I was wondering if some people with experience in finance could recommend some (preferably free) resources for a beginner looking to get into finance.

I'm looking to learn about things like options, swaps, futures, interest rate derivatives, currency swaps, etc (basically just listed a bunch of buzz-words I know are related to the field).

I have been trying Wikipedia but it's pretty tough to get into, I really need to start with something "dumbed down" for the layman like me.

Thanks.