10 Best Online Courses in Finance - Online Course Report

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When many people think of finance, they think of someone that crunches numbers. And while that’s part of it, the world of finance is far bigger.

Studying finance can open you up to all kinds of possibilities. You can learn about investments and stocks. You might explore credit and debt. There are finance courses on capital markets too.

The important part of studying finance is learning how the three main types of finance are related. These include:

Personal finance
Corporate finance
Public finance

Another critical part of studying finance is learning about the time value of money. This is the idea that the dollar is worth more now than it will be in the future.

This concept comes from microeconomics and macroeconomics. Both are very closely related fields to finance. Accounting, business, and financial planning are other related fields.

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Disclaimer: Some courses may include an affiliate link. Courses were chosen first based on the methodology with affiliate links only added after the ranking was complete.

Whether you’re still in high school or you’re a seasoned finance professional, there is always room for learning something new. Taking an online finance course is a great way to do so.

When searching for a course to take, you want to know what the best online finance classes might be. The truth is, not all online finance classes are alike.

Some offer excellent value. Others are simply a waste of time. Some online finance classes allow you to learn at your own pace while others have set times and dates for learning. Still other finance courses online give you the chance to learn basic skills while others provide intermediate and advanced options.

With all this in mind, we’ve put together a list of the best finance classes online using the following criteria to guide our rankings:

Affordability
Flexibility
Learning Level

While some people prioritize cost over everything else, others might find that having flexible learning options is more important. Some people might need a specific learning level. Some courses offer a nice blend of all three factors.

Below, we’ve outlined more details about this methodology for ranking the best online finance courses.

Methodology to Determine the Best Online Courses for Finance

The cost of a course is often the most important factor. Though how much online finance classes cost is important, there are other factors to consider.

For example, the flexibility of a class is worth examining. It could mean the difference between you taking a course or opting for another class.

Let’s say you have a busy schedule. If a course looks attractive but requires you to submit assignments on specific dates, that course might not work for you.

Alternatively, if you’re a novice in finance, taking an affordable advanced course won’t work well. But if you’re a financial analyst that wants to brush up on your skills, a beginner course isn’t for you.

So, it’s necessary to look at finance courses online from a holistic perspective. What do they offer in terms of affordability, flexibility, and learning level?

Below, we’ve outlined each of these factors in detail.

Affordability

Many learners are concerned about expense. We’ve made it the most important factor in our methodology.

The affordability of finance courses online is ranked as follows:

Free: 6 points
Under $10: 5 points
$11-20: 4 points
$21-30: 3 points
$31-40: 2 points
$41 and above: 1 point

Free courses get the most points. This reflects the importance of affordability.

However, just because a course is free doesn’t mean it’s worth your time. There are many great free courses. There are also many poor ones.

At the same time, there are many excellent paid courses. But just because you have to pay for a course doesn’t necessarily make it a better class.

Flexibility

Now more than ever, people need to be able to learn when they can. That makes the flexibility of a course critical.

As mentioned earlier, some courses are self-paced. This means you can finish the class as quickly or as slowly as you want. For many people, this kind of flexibility is a big bonus.

We’ve come up with three levels of flexibility to examine finance classes online:

Highly flexible: 2 points
Moderate flexibility: 1 point
Low flexibility: 0 points

Most courses fall into the “highly flexible” category. This means classes might have some or all of the following:

Self-paced learning
Lifetime access
Offline access
Ability to set and reset deadlines

This is not a complete list of all “flexible” traits. But it gives you a good idea of what we’re looking for in terms of flexibility.

Learning Level

Lastly, we considered the learning level of these online finance classes.

There are many good finance classes for beginners. There are also excellent options for intermediate and advanced learners.

However, we rank advanced courses the highest and beginner courses the lowest. This isn’t because beginner courses don’t have great value – far from it. But advanced courses have more in-depth learning. This often means learners get more value from the course.

This factor is scored as follows:

Advanced: 3 points
Intermediate: 2 points
Beginner: 1 point

By looking at these three criteria, we’re able to develop a complete picture of each top online finance course. The courses below represent the ten best options when taking these criteria into account.

