Last month, an old friend came to visit me. It was a long time since we’d been together and it was great to have the opportunity to reconnect. In the course of our visit, I began to understand that my friend was in the same boat that David and I had been in 2008 — just as we had not, she didn’t understand what it looked like to win the “money game”. So, little by little, I shared a few ideas to see how she would respond. She loved it! By the end of the weekend, we had put together her monthly budget and she had articulated her primary financial goals. Since our visit, she has met with a realtor to look at how best to prepare her house to sell, she has created a game plan for selling the house and moving into a rental property. She updates her monthly budget every few days so she knows how much is left to spend that month in each of her spending categories. And she has made informed decisions on how she is (and isn’t) going to spend her money. For the first time ever she is the boss of her money. My friend now knows where she is headed financially — because she has her goals. She is in control of her money — because she has her budget. The quality of her life has changed. This is the kind of impact I love to have on people.