What is the difference between an accountant and an actuary?

An accountant is someone who works with money in a company to make everything work. They do things like assigning budgets to different departments, checking bills of expenses etc. This job is thought of as boring to most people, its mostly number crunching. An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. They look at how likely it is that the customer won't pay back a loan, whether buying that new piece of equipment will make the company money, etc. it requires a deep and thourgh understanding of financial and statistical models. It is also one of the most highly paid professions in the world.  more