Introduction to Financial Psychology

Audience: Personal financial planners, business professionals, coaches, counselors, therapists
Method: Online course
Duration: 8 weeks
Graduate application: Not required
Credits: 3
Cost: $2,900

This fall course will open for registration in spring 2020. Enter your contact information, and we’ll let you know when the course is available.

Understanding the fundamentals of financial psychology

This course is designed to help financial planners, business professionals and more develop knowledge and skills they can use with individuals, families and business owners to help them work toward their financial goals. This course is an introductory financial psychology course that examines the intersection between financial planning, financial coaching and financial therapy. This class will introduce you to:

• The impact of early financial experiences on money beliefs, financial behaviors and an individual’s ability to achieve business and personal financial goals
• Money disorders frequently seen by financial professionals
• Techniques to establish rapport with clients
• Tools to help clients change problematic/destructive money-related behaviors
• Techniques to deal with client resistance to change
• Tools to work with couples and families
• Cognitive biases that influence investing behavior
• Methods for integrating financial psychology knowledge and tools into personal financial planning

Course learning objectives

This professional development course aims to:

• Provide an environment conducive to the study of financial psychology using written and oral presentations and applied financial psychology theory and techniques
• Strengthen the participant’s ability to understand financial psychology and its implications with regard to financial health of clients and clients’ ability to reach their financial goals

Students will learn to:

• Apply theory and technique to gain a deeper understanding of their own personal financial psychology
• Identify financial flashpoints and their impact on beliefs and behaviors
• Identify the impact of culture and gender on financial flashpoints
• Describe a method for helping clients identify their financial flashpoints and resulting money beliefs
• Identify their own money scripts and their impact on financial health and behaviors
• Demonstrate knowledge regarding the latest research findings on money scripts
• Administer and interpret the Klontz Money Script Inventory – II (KMSI-II), Klontz Money Behavior Inventory (KMBI) and Financial Health Scale (FHS)
• Describe a method for helping clients identify, challenge and change their money scripts
• Define and identify financial health and its components
• Identify and describe money disorders and associated money behaviors
• Describe several methods for helping clients work through their money disorders and make progress toward financial health
• Identify cognitive biases that impact investor behaviors

Financial psychology course topics

In this eight-week professional development course, you’ll cover a variety of topics:

• Week 1: Intro to financial psychology
• Week 2: Financial flashpoints
• Week 3: Multicultural financial psychology
• Week 4: Money scripts and financial comfort zone
• Week 5: Money disorders
• Week 6: Intro to behavioral finance
• Week 7: Financial therapy
• Week 8: My Money Story paper

COURSE CREDIT

This is one of five courses in the Certificate in Financial Psychology and Behavioral Finance, and it’s worth 3 credits. The course can be taken independently as a professional development course or as part of the certificate program. Please note that students are limited to earning a maximum of nine graduate credits before applying for admission into a degree or certificate program. If you are below the nine-credit limit and are not seeking a certificate or degree, you’re free to take this course without applying to the graduate school.

Creighton University will issue a 1098-T by January 31 for all learners enrolled in courses for credit. As part of that process, you may be asked to provide your Social Security number.

Meet your course instructor

Introduction to Financial Psychology is taught by Bradley Klontz, PsyD, CFP®. An associate professor in the Heider College of Business, Klontz is a founder of the Financial Psychology Institute, a managing principal of Your Mental Wealth Advisors, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a former president of the Hawaii Psychological Association.

Dr. Klontz was awarded the Innovative Practice Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association for his application of psychological interventions to help people with money and wealth issues and his innovative practice in financial psychology for practitioners across the country.

Dr. Klontz has co-authored/co-edited five books on financial psychology, and his work has been featured on ABC News’ 20/20 and Good Morning America and in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Kiplinger’s, Money Magazine, NPR and many other media outlets, professional magazines and journals.

Required materials

• Klontz, B. & Klontz, T. (2009). Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders that Threaten our Financial Health. New York, NY: Crown Business.
• Klontz, B., Kahler, R., & Klontz, T. (2016). Facilitating Financial Health: Tools for Financial Planners, Coaches, & Therapists, 2nd Edition. Cincinnati, OH: National Underwriter Company.
• Klontz, B.T., Britt, S.L., & Archuleta, K.L. (2015). Financial Therapy: Theory, Research, and Practice. New York, NY: Springer.
• Articles as assigned.

Refund Policy