Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Personal Finance
Glossary

Personal Finance
1040EZ tax form – The basic tax form used by many people for filing their federal income
taxes
...

1099 form – A tax form similar to a W-2 form that is used by independent contractors, such
as part-time freelance employees, lawyers, or accountants
...

529 plan – A fund that allows parents to prepay or save for their children's future college
expenses
...
A prepaid 529
plan lets parents purchase college tuition at today's rates, with the guarantee that they'll be
able to apply today's rates to college in the future, no matter how much they go up
...

Accountant – A finance professional who keeps track of a company or individual's money
...

Accounting – The recording, reporting, and analyzing of financial information
...

Accounting journal – See ledger
...
These are amounts of money owed to
other companies for products
...

Accrual basis accounting – The standard accounting type defined by GAAP
...

Adjustable interest rate – See interest rate
...

Affirmative Action – A collection of policies that recruit and advance qualified minorities,
women, people with disabilities, and veterans
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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This law is
intended to make health insurance more affordable and easier to get
...
Aggression can be
verbal or physical
...

Alternative investments – Investments other than the traditional categories of stocks,
bonds, and cash
...

Amendment – A change that’s made to the Constitution
...

Angel investor – An investor or small group of investors who provide funding to a startup
business in its very early stages
...

See also venture capital
...

Annual percentage rate (APR) – An annual interest rate that doesn’t take into account any
compounding of interest that happened during that year
...

Annual percentage yield (APY) – An annual interest rate that does take into account
compounding of interest that’s happened that year
...

Annuity – An agreement you can make with an insurance company in which you pay the
company a specific amount of money, and the insurance company agrees to pay you back a
larger amount of money in regular payments in the future
...

Appreciation – When an equity investment increases in value
...

APR – See annual percentage rate (APR)
...

Assets – Your assets include money you have and things you own that are worth money
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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Attitude – A person's feelings and outlook about something
...

Auditor – See accountant
...

Back button – A button in Firefox that lets you return to the last Web page you visited
...

Bailout – See government bailout
...

Balance sheet – A sheet that shows how a company’s financial position looks at a moment
in time
...
The balance sheet lists assets, liabilities, and owner
equity
...
This equation is sometimes called the accounting equation
...

Balancing a checkbook – Tracking the transactions for a bank account in a checking
register and completing the calculations to find out the balance of the account
...
It offers
protection against loss or theft
...
The amount
of money in a bank account is that bank account’s balance
...

Bank account holder – A person or company with a bank account
...

See cash
...

Bank run – When many people want to take their money out of a bank, and the bank is
unable to provide enough cash for all of them
...

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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See also declaring
bankruptcy
...

BBB – See Better Business Bureau
...

Being organized – Having a reliable and efficient system for organizing your tasks and
appointments
...

Beneficiary (of a life insurance policy) –The person or group of people who will receive
your life insurance money
...

Benefits (of a product) – The ways a product will improve your life by solving a problem or
by making you feel good
...

Better Business Bureau – An organization that reports on the reliability and ethics of
companies and other organizations
...

Bill of Rights – The first ten amendments to the Constitution
...

Blank endorsement – A type of endorsement that includes a signature on the back of a
check without any special notes
...

Bonds – A type of debt investment in which you lend money to a company or a
government, and the company or government gives you a document called a bond
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Personal Finance
Glossary

is a promise that the company or government will pay you back a specific amount on a
specific date in the future, so you are promised a specific return on investment
...

Bookkeeping – The recording of financial transactions
...

Break even point – The point when a company makes enough money to pay for itself
...

Budget – A financial plan that shows what you plan to do with your money
...

Builder – A worker who takes raw or manufactured goods and turns them into a finished
structure, such as a house, boat, bridge, or skyscraper
...
A business may
also be called a company, a firm, an enterprise, or a corporation
...

Buyout – When a company buys another company
...
As a factor of production, capital is
defined as the tangible goods of value that are created by labor
...
Capital only includes tangible material products created
by humans
...

Capital gains tax – A federal tax that applies to investments and other personal property
...
This tax is
usually applied only when you sell the item, not while you own it
...
If the investment or property is owned for
more than a year, it is a long-term capital gain and taxed at a lower rate
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Personal Finance
Glossary

Capitalism – A mixed economy system in which private individuals can own businesses
and goods and in which production, consumption, and prices are determined mostly by
competition in a free market
...
S
...
The capitalist system in the U
...
has some
government regulation, so prices, production, and consumption are not determined entirely
by private producers and consumers
...

Capital loss – When an investor loses money by selling an equity investment for less than
the investor originally paid for it
...

