By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Lisa Reid of Greensboro registered the highest score ó and topped her husband to boot ó in the year-end personal finance test from Professor Al Carter and Food Lion founder Ralph Ketner.
Reid wins a dinner with Carter and Ketner at a date yet to be determined. The rumor is theyíll be eating at the Olive Garden in Salisbury.
Carter reports that Reid answered 48 out of the 50 questions correctly.
Forty people took the test online or through the newspaper. The test appeared in the April 17 edition of the Post, and the deadline for entries was last Tuesday.
ěThe Salisbury Post has recently ended a semester-long account of our Personal Finance class at Catawba College,î Carter said. ěWe appreciate this coverage because in todayís ever-changing financial environment, it is important for all of us to focus on managing our financial affairs.
ěThe guest speakers offered outstanding presentations in their areas of expertise; they exemplify the many highly knowledgeable professionals we have in the Salisbury area.î
Reid did not know which two questions she had wrong, and Carter didnít have the entries convenient to him when he spoke with the Post.
ěI would love to see the answers because there were several questions, the way they were worded, that could have gone either way,î Reid said.
For example, one true-or-false question offered the statement, ěAn annuity must have a maturity date and a minimum return.î The answer: false.
Reid said she was a bit confused, because death could be a maturity date.
Another true-or-false statement said, ěThe traditional IRA shelters the amount you contribute from taxes until the money is withdrawn.î The answer: true.
Reid knew that an IRA shelters the money you put into it ó but it also shelters the earnings. She worried that she was reading too much into things.
ěYou had to kind of stretch your mind around some of the questions,î she said.
Reid is the daughter of Taft and Ann McCoy, who live in Albemarle but have property holdings in Rowan County and are in Salisbury regularly. Reid and her husband, Steven, recently built a small farmhouse on family property off Garrick Road.
They saw the personal finance test in a Sunday newspaper her father had with him, and she later took the test online, through the Catawba College website. Steven also took it, but Lisa edged him by two points.
Carter reports that several of the entries missed only three to five questions.
Steven Reid is a radiologist. Lisa Reid is a certified public accountant who now does tax preparations out of her home. She has as bachelorís degree in business with an emphasis in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a masterís degree in taxation from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
The Reids have two children.
Lisaís parents attended Catawba College.
ěWe hope this class has both answered and posed questions about the complex problems of personal finance management,î Carter said.
Here is the answer key to the test, which can be found online at www.catawba.edu/financeexam.
The first 25 questions were true (T) or false (F): 1) T; 2) T; 3) F; 4) F; 5) T; 6) T; 7) F; 8) F; 9) F; 10) T; 11) T; 12) F; 13) T; 14) F; 15) F; 16) T; 17) T; 18) T; 19) F; 20) T; 21) T; 22) T; 23) F; 24) F; 25 T.
The second 25 questions were multiple choice: 1) D; 2) D; 3) B; 4) B; 5) B; 6) B; 7) B; 8) C; 9) B; 10) C; 11) B; 12) E; 13) C; 14) C; 15) A; 16) C; 17) C; 18) C; 19) A; 20) D; 21) E; 22) B; 23) C; 24) B; 25) A.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.