News Releases

New course will offer financial lessons for non-business students at KU

Personal Finance 101 is being offered for the first time this fall.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007


LAWRENCE — Starting this fall, students at the University of Kansas will have an opportunity to learn how to effectively manage their money through a course called Personal Finance. The course is offered by the School of Business and will teach students in non-business majors how to avoid major financial pitfalls, such as piling on high-interest credit card debt.

Personal Finance is designed to prepare KU students for financial affairs that will likely occur in their lives. Topics will include financial planning, the uses of debt and how to save. In addition, banking, insurance and housing issues - both renting and buying - will be addressed, according to Doug Houston, director of finance, economics and decision sciences at the School of Business.

"This class is essentially a finance toolkit to keep students on the right track throughout their lives," Houston says. "It's very pragmatic."

Students will maintain a monthly diary to assess their spending habits and will develop a budget based on their spending behaviors. They will also begin planning for retirement by studying various forms of investments.

The genesis of the Personal Finance course originated primarily from parents of KU students. The parents wanted to expose their children to healthy financial behaviors and asked the School of Business to develop a course that met those needs.

Two sessions of Personal Finance will be offered next fall, each limited to 60 students to allow for strong personal interaction with the instructor. It is a three credit-hour course and is restricted to freshmen and sophomores at KU.

"There's obviously a big financial component to the class," Houston affirmed, "but the other part is psychology - how do you modify your behavior to incorporate these changes? In other words, just knowing about the concepts isn't enough; students need to understand how to execute them as well. We'll teach them how to do that."

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