Financial Literacy Word Search

Print a money vocabulary puzzle with its answer key, or swap the word list for plain definitions.

Name Date

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

DRRPAPPYMNGQFCH

TEIDRHFEPEATERY

TNEEDSINCOMEAED

GIFBCREDITCARDR

SUDTZZNNESPDNIL

YDBLQAFLHAYNATR

ZOUECZTWULOQLSS

PNRATPBEYADENCG

OAWCRAUNJRSRTOA

TTSCLYDANYYBARI

DECOOCGBFPWGXED

NKAUAHEINTEREST

SAMNNETWLSTHSSL

YIWTSCHOLARSHIP

NDLIHKETFMSVQQE

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

EarnEARN
SalarySALARY
PaycheckPAYCHECK
TaxesTAXES
BudgetBUDGET
IncomeINCOME
NeedsNEEDS
DonateDONATE
AccountACCOUNT
InterestINTEREST
DebtDEBT
LoanLOAN
Credit CardCREDIT CARD
Credit ScoreCREDIT SCORE
ScamSCAM
ScholarshipSCHOLARSHIP

16 of 24 words from the Financial Literacy Favorites list.

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Word list

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Answer key: Financial Literacy Word Search

DRRPAPPYMNGQFCH

TEIDRHFEPEATERY

TNEEDSINCOMEAED

GIFBCREDITCARDR

SUDTZZNNESPDNIL

YDBLQAFLHAYNATR

ZOUECZTWULOQLSS

PNRATPBEYADENCG

OAWCRAUNJRSRTOA

TTSCLYDANYYBARI

DECOOCGBFPWGXED

NKAUAHEINTEREST

SAMNNETWLSTHSSL

YIWTSCHOLARSHIP

NDLIHKETFMSVQQE

EARN, SALARY, PAYCHECK, TAXES, BUDGET, INCOME, NEEDS, DONATE, ACCOUNT, INTEREST, DEBT, LOAN, CREDIT CARD, CREDIT SCORE, SCAM, SCHOLARSHIP

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All 158 words

Paychecks and Taxes 30

Allowance A small amount of money given to a child on a regular schedule, often as payment for household chores.
Bimonthly Twice a month or once every two months: the word can mean either. Pay on the 1st and 15th is the first kind, also called semi-monthly.
Bonus A sum of money given to an employee on top of the usual pay.
Career A profession that can span a lifetime, taking in your education, training and full history of paid work.
Chore A routine household task, like taking out the trash; some children are paid an allowance for doing them.
Commission An amount of money a person is paid for selling something.
Earn To get money in return for work you do or for goods you sell.
Estate Tax Charged on the value of what a person owns at death; the federal government and some states have one.
FICA Short name of the federal law that takes Social Security and Medicare taxes out of your pay; your employer pays in the same amount.
Gig A single project or task that a worker is hired to do on demand, sometimes as a short-term way to make money.

Show all 158 words (148 more)

Paychecks and Taxes, continued

Gross Income Total pay before taxes and other deductions are taken out.
Income Tax Governments may collect it on wages, tips, interest and dividends; not every state or locality has one.
Job A particular arrangement in which you do tasks for an employer.
Net Income What reaches your paycheck after taxes and other deductions come out; also called take-home pay.
Occupation A type of work with its own tasks, training, typical wages and settings; it can mean the same as career.
Overtime Working hours beyond the regular schedule, or the payment for them.
Pay Period The stretch of time an employee works before being paid, for example a week or a month.
Paycheck The check made out to you for the wages you worked for.
Payday The day on which employees get their wages.
Payroll Card A prepaid way to receive wages: the employer loads each paycheck onto it.
Payroll Tax Taken out of a paycheck; it pays for Social Security and Medicare.
Raise An increase in the amount of your wages.
Salary A fixed sum paid to an employee for a set period worked, such as each week or each month.
Tax Credit A dollar-for-dollar cut in the amount you owe the government when you file.
Tax Deduction An amount, often a personal or business expense, that lowers the income the government can charge you on.
Tax Refund Money the government sends back when your payments for the year come to more than you owed.
Taxes Required payments to governments, which use the money to provide public goods and services.
Tip An optional extra payment a customer gives a worker such as a food server; also called a gratuity.
Volunteer To do something helpful for other people without getting paid for it.
Withholding Money an employer keeps back from each paycheck and sends to the government toward the worker's taxes.

