Bank accounts – a depository account at a bank that acts as a secure way to store your money and withdraw it later.

Checking Accounts – a type of bank account you would use for regular purchases. It usually does not pay interest.

Savings Accounts – a type of bank account you would use for medium- to long-term savings. This type of account pays interest.

Liquidity – how fast you can convert your investment into cash if you need to spend it.

Risk – The probability that an investment will lose some, or all, of its value.

CD – “Certificate of Deposit”, a type of investment bank account that “locks in” your savings for a certain period of time, in exchange for a higher interest rate than a savings account.

MMA – “Money Market Account”, a type of bank account that offers a higher interest rate than a typical savings account, but has a minimum balance limit and a restriction on the number of transactions you can make per month.

Stocks – An “Equity investment”, signifying a percentage ownership of a company.

Dividend – A payment stockholders receive out of the total profits of the business

DRIP – a “Dividend Re-Investment Plan”, where dividends you receive from a company automatically are used to buy more shares of that company.

Mutual Funds – A type of investment where a money manager takes your cash and invests it as he sees fit, usually following some rough guidelines.

NAV – “Net Asset Value”, or the total value of the assets held by a mutual fund, divided by the total number of shares. NAV is calculated nightly.

ETF – A collection of stocks, bonds or other investments that trades like a stock on a stock exchange.

Bonds – A “Debt Instrument”, signifying a loan made to a company or government. Bond issuers pay interest to bond holders, and when the bond expires the original loan amount must be repaid (usually $1000 per bond)

Coupon Rate – The interest amount paid on a bond.

Yield – the value of the interest payments received on a bond, divided by the amount paid for the bond.

Treasuries – a bond issued by the US federal government

Corporate Bonds – Bonds that are issued by a company

Commodity – Raw materials that form the basis of the economy, which can be interchangeably bought and sold as an investment.