Test Your Money and Investing IQ

You can win one of six valuable prizes by participating in our “Test Your Money and Investing IQ” blog contest – just enter your answer in the comments box below by midnight Monday, November 14.

 Bank on Yourself financial questions to answer

At a dinner party recently, I sat next to a retired business owner and we got into a conversation about money and finances.

 Bank on Yourself financial questions to answer

In response to one of his questions, I mentioned an important principle of finance, at which point he turned to me and said, “I’m a CPA and an MBA and I’ve never heard of that!”

Actually, it’s fairly common that I meet highly educated people who are unaware of some of the really critical basics of how money and finances work.

Funny thing is that I think many of our subscribers know these principles, even if they don’t have alphabet soup after their names.

Applying a little logic and common sense (which is admittedly in short supply in our society today) is usually all that’s needed.

And to prove my point, I’m holding a contest to see how many of our subscribers can answer the questions below correctly.

If you answer even one of these questions correctly and/or insightfully, you can win a prize.

I know that people deepen their understanding more when they participate and articulate their thoughts, so I decided to “ethically bribe” you to take a shot at it by holding a contest.

Here’s all you have to do to enter the contest…

Bank on Yourself Test Your Money and Investment IQ contest winners and their prizes

Just type in your answer to any one or more of the five questions below, no later than Monday, November 14, at midnight.  If you want, you can comment on someone else’s answer to qualify to win.

Bank on Yourself Test Your Money and Investment IQ contest winners and their prizes

After the contest ends, our team will pick the best entry (best because it’s correct, insightful, entertaining or a combination of those).  That person will win a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate.  And two runners-up will be chosen to receive their choice of a $25 Dining Gift Certificate, or a personally autographed copy of my best-selling book.

Three more winners will be chosen at random – all entries containing at least one correct answer will be entered into a random drawing for another $100 Amazon Gift Certificate and two prizes of your choice of a $25 Dining Gift Certificate or autographed book.  (Sorry – U.S. residents only.)

Although there are five questions, you don’t have to answer all of them to qualify.

So test your money IQ now by answering as many of these five questions as you want:

number1If you finance a $30,000 car through a finance company, your actual cost for the car is the money you spend on it, plus the interest you pay, less the value of your trade-in at the end of your loan repayment period.

Question:  If you pay cash for a car, what’s your actual cost for the car?

If you have a $20 stock and it goes up by 40%, how much money did you make on that stock?  (Hint:  This is about a key financial principle, not a math question.)

number3 According to Morningstar, Inc., the top-performing mutual fund for the last decade (ending December 31, 2009) enjoyed an 18% annual return.

However, the typical investor in that fund wasn’t so fortunate.

Question:  What was the annual return of the typical investor in that top-performing fund?  And why was their return so different from the return reported by the fund?

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number4 What percentage of mutual funds, financial representatives and investment advisory services underperform the overall market?  And why?

number5 You could have $10,000 in a mutual fund that reports an average annual return of 25% for four years… and at the end of the fourth year end up with only the $10,000 you started with.

How is that possible?

So there you have it – just answer one or more of these questions, or comment on someone else’s answer, no later than midnight, Monday, November 14, to get in the running to win one of the six prizes!

Comments

We’ll announce all the winners in a blog post later this month.

So scroll down to the comments box below and start typing!  (Note – all comments are moderated, so there will be some delay before your comment appears.)

Beware the "Behavior Gap": Interview with Carl Richards

I’m delighted to share this fascinating interview with Carl Richards with you.  Carl writes a weekly essay for The New York Times “Your Money” section and has been a Certified Financial Planner for 15 years.  His witty sketches have appeared in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Morningstar and The New York Times.

Carl Richards
Carl Richards, the Behavior Gap™

Over the years, he noticed that the actual real-life returns the average investor gets are dramatically lower than the return of the average mutual fund.  He named this phenomenon the Behavior GapTM and began devoting his energy to explaining why the Behavior Gap exists and what constitutes smart investor behavior.

Carl recently shared his surprising insights, tips and strategies with me in an audio interview.  I hope you’ll listen to it today – I know you will find it very helpful!

You can listen to the interview by pressing the play button below, or you can download the entire interview as an Mp3 and listen on your own player or iPod…

You can also download a transcript of the interview here.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this interview…

  • Why 80% of all actively managed mutual funds and investment advisors underperform the overall market
  • The #1 biggest mistake individual investors make over and over again… and why most will keep making it
  • The keys to being a smart investor
  • How to determine if you should be investing in equities at allfear-greed-cycle-high
  • The real key to happiness (it isn’t what you might think!)
  • How to practice “radical self-awareness” so you control your money rather than letting it controlling you
  • Why happiness is directly related to how much you focus on the things you can control
  • How to increase your wealth and happiness by focusing your energy on three things you do have control over!

You can listen to the interview by pressing the play button below, or you can download the entire interview as an MP3 and listen on your own player or iPod…

You can also download a transcript of the interview here.

Improve Your Financial Picture…

To find out how much your financial picture could improve if you added Bank On Yourself to your financial plan, request a free Analysis. If you’re wondering where you’ll find the funds to start your plan, the Bank On Yourself Professionals are masters at helping people restructure their finances and free up seed money to fund a plan that will help you reach as many of your goals as possible in the shortest time possible.