Finance is the art and science of creating, managing, and maintaining financial resources. All aspects of business activity are touched by finance. It includes all the processes by which money is invested, retained, and borrowed to grow the business. Without finance, a business could not survive even for a day.

This highly diversified sector includes financial service providers such as banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, insurance companies, real estate agents, investment companies, law firms, and other financial services professionals. It also covers almost all the different kinds of transactions that take place in the financial services sector. The most common types of transactions covered include borrowing money, providing loans, providing investment advice, investing in financial goods and services, and creating financial products. Basically, finance has many faces, but it is mostly seen as a whole.

The finance field includes the financial systems that support any particular venture. In other words, it can be referred to as the entire system through which a company makes profits. The profit made in a particular venture can be used to either expand the enterprise or make further acquisitions or purchases. The venture may either be in the tangible or non-tangible forms.

All the techniques used in money management are also part of the domain of Finance. While the techniques used in money management are crucial in the determination of profits and losses, these techniques are also equally important in the determination of capital budgets. Capital budgeting involves the allocation of funds to different projects based on their potential returns. Thus, all the aspects of Finance form a whole within the purview of Finance.

Apart from the broad brush, the personal finance field also includes a few narrower sub-sets. One of the most popular is the individual’s investments in his or her own portfolio, which may be in the form of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or any other financial instrument. Another is the use of forward financial planning, which refers to the systematic study and evaluation of one’s investments over time in order to determine whether or not the investment is worthwhile. Another well-known sub-set of the personal finance area is that of estate and real estate investments. There are also several sectors that fall within the personal finance area such as asset protection, offshore investing, and insurance.

As already mentioned, there are several different fields that constitute the entire field of Finance. With such a diverse variety of choices, people seeking financial services with finance degrees will have an ample amount of jobs to choose from. They can choose either to work for a single firm, start their own business, or be an entrepreneur. Whichever path they take in their career, they will have plenty of opportunities available to them, as the need for financial services is present in all society.