Finance is a recent invention in the sense that it became a separate field of study only lately. It used to be lumped together with economics but finance is now a specialty in its own right. Finance is the study of money or more precisely, the science of money management. It involves the 3 different concepts of money, time and risks and how to relate them with each other. It is a science categorized into two broad areas of interest: personal finance and corporate finance (sometimes called as managerial finance). But we will concern ourselves here only with personal finance – the concepts and principles of finance as it applies to an individual person or within a single family unit.
Personal finance is like corporate finance in many other aspects. It also has the same significance with regards to money, which is a “liquid” asset unlike other assets like “hard” assets (real estate properties, cars, residential homes, etc) or “paper” assets such as stock or bonds. It is expected that the site visitor will get a good view and understand the complex world of personal finance starting from planning to eventual retirement. Thorough understanding of this exciting subject should concern us since it affects us in a very personal and direct way, individually and our family members too. Decisions made in personal finance affect us more than other people and hence should be given top priority more than anything else. Good example is a house foreclosure that effects every household member adversely.