Yield The amount a bond pays out in interest every year.

Working Class A socioeconomic group characterized by filling most working roles in a society but having very little total wealth or power.

Whole Life Insurance A type of life insurance that expires after a certain number of years if the policy holder does not die. When the policy expires, there is a cash payout. Whole life insurance is considered a type of investment.

Wealth Management The act of a business to help a person or family to manage their wealth in such a way that it is properly invested to grow over time.

Wealth The total net worth of a person, including intangible assets.

Warren Buffet One of the world’s richest men and most famous investor, and proponent of the Buy and Hold investing strategy.

Warranty A written guarantee of work, customer satisfaction, or product reliability offered by a seller or manufacturer to a buyer. Warranties are offered to increase customer confidence in a product.

Wants The endless goods or services that a person wants, but not needs, to have. Managing “wants” against income and savings is a central conflict of personal finance.

Wall Street A street in downtown New York City that is home to the New York Stock Exchange.

Wage Garnishment The act of a creditor gaining the right to a portion of a person’s paycheck to pay back a previous debt before it is ever paid to the employee itself. This is frequently a consequence of structured bankruptcy procedures or lawsuits.

W-2 A document provided by employers to employees of companies in the United States detailing the total income paid during the previous tax year, including the amount that was withheld by the company and paid to the government as taxes. This is usually the starting point to filing a tax return.

VRIO Framework A strategic thinking exercise that examines if a company or product is Valuable, Rare, Imitatable, and Organized. If the company or product answers “no” to any of these questions, it is not likely going to be able to maintain a strong competitive advantage over competition.

Voting Rights The right of common stock holders of publicly traded companies to vote on key issues facing the company. The most common type of vote is whether to approve a merger or acquisition of another company, or to elect the Board of Directors.

Volume The total number of shares of a security that have traded during the current (or last, if the markets are closed) trading day.

Volatility ETF A type of ETF that gains value as some underlying index’s price becomes more volatile. Investors buy volatility ETFs during periods of great uncertainty when stock prices experience a lot of up and down movement.

Volatility A measurement of how much an investment or portfolio’s price moves up and down over a given period of time.

Vision Insurance A type of insurance that covers the cost of eye exams, glasses, contact lenses, and corrective vision surgery.

Vertical Management A type of management structure characterized by several layers of management between front-line employees and top decision makers. Vertical management is characterized by clear divisions of business units, with low levels of autonomy for front-line workers and low-level managers.

Variable Interest A type of interest rate applied to loan that changes over time in line with some external index. Variable interest rate loans are typically offered at an interest rate below a fixed interest rate, but the interest rate may increase over time.

Variable Expenses Types of expenses that will vary significantly from month to month. Holiday shopping would be a variable expense.

Value Investing An investing strategy based on finding companies that appear to be priced lower than their competitors, based primarily on metrics like PE ratios or another fundamental metric.

Use Tax A type of tax that is applied by using a particular public good or service. A toll on a highway is a type of use tax.

Upper Class A socioeconomic group characterized by controlling the majority of wealth and power in a country or economic system. It may be legally enforced (like a nobility class) or arise economically.

Unsystemic Risk A type of risk that does not risk being catastrophic to a system as a whole, but instead may be a risk to a specific process or business unit. Unsystemic risks are typically easier and cheaper to address.

Unsought Goods A marketing term that refers to items that a customer considers buying that they did not even realize they wanted. This can refer to things like candy bars at the check-out line of a store, or add-on purchases.