April — the month to get Financially Literate

Everyone who learns something new starts slowly, and people who are learning the language of money and personal finance can get plenty of help as they make the most of Financial Literacy Month. After invoking the recent financial crisis from which we are slowly recovering, President Barack Obama proclaimed April the month Americans should recommit "to teaching ourselves and our children the basics of financial education."

The Federal Trade Commission is there in support, offering advice and assistance on topics from shopping for home loans to safeguarding personal financial data on a series of Web sites, including ftc.gov/moneymatters, ftc.gov/freereports and to ftc.gov/youarehere. The sites are geared to personal finance, to credit awareness and to youth outreach, respectively.

The ftc.gov/freereports site stresses that there is only one Web site authorized to give U.S. citizens their annual credit report every year absolutely free of charge, with no strings attached (www.annualcreditreport.com). Checking your credit report is an essential part of fighting identity theft — because it can show any unusual activity on their accounts.

And the youth outreach Web site — ftc.gov/youarehere — underlines something FTC top executives stress as well: there is no age limit on getting sharper about finances.

There’s no time like the present to learn proven money-management skills,” said David C. Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Financial Literacy Month is an ideal time to learn — or teach others — the importance of consumers’ rights, and the best way to file a complaint if something goes wrong.”

If you’re starting from scratch, don’t get overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once, advises Kimberly Allman, a Brooklyn, N.Y., financial advisor. She suggests setting out financial goals first and trying to change one small thing about your spending habits. Small steps will lead to bigger success, she says.

“It takes awhile to develop new habits," she says. "And you’ll set yourself up for failure if you try to do too much at once.”