Annamaria Lusardi, one of the leading academic lights of financial literacy, has begun a new Financial Literacy Center “to develop and test innovative programs to improve financial literacy and promote informed financial decision-making.” This year, the Center will research workplace education for new hires, people’s knowledge of social security benefits, retirement planning, and decision-making among low-income and minority groups.[%comments]
One Small Step for Financial Literacy
TAGS: finance
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I clicked on the link and took the 5 question quiz on the front page of the website. Being an accountant with a MBA I got all 5 questions right. Of all the people who took the quiz only 10% got them all right.
That is freaking sad. How can people be so dumb about finances? Go to the local library and read a couple of books. Heck look at a couple of wedsites. No wander all I hear on the radio is companies trying to get people to call who have 10K in credit card debt.
A wonderful idea. But why not start by seeing how much progress she can make with students from the ranks of Financial Services Executives?
wonder what the politics are, e.g. “ok jimmy, remember- social security is a commie program that steals money from young citizens and gives it to old freeloaders”
The most significant problem with this approach is that many contracts and other documents are written in a manner which are difficult for lay persons — especially the poor — to comprehend deliberatly. with the motivation for few people to actually read.
Note the usually ‘small print.’ Often some begin to read the first paragraph — don’t comprehend it — and stop reviewing the document(s).
It is interesting to note that most legislators are lawyers and they purposely write confusing laws which are in their interest or favor the persons who contribute to them.
Why is the U. S. tax code thousands of pages? It is the result of lobbyists giving monies to legislators which favor
corporate interests and the very rich.
Great news! Having promoted financial education in over 30 states to more than 250,000 children at the elementary and high school level, I can tell you this welcome news.
Sam X Renick
Award Winning Financial Education 2001
http://www.itsahabit.com
I clicked on the link and took the 5 question quiz on the front page of the website. Not being an accountant and without an MBA I got all 5 questions right.
Let’s not kid ourselves – the quiz is easy for anyone with a modicum of pop financial knowledge.
However, I too am disheartened by the lack of common financial knowledge in our society. Just another example of the dumbing down of the American public
Any reason this story did not mention that the Center ( and it’s two sister centers at Wisconsin and Boston College) came into being through the sponsorship of the Social Security Administration.
FinanceDog.com conducted a national study of the financial literacy of U.S. managers. The average was 38%! Yes, the financial literacy of managers is dismal. We have been teaching finance to non financial managers in Fortune 1000 companies for over 10 years, and we’ve seend that they are smart and want to learn, but have never had the opportunity to learn some of the basics that are key to success in business. If you want to test yourself, check out the free quiz on http://www.financedog.com