Editor’s Note: Jennifer Openshaw, author of Millionaire Zone, The: 7 Winning Steps to a Seven-Figure Fortune, is co-founder and president of WeSeed, whose mission is to enable people to discover the stock market in their everyday lives through their passions, their jobs and the brands they know and love. Her empowering advice, which helps everyday Americans do more with what they have, has been seen on "Oprah," "Dr. Phil," "The Today Show," CNN, CNBC and "Nightline." You can find her on Twitter @jopenshaw or on Facebook. You can also reach her at jopenshaw@weseed.com.

So you’re about to get (hopefully) a tax-refund check and you’re probably thinking, “What’s a couple thousand bucks gonna get me?”
And that’s if you get the typical tax refund.

The good news is that Joe (and Jane) the Plumber will get back on average $2,800, up $400 from $2,400 from last year. But when you see that 64% of your friends and family are losing jobs – and that’s the stat from a survey by Econ4U – you start to think, “Geez, can this even help me much?”

So let’s talk about how it can help you – how you can make the most of that check. Here are the top five ideas I’m telling friends, family and members of our WeSeed community:

Pay down credit card debt: Chances are you’re paying double-digit interest rates, so maybe you’re among the 18% of Americans surveyed who said they plan to wipe out a little credit-card debt with their check. That’s a good idea, especially since new laws protecting you from unexpected rate hikes won’t go into effect until next year, and with the economy such a wreck, banks have been quick to hike rates.

“If you have high-interest-rate credit-card debt,” says Jean Chatzky, "Today Show" contributor and author of The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even The Toughest Times, “you’ll get no better guaranteed return on your money (except possibly with 401(k) matching dollars) than you will by paying it down. The return on your money is equal to the interest rate on your debt.”

So, pay off a chunk and you’ll not only get rid of some of the debt, you’ll avoid additional interest payments.

Save for retirement: I know … you’re nervous about the market, but if you’ve been waiting for some money to open an IRA, here’s your chance. You can turn that $2,800 into more than $20,000 just by putting it into a good mutual fund and letting it sit there for the next 30 years, even at just a 7-8% average annual return.  If you’re nervous about the market, take the time to learn and select carefully and, in the meantime, park your money in an online savings account, which typically offers higher rates (HSBC Direct for instance, at 1.65% and no minimums). A better bet – if you have a 401(k) – would be to increase your contribution rate and use the tax refund to offset it. The maximum 2009 contributions are $5,000 for an IRA and $16,500 for 401(k)s (if 50 or older, $6,000 and $22,000 for each respectively).

Improve your job skills: “Right now, anything you can do to improve your marketable skills to help you keep the job you have or land the next one is a good move,” says Chatzky. So take an adult course at a community college or a university’s online program taught by an expert. Imagine the difference in your future by taking a public-speaking course, Web-design course, second language.  Investing just $1,000 in a new course might yield you a $3,000 raise and put you on even better professional footing. Plus, you might make some great contacts.