Overcome debt, make smart money decisions, and build a financially secure future

Do you support your family, pay your taxes, get the bills done on time-and yet still struggle to achieve financial security? If so, you're not alone. About one-third of all Americans have not saved for retirement, another third have no savings at all, and more than half have no budget.

How did we get here? Two words: financial illiteracy. As money and finance have become more complex over the decades, the average American has not been able to keep up-in essence, leaving our personal financial decisions up to banks, bureaucrats, policymakers, and even fraudsters.

Norm Champ, a former director at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), provides an in-depth primer on how money works, designed just for you-the non-finance reader. Champ shows how to:

* Pay off your loans and stay out of debt for the long run

* Build savings that will see you through thick and thin

* Avoid financial disaster-from bad c