What is Finance?

Finance is as ancient as life on earth. The word came from a French language which was later on adopted by English speaking communities in the 18th century. It has emerged into an important academic discipline due to its implications in different businesses around the world. Finance is a broad term which defines two related activities, how money is managed and how needed funds are acquired?

What are the types of finance?

Illustration of financial concept

Modern finance is distinguished into tow broad types:

  1. Public Finance. This deals with the income and expenditures of the Government or a State. It’s that part of finance that talks about the presentation and allocation of resources. Main components of Public Finance:
  • Public Expenditure
  • Public Revenue
  • Public Debt
  • Budgeting
  1. Private Finance. This is divided into two sub-finances.
  • Personal Finance. This deals with the financial management of an individual or family unit which performs to manage, save and spend monetary resources overtime taking into account various risk and future life events. It deals with the optimization of finances of an individual, single consumer, family finances, personal savings, and many more.
  • Business Finance. It encompasses a wide range of activities and disciplines revolving around the management of money and assets around the business to achieve its fullest capacity. It tries to optimize the goals, profits and sales of the business.

Difference between private and public finance.

  1. Private:
  • Individual
  • Expenses are adjusted according to income
  • Future savings
  • External loans only
  • Limited finance
  • Cannot print currency notes
  1. Public:
  • Government or State
  • Income is adjusted according to expenses
  • No Future Savings
  • External and Internal loans
  • Flexible finance
  • Can print currency notes
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