Personal Finance Explained
Personal finance is the application of the principles of financial economics to an individual's (or a family's) financial decisions. It asks, "How much money will you need at various points in the future?" and "How do you go about getting that money?".
It is a detailed analysis of financial flows at various points in time. For example, we may receive employment income today, but have to pay college tuition fees next year. Mortgage payments, interest earned, insurance premiums, and numerous other financial flows are recurring events that repeat at monthly or yearly intervals. Because these involve several time periods, we have to ask "What role does time have in these financial calculations?".
We know that if we deposit money in a bank account we will receive interest. Because of this, we prefer to receive money today rather than in the future. Money we receive today is more valuable to us than money received in the future by the amount of interest we can earn with the money. This is referred to as the time value of money. To adjust for this time value, we use two simple formula. The present value formula is used to discount future money streams, that is, to convert future amounts to their equivalent present day amounts. The future value formula is used to convert today's money into the equivalent amount at some time in the future.
All personal financial planning done by professionals uses these time value formula, as well as several more complicated variants of the formulas. To ignore the role that time plays in financial planning is to ignore one of the most important principles of personal finance.
Assessing your financial situation is usually done by compiling several lists. These lists are simplified versions of corporate balance sheets and income statements. On your personal balance sheet, you list all your assets (e.g., car, house, clothes, stocks, bank account) and give their values. You also list all your liabilities (e.g., credit card debt, bank loan, mortgage) and give their values. Subtracting your total liabilities from your total assets will indicate your personal net worth. To understand how your personal net worth will change in the future, you compile what is called a personal cash flow statement. This lists your income, and your expenses. By subtracting your expenses from your income, you obtain your net cash flow for the period. If your net cash flow is positive, your personal net worth will increase. Most people grossly underestimate how much they spend each year.
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