Glossary

The financial glossary

The key words of money, the economy and the blockchain, explained simply and without jargon — the vocabulary of your BMF Edu world.

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What is money?12 terms

Money: A tool for swapping. You give it away, and you get something back.You give the baker 1 euro. He gives you a chocolate croissant.
Swapping (barter): Trading one thing for another, with no money. It gets stuck if the other person does not want your thing.You give 3 hens and you get a bag of wheat.
Price: The price says how much a thing is worth. It is its label.A chocolate croissant: 1 euro. A bike: a lot more.
Worth: What a thing is worth to people. It has nothing to do with its size.A bank note is lighter than a toy, but it is worth more.
Coins and notes: The money you can hold in your hand. Only the State is allowed to make it.Nobody is allowed to make any at home.
Change: The money the shopkeeper gives back when you hand over more than the price.You pay 2 euros with a 5-euro note. He gives you 3 euros back.
Work: What a person does for other people, and gets money for.The baker makes bread. The doctor looks after people.
Wages: The money a grown-up gets every month for their work.With their wages, a parent buys food and pays for the home.
Pocket money: A little money your parents give you, just for you.You get 3 euros a week. In one month that makes 12 euros.
Need: What you really must have to live. Without it, life is hard.Food, a warm bed, your things for school.
Want: Something that would make you happy, but that you can live without.One more toy, sweets, the game everyone is talking about.
Spend: Giving your money to get something. After that, it is no longer in your pocket.You spend 4 euros on sweets. You have 1 euro left.

Saving up for a goal7 terms

Save up: Keeping part of your money for later, instead of spending it all.You get 5 euros. You put 2 aside.
Money box: Your first treasure chest. You keep the money you are saving in it.Every coin you add brings you closer to your goal.
Pay yourself first: Putting your share aside straight away, before you even think about spending.Granny gives you 10 euros. You slip 4 into the money box, right away.
Goal: The thing you want to get. It is your mission.The game costs 20 euros. With 2 euros a week, you have it in 10 weeks.
Budget (your money plan): Your plan. You decide what your money is for before you use it.Out of 10 euros: 5 to spend, 4 to keep, 1 to give.
Savings account: A giant money box at the bank, very well protected.Grown-ups keep the money they are saving for a long time in it.
Patience: Knowing how to wait for the right moment before you buy.Sleep on it. Very often the urge is gone the next day.

Spending smart8 terms

A smart buy: A buy you have thought about. You ask yourself three questions before you pay.Do I need it? Will I still like it in a week?
Compare prices: Looking at the price of the same thing in several shops before you choose.The ball costs 12 euros here and 9 euros over there. You keep 3 euros.
Quality: What makes a thing last a long time without breaking.A cheap toy that breaks straight away is money thrown away.
Sale price: A price shown as a great deal. Sometimes it is true, sometimes it is not.Some shops push the price up first, then write SALE in big letters.
Inflation: Prices going up little by little, year after year.With 10 euros you used to get 10 sweets. Next year you will get 8.
Advert (ad): A message made on purpose to give you the urge to buy.The toy looks amazing in the ad. Real life is different.
Targeted advert: An ad picked just for you, because somebody knows what you like.You watch football videos. The game shows you adverts for footballs.
Spend less: Keeping money because you spend less of it.Mending a toy instead of buying a new one is spending less.

Earning and sharing5 terms

Do somebody a favour: Really helping somebody. Sometimes you get a small coin as a thank you.You water your neighbour's plants for 3 days. He gives you 2 euros a day.
Effort: The time and the energy you put in to get something done.Money you worked for is money you spend more carefully.
Share: Using a little of what you have for somebody else.You buy your brother a small present with your savings.
Give: Helping people who need it, without expecting anything back.Lots of families give a little to a charity.
Charity: A group of people who help others, and who are not trying to make money.Some of them hand out meals to people who have none.

What is a business?7 terms

Business: A group of people who make something, or who do something for others.The bakery in your street is a business.
Service: Doing something for somebody, with no object to take home.The hairdresser cuts your hair. The bus takes you to school.
Customer: The person who pays. She is the one who brings the money in.With no customers, a bakery does not last long.
Money coming in: All the money the customers pay to the business.The bakery takes 100 euros from its customers during the day.
What a business pays out: Everything the business has to pay for in order to work.The flour, the electricity, and the wages of its team.
Profit: What the business has left once everything is paid for.It takes 100 euros and pays out 80. It has 20 euros left.
Job: The exact work one person does inside a business.One kneads the dough, the other one sells at the counter.

