There is a joint initiative between the Money Saving Expert and the Open University (OU) for anyone who may want to dedicate some time to improve their financial knowledge. You can complete as many sessions as you like, each one will take about two hours with a mix of info, exercises, explanatory videos from Martin and animations. You can choose to complete just the one that interests you, more, or all of them. There are six sessions available, detailed below and some additional resources for students too:
1) Making good spending decisions. Develops your approach to money management by exploring behavioural and marketing pressures and looking at a four-stage decision-making model.
2) Budgeting & taxation. Calculate net income, how national insurance and tax work, and build a budget.
3) Borrowing money. How different debts work, the differences between them, and the dangers.
4) Understanding mortgages. Incl interest rates, repayments and how mobile bills etc could stop you getting accepted.
5) Saving & investing. How they differ, savings options and investment basics (eg, how shares/funds work).
6) Planning for retirement. Both for those retiring imminently and those who have many years to go. It looks at how state pensions, occupational pension schemes and personal pension schemes work, and the differences between them.
– Student Loans Decoded: A 60-min programme to take sixth-formers and parents through how student finance really works – Student Loans Decoded.
– Martin’s free financial education textbook for 15-16-year-olds: Not strictly speaking MSE this one – it’s a joint initiative between Martin and the Young Money charity, making a free financial education textbook available.
Visit this link for more information: