Easy come, easy go

¹

1. Things easily acquired may be lost just as easily.

easy come, easy go

²

1. A phrase suggesting lack of concern over how things turn out, and particularly over money: “She never took things very seriously; ‘easy come, easy go’ was her motto.”

Notes

This saying is often used after something has been lost.

Idioms and Phrases

Readily won and readily lost, as in Easy come, easy go—that's how it is for Mark when he plays the stock market . This phrase states a truth known since ancient times and expressed in numerous proverbs with slightly different wording ( lightly come , lightly go ; quickly come , quickly go ). The adverb easy was substituted in the early 1800s.