Here you can find advanced conversation topics that are good for improving your speaking conversation skills. The topic here is money. Take into consideration that these are not meant to be serious topics and it is also not a promising idea to pry into the student’s life. It’s best to keep it light-hearted and whatever students are comfortable telling you is enough, as long as they are producing complete, correct sentences. Also, ask students to take their time and think, so they can give you longer answers instead of short ones.

There are a variety of money related themed questions you can ask and answer together!

1. Savings

1. Do you think it is important to save for the future? Why?
2. A lot of people say: “It is important to save for a rainy day”. What does that mean? Do you agree or disagree?
3. What are some effective ways to save money in our day to day lives?
4. Some people say it is better to live in the moment and start saving later. What do you think?
5. If you had the choice between going on holiday with your friends or saving the money, which would you choose? Why?
6. Are you saving for anything at the moment? What is it?
7. What are some bad money habits you could stop to save more for the future? Try to give me at least three bad habits you could cut.
8. Some people say you need money to make money. What do you think it means and do you agree or disagree?
9. Is it more cost effective to buy cheap things that might not last long, or expensive things that might last a long time?
10. Where is the best place to keep the money, you are saving? The bank, the stock market¹, in a business? What do you think?

2. Retirement

1. What age is the best age to retire in your opinion?
2. What do you plan to do after retirement?
3. Some people never want to retire for fear of being bored. What do you think?
4. Do you know anyone who is retired? What do they do with their lives?
5. Would you rather enjoy life now or worry about retirement? Why?
6. Some people delay traveling and vacations until they are older and work towards retirement, others prefer to travel while they are young. Which do you think is better?
7. When you retire do you want to have a calm peaceful rest of your life, or do you want to do all the things you didn’t have time to do when you were young?
8. What are a few items in your bucket list²? Try to name at least 5.
9. What are some strategies you can employ now, to make sure you have a pleasant³ retirement?
10. When you retire, would you consider moving into your children’s house to help take care of their house and your grandchildren?

3. Insurance

1. When you buy something, do you always buy insurance for it?
2. In America, people need to pay for health insurance to be able to see a doctor. How does it work in your country?
3. If you buy life insurance, it pays your family a lot of money in case you die. Do you think that’s a good idea?
4. When you buy plane tickets, you can pay extra for travel insurance. If you have to cancel your flight, it’s free. Do you usually pay extra for that insurance?
5. There is also house insurance. Do you pay for house insurance? Will you pay for it in the future?
6. Some people say paying for insurance is a waste of time. Do you agree or disagree?
7. Have you ever regretted not buying insurance for something? What happened?
8. Some famous people get their bodies insured, such as their lips, legs, or arms. Do you think it’s a good idea, why?

4. Long term and short-term goals

1. Do you prefer to enjoy the moment or prepare for the future?
2. Can you give me some examples of short- and long-term goals?
3. Do you have any future goals or ambitions⁴? What are they?
4. Does your family agree with your future goals? What do they think?
5. Some people say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” What does that mean, and do you agree or disagree with this statement?
6. Where do you keep your plans? Do you write them down or keep them in your head? Why?
7. When you are in a relationship or married, you have to think about your partner’s plans. Do your plans include them?
8. What would you do if your partner’s plans weren’t aligned with yours?
9. Some people say you can’t plan when you find love. Do you agree or disagree?
10. Are you planning to get married and having children?

5. Expenses

1. What are some of your biggest expenses in your day-to-day life?
2. Are there any expenses that you consider useless? Would you like to get rid of them?
3. How do you usually pay for things? Cash or credit?
4. When you buy things do you go for quality or quantity? Cheap or expensive?
5. Is it better to work a lot and buy a lot or work less but buy less? What do you think?
6. There is a popular expression that says” “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” What does that mean, and do you agree?
7. What are some expensive things that you would really like to buy?
8. Have you ever bought anything and then regretted it? What was it?
9. Do you consider yourself financially savvy⁵? Why or why not?
10. Look at this table, which expenses do you consider useless, and which do you consider essential:

6. Lifestyle

1. What are the biggest differences between the lifestyle of a wealthy person and an unwealthy person?
2. People say: “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.” What do you think it means and do you agree or disagree?
3. If you were a millionaire, how would you spend your time?
4. People say: “The best things in life are free.” Do you agree or disagree?
5. Another popular expression is “You can’t buy love.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
6. Is there such a thing as too much money? How much is enough and how much is too much?
7. Is there anything you would like to change about your lifestyle?
8. Have you ever considered doing an MBA (Master’s in Business Administration)? Why or why not?
9. Do you think money can buy happiness? Why or why not?
10. Do you think expensive restaurants are better than cheap restaurants? What do you think are the biggest differences between the two?

