School of Business
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Empowering students with personal financial literacy
The new Personal Finance course combines the latest research with practical examples, teaches financial skills needed in everyday life, and helps to achieve personal goals and dreams.
The lecture of the Personal Finance course, which deals with personal financial management, is about to begin in the Aalto Hall of the Otaniemi Undergraduate Centre. Despite the sunny and warm summer weather tempting people to stay outdoors, dozens of students arrive at the venue. The new course offered by the Department of Finance at Aalto University School of Business is open not only to business students but also to those studying technology, art, and design.
The instructor in charge, Professor of Ownership Samuli Knüpfer, considers Aalto University an ideal place for the new course.
‘Many students outside the School of Business have not studied finance at all, but they are enthusiastic and analytically skilled. With these students, we can quickly move beyond basics and add depth to the course content. We use the latest research combined with practical examples in the course’, Knüpfer explains.
He decided to develop a course focusing on personal finance because many people consider financial questions very distant. The world of finance also carries many strong perceptions, making it difficult for many to approach.
Finance affects us all
‘However, finance is not just for a select few, but it affects us all. Studies need to be financed, income and expenses budgeted, savings invested, debts managed, and insurance taken out. People increasingly need to take responsibility for their own finances, and financial products are becoming more complex. These developments further emphasize the importance of personal financial management and financial skills’, Knüpfer says.
The course content includes, among other things, consumption, saving, investing, taking out loans, buying a home, and insuring - all everyday life-related matters. The aim is to build a decision-making framework through which financial issues can be approached in practical situations.
‘We go through good and bad practices in the course and prepare students for situations they will later encounter in their own lives’, Knüpfer says.
Practical tools for managing personal finances
During the break and after the lecture, students share what prompted them to participate in the course and what they have learned during it.
Anna Tran, a Master's student in Accounting, has always been interested in personal finance and investing. She began her Master's studies in a situation where she already had children and a good financial standing.
‘I probably don't represent the average student, but perhaps that's why I feel that my younger fellow students are particularly lucky to have access to a course that develops financial skills. Financial situation has such a comprehensive impact on well-being and provides more choices in various life situations, as my own example shows’, Tran says.
‘The course has met my expectations really well, and I have learned concrete tools for comparing different investment options. Also, my understanding that starting to invest at a younger age brings more benefits has been further strengthened. I recommend the course to anyone interested in managing their own finances.’
International standard
Osama Nasir Iqbal, who is studying in the Master’s Programme in Automation and Electrical Engineering, is also pleased with what the course has offered.
‘I now realize how the majority of people make decisions, and I was also among that majority who make decisions intuitively. However, I have now learned how much greater the likelihood of success in making financial decisions is when there is a researched and well-informed system behind it’, Iqbal says.
‘I have already recommended participation in such a course to my friends studying at other Finnish universities.’
At the moment, however, a similar course does not seem to be available at other Finnish universities, but they can be found at top universities around the world, such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. Aalto's course also competes well in an international comparison.
‘Personal Finance is one of the best courses I have taken, and it definitely ranks in the top two of all university courses I have attended’, says Lana St. James-Kautny, who has also studied at Harvard and is a student in the Master’s Programme in Strategic Management in a Changing World.
‘The content of the course is very practical, the professor is excellent, and each lecture provides eye-opening new information and perspective. It may sound simple, but I truly feel like I have learned how to take care of my own finances and increase my financial literacy. I believe this course should be mandatory for everyone’, St. James-Kautny says.
Helmi Uusitalo, a first-year student in the Bachelor’s Programme in Economics, also acknowledges the course.
‘I came here with my friend, who enrolled in the course, and I have learned a lot of concrete things about investing and managing my own finances.’
Financial literacy empowers pursuing personal goals and dreams
Samuli Knüpfer says he will be pleased if those who have completed the course understand the critical role of financial literacy in today's world, how it can significantly improve their quality of life, and how it helps them achieve their goals and dreams.
‘Financial skills make it easier to take control of important decisions in one's life and help reduce dependency on others. I hope that those who have taken the course will become personal finance ambassadors also outside of Aalto so that their family members and friends get to benefit from their newly-acquired expertise’, says Knüpfer.
The Personal Finance course will be held again in spring 2025.
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The Department of Finance at Aalto University School of Business is one of the leading finance departments in Europe.
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