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soyouvebeendumped.com is pleased to bring you this informative Jasmine Birtles article - Jasmine is the financial guru and founder of MONEY MAG PIE. Though it is written for the UK market in mind, ALL of the 10 Tips are fairly universal.

Money is so boring unless you have lots of it to spend. And even if you do, you can find yourself spending too much and having the bailiffs at the door, like poor old Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. But whether you have a fabulous salary or just a small trickle coming in, every woman needs to understand how to run her own finances and make sure her future is secure. These days, no one else is going to do it for you! Jasmine Birtles, co-author of 'A Girl's Best Friend Is Her Money' gives these top tips for women to be in the money.

1) GET OUT OF DEBT NOW
Being in debt costs you money every day in interest payments and bank charges. Pay as much as you can each month into your most expensive loans (probably your store card bill!). When you've paid that one off start on the next most expensive and so on. If you don't know what interest rate you're paying on some of your debts call the bank or credit card company and they'll tell you what APR (Annual Percentage Rate) you are paying. The higher the APR, the more expensive the debt and the quicker you need to pay it off.

If your problems are too complicated and you're getting nasty letters from creditors, don't go to a debt counselling company that charges a fee for their services. The Citizen's Advice Bureau offers the same service for free. Or try other free services like National Debtline (0808 808 4000) or Consumer Credit Counselling Service (0800 138 1111).

2) LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS
Once you've paid off your debts, start saving and investing. Look at your spending, find out where you can cut back and start saving that money in a high-interest account. Learn to live below your means and use the extra money saved to invest in your future.

3) GET A PENSION
Less than forty per cent of women in this country have a pension fund right now which means millions of us are facing an impoverished old age. If you're not working, or you've taken time off to have children, you, or someone on your behalf, can now contribute up to £2,808.00 a year into a Stakeholder pension even if you are earning nothing. It's the best type of personal pension to have because the charges are low. Several financial companies offer Stakeholders, including Prudential (0800 000000), Legal and General (0500 656565) and Norwich Union (0845 8451385).

4) START SAVING FOR A RICH FUTURE
Women generally live longer than men - our average life expectancy is now 87 - but we have much less money to fund our retirements. When you retire, you will need to have a pot of money equivalent to £400,000 (yes, £400,000!) to get an income of around £20,000 a year. Some of that fund could be made up of a pension but some can also be from other investments. For this kind of long-term view you can afford to invest in the stock market. The cheapest, and easiest, way to do this is to put money into a 'tracker fund'. These are funds, run by a computer, that simply track the stock market. In the long-run, the stock market always goes up, so this is a good way of investing for your retirement.

5) GET A TRACKER
If you're going to invest in a tracker fund make sure you put as much as you can through an ISA - an Individual Savings Account. You can invest up to £7,000 each year in an ISA-wrapped stock-market investment like a tracker fund (many come pre-wrapped for your convenience!) and it means that any interest you make on it and any money you take out of it is tax-free. Several companies offer pre-wrapped tracker funds like Legal and General (0800 0920092), M&G (0800 390390), Scottish Widows (08457 678910) and Virgin (08456 101020). You can also invest in a building society account through an ISA, although you can only put up to £3,000 a year into that. Still, it's worth it to save the tax on your interest.

6) BE A RATE TART
If you have a mortgage, keep your eye on new, cheaper deals coming on the market and switch. You can save thousands of pounds over the long-term even if you find a deal that is just half a per cent cheaper. Also, find the lowest APR for any loans or credit cards and keep switching when new deals come up. Switch your credit card and store card balances to 0% interest cards and you'll find it's quicker to pay them off. But DON'T start spending again on the new card. The object is to get rid of your debt, not create more.

7) LEVEL YOUR BALANCES MONTHLY
If you want to pay by credit or store card, always pay the balance off each month. If you don't you will be paying a lot extra for anything you buy. For example, buy a £200 dress with a store card at 29 per cent APR (as most of them are) and if you only pay the minimum each month (usually about 3 per cent) it will take you 5 years and 11 months to pay for it and the total bill will be £412.61! If the minimum payment is just 2 per cent it will take you 6 years, 10 months to pay it off and the dress will have cost you £459.72!

8) AVOID MONEY ARGUMENTS
The number one cause of divorce is money, so make sure you and your partner discuss how you will manage your money right at the start. If both of you are working, you could each have your own accounts into which your salary is paid - plus a joint account for household expenses. Each should put something into the joint account to meet all your monthly bills, and what's left is your own to spend as you like.

9) CHECK BENEFITS
If you have taken time off work to have children, make sure you have all the benefits you're entitled to, such as Children's Tax Credit, Working Families Tax Credit or the Sure Start Maternity Grant. Millions of pounds-worth of benefits are not claimed by women every year, usually because they don't know they exist. You will find some very helpful information on what you could be entitled to on the Department of Trade and Industry's website at www.dti.gov.uk or, of course, from your local Benefits Office.

10) BE SURE YOUR NAME IS ON DOCUMENTS
If you're cohabiting with your partner (i.e. you're not married) make sure your name is on the property deeds as well as his, and keep all the receipts of any furniture you buy. Otherwise, if the relationship ends you could walk off with nothing, even if you have spent a lot of money on him and the house.

ABOUT JASMINE
Jasmine Birtles is co-author of 'A Girl's Best Friend Is Her Money' with Jane Mack, published by Boxtree, £12.99. Buy this book at the Motley Fool website at www.fool.co.uk.