El Cinco De Mayo and Five Questions About Financial Freedom

May 5th, 2008 | Stacey | Financial Independence, Financial Freedom Opportunities, Financial Freedom

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Five questions about financial freedom are dedicated to el Cinco de Mayo on today, May 5. This famous holiday celebrates battle victory in Mexico leading to their Independence Day on September 16, with many parties all over the country.

While May brings thoughts of celebrating freedom, Financial Literacy Month just passed in April. A test recently sponsored by the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy revealed that many of our high school and college students are not as wise about financial matters as they should be. Adults fared poorly on the test, too.

Consider the basic content of five true and false questions that were missed by over half the students in high school:

A credit report is free only if you are turned down for credit because of a report. False – you can get a credit report for free every year.

Your should invest in stocks for 18 years to get the most growth for your baby’s college education instead of using bank saving accounts of U.S. government savings bonds. True, when wisely invested.

A thief steals your credit card, charges $1,000 and you notify the issuer of the card right away it is missing so you are not responsible for any charges made by the thief. False because you must pay the first $50.

You do not pay income tax on interest made from bank savings accounts. False, you pay taxes unless your income is low.

The damage to your car is covered by liability insurance if you cause a car accident. False, only collision insurance covers your vehicle if you are at fault and not liability.

With knowledge is power and greater financial freedom for your future. The younger we learn, the more wealth and security we can create.