“Financial Management” is a field that is primarily concerned with the managing of funds. Proficient use of capital funds can be termed as “Financial Management”.
Phillippatus famously stated, “Financial management is concerned with the managerial decisions that results in the acquisition and financing of short term and long term credits for the firm”. It can be concluded from the above statement that the two main areas concerning financial management are:
· Procurement of funds
· Effectual usage of funds to fulfill the business goals
Procurement of funds is mainly concerned with obtaining finance from various sources which can be the first step towards starting a business. There are three major factors that come into the picture while obtaining finance namely, risk, cost and control. Funds procured from the equity shares are ideal from a company’s perspective since repayment of equity capital can arise only when the company is under liquidation. The most expensive source to procure funds is equity capital since the shareholders expect greater dividend as compared to the current interest rates. To keep risk and control balanced the cost of the funds must be at a minimum. Both domestic markets and markets of abroad can be prospective sources for raising funds.
Raising the funds is one thing but if the raised funds are either kept idle or are used in a wrong manner, then the business is going to procure losses. So effective usage of the funds raised is also a major area of concern. Thus it becomes of extreme importance to make sure that funds raised are employed properly and profitably. If there is money, there will always be an urgent need to manage it and so financial management is a field which will never face a downfall. It is essential for both profiting and non-profiting firms. There are instances where organizations have been liquidated for sheer mismanagement of finances.
The two main objectives of finance management are not two of the most difficult to guess every firm wants the same:
1) Maximizing Profit- is to be attempted only after realizing the probability if the risks involved. So it is necessary to balance both of them. One more thing is that it never takes in to account the social aspects.
2) Maximizing Wealth- Wealth of a firm is the market price of the firm’s common stock. This market price can be the progress chart to a firm’s progress. This price is a function of two values:
· Expected rate of earnings per share(EPS)
· Capitalization rate
Funds can be procured from long term sources like owners that are shareholders, financial institutions like banks etc. while short term sources are commercial banks, public deposits etc. Performance of a firm is evaluated on the basis of a technique called Ratio analysis which enables an investor to take the various ratios into account which helps him to decide whether to invest in a firm or not.
The above mentioned aspects make “Financial Management” extremely important for a firm’s progress, more so for developing nations for the scarcity of resources and greater demand of funds.
There is so much joy this little plastic card can bring by always having a resolving line of credit nearby, and this little piece of plastic can also prove to be the heartache of our wallet and financial freedom.
Credit cards bring instant cash to our fingertips at a split second when we are in need. They also bring instant debt to our lives if used un-practical and absurdly.
Banks would not make any money month after month and year after year if these people were not carrying around these little connivances. In fact they are more happy when a credit card customer is carrying over a monthly balance and remitting the minimum payment on time.
It has seemed that the credit card issuers have made it so easy to use your credit card and as if they want us to use them at our local , stores, restaurants, clubs, movie theaters, where does it end?
With the times changing credit cards no longer to seem to be a luxury amongst those who can afford them , as they are need to reserve flight reservations, hotels, car rentals. You may also need to pay a bill online, put gas when in time of need.
With out a credit card in the new era social life you can be left of doing the many perks we all love and enjoy.
A credit card has become a social standard, from the rich all the way to middle class.
Some of the perks in having this little credit card can be a instant credit building tool to build great credit history.
In today’s world credit is every thing, from buying that new car you have been dreaming about to the new house, credit is key. From credit lenders check your past credit history to obtain a car loan, a credit card can prove to boost up your credit history if balance is paid off in full every month and account kept open.
Credit cards are great for not carrying to much cash around, with many if not all the credit cards today available for cash withdrawals from any ATM with the use of your specified pin number, shop by telephone or online, purchase items when cash is not on hand.
Having a credit card and if used properly can prove for you to live beyond your wildest thoughts.
A thing for you to remember is that it can be very easy to drop your credit score with delinquent bill pay and over use of a credit card.
If managed correctly a credit card can bring you much joy to your rising credit score and availability of instant credit.
Do you have bad credit ? Bad credit is the number one thing that will turn a potential lender into a non-existing one. A loan can be very hard to find when you have a bad credit history. However there are a few out there that might get lucky or have a bank that is willing to take a chance on person with suspect credit.
This may be for a personal loan or a mortgage to buy or refinance a house.
The hardest thing to do when you are in this situation is to get a bank that will actually listen and hear you upfront, a lot of the time a bank or lender will not even give you the time of day and pass up such application.
Many people are discouraged when attempting to apply for a loan, usually a person is highly embarrassed to go in and sit down and talk to someone on getting them selves approved. The result to this maybe a potential applicant goes online and fills out the first offer they see, is immediately declined and runs back and buries themselves in a hole for the winter.
Usually with online credit checks this is the way they work, online applications are usually bad from the start because once the credit check indicates a default or a less than perfect history; the decline is activated and without further chance to explain your circumstances you are rejected.