Career aptitude test – An exam that asks questions about activities you enjoy, skills you
have, tasks you dislike, and many other things
...

Career goal – A job-related goal
...

Car insurance – Insurance that covers expenses for damage that you cause to others as a
driver
...

Cash basis accounting – A form of accounting that records income when cash is
received, and it records expenses when cash is paid out
...

Cash flow – The movement of money in and out of a business
...

It focuses on cash instead of income
...

Cash manager – The person at a company in charge of its process of collecting, investing,
and managing cash
...
A cash reserve is sometimes called a
rainy day fund because it is there just in case of emergencies
...
It protects the liability of its
owners, but has the disadvantage of double taxation
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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Centrally planned economy – See planned economy
...

Checking account – A very common type of bank account intended to make it easy for you
to make deposits and withdrawals
...

Checking register – A printed set of pages included in a checkbook for you to keep track of
transactions that affect your bank account
...
Checks are a feature of checking accounts
...
The CFO directs the company's budgets and financial goals
...

Citation – When you officially give credit to the person who created a work
...
A list of works cited in a project can
be called a reference page, a works cited page, or a bibliography
...

Citizens – The people living in a country are also called the citizens of that country
...
See also insurance adjustor
...

Closed-end installment credit – Credit that allows you to take possession of an expensive
item and pay off the price of the item in a specific number of equal payments at regular
intervals, such as monthly
...

COBRA – See Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
...

Command economy – See planned economy
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Personal Finance
Glossary

Commerce – The buying and selling of products
...

Commodities mutual fund – A mutual fund that's specifically for investments in
investment commodities such as livestock or energy sources
...
A commodity is
sometimes called a product
...

Comparison shopping – Comparing products to find the lowest, fairest price
...

Compounding – See compound interest
...
This process is called compounding
...

Compression – The process of making something smaller by squishing or squeezing it
...

Comptroller – A finance professional who makes sure the financial records and reports of a
business are accurate and complete
...

Conflict of interest – A situation in which the employee could personally benefit by taking
unfair advantage of his or her position within the company
...

Congress – The House of Representatives and the Senate
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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Consumer – Someone who buys or trades in order to receive a commodity
...
An economy is created by exchanges between producers
and consumers
...

Consumer buying behavior – The way individuals search for, choose, purchase, and use
goods
...

Consumer motives – The reasons why people make specific choices in spending their
money
...
Rational
motives are often called functional motives
...
Instead, it's the result of a person's feelings or
emotions
...

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) – A U
...
government agency with the
purpose of "protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from
thousands of types of consumer products
...

Contract – A written agreement that can be legally enforced
...
When
that time period is over or when the task is completed, the job ends
...
See contract job
...
See also
uncontrollable risks
...
They are widely available, easy to find, and not usually expensive
...
Impulse goods are not necessities
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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Corporation – A separate legal business entity
...

Co-signer – The person with established credit who shares responsibility for the debt on a
co-signed account
...

Co-signing – A way to take advantage of someone else’s credit history to get a credit
card
...

Counterfeiting – Making illegal copies of money and trying to pass them off as the real thing
...
A cover letter is sometimes called a letter of
application
...

Credit – A commitment to pay for something in the future, instead of paying for it right away
...
See also credit card and lines of credit
...
S
...

Credit bureau – An organization that keeps credit history records
...

Credit counseling service – An organization designed to educate and advise consumers
about credit, debt management, and budgeting
...

Credit history – Your history of using credit and making payments
...
See also credit score
...

Credit score – A number that tells lenders how likely you are to make payments on time
...
This means that each person who has an account at the credit union
is also a part owner of the credit union
...

Currency – A specific type of money, such as the U
...
dollar, Euro, or Japanese yen
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Current assets – See current ratio
...

Current ratio – A ratio that shows a company’s liquidity at a point in time
...
Current assets are assets
that are expected to be converted to cash within one year
...

Customer service – The part of a company that interacts with customers after they have
purchased the product
...

Debt – Money, goods, or services that one person owes to another person or institution
...

Debt capital – The money you raise through debt funding
...
See also Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act (FDCP)
...

Debt investment – An investment without ownership that promises a specific return on the
investment
...
See also equity investment
...
See also debt settlement program
...
See also debt and
creditor
...
The debt ratio is calculated
with this equation: Total liabilities ÷ Total assets
...

Debt services default – The failure to make a payment, such as a scheduled house
payment or the interest on a credit card
...

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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See
also debt management plan
...
The debt to equity ratio is calculated with this equation: Total
liabilities ÷ Total equity
...
See also bankruptcy
...
See also meeting the deductible
...

Demand – How much of something consumers want
...

Department of the Treasury – See U
...
Department of the Treasury
...

