Think along the lines of "The Biggest Loser" for finances. I was ready to turn it off around the 8 minute mark, but watched the entire thing.
They took folks that were at 4 different points along the finance spectrum and had 4 different financial coaches working with them. Mr. Money Mustache worked with the ones who had plenty of income and potential, already having about $400,000 in savings to start. He simply got them to reduce their budget, which was high. On their own they decided to sell their home and downsize (toward the end), and at the end of the first year, they had a bit over $500,000 in savings.
Another was a pro football player a couple years out of college who got injured and cut, going from $1.6m/year salary to nothing. He then gets to training camp with Chicago, doesn't make the cut, but gets on the practice squad for $10,000/week and shortly after makes lineup and back over $1MM/year. Today he's 26 years old and cornerback for the Falcons. It was interesting that at the end of it, they mentioned he was playing for the Falcons, but did not say his salary - I just went and looked that up...he was just demoted to their practice squad a few weeks ago. His pro football career is probably near its end.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/atlanta-falcons/jalen-tabor-21794/cash-earnings/
The above two cases really didn't do much (if any) real belt tightening. The other two cases were more about Average Joes who had bigger financial issues and were more interesting as they made progress.
