Financial Words Your Clients May Not Understand

Despite the Great Recession being less than a decade ago, only 67% of Americans know what a “recession” is, says the Knowledge Academy.

In that vein, we recount an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee where comedian Jerry Seinfeld was talking with fellow comic Amy Schumer in a Bronx diner about the comedy profession. Seinfeld, giving his take on it, says, “You spend all your time trying to cogitate … .” He abruptly stops and breaks into laughter at Amy, who momentarily excuses herself to take a fake phone call from her manager to mask the fact that she’s looking up the word “cogitate,” which means to think deeply about something.

What Schumer acted out jokingly is what some consumers secretly want to do when they talk to finance professionals, or even finance enthusiasts.

The Knowledge Academy, a U.K.-based global provider of training courses, analyzed data from internet-based market research and data analytics firm YouGov to survey 1,135 adults to gauge which financial terms Americans understand or struggle with the most.

“Every industry is riddled with jargon, none more so than in the tricky world of finance,” said Joseph Scott, a spokesperson for the Knowledge Academy. “It can therefore feel like a confusing minefield when dealing with financial terminology.”

The words or terms that 70% or more of respondents were the most comfortable with were: “savings account” (88%), “credit union” (76%) and “net worth” (72%), followed by “401(k),” “asset” and “liability” at 70% each.

The other terms Americans were most confident about the meaning of were “principal” (68%), “fixed-rate mortgage” and “recession” (both at 67%), “APR (annual percentage rate) and “stocks” (both at 65%).

“Americans feel confident enough to know what ‘net worth’ represents; usually established by separating one’s ‘assets’ (e.g. homes, cars, jewelry, etc.) from any ‘liabilities’ they may have (e.g., credit card debt, cars loans, mortgages, etc.),” the report stated.

The financial terms Americans were least confident about the meaning of were “amortization” (36%) and “liquidity” (37%). Surprisingly, “mutual fund” was next at 39%, which tied it with “Roth IRA.” Those were followed by “capital gains and losses” (40%), “endowment” (42%), “stock options” (43%), “asset allocation” (44%), “index fund” (49%) and “bitcoin” (52%).