The Breakfast Club for 40-Somethings summary

What’s stopping you from achieving financial security? After two decades of educating people about money, personal finance guru Vanessa Stoykov believes she knows the answer. In her opinion, there’s not just one thing standing in your way –  there’s five. 

There are five damaging attitudes you’ll need to let go of if you’re going to achieve long-term prosperity and fulfillment. In these blinks, you’ll meet a cast of characters who embody these bad attitudes, and you’ll learn just how they turned things around – or how they didn’t. 

The first attitude you’ll need to unlearn is desire.

In today’s consumerist society, it’s easy to confuse the things you want with those you need. Surrounded by media images of glamorous celebrity lifestyles, you may find yourself spending excessive amounts on designer clothes, fast cars, or extravagant restaurants. 

Sure, indulging your desires is part of what makes life fun. But unfortunately, doing so can also burden you with debt, which is likely to send your anxiety levels soaring. 

Josephine, a successful entrepreneur and businesswoman, knows all about desire and the stress it can put on a person’s finances. Although she owned a successful communications business – a business that provided her with an annual income of around a million dollars a year – one thing she didn’t have was financial security. Hundreds of thousands of dollars came into her bank account each month, only to leave it just as quickly. All thanks to her decadent lifestyle. Josephine splurged her massive salary on everything from huge mortgages on a string of luxury properties to five-star hotel suites to personal make-up artists. 

Unfortunately, Josephine’s desire for a lavish lifestyle was costing her more than just money – it was taking its toll in stress, too. 

From the outside, it looked like Josephine had a perfect life. But in reality, she had to keep working extremely hard to keep the money rolling in each month. Josephine knew if she took her foot off the gas, she would immediately encounter difficulties; she had so heavily leveraged her property investments with debt. This manic, work-hard-play-hard lifestyle had suited Josephine in her twenties and thirties, but now, in her forties, she’s finding that she doesn’t have as much energy. Unfortunately, with all her desires and their accompanying debts, slowing down hasn’t been an option. 

Clearly, Josephine needs to reassess her lifestyle and her desires. As you’ll learn in the next blink, she’s not the only one.