Just this week I started looking at a free online finance class offered through MIT's graduate program. It was taught by professor and excellent public speaker Andrew Lo back in the Fall of 2008 (dark days, as I'm sure some of you may well remember!).

In any case, I quite enjoyed these statements from Professor Lo's introductory class. The following are the first 3 of "Six Fundamental Principles of Finance":

P1: There is no such thing as free lunch

P2: Other things being equal, individuals:

prefer more money to less (non-satiation)
prefer money now to later (impatience)
prefer to avoid risk (risk aversion)

P3: All agents act to further their own self-interest

Lo, Andrew. 15.401 Finance Theory I, Fall 2008. (MIT OpenCourseWare: Massachusetts Institute of Technology), http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-401-finance-theory-i-fall-2008 (Accessed 20 Nov, 2014). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

I hope you all enjoyed these ideas as much as I did! Who would have guessed that the the focus of the class would be on such basic concepts? I'll let you know how it goes in the long run-- somehow I doubt the class will stay this obvious.