Finance Vs Macroeconomics?

[DrowNz]

G'day guys.

I have no background in any of the busienss subjects whatsoever but I believe that I'm starting to develop a passion for Economics from the little I read here and there. I am interested in pursuing a major in economics eventually but was advised to pick up 'Fundamentals of Finance' by the counseling given to me by the faculity as a starting point for my commerce degree. I was wondering if that was true and whether I should listen to this advise or would picking up introduction to macroeconomics be a better idea?

Thanks in advance!

[Collin Li]

What course are you doing? If you are doing a commerce degree, then Introductory Macroeconomics is probably compulsory. Finance will not give you the groundwork required for economics - only introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics can do that. The finance subject will give you a good groundwork required for finance though. If you want to practice finance as a profession, the finance subject is probably a better choice, but if you want to gain an economic insight as to how financial markets work, economics is the route you should take.

[DrowNz]

I am currently studying Science/Commerce. You are completely right, sorry for the confusion.
In this case let me rephrase my question:

What order of core subjects would you recommend I follow? That is, What order would make more sense, logically, for a novice in the field such as myself?

appreciate your help.

[Collin Li]

The order won't matter at all. Finance may borrow some assumptions from economics, but it is not very important. Try to have done introductory microeconomics first, because finance may make references to the 'efficient markets hypothesis.' It also taught 'purchasing power parity' which is an open economy equilibria (macroeconomic), but you seriously don't need introductory macroeconomics to know about it

I studied "Finance 1" in semester 1 alongside "Introductory Microeconomics" and it was all okay. It was nice to study "Introductory Macroeconomics" afterwards: having already learnt about purchasing power parity and the few references the course made to bank loans (interest rates) - although this stuff was commonsense.

Essentially, finance is more about the "time value of money" (interest rates) and calculations involved with it, so even though there is an overlap with economics, it's not important enough to let it inconvenience the order of your subjects.