Financial Literacy

How Financially Literate Are You? Take a Quiz and Find Out!

How Financially Literate Are You? Take a Quiz and Find Out!

Financial literacy is my passion. While I don’t expect everyone to share my enthusiasm for the topic, I do want them to recognize the role it plays in their lives. We value reading, writing and arithmetic because we generally use those skills daily. But we also make money decisions every day and often without any real education to guide us.

I’ve put together a brief quiz using questions from the Jump$tart 2006 Financial Literacy Quiz to test your financial knowledge. The High School seniors who took the exam averaged 52.4% correct answers.

Your Turn

Let’s see how you compare!

Take the Jump$tart Financial Literacy Quiz.

How Did You Do?

If you passed—Congratulations! You’re on the right track, but there is still work to be done.
If you didn’t pass—You are not alone. Let this serve as a wake-up call.

Assess Your Finances

  1. Are you living within your means? Find out by subtracting your annual expenses from your total net income. You can use my budget worksheet to help you calculate this.
  2. What are your debt obligations? The most common are mortgage, car loans, credit cards and student loans. Do you know what compound interest is? How it works for you? Against you?
  3. Are you paying your credit card debt in full every month or only the minimum? The average American household carries more than $5,000 in credit card debt*. Do you know how late payments and minimum credit card payments affect your long-term financial well-being?
  4. If you are spending more than you earn, what expenses are you willing to give up to help you eliminate debt?
  5. Do you know how much money you need to save in order to retire? A million? More or less? How do you know?

Some of you might have felt a little defensive reading these questions or have little desire to figure out if you are living within your means. This was my intent. I wanted you to see which questions made you feel some discomfort or tension. Those are strong indicators of the areas that need some work.

I would encourage you to reread these questions and honestly answer them without judgement, especially if they made you uncomfortable. Thanks to credit cards, it’s very easy to fund a lifestyle beyond what we earn and without really understanding the repercussions of doing so, but unfortunately, debt always catches up with us.

Financial Literacy is Within Your Reach

The first step to becoming financial literate is understanding your current reality. You cannot skip this step because it forms the foundation of your financial house. We all make money decisions every day and understanding where we are helps us make make mindful choices. The next step is figuring out how we got here, which I will discuss next Monday.

Shannon

*Average Credit Card Debt Falls, Late Payments Rise Yahoo News, February 20, 2013

The Heavy Purse Store is now open! My new downloadable Money Club Workbooks are now on sale. Each workbook provides five targeted lessons to help you raise Financially Confident Kids. Please check them out in The Heavy Purse Store.

Photos courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net.

Leave a Comment

Comments

  1. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    I like the test. I felt like I was in school again =)
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      Excellent! I figured it would be fun to test people's knowledge. :)
  2. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    That test was fun. I passed and only missed a few because I misread them. Oops. Thanks for sharing that quiz Shannon!
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      I did the same thing too. :) It didn't surprise that so many kids did poorly on it. I'm sure many concepts and terminology were foreign to them so they probably guessed on a lot of answers. Glad you enjoyed it!
  3. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    That was a cool test. I love ones that make me think a little and even make me do a little math. I got a 7, I misread the savings account one. :)
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      Thanks, John! I tried to pick of few of the harder questions. :) I didn't want to make it too easy!
  4. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    That's a great quiz and there's lots of room for improvement for me :) It was a real eye opener and I learned some new stuff too.
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      Thanks, Corina! You are not alone! I'm glad it was an eye-opener for you as we all have room to grow and improve. Financial literacy is an ongoing process.
  5. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    Putting together a short quiz is such a great idea. Unfortunately for me they were US related so I wasn't able to complete them.
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      Sorry Sicorra! I didn't think about that when I used Jump$tart's questions. I can definitely understand how that would make the test difficult. :)
  6. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    6/8! I got the federal laws wrong.
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      Great job, Pauline! I can understand why you would get those questions wrong. Probably very different in Guatemala!
  7. Justin
    Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    Thanks for making this test. I misread two, I really should get to sleep.
    Too few people understand the importance of financial literacy.
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      Lots of misreading going around! We wouldn't to make it too easy! :) Definitely agree too few people recognize the importance of financial literacy. Hopefully, we can help change that!
  8. Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
    Great quiz! The federal regs are very interesting - great selection of questions!
    • Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
      Thanks Tony! It's definitely fun to test our knowledge!! :)
  9. Thursday, April 4th, 2013
    The thing that interests me about personal finance is that there is always something new to learn and a better way to do things. You could honestly spend a year just learning about personal finance-related topics and information and still have a whole lot more to learn. Definitely excited to dive into some of these topics over the next few months!
    • Thursday, April 4th, 2013
      Absolutely! Personal finance is always evolving and you need to stay nimble to thrive. What's great with the PF community is getting everybody's perspective and their desire to educate their readers. Love it!
  10. Friday, April 5th, 2013
    Great test. I really wish they had taught basic financial skills in high school.
    • Friday, April 5th, 2013
      Thanks Marissa! I appreciate you stopping by and commenting. It's my wish too and it appears our wish may be granted soon, check out this post - A New Day in Financial Literacy.
  11. Saturday, April 6th, 2013
    I'm pretty solid in the financial literacy sense. I hold myself to a high standard and try to help others with it as well. Money isn't everything - unless you're struggling!
    • Monday, April 8th, 2013
      Wonderful! Too few people have a solid understanding of personal finance, so we definitely need people sharing their knowledge and motivating others to learn more. Money definitely isn't everything, but it seems like so many are obsessed about it without really understanding it. :) Thanks for stopping and commenting. I appreciate it!
  12. Alan@escapingmydebt
    Sunday, April 7th, 2013
    Well that was fun. I missed just the last question. I did not know about the $50 thing.
    • Monday, April 8th, 2013
      Thanks for stopping and commenting, Alan. I appreciate it! The last one caught a lot of people, so you are not alone!
  13. Sunday, April 7th, 2013
    I didn't know you had to pay $50 if your credit card was stolen! Learn something new every day.
    • Monday, April 8th, 2013
      That one got a lot of people, I think. I'm glad my quiz was able to help people people brush up on their knowledge. :)
  14. Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
    Great test, missed 9 questions and learned alittle more about what I don't know. So greatful for all I am learning each day from you and your website....opening up our minds to learn eliminates the fear and fuels life changes that keep us young, a grandmom
    • Wednesday, April 10th, 2013
      Thanks, Mom. :) You continue to teach me so much and I'm glad I can return the favor. Love you!
Shannon Ryan SHANNON RYAN, CFP®
  • Meet Shannon

    "As a Certified Financial Planner, it is my passion to help individuals and families build a healthy relationship with money. I look forward to helping you raise financially confident kids.” - Shannon Ryan