Dependent – A member of the household who depends on your income, such as a child or
relative
...

Deposit – See transaction
...
See also
appreciation
...

Desires – Things people want to have in order to be happy and feel good
...
See also fears
...
The companies do not have to
© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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As long as they offer one identical good or service,
they are direct competitors in that area
...

Direct deposit – When an employer puts money straight into the employee's bank account,
without using a check
...
See also workers' compensation
...

Disclosure – The act of making information known
...

Discretionary expenses – When you buy things that you want but don't need, those
purchases are discretionary expenses
...

Discrimination – When a person is treated unfairly and worse than others, usually because
of personal prejudices or stereotypes
...

Diversification – An investment strategy in which investments are spread out among many
different types, so that the good investments balance out the bad ones
...

Dividend – A payment you receive as a stockholder who owns stock in a company that
offers dividends
...
Not all companies offer dividends
...

Domestic – Within one’s own country
...

Domestic commerce – The buying and selling of products within a particular country
...
See
also global trade
...

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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S
...

Down payment – A cash payment made by the borrower of a percentage of the total cost of
the asset
...

Dumpster diving – A type of identity theft that involves stealing from someone's garbage
...
See also unearned
income
...

Economics – The study of how people decide what they want and what they are willing to
pay or give in order to get it
...

Economic utility – See types of utility
...
An economy is created by the exchange between producers
and consumers
...

EEOC – See Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
...

Elasticity – The elasticity of demand is how much the price of a product affects the
demand
...
Inelastic demand stays about the same no matter the price of a good or service
...

Electronic Funds Transfer Act – A law that allows you to dispute incorrect information on
electronic statements you receive from creditors
...

Emotional motive – See consumer motives
...
See also blank endorsement,
restrictive endorsement, special endorsement, conditional endorsement, and qualified
endorsement
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Personal Finance
Glossary

Endorsing a check – Signing the back of a check you have received before giving it to a
bank
...

Enterprise – See business
...

Entrepreneur – A person who starts a business
...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – A U
...
government agency with the purpose of
protecting human health and the natural environment
...

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – A U
...
government agency that
enforces federal laws against job-related discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex,
national origin, age, disability, or genetic information
...

Equity – The amount of ownership an investor has in an equity investment
...
A company’s equity is also called its net worth
...

Equity funding – When you offer to share ownership of a business with investors in
exchange for money
...
See also debt
investment
...
See estate tax
...
The tax is charged on the
person's estate
...
This is helpful for
people who don't have an employer performing payroll withholding for them
...

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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Exchange rate – The calculation of how much one unit of currency is worth when converted
to another currency
...
It is the risk that the money might
not be worth as much when it eventually gets converted back to the domestic currency
...

Exit stage – The stage of a business when the business owner makes plans to end their
day-to-day commitment to run the company
...

Expected expenses – Expenses you've planned for and can predict
...

Expenses – Things a person or company pays money for
...

Exponential growth – In compounding, exponential growth is growth that speeds up as the
value of the account grows
...
See also importing
...
See also extractive industry
...

Extractive industry – The industry that physically takes resources from the earth, such as
metals, minerals, oil, plants, and so on
...

Factor – See factoring
...
The
company that buys the accounts is called the factor
...

Factors of production – The forces that combine to make the production of goods and
services possible
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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Fair Credit Reporting Act – A law that states that you are entitled to receive one free copy
of your credit report each year, you are permitted to dispute incorrect information on the
report, and you are entitled to have negative information removed from the report after seven
to ten years
...

Fair Labor Standards ACT (FLSA) – An act that sets standards for overtime pay,
recordkeeping, medical leave, and youth employment
...

FDA – See Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
...

Fears – Things people want to avoid
...
See also desires
...
See also benefits
...

Federal government – The central government of the U
...

Federal income taxes – Taxes that are paid to the federal government on an individual's
or company's income
...
Some federal tax money is distributed to state governments, so that states can
provide services to the people who live there
...

Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) – The Fed’s policy making committee
...

Federal Reserve System – The central banking system in the U
...
The Federal Reserve
System is also called the Federal Reserve and the Fed
...
S
...
The U
...
Department of the Treasury prints currency for
the Fed
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Federal taxes – Taxes that are paid to the federal government
...
S
...
The FTC and the Department of
Justice enforce antitrust law, which forbids agreements among competitors to fix prices or
prevent fair competition
...

Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) – A federal tax act that provides income for
workers who are unemployed
...

This money does not come out of the employee's paycheck
...

These charges are different from interest
...

File compression (zip) utility – A program that turns regular files into compressed files, so
they are smaller
...

