Establishing Goals for Living Rich

Farnoosh Torabi

Let me tell you about a young woman who came to me for financial help last year. She was 24, mostly unemployed—except for a few one-off promotional jobs here and there—and living with her boyfriend rent-free. She had some $20,000 in debt, was struggling to make ends meet, and had come to New York City to pursue modeling and acting. “What are your goals,” I asked at our first meeting. “To be a famous actress and make millions of dollars,” she said, with an innocent sparkle in her eye.

She refused to listen to her nay-saying mom and friends who explained she had a one-in-a-billion chance of becoming the next Angelina Jolie. You need to find an alternative career path, they pleaded with her. But ...