Cash is like the unloved stepchild of the personal finance industry. Turn on Mad Money and you’ll hear all about hot stocks. Read John Bogle’s legendary The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, and you’ll learn all about index funds. But when a crisis hits, it’s cash that turns out to be the Cinderella that everyone chases. In the first quarter of 2020, U.S. money market funds (which invest in cash) saw record inflows of almost $700 billion, while stock funds and bond funds each saw net outflows of around $30 billion.

What’s so good about cash? It’s liquid and doesn’t lose its value (apart from inflation). So it’s kind of like your boring, trusty mule — dependable and there when you need it.

In honor of Batman’s 80th anniversary, today we’re going to take a look at the essential and everyday tools that should fill your financial utility belt. Below are my top recommendations on everything from bank and investment accounts to apps and online platforms to track your finances.

Given the news of the Capital One data breach affecting over 100 million people in the U.S. (about a third of the U.S. population), here’s your action plan to help protect your identity and personal information.

Around here, we tend to talk more about cash flow — earning, saving, and spending — and less about net worth. Why? Because net worth is the sum of what’s happened in the past — how much you’ve previously accumulated — while cash flow drives where you’re headed right now. Are you saving more than you’re spending? Are you throwing money at high-interest debt payments? There’s only so much you can do right this second to increase your net worth, but there’s plenty you can do to improve saving and spending habits and start trending in the right direction.

That being said, net worth awareness is one of the building blocks of financial health. There’s quite a bit of fixation on net worth out there, so we’ll take some time to talk about what it is and what it isn’t, and then we’ll go over how to approach your own net worth.