Filing taxes – When you complete a tax form that shows how much you owe in taxes
...
S
...

Finance area (of a company) – The part of the company that handles the money
...

Finances – The money you have and the things you own that are worth money
...

Financial analyst – A finance professional who helps people and companies decide how to
invest their money
...

Financial goals – Goals that are specifically related to money
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...

Financial plan – A way of organizing your finances so you'll be able to set and meet
financial goals, while making sure you have enough money to spend on things you need
...

Financial planning – Making a plan for the future about how to manage your finances
...
See also ratio
...

Financial resources – Your financial resources include the money you have, the money you
earn and receive, and the things you own that are worth money
...

Financial responsibility – Being responsible about the way you spend your money
...

Financing – Using credit to pay for things
...
These transactions appear on a cash flow statement
...
A fiscal policy sets rules for how government funds will be collected and
used
...
Fixed assets are usually
illiquid assets
...
See also
variable expense
...

FLSA – See Fair Labor Standards ACT (FLSA)
...

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
S
...
"
Forecasting – Predicting sales
...

Foreign – Outside of one’s own country
...

Form utility – See also types of utility
...
A franchisee is an independent operator of a franchise
business
...

Free enterprise system – See capitalism
...

Free trade – When governments do not interfere with trade between countries
...

FTC – See Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
...
See also part-time job
...

Fund – An amount of money
...

FUTA – See Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA)
...
S
...
This is one of the most common ways to measure a country's
economy
...
When it decreases, the
economy is growing weaker
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) – See GAAP
...

Globalization – The trend toward local, regional, or national economies becoming
connected through communication, business, and trade
...

Global trade – When products or money are exchanged between different countries
...

Goal – Something specific that you want to achieve in the future
...
A
good is a type of commodity
...

Government bailout – When the government gives money to a company that is failing in
order to help it recover
...
It promises to pay the investor back a larger sum of
money in the future
...

Government organizations – Public organizations that exist to serve the people in the city,
state, or country that they live in
...

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) – An act that provides guidelines for how financial
institutions must protect your personal information
...

Gross pay – The full amount of wages or salary that an employer agrees to pay an
employee
...
Gross pay
is the amount of the employee's paycheck before payroll withholding is performed
...

Gross profit – See profit
...

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
A guarantee is less formal than a warranty and
doesn’t usually have a specific time frame or paperwork
...

Haggling – See negotiation
...
See also software and
software programs
...

Health and safety regulations – See OSHA
...
It helps pay for medical bills and expenses
...

Honesty – Truthfulness
...
The amount the employee
earns may be different in each paycheck, depending on the number of hours he or she
worked
...

Human resources (HR) department – The part of a business that handles things like
employee hiring, firing, insurance, retirement benefits, payroll, and employee complaints
...

Identify stage – The stage of a business when the person who is considering starting the
business identifies a business opportunity and decides whether to pursue it
...

Identity theft – When a person steals your personal information, such as your name, Social
Security number, or bank information
...

Importing – When products are brought into a country
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
See also Exit stage, Identify stage, Operate stage, Start
stage, and Plan stage
...

Income – The amount of money a person earns or receives
...

Income statement – A document that shows the company's revenue and expenses during
a specific time period, such as a year, month, or quarter (three months)
...

Income tax – See federal income tax
...
It follows a stock market index
...
The customer can choose one
instead of the other, so the companies are competitors, but not directly
...

Individual retirement account (IRA) – A common type of retirement account that you can
get directly from an investment company
...

Industries – The way jobs are sorted based on the type of work involved in doing them
...

Inflation – When the value of a dollar goes down, so you can't get as many goods or
services for your dollar
...

Informational interview – A meeting held to learn more about a career or workplace
...

Information utility – See also types of utility
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
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If you die before this time period ends, the payments can be transferred
to a member of your family, such as a spouse or a child
...
See also straight annuity
...
See also closed-end installment credit,
noninstallment credit, and revolving credit
...
See also
uninsurable risks
...
An
insurance premium is the amount that you must pay the insurance company in order to get
insurance
...
Your insurance coverage is the amount that
the insurance company is willing to pay
...

Insurance adjustor – An employee of an insurance company who is responsible for verifying
insurance claims
...

Insurance plan – The agreement you have with your insurance company that includes all
the details of your coverage
...
Some bank accounts also offer
to pay the bank account holder interest on the money in the account
...
An interest
rate can be fixed, so that it says the same over time, or it can be adjustable, which means it
may change
...

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – The government agency in charge of administering
federal taxes
...

Interview – A meeting where an employer and job applicant get to know each other and
discuss the job and employee's qualifications
...
The job applicant is the interviewee
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Investing – When you give your money, time, or energy to something in order to get a
reward in the future--usually a financial reward
...
This way, not all of your
money comes from your paycheck
...


