How much do you know about money?  Many of us make simple mistakes that cost us hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year.

According to a recent study by The FINRA Investor Education Foundation, only 37% of Americans have high financial literacy. 29% of 18-34 year-olds with a mortgage have been late with a monthly payment and more than one in four people use high-cost forms of borrowing like pawn shops and payday loans.

And even worse, many of us think we know much more about personal finance than we do.

In this episode we have simple fixes for money mistakes.  Our guest, ABC News Chief Business, Technology and Economics Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis, explains how a few simple steps will improve our chances of staying out debt and avoiding scams.  

"One of the things that drives me nuts is the number of charlatans out there who are selling products saying it can't lose it can't fail you're going to make money no matter what, " Rebecca tells us.  "Anyone who tells you that... run in the opposite direction." 

Solutions:

•  Never use credit cards to borrow money.  Most have very high interest rates.

• Understand why compound interest hurts borrowers and helps savers.

• Fix it and forget it: How everyday habits automatic saving - putting a small amount of money away each week - can lead to a secure retirement.

• How employers can help workers to save money.

• Why better financial education should be a priority for schools and colleges. 

Useful websites:  Mint Quicken and other websites can help you with a weekly budget. Betterment and Wealthfront are savings and investment sites. Blooom offers advice about how to improve the rate of return on 401k and other retirement savings funds.