Cash flow Analogy

A cashflow statement is made of 3 parts, and not all of them easily align with a personal-finance context, because we don't perform double-entry accounting for everything in our own lives. However, I will try to explain each component, and show how it does or doesn't fit in with your proposed analogy:

Cash from Operations

This is the cash that comes in, and goes out, from the regular business activity. For a grocery store, this would be the revenue from customers, minus the costs paid to suppliers to stock the shelves, minus the salaries paid to cashiers, shelf-stockers, and management.

In a personal-finance analogy, you could say this is your personal salary, minus your regular living expenses, like groceries, gas, and entertainment.

Cash from operations is typically calculated something like this:

Net Profit After Tax 

[because we have this number already from the income statement]

In a personal-finance analogy, Net Profit After Tax basically is your 'Cash from Operations', as the other components of Cash from Operations don't really apply, see below:

Add-back non-cash expenses 

[like depreciation of your grocery store, which reduces net income but has no cash impact]

This doesn't apply to you personally, because you don't record amortization expense in your daily life

Adjust for changes to 'working capital' that haven't hit your P&L 

[like, last year you had $100 of accounts payable, where suppliers sent you product to put on your shelves, but you hadn't paid them yet, and you paid them this year, so this year you have $100 cash outflow]

This doesn't apply to you personally in any meaningful way; if you wrote a grocery store a cheque on Dec 31, and they cashed it on Jan 1, you could do this adjustment, but it is not really relevant; If you bought $100 of potatoes in December, and ate half of them in January, then you should technically record half the expense in December and half in January, but I doubt you keep a balance sheet that shows the current value of your pantry, so again, not relevant

Cash from Investment

This is the cash that is spent during the year on major capital items, like buying a new grocery delivery van. It is not considered an expense on the income statement [but a portion will be depreciated, and we have seen above that depreciation expense is removed from the cashflow statement], but the cash left your account so it needs to be on the cashflow statement. If you also sold a capital item, it would show as a cash inflow here.

In a personal context, this would be where you include the cash paid out for major purchases - like the down payment on your car * , or down payment on your house, or the cash inflow from selling your couch, or cash outflow sent to a retirement investment account, cash withdrawn from a retirement account, etc...

*{Technically speaking, in true corporate sense you would show the full payment to buy the car here, and then later on in the Financing section you would show the inflow from the bank that gave you the funds to make the payment; if you leased your car, then 100% of the payment would be considered an operational expense in the income statement, shown as Cash from Operations}

Cash from Financing

A corporation is owned by shareholders who provide the initial equity financing, and it gets further funding from more shareholders or by taking on debt. Cash from Financing includes all the inflows from getting that funding, and all the outflows paid - including the principal to pay down your debt, the monthly interest payments, and any dividends paid to shareholders. Separating the interest paid from the principal paid is important because interest expense is not good, but paying down your debt is good.

In a personal context, this would be where you would include any cash paid to lenders, like monthly mortgage payments or car loan payments, or credit card interest paid, or cash inflows like drawing on a Home Equity Line of Credit.