Ranking the Best Online Courses for Finance

#10: Finance for the Real World – Corporate Finance 101

Finance for the real world is a Udemy course geared towards practical use of financial learning. It is designed for beginners that want to learn more about finance basics.

A large part of this class focuses on financial literacy. This includes becoming familiar with common finance concepts, like:

Compounding interest
Net Present Value
Amortization

This is a project-based course. You will complete course problems with direct guidance from the teacher.

You’ll also learn how to use spreadsheets. This will help you be more effective at calculating things like Net Present Value.

Visit the course website.

Points: 8

Affordability: $9.99 (at the time of writing)

Learning Level: Beginner

Flexibility: Highly flexible. This is a self-paced course. Learn offline with downloadable resources. You get lifetime access as well.

#9: Accounting, Finance and Banking – A Comprehensive Study

This top finance course from Udemy takes you from beginner to advanced topics. It includes 32 separate lessons on finance topics that relate to:

Accounting
Financial Management
Cash Flow
Capital Management

There are also studies on types of financing. You’ll learn about the basics of international finance, too.

As the name of the class indicates, you’ll get to explore topics in banking. This includes banking basics, functions of banks, and the functions of the central bank.

This online finance class is built to be for students in academic settings. It’s also for people that want insights for their personal financial lives.

Visit the course website.

Points: 9

Affordability: $9.99 (at the time of writing)

Learning Level: Intermediate

Flexibility: Highly flexible. Learn at your own pace. You get downloadable resources. There is also full lifetime access to the class.

#8: Finance Foundations

Finance Foundations is a beginner course from LinkedIn. The teachers are both accounting professors at Brigham Young University.

This online finance course examines finance in many different areas. This includes on the individual, family, company, and government levels. You’ll explore these and other topics to get a solid overview of finance.

#7: Transform, Grow and Innovate in Finance

This free beginner course from Alison is designed to help you understand financial transformations. Specifically, you’ll look at the following systems:

Personal
People
Process
Systems

You’ll be enabled to examine the strengths and weaknesses of your business. You’ll also gain skills that allow you to plan a successful financial strategy.

Since this is a beginner course, no financial experience is needed. You can be a student interested in finance. You can be a veteran finance worker. You might be something in between. Whatever the case, this course will provide all learners with new knowledge and skills.

Visit the course website.

Points: 9

Affordability: Free

Learning Level: Beginner

Flexibility: Highly flexible. This course allows you to work at your own pace. You can access the course on a computer or on your smartphone.

#6: Essential Career Skills for Investment Banking and Finance

This beginner finance course is from edX. It is taught by faculty from the New York Institute of Finance.

The class is geared toward helping you improve your financial literacy. Specifically, you’ll explore basic finance concepts so you can speak confidently about finance.

Different segments of finance are discussed, including:

Investment banking
Buy-side institutions
Alternative investments

There is also a unit on making your elevator pitch. Combined with a career prep lesson, you’ll learn how to get your foot in the door as a worker in the finance industry.

This course requires about 3-4 hours of work per week for a two-week period. It’s self-paced, so you can speed up the process or slow it down as you see fit.

Visit the course website.

Points: 9

Affordability: Free

Learning Level: Beginner

Flexibility: Highly flexible. This course is self-paced. It is also short – just two weeks for most learners.

#5: Financial Analysis: Making Business Projections

Part of being in the finance business is knowing how to estimate future financial performance of corporations. That is the primary topic of this course from LinkedIn.

This is a class designed for finance workers in small and large corporations. You’ll learn how to take proactive measures to manage financial changes. Specifically, you’ll explore how to:

Use projections to make business plans
Raise capital
Use Microsoft Excel to draft financial projections

The online finance course is taught by Rudolph Rosenberg, who has decades of finance experience. He’ll share techniques used by financial planners the world over to build financial projections. This includes combining bottom-up and top-down approaches to draft well-rounded projections.

Visit the course website.

