Financial IQ Test

Don and Tom salute high-schoolers who tackled the National Personal Finance Challenge, then test listeners (and each other) with the same nine-question quiz—covering basics like principal vs. balance, Roth RMD rules, CDs, vesting, inflation risk, callable bonds, and limit orders. Call-in segments dig into real-world money puzzles: whether to sink home-sale proceeds into a new mortgage at today’s 7 % rates, how (and whether) to value a military pension, rolling a TSP, and a head-scratcher about wildly swinging “management” fees inside a Fidelity IRA. A quick detour touches on Don’s upcoming birthday before they wrap with practical takeaways: know your income gap first, keep fees transparent, and remember—it’s “losing money safely” if cash just languishes.

0:04 Why everyone needs a working knowledge of money

1:22 National Personal Finance Challenge shout-out & why only 0.1 % of high-schoolers compete

2:04 Quiz Q1 — defining principal

4:01 Quiz Q2 — Roth vs. traditional IRA RMD rules

5:10 Invitation for listeners to tackle the quiz live on air

7:38 Quiz Q4 — why CDs pay more (funds locked for a term)

8:57 Quiz Q5 — what “vesting” really means

9:59 Quiz Q7 — parking cash in a sock = inflation risk

12:33 Quiz Q8 — callable bonds explained

13:51 Caller Hillary — use equity to pay down a 7 % mortgage or invest instead?

16:33 Liquidity vs. rate trade-off and psychological comfort of a lower payment

18:43 Model-airplane museum banter & show phone line reminder

20:46 Caller Justin — valuing a pension and TSP rollover strategy

23:45 Start with income needs, then size savings; why keeping TSP is fine if it’s your only IRA

28:13 Caller John — Fidelity “management fee” swings; how to pin your advisor down

33:25 Caller Will — cosmic birthday musings & the age of the universe

36:51 Quiz Q9 — limit orders, and Tom flunks Series 7 trivia

40:35 How few teens get real money education & resources to close the gap
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