Another test

[Payin-the-Toll]

Saw this on another site, but don't remember seeing it here.http://moneycentral.msn.com/quiz/retirement-iq-quiz/home.aspx

[W2R]

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.

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

[OAG]

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.

[Coach]

96. Probably a good thing since I'm pulling the plug in a few days.

Coach

[Khan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire 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. The average score for my age group (55 to 64) is 59, which is pretty hair-raising. The average score for women is worse.

Same for me.

I knew most of the answers from reading here.

[ziggy29]

92 here.

[smileydog]

Another 88

[TeeRuh]

92; surprised at how low the averages are. (Lot's of people will obviously not retire early.)

[Independent]

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?".

[Bestwifeever]

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.

[REWahoo]

Feever, there is a "review answers" link to the upper right on the score page...

84.

[Bestwifeever]

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.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Feever, there is a "review answers" link to the upper right on the score page... 84.

84 also. Warped Great minds...

[Chester_A._Riley]

92. What does it mean?

[aaronc879]

As ususal i'm worst(or tied for worst) on this site but well above the general population with a score of 72%.

[Sue J]

I got an 88. I thought my wrong answers would be about annuities, but I did fine on those.

[Martha]

Got a 100% but I had to think about the annuity questions.

[jazz4cash]

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.

[Koolau]

96% and just AR enough to wonder what question I missed. Not AR enough to take it over (probably multiple times) to see if I can figure it out!

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? 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.

[harley]

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.