Budgeting and Spending 28

Advertising Posters, signs, commercials and radio spots that a business pays for to promote what it sells.
Afford To have enough money to bear the cost of something.
Bargain Something offered or bought at a price that favors the buyer.
Bill A notice of money owed for a service, like the one a cell phone provider sends every month.
Budget A plan for the money you expect to receive and how you will save it or use it over a set time.
Buy To get something by paying money for it.
Charity An institution, organization or fund set up to help people in need.
Cost-Effective Giving good value for the amount of money you paid.
Coupon A code or clipped slip that entitles the holder to a benefit, such as cash back or a gift.
Discount Money taken off the usual price.
Donate To give something, like money, food or clothes, to help a person or organization.
Expenses In a budget, the money going out; a phone bill that must be paid each month is one of them.
Frugal Careful and sparing in the way you use money or resources.
Goal An outcome you wish to reach in a specific amount of time.
Income Money made or received: wages, salaries, tips, commissions, gifts and more.
Lease A contract that grants the use of property for a set time in exchange for regular payments.
Needs Basic things people must have to survive, such as food, clothing and shelter.
Property Tax Charged on what you own, especially real estate, and sometimes on boats and automobiles.
Rebate You pay full price, then send proof of purchase to the maker or store and get part of the money back, often by mail.
Receipt A written record that a sum of money was received, such as the slip a store hands you.
Refund A repayment: money given back to the person who paid it.
Rent A payment a tenant makes at set intervals for the right to live in or use someone else's property.
Sales Tax Added at the register: a set percentage of the retail price of what you buy.
Spend To use money to buy goods or services.
Subscription An agreement to get a publication or service regularly, usually paid for in advance.
Wallet A flat case that folds and fits a pocket, for paper money and cards.
Wants Upgrades and other things that would be nice to have but are not necessary for living.
Warranty A maker's promise to pay for some repairs or services for a set time, usually a few years.

Banking 20

Account An arrangement with a bank that holds your money; checking and savings are two kinds.
ATM A machine that lets bank customers make basic transactions such as deposits and withdrawals.
Balance The amount of money in an account, or the unpaid amount carried from month to month on a card.
Checking The kind of bank account used to make deposits, pay bills and make withdrawals.
Credit Union A cooperative financial institution owned by its individual members.
Debit Card Plastic that pays a store with money straight from your checking account.
Direct Deposit Funds sent electronically into your bank account, credit union account or prepaid card.
Mobile Banking Managing your account from a smartphone or tablet without a teller; you can generally deposit checks this way, but not cash.
Money Order Bought for a set amount and used instead of a check to pay a business or another party.
Online Banking Managing your account on a secure website, without a teller; you generally cannot deposit checks or cash this way.
Overdraft When you do not have enough money in your account to cover a transaction, but the bank pays it anyway.
Paper Check A written order telling a bank to pay someone from your account.
PIN Short for personal identification number.
Prepaid Card You load money onto it in advance and then use that money; it is not linked to a checking account.
Statement A summary of how you used a credit card during one billing period.
Teller A bank worker who takes in and hands out customers' cash.
Transfer To move money from one account to another, which online banking lets you do.
Unbanked Describes a household with no checking or savings account at an insured institution.
Underbanked Has an account but also uses services like check cashing, a payday loan or a pawn shop loan.
Withdraw To take money out of an account.

