Personal & Family Financial Planning

Some general advice:

- Stay skeptical. Ask pros and cons for very decision. Do not leave someone else manage everything.

- Take an online class on personal finance and/or buy a good book on the topic. This Course on Coursera looks like a good starting point. Keep your skepticism and stay curious.

- Stay simple. Any complicated financial arrangements is likely a bad idea if you're not an expert.

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Some more specific advice:

- Decide what's her investment horizon. When does she think she'll cash out that money? Try to make a "cashing-out" by year for the decades to come.

- Decide if you want to do it "manual" or buy ETFs -- portfolios geared for her profile.

- Manual -> Open brokerage account [Vanguard, Schwab, ...], pick a mix between "equity", long-term maturity debt, short-term maturity debt ("cash"). The weight on the later should increase as she approaches retirement.

- Automatic -> Open brokerage account [Vanguard, Schwab, ...], research the right "ETFs". Some directly target a certain "cash-out profile". Look for "low expense ratio" (= low fees) funds.

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I myself find myself living from paycheck to paycheck and until recently decided to learn how to manage my finances by signing up to this course that's helpful.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning

I haven't taken it but https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning seems like it might be useful.

One of the sites that has MOOCs is coursera.org. Coursera has a bunch of free college courses on finance from various colleges. https://www.coursera.org/learn/finance-for-non-finance

https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning

Quick (and free) course in personal finance...

https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning

It would be very unusual for need based financial aid to cause you to owe $6k in taxes. I strongly suspect that you entered the wrong information into the software. You're going to need to correct your tax returns in order to keep receiving financial aid. So you don't have the luxury of waiting to fix the situation.

I suggest you call a local CPA/EA. Explain the situation. They should be able to complete the returns for you. It might cost you $100-$200 but you will most likely get a refund. They may even be able to withhold the payment from this year's taxes. If not, they may be able to hold the return until you can pay for the cost of completing it.

I'd also suggest that you take some courses on financial literacy. You can check with your student services office to see if your school has a counselor that can help. Fortune magazine ran article a few years ago suggesting some online courses.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sleasca/2017/08/31/free-personal-finance-classes-online/#30378bc41bce

I personally like the Coursera platform. The financial aid application is very easy to fill out. You get an answer in two weeks. Your income is the amount you earn from your part time job not the total amount you get from financial aid.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning

Personal & Family Financial Planning by Coursera

Stocks and bonds by Khan Academy

Android Developer by Google

MongoDB University by MongoDB

No, there isn't. Even for financial professionals it's a very poor indicator of acumen and won't help you become a better investor.

Your best bet is mostly through academic textbooks. Youtube is full of charlatans and investopedia will only get you so far.

I saw someone recommend https://www.coursera.org/learn/financial-markets-global. I haven't taken this course, but it is taught by Robert Shiller (and is free).

There is this course, which I also cannot vouch for as I haven't taken it, https://www.coursera.org/learn/financial-planning. Illinois has a good financial planning program and the CFP Board is reputable for investor education. It may end up being too basic for you, but it is free.

Similar course through Florida: https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning

If you want to learn more about valuing companies, then Professor Damodaran at the Stern School of Business has some of the most widely available material for free. http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/

His classes are posted to Youtube and he also uploads slides and quizzes for each lecture along with the solutions.

2 courses you can take for free:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning

https://www.edx.org/course/personal-finance-purduex-pn-17-2

Obviously the wiki is a great resource as it contains the collective wisdom of many PF gurus, but I wanted to bring up something I found the other day. I was just poking around on Coursera and edX and found some personal finance courses that are free to audit, e.g.:

• https://www.edx.org/professional-certificate/iux-personal-finance
• https://www.coursera.org/specializations/personal-finance-fundamentals
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning

Be aware that the middle one is from SoFi instead of a university like most of the other courses, and I haven't taken any of them so I can't speak to their quality. Whether or not they trust these sources depends on what they mean by mainstream financial literacy I suppose.

The Khan Academy videos are great. There are others as well.

One specifically tailored to young adults through the University of Illinois:

https://www.coursera.org/learn/financial-planning

Investment and Portfolio Management from Rice University

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/investment-portolio-management

Personal and Family financial planning from the University of Florida

https://www.coursera.org/learn/family-planning