A new book published by Bob Sullivan and called Stop Getting Ripped Off says we constantly get ripped of in the marketplace because the American people are generally very bad at math. Sullivan wrote his books after many people approached him and asked what is a Mutual Fund after reading his last book about capitalism.
He looked at the studies published by the Department of education and realized how bad we are at math. Here are some numbers of where we are in terms of adult literacy in regard to calculation and math.
Math Skills
Nearly 58 percent of U.S. adults can't calculate a tip. Nearly 78 percent of U.S. adults can't calculate mortgage interest. About 22 percent of our adults can't calculate a weekly salary from an hourly pay rate. These numbers are from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. No wonder we get ripped off and screwed in the marketplace.
Also, as Matt Lauer puts it we tend to go for things that are too good to be true. This is a dangerous combination. In his conversation with Lauer author Sullivan brings a good example. Four or five friends go out for lunch. When the bill comes and they have to split it most people have trouble calculating what their share is. At the end they throw some money on the table and that's how it's solved. However, what if you are buying a car or need to make a big decision about your mortgage rate?
Sullivan suggest all of us need to know the answers to the following basic question.
The first is what is your retirement account balance. The second is what are the interest rates on your credit cards. The third is how much money did you spend last month. The fourth is how much would you need to survive for three months.
As the country currently has ten percent of unemployment Sullivan suggest people taking temporary work. He says in the 21 century temporary work is not a negative term. He suggest people being some entrepreneurial and think of temporary work as an opportunity to earn some cash and do something else when their hours are cut in their full time jobs. He says this is an opportunity to do what you always wanted to do, yet never had time.
In fact HULIQ.com currently has some work-from-home opportunities for entrepreneurial people who love to write news and research. Contact info @ huliq.com for further information.
To be able to outsmart the system and keep your hard-earned cash and finally stop being screwed financially people need to improve their financial and mathematical knowledge. Developing some entrepreneurial skills is a must in this economy as well.
Written by Armen Hareyan
HULIQ.com
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