There are a number of reasons I'm quitting this course. 1) Lack of research and understanding of the subject material. This professor assumes that those without savings have spent recklessly in the past, and doesn't address the needs of some 50% of possible learners taking this course. In fact, I'd go far enough to say that the majority of people who would be taking a course on personal and family financial planning, are likely the sort of folks who would not have previously held financial stability. You can make an argument for why this might be, but evidence is that the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck not by choice, but by economic design. As such, this content is dismissive, offensive, hurtful, and above all else, unhelpful to those who are looking to learn and strategize in spite of their financial situation. I'm totally disappointed. 2) Unprofessional attire and dress. The way this professor presents himself is distracting from a video-based learning environment.

Quite interesting, but the assignment and quiz questions for the verified certificate and very easy (there are some more complex assignment tasks mentioned in the course, but they aren't actually included in the grading). The content is also *very* parochial (US-centric), which is good if non-US students want to learn a bit about the foibles of the US version of retirement savings, medical insurance and mutual fund fees... A good introduction to the core areas of financial planning if you are just starting out.

The lecturer does emphasize actively managed mutual funds a lot - I'd suggest reading up on the research that shows that most of these actually underperform the relevant market index once fees (and survivor bias - poorly performing funds tend to be closed down and disappear from the performance tables) are taken into account, so a mix of low-cost index funds may be worth checking out.

The discussion is very informative and helpful. I've learned a lot and my perspective in personal and family financial planning has widen and deepened. Thank you to Coursera and sir Michael!

A nice course: a lot of useful information for beginners.,

There are some major drawbacks though:

1. Some links to material are broken.

2. Some videos have poor quality of audio.

3. Debatable structure of the course: I've taken it with some knowledge on this topic and still it was hard to follow. I can't imagine, how it would be for complete beginner.

This course opened my eyes to the wonderful and excellent world of family planning and finance, made me grasp the fundamentals of mutual funds, tax planning and investments. I recommend 100%

Excellent and charismatic professor Michael Gutter provides useful personal finances hints and explanations along the course.

The course is well designed for a beginner who wish to understand Personal & Family Financial Planning and wants a kick start getting hold of his finances. The course takes you step by step and provide sufficient material as tools to manage your finances. Though more suited for residents of United States, the basic structure is still useful in carving out if you are looking for requisite understanding in family financial planning.

The course was very accessible and very at ease when it came to completing the various assignments for evaluation. Was very satisfied with the video presentations and the various tutorials as well.

I am from technical field and had no knowledge about finance management and this course has really helped me understand many concepts in a easy, interactive manner. The host/teacher is expert!

It was a very interested and informative course .I thoroughly enjoyed this course. I have gained lots of knowledge regarding financial planning through this course.

Thankyou so much

Really good course every one who want to manage his finance must do this course. i have learned lot from this course.

Thanks UF.

with Regards.

Narayan Mohite,

EXCELLENT LEARNING EXPERIENCE. KUDOS TO PROFESSOR GUTTER! :)

Positives: Great course for someone who is fresh out of college and not familiar with personal finance. Instructor is likeable and has an interest in the subject matter.

Negatives: In one quiz, you are asked about something that instructor never explained or discussed. Some links to resources are now broken. During some background slides, instructor is standing in front of text, blocking view.

FYI, this course is US-centric. A good portion can apply anywhere (for example, TVM or managing risk) but section on health insurance or taxation in US wouldn't apply to international students.

As I paid for this course, I expected more than I actually learned. A number of students already mentioned the issues that I'm upset about 1. Quality of video and sound, 2. US-centric content, 3. Broken links; 4. The audience is not well-thought - even though I took a course in Finance Management, it was difficult to follow examples, at the same time some content was very basic.

I appreciate the effort in developing this course, but I wish it could be updated with consideration of the feedback. Good luck!

I am discontinuing this course, the lectures are poorly written and appear to have never been introduced to editing, the mathematics are horribly taught, and so far, all examples are from a "get out of debt" point of view.

If you are good with your finances and/or practice healthy financial habits, this course is not for you. If you want to learn subjects of accounting, this is a great topic but badly taught. Do not waste your time.

One of the best courses for anyone not familiar with any financial concept, and also for the professionals as a refresher course of the basics. This will help the learner to know the important of finance management, and learn the skills of managing the finance, and plan for the future. Prof. Gutter explains well, and in an easy to understand language without jargons. The assignments and readings are interesting, and have the right level of challenge without being too difficult, or having complicated calculations. Majority of the concepts are generally applicable regardless of your location, and even those with the US laws or other specific things can be easily understandable as they are similar to the laws in the other nations. Highly recommended!

I'm Ritik Khaitan and am pursuing baccalaureate in Business Finance from NTU Singapore. I took this course to enhance my financial skills. Well, my parents had urged me to take this course so that I could better manage my finances; having been an adult.

The course helped me a lot about understanding a plethora of domains in handling one's finances like credit score, mutual funds, etc. Certainly, the credit score topic was fun and interesting and was full of actionable insights to better manage one's credit.

This is the course I needed to adequately plan my financial security. Excellent course. Thanks!

Great overview of personal financial planning!

This course has been a complete blessing in my life (personally and professionally). I learned many concepts that I could apply in real life, in real time. My only suggestion is that the questions featured in the quizzes / assignments more closely align with the lecture material. Otherwise this is the perfect class to begin a foundation in the ever-changing world of finance.

Practical information you can put to use right away. This class was fun and easy. It's an 8 week long course, but finished within 2 weeks. It's not really time consuming, so I definitely recommend anyone who's not too financially savvy to give this course a go!

Good Course and Professor very clear. But a lot of content (40%) is for USA.

The sound is inconsistent, it's really hard to hear.

Good general personal basics for budgeting and credit risks. However, course was posted in 2014, and many tax laws, investment rules, etc. are have changed and have not been updated in this course. Also quite a few links are no longer active and have not been replaced with more current resources. So if you are taking this for specific learning of investment and tax considerations, you will need a different course.

Most info was entirely open source, quizzes had typos and referred to things which were outdated and sometimes inaccessible / no longer accessible. This course needs to be updated. Tax section also has not incorporated tax reforms made in 2018.

Overall, the course is informative, but needs significant improvements.