Quora Answer: What is the Difference between Finance & Economics?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What is the difference between finance and economics?”

Finance is the management of significant funds and assets, whether by as sovereign entity, a corporate entity, or otherwise.  Economics is the field of study pertaining to the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth.  This means finance is a small part of economics since it is only concerned with the management of wealth, whether liquid or illiquid.  Economics is also concerned with the generation and distribution of wealth.  To put this as an analogy, the economist is the person concerned with the management of the kitchen, from the delivery of supplies to the food served.  The finance professional only monitors the ingredients in the food.