“The most important investment you can make is in yourself,” Warren Buffett, one of the greatest stock market investors of all time, once said.
Becoming a successful investor is not a matter of luck; it is the result of knowledge acquired and applied over time. When asked about the secret to his success, Buffett once answered: “I just sit in my office and read all day.”
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Just like stocks, investing in knowledge yields compound interest. In fact, according to Benjamin Franklin, an investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
However, the information overload that exists in the digital space may make it difficult for you to know where to start. To solve this problem we have compiled a list of eight investment classes and resources for adults and teens. Whether you are just learning about personal finance management and investing or seeking to sharpen your knowledge, you will find these resources useful:
— SoFi’s Fundamentals of Investing
— Investor.gov resources
— BUS-123: Introduction to Investments
— Thinking Money for Kids
— eToro Academy
— Invest in Girls
— Merrill Edge’s investing classroom
— Build Your Stax
SoFi’s Fundamentals of Investing
SoFi is an online personal finance company that offers various personal finance products, including loans, mortgages, refinancing and credit cards, among others. The Fundamentals of Investing course is available on Coursera, one of the popular massive open online courses (MOOC) platforms.
This course covers four modules: understanding the different types of investments, balancing risk and return, developing an investment strategy, and understanding taxes and fees. It takes about seven hours to complete the course, which includes video content, readings and quizzes.
While those who purchase the course can earn a certificate after completion, anyone with a Coursera account can audit the course for free without the certificate. More than 60% of enrollees have given the course a five-star review.
Investor.gov Resources
Investor.gov, the investor education and advocacy arm of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has a section called Resources for Classrooms, which contains resources to help students understand savings and investments.
The page contains a brief introduction to savings and investment, diversification, risk and return. There are also links to tools — quizzes, calculators and games — that students can use.
Teachers can also order the more comprehensive brochure — Saving and Investing for Students — for free. In addition, the page contains links to various sites providing free educational resources for students.
BUS-123: Introduction to Investments
This course is taught by Frank Paiano, a professor in the School of Business at Southwestern Community College. It is a classroom course at the college that he has made available for free.
The course covers stocks, bonds, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, valuation, mutual funds, real estate, cryptos, options, futures and portfolio management, among other topics. When it comes to comprehensiveness, there is hardly anything freely available online that matches it. The course starts with the basics and goes from there, making it easy for beginners to grow through it.
Course content includes audio recordings, videos, slides, assignments, discussions and PDF documents.
Thinking Money for Kids
This is a partnership between the American Library Association (ALA) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
It provides educational resources (books, interactive content and games) to 300 public libraries across the U.S. to teach teens and young adults about personal finance and investing.
[read: 7 of the Best 5-Star ETFs to Buy]
eToro Academy
Trading platform eToro provides access to more than 5,000 investments across various asset classes, including stocks, crypto and commodities. The eToro academy includes a wide variety of courses, including an Investing 101 course and courses on stocks, macroeconomics, technical analysis, crypto, forex trading and more. Course content includes video recordings, guides and article-type texts. In addition to the actual course content, the eToro academy site has an engaging user interface that will make taking the course enjoyable.
Invest in Girls
The Council for Economic Education, an organization devoted to the financial education of K-12 students, has created a financial education and investing program for teenage girls called Invest in Girls. This is a three-part course; Part 1 addresses personal finance and Part 2 deals with investing. The investing course covers stocks, bonds, funds, portfolio building, and the difference between saving and investing. Course content is delivered through six workshops and a networking session with industry professionals. High school girls can register for free and wait for another term to start.
Merrill Edge’s Investing Classroom
Merrill Edge is a subsidiary of Bank of America. It is both a trading platform and an investment advisory service. The investing classroom covers a wide number of topics relating to stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds and portfolios.
While this course is comprehensive, it only contains texts and quizzes. Also, the interface is not as good as eToro’s. If you are not a fan of reading, you might not enjoy it as much. However, what it lacks in ease of consumption, it makes up for in the quality of the materials presented.
Build Your Stax
This is an investment game designed for kids. Build Your Stax contains crash courses on different types of investments, including stocks, bonds and gold. The game lasts for 20 minutes and involves trying to build wealth over a 20-year period. Kids can play individually or as a group.
Financial education is the beginning of financial transformation. With these free courses, you can invest in yourself at no cost and earn compound returns over the years. Now that’s an investment worth making.
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8 Free Investment Classes and Resources for Adults and Teens originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 11/06/24: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