Saving and Investing 24

Asset An item with economic value, such as stock or real estate.
Buying Power How many goods and services one unit of currency can purchase once inflation is counted in.
Capital Gain The profit from selling an investment for more than you paid for it.
Capital Loss What you take when you sell an investment for less than you paid for it.
Compound With this kind of interest you are paid interest on both the money you put in and the interest it has already made.
Diversify To spread investments among different companies or securities to limit losses if one market falls.
Emergency Fund Cash set aside only for unplanned costs, such as a car repair, a medical bill or a loss of income.
Interest A fee a borrower pays a lender for the use of money; a bank may also pay it to you on money you deposit.
Invest To commit money in order to get a financial return.
Liability Money owed, a debt or a legal obligation; more generally, a disadvantage.
Liquidity A measure of how easily you can get to your money and use it.
Maturity Date The day an investment, such as a certificate of deposit, is to be paid back in full.
Mutual Fund A company that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds and short-term debt.
Piggy Bank A child's coin holder shaped like a pig.
Portfolio The combined holdings of a mutual fund: all the stocks, bonds and other securities it owns.
Retirement Withdrawal from working life, especially on reaching a certain age; 401(k) and IRA plans are built for it.
Return The profit or loss on an investment.
Save To set something, like money, aside to use in the future.
Savings Account Held at a bank, it sets your money aside and pays you interest.
Savings Bond An interest-bearing security issued by the U.S. government for a set amount of money.
Savings Goal The amount of money you plan to put aside for a specific purpose.
Security An investment product such as a stock or a bond.
Share One unit of ownership in a company or in a mutual fund.
Stock A type of investment that gives people a share of ownership in a company.

Credit and Borrowing 20

APR The yearly cost of borrowing money, written as a percentage; the letters stand for annual percentage rate.
Borrow To receive something with the understanding that you will return it.
Collateral An asset that secures a loan; the lender can take it if you do not repay. For a home loan it is typically the house.
Cosigner Someone who signs another person's loan and becomes responsible for the debt.
Credit Card An open-ended loan: charge up to a set amount, carry an unpaid balance from month to month and pay interest on it.
Credit Limit The most a card company lets you charge on the card it issued to you.
Credit Report A summary of your loan paying history and open accounts that lenders read before deciding to lend to you.
Credit Score A number made by a scoring model from the information in your borrowing history.
Creditworthy Financially sound enough to justify being given a loan.
Debt Money you owe to another person or to a business.
Down Payment The first cash paid when a home or vehicle is bought on credit; it reduces the amount borrowed.
Grace Period The number of days you have to pay a card bill in full before finance charges start.
Lend To give something to someone with the understanding that they will give it back.
Loan Money that the borrower must pay back, generally with interest.
Minimum Payment The smallest dollar amount that must be paid each month on a loan, a line of credit or another debt.
Mortgage A loan used to buy a home, or to borrow against the value of a home you already own.
Owe To be in debt: to have money you must still pay to someone.
Principal The amount of money you originally received from a lender and agreed to pay back with interest.
Repayment Paying back money you borrowed.
Term A fixed length of time that something lasts, such as a five-year loan or a 30-year mortgage.

Insurance and Fraud 22

Beneficiary The person, charity, trust or estate named to receive a policy's payments.
Claim The covered person's request for payment after a loss that the policy covers.
Copay A fixed amount, $20 for example, that you pay for a covered health care service on top of what your insurer pays.
Data Breach When sensitive information is moved or disclosed to a party that is not authorized to see it.
Deductible What you must pay toward a covered cost before the insurance company starts to pay.
Fraud An illegal act in which people try to trick you out of your personal information and your money.
Identity Theft Using your name, Social Security number or card number without your permission.
Imposter A scammer who pretends to be someone you know or trust, like a sheriff, a family member or a charity.
Insurance An arrangement in which a company guarantees to pay for a specified loss, damage or illness in return for a premium.
Insured The person, group or organization whose life or property is covered by a policy.
Insurer The company that offers the policies and collects the premiums.
Medicaid A joint federal and state program that gives health coverage to low-income Americans, including children and seniors.
Medicare A federal health insurance program for people 65 or older and certain younger people with disabilities.
Moral Hazard The idea that people take less care when they are shielded from the consequences of what they do.
Out-of-Pocket Describes costs that insurance does not pay back, including deductibles and copayments.
Password A secret word, phrase or string of characters that must be given to gain access.
Phishing Trying to get your personal information by email or text, often by posing as a business or a government agency.
Policyholder The person or firm in whose name the protection is written; not always the one who is covered.
Premium The price you pay for an insurance policy.
Protect To make sure that somebody or something is not harmed, damaged or lost.
Scam A dishonest trick used to cheat somebody out of something important, like money; it can come by phone, email, mail or text.
Spoofing When a caller disguises the caller ID so the call seems to come from a certain person or place.

Paying for College 14

Certificate A credential for finishing a program of a few weeks to two years after high school; it is not a degree.
Contributor Anyone, such as a parent or spouse, who must give information, consent and a signature on the FAFSA form.
Degree What a college awards: an associate's for at least two years of full-time study, a bachelor's for at least four.
FAFSA The form a school uses to work out how much federal aid a student and family can receive.
Financial Aid Grants, work-study, loans and scholarships that help pay for tuition, housing, food, books and transportation.
Grant Aid for school that generally does not have to be repaid and is often based on need.
Post-Secondary Describes all schooling after high school, not just college.
Private College Higher education supported mainly by non-government funds; some are tied to a religious organization.
Public College Higher education run by elected or appointed school officials and supported by government funds.
Scholarship Money a student receives for academic or other achievements to help pay education expenses; generally not repaid.
Servicer The company that collects payments on a student loan and answers the borrower's questions.
Student Loan Money borrowed for school, either from the federal government or from a private lender such as a bank.
Tuition Money charged for teaching, above all by a college, university or private school.
Work-Study A federal program of part-time jobs that helps college students with financial need pay for school.

How this list was compiled: 158 personal finance words in 7 themed lists, chosen for this site. About 70 definitions follow, some word for word, the youth financial education glossary of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/educator-tools/youth-financial-education/glossary/, read on 2026-09-19; the rest are our own wording, checked against the same glossary and the American Heritage Dictionary. The two meanings of Bimonthly follow https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bimonthly, read on 2026-09-20. Licence: Word choice and lists: own work. Definitions taken from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau glossary are information created by the CFPB, which is in the public domain (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/privacy/website-privacy-policy/, read 2026-09-20).

How it works

This financial literacy word search opens on 16 of 24 favorites, from Budget to Scholarship. Seven themed lists follow a personal finance course, paychecks to paying for college. It is vocabulary only: no advice, and no bank or brand named.

Read the full guide

One list for each unit of the course

Under Start from a list, the 158 words sit in 7 themed lists: Paychecks and Taxes, Budgeting and Spending, Banking, Saving and Investing, Credit and Borrowing, Insurance and Fraud, and Paying for College. Pick the one your class is on. Paying for College holds 14 words, so at 16 per puzzle it gives all 14 and says so.

Plain meanings in place of the words

Tick Show clues, not words, in More options, and a personal finance terms word search doubles as a quiz. Each clue is a plain meaning checked against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's youth glossary: "What you must pay toward a covered cost before the insurance company starts to pay" leads to Deductible.

Only letters go into the grid, so Credit Score is hidden as CREDITSCORE and Out-of-Pocket as OUTOFPOCKET.
Grades 3 to 5: pick Easy Financial Literacy, 35 short words such as Earn, Save and Owe, and take words off the list until 8 are left.
High school: pick Hard Financial Literacy and press Hard. Sixteen terms such as Creditworthy and Withholding fit the opening grid.

Questions and answers

What grade is this financial literacy word search for?

Grades 3 to 12, by list. The opening favorites, such as Budget, Needs and Wants, suit grades 4 to 6. Credit and Borrowing, with APR, Collateral and Cosigner, and Saving and Investing, with Mutual Fund and Capital Gain, fit a high school course.

Which words are in the personal finance word search?

All 158 come from a school money course: Income and Expenses; Paycheck, Withholding and FICA; Overdraft and Debit Card; Compound and Portfolio; Credit Score and Mortgage; Premium, Phishing and Identity Theft; FAFSA and Scholarship.

How is this financial word search different from the economics one?

This one is personal money: paychecks, budgets, bank accounts, credit, insurance and paying for college. The economics word search is the school subject, with supply and demand, trade and markets. The two share 8 words, Budget, Debt and Loan among them.

When is Financial Literacy Month?

April in the United States: the Senate named April 2004 National Financial Literacy Month. Canada marks it every November. The opening favorites make a one-page warm-up, and the seven themed lists give a fresh finance word search for each week.

All 158 words

Paychecks and Taxes 30

Paychecks and Taxes, continued

Budgeting and Spending 28

Banking 20

Saving and Investing 24

Credit and Borrowing 20

Insurance and Fraud 22

Paying for College 14

How it works

One list for each unit of the course

Plain meanings in place of the words

Questions and answers

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