Financial literacy for immigrants
A free online course on the Swedish financial system, built for newcomers to Sweden.
Did you know that you can negotiate about your mortgage interest rate with your bank in Sweden? You can! And it can save you lots of money over time. Did you also know that there is special tax system for investments that is much easier and often cheaper than dealing with capital gains taxes? So many financial decisions depend on the institutional setup, and can be very difficult to navigate without being a native. When you just arrive in a new country, it is very difficult to know how to make good financial decisions.
Together with colleagues in Lund and Aarhus and in collaboration with Finansinspektionen, I developed a course in financial literacy targeted towards immigrants to help out with some of these issues. The main idea of the course is to provide practical advice on how to invest, save for retirement and buy a house in Sweden. The course focuses on the practical aspects, like what kind of fund is best to buy, how fees affect your returns, how to save for your pension in the Swedish system and how to get a mortgage in Sweden. We provide video lectures, questions to bring to your bank and a glossary of terms.
What the course covers
- Investment strategies and fund selection
- The Swedish pension system
- Retirement savings
- How to buy a home in Sweden
- How mortgages work and how to negotiate the rate
- The impact of fees on long-run wealth
- Video lectures, a glossary of Swedish financial terms, and discussion questions for your bank meeting
Take the course
The course is free and available in two languages:
- finanskurs.se — Swedish version
- sites.google.com/view/finanskurs-english — English version
Press
Interview with Olga Balakina in Göteborgsposten on the initiative: Så kan du bli rikare — de startar gratis ekonomiutbildning.