What Is Finance?
Finance is a term for matters regarding the management, creation, and study of money and investments. It involves the use of credit and debt, securities, and investment to finance current projects using future income flows. Because of this temporal aspect, finance is closely linked to the time value of money, interest rates, and other related topics.
Finance can be broadly divided into three categories:
- Public finance
- Corporate finance
- Personal finance
There are many other specific categories, such as behavioral finance, which seeks to identify the cognitive (e.g., emotional, social, and psychological) reasons behind financial decisions.
Understanding Finance
“Finance” is typically broken down into three broad categories: Public finance includes tax systems, government expenditures, budget procedures, stabilization policy and instruments, debt issues, and other government concerns. Corporate finance involves managing assets, liabilities, revenues, and debts for a business. Personal finance defines all financial decisions and activities of an individual or household, including budgeting, insurance, mortgage planning, savings, and retirement planning.
Public Finance
The federal government helps prevent market failure by overseeing the allocation of resources, distribution of income, and stabilization of the economy. Regular funding for these programs is secured mostly through taxation.19 Borrowing from banks, insurance companies, and other governments and earning dividends from its companies also help finance the federal government.
State and local governments also receive grants and aid from the federal government. Other sources of public finance include user charges from ports, airport services, and other facilities; fines resulting from breaking laws; revenues from licenses and fees, such as for driving; and sales of government securities and bond issues.
Corporate Finance
Businesses obtain financing through a variety of means, ranging from equity investments to credit arrangements. A firm might take out a loan from a bank or arrange for a line of credit. Acquiring and managing debt properly can help a company expand and become more profitable.
Startups may receive capital from angel investors or venture capitalists in exchange for a percentage of ownership. If a company thrives and goes public, it will issue shares on a stock exchange; such initial public offerings (IPO) bring a great influx of cash into a firm. Established companies may sell additional shares or issue corporate bonds to raise money. Businesses may purchase dividend-paying stocks, blue-chip bonds, or interest-bearing bank certificates of deposits (CD); they may also buy other companies in an effort to boost revenue.
Recent examples of corporate financing include:
- Bausch & Lomb Corp’s initial public offering was initially filed on 1/13/2022 and officially sold shares in May 2022. The healthcare company generated $630 million of proceeds.20
- Ford Motor Credit Company LLC managing outstanding notes to raise capital or extinguish debt to support Ford Motor Company.21
- HomeLight’s blended financial approach of raising $115 million ($60 million by issuing additional equity and $55 million through debt financing). HomeLight used the additional capital to acquire lending start-up Accept.inc.22
Personal Finance
Personal financial planning generally involves analyzing an individual’s or a family’s current financial position, predicting short-term, and long-term needs, and executing a plan to fulfill those needs within individual financial constraints. Personal finance depends largely on one’s earnings, living requirements, and individual goals and desires.
Matters of personal finance include but are not limited to, the purchasing of financial products for personal reasons, like credit cards; life and home insurance; mortgages; and retirement products. Personal banking (e.g., checking and savings accounts, IRAs, and 401(k) plans) is also considered a part of personal finance.
The most important aspects of personal finance include:
- Assessing the current financial status: expected cash flow, current savings, etc.
- Buying insurance to protect against risk and to ensure one’s material standing is secure
- Calculating and filing taxes
- Savings and investments
- Retirement planning
As a specialized field, personal finance is a recent development, though forms of it have been taught in universities and schools as “home economics” or “consumer economics” since the early 20th century. The field was initially disregarded by male economists, as “home economics” appeared to be the purview of housewives. Recently, economists have repeatedly stressed widespread education in matters of personal finance as integral to the macro performance of the overall national economy.
Social Finance
Social finance typically refers to investments made in social enterprises including charitable organizations and some cooperatives. Rather than an outright donation, these investments take the form of equity or debt financing, in which the investor seeks both a financial reward as well as a social gain.
Modern forms of social finance also include some segments of microfinance, specifically loans to small business owners and entrepreneurs in less developed countries to enable their enterprises to grow. Lenders earn a return on their loans while simultaneously helping to improve individuals’ standard of living and to benefit the local society and economy.
Social impact bonds (also known as Pay for Success Bonds or social benefit bonds) are a specific type of instrument that acts as a contract with the public sector or local government. Repayment and return on investment are contingent upon the achievement of certain social outcomes and achievements.