- 1.1 The difference between saving and investing
2 The UK’s savings problem
3 The savings supermarket: What type of accounts can I get?
- 3.1 What about Premium Bonds?
4 The savings supermarket: Should you get an ISA?
- 4.1 ISAs for your first home or your retirement
5 The savings supermarket: Understanding interest and tax
6 The savings supermarket: some final points
7 Money in a savings account is almost always safe
8 Drawing up your savings strategy
9 Half-time quiz
10 Investments – the riskier (but possibly rewarding) side of saving up
11 Understanding shares
12 Understanding bonds
13 Understanding commodities
14 Understanding property investment
15 Understanding investment funds
16 Investment strategies: how to manage your risk
17 Do I need financial advice when choosing an investment or should I go it alone?
18 End-of-session quiz
19 Summary of Session 5
References
Acknowledgements
Glossary

Session 5: Half-time quiz
Session 5: End-of-session quiz

Session 6
Introduction
1 How does spending change in later life?
2 State pensions
- 2.1 How far does the state pension go?
3 Occupational pension schemes
- 3.1 Occupational schemes: moving to average salary pensions
- 3.2 Occupational schemes: they work like a pay rise
4 Half-time quiz
5 Personal pensions: money purchase schemes
- 5.1 Planning your pension: the costs and risks
6 Understanding pension tax allowances
7 What can I do with my pension when I retire?
8 The 2015 pensions revolution: freeing up access to pension pots
9 A shortfall in your pension plan – the options
10 End-of-course quiz
11 Summary of Session 6
Where next?
Tell us what you think
References
Acknowledgements
Glossary

Session 6: Half-time quiz
End-of-course compulsory badge quiz

About this free course

About this free course

12 hours study

Level 1: Introductory

Full course description

Become an OU student

Become an OU student

BA/BSc (Honours) Open degree
MSc in Finance
BA (Honours) Business Management

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MSE’s Academy of Money

MSE’s Academy of Money

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Session1
Session2
Session3
Session4
Session5
Session6

3 Your preferences and your spending decisions

In the previous section, you studied the role of social factors in determining your spending decisions. In this section, you will study how your preferences and your habits affect your spending behaviour.

The figure shows a clipboard with a piece of paper inserted to it. On the paper is written ‘Understand your spending habits’. Around the clipboard are some bank notes and a calculator.

Figure 2 Are your spending habits causing problems?

Show description|Hide description

The figure shows a clipboard with a piece of paper inserted to it. On the paper is written ‘Understand your spending habits’. Around the clipboard are some bank notes and a calculator.

Figure 2 Are your spending habits causing problems?

Previous

Previous 2 The social influences on spending

Next 3.1 The preference for bringing forward financial rewards and for delaying outlays

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