Personal Finance #4-Credit: Sources, Costs, Pros & Cons

This course will focus on tools to help with personal financial decisions related to debt and credit.

Learners will understand the advantages and disadvantages of using credit, as well as the associated costs of using credit.

We will discuss credit-related terms like closed-end credit, open-end credit, and different loan types. Learners will also understand what financial institutions are, the differences in how different types of financial institutions operate, and which financial institutions may be best for their personal debt-related needs.

The course will cover factors that generally have an impact on an individual's ability to access credit, including the 5 C's of credit capacity:

1. Character

2. Capacity

3. Capital

4. Collateral

5. Conditions

Learners will learn about the equal credit opportunity act (ECOA). We will also discuss options for an individual if denied credit.

The course will discuss credit costs, loan components, and trade-offs when making credit-related decisions.

We will also look at interest calculation methods, a critical topic for understanding personal financing and making beneficial financial decisions.

The course will include example problems to make concepts more concrete.

It will also have practice problems, including downloadable Excel Workbooks, which users may also open using Google Sheets.

The Excel Workbooks will generally have at least two tabs. One tab will have the answer key so learners can deconstruct the problem. The second tab is where we work the practice problem step-by-step along with the instructional videos.