Written By: Karen Deis
Do you call yourself a Mortgage Planner? A Certified something or other?
While “advanced” mortgage planning is a good thing, a survey just released by the Center of Economic & Entrepreneurial Literacy (CEEL) shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans are unable to answer the most basic questions when it comes to credit scoring, interest rates and borrowing!
So ask yourself this question? Is your mortgage planning advice too advanced? Do you need to teach the basics first? I have nothing against the financial planning/mortgage planners and their complicated systems. What I want to share is that a lot of people don’t even know the basics. In fact, there are only 7 states that require students take a college course on Personal Finance!
- 70% did NOT know that their FICO Score is the most important factor in obtaining a home loan.
- Only 16% knew that they could withdraw money from their Roth IRA to buy a home or for education expenses.
- 97% could not identify the “percentage” of the service fee when making a $20 ATM withdrawal.
- 50% thought you had to pay capital gains taxes if you made a profit on your primary residence.
It took me a while, but I found the website where you can share with everyone—where they too can take the Financial Quizzes. There are 10 different topics with 10 questions each. They are:
Home Ownership
Credit Card Debt
Profit Margins
Credit Ratings
Entrepreneurship
Savings/Investing
Federal Spending
Social Security
Wages/Benefits
Taxes
Read the suggestions on how to use these quizzes and the name of the website. Create an easy, 10-week email campaign on financial literacy.
Hey, even take the quizzes yourself. You’ll be surprised as to what you may not know!
Read More
