The human brain is a marvellous thing but it does not seem to have evolved to cope with high finance. I’ve written before about the economist and financial literacy expert, Annamaria Lusardi. One of her findings is that one-third of Americans over the age of 50 failed to answer this question correctly: “Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 per cent per year. After five years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow: more than $102, exactly $102, less than $102?”
人類的大腦是一個神奇的造物，但它似乎沒有演化到能夠遊刃有餘地應對極其複雜的財務計算。我之前曾撰文介紹過那位經濟學家兼理財知識專家——安娜瑪利亞•盧薩爾迪(Annamaria Lusardi)。她發現，在50歲以上的美國人中，有三分之一都不能正確回答以下問題：「假設你的儲蓄賬戶中存有100美元，利率爲每年2%。如果你將資金留在賬戶中生利息，5年後你認爲賬戶中的餘額將爲多少：多於102美元，剛好102美元，還是少於102美元？」