Welcome to Personal Financial Planning and Investing
I have taught finance courses online since 2004 but this is just my second semester to teach NMSU students. In addition to my duties as a college instructor, I advise business owners and entrepreneurs for the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers (www.nmsbdc.org).
I received my MBA in international finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and for many years I was a banker on Wall Street and in Bogota, Colombia and Austin, Texas. Then in 1992 I started one of the first internet service providers in Austin and sold it a few years later to join another internet start up that we took public in 1999.
I decided to develop and teach this course because I hope that my personal experiences as a lender, investor and entrepreneur will help others to avoid my mistakes and to capitalize on my successes.
I hope you will find this course enjoyable and informative.
Course Description
Students in this course will develop an understanding of:
- Financial markets, financial instruments and intermediaries
- Business financial statements, dividend policies and financial risk
- Investment analysis and valuation
- The math of finance
- Investment management
Methods of Instruction
This is a 3-credit hour course. Normally, a three-credit hour course would meet for three hours each week during a 16 week term. Since this is an online class, there will not be any traditional face-to-face class sessions. However, you are expected to be fully engaged in the class which will require at least 5 hours per week. The course will include weekly online discussions, self-reflections, project-based assignments, activities including group projects, and reading from the text and online sources.
Learning Outcomes
- Successful students will be able to demonstrate an understanding “investment logic” which is the rational allocation of personal resources into an investment portfolio.
- Successful students will be able to write convincing arguments for making various investment decisions.
- Successful students will be able to utilize software to evaluate investment opportunities.
- Successful students will be able to hold online meetings and collaborative work sessions to discover and exploit investment opportunities.
Course Requirements
- Weekly assignments will include readings from the text book, online discussions, some written submissions and group projects.
- Access to an internet connected computer (including campus or other public access computers) and a web browser compatible with Blackboard.
- In order to be successful in this course you should be familiar with basic keyboarding skills, basic Internet research and file management.
- In general, online learning is best suited to students who are self-disciplined and self-directed and do not procrastinate. Since we are not meeting face-to-face, most of our communication will be written. You don’t have to be an expert writer but you will need to be able to write clearly with proper punctuation and spelling. This is not an opportunity to practice your Internet shorthand or texting skills. I will reduce the grade for any online posting that does not demonstrate college level writing skills.
Course Material (The following links are for reference only. You are encouraged to buy books from the most economical source.)
The Basics of Finance: An Introduction to Financial Markets, Business Finance, and Portfolio Management – Second Edition 2010
Pamela Peterson Drake, CFA, Frank J. Fabozzi, CFA
