Financial trauma deserves healing too.

I had my intro session with a therapist through my sponsor BetterHelp this week. The “matching” kind, where you fill out a few questions about what you’re mentally carrying… And afterwards, they pair you with someone who’s supposed to actually get it. I won’t lie, I sat there for the first few minutes bracing for it to feel clinical, long, boring, like I was being assessed instead of heard.

So yeah, it did feel like that… but for just about two minutes. And then the moment I got matched to my personalised therapist, we actually started talking. That awkward and braced feeling slowly turned into something closer to excitement. It was the first time someone asked me about my money trauma without also asking me to explain or defend it. It actually felt good.

Has anyone else used BetterHelp? Because I signed up not really knowing what to expect, and I am ACTUALLY excited about it. It feels good to want to figure my shit out instead of just being an ass about it and ignoring the problem that I have had for years.

I’ve built this whole platform on being honest about numbers. My debt, my income, the months I had nothing. What I haven’t said out loud as much is that the anxiety around those numbers didn’t go away just because I started talking about them publicly. Transparency healed the shame, but it didn’t heal the nervous system and the wounds underneath it.

I think women bloom differently when they feel financially safe.

There’s actual research on this, not just a vibe. A scoping review of 58 longitudinal studies on financial stress and depression found that 83% of them showed a significant link between the two. That’s not a coincidence, that’s a PATTERN. Financial stress doesn’t sit next to your mental health as a separate issue. It lives inside it.

I think that’s the part nobody prepares you for when you start “healing your relationship with money.” You can build the spreadsheet, track the debt, say the number out loud on the internet, and still flinch every time your banking app loads. The flinch isn’t a discipline problem. It’s a body that learned, a long time ago, that money meant danger, and nobody ever told it otherwise. My self-worth has always been tied to how much money I have, had, or will get… and it was time to heal that.

So as mentioned earlier, this week I started therapy through BetterHelp. Not because I hit some rock bottom moment (ok, maybe I did oops), but because I realised I was exhausted from trying to fix my life with Excel templates while completely ignoring the mental health of the person filling them in.

The sentence that broke me.

My therapist said something in that first session that’s been sitting with me since:

“But Isabella, if being hard on yourself worked, it would’ve worked by now.”

That sentence genuinely broke me.

I’ve spent years believing that if I just became more disciplined, earned more money, worked harder, optimised more... the anxiety would finally disappear.

But maybe I’ve been treating the symptom instead of the cause.

Maybe you can’t build wealth while constantly feeling unsafe.

Maybe financial freedom starts with emotional safety.

That’s what I’m trying to find out.

So yeah. I contacted BetterHelp, partnered with them, and got an affiliate link. Because I figured if I’m doing this, we might as well see if it’s actually something, together, instead of me just quietly trying it alone and reporting back later.

If you’ve been wanting to start therapy too, here you go, they gave my audience 10% off the first month:

https://betterhelp.com/wealthywomenguide

We can figure out together if this is actually something or not:

With love, ambition, and a little rebellion,
Isabella,
Founder of Wealthy Women Guide 💋

I manifest, I affirm, I speak it into existence, I light the candle, I write it on the mirror in lipstick. Money is attracted to me, and I welcome it with open arms. I am the CEO of my own reality, and the reality is: I would like $500,000 by next Monday.

Look, the affirmations are fun. They are free. Do them in the shower, do them in the group chat, do them while ignoring your bank app like the rest of us. I’m not here to take that away from you.

But funny thing about manifesting money: it works a lot better when you also know what you’re actually manifesting it for. And what your ACTION plan is to get there.

Because here’s what nobody says out loud in the affirmation era. It was never really about the money. It was never about the bag, the yacht, the “soft life” aesthetic, the candle that costs more than your electricity bill. It was about something much less glamorous and much more important:

options.

A woman with money is a woman with options. That’s it. That’s the whole thesis. Not luxury. Not a lifestyle. But options.

the job you can’t afford to leave

You know the job. The one where your manager talks to you in a tone he’d never use on a man in the room, and you smile and take it, because you have $340 in your account and rent is due in nine days.

That’s not weakness. That’s math. And it’s the exact math that keeps good, smart, capable women stuck in bad rooms for years.