Points: 10

Affordability: Free (with a one-month trial; otherwise the course is $44.99). Scored as a free course. Try Linkedin Learning for free.

Learning Level: Intermediate

Flexibility: Highly flexible. You can learn at your own pace. There are downloadable files to work with offline. The course is also available via a smartphone app.

#4: Corporate Finance Essentials

This online finance class is an intermediate course from IESE Business School and Coursera. Many of the topics are beginner level. However, the area of corporate finance is highly complex. This is why it’s listed as an intermediate course.

Most students that take this course will likely have experience in finance. The topics you study will help you understand key concepts, including:

Company and investor relations
Capital markets
Diversification

There are practical benefits of this course too.

For example, you’ll learn common finance words. This will help you understand financial news. It will also help you speak with finance professionals by using the proper terms.

Visit the course website.

Points: 10

Affordability: Free to enroll. A fee (usually around $50) might be required. Other costs may be involved if you participate in a specialization. Learn more about Coursera pricing. This course is scored as a free course.

Learning Level: Intermediate

Flexibility: Highly flexible. You can start instantly after enrolling. Learn at your own pace. You can reset deadlines as needed.

#3: Understanding and Managing Risk

This free finance course from The Open University explores concepts related to risk management. You’ll get a quick introduction to risk management. Then you’ll explore how to identify risks. There are units on risk measurement too.

The middle and final portions of the class go into examining risk. This includes:

Reputational risk
Operational risk
Behavioral finance

By the end of this course, you will be able to discuss a range of financial risks. You can apply this knowledge in all sorts of business settings. This includes small and large corporations alike.

This course requires about 20 hours of work. It can be completed as quickly or as slowly as you need.

Visit the course website.

Points: 11

Affordability: Free

Learning Level: Advanced

Flexibility: Highly flexible. This self-paced course is relatively short with about 20 hours of work required. Learning materials are available immediately online. There are some downloadable resources as well.

#2: Advanced Valuation and Strategy – M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital

This is an advanced course from Coursera and Erasmus University Rotterdam. Its focus is on the latest valuation methods in finance.

The purpose of this top online course is to help you make better business decisions. It’s geared toward executives that need to improve their finance strategies. However, students in corporate finance will also find it valuable.

Topics of study include:

Cash flow analysis
Corporate strategy
Corporate real options

There is also a unit on game theory. This lesson will help you understand strategic decision making.

There are five units in this course. It takes about 16 hours to complete.

Visit the course website.

Points: 11

Learning Level: Advanced

Flexibility: Highly flexible. All course materials are online and available for instant access. There are flexible deadlines to accommodate your schedule.

#1: Monetary Policy Analysis and Forecasting

This advanced course is from the International Monetary Fund and edX. The best finance course begins with an analysis of quarterly projection macroeconomic models. You’ll learn how the models were developed. You’ll also learn how to implement these models.

Additionally, you’ll explore the following:

How to create output reports
How to apply the basic IRIS toolbox functions
How to identify codes for data transformation

To accomplish these learning goals, you’ll use financial data from multiple countries. That data will be filtered and calibrated in various exercises.

Most learners can complete this course in about six weeks. Doing so would require about 8-10 hours of work each week.

Visit the course website.

Points: 11

Affordability: Free

Learning Level: Advanced

Flexibility: Highly flexible. You can learn at your own pace. All learning materials are immediately available online once you enroll.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best finance courses for beginners?

The best online finance course for beginners according to our rankings is Essential Career Skills for Investment Banking and Finance.

As discussed above, this course comes from the New York Institute of Finance. The course teachers are experts in this field. The main focus of the course is learning basic finance concepts.

This course ranks highly because it is completely free. It gets additional points for offering a highly flexible learning experience. Not only is the class self-paced, but it also only requires about six to eight hours of total study time.

While this is the highest-ranked beginner course on our list, there are many other excellent options.

For example, another completely free beginner course is Transform, Grow and Innovate in Finance. This course comes from Alison, a well-respected online learning website. This class is a great choice for business owners. That’s because the class helps you build the skills needed to plan a winning financial strategy for the future.

