The Investments & Finance Minor's focus on investing and finance will lead to greater success in a wide array of industries and graduate programs as you gain experience in topics such as asset valuation, data analysis, financial accounting, tax incidence, and more that will assist you in providing value along many different dimensions to potential employers. Common industries for employment after a minor in Investments and Finance include banking, asset management, actuarial analysis, financial accounting, and government. Investments and finance minors will be well-prepared to enter the workforce in a strong field today and well into the future.
Minor Requirements
Investments & Finance Minor Objectives
After completion of the minor, students will:
- Demonstrate an ability to meet minimal financial accounting standards, e.g., completing financial statements, calculating financial ratios.
- Describe methods of raising capital, making managerial decisions regarding cost, profit planning, setting performance measures, and capital budgeting.
- Demonstrate an understanding of business financial planning by making investment decisions and understand the cost of capital.
- Gain hands-on experience in alternative data analysis techniques in making informed investment decisions using statistical software.
- Be able to use basic macroeconomic concepts such as unemployment and inflation rates to analyze the economy.
- Gain a basic understanding of the macroeconomic business cycle and how monetary and fiscal policy are used to influence these cycles.
- Develop an understanding of how international markets impact business and investing decisions.
- Understand the impact of financial choices on future earnings potential by focusing on terminology, evaluation, selection, and risk analysis of various types of investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds and mortgage-backed securities (MBS).
- Understand how the business cycle, and differing monetary and fiscal policy actions during the cycle, interact with various investment vehicles such as stocks and bonds.
- Become proficient in explaining, through written and spoken language, the current state of the economy and its impact on financial markets to those with potentially less knowledge of the underlying concepts.
- Describe how governments raise funds through taxation and their primary expenditures; demonstrate how government taxation and expenditure affects individuals and businesses.