Money — B1 Vocabulary

B1 VOCABULARY · money

Your Wallet

PICTURE

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"Couples will discuss anything before money. Politics, exes, whose mother is worse. Money comes last."

Money verbs · prepositions · nouns (*salary, tax, loan, mortgage*) · *take out, pay back, live off, live on*

Reading

Speaking

LEAD-IN

Finish the sentences

Honestly — or diplomatically.

• Money can't buy...

• The best money I ever spent was...

• The biggest waste of money in modern life is...

PICTURE

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VOCABULARY · B1

The verb pairs — choose the correct verb for each gap.

1. lend / borrow: You ________ money to someone; you ________ money from someone.

2. earn / win: You ________ a salary; you ________ the lottery.

3. cost / charge: The shoes ________ 90 euros; the shop ________ me 90 euros. (Careful — who is the subject?)

4. spend / waste: Both mean using money, but ________ suggests using it badly.

5. save / invest: You ________ money by not spending it; you ________ money hoping it will grow.

VOCABULARY · B2

Match the money noun to its definition.

1. salary

2. tax

3. loan

4. mortgage

5. bill

6. note

7. coin

8. cash machine

a) money a bank lends you specifically to buy a home

b) paper money

c) metal money

d) money you must pay to the government

e) money you receive for your work

f) money a bank or a person lends you

g) a paper showing what you must pay

h) the machine in the wall that judges you silently

BEFORE YOU READ

Fifteen years of listening

Financial counsellor Doriana Vela has spent fifteen years listening to people talk about money — or avoid talking about it.

PICTURE

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READ ONCE AND ANSWER

1. What are the three "money personalities"?

2. Which one does she say is the most dangerous?

READING

The three people inside your wallet

Financial counsellor Doriana Vela has spent fifteen years listening to people talk about money — or, more often, watching them avoid talking about it. "Couples will discuss anything before money," she says. "Politics, exes, whose mother is worse. Money comes last." Over the years she has come to believe that almost everyone is one of three types.

The Optimist borrows cheerfully and worries later. "They take out loans the way other people take out library books. They can't afford the car, so they get it on credit; the holiday goes on the card. They always know exactly what they earn but never exactly what they owe. One client owed money to two banks, a credit card company and his own brother — and described himself to me as 'basically fine'. Optimists don't feel debt until the month it becomes a monster."

The Squirrel saves compulsively and spends painfully. "Squirrels check their balance every day. They know the price of everything and enjoy the

price of nothing. One of my clients had saved an impressive amount over twenty years and had genuinely never wasted a euro — but she'd also never been on the trip she'd been saving for. Squirrels confuse having money with being safe. The money isn't the point, the fear is."

The Ostrich simply doesn't look. "Ostriches don't open bills. They don't know what they pay in tax, what their salary is after deductions, or what interest their debts charge. It's not stupidity — it's dread. And that's why the Ostrich is the most dangerous type to be: the Optimist eventually gets a shock, the Squirrel eventually gets therapy, but the Ostrich gets neither, because they never look at all. Problems that a phone call could fix in March become disasters by November."

Her advice is unromantic. "Once a month, look at three numbers together: what came in, what went out, what you owe. Twenty minutes. You can pay for the coffee in cash and argue about who was right afterwards — that part is free."

COMPREHENSION

Optimist, Squirrel, Ostrich — or Doriana (D)?

1. Knows their income precisely but not their debts. ______

2. Has never wasted money — or fully enjoyed it. ______

3. Doesn't open envelopes from the bank. ______

4. Owed money to family as well as to institutions. ______

5. Recommends a twenty-minute monthly review. ______

6. Confuses money with safety. ______

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Verbs and prepositions — find them in the text.

1. take ________ a loan

2. pay ________ the coffee ________ cash (two gaps)

3. spend money ________ something

4. borrow money ________ the bank · lend money ________ someone

5. owe money ________ two banks

6. Phrasal verbs.

1. He lost his job and had to live off his parents.

2. After the mortgage we live on about 900 euros a month.

Which one means have X amount for your basic needs? Which means depend financially on someone?

PRACTICE · F1

Complete with the correct verb in the correct form: inherit · owe · charge · be worth · afford · raise · waste · earn · save · invest.

1. When her uncle died, she ________ his flat and a very confused cat.

2. The garage ________ me 200 euros just to look at the engine.

3. I still ________ my sister 50 euros from the summer. She has not forgotten.

4. That painting ________ more than our house, apparently.

5. We can't ________ a holiday abroad this year — maybe a weekend somewhere.

6. He ________ a fortune in his twenties and spent a fortune in his thirties.

7. They're ________ money for the children's hospital — leave a note or a coin in the box.

8. I ________ half my salary every month. The other half mysteriously disappears.

9. Don't ________ your money on that phone — the new model is out in March.

10. She ________ everything in her friend's café. Brave, possibly right.

PRACTICE · F2

Circle the correct option.

1. Can I pay by / in card? I never carry cash.

2. He borrowed 2,000 euros from / to his parents to fix the roof.

3. I lent my laptop from / to a colleague and it came back... different.

4. What do you spend most of your money on / for?

5. We took off / out a mortgage over twenty-five years. Send help.

6. When can you pay me back / again the money for the tickets?

7. Students often have to live off / on very little — beans, pasta, hope.

8. After the divorce he lived off / on his savings for a year.

SPEAKING

Money types

Which of the three types are you — Optimist, Squirrel or Ostrich? Or a mix?

• Give your partner two pieces of evidence from your real life.

• Together, invent the fourth type Doriana forgot: name it, describe its habits in 3–4 sentences using at least five money verbs.

• Discuss two: Is it rude to ask what people earn? Should friends ever lend each other money? Is renting really "wasting" money?

PICTURE

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TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B1 1 lend / borrow · 2 earn / win · 3 cost / charges · 4 waste · 5 save / invest

B2 1 mortgage · 2 note · 3 coin · 4 tax · 5 salary · 6 loan · 7 bill · 8 cash machine

GIST The Optimist (a cheerful borrower), the Squirrel (a compulsive saver) and the Ostrich (an avoider). The Ostrich is the most dangerous — they never look, so small problems compound into disasters.

COMPREHENSION 1 Optimist · 2 Squirrel · 3 Ostrich · 4 Optimist · 5 Doriana · 6 Squirrel

LANGUAGE FOCUS take out · pay for the coffee in cash · spend on · borrow from / lend to · owe to. live on = the amount you have for basic needs; live off = depend financially on someone or something.

F1 1 inherited · 2 charged · 3 owe · 4 is worth · 5 afford · 6 earned · 7 raising · 8 save · 9 waste · 10 invested

F2 1 by · 2 from · 3 to · 4 on · 5 out · 6 back · 7 on · 8 off

HOMEWORK Doriana's exercise in English: write your last month in three sentences — what came in, what went out, what you owe or are owed — plus one sentence of honest commentary. Invent the numbers if you prefer; the vocabulary is the point.