Book excerpt: The Sunday Times bestselling author and star of Dragon's Den, Duncan Bannatyne, explains how to take control of your finances and get more from your money. Today's turmoil and uncertainty in the financial markets illustrates how important it is to be in control of your own money. How To Be Smart With Your Money addresses the core fundamentals of financial literacy, telling readers how banks work and why city traders earn such enormous bonuses. It will help you to plot a path out of debt and develop financial confidence so you feel in charge of your finances. Duncan Bannatyne knows the true value of money: now worth £320 million, he was born into extreme post-war poverty. Taking each area of our financial lives in turn - earning, spending, borrowing, investing, saving, budgeting and the wider economy - he helps us understand where we are in our own financial cycle and how to achieve financial security for good. Duncan Bannatyne is the former stoker in the navy who built up his own business empire, worth over £320 million and is a star of the TV series Dragon's Den. His first book, Anyone Can Do it, was a Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback.