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Americans are about their money skills, but the numbers tell a different story. 

The , developed by the TIAA Institute and the Stanford University Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, poses 28 questions covering everything from budgeting and borrowing to risk and retirement. U.S. adults only correctly answer about half of those questions, a level that has never risen above 52% since the survey began in 2017.

According to a recent report from , the average score fell to just 47% this year, the lowest result in the index’s 10-year history and a clear sign that financial literacy is not just low but deteriorating. 

That decline is especially worrying because the index is designed to measure everyday knowledge, not obscure trivia. The questions test if people understand concepts like interest, inflation and retirement saving, which are all central to decisions Americans face throughout their lives. When adults consistently miss half of these basics, it suggests many don’t know what they’re doing as they navigate student loans, credit cards, mortgages and retirement plans.

“Certainly, it’s disturbing,” , head of the TIAA Institute, told the Times. However, he noted that the results are not particularly surprising. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, many Americans have faced ongoing financial strain, driven in part by rising inflation that has pushed up prices of everything from food to fuel. 

At the same time, the growing presence of financial influencers across social media has added to the confusion, making it harder for individuals to identify reliable and practical advice, he said. 

“It may be that financial stress is crowding out our cognitive ability to learn,” Kolluri told the Times. “We have not enough time and too much information.”

Americans are confident in their money skills

Despite consistently weak scores, many Americans say they feel comfortable with their money skills. A 2024 found that about half of U.S. adults believe they know a great deal or a fair amount about personal finance, and three-quarters are very confident that they can locate their credit report. 

There is a gap between perceived and actual knowledge. When people overestimate their abilities, they may be less likely to seek advice, take a class or even read the fine print on a loan, per the Times. 

A lack of personal financial literacy can lock households into costly mistakes, such as carrying high-interest debt, the report warns. 

The questions Americans get wrong

The Personal Finance Index breaks down financial literacy into categories. The weakest link that draws the most incorrect answers is understanding risk. The index poses questions about the relationship between risk and return, the role of diversification and the dangers of concentrating savings in a single company. Barely a third of respondents answered risk-related questions correctly in recent years. 

Respondents also struggled when the questions turned to retirement. On a set of retirement-focused questions that also covered Social Security and Medicare, U.S. adults answered only about 37% correctly on average.