House Scorecards
The House Dictionary
The terms behind the scorecards — and behind The House Spread, the game that teaches them by consequence. One plain sentence each, plus what to watch for when the term shows up in real life.
Dividend
A slice of a company's profit, paid in cash to the people who own its parts.
Watch for it when a payer's history — years of payments through bad markets say more than this year's amount.
Dividend Growth
Payouts that rise year after year — the raise is the point, not the starting size.
Watch for it when a payer raises like clockwork while its yield looks boring next to flashier names.
Compounding
Income earning income of its own: payouts buy more parts, the new parts pay too, and the snowball rolls faster every year.
Watch for it when reinvested payouts start paying noticeably — usually years in, then all at once.
Volatility
Prices swinging up and down. The swing moves the price; it never moves your parts.
Watch for it when the chart turns red and the urge to “do something” shows up with it.
Paper Loss vs Realized Loss
A loss on screen is paper. It only becomes real when you sell.
Watch for it when you're about to sell at the bottom to make the red number stop moving.
Price ≠ Income
The price of what you own and the checks it pays are two different lines.
Watch for it when the price falls but the check lands on schedule, unchanged.
Dividend Raise
When a payer increases the amount it pays you.
Watch for it when a holding announces a payout increase — small money, large signal.
DRIP
Dividend reinvestment — payouts buy more parts, which pay payouts of their own.
Watch for it when a payout is big enough to buy whole new parts instead of sitting as cash.
Return of Capital
A “payment” that is mostly your own money handed back — the melt dressed as income.
Watch for it when a yield looks too good for what the payer earns — part of the “income” is your own money coming back.
Distribution Rate
The payout divided by the price — a headline number that says nothing about where the money came from.
Watch for it when an ad leads with a giant monthly percentage and says nothing about the fund's total return.
FOMO
The fear of missing out — buying because a price is running, not because it pays.
Watch for it when a coworker's pick is up 180% and doing nothing feels like losing.
Speculation vs Income
Betting a price will jump pays nothing while you wait. Income pays you as you go.
Watch for it when a position pays you nothing while you wait for the price to be right.
Diversification
Owning several different payers, so one name's bad year is a slice of the House, not the House.
Watch for it when one name's bad headline would move your whole month's income.
AFFO
Adjusted funds from operations — the cash a rent payer actually has available to pay you.
Watch for it when a REIT's rent money is spoken for by repairs and debt before any of it reaches you.
Emergency Fund
Cash kept outside the market for real-life bills, so a bill never forces a sale.
Watch for it when a real-life bill lands in the same week the market is down.
Forced Sale
Selling because a bill is due, at whatever price the day offers.
Watch for it when the due date, not your judgment, picks the day you sell.
Covered Call
Renting out your parts' upside for a steady fee — the income is real, and so is the ceiling.
Watch for it when the monthly check is fat and steady — check what the rally paid everyone else.
Capped Upside
When part of a rise belongs to someone else, your gains stop at a set line.
Watch for it when your payer stops rising at a line while the rest of the market keeps going.
Dividend Cut
When a payer reduces its payout — the check shrinks or stops.
Watch for it when coverage thins for quarters before the announcement — the cut is the last step, not the first.
Payout Ratio / Coverage
How much of what a payer earns goes out as payments — and whether those payments are covered by real earnings.
Watch for it when a payer hands out more than it earns and calls the difference a yield.
Concentration
Too much of the House riding on one name, so one cut hits everything.
Watch for it when one holding supplies most of your income — its bad year becomes your bad year.
Time Horizon
How long the money can stay invested. A long horizon is what lets a drop recover.
Watch for it when money you'll need next year is sitting in something built for the next decade.
Stop-Loss
An order that sells automatically when a price falls a set amount. It protects the number on the screen — by making the loss real at the bottom and stepping aside for the recovery.
Watch for it when you want a guarantee the red number can't get bigger — read what the guarantee costs at the bottom.
Capital Preservation
The promise that the principal figure never falls. It protects the number, and quietly charges for it — in locked-in losses, missed recoveries, or inflation.
Watch for it when a product promises you'll “never lose” — the fee, the cap, or the inflation is where the loss moved.
Risk Mitigation
Never promising the price won't fall — arranging things so a fall can't ruin you: income that keeps arriving, spread, a cushion, and time.
Watch for it when the plan still works at −30% — income arriving, bills covered, nothing forced.
Lump Sum / Opportunity Cost
One check now, once — or a payment that keeps arriving every month.
Watch for it when someone offers to buy your income stream for one check — price what the stream pays over ten years first.
Ex-Dividend Date FIELD NOTE
The first day a stock trades without its next dividend. The price typically drops by about the payout that morning — which is why “buy today, dividend tomorrow” is a wash, not a trick.
Watch for it when a headline says “buy today, dividend tomorrow” — the dividend was already in the price.
Definitions are House-plain on purpose: one sentence, the way the framework uses the word. Deeper treatments live on the scorecards themselves. Nothing here is financial advice. Read the full disclaimers.