Balance of payments

Balance of payments is kind of like a checkbook. It's a record of all the money coming in (like somebody paying you for doing a job) and all the money going out (like when you go out to eat at a restaurant). It's like keeping track of how much money you have, and you don't want it to be negative (where you're spending more money than you have). A country's balance of payments shows how much money they have compared to the other countries in the world. It's like a scoreboard.