10 basic questions absolutely anyone should be able to answer about their money

Strelka Institute for Media

It's your money. Can you answer the ten easiest money questions ever?

1. What is 2 + 2? (That's a warm up question.)

2. How much money do you have?

3. How much do you earn each month?

4. How much debt do you have?

5. How much money do you spend each month?

6. How much do you spend each month on debt payments only?

7. How much money are you saving each month?

8. How much is in your emergency fund?

9. What is your net worth?

10. What's your plan?

Bonus question to make up for question 1: How many months until you are debt free?

How did you do?

I was talking with The Wife today about how so many people are so bad with money and how so many finance books and websites are waaaaaaaaay to complex for the average person.

I said something brilliant like, "Maybe instead of getting more complex we need to dumb it down even more."

If so many people are making money mistakes we don't need more complex money teaching, we need less complex money teachings!

Talking about reverse mutual funds and backdoor interest retreats isn't helping. We need the basics!

We need to dumb it down and keep dumbing it down until we fix the problem. (We also need a different phrase to use, like "smart down?" Nah, that doesn't sound right either.)

If you can nail the basics month after month, the complex stuff will take care of itself.

If you can't nail the basics, the complex stuff won't matter anyway, because you will never get there.

If you can't answer these ten money questions, your homework for today is to be able to answer them and be in bed by 10:30 … like a boss!

NOW WATCH: Here’s what scientists think aliens could actually look like