A woman's guide to managing money: different life stages, different financial needs. Whatever your situation, here's what you need to know now.

THE TRADITIONAL LEAVE IT TO BEAVER-STYLE OF MARRIAGE OF the 1950s had the husband in charge of work and the family investments, while the wife headed up the house and the kids. Old habits are hard to shake, and even in 2009, some women still aren't comfortable with taking the reins when it comes to financial issues.

"Many women just let their husbands pay the bills and then take everything for granted," says Harrine Freeman, a credit counselor in Bethesda, Maryland, and author of How To Get Out of Debt: Get an "A" Credit Rating for Free Using the System I've Used Successfully With Thousands of Clients (Adept Publishers; $19.95). "But women have to educate themselves about finances. You never want to find yourself in a terrible financial situation."

Personal finances can be a perplexing subject, never more so than right now. Even Wall Street pros are struggling to figure out what's going on with the financial system. But at the root of our economic troubles is one simple fact: Many Americans are living beyond their means and just can't pay their bills anymore.

That's where you come in. While ...

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