170 E ASY M ONEY These are our life assets, and we want to build these up at the same time that we're increasing our financial wealth. To help you figure out how to do that, I'm going to rely heavily on the groundbreaking work of financial planner George Kinder, who wrote The Seven Stages of Money Maturity: Understanding the Spirit and Value of Money in Your Life and who is considered one of the founders of the "life planning" movement. Those who practice life planning say they're looking for a more holistic approach to financial planning. They try to discover and implement their clients' most deeply held values instead of concentrating just on accumulat- ing a big pile of money. Visualizing Your Ideal Life To help uncover these values, Kinder asks his clients to first imagine that they've already achieved financial security. Perhaps they've retired or received an inheritance that meant they no longer had to work. They now have enough money to take care of all their needs for the rest of their lives. If that