I think the phrase "how literate are you?" has meaning, though. I'm a native English speaker, and fully literate when reading an English text. However, if that

I think the phrase "how literate are you?" has meaning, though. I'm a native English speaker, and fully literate when reading an English text. However, if that text is about macro-economics and written at the PhD level, I'm going to struggle with it, even if I know what all the words mean in isolation. But if it's about software engineering and written at a college level, I'll have no trouble. Also, in these contexts, "literate" is used more to mean "has read and understood," not "could read and understand." Being financially literate doesn't mean "if I read an article about why carrying a high balance on a high interest rate credit card is a bad idea, I would walk away understanding those concepts," it means "I know why carrying a high balance on a high interest rate credit card is a bad idea, and I don't do that."