Anything to do with finance can seem rather daunting to those who aren’t ‘in the know’. Whether you work for a business or the government, run your own business or have to sort out your personal finances, there will come a point in your life when you have to deal with money matters.
You may have a sales figure target to aim for, or be told that your department’s activities are constrained by a fixed budget. You may have to work out how much interest your savings are making and whether it would be better to move them to a different account. You may even want to work out your family budget so that you know you can afford to pay all your bills and put some money aside as savings. It’s money that makes the world go round, yet sometimes it seems that life would be much easier if you didn’t have to worry about it.
In order to get on in life though, understanding the rudiments of finance is necessary. Getting that promotion and taking the next step up the career ladder means being able to hold a conversation with your peers and senior management about cash flows, sales ledgers and ratios, without your eyes glazing over! Similarly, if you want to make your own hard-earned cash work a little smarter and invest it in the stock market, or perhaps in a friend who invites you to fund their business expansion, you need to be able to understand a company’s financial set of accounts. And if you decide to set up a small business, ignorance can be very costly indeed!
Just out of interest, see if you know what the following terms mean:
Balance sheet
Management accounts,
Cash flow statement
Compound Interest
Budget
If you don’t, then I suggest you google them to find the answer – or you could always enrol on our Finance for Non-financial Managers course! When it comes to money, ignorance definitely isn’t bliss.
Author: Diana Nadin
