When you think of finance, what comes to your mind? Things associated with money, banking, debit, and credit. Sounds interesting, right? Then why not explore it further and make this interest into a hobby and a hobby into a profession? You can do it by learning through finance courses for beginners.
Do you know that finance is one of the fastest growing industries, and the career options and their demand in it are diversifying quickly?
Top universities around the world offer motivated and hardworking individuals a chance to shine while sitting in their respective homes. The only prerequisites are a laptop or any platform to attend these classes and a zest to learn something new.
List of the Best Free Online Finance Courses for Beginners
To make your work easier, we have already jotted down the 15 best free online finance courses for beginners. So, go through them, and we hope you find this article beneficial.
1. Financial Markets: Coursera
Yale University has given a chance to all financial novices to learn and understand money matters in a systematized manner. This free course, Financial Markets, is for beginners who need not be from a commerce background. It describes and explains the foundation and core features of finance by observing the business situation of today and analyzing its prospects.
Course Highlights:
- Get familiar with the essence of the subject
- Introduce yourself to the various characteristics of finance
- Learn the details of behavioural economics, and behavioural finance
- Learn from the past the impact of recession and mortgage
- Study in-depth the functions of stocks and bonds
- Get to know the history of financial markets
Course Duration: 33 hours
2. Financial Basics Everyone Should Know: LinkedIn Learning
This course is second on the list of finance courses for beginners. If you are genuinely interested in making finance a career and want to polish your skills, this is the right course for you. Diversify your knowledge in business matters by learning the concepts of financial planning, investments, accounting, insurance, and retirement. Financial literacy and personal finance will be the main focus of the online modules.
Course Highlights:
- Understand the role of financial planning in daily life
- Figure out the subdivisions of insurance and investment
- Enhance your learning of bank accounts and how they operate
- Evaluate proposals using discount methods
- Become aware of the prospects
- Gain knowledge of the basic financial concepts
Course Duration: 4-5 hours
3. Foundations of Finance: edX
The University of Cambridge has made it easy for financial enthusiasts to attain deep knowledge about fiscal affairs. This course does not require any prior learning about the field and assures to provide the principles of finance and accounting by undertaking a practical approach. This course highlights the key elements of finance in the economy.
Course Highlights:
- Cover topics like money and capital, cash flow, and financial reporting
- Understand well real-world case studies
- Solve problems using practical applications
- Assess your knowledge at regular intervals
- Discover the core dimensions of financial concepts
- Learn with the help of practitioner interviews
Course Duration: 5 weeks
4. How to Read Financial Statements: CFI
What are Financial Statements? How are they made? How to read them? How to make decisions in an informed manner? This course answers all these questions in a detailed and well-structured format. A simple self-paced course with video lessons, exams, and extra material to read makes it a favourite among young learners.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the complexities of a balance sheet
- Acquire the skill of reading and interpreting an income sheet
- Identify the role of financial statements
- Recognize the importance of cash flow statements
- Find out the various activities involved in making a financial statement
- Test yourself with the assistance of a qualified assessment made by educators
Course Duration: 1.5 hours
5. Introduction to Corporate Finance: edX
Columbia University has given you a chance to learn all about corporate finance in the comfort of your home. Introducing the concepts of stocks and bonds are the terms we might often hear but know little about them. The value of money and capital budgeting are two of the many topics covered in these informative lectures.
Course Highlights:
- Know about definitions of some of the principal terms in finance and accounting
- Learn to evaluate bonds and stocks
- Get to know the corporate aspect of finance
- Make excel sheets for calculating bonds
- Learn the true meaning of capital budgeting
- Identify the projects a firm might be considering for them
Course Duration: 4 weeks
6. Free Online Finance course: Wall Street Mojo
Sixth on the list of free online finance courses for beginners is the Free Online Finance course by Wall Street Mojo. This free online course offers to make focused individuals aware of finance and its massive network. People who are genuinely interested in finance should give this course a try as it describes the many aspects of accounting, starting right from the base and slowly working through the complexities in it.
