Financial literacy is meant to be basic stuff. For an example of how basic, here are eight questions from what is called the GFLEC Personal Finance Index. More on the index and the results in a moment, but take a moment to read the eight questions and look at the share of correct answers.
These eight questions are the public face of a longer 28-question survey, which has now been given to large groups for a decade. Paul J. Yakoboski, Annamaria Lusardi, Andrea Sticha, and Fran Mastry provide and overview and background in “A decade of tracking
financial literacy in America: Findings from the 2026 TIAA Institute–GFLEC Personal Finance Index” (June 2026).
For these eight questions, roughly half or less are answered correctly–a level that hasn’t changed much for a decade. Here’s a breakdown of the scores on the 28-question version of the test in the last decade. In more detailed breakdowns, some groups do better than other–for example, those who are older tend to do better–but no subgroup is especially covered in glory.
In the modern US economy, people have access to a wide range of financial decisions. Here’s a short list. Do you systematically look over your household budget and set some priorities, or does the money just vanish? How much credit card debt are you carrying over every month? Under what conditions is college tuition a good long-term investment? When buying a car, new vs. old, and borrow, pay in cash, or lease? How to search for a bank that pays higher interest? What is your credit score and how does it affect your options? Is sports gambling a fun way to spend some entertainment money, or a plan to build wealth? How large a house mortgage should you take out? Should you buy life insurance, or long-term care insurance? How much to put into a retirement account–and what kind of account? How should savings intended for shorter-term uses or an emergency fund be invested, as compare with savings intended for medium-term uses, or saving intended for long-term retirement? At what age should you start taking benefits from Social Security? Should you opt out of traditional Medicare in favor of a Medicare Advantage plan? After retirement, how much should you withdraw from your retirement account each year?
These questions don’t have cookie-cutter correct answers. But the answers can have substantial real-world consequences, and if you can’t answer the basic financial literacy questions, the chances of answering the questions in a way that works best for you are not especially good. Those with less financial literacy report spending more time worrying about financial questions–and have good reason to do so. Figuring out how to help people make informed personal finance decisions, from the high school and college classroom and on through the key financial decision-making nodes that life brings, is an undervalued social opportunity.
