Reference

Glossary: money & habit terms

● Updated August 2026  |  sources cited inline

Plain-English definitions for the terms used across this site.

Budgeting & money

Zero-based budgeting, assigning every dollar of income a job (spending, saving, or debt) until nothing is unassigned. Full explainer.

50/30/20, a budgeting rule splitting after-tax income into 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings and debt.

Plan-vs-actual, setting a planned budget per category then tracking actual spending against it and reviewing the variance.

Sinking fund, money set aside gradually for a known future expense (car, gifts, insurance) so it doesn't blow the budget when it lands.

Zombie subscription, a recurring charge you keep paying for a service you no longer use. How to find them.

Data aggregator, a service (e.g. Plaid, MX) that a budgeting app uses to read your transactions on a read-only basis; it cannot move money. More.

Section 1033, the CFPB Personal Financial Data Rights rule giving you the right to access and revoke third-party access to your financial data.

Habits & behaviour

Automaticity, the point at which a behaviour runs without conscious effort; the UCL study found it takes a median of 66 days.

Habit stacking, anchoring a new habit to an existing one: "After [current habit], I will [new habit]" (James Clear). Guide.

Never miss twice, the rule that one missed day is fine but two in a row starts un-building the habit; based on evidence that a single lapse doesn't reset progress.

Implementation intention, a pre-committed "if situation X, then response Y" plan; shown to improve follow-through (meta-analytic g = 0.336).

Resilience streak, a habit-tracker streak that survives one missed day rather than resetting to zero, aligning with "never miss twice."

Friction (behavioural), a deliberate small obstacle (a pause, a deleted saved card) that interrupts an impulse; the "one sec" study cut tempting-app opens by 57% this way.