Financial stability doesn’t make you brave. It makes bravery affordable. The woman with six months of savings isn’t inherently more courageous than the woman with none, she just has a longer runway before “speak up” turns into “can’t pay rent.” Courage is easy to access when the floor beneath you actually holds your weight.

the relationship you can’t afford to leave

Same math, different room.

Nobody warns you that “I’m staying because I love him” and “I’m staying because I have $600 and no plan” can feel exactly identical from the inside. One of those is a choice. The other one just wears a choice’s clothes.

Research on financial dependence is blunt about this. A CNBC analysis of Bowling Green State University research found women’s household income typically drops 23 to 40% in the year after divorce, and after 50, that drop nearly doubles. A longitudinal study published in PMC using a decade of data from the Health and Retirement Study confirms the same pattern, and those declines don’t reverse on their own. University of Michigan research found family income drops of 46 to 50% for women post-divorce, nearly double what men experience.

the landlord you can’t afford to leave

Smaller stakes, same shape. The apartment with mold you keep meaning to report. The roommate situation that’s clearly over. The lease you signed in a panic because you needed somewhere, anywhere, fast.

None of these require you to be trapped forever. They just require you to not have €2,000 sitting somewhere that says “I could leave tomorrow if I needed to.”

the actual manifestation

So here’s my real affirmation, the unglamorous one, the one that doesn’t fit on a mirror in lipstick:

I am building the kind of savings account that makes “I’m choosing this” true, instead of “I have no other option”. If you have no clue where to start, my advice is to learn a high-in-demand skill, find out a lot about it in my other article here.

That’s not as fun to say in the shower. But it’s the version that actually changes your life, instead of just your mood for the afternoon on your vision board.

A woman with money isn’t just rich. She’s free to leave any room that stops deserving her. The bag was never the point. The door was.

(*This was a short read, but I want to experiment with shorter articles and see how you guys find it. If you have made it to the end, comment
“I identify as a rich woman!”*)

With love, ambition, and a little rebellion,

Isabella,
Founder of the Wealthy Women Guide 💋

Statistically, financial dependence has hurt more women than being single ever has.

Being alone was never the emergency. But being financially dependent on someone else’s income was.

And the wedding ring doesn't protect you from the bank account you never built for yourself.

We have been sold a beautiful lie.

The lie says: get the ring, get the house, get the life, and the money part sorts itself out. Marriage is the safety net. Being unmarried at 30, 35, 40 is the emergency. Every romantic comedy, every family Christmas dinner, every “you’ll find someone” ends with the same unspoken message: your real risk is being alone.

Nobody says the actual risk out loud: building your entire financial security around a relationship you don’t control the future of.

Here’s what the research actually says.

The income drop nobody warns you about

Divorce doesn’t split your life cleanly in half. It splits it unevenly, and not in your favour.

A CNBC analysis of research from Bowling Green State University found that women’s household income typically drops between 23% and 40% in the year after a divorce. Men’s income, in some studies, actually rises after a breakup.

That gap gets worse with age. The same research found that women who divorce after 50, so-called “gray divorce,” see their standard of living decline by 45%, more than double the 21% drop men experience. Poverty rates for women who divorce after 50 are almost twice as high as for those who divorce younger.

This isn’t a fringe finding. Peer-reviewed research published in PMC using a decade of longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study confirms the same pattern: a 45% decline in women’s standard of living following gray divorce, and those declines don’t reverse on their own. They persist, unless a woman repartners, which brings its own risks if she’s financially dependent again.

Research from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research found family income drops of 46 to 50% for women after divorce, nearly double the drop experienced by men, despite women typically carrying higher costs as the primary caregiver for children.

Even in the UK, where family income data is tracked closely, Legal & General’s research found women’s household income fell by 41% in the first year post-divorce, compared to 21% for men. One in four women reported financial struggle post-divorce, compared to fewer than one in five men.

This is the part that should stop you: women are also significantly more likely to waive their rights to a partner’s pension during divorce. Not because they don’t need it. Because they’re exhausted, want it over, or don’t fully understand what they’re signing away.

Widowhood isn’t rare, and most women aren’t ready for it

Divorce isn’t the only way a marriage stops being a financial plan. Death is the other one, and statistically, it’s coming for most married women.

Research compiled by the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) states it plainly: “women are likely to spend at least part of their retirement in widowhood.” The death of a spouse is one of the strongest predictors of female poverty in old age.