The money you cannot see9 terms

Digital money: Money that lives inside computers. You cannot touch it.Not one coin moves when your parents pay with the card.
Bank card: A key, not a purse. It tells the till how much to take.The card says: take 42 euros from my account.
Account: Your page in the bank's big notebook. It says how much money is yours.Before the shopping: 1240. After paying 42 euros: 1198.
Bank: The business that keeps the notebook of accounts and looks after people's money.On every page it writes how much money belongs to whom.
Transfer: Money going from one account to another, and written down in the notebook.The bank takes 1 euro off your page and adds it to the baker's.
Statement: The list of everything that has happened on an account.Your parents can see all of the month's spending on it.
Middleman: Somebody who stands in the middle to pass something along.To send 20 euros to Canada, the money goes through several banks.
Fee: What somebody keeps on the way, for the job they do.You send 20 euros, the banks keep 5 euros. Only 15 arrive.
Trust: Believing that somebody is telling the truth, even when you cannot check.You never see the bank's computer. You trust it.

The magic notebook and crypto13 terms

Blockchain (the magic notebook): A big shared notebook, copied word for word at thousands of people's homes.A line written in it appears at everybody's home, and can never be rubbed out.
Block: A bundle of lines from the notebook. It is a full train carriage.When the carriage is full, it is hooked on behind the one before.
Chain of blocks: The whole train: carriages hooked on one after another.Change an old carriage and every carriage behind it falls off.
Decentralised: With no single boss in the middle. The work is shared between everybody.Nobody in particular keeps the Bitcoin notebook.
Cryptocurrency: Digital money that lives in the magic notebook, with no bank. Its price goes up and down enormously. You learn about it to understand it, never to buy any.The sites that sell it are not allowed for anybody under 18.
Bitcoin: The first cryptocurrency. It was born in 2009.Nobody really knows who invented it.
Mining: The work of the computers that solve a number puzzle.The first one to solve it hooks its carriage onto the train.
Miner: A computer that does this work, and the person who runs it.The winner gets brand-new coins as a reward.
Address: A string of letters and numbers you can give to everybody. It is used to receive.It is like the number on your letterbox.
Secret key (private key): A long string of letters and numbers that proves it really is you. You NEVER share it.If you lose it, it is lost for ever.
Wallet: A safe place that keeps your secret key. There is not a single coin inside it.A cold wallet stays offline, far away from thieves on the internet.
Token: A small digital thing created in the magic notebook.Like the tokens at a funfair, but written in the notebook.
NFT: A one-of-a-kind token. The notebook writes down who owns it.Anybody can copy the picture. The line in the notebook, no.

Staying smart and careful12 terms

Scam: A lie made up to take other people's money.“You have won a prize, click quick!” It is not true.
Too good to be true: A promise of a huge win with no effort. It is nearly always a trap.“Make loads of money really fast.” Nobody gives that away.
A grown-up you trust: A grown-up you can tell anything to, without being afraid.The moment you have a doubt, you stop everything and tell them.
Comparing yourself: Wanting what other people have. It is a trap with no end.There will always be somebody with one more thing.
Buying inside a game: A small buy inside a game that is free.4 chests at 3 euros each makes 12 euros.
Surprise chest: You pay without knowing what you are going to get.It is made that way on purpose, to make you want another go.
Free: A free game is paid for by somebody else. Ask yourself who is making money.Most of the time, it is the adverts that pay for the game.
App: A program installed on a phone or a tablet.A business built it, with artists and computer engineers.
Personal information: Something about you, written down somewhere in a computer.Your first name, your age, the name of your school, a photo of you.
Cookie: A tiny file that keeps track of what you do.When a website offers “refuse everything”, you are allowed to click it.
Notification: A little message that pops up on the screen to call you back.“Come back quick, your friends are playing without you!”
Password: A secret that protects your account. You never give it away.Not even to a friend, not even if they really insist.

This glossary is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice. Crypto-assets and investments carry a risk of capital loss.

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