Investing activities – Cash transactions related to the company’s financial investments
...

Investment – A way to use money to make more money by purchasing something that you
think will grow in value or that will produce income for you
...

Investment commodity – A very basic good or service
...
They are almost always needs instead of wants
...

Investment portfolio – A collection of investments and financial holdings
...
Invoices are also
called bills
...

IRS – See Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
...

IT department – See information technology (IT) department
...

Job opportunity – A job that a company has available
...
Job opportunities are also called job openings
...

Job shadowing – When a person observes and follows around another person at their job
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Joint checking account – A checking account that people share
...

Labor – As a factor of production, labor is the human mental and physical effort used to
turn natural resources into goods or services that are useful to people
...
It takes human brains and energy to figure out how to use natural resources or turn
them into something useful to people
...
This includes all natural resources,
such as air, water, plants, sunlight, rocks, and minerals
...
It says that if all
other factors are equal, the demand for a product will go down if the price goes up, and the
demand will go up if the price goes down
...

Law of Supply – One of the two parts of the Law of Supply and Demand
...
In other words, the higher the price, the more of the
product producers are willing to make available
...

Law of Supply and Demand – An economic law that says the price of a product is
determined by the supply of and demand for that product
...
This means the amount consumers are willing to
buy at a certain price is equal to the amount producers are willing to make available at that
price
...

Leasing – See renting
...

Legal department – A department some very large companies have to handle legal
paperwork and lawsuits, and to provide legal advice
...

Liabilities – Amounts of money that a company owes
...
See
also liability insurance
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...

Lifestyle – A way of living that shows the beliefs and opinions of a person or group of
people
...
An LLC is a cross
between a corporation and a partnership and offers some of the benefits of each
...

Liquid assets – Assets that can be quickly turned into cash
...

Liquidity – The ease in which you can convert an asset to cash
...

List of references – A list of people who are willing to discuss a job applicant with a potential
employer
...

Loan – Money that you borrow from a person or organization with the commitment to pay
back the amount in full, usually with a specific time limit, number of payments, and interest
rate agreed on in advance
...
In some areas, local
governments don't charge taxes
...

Long-term capital gain – See capital gains tax
...
Long-term goals can
take many months or even years to accomplish
...

It's often called the C: drive, but it can have other names
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Manufacturing industry – The industry that takes extracted materials or other
manufactured materials and turns them into new tangible, physical products
...

Marginal cost – The increase in price necessary to increase the marginal utility of a
product
...
Often, the first unit that you consume has the greatest marginal utility,
and each unit after that has less marginal utility
...
This is
where economic activity takes place
...

Market economy – An economic system that is regulated by the interactions between
producers and consumers in the market
...
The prices of commodities are determined purely by the
interactions between supply and demand
...
The
government allows private producers and consumers to regulate themselves
...

Marketing area – The part of a company that promotes the product
...

Medicaid – A health care program for low-income individuals and families
...
See also Children’s Health Insurance Program
and Medicare
...
See also Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid
...

Meeting the deductible – When you have paid the deductible amount and the insurance
company must now pay some or all of the rest of the costs above that amount
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Member banks – The small bank branches that are members of the Federal Reserve
...
The borrowers use these loans
to fund small business ideas, which ideally helps them escape poverty
...
If
your account drops below the minimum balance, the bank can make you pay them a fine
...

Mixed economy – An economic system in which the government is involved in regulating the
economy in some ways, but not as fully as in a planned economy
...

Even when citizens want a market economy with economic freedom, most citizens still
want the government to put at least a few regulations in place to protect consumers and
small businesses
...

Money – In U
...
financial policy, money refers to cash that is circulating, and the cash
people or businesses have in their bank accounts
...
A money market account invests your money in low
risk investments with predictable interest rates
...
One company controls an entire area of goods or services, so that customers
don't have other choices
...

Motivation – The strength of a motive
...
See also motivation
...
Mutual funds let investors benefit from investment opportunities that might not be
reasonable for them as individuals investing without a fund
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...

Natural risk – Risks caused by nature
...

Needs – Things that you are unable to do without
...
See also wants
...
Negotiation is sometimes called bargaining or haggling
...
See also gross pay
...

Networking – A way for employers and employees to connect using social and professional
relationships
...

New Deal – A series of government programs that began during the Great Depression
...
S
...
See also Works Progress Administration
...
It's located in New York City, on Wall Street
...

NGO – Abbreviation for non-government organization
...