Here’s the part that stings the most. A study published in PMC tracking older couples found that in most marriages, the division of labor means the husband manages the household finances while the wife doesn’t. Women only start rapidly acquiring financial literacy as they approach widowhood, essentially cramming for a test they didn’t know was coming, right as they’re grieving.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s what happens when “he handles the money” was the plan the whole time.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms this gap exists everywhere, not just in one country or one income bracket. It found a significant financial literacy gap among married women, single women, and widows alike, and that even when women are the primary household decision-makers, they still tend to know less about finance than men who hold the same role. Women are also less likely than men to seek financial advice when they need it most.

The actual risk was never “unmarried.” It was “unprepared.”

Read those numbers again. A 23-50% income drop. Nearly double the poverty risk. A financial literacy gap that only closes once the person managing your money is gone.

None of that happens because a woman was single. It happens because she outsourced her financial competence to a relationship, and the relationship changed.

This isn’t an argument against marriage. Plenty of the research above shows that women who do stay financially engaged, who know the numbers, who keep working, who understand the pension, the mortgage, the full picture, weather divorce and widowhood dramatically better than women who didn’t. The problem was never partnership. The problem is dependence without literacy.

What married women told me when I said this out loud

I posted a version of this thought before writing the full piece, half expecting the married women in my comments to push back the hardest. They didn’t. They agreed the loudest.

One woman put it plainly: she loves her husband and her family, and she also loves her own peace, and financial stability is the goal either way, married or not. Another said something that stuck with me for days, that financial abuse is genuinely terrifying, because you can be married, loved, and taken care of, until suddenly you’re not. Having the ability to build your own reality isn’t a threat to a good relationship. It only threatens the people who see your independence as a risk to their control.

A few women admitted they’d made the exact mistake this article is about, and only recently corrected it. One described realizing she’d wrongly assumed her household would simply take care of her, and that learning she was capable of building her own reserves didn’t create distance in her marriage, it dissolved what she called her own “submissive tendencies.” She said it freed her in ways she didn’t expect.

Someone else, married, said it even more directly: if your husband can’t provide financially one day, for any reason, you need the skills to understand and build wealth regardless. And she added something worth repeating: a future husband worth having will respect this in you, not resent it.

More than one person said the same thing in different words: this shouldn’t even be controversial. Given the state of the world, it’s just the math of staying safe.

What to actually do about it

Same as always: some of this you can start today, some of it needs a system.

Start today:

• Know your own numbers, independent of your partner’s. Every account, every debt, every asset, written down in one place you control.

• If you’re partnered, ask to be included in every financial conversation and decision, not updated after the fact.

• Build an emergency fund that’s yours, not shared, even if it’s small to start.

Build a system:

• Create an income stream that exists independent of your relationship status.

• Learn the actual mechanics of your household’s pensions, mortgages, and investments, don’t wait for a crisis to force the education.

• Track your full financial picture regularly, not just when something goes wrong.

That first bullet point, the "everything in one place you control" one, is where this actually starts. Not with a five-year plan. Not with becoming a different kind of woman overnight. With one spreadsheet where you can finally see every debt, every account, every number, in one place, instead of scattered across apps and statements you avoid opening.

I have to tell you something I have not said out loud in any of my letters.

Last night I sat on my kitchen floor with my laptop, because sitting at the table felt too official, too much like admitting this was a real meeting I was having with myself. I opened a Google Sheet I built months ago and never finished filling in. Every card. Every rate. Every number I have been quietly avoiding while writing you letters about wealth. This is how much debt I have:

$5,887.33….

I typed it slowly, like typing it fast would make it worse somehow. Some of you will read that and think it is nothing. Some of you will read it and feel your own stomach drop because yours is bigger, or because yours has been sitting unopened in an app you have not checked in months. Either way, there it was. Not a feeling anymore. A number.

I am the woman who writes about financial healing to 40,000 of you every week, and I have been avoiding my own number for longer than I want to admit. That is not hypocrisy. That is just what avoidance actually looks like, even for the person telling you not to avoid it.

So here is what changes starting today. I am done circling it.

Every Friday, in the paid letters, I am going to show you exactly how I am paying this off, real numbers, real progress, real setbacks. The side hustles. The extra shifts. The months it barely moves and the months it does. Not because I have this figured out, but because I do not, and I think watching someone actually do the uncomfortable thing might help more than another article telling you to.

