Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Who wants to be a millionaire? YOU, duh! If you have caviar dreams and champagne wishes, take a look at this article. The cliff notes version of it is that a study was done comparing a couple's basic math skills and their wealth. The findings were a bit shocking. Couples who BOTH scored well on a simple numeracy (mathematical reasoning test) attain more wealth. How much more? When both spouses got all the questions right their wealth averaged 1.68 MILLION dollars! WHOA!

What were these questions? Must have been pretty tough, right? Maybe not. Take a look:

1.) If the chance of getting a disease is 10 percent, how many people out of 1,000 would be expected to get the disease?

2.) If five people all have the winning numbers in the lottery and the prize is $2 million, how much will each of them get?

3.) Let's say you have $200 in a savings account. The account earns 10 percent interest per year. How much would you have in the account at the end of two years?

Can you figure them out? I'll give you a hint: pencil and paper will do just fine. Most of these kinds of questions could be found in an 8th grade or Algebra textbook. 

What I take away from this article is this: You don't have to take Calculus 3 to make it in life. BUT you do need to have a good grasp on basic math and algebra concepts if you want the best chance to be a success. You read the article- when both spouses missed all three questions their wealth was MUCH lower. And before you think a $200,000 wealth total is a lot, consider that this is the total of all the things that a person has- money in the bank, cars, house, savings, etc. This amount of wealth is a small house and maybe a family car or two.

So be a smartie. And remember to marry one, too.  

P.S. I am sure you figured those questions out, but here are the answers: 1.) 100   2.) $400,000  3.) $242