7. Taxes

1. Do you pay a lot in taxes? Why?
2. Does your country have a lot of taxes? What are your country’s taxes for?
3. Do you think wealthy people should pay more in taxes than unwealthy people? Why or why not?
4. If you could avoid paying taxes, would you? Why?
5. A lot of big companies around the world base their headquarters in small developing countries to avoid paying taxes. What do you think about that?
6. Do you think the government is spending your tax money well? Why or why not?
7. In some countries you need to pay a lot in taxes (E.g. Sweden, Japan, Austria etc…) and some countries have low taxes (Macedonia, Qatar, Kuwait etc…). What do you think are the differences between those two types of countries?
8. Some countries increase taxes on products such as cigarettes, chocolates, candy, and fast food to discourage consumption. What do you think about that?
9. Other countries increase taxes on cars, housing, electronics, jewelry, etc… Because they say they are non-essential items and so it’s ok to increase the taxes on them. What are your thoughts on that?
10. What do you think is better for the economy, increasing or decreasing taxes? Why?

8. Investing

1. What do you think is better, investing or keeping your money in the bank? Why?
2. Where did you learn about investing? Did you read a book, take a class, or learn from your friends and colleagues?
3. Have you ever heard of day trading? What is it and what do you think of it?
4. Some people say that investing is like putting your money in a casino. Do you agree or disagree?
5. When you invest, do you prefer to invest in small companies or big companies?
6. Have you ever lost money while investing?
7. Do you think schools should teach students about the stock market? Why or why not?
8. Is investing part of your retirement strategy?
9. Some people learn about investing on YouTube and on blogs. Do you think that’s a good place to learn?
10. Using online apps everyone can invest, but it is possible to lose a lot of money doing it. Do you think investing should be more restricted? Why?

9. Online Shopping

1. Online shopping is immensely popular right now, do you shop more online or in person?
2. What websites are popular in your country? Which do you use?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of shopping online?
4. A lot of people might feel tempted to buy things they don’t need online, has that ever happened to you?
5. Have you ever shopped online for secondhand items?
6. Some people complain about scams⁶ and quality issues online. Do you think it can be a problem when shopping online?
7. When shopping online, do you compare prices with other websites?
8. What are some things that you will never buy online? Why?
9. There is an addiction called being a shopaholic. Are you a shopaholic? Do you know anyone who is?
10. If you were to start a business, would you start a brick-and-mortar⁷ business or an online business?

10. Charity

1. Have you ever donated to charity? Which charity and why that one?
2. Have you ever volunteered to help? Why or why not?
3. There are poor countries and there are rich countries. Do you think rich countries should help poor countries?
4. When people donate to charity, what percentage do you think goes to the people in need and what percentage goes to managers and staff?
5. In your opinion, what is the best way a charity can help people in need?
6. In your opinion, which charities do you think are better, environmental charities (E.g., Greenpeace, Ocean conservancy, WWF, etc…) or humanitarian charities E.g., Red Cross, World food program, UNICEF, etc…)? Why?
7. Have you ever donated blood? Why or why not?
8. Are there any charities you wouldn’t support? Why?
9. What are some alternative ways of helping people that don’t involve charities? Try to think of at least one.
10. Do you think charities are important? Why?

Definitions

1. Stock market: It is a place where you can buy stocks or shares in a company and if the company grows, you can sell the shares and make money.
2. Bucket List: It is a list with everything you want to do before you die. It could be skydiving, going to a rock concert or whatever you want.
3. Pleasant: An action or object that is nice and enjoyable.
4. Ambitions: Your future goals or plans to move up in life. It could be getting a promotion, starting a successful business or anything that involves progressing professionally.
5. Financially savvy: Someone who is good at dealing with money and finance related things.
6. Scams: When someone lies to you to get your money.
7. Brick-and-mortar: A type of shop which exists in a physical location, not online.

I hope you enjoyed those advanced conversation topics, if you have any suggestions, leave a comment below.

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