The spreadsheet that made me finally sit down and look, I cleaned it up and put it here in case it does for you what it did for me. Not because I need you to buy it. Because I know what it is like to keep the tab closed for months, and I would rather hand you the thing that finally got me to open it than watch you white-knuckle your way through building your own version from scratch at 1am.

GET THE DEBT TRACKER → CLICK HERE

$7. Five minutes to set up. One evening to finally know the real number.

With love, ambition, and a little rebellion,
Isabella,
Founder of the Wealthy Women Guide 💋

WARNING: read this article in the SUBSTACK APP for clearer pictures!!! ↓

Let me say something that is going to make some of you uncomfortable.
And I need you to stay with me, because by the end of this you will either be furious, enlightened, or both. Probably both.

Pretty people make more money.

Not because they work harder, or are smarter, or deserve it more. Just because of how they look.

And there is thirty years of peer-reviewed economic research to back that up.

The data nobody wants to read out loud

Economists Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle published a landmark study in the American Economic Review that found attractive people earn 10 to 15 percent more over their lifetime than their less attractive peers.

That is a house deposit. That is your retirement account. That is whether your children grow up with options or inherit the same financial anxiety you are currently trying to heal.

A study published in the Journal of Labor Economics confirmed this beauty premium exists across virtually every profession.

A meta-analytic review of 919 studies published in Psychological Bulletin confirmed it is consistent, replicable, and global.

And then there is the makeup finding. Research discussed in the Diary of a CEO podcast found studies from Harvard and Oxford showing women got paid 20 to 40 percent more simply as a result of wearing makeup. Not a promotion. Just showing up more polished.

A study by Wong and Penner confirmed that groomed and attractive women earn up to 20 percent more than their less groomed counterparts, independent of actual job performance.

You are not imagining it. It exists. It has a dollar amount.

Why I hide my face and why that is changing

I should explain something here because it is directly relevant to everything I am about to say.

I run a faceless page.

I have never shown my face on this platform. Not once. And the reasons are layered in a way that might surprise you.

The first reason is practical. My niche is financial trauma. The stuff people do not tell their therapists, let alone their Instagram followers. Talking about debt and shame and generational poverty requires a level of vulnerability that I was not ready to attach to my actual face and my actual name in my family’s WhatsApp group.

The second reason is something I have not said publicly before. I genuinely believe in the evil eye. Not in a superstitious way I am embarrassed about, but in a very practical human psychology way. Research on social comparison and envy consistently shows that financial success disclosed to close social circles triggers resentment more than admiration, particularly from people who are struggling themselves. So I chose to build quietly and protect my energy.

The third reason is simple protection. A young woman from my background openly talking about money, healing, and building wealth online is already a target for a specific kind of commentary. The faceless approach gave me the distance to be honest without the exposure.

But here is where things are starting to shift.

My brand has grown to over 40,000 Substack subscribers. And at a certain point the faceless approach creates its own friction. When I apply for jobs I need a CV with a profile picture. When I pitch for brand deals, agencies want to see the woman behind the page. When I think about becoming the quietly wealthy woman I write about every week, I have to ask myself: how do you become her if you are always hiding behind a screen?

You cannot build a life that requires you to show up and then spend it hiding.
The feedback I get when I do show my face has honestly caught me off guard. Agencies have told me directly: why are you not showing your face, you could be doing so much more. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
So I am slowly getting the hang of it. Showing up. Being seen.
And that is exactly where FaceApp comes in as my go-to photo editing app.
Because the first photo someone sees of me before we ever meet in real life needs to be right. Not unrealistic catfishing. Just the most accurate, polished, intentional version of me on my best day.
Now I can hear you already. Why a face editing app? Stay with me. It will all make sense.

The Taylor Rooks principle

I do not care about sports. But when Taylor Rooks appears on my screen I stop scrolling immediately. Because she is strikingly beautiful and my attention went to her before my brain decided whether I cared about what she was saying.

That is not shallow. That is neuroscience.

The halo effect shows that attractive people are perceived as more intelligent, more competent, and more trustworthy before they have demonstrated any of those qualities. Psychology Today explains that first impressions form within milliseconds and are extraordinarily difficult to reverse.