Yet another option from our rankings is the Finance Foundations course from LinkedIn. This is a university-level course taught by professors from Brigham Young University. The course takes a broad look at finance. You’ll evaluate topics that range from financial management to securities. What’s so nice about this course is that you get real-world advice about how to improve your personal finances.

Be sure to consult the complete rankings above to see other top choices for finance classes online.

How can I start learning about finance?

A great place to start learning about finance is to take online finance classes. We highly recommend starting with one of the beginner finance courses listed in our rankings.

By taking a basic finance course, you’ll learn the “big ideas” of finance. It’s important to start with a beginner course, that way you can build a foundation of understanding before moving on to more complex topics.

In many cases, it’s a good idea for beginners to take multiple basic courses in finance. Once you have taken a few beginner finance courses online, you can explore more complex classes.

There are many intermediate finance courses online once you’re ready to take more in-depth courses.

Ranked at number five on our list is Financial Analysis: Making Business Projections. This is an excellent course to take for learners that are ready to take the next step in their online education. Not only do you get to learn how to use financial projections, but you also explore how to raise capital. These are critical skills for students that wish to work in the finance industry.

Our highest-ranked intermediate course is Corporate Finance Essentials. This class covers topics related to financial diversification, investor relations, and capital markets, to name a few. While this class focuses on corporate finance, there are lessons to be learned about the practical benefits of finance in your personal life.

Once you’ve taken some intermediate online finance courses, you can start looking for advanced courses to take.

Advanced online finance classes are less common, but there are three excellent options in our rankings. In fact, the top three spots in our rankings are held by advanced classes.

Understanding and Managing Risk is an ideal course for learners that need to expand their finance education. You’ll learn about various kinds of risks. You also learn how to apply your knowledge to various business settings.

Another advanced finance course is Advanced Valuation and Strategy – M&A, Private Equity, and Venture Capital. If you’ve worked in finance for a while and are looking for new skills to help you advance your career, this course is for you. It builds on the basic and intermediate knowledge you gain in lower-level courses and helps you complete your toolkit for making sound business decisions.

The top advanced finance course in our rankings is Monetary Policy Analysis and Forecasting. This course evaluates quarterly financial projections. You learn how financial models are developed and implemented. This enables you to understand how the process of projecting works.

In many cases, taking beginner, intermediate, and advanced finance courses online is the right recipe for learning about finance. To build on what you learn, you might consider pursuing a certification in finance or a degree in finance or a related area.

As addressed in a question below, some finance jobs don’t require a degree. Others, however, require an advanced degree. This means you’ll need to tailor your learning experience to the type of finance job you wish to have.

What are common finance courses in college?

If you decide to take finance courses in college, there are many options for you. Below is a summary of some of these courses. Note that this is not a comprehensive list.

Financial Management – Courses in financial management center around financial strategies for businesses. You might learn about budgeting. Short-term and long-term investments are usually covered as well. Risk analysis, ethical issues, and financial theory are further points of learning.

Financial Accounting – This class helps you build skills related to examining financial statements. You’ll learn how to work with balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flow.

Personal Finance – This is by far one of the most common finance courses in college. Students learn how to create budgets. Money-saving techniques are a primary learning target too. Often, you’ll learn about mortgages, auto loans, taxation, and other common finance topics. You’ll learn how to analyze your personal finances. You’ll also learn how to use these skills to help others plan a more secure financial future.

Corporate Finance – Corporate finance courses are all about learning how to value companies. There is an emphasis on long-term investments. You’ll gain skills regarding how to determine which investments are best for the company. Typically, these courses also examine common financial problems and how to solve them.

International Finance – Courses in international finance focus on global banking. You learn about currency exchange. You also learn about exchange rates, like how much the U.S. dollar is worth compared to the Japanese Yen. In many cases, you get to manage pretend portfolios. This activity helps you learn the pitfalls (and benefits) of investing in international funds.

Do you need a degree to work in finance?

The answer to this question is both yes and no. Let’s start with the no part.

