finance
B1Pronunciation
UK
- /fˈaɪnæns/
US
- /ˈfaɪˌnæns/
- /fəˈnæns/
- /fɪˈnæns/
Description
- money management
- capital
- funding
Finance is about how money is handled. It includes saving, borrowing, spending, investing, and planning for future needs. Think of it as the system people and groups use to make careful choices with money. A family uses finance to plan a budget, a business uses it to grow, and a government uses it to pay for public services.
You might hear about personal finance (how people manage their own money), corporate finance (how companies raise and use money), or public finance (how governments collect and spend money). In daily life, the word often appears when people talk about loans, banks, markets, business plans, or the cost of big goals like education, housing, or retirement.
Finance is a broad term for the way money is managed, moved, and planned over time. It is not only about having wealth. It is about getting money, using it well, protecting it, and trying to make it grow. You can see it at work in everyday life, in business, and across whole countries.
At its core, finance deals with choices, risk, and reward. When you put money in a savings account, the risk is usually low, and the return is usually small. When you invest in stocks or start a business, the risk can be higher, but the possible return can also be higher. Good finance means understanding these trade-offs and making decisions that fit your goals.
Finance appears in many forms. Personal finance covers budgeting, saving, borrowing, insurance, and investing for individuals and families. Corporate finance focuses on how companies get money, spend it, invest it, and manage profit and risk. Public finance is about taxes, government spending, and public debt. There is also international finance, which looks at the flow of money between countries, currencies, and global markets.
The field of finance keeps changing as technology, markets, and laws change. Digital banking, online payments, investing apps, and new forms of money have all changed how people think about it. Whether someone is saving for retirement, paying off debt, building a company, or studying the economy, finance is about making informed decisions with limited resources in order to reach important goals.
Examples
- 1
Financial industry
She works in finance for a large insurance company.
Phrase
in finance
in the business of managing money
- 2
Personal money
I took a short course on personal finance after college.
- 3
Business funding
The company is looking for finance to build a new factory.
Pattern
finance to do something
money for doing something
- 4
Public budgets
Local government finance is under pressure this year.
- 5
Project funding
They used a bank loan to finance the project.
- 6
Film funding
The film was partly financed by a streaming company.
- 7
Car payments
Can we finance the car over three years?
Pattern
finance something
pay for it over time, often in monthly payments
Forms and spellings
4 forms open this card.
Main spelling
- financenounverb
Forms
- financing-ing formverbnoun
- financesverbnoun
- financedpast tenseverbnoun