Geld moet rollen

money is there to be spent / you must keep the money moving
[phrase]
[geld moet rol-len] 

When you really should not be spending any money but still do, you can tell those who are concerned that ‘geld moet rollen’: money is there to be spent. The phrase can also be used more formally to say that in order to support the economy you must keep the money moving.

Examples:
“Ze zeggen dat geld moet rollen, maar dan moet je wel eerst inkomen hebben!” 
(“They say that money is there to be spent, but that does require one to have income to begin with!”)

“Deze keer trakteer ik, jij hebt vorige keer betaald, weet je nog?” – “Ah joh, dat maakt me niks uit; geld moet rollen, toch??” 
(“This time it’s my treat, you paid last time, remember?” – “Oh I don’t care about that; money is there to be spent, right??”)

“Nikki, pas je op dat je niet te snel je geld uitgeeft? Anders haal je misschien het einde van de maand niet!” – “Ach, als het op is, is het op! En dan zie ik het dan wel weer. Ik vind dat geld moet rollen!” 
(“Nikki, be careful and don’t spend your money too fast. Otherwise you may not make it to the end of the month!” – “Oh well, when it’s gone it’s gone. And then I’ll deal with it when time comes. I believe that money is there to be spent!”)

“Vind je het gek dat het slecht gaat met de economie als iedereen de hand op de knip houdt. Geld moet rollen, zeker in deze tijden!” 
(“It’s not surprising that the economy is going bad when nobody is spending any money. You must keep the money moving, especially in these times!”)

Expressions:
– “Geld over de balk gooien/smijten”: to waste money. Lit. “to throw money over the beam”.
– “Geld laten rollen”: to spend money freely.
– “Veel geld stukslaan”: to spend money lavishly.
– “De hand op de knip houden”: to not spend any money / to deliberately live on a tight budget. I believe ‘knip’ refers to the traditional locking mechanism (see picture).
– “Geen cent te makken hebben”: to be broke / to hardly have any money.

Related words:
– Geld: money [noun] [het geld, de gelden].
Munt: coin, currency [noun] [de munt, de munten]
– Rollen: to roll [verb] [rolde, gerold].
– Uitgeven: to spend [verb] [gaf uit, uitgegeven].
– Spenderen: to spend [verb] [spendeerde, gespendeerd]. More formal synonym of ‘uitgeven’.
– Inkomen: income [noun] [het inkomen, de inkomens].
Blut: broke [adjective].

8 thoughts on “Geld moet rollen

  1. Regarding money I love the Dutch expression “voor een kwartje op de eerste rij willen zitten”! That’s where you see that the Dutch are not (necessarily) thrifty.

    • 🙂 I think the original expression is ‘voor een dubbeltje op de eerste rang willen zitten’ which is ‘2,5 times thriftier’ 😉

  2. Hi,
    I’m a French guy who learns Dutch as an autodidact. I have recently discovered your nice website.
    I love languages and I think Dutch-learning can be very interesting in order to improve my skills in English and German.

    I have a little question concerning the expression Geld over de balk gooien/smijten. What’s the pratical difference between gooien and smijten ? In which case will I use the first instead of the latter ?

    Bedankt voor je antwoord !
    Alexandre

    • Hello Alexandre – Note that learning Dutch may negatively influence your learning of German because there are significant and very confusing differences 🙂 Better is to only learn Dutch 😉
      Regarding your question, ‘smijten’ is ‘to throw with force and deliberately with the objective to hit another object’. Examples:
      – Alexandre smijt boos zijn tas in de hoek.
      – Alexandre gooit zijn tas op zijn bed.

  3. Hi Sander,
    Leuk zeg al die uitdrukkingen!
    Alleen een vraag:
    – “Geen cent te makken hebben”: to be broke /to hardly have any money.
    –> maken met één k, toch?
    Groeten,
    Phil

    • Hi Phil – good observation! It is actually with two k’s and also I believe the only instance where we use ‘makken’. The word has a different origin than ‘maken’.

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