So if a polished presentation gets your foot in the door before your skills get a chance to speak, why would you not engineer that presentation?

I am talking about grooming. Posture. Confidence. A signature look developed with intention. Research on clothing and self-perception found that how you present yourself affects not just how others perceive you but how you think and perform. You do not just look more competent. You become more competent.

Engineering your presentation is not anti-feminist. It is strategic.

What I actually do with FaceApp and what nobody admits

Here is something I have never admitted publicly: I use this face editing app to figure out what makeup looks good on my face before I try it in real life.

I open FaceApp, try different Makeup features on a photo of myself, look at what works on my actual features, then go to my mirror and recreate it. The result is a makeup look that genuinely suits my face rather than one that just looks good on someone else in a 2am tutorial.

When I do wear makeup, I look like the edited version of myself. Which means the edit was not a fantasy. It was a preview.

Here is exactly what I used for my most recent professional photo. A Real how-to-edit-selfies moment:

Impression, Revamp 2: the perfect glow up edit for a polished overall look without looking filtered. Keep it at level 2 or 3 maximum.

Skin, No Eyebags, level 1: natural photo editing at its best. Level 1 only. Removes the shadow without making the area look flat or artificial.

Retouch tool on specific blemishes: not smoothed across the whole face. Targeted on one pimple. The targeted approach keeps your skin looking like skin.
WARNING: read this article in the SUBSTACK APP for clearer pictures!!! ↓

[BEFORE PHOTO]

[AFTER PHOTOS]

or

The difference is subtle. Intentionally so.

Yes, now you have finally seen me. Hi. This is me, Isabella, founder of Wealthy Women Guide. And with this selfie editing app, I can set that first polished impression before anyone meets me in real life.

[COLLAGE BEFORE AND AFTER]

or

And here is something I have not shared before that I think is genuinely useful.

Different opportunities require different versions of you. Not fake versions. Just different facets of the same person.

Not only that but you can also improve the quality of a picture.

I uploaded my photo, clicked on high resolution and got a better picture that I could immediately use or continue editing on.

[BEFORE]

[AFTER]

I opened FaceApp. > High Resolution. > Impression, Passion 3.

[COLLAGE BEFORE AND AFTER]

You see the difference? From here on I would also learn the makeup look on my own face lmao.

Where this applies beyond selfies

Your LinkedIn profile photo is doing work before your resume is ever opened. According to LinkedIn data, profiles with professional photos receive significantly more views and connection requests than those without. Not about being conventionally attractive. About the signal that a polished photo sends before anyone reads a word about you.

Your CV headshot, your Substack avatar, your professional profile anywhere online. All marketing material. All first impressions. All yours to engineer.

FaceApp is not about deceiving people. It is about making sure that a camera on a specific bad day does not undo the impression that the real you, on your best day, would actually make.

A camera is a liar. It flattens dimension. It catches lighting at the worst angle. It freezes a microsecond that does not represent how you actually look when you are moving, talking, being alive in a room.

Correcting what the camera got wrong is not deception. It is accuracy.

As FaceApp put it themselves: the goal is to highlight what is already there with subtle, natural edits. Not to transform. To enhance. There is a meaningful difference and it is the one that matters for every professional photo you will ever take.

The money angle, because this is still a financial healing newsletter

The beauty premium is worth 10 to 15 percent of your lifetime earnings. On a median salary over a 35-year career researchers estimate this compounds to a significant difference in total lifetime wealth. Not from working harder. From showing up more intentionally.

For those of us building online, the connection is even more direct. Your ability to attract brand deals, grow your audience, and convert followers into paying subscribers is directly influenced by the professional impression your visual brand creates.

I built a substack page with over 40,000 subscribers as a faceless creator. Visual intentionality matters even when your face is not in the frame.
Mastering how to edit selfies and photos intentionally is not vanity. It is a financial strategy.

So no, this is not just about whether strangers find you attractive in person. It is about the entire system of first impressions that either accelerates your access to money and opportunity or creates friction at every single entry point.

And friction costs you every time.

The bottom line

Attractive people earn more. Three decades of research. Not a vibe.

Presentation is engineerable. Grooming, posture, signature style, intentional self-editing. None of that requires luck or genetics.

