Finance is the study of fund management and asset allocation over time. Funds consist of money and other assets. There are many different types of finance, but all are fundamentally concerned with studying how best to allocate assets in different conditions over time.

Figuring out what to do with assets is sometimes easy: all of the variables are known, and there is clearly an option that is better than all the others. However, most of the time, this is not the case. Finance generally operates with a lot of uncertainty. As a result, companies hire entire departments of people to help them figure out which option is best.