IC213: Personal Finance

Module code: IC213

Module provider: Finance and Accounting; Henley Business School

Credits: 20

Level: 5

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Dr Antony Moore, email: t.moore@icmacentre.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2025/6

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 9 September 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module covers key aspects of various financial decisions that students might face in their day-to-day life. The first half aims to familiarise students with core concepts that they will encounter across various stages of the financial life cycle, including budgeting, income and taxation, borrowing and saving, and retirement/estate planning. The second half will consider underlying themes and topics, such as understanding risk and behavioural biases, financial literacy and avoiding scams, and the role of government interventions. As well as personal and practical considerations, it will also consider the wider social and ethical context of financial decision-making. Although the module is based on practice in the UK, the basic principles are more widely applicable and students are encouraged to compare and contrast with other countries.  Students will get a chance to reflect on how they can better manage their personal finances and improve their financial outlook. 

*Disclaimer: This module does not provide personalised financial advice but gives students an opportunity to get informed about personal finance, understand opportunities and risks in finance, reflect and be able to make informed financial decisions.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

• explain and apply fundamental concepts in personal finance. 

• utilise practical tools, such as Excel, in budgeting and financial decision-making 

• demonstrate their communication and critical thinking skills by developing a financial literacy campaign. 

• discuss the relationship between individual financial decision-making and broader economic, social and ethical outcomes. 

Module content

1. Setting your financial goals and budgeting. 
2. Earning a living (employment and taxes, benefits, self-employment/setting up a small business). 
3. Borrowing (different types of short-term and long-term credit, credit scores and access to credit, managing student loans). 
4. Savings and investingments (different types of investments, bonds vs stocks, the risk-reward trade-offs, compounding and inflation, tax-efficient savings vehicles, ethical investing). 
5. Protecting yourself (different types of risk and appropriate insurance products). 
6. Retiring (pensions and annuities, wills and estate planning)  
7. Understanding behavioural biases and attitudes to risk.
8. Finfluencers and financial scammers.
9. Improving financial literacy and financial education.
10. Government interventions – good intentions but mixed results? 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures are used to introduce the concepts covered in this module. The seminars allow students to discuss the topics in more detail, consider case studies, reflect and receive feedback. In-person teaching will be supplemented with digital learning such as discussion boards, polling and video recordings.

Study hours

At least 30 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each calendar day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three calendar days;
• where the piece of work is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in you Individual Learning Plan), the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three calendar days of the deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three calendar days after the original deadline (or a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment indicated in your Individual Learning Plan): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

Where a piece of work is submitted late after a deadline which has been revised owing to an extension granted through the Assessment Adjustments policy and process (self-certified or otherwise), it will be subject to the maximum penalty (i.e., considered to be more than three calendar days late). This will also apply when such an extension is used in conjunction with a DAS-agreed extension as a reasonable adjustment.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

There will be short quizzes about each week’s topic that students can use to check their understanding of core concepts, as well as discussion boards where they can post their ideas and receive comments from the module convenor and fellow students.  

The seminars in the second half of the module will be linked to the group project and students will be given time to develop and discuss their ideas in the seminar. Students will be encouraged to present a draft version of their group project during the week 11 seminar and receive feedback from the module convenor.  

Reassessment

Additional costs