Presentation alone is not enough. The woman who builds financial intelligence alongside her polished exterior is the one whose value lasts beyond the room and beyond the decade.

FaceApp is one tool in a much larger toolkit. It helps you preview the best version of yourself, correct what bad lighting and bad timing do to a photo, and show up in digital spaces with the same intentionality you would bring to an important in-person meeting.

Your skills get you in the room. Your financial literacy keeps you there. But the photo, the profile, the visual first impression that someone forms before you open your mouth?

That is yours to engineer.

And now you know exactly how I do it.

If this resonates with you, FaceApp is for you. Download it here and try the Impression and Skin features yourself. 💋

With love, ambition, and a little rebellion,

Isabelle 💋

This is a paid partnership with FaceApp. All opinions and edits shown are genuinely my own.

You will get your first real reward this Friday. The Real Numbers: my actual debt, my actual income, what I made these past months from my socials, all with receipts. The stuff I have never shared publicly anywhere ( & remember, I started off as an ordinary person with no social media experience)

If this resonates with you, join in before Friday, before prices increase: $12.12/month, link here

Subscribe now

Kisses x
- Isabella, Founder of the

1. You are avoiding your bills and paying for it

I visited my sister recently, and my nosy eyes immediately clocked it.

Her letterbox. Absolutely rammed. Letters piled on top of each other, some clearly months old, at least two that looked official enough to make my stomach drop on her behalf.

Me: hey you need to check those.

Her: Isabella please do not start stressing me.

Me: those are your bills though.

Her: yeah I know. Let them.

I wanted to shake her. But I also understood her completely. Because every single one of us has a version of this. The bank app you have not opened in three weeks. The insurance email rotting in a folder. The letter you moved from the table to the drawer and have actively decided not to think about.

A 2024 Motley Fool survey found that 51% of millennials have literally shielded their eyes from their bank account balance or bills because of financial anxiety. Not metaphorically. Physically looked away.

Research published in Psychological Research found that when people experience financial scarcity, financial information itself becomes a threat signal that the brain actively works to avoid. Your brain is not being dramatic. It genuinely learned that looking at your finances causes pain. So it protects you by making you not look.

The problem is the bill does not care about your anxiety. It just keeps growing while you look the other way.

Fix it: Set a ten-minute “money date” every Saturday evening. Just ten minutes. Open the app, look at the numbers, close it. That is it. You do not have to do anything about it yet. You just have to stop avoiding it. The anxiety decreases dramatically once looking at your finances becomes a habit rather than an event.

2. You think you are saving money when you see “SALE”

My mother. Oh, my dear mother. I say this with love. But she is the absolute victim of this.

Her favourite perfume comes on sale. She buys it. She feels genuinely virtuous about it. She goes home and puts it on the shelf next to the one she has not finished yet.

She did not save money. She spent money on something she already had.

This is one of the most psychologically sophisticated retail tricks ever invented, and it works on almost everyone. The word “sale” triggers a loss aversion response in your brain. You feel the pain of missing a deal more intensely than the pleasure of saving, which means the moment you see 40% off, you stop asking whether you needed it and start asking whether you can afford not to buy it.

Nearly half of Americans (47%) will buy things simply because they are on sale, regardless of whether they need them.

You were not going to buy it. You did not save money. You spent money that would not have left your account if the thing had never gone on sale in the first place.

Fix it: Before buying anything on sale, ask yourself: would I buy this at full price right now? If the answer is no, put it down. The sale made it tempting. It did not make it necessary.

3. You fell for the “free gift with purchase” trap and spent €80 to get a tote bag worth €3

You came in for a €25 moisturiser. Then you noticed you were only €15 away from a free gift. Suddenly you are buying a serum you did not need, an eye cream you already have, and a cleanser for your friend’s birthday even though her birthday was three months ago.

You spent €80 to receive a branded tote bag and a travel-size lipgloss.

Research in consumer psychology found that 70% of consumers would switch from their favourite brand for an additional product or service at no extra cost. And a study published in Behavioral Sciences found that “free gift” framing makes consumers feel like smart shoppers even when they are spending more than they planned. You feel clever. The brand got you for €80. That is not a win for you.

Fix it: Never spend more than you planned to reach a gift threshold. The gift is worth less than the extra spending you did to get it. Every single time.

