Imagine that you are in a good restaurant. See the attractive couple seated in the corner? Heads together, laughing, raising their glasses in a toast? What do you suppose they're talking about?

One way or another, they're talking about money. They may be recalling a recent trip to St. Bart's or Prague, discussing the floor-plan of the home they've just decided to buy or agreeing that the time is finally right for one of them to leave a job and pursue another dream. Whatever the subject, the subtext is money.

What do we talk about when we talk about money? We reflect on what we can buy with the money we have, what we can't buy because we don't have enough and what we're planning to buy when we have more. We discuss the careers that bring us money and the expenses that take it away. We talk about our favorite shops and restaurants, the causes we support, the places we've been and seen. We share aspirations that only money can make real.

In short, we talk about everything but money itself. In daily life, money is still a major conversational taboo. This is a shame, because money is at least as interesting and seductive as the things it does and buys, and the more you know about it, the more interesting it is.

As a financial advisor, I've seen hundreds of people learn to control their money instead of letting it control them and watched as they increased their freedom, power and security by handling money consciously. Wouldn't you like to know that you'll always have enough money to live exactly as you want to?

The truth is that there has never been a better time for money. For making and investing it. For taking charge of it rather than giving it to someone else to manage. For making simple, concrete preparations for a better, more prosperous tomorrow.

You'll never be powerful in life until you're powerful over your own money. Talking openly about it is the first step.

— Suze Orman, a certified financial planner, commodity trading advisor and registered investment advisor, is the author of the best-selling books You've Earned It, Don't Lose It (Newmarket Press) and The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom (Crown Publishers).

Don't let childhood fears about money keep you -- or your bank account -- from growing up.

Did you grow up with money or without? Did you feel your family was rich or poor? There is a big difference. The most privileged people can be raised in an atmosphere in which they feel impoverished; the poorest can feel fortunate, blessed. And no matter how one grows up, powerful messages about money are usually carried into adulthood.

Money is fascinating, but it can be painful, too. As a child, you may have heard the message: "You're lucky to have as much as you have. Stop asking for more." You may have heard: "Your mother and I feel guilty about how affluent we are, and so should you." You may have been guiltily aware aware of the sacrifices your parents made so that you would be upwardly mobile. You may have picked up on the message that money is grim, embarrassing, something not to be discussed. The lessons you learned probably weren't conveyed in words, but children can read the clenched parental jaws and the bickering that comes at bill-paying time, or the hushed warnings never to brag. Whatever the message, little pitchers have big ears. One way or another, most people are permanently altered by what they've been taught about the meanings of money.

The result? Monetary baggage. For many people, it's nearly impossible to go forward in professional and money-making careers clear-headed. And most can't get beyond their money histories without confronting their past.

Take Michael, a man who was raised as a seemingly carefree New York City kid -- good private schools, leafy summer camps, the right clothes. Yet he knew his parents had to scrimp to provide him with these things. One day, on a Boy Scout outing, he and his troop stopped at a restaurant for lunch. He recalls feeling extravagant that day, ordering something relatively expensive -- a cheeseburger. When the bill came, the other boys threw their lunch money onto the table. But Michael had no money; his parents hadn't given him any.. Now in his 40's he can still feel that stinging sense of shame at having ordered and eaten a meal he couldn't afford -- a powerful memory. He's a successful attorney now, yet he continuously and unreasonably fears that he doesn't have enough, in effect, to pay for his meals. He runs numbers in his head: Will he be able to meet the office payroll, pay the doctor's bills, retire? Such is the power of the messages children absorb.

One way to improve your financial future is to turn such lessons around --examine what you've learned, determine how it's shaped your life and then consciously decide to moderate its impact and increase your sense of possiblity.

If you were taught to expect that you would never have enough money, and so fear taking risks, practice telling yourself that you're strong and capable and have always had just what you need to move forward. If you were brought up to feel guilty about having money, examine your conscience and try to substitute a conviction that you deserve what you have and will use it wisely. Money resonates with emotional power: If you let it, it will control your life. Don't let it. Use money's power for doing good and for creating conditions that promote happiness -- in your own life and in others'. You have enough now. You have the capacity to have more in time -- money and all sorts of other riches. Believe it.

— Currency Magazine