Numbers dressed up in fancy suits pretending to be words.
The accounting principle determining when revenue should be recorded, which sounds simple until you encounter multi-year contracts, partial deliveries, and customers who might return products. Getting this wrong is how good companies become accounting scandals.
In finance, it's the Greek letter that measures how sensitive an option's value is to changes in interest rates—because apparently regular English words weren't confusing enough for derivatives traders. One of 'The Greeks' that options traders throw around to sound sophisticated at cocktail parties. Spoiler alert: most people just nod and pretend to understand.
The passive income dream where creators get paid every time someone uses their work, like a toll booth on the highway of intellectual property. These recurring payments flow to authors, musicians, inventors, and landowners who've figured out how to make money while sleeping. It's the closest thing to free money that still requires you to have created something valuable first, which is why most people just get regular jobs instead.
The mythical finish line where you stop working and live off savings, investments, or delusion—whichever runs out first. In finance, it's the reason people pretend to save money in 401(k)s while secretly hoping the market crashes so they inherit someone else's wealth.
The corporate equivalent of 'stuff we couldn't sell or use.' In finance and operations, it's what remains after you've stripped out all the valuable bits—technically still yours, but nobody wants to claim it.
The speed at which something happens or the proportional relationship between two values—basically, how fast or how much per unit of measurement. Think of it as the mathematical way to compare apples to oranges (or interest to principal).
How much profit you make from an investment—the metric everyone cares about after spending the money.
Short for either 'repurchase agreement' (a fancy overnight loan in finance) or 'repossession' (what happens to your car when payments stop), proving that context is everything. In finance, it's a legitimate short-term borrowing tool where securities serve as collateral; in collections, it's the nightmare scenario involving a tow truck at 3 AM. Tech folks have also hijacked the term for 'repository,' because apparently three definitions weren't confusing enough.
The bittersweet act of returning borrowed money, transforming your fleeting financial freedom back into a monthly obligation. It's that chunk of your paycheck that vanishes before you even consider buying groceries, steadily chipping away at debt while interest laughs in the background. The universe's way of reminding you that the expensive education, car, or house you couldn't afford upfront still can't actually be afforded in installments either.
The danger that you won't be able to refinance maturing debt or will only be able to do so at punishing rates. The financial equivalent of your credit card's intro rate expiring at the worst possible moment.
The act of assigning a score, rank, or evaluation to something based on predetermined criteria; the quantification of opinion into a number so we can argue about it online.
Something that can theoretically last forever, like subscriptions that auto-renew until you die or energy sources that won't destroy the planet. In finance, it's contracts or licenses that keep going unless someone remembers to cancel them. In environmental contexts, it's resources like solar and wind that corporations love to brag about in sustainability reports.
The self-control a company claims to have while spending aggressively on growth. In finance, it's the theoretical concept that you might not burn through all your capital in the first year—a concept most startups reject immediately.
The involuntary repo-man experience of having your property taken back because you failed to pay for it—basically, the lender's way of saying 'thanks for the free use of our asset.' A financial term that makes both creditors and debtors deeply uncomfortable.
To cordially tell money 'you stay here and don't associate with those other rowdy funds.' A legal barrier ensuring specific funds can only be used for their designated purpose, protecting them from predatory creditors or budget cuts.
The money flowing into a company's or government's coffers from all possible sources—taxation, sales, investments, or whatever creative accounting method they're employing this quarter. The number that makes CFOs smile or weep.
To make your financial accounts stop lying to each other by adjusting numbers until debits and credits agree. It's accounting's version of couples therapy—painful but necessary.
Subject to being taxed or assessed for local taxes—basically, the government's way of deciding whether your property owes money. If it's rateable, prepare your wallet.