FM101 Financial Mathematics
This course will introduce students to the application of mathematics to financial calculations. Skills acquired in this course are relevant to the comprehension of sophisticated financial modelling in advanced courses. Topics include simple and compound interest, time value of money, continuous compounding, fixed and growing annuities, probabilities in a financial context, regression and multivariate analysis, and portfolio optimisation. The course will assume familiarity with the mathematics covered in MA101. Topics will be chosen only for their relevance to future needs in a course on finance, and all will be illustrated with practical financial examples.
FM102 Personal Financial Planning
This course fills a two-fold need in a finance major programme. Firstly it introduces students to basic financial concepts and decisions and the fundamental elements of financial planning. These concepts will be revisited in following courses in a variety of more conventional contexts, for example, corporate and small business financial management. Secondly such a course introduces students to a rapidly growing area of financial management seen as playing an important role in developing, increasingly affluent and also ageing societies. Fulfilling the latter need is of particular importance in Pacific societies where knowledge of appropriate personal financial management is crucial to improving living standards.
