Managing my money

Money Management as a Life Skill 📊

Managing my money treats personal finance as something you learn, practise, and revisit as life changes. Developed by The Open University, this open learning course moves through the financial decisions that shape households: earning, budgeting, borrowing, saving, buying a home, planning for retirement, and protecting what matters.

The material was originally published in 2014 as an OpenLearn resource. It combines explanatory sections with activities, case studies, quizzes, and weekly round-ups, giving the book the feel of a guided course rather than a dry reference volume.

What the Eight Weeks Cover

• Financial planning and the life course: how personalities, habits, goals, and major life stages influence money decisions.
• Income, taxation and benefits: incomes and inflation, Income Tax, National Insurance, state benefits, and budget building.
• Expenditure and budgeting: spending habits, practical budgeting stages, consumer behaviour, and ways to trim expenditure.
• Debt and borrowing: interest, APR, credit scoring, lenders, affordability, and borrowing decisions.
• Savings and investments: savings products, AER, shares, bonds, investment funds, risk, volatility, and tax.
• Housing and the household balance sheet: mortgages, remortgaging, leasehold and freehold, housing as an investment, and gearing.
• Pensions: state, occupational, workplace, and personal pensions, plus retirement planning and pension access changes.
• Insurance: home, motor, travel, life, health, and income protection insurance, with attention to premiums and risk.

A Structured Way to Think About Money 💡

One of the course’s organising ideas is a four-stage financial planning model: assess the situation, decide on a plan, act on it, and review. That model returns throughout the weeks, connecting topics that are often treated separately. A budget, for example, is not just a list of numbers; it becomes part of a larger cycle of planning and adjustment.

Short quizzes and round-ups close each week, while an end-of-course test and further reading sections help readers check understanding and continue learning.

Who May Find It Useful

The course is aimed at adults who want a broad grounding in personal finance, especially readers in the UK. It may suit students, educators, and self-directed learners who prefer a structured introduction with examples and exercises. Because it explains terms such as APR, AER, Income Tax, and pension types, it can also serve as a refresher for anyone who wants to understand the language of financial products before making decisions.

Why the Open University Approach Works

Rather than promising overnight fixes, Managing my money emphasises context. It looks at how income, taxation, benefits, housing, and life events interact, and it asks readers to apply ideas to realistic scenarios. The result is a practical, educational resource for building financial confidence step by step.