Do you know when to start drawing Social Security payments? What about a safe amount to draw down from savings?
If you are hemming and hawing, you've got company. In a newly released survey, 80 percent of the respondents received scores of 60 or lower on financial questions about retirement. Just 20 percent received what amounted to a passing grade.
The survey, part of the larger Retirement Income Literacy Survey conducted for The American College of Financial Services, was given this summer to 1,019 Americans ages 60 to 75 with at least $100,000 in assets. It covered everything from Social Security and Medicare to financial concepts, life expectancy and investment strategy.
Americans' lack of knowledge about making a nest egg last is surfacing at a time when financial literacy nationwide is coming up short. In a study or retirement readiness published in 2011 by the National Bureau of Economic Research, only half the respondents could correctly answer a question on diversification and risk, and only two-thirds appeared to understand compound interest. And a 2013 survey by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found that financial literacy actually declined slightly between 2009 and 2012, despite widespread efforts to boost financial smarts.