Introduction

Personal finance, as a term, covers the concepts of managing your money, saving, and investing. It also includes banking, budgeting, mortgages, investments, insurance, retirement planning, and tax planning. One can consider that personal finance comprises the entire industry that provides financial services to individuals and advises them about financial and investment opportunities.


Personal finance is mostly about realising personal financial goals, whether it's saving enough for short-term financial needs, planning for retirement, or saving for your child's college education. Mostly, it depends on your income, expenses, living requirements, and individual goals, and the plan you make to fulfill those goals within your financial constraints.

Why Personal Finance?

It's very important to become financially literate in order to make the most of your income and savings. Financial literacy helps you distinguish between good and bad financial advice and make savvy decisions.

Few schools offer courses on managing your money, so it is important to learn the basics through free online articles, courses, blogs, podcasts, or at the library.

The new concept, smart personal finance involves developing strategies that include budgeting, creating an emergency fund, paying off debt, using credit cards wisely, saving for retirement, and more.

Tips & Tricks

University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack and personal finance writer Helaine Olen argue that in the United States good personal finance advice boils down to a few simple points:[22]

  • Pay off your credit card balance every month, in full
  • Save 20% of your income
  • Maximize contributions to tax-advantaged funds such as a 401(k) retirement funds, individual retirement accounts, and 529 education savings plans
  • When investing savings:
    • Don't attempt to trade individual securities
    • Avoid high-fee and actively managed funds
    • Look for low-cost, diversified mutual funds that balance risk vs. reward appropriately to your target retirement year
  • If using a financial advisor, require them to commit to a fiduciary duty to act in your best interest.
  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 person's control, minus all liabilities of the household, at one point in time. Household cash flow totals up all the expected sources of income within a year, minus all expected expenses within the same year. From this analysis, the financial planner can determine to what degree and in what time the personal goals can be accomplished.
  2. Adequate protection: or insurance, the analysis of how to protect a household from unforeseen risks. These risks can be divided into liability, property, death, disability, health and long-term care. Some of these risks may be self-insurable while most will require the purchase of an insurance contract. Determining how much insurance to get, at the most cost effective terms requires knowledge of the market for personal insurance. Business owners, professionals, athletes and entertainers require specialized insurance professionals to adequately protect themselves. Since insurance also enjoys some tax benefits, utilizing insurance investment products may be a critical piece of the overall investment planning.
  3. Tax planning: typically, the income tax is the single largest expense in a household. Managing taxes is not a question whether or not taxes will be paid, but when and how much. The government gives many incentives in the form of tax deductions and credits, which can be used to reduce the lifetime tax burden. Most modern governments use a progressive tax. Typically, as one's income grows, a higher marginal rate of tax must be paid. Understanding how to take advantage of the myriad tax breaks when planning one's personal finances can make a significant impact.
  4. Investment and accumulation goals: planning how to accumulate enough money for large purchases and life events is what most people consider to be financial planning. Major reasons to accumulate assets include, purchasing a house or car, starting a business, paying for education expenses, and saving for retirement.
    Achieving these goals requires projecting what they will cost, and when one needs to withdraw funds. A major risk to the household in achieving their accumulation goal is the rate of price increases over time, or inflation. Using net present value calculators, the financial planner will suggest a combination of asset earmarking and regular savings to be invested in a variety of investments. In order to overcome the rate of inflation, the investment portfolio has to get a higher rate of return, which typically will subject the portfolio to a number of risks. Managing these portfolio risks is most often accomplished using asset allocation, which seeks to diversify investment risk and opportunity. This asset allocation will prescribe a percentage allocation to be invested in stocks, bonds, cash and alternative investments. The allocation should also take into consideration the personal risk profile of every investor, since risk attitudes vary from person to person.
    Depreciating Assets- One thing to consider with personal finance and net worth goals is depreciating assets. A depreciating asset is an asset that loses value over time or with use. A few examples would be the vehicle that a person owns, boats, and capitalized expenses. They add value to a person's life but unlike other assets they do not make money and should be a class of their own. In the business world, for tax and bookkeeping purposes, these are depreciated over time due to the fact that their useful life runs out. This is known as accumulated depreciation and the asset will eventually need to be replaced.
  5. Retirement planning is the process of understanding how much it costs to live at retirement, and coming up with a plan to distribute assets to meet any income shortfall. Methods for retirement plan include taking advantage of government allowed structures to manage tax liability including: individual (IRA) structures, or employer sponsored retirement plans.
  6. Estate planning involves planning for the disposition of one's assets after death. Typically, there is a tax due to the state or federal government when one dies. Avoiding these taxes means that more of one's assets will be distributed to their heirs. One can leave their assets to family, friends or charitable groups.
  7. Delayed gratification: Delayed gratification, or deferred gratification is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward. This is thought to be an important consideration in the creation of personal wealth.
  8. Cash Management: It is the soul of your financial planning, whether you are an employee or planning your retirement. It is a must for every financial planner to know how much he/she spends prior to his/her retirement so that he/she can save a significant amount. This analysis is a wake-up call as many of us are aware of our income but very few actually track their expenses.
  9. Revisiting Written Financial Plan Regularly: Make it a habit to monitor your financial plan regularly. An annual review of your financial planning with a professional keeps you well-positioned, and informed about the required changes, if any, in your needs or life circumstances. You should be well- prepared for all sudden curve balls that life inevitably throws in your way.
  10. Education Planning: With the growing interests on students’ loan, having a proper financial plan in place is crucial. Parents often want to save for their kids but end up taking the wrong decisions, which affect the savings adversely. We often observe that, many parents give their kids expensive gifts, or unintentionally endanger the opportunity to obtain the much-needed grant. Instead, one should make their kids prepare for the future and support them financially in their education.