How to Save on Your Midlife Crisis

"One client I had in San Diego wanted to lose some weight with a newer procedure that involves folding the stomach on itself, and after looking into it we found that that same procedure was 40% cheaper on the other side of the border," she says. "It all went perfectly and it was literally only 20 miles from San Diego."

While some might flinch at the combination of "surgery" and "Mexico", enough research helped Foss find the right doctor, who operated a practice in the U.S. as well as in Mexico, and arrange for a driver and accommodations for the recovery that made the experience as smooth as it would have been anywhere, at a huge cost savings.

Crisis: Not Living Large Enough

While most Americans these days will probably be content with just owning a home and being able to make payments on it, it's no secret that the later stage of life sometimes leads homeowners to take a second look at their digs and decide they are not the castles they had hoped to retire in.

Buying a house in these days of low home prices and even lower interest rates may be tempting, but the difficulty buyers will have selling their current homes is enough to make home improvement projects a better option.

"Some people come to me wanting to do a huge home remodeling project, but don't realize the financial difficulty it will put them in," Foss says. "So instead of doing it all at once I suggest they do it one piece at a time, like one thing per quarter, and pay cash as they go."

Instead of adding an extra wing to their place or embark on a major tear-down project, middle-aged folks looking to improve their surroundings could focus first on the projects that will yield the best benefit when it comes time to resell the home, like creating an attic bedroom, replacing a garage door or replacing exterior siding, all of which recoup more than 70% of the cost down the road

Crisis: Losing Your Sense of Adventure

Midlife crises present themselves stereotypically with a fast new convertible (among men at least), and while Foss has seen what can happen when those cars become impulse buys, that doesn't mean she won't help her clients achieve their dream of turning heads on the highway.