My first "client"

Other than my husband and myself, I have not been intimately involved in giving financial advice and crafting financial tools.  Which is probably a good thing considering there has got to be an enforcement entity out there ready to  ticket me for financially advising without a license.  But I took a chance and helped out my parents.  Truthfully, this took a fair amount of arm twisting and a variation of guilt tripping to be allow this honor. 

 
I sat down with my Dad for about 2 hours.  We pulled out financial statements and set up online accounts for all their financial service providers.  Then we opened a mint.com account and I showed him how it worked.  I also took him over to creditkarma.com so he would stop PAYING to find out his credit score.  And then we printed out his credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com.  Now he is all set to be an informed individual about his financial life.  My Dad turns 65 in a few weeks, so it is well overdue.

I cannot tell you how giddy with joy I felt.  This is it.  This is what I want to do.  It isn't being a financial adviser in the traditional sense.  It is helping someone get excited about being in control of their money instead of a slave to it.  It is setting them up with the right tools to know what is going on and how to budget within their means.  I spent so many years just hoping at the end of the month I would have money.  Now I know where my money will go throughout the month on day 1.  This is peace.  I want to help people have this peace.