Here are a few free courses cited in a recent US News and World Report article that you might want to take a look at (I will be loading onto my smartphone over the next few weeks to check them out too):

• University of Arizona
  • What you’ll learn: This personal finance course covers the basics, from the concept of fixed expenses to investment strategies, and it has quizzes to reveal if you’re learning what you’re reading. The estimated time for completing the course is 15 hours, and you can easily come back to it when you want.
• Yale University
  • What you’ll learn: This personal finance course was taught at Yale, which met for 75 minutes twice every week during the spring of 2008. You can download the entire course, and if you’re ambitious and committed, you can read through all of professor Robert Shiller’s lectures.

• Missouri State University
  • What you’ll learn: In eight video lessons of varying lengths (usually ranging from 18 to 45 minutes), you’ll cover the relatively simple stuff like budgeting and the more challenging fare like annuities. Still, the subject material never gets too challenging and is aimed at people who consider themselves novices in personal finance. But if you’d like something more challenging, check out Missouri State University’s class, also on iTunes, “Money, Trade and Society.” You can polish that off in only 32 video courses, each lasting about an hour.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.