Behavioral finance has shown that all people, even financial experts, are prone to making irrational and suboptimal financial decisions. It also explores how people have wants that extend far beyond traditional finances' assumption of wanting the highest return at the lowest risk. We are not perfectly rational economic robots; we are easily driven by many wants and emotions while working with limited time, knowledge, and energy.

This course explores many of the thinking errors and biases exhibited by all people, even the experts. You'll be able to identify the nonfinancial wants that drive the financial decisions of your clients. We'll then identify ways to improve financial decision-making in the contexts of personal financial planning and business financial management.

You'll learn from an author that teaches these concepts to MBA students at a university as well as to business advisors and staff. He is a CPA that's been a CFO of multiple companies. Rob also has a master's degree in personal financial planning and a graduate certificate in financial therapy. He served as program manager for a group of investment advisors.

This course leads you from foundational finance concepts to practical applications in both personal finance and business finance.

Note:This course is also available in Video-based format. https://www.illumeo.com/courses/behavioral-finance-introduction-insights

Learning Objectives
  • Recognize common behavioral finance biases and heuristics.
  • Identify ways to reduce thinking errors caused by biases and heuristics.
  • Discover and recall differences between traditional finance and behavioral finance.
  • Identify negative financial impacts of finance biases and heuristics.
Last updated/reviewed: March 11, 2024
37 Reviews (154 ratings)

Reviews

4
Anonymous Author
I have almost 30 years in corporate accounting and finance and from my experience the failures that I have seen are very well described in this presentation. I wish more business leaders would better understand what make decisions fail.

5
Anonymous Author
I really appreciated learning about how people think and what biases we have and how that impacts our decisions in finance. There is so much to know about biases, emotions, heuristics and how all that plays into decision making.

5
Anonymous Author
This course is great for providing insights into human behavior and the factors affecting decision-making. The tendency to make poor decisions seems rampant, but a lot of tools and ways of thinking help mitigate the tendencies.

5
Anonymous Author
Course is great for providing insights into human behavior and the factors affecting decision-making. The tendency to make poor decisions seems rampant, but a lot of tools and ways of thinking help mitigate the tendencies.

5
Anonymous Author
Great course on thinking about Behavioral Finance. Tons of information in the text document and very well summarized in the slides. I will reference these docs for a long time.

5
Anonymous Author
Great job, thank you so much, it is terrific!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5
Anonymous Author
Learned a lot about behavioral finance that I had not considered before. Definitely will be referring back to this to learn more about how financial decisions are made.

5
Anonymous Author
A lot of insightful information and good reference materials. I enjoy the additional suggested reading materials and the types/number of examples were very helpful.

5
Anonymous Author
This course was very interesting. I enjoyed learning about behavioral finance. It made sense why strictly speaking life doesn't flow by the numbers.

5
Member's Profile
This was a really helpful and interesting class. I liked how applicable so much of the content is to both personal and business finance.

5
Member's Profile
This course was very interesting. I enjoyed learning several new concepts, and especially liked how they were related to everyday life.

5
Anonymous Author
This course was very helpful to add human psychology to pure math when describing finance. Will use it for a long time to come.

5
Member's Profile
Great insights into why and ways we act behaviorally which is often not rationally and interferes with our best interests.

5
Member's Profile
Very interesting perspective on finance. Reminds me of some high school economics principles with more sophistication.

5
Member's Profile
This text was easy to read and engaging with the topic at hand. It included both personal and business applications.

5
Member's Profile
It is nice to learn how behavioral finance can affect the decision-making process and how to make better decisions.

5
Anonymous Author
This was a great course at explaining biases, ways of thinking, etc. when it comes to finance. Very insightful.

5
Member's Profile
very interesting reading on behavior and made sense when put in this context; like the course overall

5
Anonymous Author
Great course, I like how it made you think outside the box and view Finance in a different manner

5
Anonymous Author
Really enjoyed this course. Offers lots of useful tools for both personal and professional use

5
Member's Profile
Excellent course with concepts that are widely applicable towards better business decisions.

5
Anonymous Author
Good discussion of behavioral finance. Included book recommendations for further study.

5
Anonymous Author
this was a good course; material was clear, informative, well organized, and interesting

5
Anonymous Author
It's been a long time since I studied these concepts, and I appreciated the refresher.

5
Anonymous Author
I'm leaving this because its' required to keep the results. I really wish it wasn't!

5
Anonymous Author
Excellently presented and intriguing, one of the better courses on this platform.

5
Anonymous Author
I had never studied behavorial finance - very interesting and helpful course.

4
Anonymous Author
Great course: Behavioral Finance: Introduction and Insights. Awesome material.

5
Member's Profile
Great course on behavioral finance. A lot of poor decision making is occuring.

5
Member's Profile
Learned about the mental aspects of decision-making in a new light. Ecellent!

4
Anonymous Author
Good overview of the behavioral aspects of finance and business, in general.

5
Anonymous Author
Great content and great "food for thought" when making informed decisions.

4
Anonymous Author
Instructor was witty and clever. Content was interesting and thorough.

5
Anonymous Author
Course layed out interesting concepts to think about in business.

5
Anonymous Author
Helpful introduction and insights into Behavioral Finance.

5
Anonymous Author
I loved the instructor's writing style - great wit/humor.

5
Anonymous Author
Very interesting course and field of study. Recommend!

Prerequisites
Course Complexity: Foundational

No advanced preparation or prerequisites are required for this course.

Education Provider Information
Company: Illumeo, Inc., 75 East Santa Clara St., Suite 1215, San Jose, CA 95113
Contact: For more information regarding this course, including complaint and cancellation policies, please contact our offices at (408) 400- 3993 or send an e-mail to .
Instructor for this course
Course Syllabus
COURSE MATERIAL
  Behavioral Finance: Introduction and Insights (Text Based Course)PDF
REVIEW AND TEST
  REVIEW QUESTIONSquiz
 FINAL EXAMexam