Noncompetitors – Companies that have no areas where they compete with each other
directly or indirectly
...
See also direct competitors and indirect competitors
...
See also discretionary expenses
and wants
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Non-government organization (NGO) – See nonprofit industry
...
See also
installment credit
...
This is a way for a company to sell a product for a higher price,
instead of always competing for the lowest price
...

Nonprofit corporation – A corporation that does not have to pay federal taxes, and
usually does not have to pay state or local taxes either
...

Nonprofit industry – The group of organizations that do not have a profit motive
...

Nonverbal communication skills – The skills of using and interpreting body language and
behavior
...

Occupational Safety and Health Administration – See OSHA
...
You can complete
transactions online
...
The Federal Reserve uses open market operations to increase
or decrease the supply of money
...
See also Exit
stage, Identify stage, Improve stage, Start stage, and Plan stage
...
This
information is included on a cash flow statement
...

Operating system – A system that manages all of the hardware and software on a
computer
...
Each operating system has its own look

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
The words operating system can
be abbreviated OS
...
The value of the next best
opportunity you are giving up is called the opportunity cost
...
See
also pessimism
...

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) – A U
...
government agency that
creates and enforces standards for workplace health and safety
...
Health and safety regulations are rules for employers and
employees to follow in order to keep their workplace healthy and safe
...

Outsourcing – When a company gives the responsibility for a certain aspect of its business
to another company
...

An overdraft means your account balance is negative, because you owe the bank money
...

Paid time off – Time you can take away from a job without your salary or wages being
reduced
...

Paraphrasing – Restating something in your own words
...
It is more complicated to set up than a
sole proprietorship but less complicated than a corporation
...

Part-time job – A job that is less than 40 hours per week
...

Pass-through entity – A business where taxes on the company’s income are paid on the
personal tax forms of the company’s owners
...

Pass-through taxation – See pass-through entity
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Payroll withholding – When a company sets aside a specific amount of an employee's
paycheck for specific purposes, such as income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare tax, or a
retirement fund
...
Some
other types of withholding may be legally required, or they may be voluntary, such as a
retirement fund
...
This helps
make sure that people pay their taxes
...
It shows the employee's gross pay and the amount of payroll withholding for that
pay period
...

Perception – The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting information in order to
determine its meaning
...
See return on investment (ROI)
...

Permanent life insurance – A life insurance policy that provides coverage for your entire
life, so that it is not limited to a specific period of time
...
See also term life insurance
...

Personal goals – Your own individual goals that you want to accomplish
...

Personality – Your individual differences, characteristics, and other defining factors
...
See also liability
...

See also optimism
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...

Plagiarism – When a person represents someone else's work as their own
...
Disciplinary action may be
taken to stop people who are plagiarizing others
...

Planned economy – An economic system in which the government controls the prices of
commodities
...
In a planned economy, the government determines what commodities get
produced, how they are produced, and who consumes them
...

Commodities are collectively owned by the public, instead of by private businesses or
individuals
...

Plan stage – The stage of a business when business people research the business idea
and prepare a written business plan
...

Possession utility – See also types of utility
...

Preexisting condition – A long-term health condition, such as asthma or diabetes, that you
were diagnosed with before you applied for health insurance coverage
...

Premium – See insurance
...

Pretexting – A form of identity theft where a person tries to gain access to your personal
information without the authority to do so
...

Price ceiling – The maximum price the government allows sellers to charge for a specific
product
...

Price competition – When companies compete to offer lower prices than their competitors
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
See also price ceiling
...
Price stability is a sign of a strong economy
...
See also co-signer and co-signing
...

Primary source – A source with firsthand knowledge about something
...

See also secondary source
...
With credit or loans, the principal is the amount you owe a creditor
...

Private enterprise system – See capitalism
...
These
companies can be any size, but individual investors often make private equity investments in
small businesses
...

Privately held stock – An unregistered stock that is not traded on public markets
...
See also publicly held stock
...
Private businesses
usually have the purpose of making a profit for their owners
...
See also public sector
...
If you're
selling something or offering it to trade, you are a producer
...

Product – See commodity
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...

Productivity – How much work an employee completes in a specific amount of time
...

Professionalism – Behaving in a way that is appropriate in the workplace
...
Net profit is calculated by subtracting all
expenses from the total revenue
...

Profit motive – A business with a profit motive is a business that exists in order to make a
profit
...

Propaganda – Material that's intended to influence the way you think or feel about
something, instead of providing unbiased and neutral information about it
...
Homeowner's insurance covers property in a
home you own, and renter's insurance covers property in a home you rent, such as an
apartment
...
The state controls how property can be taxed,
but property taxes are usually charged by local governments
...

Psychological motive – See consumer motives
...

