I feel to succeed at real estate in the long term it requires at least a fundamental understanding of finances.  The WSJ recently ran a piece about the lack of financial literacy in this country, Three question financial literacy test 

This test designed by professors at MIT and Wharton ask some very basic financial literacy questions (no they aren't trick questions) and only 44% of college graduates got all three right. 

I'm not asking anyone to share if you got the questions right, but if you didn't get all three right, in fact if you didn't think they were trick questions, you almost certainly need to hone your financial literacy skills.  Again, I'm not trying to shame anyone, I'm just trying to make people realize that they may be among the majority in  America who don't have basic financial literacy skills and the need to do something about it.