What they are, why you should care, mistakes people make (full disclosure: including our own boneheaded blunders) and two things to do right this very moment to improve your returns.

Sometimes "good debt" turns out to be not-so-good after all. When it comes to mortgages and student loans, don't blindly follow the old financing rules-of-thumb.

We've picked out our favorite year-end financial "to dos" so you can make the dwindling days of 2014 pay off handsomely for years to come.