Recently I realized that I had been ignoring two of my very best clients–that would be my daughter Colleen and my son-in-law Matt. As I told Matt, a doctor, if he treated his patients the way I had been treating them, they’d all be dead … So, we had an “official” planning meeting with filled-out forms, a pile of documents, the works.

I should add that Colleen and Matt are parents of my favorite (and only) granddaughter, Casey, age 15. She is, as I am sure any grandparent already knows, brilliant, lovely, talented, and surely a find for any college that ultimately has her as a student. But the result of our official meeting showed us all that current household finances were likely to limit her college choices. Between now and then her folks needed to ratchet up the college savings account!

I laid out the numbers for them and what I saw as the potential options, with the emphasis on changing spending to free up funds for savings–something that probably suggested they’d never be able to have fun until Casey finished school. We left it there, with them to think about. The next thing I knew, I had a happy and excited call from my daughter. No–no lottery winnings! But almost as good. They recognized they could reorganize how they used the space in their house, thereby freeing up a bedroom, bath and living space that could be rented out. In the magical way these things sometimes happen, the rent they are able to get matches almost exactly the amount needed for the college fund.

It was a very creative solution that actually has made the rest of their space much more practical, and they all love it. What they had done was look at all their assets, not just their dollars and cents, to figure out how to maximize their wellbeing. As we say at Directions, “Resources – they’re the new dollar.”

Think about it, what are some of your resources?