Saturday, June 21, 2008

Personal Finance Short Course- Choosing a Personal Financial Consultant

When it comes to handling personal or family financial matters, many people like to be in charge of their own money, and have trouble with the idea of letting someone else manage their finances. However, there are people who are willing to admit that they need help, and that is where personal financial consultants become handy.

A personal financial consultant is someone who is a professional when it comes to finances, and who is put in charge of handling various aspects of your finances. There are many people out there who will gladly take charge of your finances, so you must make sure that you are going with the right person before you trust anything to anyone.

Are you looking for a personal finance consultant? The absolute first thing that you need to decide is if you really feel comfortable trusting your financial decisions to someone else. This is not really a casual gesture, because you will be giving another person control over your finances, and it would be a very bad thing to give this control to someone you cannot trust. Do you absolutely prefer to have someone else in charge of your finances? Is there a way to handle your finances on your own without outside help?

On the note of trust, the next thing that you must decide is whether or not you feel comfortable trusting your personal finance information to someone else. Personal finance consultants are professionals, but that does not always necessarily mean that you should trust all of your personal information and financial information to them without doing some research and making a concrete decision about how trusting you feel. There is no rush involved when it comes to finding a personal finance consultant, so take your time and weigh all of your options before making any decisions.

Never give all of your control away! This goes for allowing anyone to manage your finances, be it your spouse, or a personal finance consultant. If you put someone else completely in charge of your personal finances, there is a chance you will be unable to keep track of your own money. If something happens to your spouse, will you know how to pick up where he or she left off? The same thing essentially goes when it comes to hiring a professional personal finance consultant. If there comes a day where they are no longer your financial consultant, will you be able to pick up where they left off?

You should always make sure that you have at least some control over everything, and that you are always aware of what is happening with your finances, even if you allow someone else to be in control of them. This way, if you are ever forced back into control, you will be able to pick up where they left off without any confusion.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Business Finance

In the case of a company, managerial finance or corporate finance is the task of providing the funds for the corporations' activities. For small business, this is referred to as SME finance. It generally involves balancing risk and profitability. Long term funds would be provided by ownership equity and long-term credit, often in the form of bonds. These decisions lead to the company's capital structure. Short term funding or working capital is mostly provided by banks extending a line of credit.

On the bond market, borrowers package their debt in the form of bonds. The borrower receives the money it borrows by selling the bond, which includes a promise to repay the value of the bond with interest. The purchaser of a bond can resell the bond, so the actual recipient of interest payments can change over time. Bonds allow lenders to recoup the value of their loan by simply selling the bond.

Another business decision concerning finance is investment, or fund management. An investment is an acquisition of an asset in the hopes that it will maintain or increase its value. In investment management - in choosing a portfolio - one has to decide what, how much and when to invest. In doing so, one needs to

  • Identify relevant objectives and constraints: institution or individual - goals - time horizon - risk aversion - tax considerations
  • Identify the appropriate strategy: active vs passive - hedging strategy
  • Measure the portfolio performance

Financial management is duplicate with the financial function of the Accounting profession. However, Financial Accounting is more concerned with the reporting of historical financial information, while the financial decision is directed toward the future of the firm.