Purchase yourself a piece of a company. Think Coca-Cola or IBM. These are the foundation of many of the investment vehicles to come. There are many stocks available to purchase and no one has figured out a reliable way to pick the best ones every time. Keep individual stocks below 10% of your portfolio’s value.

A basket of stocks. Index funds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETF) are all just baskets of stocks. The word that precedes “fund” tells you which basket of stocks you are looking at or how they are managed.

When people refer to “the market,” this is it. This is a basket of stocks from the (approximately) 500 biggest companies. “Oh , the market is down today” refers to these 500 companies. Think big dogs like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.

Fees. This is the percentage of an investment that the broker keeps. Watch out for these being too high because over time, they will drastically reduce returns. The fee comes out regardless of how much the portfolio returns.

This is when the growth on your investment continues year after year. Think interest on the previously earned interest. Think 10% return on $100 is $10. Reinvest it to have $110. 10% on $110 is $11. Reinvest it to have $121. The growth becomes exponential over time. This is the key to wealth.

Assets minus liabilities. Everything you own vs everything you owe. Student loans are a liability, so many new CRNAs have a negative net worth. Fortunately the income is a big shovel so you can dig your way out.

The chance something will change quickly. Think of the highs and lows. Something with high volatility may be worth $10 on Monday, $6 on Wednesday, and close the week at $12 on Friday. A low volatility item may change but a few cents over the course of a week. Financial advisors ask about risk, but are really asking about volatility tolerance. Volatility is not the same as risk.

A respectable board game and a word with a negative connotation. Everything has risk. A “low risk” investment such as bonds actually carries a lot of risk. You “risk” losing out on major returns elsewhere. Likewise, “risk” occurs when your investment seeking high returns goes to 0. Everything carries risk. The successful manage risk.

A bull market means the price of stocks are rising and the market is going up. That’s how most people make a return.

A bear market is the opposite. Think recession. Just ride the wave and take the bad with the good.

Acronym for the tech stocks Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. These are what the cool kids trade. They also make up about 40% of the NASDAQ, so think big, American tech.