What is Personal Finance?

In personal finance, an individual or a family manages its assets effectively to achieve the desired goals. The basic aim of personal finance to generate income and certain amount of this income is allotted to meet the expenses. In personal finance, some action is also taken to create the cash reserves and other assets for the future. Many resources are used to help in the process of personal finance. The basic aim of personal finance is to keep the flow of money in the household. Usually, the income is from a salary or wages from a job. Other forms for generating income can also be used.

All the income that comes from interest earned from the investment, child support or alimony and other forms of compensation qualify as income.

If you want to understand how to handle your own economy, along with income, you should also understand the different kinds of expenses associated with the household. There are two kinds of expenses that you have to do, fixed expenses and variable expenses.

In fixed expenses, car payments, mortgage payments, rent and any outstanding loans can be included. The expenses on monthly utility bills, food and bank service charges are included in the variable expenses.

After identifying the income and the expenses, now you should make a budget. By determining that how much money would come and how much would be spent to meet the obligations you have already to some extent accomplished the process. However, apart from these things, you should also save some money to meet some unexpected expenses. These unexpected expenses may be auto repairs etc.

Now, you should determine that how much money is remaining, you should allocate some part of this money for the entertainment purposes. The remaining money should be saved in some bank account for the future obligations.

Personal finance is the management of assets and liabilities in an efficient and effective way.

Steve Peterson lives in Sweden and works full time as a internet marketeer. For new ideas about personal finance and debt, welcome to visit, Debt help tips.

GM Holden Makes a Small Loss

GM HOLDEN this evening posted a $70.2 million operating loss for its financial year ending on December 31, 2008.The better-than-expected result came in the same week that Toyota Australia announced a $123.4 million profit for its fiscal year ending on March 31, and following the record $274.4 million loss revealed by Ford Australia a week ago.Holden stressed that it would have made a small after-tax profit of $6.6 million except for special, one-off charges that amounted to $76.8 million and related mainly to the upcoming closure of its Family II engine plant closure.In addition, Holden said it made top-up contributions of $50.3 million to its Defined Benefits Scheme as the world financial markets began to deteriorate.Reduced sales volumes saw total revenue drop from $6.1 billion in 2007 to $5.8 billion last year, which chairman and managing director Mark Reuss described as “disappointing, because the organisation was well placed to make a healthy profit in Australia before world markets fell in the third quarter of 2008”.Left: GM Holden chairman and managaing director Mark Reuss.Total sales revenue was $5.4 billion compared to $5.7 billion in 2007, while vehicle and engine exports achieved increased revenue of $1.9 billion – up from $1.6 billion in 2007 on the back of a full year of Pontiac G8 sales in the US.Mr Reuss said the fact Holden invested some $360 million in research and development in 2008 demonstrated that it remained committed to heavily investing in its longer-term future. He is on record as saying he expects Holden to return to profit in 2010.“The Holden senior leadership team is doing everything possible to return to a profitable position as quickly as possible,” said Mr Reuss in a letter to employees today. “This includes attacking the revenue and cost sides of the business with equal enthusiasm. “We have spoken about many of these strategies which include lowering operating costs on our vehicles, developing more alternative fuel and fuel-saving technologies, concentrating on production of our new fuel-efficient small car and pursuing export opportunities. “At the same time, we must focus on our ongoing restructuring efforts to ensure we have the right business for the future. All of us have a role to play in improving our current position,” said Mr Reuss.

Castle Donington jobs go as Welcome car Finance closes

Jobs are under threat after troubled lender Cattles decided to close its Welcome Car Finance operation, which has an office at Castle Donington.

Around 130 jobs could be lost at offices across the country, with 11 staff at Castle Donington now on a 30-day consultation about their posts.

Cattles said it wanted to close the Welcome Car Finance business to conserve cash.

The operation lends money to borrowers with a poor credit history to buy cars from its network of 10 branches across the country.

Cattles has been selling stocks of cars left over from last year, but said that without funds to buy new stock the business model was "unviable". The closure will cost it £5m.

Besides Castle Donington, Welcome Car Finance has branches in Bristol, Edinburgh, Luton, Knowsley, Thurrock, Castleford, Feltham near Heathrow, Fareham and South Tyneside.

In the first half of last year it made profits of £3.7m, with sales up 11% to 7,455. But the business has been hit by the slump in the car market as well as the woes affecting its parent company this year.

Cattles' main Welcome Finance business, which employs hundreds of people in Nottingham, is still up and running but has suspended lending to new customers in order to conserve funds.

Shares in Cattles were suspended last week after the troubled firm said it would not be able to publish accounts by the end of the month.

The firm said earlier this month that an independent review of its impairment provisions had made significant progress but was likely to result in write-downs of up to £850 million.

A "breakdown in internal controls" led to accounting policies on bad loans being applied incorrectly – leaving Cattles in breach of banking agreements, triggering the need for refinancing talks.

Six of its senior executives remain suspended, including finance director James Corr, chief operating officer Ian Cummine and Welcome's compliance and risk director Adrian Cummings.

Cattles has suffered a series of blows in recent months, having also had to concede defeat in its long-running attempt to secure a licence for banking deposits.