Gaining control over your finances can feel scary, complicated and even overwhelming, but your financial health is as important to maintain as anything else, since it can have such a big effect on your stress levels. So, how do you gain control?

Dragon's Den panelist Arlene Dickinson knows a thing or two about taming financial tigers. She's a self-made multi-millionaire and she joined us on set to lay out her tips for staying solvent:

1. BE AWARE OF YOUR FINANCIAL TROUBLES: If you feel you are out of control with spending, you likely already are. In order to get things back in line, you'll have to start showing discipline. Use cash for everything.

If you're not sure if you're in financial trouble, ask yourself if you often run out of money to pay your bills or if you juggle whom to pay first and whom to pay later. Self-unaware people are not uncommon. It's like counting calories: it might not seem like you ate much, but when you write it down, you realize what the bottom line really is.

2. KEEP A BASIC MONTHLY BUDGET: Begin with the fundamentals: food, shelter and bill payments that need to be made in order to keep a strong credit rating. Then add the extras, such as entertainment and clothing. Also, the 10 per cent rule is huge. Calculate in your budget 10 per cent of your pay as savings. It's not for a vacation, for example. It's for incidentals and emergencies.

3. CURB SPENDING: Manage your credit cards. There's nothing like having only one card with a low limit to curb spending. It may feel great to get 10,000 points for signing up for a store's card but they charge extremely high interest and it's one extra statement to keep track of. Dickinson says when she was raising kids, it was easy keep putting stuff on credit cards. There's a psychology aspect the card companies use to get you to spend more: if you have multiple cards, you won't remember what you bought. What you should do is either consolidate cards or get a bank loan to pay them off (and don't run them up again). When you do that, ensure you tear up all the cards except for one.

4. KEEP TRACK OF TRANSACTIONS: If you are married and there are two of you depositing and withdrawing, you need to have a system to know what's happening, when and by whom. If you're single, it helps you remember what you've spent so it's not a surprise when you look at your balance. For example, if you go to the ATM and withdraw $10 one day, $100 the next and $20 the next, you may lose track.

5. SEEK ADVICE: Women are often intimidated by the process of asking for financial advice. They're also reluctant to trust someone else when it comes to money matters. They may also find it embarrassing to admit to an adviser that they don't have any money. Don't be afraid to talk to someone about RRSPs, paying off mortgages sooner and what works for you based on your age and income. In fact, you don't have to pay a financial adviser. There are government programs that offer free financial advice. Most banks offer complimentary planning advice and you can also find it online.

6. LOOKING FORWARD: For women who've gained control over their financial situation and now have some extra cash on hand, Dickinson suggests being a bit open to risk. Don't be afraid to invest in stocks and other types of financial instruments. Split your money up -- save 10 per cent a month in savings then put a portion of that towards medium-high risk investments, some toward safe investments like GICs and some toward medium risk. You should also meet monthly with the bank to discuss how they direct your RRSPs. Take an interest and look into the companies they're investing in. If you read in the newspaper something bad about a particular company, you can get them to redirect your investment.