We believe that a major cause of the UK Savings Gap is a lack of financial education. In fact, research by the Open University found that 70% of UK adults answered GCSE level personal finance questions incorrectly.

Understanding your finances is the first step in a long journey to your financial goals. Learning about personal finance can help you to plan and invest for you and your family’s future.

We think the more you know, the easier it is to make decisions. That is why we want to help you make informed choices about your personal finances. While financial planning and investing is often thought of as complicated, we think it can be simple and even fun. You just need to know a little information and develop some basic skills.

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Helping make financial education accessible to everyone

We have partnered with the Open University Business School to establish the True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance, a pioneering Centre of Excellence for research in the development of personal financial capabilities. The aim of the Centre is simple: empower the UK public to better manage their finances. Working with the Open University, we will be delivering three free personal finance courses aimed at anyone interested in improving his or her financial knowledge.

Managing My Money

Course open now

Our first personal finance course, ‘Managing My Money’, was presented on FutureLearn in Spring of 2014 as part of their MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) program and become one of their most popular modules. The course is now available on its permanent home, the Open University’s OpenLearn .

This course aims to improve your personal finance skills. You will learn how to create a budget and use it to make better spending choices. The course also covers debts, investments and how mortgages work. You will also explore pension planning and the different types of insurance you might consider.

You can learn at your own pace with OpenLearn or take a structured and moderated course with FutureLearn.

Sign up on OpenLearn Sign up on FutureLearn

Over 125,000 learners have registered for the online courses, here is some of their feedback:

F. Walton

“I worked through (the course) and really enjoyed it. I learned quite a lot in the pensions bit, but the most powerful thing it did for me was to show me a new way of considering my finances and the importance of continually assessing the situation, reviewing plans and making new ones… I have made some changes which will, over a period of three months, save me just under £4,000.”

H. Kitchen

“What an eye-opener! Thank you all very much both to staff and to other students who have made comments, suggested new things and generally helped me on my way.”

S. Rossi

“I have learnt so much on this course – and found it surprisingly easy and fun to follow – that I feel financially confident enough to make my own financial decisions… This experience has been so enjoyable that I have signed up for two more courses!”

Related Resources

Managing My Money

Managing My Investments

Managing My Financial Journey

Beyond Risk Profiling - White Paper

Saving Us From Ourselves - Green Paper

Towards a Common Understanding of Risk - Green Paper

Towards a Common Understanding of Risk - White Paper