Money & Finance Vocabulary in English

A mortgage is a specific type of loan used exclusively to purchase property, and the property itself serves as security for the lender. A general loan can be used for any purpose — starting a business, buying a car, or consolidating debt — and is typically unsecured or secured against other assets. Both require repayment with interest over an agreed period.

A salary is a fixed annual amount paid in equal monthly or bi-monthly instalments, regardless of how many hours you work. A wage is calculated by the hour or day and can vary depending on the number of hours worked that week. Salaried employees are typically office or professional workers, while waged workers are more common in retail, hospitality, and manual industries.

Interest in finance refers to the cost of borrowing money or the reward for saving it. When you borrow from a bank — through a loan or credit card — you pay interest as a percentage of the amount owed. When you deposit money into a savings account, the bank pays you interest. Interest rates are expressed as a percentage, such as 3.5% per year, and are set by central banks or individual lenders.

Revenue (sometimes called turnover) is the total amount of money a business earns from sales before any costs are deducted. Profit is what remains after all costs, taxes, and expenses have been subtracted from revenue. A business can have high revenue but still make a loss if its expenditure exceeds its income.

Expenditure is the formal, technical term preferred in official documents, government reports, and business finance. Spending is more common in everyday conversation. Both words describe the total amount of money used over a period of time, but using expenditure signals a professional register and is expected in written reports, budgets, and financial statements.

To be in debt means you owe money to a person, bank, or organisation. This includes student loans, credit card balances, mortgages, and unpaid bills. Debt is not always negative — a mortgage is considered manageable debt because it builds equity. However, high-interest consumer debt, such as credit card debt, can become financially dangerous if not repaid promptly.

You send an invoice, receive an invoice, or issue an invoice — never “make” an invoice in formal English. For example: “The freelancer issued an invoice for 500 pounds at the end of the project.” An invoice differs from a receipt: an invoice requests payment, while a receipt confirms that payment has already been made.

A budget is a short-term tool that allocates a fixed amount of money to specific categories — such as food, rent, and entertainment — for a set period, usually a month. A financial plan is broader and longer-term, covering goals like retirement, property purchase, or investment strategy over years or decades. A budget is typically one component within a larger financial plan.

Many money words are false friends or have multiple meanings. For example, interest can mean curiosity in everyday English but has a precise financial meaning. Words like account, credit, and balance are also used differently in banking contexts compared to general usage. The formal register of financial language — with words like expenditure and transaction — can also feel unfamiliar compared to casual speech.

The highest-priority words for B1–B2 learners are those that appear in everyday situations: budget, salary, loan, savings, tax, account, and cash. These come up in job interviews, rental agreements, and banking forms. Once you are comfortable with these, move on to more technical terms like investment, mortgage, and expenditure, which are common in professional and academic contexts.