By Lorna Tan, Finance Correspondent

Many of us may find financial terms and jargon confusing and intimidating. But that should not stop us from picking up some basic know-how and embarking on a journey towards financial independence.

With the Internet, learning how to manage our finances is now made easier. At the same time, we can have some interactive fun. There are several financial websites that encourage visitors to check out their financial health and pick up tips via virtual templates, calculators and games.

The good thing is that you can do it alone and at any time. Doing so via the Internet is also a boon for those who hesitate to divulge all their financial details to an adviser or relationship manager who is likely to be a stranger. The anonymity of the virtual world makes it easier for us to disclose how many properties we have or how much debt we have accumulated.

In fact, you do not have to look very far. Some time ago, I was checking out the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board's website http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg when I was drawn to participate in its IM$Savvy Financial Literacy quiz. The quiz is designed to give the public an idea of how much they understand about financial matters like cash flow and budgeting. The aim, of course, is to encourage them to do something about their personal finances if they have not done so.

In this particular quiz, there are 15 multiple- choice questions. You will be queried on whether you have set aside emergency funds and how much CPF savings one can withdraw at 55.

It took me under five minutes to complete the quiz and I scored 90 points out of 100. This means I fall into the financial literacy group of 'guru' where the scores are between 80 and 100. The other three groups are 'cool dude' (between 64 and 79), 'average Joe' (between 40 and 63) and 'Boh Chup' (39 and under). The latter means 'I couldn't care less' in Hokkien. In the CPF Board's ranking order, this is the category of participants who should start taking an interest in their financial matters.

After attempting the quiz and knowing where you stand in terms of financial literacy, you are further encouraged to pick up financial tips. I find it useful that the CPF Board has included online templates in this section. For instance, under the financial tips on cash flow, there is an online Family Budget Template. This is where you can work out if you are in positive cash-flow territory, by keying in your actual spending on several financial items like income and expenses. The latter is broken down into fixed, transport, utilities and household maintenance, food and necessities, and miscellaneous expenditure.

So if you have a habit of overspending every month, you can easily analyse the completed template and identify the areas that you could trim in order to arrive at a more acceptable level of expenditure.

As for the tips on saving regularly, an online compound interest calculator is provided to help illustrate the power of compounding and promote the habit of saving early. Compound interest is the interest paid on both the principal and accumulated interest over time.

Simply key in a monthly sum and the number of years and the calculator will work out how much you will have saved by the end of the period, based on a certain annual interest rate. For instance, a sum of $100,000 invested now and earning a 5 per cent return will grow to $265,000 in 20 years. If you invest, say, 10 years later, you will need a sum of $163,000 to achieve the same result. This is the effect of compounding.

However, I find that it would be more useful if this calculator has a component for regular savings rather than assume that there is only one fixed sum at the start.

Still, both tools score high on being user-friendly and encouraging visitors to participate in an interactive manner.

Besides the Financial Literacy quiz, the CPF website boasts a myriad of other tools and games.

Last Sunday evening, I was drawn to check out my retirement needs via its comprehensive retirement planning tool called Retirement Ready @ my cpf. It took me 45 minutes to run through the various sections which touched on basic budgeting, insurance, housing, investments and the retirement planning process.

At the end of it, there is The Retirement Calculator, an interactive tool which helps you work out how much you now have and the amount of savings you need based on your desired retirement age and lifestyle. That took me about 30 minutes.

What I really appreciate about the online calculator is that it allows me to save my financial inputs like income, expenses, savings and mortgage loans, so that I can retrieve them in the future. This means that whenever I choose to re-visit the calculator, I can easily change some parameters, such as when I would like to retire and the monthly amount I would need then, and it will automatically work out if my retirement objectives are achievable.

Other websites that allow for such interactivity are CNNMoney.com and moneychimp.com, but I would still recommend the CPF website as its fields are localised to cater to Singaporeans' needs and situations.

Even so, we should not just stop here. Such websites are a good starting point in one's financial planning efforts but they are not enough. Unless you are financially savvy, you should still seek professional help from financial advisers with a good track record and ask the right questions - even though you will have to disclose intimate details of your finances.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.