Budgeting is a topic that's front and center again for many Americans. Many people think of budgeting like being in prison, but Clark thinks it's freeing. Budgeting lets you reduce your financial insecurity and gain control back. There are great, free budgeting tools online like Mint.com and Wesabe.com.

A Journal of Consumer Research study shows that budgeting annually is better than doing it monthly. That's because there are expenses that pop up over the course of a year that you can't account for on a monthly budget. Data shows that people are far more accurate when they budget annually vs. monthly.

Clark doesn't usually carry any debt, but he still uses budgeting tools to see what happened with his money over the course of a year. Christa, meanwhile, likes to track her finances using a spiral notebook and some online monitoring. Others like to go back to basics using the envelope method. There's no one right answer, but you have to find what works best for you. Do you have a system? Are you doing anything at all to monitor your money? Give it a try.