've been asked more than once why we made Beyond Savings and why someone should use the product. The answer to both questions is surprisingly related to health.

Beyond Savings - A Financial Primer is now part of BeyondSavings.com, a website dedicated to financial education. Originally Beyond Savings grew out of our overall plan for Omniscient Productions Inc., whose prime aim was to build Health education products. Our goal — to improve the quality of life through information tools that educate, enhance, enlighten, and entertain.

The first steps to good health are getting people motivated to take care of themselves and learn a healthy and "preventative medicine" lifestyle. Ironically the first roadblocks people encounter are motivation, time constraints, job constraints, stress, and personal finances. We were in a perfect position to provide information and motivation, but we had problems with the other obstacles.

he Beyond Savings Project began as a way to teach people the fundamentals of personal finance and as a result, cut stress, improve time constraints, and ultimately even improve work related constraints. We quickly realized that when a person feels in control of their financial life, they're in a better position to control the quality of the rest of their life - physical and emotional health, family life, social life, etc. The opposite is also true -- when a person has no control over their financial life, it becomes the top priority and compromises are made in their physical and emotional health, family and social life, etc.

This fact increased the importance of the Beyond Savings Project and made it a top priority within OMPROD. We set out to work with financial planners and reviewed all the financial education literature to get a strong sense of what it would take to help people get a handle on their financial situation. We worked closely with credit counselors to understand what's required to get out of debt and how to manage debt. Then we put the project team together.

lthough I am listed as the writer of note of the project (because I physically wrote the script) several members of the team were instrumental in making this project come to life:

The key person on the team, Dawn Williams, is a CFP (certified financial planner) whom I've personally known for several years and who shares our interest in education. She served as the chief financial consultant and handled editorial duties on the course materials during the pre-production and production phases, as well as the instructor for the course.

We were also very fortunate to work with the Consumer Credit Counseling service and in particular Sherri Storm. Sherri provided us with a great deal of information on debt management and served as the instructor for that segment.

We were also happy and lucky to work directly with the Chicago Board of Options in developing our section on Options, Margin buying, and selling short. Though we don't recommend these investing methods to new individual investors, the Board was able to provide significant information to help our users understand these investments.

Internally, we put together our own editorial staff as well as graphics, audio, video, and animation talent. Finally we searched until we found a top-notch hostess to pull the project segments together and guide you though the course.

In essence, we put together a talented group of instructors and editorial staff and added a very talented production staff and a wonderful hostess to make an interesting and educational program that will teach you how to manage money. In doing this, we hope to cut your stress level, improve your financial life, and as a result put you into position to improve your health, and personal life.

hat answers why we made the program. Now let's look at who the program benefits and why you should use it.

Every product needs to have a target market or audience. When first conceived Beyond Savings, we aimed the product at women. Our reasons? First Dawn was already giving a seminar series on "Investing for Women". Second, we came across some interesting statistics that confirmed the important role women play in making financial decisions in the home. Yet, the same data showed that women were less likely to be educated in financial matters, and were given less attention by financial professionals. Third, it was our personal belief that women are the gateway into families and we hoped to really make a difference in young families and children. That was our plan starting out.

nfortunately, Beyond Savings didn't let us walk strictly down that path.

During pre-production it became clear that this was a special program that had value across the lines of ethnicity, sex, race, religion, etc. The only entry requirement was the need and desire to get a basic education in personal finance. It suddenly got very hard to call the program Beyond Savings - A Finance Course for Women, because we didn't want to specifically eliminate anyone. Thus the program became "A Financial Primer". And our target audience expanded to include anyone who needed basic personal financial training.

Now we didn't take anything out of the original "Investing for Women" course. But we added in a lot of material to give the course a broader focus. We began thinking in terms of teaching those who'd been left out of the loop when personal finance knowledge was passed around during childhood. And believe it or not, that covers a lot of people. Even those with strong financial means are sometimes lacking in the very basics of personal finance. Now, if you've got enough money, you can pay someone to manage your funds, but even so, it's nice to understand what they're doing and not just take their word for it.

We wanted to make this the best course for anyone in need of basic personal finance skills. And as a special focus, we wanted to make this a great course for families. We put emphasis on helping families plan for the future and helping the children get started early in learning financial responsibility. Thanks to our work with Consumer Credit Counseling Service, we've also made this a solid course for those in debt trouble.

We feel you should use Beyond Savings because we believe it to be the best personal finance course available anywhere. With our course you'll understand the details and nuances of how money works, how investments work and how to put yourself in position to take advantage. We made this an empowering program that launches you to a better future. And thanks to the Internet, we've made the program available at a low cost -- $49.99. For less than fifty dollars you can improve your financial life.

eyond Savings , the best personal finance course. Pick up a copy and get started on taking control of your life.