The only way to make them ring the bell to you is to attack them proactively. Write them down, memorize them and use them in your own writing or conversation. That is what you were exactly doing, a nice little paragraph. You can’t say you master a word/idiom until you can use it without any mistakes and still that way a couple of months or even years down the road.
Two friendly pricks for you to check :)
"Financially broken" – should be “ financially broke” broken vs. broke
"was backed only by a government promise "– you missed “up” backed up