Glossary
Cash flow
Cash flow is the movement of money into and out of your accounts over a period of time. Positive cash flow means income exceeded spending; negative cash flow means spending, debt payments, transfers, or investments exceeded incoming money.
Cash flow explains what happened between two balance snapshots. Income, bills, everyday spending, transfers, debt payments, savings contributions, and investment activity all affect whether the month added flexibility or consumed it. That makes cash flow one of the most practical signals in a personal finance app.
A positive month does not automatically mean every choice was ideal, and a negative month is not always a failure. Annual bills, planned purchases, or large transfers can make a month look unusual. The important step is separating expected movement from problems that need attention.
Nethaven brings cash flow into the same workspace as budgets, subscriptions, debt payoff, savings goals, and net worth. That helps users connect daily spending to long-term progress instead of treating account balances as isolated facts.
Use this in Nethaven
This term connects directly to how people review money in the app. See budgeting features for the related workflow.
Explore Budgeting featuresRelated terms
Transaction categorization
Transaction categorization assigns each transaction to a spending or income category such as groceries, rent, utilities, dining, subscriptions, or transfers. Accurate categories make budgets useful because they turn raw account activity into patterns you can review and act on.
50/30/20 rule
The 50/30/20 rule is a budgeting framework that splits take-home income into needs, wants, and savings or debt payoff. A common version assigns 50% to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings, but the ratios are best treated as a starting point.
Liquid assets
Liquid assets are assets you can turn into usable cash quickly without a major price discount. Checking balances, savings, money market funds, and some brokerage holdings are liquid; homes, vehicles, collectibles, and locked retirement funds are less liquid even if they add to net worth.