There is many ways around this problem.
There is a special area of expertise for your type of problem and there is a common solution.
There is professional finance brokers that are trained to work with people with these problems and set themselves apart from the average mortgage broker who is just looking to wheel and deal and make a quick buck of your situation and going to leave you high and dry running with your money, as these mortgage get paid on a very much higher scale commission.
These professional finance brokers will not only help you in your time in need but will specialize in helpful information about resources you can access to improve your chances of successfully applying for a loan.
Just for your information when searching for a mortgage broker that non conforming lenders offer a much higher commission for there brokers, up to three times the amount of average lenders.
This is why they are so “EAGER†to “HELP YOU†as it seems, but they are only looking to better themselves.
Make sure to ask plenty of questions when going into this process as you would not want to be scammed.
Some questions you may want to ask would be, are you a specialist in non conforming loans? How long have you been dealing with bad credit applications? What special services do you offer people with bad credit problems?
These questions should better help you in your pick of plenty of options.
Always remember that a good broker will take every thing into account and go through the full process asking you a array of questions, some personal ones too.
Do not be alarmed , if asked to provide further documentation be of use and gather all the past documents you can as this will help your application to the full extent.
In conclusion , refinancing with bad credit can seem to help you in the biggest potential way possible.
In many more ways then you have realized.
One you are in control and working with the right broker you will on your way to refinancing, even with your prior bad credit history.
Project Finance deals with gathering of funds for financing an economically separable capital investment project. Here, the people who provide funds, basically keep their eyes on the cash flow from the project which for them is the source of fund to service their loans. This method of financing is more intricate and more costly as compared to the other financing methods. The fields where such a method of financing is used are mining, telecommunications, other public utility services all of which are constantly under a various number of risks. Therefore, it always requires a set of companies which work under a deal in a network.
Such financing is primarily used for long-term infrastructure and is a complicated financial structure. In such a finance structure, the debts of the project and equity used for financing it are all paid back from the cash flow obtained from the project instead of general assets which is normally the case under other financing methods.
With such high risk factors involved, even the financing is done in a typical manner involving more than one or several parties that invest simultaneously on the same project. This is to divide the risks associated with the project, while ensuring profits for all the financers, if the project is a success. Generally, in a project finance scheme a large number of equity investors are involved, called the sponsors. Also involved are a number of banks that provide loads for the project operations. The kinds of loans provided are primarily of two kinds:
1) Non-recourse loans
2) Limited recourse loans
Non-recourse loans are those that are protected by the project itself and are compensated entirely from the cash flow of the project. On the other hand, the limited recourse loans are protected by the sponsor’s guarantee. If the complexity of the project is more, then various other factors come in for security like insurance or even corporate finance.
There are many factors that complicate matters in such financing scheme. The minority owners of the project might desire to use the “off-balance sheet”. In this sheet, they reveal their partaking in the project as a venture and leave out the liability from financial statements by claiming it as an annotation related to the venture. One other factor that is concerned only with the developing countries is the war risk insurance or terrorism insurance. Such insurance does not come under the standard policies. But with such forces involved it will increasingly become difficult to complete the project on time. Also many a times a third party insurer might issue a performance bond to make sure that the project is completed on time by the contractor.
Thus, from the above talks it is quite clear that project financing is by far the most intricate of all the financing methods. And it needs certain requirements to be met before venturing into such a financing scheme. But it is the best suited scheme for huge projects where long term investments are expected with magnanimous infrastructure and large amounts of money at stake both for losses and for profits.
The chief goal of any company is to have a rise in the shareholder’s value taking into consideration the application of responsibilities and laws. Corporate Finance deals with the issues and strategies of finance which are aimed at achieving the business goals is coined as “Corporate Finance”.
In order to have a higher value of share holders, it is important for the managers to know the effect of the decisions they take, which can allow them to make better decisions. For this, one needs to evaluate the equity value of the organization at regular intervals of time. The simplest way for making this happen is by evaluating the balance sheet and having an assessment of the same by subtraction of liabilities from the assets. But, there are several setbacks about using this method since assets recorded are have historical costs that bear no resemblance to real value also many patents fail to find place in the financial statements which have a greater impact. Thus, though simple, this method is not accurate.
Apart from this, a firm’s equity can be evaluated by predicting the cash flow patterns in future. A model of valuation that works on flow of cash in the business can be of great help to corporate finance since it provides the actual impact of the financial decisions.
Many people have known to mix up cash and equity but there is a distinction between the two. Equity means the total of shares at par value, paid-in-finances and ploughed back profit in terms of retained earnings. Retained earnings lie on the Liabilities side in the balance sheet as opposed to cash. Equity changes with changes in net income and loss, dividend payments, issue and repurchase of shares while cash changes depends on the statement of cash flows.
