How to Measure Your Financial Literacy US News

Post on: 16 Март, 2015 No Comment

A quiz from FINRA lets you find out just how well you understand modern money management.

Do you think you have a solid handle on how money works. Do you want to take a pop quiz to find out? The FINRA Investor Education Foundation offers the following five-question financial literacy test:

1. Suppose you have $100 in a savings account earning 2 percent interest a year. After five years, how much would you have?

Answer choices: More than $102, exactly $102 or less than $102.

2. Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account is 1 percent a year and inflation is 2 percent a year. After one year, would the money in the account buy more than it does today, exactly the same or less than today?

Answer choices: More, same or less.

3. If interest rates rise, what will typically happen to bond prices?

Answer choices: Rise, fall, stay the same or no relationship.

4. True or false: A 15-year mortgage typically requires higher monthly payments than a 30-year mortgage but the total interest over the life of the loan will be less.

5. True or false: Buying a single company’s stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.

If your mind shut down after seeing the numbers in the first question, you’re not alone. (You can see the correct answers below.) Only 14 percent of Americans surveyed in FINRA’s National Financial Capability Study, which surveyed over 25,000 adults in 2012 and 2009, got all of the answers correct on the quiz. Younger Americans scored particularly badly. Just 24 percent of millennials (defined as those between the ages of 18 and 34) could answer at least four of the questions correctly. Among Gen Xers, between the ages of 35 and 49, 38 percent answered at least four correctly, and almost half of baby boomers (ages 50 to 66) could do so. The silent generation, age 67 and over, outperformed all other groups, with 55 percent answering at least four correctly.

While measuring financial literacy is notoriously challenging, this quiz has been widely embraced and used by financial literacy experts. “Numeracy is an important aspect of financial literacy, and this quiz captures that,” says Gary Mottola, research director for investor education at FINRA. People who can answer these questions correctly also tend to score better on other financial wellness measures. including having emergency savings, handling credit cards responsibility and saving for retirement.

It’s no surprise then that the group that scores lowest on the quiz – millennials – also struggles most on other measures of financial capability. According to FINRA’s study, 23 percent of millennials spend more than their income, and just one in three have a rainy day fund. They’re also more likely than other generations to use costly non-bank borrowing methods, such as payday loans, pawn shops and tax refund services. Among millennials, 43 percent report using one of these methods within the last five years. In contrast, just 21 percent of baby boomers said the same.

Despite their relatively low levels of financial literacy and financial security, millennials report higher levels of financial satisfaction than Gen Xers (23 percent versus 17 percent). Mottola attributes this finding to the fact that millennials had their financial expectations shaped by the recession, so they are content with less. On the first three questions of the quiz, which were developed by Annamaria Lusardi and Olivia Mitchell almost 10 years ago, 30 percent of Americans answered correctly, compared with 53 percent of Germans and 45 percent of people in the Netherlands. (In Japan, just 27 percent answered them correctly.)

Also concerning is that women tend to get lower scores on the financial literacy quiz than men. When it comes to answering at least four quiz questions correctly, 29 percent of millennial males were able to do so while just 18 percent of millennial women could. Millennial men are also more likely to have rainy day funds and non-retirement investment accounts than millennial women.

Ready to find out how you scored? Here are the correct answers to the quiz questions:

1. More than $102.

2. Less.

3. Fall.

4. True.

5. False.

For a full explanation of the answers, you can head to FINRA’s site and take the quiz yourself. If you score poorly, you can take comfort in knowing you’re not alone – and also find the motivation to brush up on your math and financial skills, since it could make a big difference in how well you manage your money.


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