Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. For a few days, I leave work behind and share time with my mother, sister and brother, children and grandchildren, nephews and niece—I rediscover how special they all are, and wonder all over again how such an important realization could get lost in the bustle of my life.

The holiday itself reminds us that we all have a lot to be grateful for, something that is amazingly easy to forget when the markets are making our lives exciting, when the phones are ringing, when there's work piled up on our desks, when we find ourselves looking with envy at others who seem to have more than we do—more money, more clients, more media exposure, more free time, more fun.

As you help your clients recover from the financial traumas they've suffered, and as we debate all over again how portfolios should be constructed (and try not to throw too many punches at one another), I'd like to help you notice some positive transformations that have emerged from the various market downturns. I think these changes will be with us long after the markets have recovered, and they will carry the spirit of our uniquely American holiday beyond this month and into our habits and our lives for the rest of the year.

TRADITIONAL VALUES

What changes? There is evidence that Americans responded to last year's market downturn by returning to traditional financial values. The savings rate leaped dramatically in the early months of this year, and while it has come down a bit since then, it still remains well above historical averages. People are paying down debt. Their expectations for investment returns are more reasonable. And perhaps most important, there seems to be a growing realization that what you have and what you can buy are not directly related to how happy you are.

This transformation is extremely good news for the planning profession. The wirehouse business model seems fundamentally built on greed-the idea that more is always better, the sales pitch that I can let you in on something really special, too complicated for you to understand, but trust me, it's going to take off like a rocket. The financial planning business model's foundations are more grounded. The marketing message: I can help you organize your finances, set goals that are meaningful to you and give you only as much risk as you need to achieve those goals. As the transformation unfolds, people will hear the boring message more favorably, and market share will drift in the direction of the planning profession.

The early adopters in the planning profession are already changing their service model to address this transformation with their clients. One obstacle to the New Frugality is that many people never learned how to budget—or, in the terminology that is becoming more prevalent, they don't know how to spend their limited resources thoughtfully and intentionally. In a recent issue of my newsletter, I reported on two new online budgeting tools that allow collaboration between clients and planners, where the planner helps the client set up the spending categories and the client downloads and inputs the data. The planner can then provide budgeting advice and counsel with some degree of efficiency; you just log on and look over the monthly spending patterns, compare them to the goals the client set at the outset, and offer your suggestions. For the first time, advisors will be providing detailed advice on the debt side of the client's ledger-making planning a truly holistic service.

From there, planning could evolve in several directions. The most obvious is taking the focus off the markets and moving it to personal fulfillment—the so-called life planning service. As advisors help clients understand what they really, really want out of life, the money becomes less important than the journey. Yes, there will still be financial needs. But if you can get the client to a place where she really enjoys what she's doing, the work is meaningful, and there's time and money to pursue other interests, then it isn't quite as important that the portfolio is up or down 30% (especially if you know that it could move equally hard in the other direction).

MAKING WORK OPTIONAL

The new Golden Years goal is not retirement, but making work optional. With the new budgeting systems, and some creative work with planning software, you can begin to help clients make basic—and profound—tradeoffs between lifestyle expenditures and personal freedom from work. Mr. and Ms. Client, if you could cut back to this less-expensive lifestyle, in a less-expensive location, perhaps in a smaller house, with a used car, you would be able to leave the corporate rat race and work part-time at something you really enjoy at age 55 instead of 65... .