Malone,

Met with a financial planner (make sure they're fee-based!) two nights ago. He looked over all my investments (small amount of money) and my budget and despite some fine tuning, felt I was doing ALL the right things!

Me! Financial f*up that I was. Me! Who never made enough, spent too much on the house and presents. Me! Who wasn't trusted with the check book and wasn't shown the credit card statements.

What a brand new day to know how much money I have, where it is and how it's doing. I am actually living beneath my means and loving it.

So rich? Hell yeah! I'm living like a queen here in Buffalo, NY in my tiny apartment, shopping at Aldi and packing my lunch.