Handbook

Helping individuals make better financial decisions and improve their financial well-being over the lifecycle represents a grand challenge for government, business, and not-for-profit organisations. This synthesis course provides opportunities for students to work in diverse teams to solve real-world problems related to this grand challenge through applying, integrating and synthesising their knowledge and skills from multi-disciplinary perspectives. 

This course will be a fully problem-based learning experience. Throughout the course, students will apply their multi-disciplinary knowledge, critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork skills to solve real industry problems. Students will have opportunities to engage with and receive feedback from industry partners. 

Building on students' pre-existing knowledge in their specific disciplinary domain, this course will cover the following topics to further equip students with relevant theoretical framework, industry knowledge and research insights to solve the industry problems: lifecycle theories of consumption and saving; human capital and the retirement decision; lifecycle investment strategy; risks facing individual retirees and providers of retirement income products (employment risk, investment risk, longevity risk, inflation risk, health risk); retirement income products; behavioural explanations for non-rational saving and investment behaviours including myopia, procrastination, mental accounting, framing, loss aversion etc.

NOTE: This course is equivalent to ECON3117 Retirement Saving and Spending over the Lifecycle, which is no longer offered. Students intending to enrol in ECON3117 should instead enrol in this course.