The world is mesmerized by money. A rack full of newspapers and a truckload of newsletters devote themselves entirely to chronicling the use and abuse of money. Cable TV beams money-related programming day and night. The Internet is jammed with money-minded Web sites. Scribes pen countless books about money (this one, for instance). Money is a top-ten topic of family conversation, too. It’s a well-reported fact that married couples fight more about money than about sex. A recent edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations lists 92 entries for the word money, a mere 25 for sex.

Considering that the subject occupies so much of our time and attention, isn’t it amazing that so many people have barely a clue about how to handle their own money? Amazing maybe, but no mystery: Americans typically manage to navigate 12, 16 or more years of very fine formal education without ever learning how to balance a checkbook, size up a stock or resist a fast-talking salesman of bad financial ideas. Diploma in hand, you may be able to explain the fine points of difference between Milton and Chaucer, between demographics and psychographics, or between protons and leptons but draw a blank when it comes to the differences between, say, money-market funds and money-market deposit accounts.

You are not alone.

We'll help you fill in the blanks, by suggesting ways to use the money you have to live better today and build a more secure future at the same time. Along the way we will attempt to explain many things, some of which you will already be familiar with, or think you are.