There are many different jobs in the finance world, and some don’t require a college degree. However, many of these jobs are entry-level or in an area that’s related to finance, but not in finance itself.

For example, you could become a loan officer at a bank. Some loan officers begin their careers with little more than a high school diploma. On-the-job training helps them get the skills they need to advance their career. Likewise, you could gain experience in a different banking job like a teller. Then, as you expand on your experience, there could be an opportunity for moving into a loan officer position.

But, to be a loan officer, you must be licensed. This requires you to take 20 hours of classes. You also have to pass a written exam. Still, there is no degree required!

As another example, you could become an insurance underwriter. Often, people move into this job after being a trainee. Again, on-the-job training is critical. A college degree is not necessary, though.

To be an insurance underwriter, you’ll likely need to be certified. You might need multiple certifications. These certifications usually require continuing education, but no degree. It’s important to note that having a degree could help you advance your career as an underwriter.

On the yes side of this answer, for some finance jobs, the degree matters a lot. In fact, for high-powered jobs on Wall Street, your degree and where it came from is as important as your knowledge and skills.

For example, you won’t be able to walk into Goldman Sachs and apply for a financial analyst job with no degree. Competition for jobs at high finance firms like that is very stiff.

Of course, more advanced jobs require a college education. To be Chief Financial Officer of a large bank would undoubtedly require a master’s degree in finance.

So, the need to have a degree just depends on the jobs for which you apply.

What can I do with a certificate in finance?

A certification in finance can help you in a variety of ways.

First, in some cases, financial certification can help you get a job. As discussed in a previous question and answer, some finance jobs don’t require a degree. But if you have a certification, it could help you get your foot in the door to a job in the finance industry.

This is because some employers place more emphasis on continuing education than others. So, if you apply for a job and have similar credentials as another applicant, but you have a certification as well, you will likely be a more attractive potential employee.

Second, if you already have a job in finance, getting a certification can help you advance your career. For example, if you’re a budget analyst, getting certified as a Financial Risk Manager could help you move into a higher paying career. As another example, pursuing the Certified Financial Planner designation could help you get more clients. Financial planners that have certification are consistently ranked as more trustworthy than those without a certification.

Lastly, what you can do with a certification depends on the certification you get. For example, let’s say you have a bachelor’s degree. Then let’s say you get a certification in corporate finance. Doing so could help you get an entry-level job after you graduate. This type of certification is basic and offers the chance to learn very broad skills.

But, if you seek a specialized certification, it could help you prepare for a specific finance job. For example, if the concentration of the certificate is on managing financial institutions, the certificate could mean you qualify for an executive position. Getting that kind of job would depend on your experience and education level too.

What is the most difficult financial certification?

There are many financial certifications available. Some are quite difficult to complete. The most difficult certification to get is often up for debate. That is, if you ask ten people which certification is hardest to get, you might get four or five different answers.

Certainly, the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation is difficult to complete. It is considered the seminal certification for accountants. It is also the oldest accounting certification. Because of this, it is also one of the most popular and well-known financial certifications available.

There are many benefits to getting a CPA. First, it’s widely applicable in the world of finance. It enables you to work in financial accounting, corporate finance, and strategic planning, to name a few. Second, being a CPA gives you the ability to sign audit reports. You can also issue audit opinions.

The CPA designation is granted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. To be eligible, you must meet several criteria.

First, you must have completed at least five years of college. Second, you have to have a certain number of continuing education credits. These credits must be in accounting and business. Usually, you have to have around 150 credits of continuing education. Third, you also have to have accounting experience. That experience must be verified by a third-party.

There is an exam requirement for the CPA. The exam is in four levels. You can take the levels in any order you wish. However, it typically takes about a year to finish all four levels of the exam. In most cases, state licensing boards require that you have one year of accounting experience before the CPA certification is granted.

Once you have the CPA, you have to take continuing education courses to keep the certification. The number of continuing education credits you have to complete is determined by the state in which you practice. For this reason, this requirement varies widely.

OCR Staff

May 2020

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