ECO110
Taking Charge of Your Economic Future

With every dollar you spend, save, or invest, how confident are you that you are making the best financial decisions in today’s economy? Knowing what drives the economy can help you understand all aspects of life, including jobs, income levels, consumer prices, trade, and general prosperity. In this course, you will explore key concepts of economics and personal finance. You will be equipped with the ability to leverage analysis tools, as well as economic reasoning and planning skills.

Course Outcomes

  • Articulate how economics impacts all aspects of life including jobs, income levels, consumer prices, and trade.
  • Develop a personal financial plan that considers economic drivers and includes financial goals, requirements, and resources necessary to obtain results.
  • Present the findings of a personal financial analysis using spreadsheets, including charts, graphs, or other visuals.

Media Assets

  • Features 5 Video Stories

In this week’s video, financial expert Nicole Lapin breaks down economic trends to help you problem solve your way to a more secure financial future.

This week, you’ll practice your problem solving skill by discovering critical thinking strategies you can use to make informed decisions about your personal finances. You’ll also practice your agility skill as you discover how to adapt to changing economic trends. So even if money can’t buy happiness, you’ll have a solid plan in place to reach your own budgetary bliss.

This week, you’ll learn how you can apply your problem solving and agility skills to planning and managing your income. You’ll discover how thinking critically about economic trends, and your own earning potential, can help you stay flexible so you can make the best financial decisions for your future.

This week, you’ll learn how to apply your productivity skill to planning and managing your taxes. You’ll see why taxes play an important role in keeping economies strong, and you’ll practice your agility skill by exploring how to modify your tax plan for your personal and professional needs.

This week, you’ll begin learning how to build a personal financial plan. Understanding how to create a financial plan based on both economic trends and your personal goals will not only make you more productive toward reaching those goals, it can also help free you from the trap of endless financial stress. It isn’t possible to plan for all of life’s challenges and surprises, though, so you’ll need to use your agility skill to weather the uncertainties and adapt your plan so you can feel confident that you’re prepared for your future.

This week, you’ll practice your productivity and agility skills by learning to plan for and adapt to economic or other challenges in your professional and personal life, such as starting a new business or buying a home. By identifying strategies that will keep you on track, you’ll be able to strive for and reach your goals no matter what comes your way!

This week, you’ll learn how understanding the value of your time can help you build your productivity skill. You’ll discover how saving and investment strategies can help you manage your time to reach your goals. You’ll also explore the importance of reflecting on your productivity throughout your life and career.

This week, you’ll explore how to identify and utilize investments in the financial world. And you’ll practice your technology skill to conduct a personal financial analysis that will help you meet your financial goals. You’ll also discover how to maintain the privacy of your financial data in the digital world. By growing your technology skill, you’ll be better equipped to stay on track financially, and to make smart decisions online that support your personal and professional future!

This week, you’ll use your technology skill to practice tracking, visualizing, and analyzing the data that helps us manage and understand risks. You’ll also discover how to use your problem solving skill to communicate and quantitatively assess risk. And you can use these same skills to analyze and visualize other types of information throughout your life and career. Your needs and values will change throughout your life. By applying your agility skill, you can adapt to these changes and continue to calculate risk to secure a stable and healthy future.

This week, you’ll practice using your problem solving skill to visualize data and convey solutions from your personal financial analysis. And you’ll learn how you can use this same skill to help others visualize and understand data at home, work, and school. You may be surprised to discover just how much of your future depends on the decisions you make today!

Throughout this course, you’ve explored the science of economics and learned how the production and consumption of global resources can affect your personal financial well-being. Understanding how to leverage this knowledge will help you not only reach your personal financial goals but also stand out professionally. This week, we’ll take a look back at how far you’ve come and discuss how you can continue using the essential skills you’ve practiced to invest in your most valuable resource…you!