Another test

The test was a little tough for me, because some of the topics won't affect me (since I am not married, not self employed, and so on).

I got an 88 and a compliment: "You have a solid understanding of the issues needed to plan your own retirement. You have a clear grasp of the concepts and understand many of the regulations concerning your nest egg." Good thing, since I am planning to retire in November. :LOL:

The average score for my age group (55 to 64) is 59, which is pretty hair-raising. :eek: The average score for women is worse.
 
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76: Assume the fact I am 68 years old and have never been exposed to a 401k or never earned NEAR the upper limits for IRA's has something to do with such a low score.:(
 
96. Probably a good thing since I'm pulling the plug in a few days. :)

Coach
 
Want2retire said:
The test was a little tough for me, because some of the topics won't affect me (since I am not married, not self employed, and so on).

I got an 88 and a compliment : "You have a solid understanding of the issues needed to plan your own retirement. You have a clear grasp of the concepts and understand many of the regulations concerning your nest egg." Good thing, since I am planning to retire in November. :LOL:

The average score for my age group (55 to 64) is 59, which is pretty hair-raising. :eek: The average score for women is worse.
Click to expand...

Same for me.

I knew most of the answers from reading here.
 
92; surprised at how low the averages are. (Lot's of people will obviously not retire early.)
 
I got a 96, but I thought the questions were both limited and depressing.

"Depressing" because 44% (11) of the questions related to all the complicated rules we've created for provided multiple tax incentives for retirement saving (IRA, 401k, Keogh, 403(b), Roth IRA). Why would anyone want a tax code like the one we've got??

"Limited" because of the general topics covered. In addition to the tax questions, there are 5 questions on products that only life insurance agents can sell (annuities and life insurance).

All those questions on taxes and annuities squeezed out topics like: "How do you determine how much you should save?", "... when you should start saving?", "... how much you'll spend in retirement?", "... where to invest your savings (bonds, stocks, CDs, TIPs, foreign, managed vs. indexed, ..)?", " ... how to deal with the unknowns of inflation, investment returns, and mortality during retirement?".
 
72--since I don't see anywhere on the site to check our wrong answers, I don't know why I got a C minus. But ignorance is bliss, I keep telling myself.
 
Ah, see how ignorant I am--I looked below my score for a results button. I'll take it again (and probably score lower)....

ETA: Most of my errors were re annuities, which we're not planning to purchase, and a couple of Roth vs. traditional IRAs.

I agree with Independent about things getting overly complicated.
 
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As ususal i'm worst(or tied for worst) on this site but well above the general population with a score of 72%.
 
I got an 88. I thought my wrong answers would be about annuities, but I did fine on those.
 
Wow....I aced!

You scored: 92
How you compare
The average score for MSN Money readers is 58
The average score for men is 59
The average score for women is 56
Average scores by age
15-24 46
25-34 53
35-54 57
55-64 59
65 and over 59
Congratulations! You understand many of the finer points involving retirement planning and are fully capable of putting those ideas into action. You can get more information by reading MSN Money articles on planning for retirement, saving for retirement, living well in retirement and estate planning.
 
96% and just AR enough to wonder what question I missed.:mad: Not AR enough to take it over (probably multiple times) to see if I can figure it out!:D

I must say, this test seemed rather easy (missed question not withstanding). Frightening to see the 'averages' in the followup. I didn't see any real trick questions, but you did have to stay on your toes to catch the "all the above" type answers. If I'd rushed through it (too AR for that I guess) it would be easy to miss a few.

I wonder how those selling "products" for retirement would fare:confused:? Wonder if they would do poorly on the products they don't sell? Hey, this could be a test to give your FP - if you have one. Personally, I finally figured out I could learn stuff as well as they could and I always found myself to be a better fiduciary where MY welfare was concerned. Not knocking all FP. I would actually consider using one in the future. But, now I would be asking pointed and specific questions - sort of to let them do the math and as a sanity check. e.g., asked accountant to calc. how much I could convert to Roth from Trad. IRA and stay within 25% bracket. That kind of stuff is worth it to me since I don't do my own taxes and he has all the figures on his computer.
 
I got 100%. I owe it all to this board, Ed Slott, and all the BS I had to go through with Megacorp when I retired. Oh yeah, and reading that "Natalie starts investing" parable in Money 20 or 30 times.
 
TeeRuh said:
92; surprised at how low the averages are. (Lot's of people will obviously not retire early.)
Click to expand...

64. Guess it's just ignorance.

Or the fact that I'm retired, under 50 yo, can't buy any more IRAs, may not ever see SS, and no way would touch an annuity.

No questions on tax credits for full time students, not interested.
 
80. Some I just didn't know because they aren't applicable to my life (like the income limit for a non-working spouse IRA contribution and the length of time you must be married to collect spousal SS) and some I just disagree with the ostensibly "correct" answer. For example, the allegedly correct answer on "why should you not buy an annuity in a 401k, 403b, etc account" was "all of the above" -- i.e. it is already tax sheltered, the commissions are high and the surrender charges are high -- but in my opinion, the correct answer should be only "because it's already tax sheltered" since the other factors exist even in a non-tax sheltered account.
 
84 - of the 4 I got wrong, one of my replies was just plain stupid by me :nonono:

Thanks for posting the quiz.
 
I am 74 and have been retired 20 years so the world has moved on
since I was vitally interested in the nuts and bolts. At least I beat
my age, but not by much.

Cheers,

charlie
 
100, but I had to think about the annuity questions and just guessed on the life insurance question.

I think one of the questions is not strictly correct:
Once I retire how much money can I earn without losing benefits
Correct answer: If you are over 65, there is no limit on how much you can earn.

But, the answer should have been If you are over your full retirement age, there is no limit on how much you can earn.

From the SS page: "While you are working, your earnings will reduce your benefit amount only until you reach your full retirement age."
 
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