You walk into your bank seeking safety. You trust your bank to provide only secure, FDIC-insured deposits. But you want higher yields than the bank certificates of deposit. Those six-month CDs are currently paying less than 2 percent at most local institutions.

As the housing crisis and mortgage mess move off the front pages, some nagging questions remain. Many revolve around how so many smart people -- not the home buyers, but Wall Streeters -- could have been so dumb or blinded by greed to the eventual results of what they were doing. I wonder how they can complain now that they're losing money.

Imagine being a 24-year-old woman, graduating from college with more than $65,000 in debt. Now you're looking for an entry-level job that -- if you can find it --might pay $40,000 a year. And you're stuck with monthly payments of nearly $600 on your consolidated loans. Those payments will consume more than a quarter of your after-tax paycheck, every paycheck, for 20 years.

Choosing a financial planner is a complicated process. There's a huge amount of financial advice out there -- ranging from free to extraordinarily expensive. And it becomes quite a task to evaluate and compare the services, costs (some hidden), and performance of all of the people who are advertising that they're ready to help you manage your money.