4. You have upgrade syndrome and the tech companies are genuinely obsessed with you

Every September someone in your life gets visibly excited about the new iPhone.

Maybe it is you.

The camera is 0.3 millimetres thinner. There is a new colour. It does something the previous one did but slightly faster. You already have a phone. It works. You are about to spend $1,200 on a marginal improvement to a device you use primarily to scroll and avoid calls.

This is not just phones. It is the new vacuum cleaner when the old one still cleans. The new AirPods when the current ones still play sound. The new laptop because it comes in midnight blue and your current one is space grey.

Research on the hedonic treadmill shows that the satisfaction from upgrades is temporary and returns to baseline faster than we anticipate, so you feel the excitement for approximately two weeks, and then it is just the thing you own. The $1,200 is permanently gone.

Fix it: Implement an 11-day rule for any tech purchase over €100. If you still want it after 11 days AND your current device has actually broken or become unusable, buy it. If it is still working fine, it is an upgrade, not a need.

5. Your little treats are not little anymore

There is an actual economic term for this now. Treatonomics.

Research found that 62% of Americans indulge at least monthly in a small affordable treat, with 43% considered frequent treaters. Gen Z women spend an average of $28 per treat purchase, about $10 more than their older counterparts.

Here is the psychology behind it. Only 23% of people rated current economic conditions as excellent or good. When the big dreams feel impossible, the brain pivots to what IS possible right now. The Laneige lip mask. The Glossier serum. The luxury candle.

These are not frivolous. They are a rational response to feeling financially hopeless.
And my dear Wealthy Women, I’m a victim of this too.

The problem is not the individual treat. The problem is treat inflation; when the $5 treat becomes a $25 treat becomes a $60 skincare haul that felt affordable in individual pieces but totals $300 a month in the category formerly known as little treats.

Fix it: Give yourself a fixed monthly treat budget. €30 or €50, whatever is realistic. When it is gone, it is gone. The boundary is not about guilt. It is about making the treats feel special again instead of constant. Keep the next “little” treat for next month. It’s about self-discipline, which translates into self-respect.

6. You impulse spend when you are emotional and your phone is too close

Bad day at work. You open Instagram. You see a reel. Thirty minutes later, you have bought four things from an app you did not know existed two hours ago.

Alternatively: someone complimented your outfit today, and you feel amazing so clearly this is the moment to finally buy that bag. Celebration spending is just as real as stress spending. Both are emotional. Both bypass the rational brain completely.

Research shows that impulse purchases account for nearly 40% of all online spending and that emotional states including stress, anxiety, boredom AND positive emotions like excitement drive the majority of unplanned purchases. American consumers spent an average of $150 per month on impulse purchases in 2023.

The brain releases dopamine in anticipation of a purchase. Not after. Before. Which means the high comes from scrolling and adding to cart, not from the thing arriving two days later when you have already forgotten why you bought it.

Fix it: When you want to impulse spend, do not close the app and white-knuckle it. Write down what you want to buy on paper or your notes app. Leave it 48 hours. If you still want it after 48 hours AND you have the money AND you were planning to buy it anyway, buy it. Most of the time you will have completely forgotten about it. The desire was the emotion, not the thing.

7. You will not ask for your money back from friends

This one is taboo. Nobody talks about it. So I will.

You lent your friend €200. It has been four months. She has not mentioned it. You have not mentioned it. You both pretend it did not happen while you silently resent each other every time she posts a brunch picture.

Or you split a dinner and your friend transfers you €23 less than her share because she “forgot the tip.” You say nothing because it feels awkward.

Research on financial avoidance in social relationships shows that the discomfort of asking for money back is consistently rated as more painful than the discomfort of the financial loss itself, meaning we routinely choose to lose real money rather than have a ten-second conversation.

Fix it: Set the terms in advance. Before you lend anyone money, say out loud “I need this back by this date.” One sentence changes the entire dynamic because now it is not awkward to bring it up later; it is just you following up on what was already agreed. And if they do not pay by the date, add interest. Not metaphorical interest. Actual interest. €200 after 7 days becomes €210.

8. You are not negotiating your salary and it is costing you tens of thousands over your lifetime

Only 28% of women asked for higher pay the last time they were hired. Negotiators receive an average of 18.83% more than those who accept the first offer.

18.83% more. On every salary. For the entire length of that job. Compounding into every raise that follows.

