 Purchasing insurance to ensure protection against unforeseen personal events

 Understanding the effects of tax policies (tax subsidies or penalties) management of

personal finances
 Understanding the effects of credit on individual financial standing
 Developing of a savings plan or financing for large purchases (auto, education, home)
 Planning a secure financial future in an environment of economic instability
 Pursuing a checking and/or a savings account
 Preparing for retirement/ long term expenses[12]
Corporate finance[edit]
Main article: Corporate finance
Corporate finance deals with the sources of funding and the capital structure of corporations, the
actions that managers take to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders, and the tools and
analysis used to allocate financial resources. Short term financial management is often termed
"working capital management", and relates to cash-, inventory- and debtors management. In
the longer term, corporate finance generally involves balancing risk and profitability, while
attempting to maximize an entity's assets, net incoming cash flow and the value of its stock, and
generically entails three primary areas of capital resource allocation: (i) "capital budgeting", selecting
which projects to invest in; (ii) dividend policy, the use of "excess" capital; and (iii) "sources of
capital", i.e. which funding is to be used. The latter creates the link with investment
banking and securities trading, in that the capital raised will (generically) comprise debt,
i.e. corporate bonds, and equity, often listed shares.
Although "corporate finance" is in principle different from managerial finance which studies the
financial management of all firms, rather than corporations alone, the main concepts in the study of
corporate finance are applicable to the financial problems of all kinds of firms. Further, although
financial management overlaps with the financial function of the accounting profession, financial
accounting is the reporting of historical financial information, whereas as discussed, financial
management is concerned with increasing the firm's Shareholder value and increasing their rate of
return on the investment. Financial risk management, in this context, is about protecting the
firm's economic value using financial instruments to manage exposure to risk, particularly credit
risk and market risk, often arising from the firm's funding structures.