Quiz: do you know your money jargon?

Many of us will have a DMF in our car but unless there is a problem we will be happy ignorance of what the acronym means.

” Let’s just say it’s worth some people spending a little time brushing up on the jargon.”

My previous post was suggesting that not knowing some acronyms is not a sign of financial incompetence. Simply you have not the need to know at this point in time. Making readers feel inadequate about this “lack” is not helpful.

This is a helpful article:
http://www.which.co.uk/money/savings-and-investments/guides/different-types-of-investment/are-fund-charges-eating-into-your-returns/

I am glad it is a light-hearted quiz. Perhaps the comment on people who were tested in January needing to brush up on their jargon needed a smiley. : )

Badly. Wear the dunces’ hat Patrick.

We know your strategy by now. 🙂 Now how about a quiz about something more interesting than financial jargon.

I think the best we can hope for is a clear explanation of financial jargon and some organisations do this much better than others.

It’s like instruction manuals, which we are discussing in another Convo. Some are clear and others leave a lot to be desired.

Might have been on special offer, wavechange. At least she had an “authorised overdraft”. Hope she isn’t economising on food – £5 doesn’t buy much and she presumably had no cash. A bit precarious.

I see we have the same answers, Malcolm. I wrote mine on the back of an envelope yesterday, so I’m not cheating.

My approach with financial matters is to assume the worst, though as you say it’s best to check anything you are unsure of.

I guess Catherine did her food shopping in Aldi or Lidl.

I agree with you, though as you say, 10 probably should be B, but knowing some banks…

Maybe why that’s why there is answer C.

My answers: abbbc cabcc

My father was interested in financial matters and was a good teacher. Unfortunately I find the subject boring, though I can cope if I put my mind to it. Let’s carry on in partnership to push for better quality goods and better consumer protection. 🙂

wavechange – agreed! 🙂
John – acronyms are like any other symbols, more easily assimilated (once you know what they mean) when repeated in documents than the full text. What I hate is when you have got to search for the expanded text of the acronym, and worse still when it is not defined so you struggle to invent what it might mean. I had a pension circular the other day with an acronym UFPLS. It was “Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sums” and at least it was defined. not that I fully understood it.

There is a danger of identical acronyms having totally different meanings, as you seem to be able to invent them willy nilly. Perhaps there should be an ISO (International Standards Organisation) standard where you must apply for registration and a crystal clear definition of your proposed acronym.
LOL. SWALK. TTFN

Thanks Malcolm. I am fairly unfamiliar with a lot of the current financial acronyms because, thankfully, I have not had to worry about loans or overdrafts or life assurance and I stick to simple things in the world of insurance and money. Once I know what the acronym stands for I can usually work out what it means. There are various acronym-finder websites that often have multiple extrapolations for each combination of letters [especially if it is not UK content only] so one has to have a very good idea of the context. Most acronyms acquire authority through repetition and entering common parlance [like BBC, BMW, HSBC, Plc] and many people would struggle to recite the long form. There are others that we see every day [like http, url, LED] that no amount of repetition makes familiar in extension, because we probably don’t need to know, and financial jargon seems to be generally in that bracket, except we do need to know: “AER” – is that like “a.e.t.” in football?

BTW : You might have noticed that I had a little dig at the intro to the Conversation on the CMA’s action in respect of universities’ compliance with consumer law which at no point in around 500 words said what the initials CMA stood for. The editor subsequently put it in the footnote but still managed to get the name wrong [it’s Markets, not Market]. Dum spiro spero.

As well as EAR’s there is also ARM’s in the banking industry, translated (Adjustable Rate Mortgage,) more commonly known as a VRM (Variable Rate Mortgage) or FRM (Floating Rate Mortgage). Whether banking terminology is veering towards SOC (Sensorimotor OCD) is questionable, the treatment for which is ERP (Exposure and Response Therapy). This must be the answer to some of the big four banking problems!

Gosh thats handy – I will never forget the difference between Equivalent Annual Rate and Annual Equivalent Rate. And it still leaves room for acronyms ERA and ARE to be generated.!

If you can avoid debt you don’t need to worry about APR and EAR, unless they turn up in a quiz.

Oops! ……… For all those who are gifted with the abilty to think “outside of the box” you will no doubt be aware of the missing link. ERP should read “Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy.” Apologies.