the.com/nest egg
Money you pretend not to touch so future you doesn't starve.
means A sum of money saved and set aside for future needs, usually left to grow untouched.
from From the real farming practice of leaving an egg (sometimes a fake porcelain or wooden one) in a hen's nest to encourage her to keep laying there. The literal egg became a figurative one by the 1600s, with the saved money playing the role of that planted egg — something left behind to prompt more accumulation.
- origin
- farmers left a fake egg to encourage hens to lay
- psychology
- works because spending it feels like theft from yourself
- inflation risk
- cash nest eggs quietly shrink if left uninvested
- rule of thumb
- size matters less than never cracking it early