How much of today's financial page or morning business

broadcast did you understand? Chances are, you found the glut

of facts and figures too discouraging to tackle or, if you did make

the effort, you came away wondering just how the price changes

and emerging trends will affect your own life and finances.

In the last decade, the language of money has changed dra-

matically. New words have been coined and old concepts have

taken on new meanings. It is now imperative for everyone who

earns a salary to understand the basics of finance if they are to

keep abreast of the wealth of financial and economic news with

which we are all confronted every day.

Most of the information you need to be a successful do-it-

yourself investor is public knowledge. It is easily found in the

press and news broadcasts, or it can be sought in the electronic

world through personal computers and word processors.

The financial and business news is the bloodstream of the free

enterprise system, heralding opportunities, warning of pitfalls.

There are, however, two major problems facing investors and

potential investors. In this age of exploding information, how

does one separate the useful from the useless; the information

that is nice to know from that which you need to know? The

abundance of news can be overwhelming, and a glut of infor-

mation is almost as bad as not having any. How do you cope?