In September, mb held a seminar moderated by instructor Galia Gichon, the founder of Down-to-Earth Finance, a personal finance company she launched to help demystify money management for individuals who have found them baffling and intimidating. A frequent speaker on personal finance, she has appeared on Bloomberg Radio and in Making Breadmagazine. The transcript of the seminar is for AG members only but here's a taste:

When I start to work with somebody new or when you start your checkup, I always like to start with what I call your financial snapshot. If you want to think about being financially healthy, you should be able to know these four terms at every point. So how much do you owe? If you have debts, if you have loans, if you have a mortgage, what is that dollar amount? I've had a lot of people come to me, they have debt and I say, well how much do you owe? And I usually have 'em run a credit report before they come to me. And they say, "Oh it's $4,000," and you look at the credit report and it's $6,000. So, the point is, know how much you owe and then we'll talk about later how to plan to pay it off. What do you own? Just again, how much if you have investments, like you'd mentioned sir, you've got five 401(k)s—how much are each of those worth? You should know that. It's your money. How much are you spending? You don't always know how much you're making, but you always know how much you're spending. And you should know that. It's so important. Are you spending $3,000 a month, $5,000 a month? Does that include your annual expenses? Your quarterly expenses? Like insurance, charitable contributions. And then how much are you making? How much are you bringing home? Again, so many times I ask "How much do you make?" "Oh, I don't know, let me pull out my checkbook and see what my pay stub is." Maybe you know your annual salary, but how much are you really bringing home? These are the four dollar amounts that you should really know at all times. And that's part of your snapshot of being financially healthy. So it's a great place to start. If you get nothing else out of this tonight, it's walking out with these four things; you're well on your way.