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Senior executives routinely share and discuss financial data with marketing directors, operations chiefs, and other direct reports. But how much do those managers really understand about finance? Recently investigated this question, and the news is not good.

Asked to take a basic financial-literacy exam—a test that any CEO or junior finance person should easily ace—a representative sample of U.S. managers from C-level executives to supervisors scored an average of only 38%. A majority were unable to distinguish profit from cash. Many didn’t know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet. About 70% couldn’t pick the correct definition of “free cash flow,” now the measure of choice for many Wall Street investors.

Does this lack of financial literacy matter? From individual managers’ point of view, it surely does. Those who can’t speak the language of business can’t contribute much to a discussion of performance and are unlikely to advance in the hierarchy. They may be caught off guard by financial shenanigans, as many employees at Enron were. They will be unable to gauge the health of a prospective employer. A chief financial officer of a small manufacturing company often asks candidates for engineering positions whether they would like to review the past two years of the company’s financials. None yet have taken him up on the offer—knowing, perhaps, that they could make neither head nor tail of the statements.

Financial illiteracy in the managerial ranks can be a crippling weakness for the organization, as well. Imagine a business that is attempting to increase operating cash flow, as many firms are at the moment. Even experienced executives, accustomed to managing a P&L, may be unaware of the many balance-sheet levers they can pull to affect cash—decreasing inventory, for example, or reducing days sales outstanding.

The first thing you may have to do with your sales force is help them understand the difference between making a sale and making a profitable sale. Unfortunately, this is a widespread problem. Nearly two-thirds of most sales reps think that discounts offered by them had no effect on gross margin. If you don’t understand what goes into a number, you can hardly know how to improve it.

Why don’t people tell their bosses that they don’t speak finance? It’s the usual human reluctance to admit ignorance. In a survey of a different sample of managers, it was asked what happens in meetings when people don’t understand financial data. The majority chose answers reflecting that reluctance, such as “Most people don’t ask because they don’t want to appear uninformed in front of their boss or peers.”

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Buy a house and get a 15 year fixed mortgage rather than a 30 year mortgage. Saves a lot of money in interest over the life of the loan. If you must get the 30 year mortgage, verify that there is no prepayment penalty. This gives you the flexibility of paying it off early if you are able. But it also gives you the option of making lower payments when times are tough...

When you start your job, get an HSA account and not FSA and get the high deductible health insurance. It will lower your tax bracket and the money is yours to use. You also earn 40% in most cases after 10k!!!

Never buy a car brand new! I’ve watched Escalades go from 100k (new) to 35k four years later.

Get you an LLC (incorporate your name!!) and run it as an S Corp. Remember Jay-Z quote “I’m not a Businessman I’m a Business Maaaaaaaan....” Let that sink in.

Build business credit! The loans are bigger and the interest rate is lower.

Get a business bank account (in most cases this costs around $500 to start). Some people got two stimulus checks (one from Trump and one from the SBA). Also no fees.

Go to Community College first and transfer into a four year college (unless you have scholarships to help mitigate the costs) as a Junior. School is a power move you must be able to secure the bag. Majors in STEM will always be needed, are in high demand and the skills can directly help the black community.

Get with your peers from your graduating class and others together at homecoming on one day for two hours to plot and strategize how we can move our communities forward (commerce, politics, education, small businesses, real estate, etc...).

If you want to support Black People, support Black Business and Black Institutions of Higher Education.

Get life insurance for you (whole life) and your children (term) as soon as they are born (one thing is for sure is we will die..might as well leave your kids or family something extra). The sooner you get it, the cheaper it is. And you can borrow against it to fund certain projects. Also, the ones that pay out dividends are the best! They normally are associated with the market (money market accounts). IUL’s are great!

Get the people in your immediate family to save collectively! If 10 people save $500/month, that’s 60k every year. You could buy 3 starter homes every year and in 4 years all ten of you are home owners. Buy on the same block or neighborhood if you can...this way you control the value of the homes (remember Monopoly!).

Many of the respondents noted that they were working remotely and avoiding interacting with clients and staff in person, while others had aggressive cleaning and social distancing efforts in place.

The ACI, published in partnership with ADP, is a monthly economic indicator that leverages the insights of accountants into the strength and prospects of businesses in the U.S. The 3-Month ACI hit 44.34, down slightly from the previous month's 45.35 (though still far below the 50 mark that separates expectations of growth from expectations of contraction). The 6-Month ACI, meanwhile, came in at 50.6, down from last month's 52.07, and edging back toward contractionary territory.