Corporate Finance

A career in corporate finance means you would work for a company to help it find money to run the business, grow the business, make acquistions, plan for it's financial future and manage any cash on hand. You might work for a large multinational company or a smaller player with high growth prospects. Responsibility can come fast and your problem-solving skills will get put to work quickly in corporate finance.

The job of the financial officer is to create value for a company. For example, the finance group at American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio has four main areas of concentration: liquidity, flexibility, compliance with laws and regulatory support. The goals of the objective are met through four main activities carried out by AEP's Finance Department: 1) designing, implementing and monitoring financial policies, 2) planning and executing the financing program, 3) managing cash resources, and 4) interfacing with the financial community and investors.

Jobs in corporate finance are also relatively stable while performance in these jobs count. But it's not like your job is going to depend on whether you're selling enough this week or getting good deals finished this quarter. Rather the key to performing well in corporate finance is to work with a long view of what going to make your company successful. Many would argue that corporate finance jobs are the most desirable in the entire field of finance.

Financial Planning

Financial planners help individuals plan their financial futures. How are you going to cover your retirement needs? What do you have to do today to put your children through college? This work can be personally and financially rewarding and requires excellent interpersonal skills. A good financial planner understands investments, taxes, estate planning issues and knows how to listen. This work can be done within a company such as IDS Financial Services or by yourself, as a sole proprietorship. Most planners go solo or work within smaller practices. It's essential then that you have a certain amount of entrepreneurship given that you will be running your own business. The work pays well and is rewarding if you like to help people. Increasingly, it pays to obtain the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation.

For the past year now, stock markets here and abroad have been going down. Things really got ugly in October, and many investors are faced with investment losses of 30% or more over a relatively short amount of time. Nobody likes to see a loss on their quarterly statement, but that's the reality we face right now. It can get depressing to constantly hear the bad news and see the economy struggle, but you need to be careful and make sure you're still making smart decisions with your money.

It might be instinct to want to pull all of your money out and hide it under the mattress, but that certainly won't help you achieve your long-term goals. Instead, this is a perfect time to become educated on how the markets work, how to create a solid portfolio, and prepare for the future. Things will reverse course, and while it might not happen right away, it will get better.