Foundations of Finance: Free Course

About this course

Finance is easier to study when its basic ideas are connected from the start. This free course with Aswath Damodaran introduces business structure, cash flows, risk and the time value of money. It then uses those foundations to explain different financial claims and the economic forces that influence financial decisions.

Course at a glance

What you’ll learn

• Explain how a financial view of a business organizes assets and funding.
• Distinguish cash flows, earnings and different forms of risk.
• Describe why the timing of money matters in valuation.
• Recognize how financial claims, inflation, interest rates and currencies relate to finance.

Skills you’ll gain

• Financial literacy
• Cash-flow reasoning
• Time value of money
• Risk awareness

Course Overview

The course starts with a financial view of a business and the distinction between cash flows and other measures. Risk and present value lead into introductory discussions of bonds, equity and options. The final available sessions cover inflation, interest rates and exchange rates. This makes the series a useful preparation path for the instructor's longer corporate finance and valuation courses.

How the course develops

• Building the vocabulary: connect business structure, cash flows and risk before working with valuation ideas.
• Understanding financial claims: compare contractual, residual and contingent claims through introductory examples.
• Adding economic context: examine the final sessions on inflation, interest rates and exchange rates.

The classroom retains every entry from the selected source playlist, including introductory or review videos when present. Follow the lesson sequence, or use the lesson search to return to a specific explanation. The source lesson titles are preserved so that you can match your place with the instructor’s materials.

One source video is currently unavailable. YouTube provides no original title for that item. Its position is retained with a SOON WILL UPLOAD label before the currency session, while the other twelve videos remain available.

Who is this for?

Complete beginners, students and professionals from non-finance backgrounds who want a starting point before taking more detailed finance courses.

Before you start

Basic arithmetic and familiarity with percentages are helpful. No previous finance course is required; pause the short sessions and repeat examples when necessary.

Put the lessons into practice

Describe a small hypothetical business using its operating assets, funding needs and expected cash flows. Compare receiving the same amount now with receiving it later, and state the assumptions behind your comparison. Finish with a concept map connecting risk, expected cash flows and value. Keep the exercise explanatory rather than treating it as an investment recommendation.

This optional activity is provided by WikiFree for independent study. It is not a graded assignment from the instructor. Keep your working notes and separate evidence from assumptions so that you can review your reasoning as you progress.

Certificate / Assessment

The public YouTube videos are free to watch. Viewing them through WikiFree does not include a certificate, academic credit, an NYU degree, instructor feedback or admission to a university program. Separate enrolled or certificate programs can have different requirements and fees.

Mark complete records your study progress; it does not assess your work or award a qualification. Examples and figures belong to the source recordings. Use the lessons to learn the analytical methods and verify current inputs before applying them to a real decision.

Frequently asked questions

Provider: Aswath Damodaran. Videos play from the Aswath Damodaran channel on YouTube.