Money & career glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms that actually come up. No jargon explained with more jargon.
Amortization
Paying off a loan through scheduled payments split between interest and principal.
Read →APR
The yearly cost of borrowing, including interest and mandatory fees.
Read →Asset Allocation
How your money is split between broad asset types like stocks, bonds and cash.
Read →Bear Market
A prolonged fall in prices, conventionally 20% or more from the peak.
Read →Budget
A plan for where your money goes before the month spends it for you.
Read →Bull Market
A sustained rise in prices, usually measured as 20% or more from the low.
Read →Capital Gain
The profit made when you sell an asset for more than you paid.
Read →Cash Flow
The money moving in and out over a period, and what's left over.
Read →Compound Interest
Interest calculated on your original money plus the interest it has already earned.
Read →Credit Score
A number lenders use to estimate how likely you are to repay what you borrow.
Read →Credit Utilization
How much of your available credit limit you're currently using.
Read →Debt-to-Income Ratio
The share of your monthly income that goes to debt payments.
Read →Diversification
Spreading money across different assets so no single failure is decisive.
Read →Dividend
A share of a company's profit paid out to shareholders in cash.
Read →Dollar-Cost Averaging
Investing a fixed amount at regular intervals regardless of price.
Read →Emergency Fund
Money set aside in a liquid, stable place to cover unexpected essential expenses.
Read →ETF
A fund that trades on an exchange like a share, usually tracking an index.
Read →FIRE
Financial Independence, Retire Early — living off investments instead of a salary.
Read →Gross vs Net Income
Gross is what you earn before deductions; net is what actually reaches you.
Read →Index Fund
A fund that simply tracks a market index instead of trying to beat it.
Read →Inflation
The rate at which prices rise, reducing what a unit of money can buy.
Read →Interest Rate
The price of borrowing money, expressed as a percentage over a period.
Read →Liquidity
How quickly an asset can become spendable cash without losing value.
Read →Net Worth
Everything you own minus everything you owe.
Read →Opportunity Cost
The value of the best option you gave up by choosing something else.
Read →Passive Income
Money that keeps arriving without ongoing work proportional to it.
Read →Principal
The amount actually borrowed or invested, separate from any interest.
Read →Refinancing
Replacing an existing loan with a new one on different terms.
Read →Risk Tolerance
How much fluctuation you can live with without abandoning your plan.
Read →Volatility
How much and how sharply an investment's price moves up and down.
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