Money and finance collocations in English

By: Collocations.org Admin
Date: 20 June 2026

Talking about money in English

Money is a topic that spans everything from casual conversation to highly technical financial discourse, and English has a wide range of collocations to match. Whether you are discussing a personal budget, reading a business report, or following economic news, you will encounter money and finance collocations constantly. Getting these combinations right is particularly important in professional contexts, where financial language needs to be precise and credible.

Finance collocations can be grouped into several areas: personal money management, business and corporate finance, investment, and economic conditions. Each area has its own characteristic word combinations that recur across documents, conversations, and media.

Collocations for personal finance

• Earn a salary, receive a wage, get a bonus, take a pay cut
• Open a bank account, close an account, transfer funds, withdraw cash
• Save money, set aside funds, build up savings, dip into your savings
• Pay a bill, settle a debt, clear a balance, run up a debt
• Live within your means, make ends meet, struggle financially, get into debt

Collocations for business finance

• Generate revenue, report a profit, post a loss, break even
• Cut costs, reduce expenditure, increase margins, boost profitability
• Raise capital, secure funding, attract investment, issue shares
• Meet financial targets, exceed projections, fall short of expectations
• File for bankruptcy, go into administration, face insolvency, restructure debt

Collocations for investment

• Make an investment, diversify a portfolio, manage risk, hedge against losses
• Invest in stocks, buy shares, sell bonds, hold assets
• Generate a return, yield a profit, realise a gain, incur a loss
• The market rises, the market falls, shares surge, prices plummet

Collocations for economic conditions

• The economy grows, the economy contracts, growth slows, output falls
• Inflation rises, inflation falls, prices stabilise, the cost of living increases
• Interest rates go up, interest rates are cut, borrowing costs rise
• Enter a recession, recover from a downturn, stimulate the economy

Learning finance collocations in context

Financial journalism — from newspapers to specialised publications — is the most efficient source of finance collocations in authentic use. Reading the business and economics sections of quality news sources regularly will expose you to the same combinations appearing again and again, which is exactly the kind of repeated exposure that embeds vocabulary in long-term memory. As with all collocations, aim to learn them in full phrases rather than as individual words, and practise using them in sentences relevant to your own financial or professional life.