Course Highlights:
- Comprehend the framework of financial accounting
- Master the dynamics of finance
- Learn technicalities and terminologies in finance
- Discuss the types of financial statements
- Expand your learning with reading sources and references
- Research on the various subparts of finance like balance sheets, cash flow, profit and loss account
Course Duration: 2 hours
7. Introduction to Corporate Finance: CFI
These online lectures are extremely useful for those who want to make a career in the corporate finance industry. It is a streamlined course and tries to cover all there is to corporate financing, from capital investment to capital financing. A person who is not even from a commerce background can join this for an overview of this prospering aspect of finance.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the intricacies of the capital market
- Explore the business life cycle and funding life cycle
- Download extra materials and referred sources
- Qualify the assessments to make optimal use of the lectures
- Comprehend the role of corporate finance
- Acquire the skills of calculating business valuations
Course Duration: 2.5 hours
8. Finance Essentials: edX
Imperial College, London has provided an opportunity to finance aspirants all over the world to learn and experience the Finance essentials in a very pragmatic way. Perfect for those who want to pursue an MBA or are simply interested in knowing the core concepts of finance, this course prepares its students for the business industry.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the fundamentals of capital budgeting
- Understand the procedure of allocation of assets
- Implement the knowledge of capital asset pricing in real world
- Learn to value a bond
- Obtain information through supported learning
- Expand your learning with additional sources and similar activities
Course Duration: 6 weeks
9. Transform, Grow and Innovate in Finance: Alison
As the name suggests, this course provides learners with overall growth in understanding and developing financial businesses. The modules will help you expand your imagination and innovate new ideas and notions regarding money matters. Along with personal finance, this course teaches the significance of teamwork in the development of finance.
Course Highlights:
- Identify the importance of personal finance as well as teamwork finance
- Learn the relevance of strategic planning
- Understand the financial close process
- Recognize the development opportunities
- Discover the change management and its scope
- Grade yourself with assignments for better grasping of the subject
Course Duration:3 – 4 hours
10. Introduction to Business Finance: Alison
Anyone keen on starting a business should go through this collection of lectures at least once. Right from understanding financial management to the management of resources for business, this course offers a whole package for start-ups and beginners. You need no prior training for attending this course.
Course Highlights:
- Discover the history and evolution of business finance over time
- Identify the mistakes and faults that every business person makes
- Learn the essence of balance sheets and credit
- Explore the sources of finance
- Select the best tools required for core financial performances
- Solve an exercise based on business finance
Course Duration: 1.5-3 hours
11. Managing Your Personal Finances: LinkedIn Learning
Managing your personal finances is a basic thing that everybody should know and acknowledge. This course teaches you to change your attitude towards money, how to make budgets, how to save for retirement, and many more. You can learn all there is about personal finance.
Course Highlights:
- Get an overview of the different types of income
- Become aware of the future aspects of financial planning
- Understand debts and learn how to manage them
- Get hold of the basics of personal financing
- Build, evaluate and analyze budgets
- Learn the basics of investment
Course Duration: 1.5-2 hours
12. Essential Career Skills for Investment Banking and Finance: edX
New York Institute of Finance, located in the centre of Wall Street, has offered this course by providing its services and by giving a chance to keen learners to expand and improve their command of the subject. With well-experienced experts, self-paced videos, and reading references, one can gain an ample amount of knowledge.
Course Highlights:
- Explore the different sectors of banking and finance
- Interact with experienced business professionals
- Improve your skills in making appropriate decisions
- Prepare yourself to enter the world of wall street in future
- Learn about the various financial institutions
- Take tests for an overall better understanding of the subjects and the industry
Course Duration: 2 weeks
13. Introduction to Finance and Accounting Specialization: Coursera
The University of Pennsylvania offers a free online introductory course specializing in Finance and Accounting. Interactive discussions with experts and applying all logic and technicalities to an actual project are some of the advantages of this course. This course builds a foundation for this vast field.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the art of decision-making in corporate finances
- Analyze cash flows and discounted cash flows
- Discover how to do capital budgeting
- Master the skills required for examining financial statements
- Introduce yourself to financial accounting
- Apply all learned on a hands-on project
Course Duration: 5 months
14. Financial Market Analysis: edX
International Monetary Funds, an international financial institution, has imparted its knowledge and valuable information to students who aspire to become more fluent in finance. Many senior economists and experienced instructors at the IMF will demonstrate the principles concerned with market analysis and gain insight into the conditions prevailing in the global markets of today.
Course Highlights:
- Learn the different types of fixed-income securities
- Measure the financial assets in the markets
- Gain a perspective from the investor’s point of view
- Learn to calculate bonds and stocks
- Become familiar with the concepts of interest rates
- Understand better with the help of hands-on projects demonstrations
Course Duration: 7 weeks
15. How to Take Control of Your Finances: Alison
How to take control of your finances? This is a question that comes to everybody’s mind, and this course on Alison answers it by enriching all the students with all sorts of facts and figures. This course is free to enrol, study, explore, research, and complete, and a financial novice can easily follow through the videos.
Course Highlights:
- Learn to determine your financial conditions
- Learn to calculate your net worth and cash flow
- Understand how to create an emergency fund
- Analyze past financial records and data
- Get hold of the management of finances
- Transform financial templates into proper statements
Course Duration: 1.5-2 hours
We hope it helped you find the best free online finance courses for beginners. Some of the recommended online courses that you may find helpful:
