The A, B, Cs of Money: S

SAVING: The act of taking money you have not spent and putting it somewhere for use at a later date.

SAVINGS ACCOUNT: The place you put money when you want to accumulate it but also want to have easy access to it. If you've still got your money in a traditional bank's savings account paying you 0.25% you're not a smart saver. If you can get 2% in a high-interest account at another institution, why aren't you?

SCHOLARSHIP TRUST: This is another name for a pooled RESP and you should definitely avoid these products. The government did research that shows they're expensive and inflexible. Stick with an individual or family RESP available at a bank near you.

SECURED CREDIT CARD: A credit card on which you must leave a deposit in order to qualify for the card. If you want a balance of $500, you'll likely have to place $1,000 on deposit as security. These cards are useful for people who have no credit identity or those who are re-establishing a credit history after a bad bout of boo-boos.

SHARE: A legal document that represents ownership in a corporation. If you buy a share, you're a shareholder.

SHORT SALE: When you sell a stock you do not yet own at today's price because you think the price will go down and you'll be able to buy it back later for a profit, that's called am short sale, or selling short.

SPREAD: The difference between two interest rates or yields. Also the difference between the values of two currencies. If you put your money in the bank and the bank pays you 0.5% interest, but then lends your money to another customer at 5.5%, the difference of 5% is the spread.

SPOUSAL RRSP: An RRSP to which one partner in a relationship contributes on behalf of the other partner. The contributor gets the tax deduction. The planholder makes all the decisions relating to the plan, including how the money will be invested and when it will be withdrawn.

STAGGERING MATURITIES: Sometimes referred to as "laddering", this is the process of dividing investment dollars into different pools and having each pool mature at a different time to average out rate changes.

STOP LOSS ORDER: A preset price at which you want to sell an investment so that you can limit the downside. Sometimes an investment's value drops so fast it skips over a stop-loss order and your SOL.

STRIP BONDS: Bonds have two parts: the capital portion and the coupon portion which reflects the annual interest payments.  Typically strip bonds trade at a discount and mature to par value. The owner of a strip-bond is entitled to the bond's par value at maturity, but not the annual interest payments. Sometimes called zero-coupon bonds.

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