The cycle of cash is an important term for corporate finance since it determines the company’s requirement of finance. The cash cycle can be calculated as below:
Inventory days + receivables days – Payables days
If sales increase whereas cycle of cash remains same in duration, then the need for finance requirements increases. Same is the case if there is increase in duration of cash cycle and no rise in sales. Financially, it is a better decision to have a reduction in the duration of cash cycle, but it needs to take the impact on the operations into consideration
Various financial ratios can be used as criteria to evaluate the performance of any firm. Such a ratio is used to gather information regarding the leverage, margins, turnovers, return of liquidity as well as equity. And comparing these ratios with those of the prevailing firms in market can give important information about our position in the market, financially.
Bank loans also come under corporate finance. It is possible to segregate loans on the basis of their duration, long term and short term loans. Revolving loans are a separate kind where one can take a certain credit level anytime over the period of the loan; such loans are termed as “evergreen loans”. One more aspect is the sources of cash for a firm. Two sources are available for this i.e. either reduction of assets or rise in equity or liabilities. In a similar manner, a firm can use cash by having an increase in assets or decrease in equity or liabilities.
The above factors regarding corporate finance are seemingly helpful in fulfilling the goals of raising capital, investments the firm should make, the percent of profit to be returned to the shareholders in dividend.
So it has finally happened, you are buried up to your neck in credit card debt and you have no cash to bail you out, let alone know how.
There are many people in the same exact boat you are in, do not feel as if you are all alone!
Is it usually around the middle of the month were you begin to drag your feet to get the mail knowing those evil credit card statements have arrived?
One of the first things to help you get out of your credit card debt is to admitting that you have it. Once you can fully come out and say that you have a debt problem and spend just a little bit too much every month, you have taken the first step.
If for any reason you are in denial and have not admitted to a debt problem, sit back down re-look and think your situation.
It is very easy for people with such busy lives as our selves to over look the problem, or better yet push it aside and refuse to accept it.
Another great thing to do after this step is to sit down and look for ways to rearrange your budget to start to pay off these hefty wallet weights. When doing this take all expenses into account and determine how much is it that you have every month to set aside to start knocking these bills down. Write down how much bring in vs. how much you have to pay out, the goal here would be to have more coming in then going out.
Think about this, use your savings account to get ahead ,if you have one this can be a great idea, as your savings draws a little small percentage of interest compared to you credit card interest for borrowing there money. Think once your credit card debt is paid down and your monthly payments are lower, you can now use this money that you were applying to your debt back into your savings and start to build a interest of savings and you can continue to do this all the way until your credit card debt is paid off and beyond.
Another means for paying off some of this existing debt is to pick up a second part time job. I know many people will say they do not have the time, BUT , this can be a key asset to knocking away your existing debt. To think that only a couple more hours a day at a second job over a short period of time can eliminate your financial headaches.
I mean it would be a lot better that way then to become unbreakable in credit card debt.
One last thing you can do is call your credit card lender and ask if there is any chance in having your current interest rate lowered, this can help you when paying your monthly payments and pay more towards principal then interest.
Last but not least there is always personal help, this ranging from a debt counselor to a debt consolidation program.
What ever the solution to the problem you choose stick with it and really make a effect to get out of debt, credit is every thing and it cant afford to be ruined.
Your credit score, it is a check point system used by lenders and potential banks to find out your previous and past credit history. Your score, which can range from a measly 300 to a amazing score of 900, your credit is based on a number of many things, including credit payment history, how long of time you’ve held credit lines and unpaid balances, amount of credit outstanding and a few other things to go along. Ones credit score can mean the world when it comes to finance and applying for loans, and you need to know exactly what can do to benefit your life.
The credit score came from a company called Fair Isaac Corp, a California based company that came up with the as well as the FICO score. The scores come from the largest three credit reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. They each have their on version of the credit score. There is also a rising agency named VantageScore. This comes from a work in progress development of all three credit bureaus in an a attempt to simplify the credit scoring process. This will prove to not only be a numerical value , but a letter grade as well. Someone with a week FICO score from the range of 500-600 would be hit with the letter grade “F”, and the rest follows.
Whatever method is used, however, it would be very important to work on your credit score to the best of your know how to keep your credit in good standing. This tiny credit score number can has a deep effect not only whether or not you’ll qualify for credit, but if you do and will be able to receive credit, and the interest rates that will come along with it. It is a proven fact, someone with a low credit score, are much more of a suspect and they will pay higher interest rates to borrow money than a customer who has a great credit standing.
The regular normal credit rating from the three credit bureaus is broken up into many different criteria’s for viewing just how good you control your credit . These five factors mix together a detailed picture of your past credit history. The first is how you pay your bills, if they are on time late and so, this will take for a astonishing 35% of the score. Second is the amount of money you owe and how much available credit you have left. This one counts for another 30%. third is how long you have had your credit history. Fourth, the types of credit you have is judged at 10%. Last would be any recent or new credit applications, another 10%.
A few issues that will never come into play would be things such as sex, race, religion