Publicly held stock – A registered stock that is available to the general public
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
See also
private sector
...

Either things will remain the same, or something bad will happen
...
See also speculative risk
...

Quality control – When a business makes procedures to control the quality of their
product
...

Quaternary industry – An industry that does not seem to fit into the extractive,
manufacturing, trade, or service industries
...

Rainy day fund – See cash reserve
...

Ratio – A mathematical comparison of one thing to another
...
A ratio is written as either a number or percentage
...

Rational motive – See consumer motives
...
Real estate is an equity
investment, since you own the property and will benefit if it increases in value
...

Recession – A period when there isn’t enough money or credit in the economy, and the
economy is shrinking instead of growing
...

Recommendation – When a friend or acquaintance recommends you as a good candidate
to a potential employer
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Reconciling a bank statement – Comparing your checking register to your monthly bank
statement provided by the bank to make sure they match
...

Referral – When a friend or acquaintance connects you with a job opportunity
...

Rent – See renting
...

Renting – When you pay to use something that belongs to someone else
...
Leasing is another word for renting
...

Reserve – An amount of money you've set aside in case of an emergency
...

Reserve requirement – The amount of money that the Federal Reserve requires its
member banks to hold in reserve and have available for bank account holders to
withdraw
...

Restrictive endorsement – A type of endorsement that includes a signature on the back of
a check and a note with restrictions on how the check can be used
...

Retailer – A person or company who sells products to consumers
...

Retirement – The point in a person's life when they stop working full-time
...
S
...

Retirement account – An account designed to help you save and invest money for
retirement
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
It compares the company's income
to its assets
...

Return on equity (ROE) – The return an investor gets from an equity investment
...

Return on investment (ROI) – The amount of money you eventually receive in return for
your investment
...

Revenue – The money that flows into a company
...

Revenue stream – A particular way of creating revenue
...
See also installment
credit and noninstallment credit
...
The chance that something negative might happen
...

Risk manager – The finance professional in charge of risk management at a company or
business
...

ROA – See return on assets (ROA)
...

ROR – See return on investment (ROI)
...
To use the
rule of 72, divide 72 by the interest rate of the account
...

Salaried job – A job in which the employee is paid the same amount of money in each
paycheck, regardless of how many hours the employee worked
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
See also wages
...

Sales tax – See transaction taxes
...

Savings account – A bank account intended for money you will be saving in the bank
...

Scarcity – When people want more of something than is available
...
See economics
...
S corporations are taxed like a
partnership, as a pass-through entity
...

Secondary industry – See manufacturing industry
...
A secondary source may have already collected information from primary
sources for you, such as a magazine or website that provides reports and statistics about
products
...

Securities – Investment opportunities, such as stocks or bonds, represented by a
document
...

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – A U
...
government agency with the
purpose of regulating the securities market and protecting investors
...
S
...

Registered stocks are stocks that have been through the SEC's registration process
...

Self-employment tax – A federal tax for people who are self-employed
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
A service is a type of
commodity
...

Service industry – The industry that provides services to individual consumers, other
businesses, or both
...
The service industry is
sometimes called the tertiary industry, since it develops after the extractive and
manufacturing industry
...

Shopping goods – Products that consumers spend more time deciding on
...

Short-term capital gain – See capital gains tax
...

Signing over a check – See special endorsement
...
The interest generated by
the account does not get added to the principal and start generating its own interest
...

Single-payment loans – Loans that require payment in full on a specific date, either with or
without interest
...

Skills – Things a person is able to do well
...


Social classes – The arrangement of people in a society
...

Each level of a social class is called a stratum
...

Social investing – When the goal of an investment is to both have a high financial return
and make a positive impact on the world
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Social Security number – A nine-digit number assigned to a U
...
citizen or resident
...
Most babies born in the U
...
receive a Social
Security number soon after birth, and most people in the U
...
have them
...
Social Security taxes are also called the Federal
Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax
...
It can't be seen or touched, but it can display
things on a computer screen
...
See also hardware and
software programs
...
See also
hardware and software
...
This is the simplest business
structure to set up
...

S&P 500 – See Standard & Poor's 500 Index
...
Allowing a check to be cashed or deposited by another person is called signing over
a check
...
The consumer is
willing to seek out this unique product and probably pay more for it
...
You take speculative risks
because you hope to gain a profit
...

Spending power – The amount of goods and services a person can buy with the amount of
money they have
...
In order for
your spending power to increase, the amount of money you earn must increase faster than
the inflation rate increases
...

SSN – See Social Security number
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
It is often
called the S&P 500 for short
...

Start stage – The stage of a business when business people start doing the tasks involved
in getting the company up and running
...

