What is personal finance? It is a difficult question to answer easily and comprehensively. Individuals seeking financial advice normally have isolated questions for which they seek the right answer. Experts in financial advice offer “one-off” answers or “rules of thumb” untethered from a core of knowledge. In this book, we rely on key thinkers, including six Nobel Laureates, who have set the stage for modern day personal finance. In this book, we set a framework for making more effective real-life financial decisions. The framework's objective is how to maximize an individual or household's standard of living. Any personal finance question can be addressed within this context. The personal finance offered in this book provides financial planning consistency and uniformity. The book has been written to take advantage of the only financial planning software on the market grounded by the life-cycle economics, MaxiFi, which was developed by Larry Kotlikoff, a famous economist at Boston University and contributor to Forbes.com. The purchase price includes MaxiFi Premium for the student's term of study.