Sound personal financial management is a critical skill that equips students to be future-ready, face life's changes and transitions with confidence, and thrive across personal and professional life domains.
Most financial literacy programmes focus only on the hard skills, tools and techniques associated with personal finance management. CFG's Financial Wellbeing programme provides students with training in essential financial planning skills, as well as address the mental and emotional aspects of money management. Students will develop the financial know-how as well as positive habits and practices related to financial decision-making.
Through Financial Wellbeing, students thus not only enhance their personal effectiveness, but also learn about themselves and their personal values, building greater self-awareness and mental resilience.
Financial literacy and financial planning
Mental resilience in money management
Pathways to saving and investing sustainably
Financial empowerment to achieve your goals
The programme comprises two courses:
Introduction to Financial Wellbeing (CFG1003)
Financial Readiness for Young Professionals (CFG1004)
The Financial Readiness for Young Professionals (CFG1004) programme is developed by the NUS Centre for Future-ready Graduates, while Introduction to Financial Wellbeing (CFG1003) is provided in partnership with PlayMoolah.
For enquiries regarding this programme, please contact financialreadiness@nus.edu.sg.
Have any questions about this programme? See the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Hear us share about personal financial management as well as the Financial Wellbeing courses in this CNA938 Live radio interview!
What our students say
This course serves as a great introduction into the investing scene, and it really prompts students to have a hands-on journey by giving out workbooks to fill in and properly reflect upon our own finances.
— Lee Yi Xuan, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music
This course (CFG1004) has given me the basics of how to start investing, without any of the confusion, fluff or misinformation that may be rampant online. Additionally, I appreciate the guidance related to more intangible steps on investing, such as building up my emotional resilience and my attitudes towards money. This makes the course a holistic one, which I was not expecting but really appreciate.
— Seah Jie Hui, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
As somebody who only knows the basics about financial management and initially found the topic very daunting, this course felt like the perfect place to start.
It helped me introspect on why I felt the way I did about money and gave some concrete advice on the steps I can take to move towards financial independence: How I can control my money instead of letting money control me.
— Asfar Banu Alim, Faculty of Science
Unlike other courses on financial wellbeing which focus more on techniques, this course is relevant to many students in asking us to reflect on the kind of flourishing life we want to have and teaching us skills to build up financial emotional resilience and self-regulation as many of us tend to spend on impulse at a younger age.
The length of the course was also just nice at an hour and the
interactive course platform was engaging. I would certainly recommend that students try out this course to pick up an
important life skill at one's convenience.
— Bryan Chang Kin Hong, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
I really like that this course can be done at one's own pace and time as I have been busy with project deadlines and tests. Furthermore, the 14 sections were engaging and halfway through the course, I was already thinking about how to properly budget to achieve my financial goals.
— Tan Zi Feng, NUS Business School
This course provides us with many essential life skills that we may think we have, but in fact are not equipped with. I love how flexible this course is, and it is very interactive due to the inclusion of many videos and drawings.
— Lucia Pan Yucheng, College of Humanities and Sciences
This is a great course that not only helps students understand more about financial planning and budgeting but also goes through money narratives and what a flourishing life means.
Financial management is a lifelong journey hence everyone should engage in this course and start to practice as early as possible.
— Tang ShuQian, Risk Management Institute
This course was well taught and had content that was relevant and of importance. The course debunked many incorrect notions of budgeting and financial planning as well. Would highly recommend it to students who are interested in financial planning but do not know where to start.
— Haja Shareef Mohamed Suhail, College of Design and Engineering
In this course, you can expect to:
- Understand the fundamentals of managing your money.
- Explore topics such as the five pillars of money, automation, good and bad debt and explore the pathways to savings and investing.
- Know how to develop a plan for a flourishing life with core financial management practices, while managing the stresses of money in one’s daily life.
With a pure e-learning format, learn at your own pace, enhance your skills at independent learning, and complete the entire course in 1.5 hours.
Course Details & Registration
Course Units: 0 Units, Unrestricted Elective (UE) Course. This course is exempt from the limit on Level-1000 courses.
Pre-requisites: No requirements
Assessment and Grading Basis: No assessment. CS grade awarded if the e-learning course is completed. Estimated completion time is 1.5 hours.
Schedule: Semester 1 and 2 of AY25/26
Mode of Enrolment: CourseReg Rounds 1-3
Please select the lecture group according to your faculty:
L01 – FASS, L02 – CDE/CEG, L03 – FoS, L04 – SoC, L05 – Business, L06 – Law/ Yale-NUS/YLLSoM/YST, L07 – Exchange Students.
For students who are not successful during the CourseReg registration period, you may submit an appeal via EduRec during the appeal period.
All undergraduate students are welcome to apply.
Postgraduate and BTech students who are interested in enrolling in CFG1003 may fill out the registration form starting 11 January 2026.
Please refer to the FAQs for more information.
Students will learn fundamental principles of planning for life goals, managing debt and budgeting as well as be introduced to insurance, tax and CPF. They will also learn how to make sound decisions on how to invest in line with their return objectives, risk tolerance and cashflow needs, and how to regulate their emotions in response to the inevitable volatilities in the financial markets.
Learning Outcomes
Understand the basics of money and inflation
Learn how to plan for life goals, budget and manage debt
Be introduced to insurance, tax and CPF
Learn how to invest in line with return objectives, risk tolerance and cashflow needs
Course Details & Registration
Course Units: 2 Units, Unrestricted Elective (UE) Course. This course is exempt from the limit on Level-1000 courses.
Pre-requisites: No requirements
Assessment and Grading Basis: CS/CU
Schedule: Semester 1 and 2 of AY25/26
Mode of Enrolment: CourseReg Rounds 1-3
Please select the lecture group according to your faculty:
L01 – FASS, L02 – CDE/CEG, L03 – FoS, L04 – SoC, L05 – Business, L06 – Law/ Yale-NUS/YLLSoM/YST, L07 – Exchange Students.
For students who are not successful during the CourseReg registration period, you may submit an appeal via EduRec during the appeal period.
All undergraduate students are welcome to apply.
Postgraduate and BTech students who are interested in enrolling in CFG1004 may fill out the registration form starting 11 January 2026.
Please refer to the FAQs for more information.
Course Structure
This course will equip you with foundational knowledge of core principles of financial management, investing psychology and investing fundamentals via nine online lessons.
1. Understanding Money and Inflation
2. Planning for Major Life Goals
3. Building Financial Control Through Debt Management
4. Building Strong Financial Habits Through Budgeting
5. Insurance – Protecting Yourself and Your Assets
6. Tax Planning and Its Impact on Your Income
7. What You Need to Know About CPF
8. Growing Your Wealth – Introduction to Investments
Workload
CFG1004 is structured around nine lessons and delivered in an e-learning format. You enjoy the convenience of acquiring the financial skills and mindsets you need in your own time.
To secure a CS for this course, you will need to complete the e-learning, reflection journal and pass the final quiz.