Maybe it speaks more to the company I keep, but I don’t know anyone who would claim to be a financial wiz. But it appears that for most of us having even adequate financial knowledge is something of a stretch. Yahoo! News has gone as far to say, “When it comes to financial matters, Americans are functionally illiterate.” Boom! Roasted!

This financial ignorance crosses all age boundaries, highlighted by our ever-decreasing personal savings rate. A meager 11% in 1981, this rate is nearly 0% today.

So what can be done about this problem… besides shamelessly plugging the fun, easy to understand financial information on brassmagazine.com?

In all seriousness, increasing your financial knowledge just takes a little discipline. Start by really considering every purchase you make and, as boring as it may be, read the fine print on any credit applications you might consider. Part of what got us into the current financial crisis was people taking out loans they assumed they could afford, only to find out later that there were terms and conditions that made that impossible.

Take it from me, most financial contracts may as well be written in Klingon. If you come across any confusing financial terms, my favorite economic jargon translator is investopedia.com. And when trying to understand complicated economic concepts, I like to go to money.com.

The bar has been set low, but that’s no reason to avoid becoming well versed in financial topics. Keep checking back in at the brass|BLOG. If there are any financial topics you feel we haven’t addressed, leave a comment below.

--Cody