Ask a Fool: What's the Difference Between Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow?

While these sound like they may be two different ways of saying the same thing, that's not the case. Cash flow and free cash flow actually have very different meanings.

Cash flow is a somewhat broad term that essentially means the difference between the cash a company takes in and the cash the company spends in a given period.

On a cash flow statement, which all public companies report, cash flow is broken up into three categories. There is operating cash flow, which essentially includes all of a company's net income plus its depreciation expense.

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