Lousy Credit? Good Thing It's Financial Literacy Month

April is many things -- the cruelest month, National Poetry Month and is also said to bring May flowers. But did you know it is also financial literacy month?

That means it's basically a time when financial firms are reminded that they should help teach the populace how to effectively use things like credit cards, stock trading accounts and home equity lines of credit -- or risk that there will be too few people in this country who can actually afford to be their customers.

In that vein, the New York Stock Exchange has gone one step further and proclaimed this Financial Literacy Week -- also a handy launching pad for the exchange's new financial education site, NYSE MoneySense.

A group from the site rang the opening bell at the exchange on Monday (all the opening and closing bell ceremonies in the U.S. and European exchanges will be dedicated to financial education this week). After Monday's ceremony, I spoke with David Cautin, who is the NYSE's chief digital officer and the brains behind the new site.

The 200-year-old NYSE feels both "the responsibility and the obligation" to help improve the financial knowledge of Americans, says Cautin. Through its MoneySense site, the exchange is making information available to the public and is also partnering with listed companies to share the information with their employees. The site covers handling a pay check, saving money, protecting assets, spending wisely and, of course, investing.