Startup costs – The costs of starting up a business and keeping it going until it can pay for
itself
...
Not all states have an income tax
...

Like the income statement, it covers a specific period of time
...
State taxes pay for things like
schools, roads, libraries, and more
...

Stereotype – An oversimplified or inaccurate assumption that is shared by a group of people
...

Stock market index – An indicator of how the stock market as a whole is doing
...

Stock market indicator – A way of analyzing the performance of a stock market as a
whole
...

Stocks – A popular type of equity investment in which you can buy partial ownership of a
company in a tiny fractional amount called a share
...

Stock table – A common way of presenting information about how stocks and securities
are performing
...
Once you

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...

See also installment-certain annuity
...

Stratum – See social classes
...
See
also stressor
...

Subchapter S corporation – See S corporation
...
A supply of a capital
good is the amount of the good that has been produced
...
See also demand
...

Target market – A specific group of people who are likely to want a product
...

Taskbar – An area on the computer screen that shows you all of the things you have open
on your computer
...

Tax – A financial obligation that a person or company is required by law to pay to the
government
...

Tax deferred account – A type of account such as a traditional 401(k) that allows the
account holder to contribute money to the account without paying taxes on that money
...

Tax department – A department some very large companies have to handle tax issues and
paperwork
...

Tax refund – The money the government owes to you if you paid more than you owe in
taxes
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Tax return – See 1040EZ tax form
...

Teller – In banking, a teller is a person who works at a bank and who can help you complete
a transaction
...
The
term is the length of time during which you are covered by the life insurance policy
...

Tertiary industry – See service industry
...

Time utility – See also types of utility
...

If you receive money today, you can put it into an account that offers interest and start
earning interest on that money right away
...

Trade balance – A country’s trade balance is the comparison of its imports to exports
...

Tradesperson – A person with special skills in a certain type of industry
...

Traditional economy – An economic system in which production activities are done as
needed in order to satisfy a specific demand
...
It is determined by tradition, custom, and the specific needs
of a group of people
...

Transaction – In banking, a transaction is when you add or remove money from a bank
account
...
A withdrawal is when you take
money out of the bank
...

Transaction taxes – Taxes that are charged on sales of goods and services
...
Sales taxes are a common type of transaction tax that are usually

© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
Sometimes, transaction taxes are
calculated based on a physical quantity in units, such as a gas tax that charges a tax per
gallon
...

Transfer – See transaction
...

Treasuries – Notes and certificates provided by a government as a form of currency
...

Treasury Department – See U
...
Department of the Treasury
...

Truth in Lending Act – A law that states creditors must provide written rules to the
borrower about the costs and fees associated with credit or a loan
...

Types of utility – Form utility is the value added to a product by changing its physical form
to make it more satisfying to the consumer
...
Time utility is the value
added to a product by making it available when the consumer wants it
...
Information
utility is the value added to a product by providing the consumer with useful information
...

Uncontrollable risks (of a business) – Risks that a business can’t control, such as
external financial factors, natural disasters, and so on
...

Unearned income – Income that you receive for reasons other than work you've done, such
as money received from gifts or investments
...

Unemployment insurance – A program that provides money to help replace your income if
you have lost your job
...
A
low unemployment rate is a sign of a strong economy
...
See Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA)
...


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Personal Finance
Glossary

Unexpected expenses – Expenses that you didn't predict
...
See also
expected expenses
...
See also insurable risks
...

Unsought goods – Things that people sometimes need but don’t usually think about buying
...
Also called extracting a file
...
S
...
The standard bills and coins used in the U
...
are produced by the
Department of the Treasury for the Federal Reserve bank to circulate
...

Utility – The usefulness of something, such as a product, or the product's ability to meet a
want or need
...

Vacation pay – See paid time off
...
If something has value, people are willing to give
money or something else of value in exchange for it
...

Variable expense – An expense that changes each time you pay it
...

Venture capital – Money used to fund a business in its early stages
...
This often takes the form of a private equity investment
...

Verbal communication skills – The skills of speaking and listening
...
Its
value might go up or down dramatically
...


© 2011 Giant Campus, Inc
...
This form is also called the Federal Wage and Tax Statement
...

Wages – The earned income you receive when you are paid by the hour for your work
...

Wants – Things that you choose to spend money on
...
See also needs and
non-discretionary expenses
...
See also
guarantee
...
Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer are common Web browsers
...
See also retailer
...
A will usually states how your financial resources and assets should be
distributed
...

Withdrawal – See transaction
...
Workers' compensation is usually short term
...

Written communication – The skills of reading and writing
...

Zip utility – See file compression (zip) utility
...


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