Young people face unprecedented financial challenges: rising student debt, stiff competition for jobs, barriers to home ownership, dwindling state benefits and prospects of a longer working life. Essential Personal Finance is a guide to all the key areas of personal finance: budgeting, managing debt, savings and investments, insurance, securing a home and laying the foundations for retirement.

It provides an introduction to some of the essential foundations of a modern undergraduate finance qualification, including:

• the nature of financial institutions, markets and economic policy that shape the opportunities and decisions individuals face
• the range of financial assets available to households, risk-return trade-off, basics of portfolio construction and impact of tax
• the importance of the efficient market hypothesis and modern portfolio theory in shaping investment strategies and the limitations of these approaches
• behavioural finance as a key to understanding factors influencing individual and market perceptions and actions
• using financial data to inform investment selection and create financial management tools that can aid decision-making

The second edition has been fully updated and includes: more information on the cost of living crisis; Fintech, climate change, sustainable finance and cryptocurrencies; financial skills and calculations; tax, trust planning and wills; pensions; regulation and fraud; and additional case studies.

Written by authors who contribute experience as financial advisers, practitioners and academics, Essential Personal Finance is a compelling combination of a textbook aimed at students on personal finance and financial services courses, and a practical guide for young people in building their own financial strength and capability.

“This book is a well written textbook that brings together all the essential components of financial planning in one place. It can also serve as a reference book for many to use at a later date when going through different stages of life as each life stage presents different needs and challenges.”

— Dr Pushpa Wood ONZM, Director Westpac Massey Financial Education and Research Centre, Massey University, New Zealand.

Lien Luu is an Associate Professor and Curriculum Lead in Finance at Coventry Business School. She is a Certified Financial Planner and a Chartered Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI).

Jonquil Lowe is a Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance at The Open University. She has previously worked as an investment analyst and head of the Money Research Group at Which?

Jason Butler is Head of Financial Education at Salary Finance, columnist and podcaster and spent 25 years as a financial adviser. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and the Personal Finance Society.