Topic summary
Personal finance

Budgeting and expenses Personal finance is the financial management that an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources in a controlled manner, taking into account various financial risks and future life events. When planning personal finances, the individual would take into account the suitability of various banking products (checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, and loans), insurance products (health insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, etc.), and investment products (bonds, stocks, real estate, etc.), as well as participation in monitoring and management of credit scores, income taxes, retirement funds and pensions. History Before a specialty in personal finance was developed, various closely related disciplines, such as family economics and consumer economics, were taught in various colleges as part of home economics for over 100 years. In 1920, Hazel Kyrk's dissertation at the University of Chicago was instrumental in developing the disciplines of consumer and family economics. Margaret Reid, a professor of home economics at the same university, is recognized as one of the pioneers in the study of consumer behavio