Putting a Price on Financial Literacy
A new report claims that Americans lost nearly $1,000 last year due to a lack of financial literacy — and while that was less than the year before, the data seems a little . . . squishy. The report comes from the National Financial Educators Council, [i] which has been conducting this particular survey for several years now. [ii] They drew their conclusion from a survey of some 1,200 American adults between Dec. 24 and Dec. 28 who responded to the question, "During the past year (2025), about how much money do you think you lost because you lacked knowledge about personal finances?" Now, I’ve previously commented on the inherent unreliability of surveys based on self-reporting of financial matters — and this one, taken in the midst of the holiday season (and the aftermath of Christmas unwrapping) is surely no exception. Moreover, year-over-year comparisons of COMPLETELY different groups of people surely can’t be considered a reliable-trends benchmark...