Out of the blue, you receive a phone call from the IRS saying that you must immediately pay $5,000 or you will be arrested. What are the chances that this call is legitimate?
a. 0 percent
b. 50 percent
c. 75 percent
a. This goes for an angry phone call from the Social Security Administration, too.
Among women in their 50’s, which group is at greater risk of a lower standard of living in retirement, per a recent study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College?
a. Single women
b. Married women
b. One reason why, says the center, is that two-earner couples tend to under save for retirement. In about half of these couples, only one of these couples, only one of the earners has a retirement plan and may not save enough for both spouses.
Five years ago a violation for texting while driving would raise your insurance rates about 1 percent, the insurance website the Zebra reports. How much will it raise your rates now?
a. 5 percent
b. 10 percent
c. 15 percent
d. 20 percent
d. Your rates will rise an average of 20 percent, or $289, according to the Zebra-and more than 50 percent in some states.
You’re figuring out how to invest your retirement savings. How many individual stocks do you need to own to have what’s known as a diversified portfolio (the investment equivalent of not having too many eggs in one basket?
a. 15
b. 30
c. 55
d. 110
d. A 2014 study found you need at least 110 stocks for maximal safety. Buying broad-market mutual funds is an easier way to diversify.
according to a recent AARP Foundation survey, what percentage of people who had been direct sellers for a multi-level marketing company said they lost money as a result?
a. 27 percent
b. 37 percent
c. 47 percent
c. Twenty-seven percent said they broke even, and 25 percent said they made money.
Which of these activities leads to more home fires in the United States?
a. Cooking
B. Smoking
a. Smoking causes the most home-fire deaths, but cooking fires, which do an average of $6,600 in damage, are the most common home fires, reports the National Fire Protection Association. About a third of cooking fires get started when no one is in the kitchen.
At your local bank you have a $300,000 joint account with your spouse, $100,000 in CD’s in your name only, and in a safe deposit box, $50,000 in cash. A meteorite obliterates the bank, which fails. How much will the federal Deposit Insurance Corp. give you and your spouse?
a. $250,000
b. $350,000
c. $400,000
d. $450,000
c. The FDIC insures up tp $250,000 per person per account type. So your $100,000 in CD’s are covered, as are both your and your spouse’s $150,000 portions of the joint account (since each portion is insured up to $250,000). The FDIC, though, doesn’t cover contents of safe deposit boxes.
A mutual fund that you hold drops in value of by 20 percent. How much will it have to increase in value to return to its original price?
a. 15 percent
b. 20 percent
c. 25 percent
c. Say shares cost $100. After falling 20 percent, they’re worth $80. The $20 required to reach $100 is one-fourth of $80, or 25 percent.
Which of these two events has a greater chance of occurring: You win a $50,000 Powerball payout after buying one ticket, or you get struck by lightning sometime in the next year.
a. You will $50,000
b. You get struck by lightning
a. Congrats! The chances of being hit by lightning are 1 in 1.2 million, but your chances of winning $50,000 at Powerball are better. Sadly, you have only a 1-in 292-million shot at the jackpot.