Understanding Finance

Finance is the allocation of assets and liabilities over time under conditions of certainty and uncertainty. A key point in finance is the time value of money, which states that a unit of currency today is worth more than the same unit of currency tomorrow. Finance aims to price assets based on their risk level, and expected rate of return. Finance can be broken into three different sub categories: public finance, corporate finance and personal finance.

Contents [hide]
1 Areas of finance
1.1 Personal finance
1.2 Corporate finance
1.2.1 Financial services
1.3 Public finance
2 Capital
3 Financial theory
3.1 Financial economics
3.2 Financial mathematics
3.3 Experimental finance
3.4 Behavioral finance
3.5 Intangible asset finance
4 Professional qualifications
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Areas of finance[edit]

Wall Street, the center of American finance.
Personal finance[edit]
Main article: Personal finance
Questions in personal finance revolve around

Protection against unforeseen personal events, as well as events in the wider economy
Transference of family across generations (bequests and inheritance)
Effects of tax policies (tax subsidies and/or penalties) on management of personal finances
Effects of credit on individual financial standing
Planning a secure financial future in an environment of economic instability
Personal finance may involve paying for education, financing durable goods such as real estate and cars, buying insurance, e.g. health and property insurance, investing and saving for retirement.

Personal finance may also involve paying for a loan, or debt obligations. The six key areas of personal financial planning, as suggested by the Financial Planning Standards Board, are:[1]

Financial position: is concerned with understanding the personal resources available by examining net worth and household cash flow. Net worth is a person's balance sheet, calculated by adding up all assets under that