42% of women did not negotiate because they lacked confidence, and this was even more prevalent among women aged 18 to 29, at 46%.

I lived this. A brand came to me fighting hard to pay me less than I was worth. Every instinct said just take it. I stood my ground. I rejected their offer. They came back with a better number.

94% of negotiated offers remain intact. The offer withdrawal you are terrified of almost never happens.

Fix it: Research the market rate for your role before every salary conversation. Ask for 10 to 15% above what you actually want. The worst they can say is no. The best is 18.83% more for the rest of that job.

9. You are financially dependent on one stream of income and you call it stability

One job. One salary. One employer who can make one decision in one meeting that removes your entire income in one afternoon.

That is not stability. That is a single point of failure with a direct deposit.

Research on financial resilience consistently identifies income diversification as one of the strongest predictors of long-term financial security.

I built this Substack between university lectures on my phone. Not because I had spare time. Because I understood early that one income stream is one decision away from zero.

Fix it: You do not need a whole second business. You need one thing that generates any money outside your salary. One freelance client. One digital product. One affiliate link. Start here if you need some guidance on this.

10. You go to things you cannot afford because you are too ashamed to say you cannot afford them

The bachelorette weekend in Barcelona you charged to your credit card because everyone else was going. The wedding gift you could not afford but bought anyway because you did not want to look cheap. The group dinner where you ate a starter but split the bill equally because nobody wants to be that person.

A Fortune report found that 63% of single Americans hide the financial reason for declining social invitations. And 51% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials say social media makes them want to buy things they know they cannot afford.

Girl, I tell all my friends and family that I’m broke and that they should not call me to hang out until next month when I get my salary. This has brought a lot of peace in my life.

Fix it: Loud budgeting. Literally just saying “I cannot do Barcelona this year due to being broke (do not explain yourself more, it is none of their business anyways), but I would love to celebrate you another way when I get my next salary.” 42% of Gen Z now do this and their financial health is improving faster than previous generations at the same age. Saying no is free. Saying yes to everything is not.

11. Your savings account is too accessible and you treat it like a snack drawer

You have a savings account. Technically. It is connected to your current account. One click to transfer. One tap to move money back. It might as well be the same account with a different label.

Every time an unexpected expense comes up, or you just want to, the money is right there. Two clicks. Gone.

According to a 2023 study from the Financial Health Network, 47% of Americans say they struggle to control spending when they do not use separate accounts for different financial goals. The physical separation matters psychologically even when the money is technically accessible in both accounts.

Fix it: Open a savings account at a completely different bank from your current account. No debit card. No instant transfer. Make it mildly annoying to access. The friction is the feature.

12. You stop at the petrol station for fuel and leave having spent €25 on things you did not go in for

You stopped to fill up. You are in there for two minutes. You come out with a Red Bull, a Kinder Bueno, a bottle of water because the Red Bull suddenly felt unhealthy, a lighter you do not need, and a scratch card because why not.

73% of customers who stop for fuel enter the store to make an additional purchase. This is not an accident. Every product placement, every checkout display, every “only €1 extra” offer is designed to capture the three minutes you are in there waiting.

You are not weak. You are being outmanoeuvred by a billion-dollar retail psychology operation every time you need petrol.

Fix it: Pay at the pump when you can. If you have to go inside, decide before you walk in what you are buying and buy only that. Or always have snacks and drinks in your car!!! No need to enter the convenience store.

13. You buy things to signal a version of yourself you have not built yet

The expensive gym membership for the person you are going to become. The professional wardrobe for the career you have not gotten yet. The skincare routine of a woman who has her finances sorted while your savings account sits at zero. The aesthetics of wealth before you have built any actual wealth.

Research on aspirational consumption found that people systematically spend more on items associated with an identity they want to claim than on items associated with who they currently are. Your spending is not reflecting your life. It is auditioning for a life you have not yet been cast in.

I did this for years. I bought the planner of a highly organised person. The investment books of a financially literate person. The supplements of a healthy person. I used approximately none of them because the problem was never that I lacked the tools. It was that I had not done the internal work that makes you actually become those things.

The quietly wealthy woman does not buy things to feel wealthy. She builds things that make her wealthy, and eventually the stuff follows.

Fix it: Before any aspirational purchase, ask yourself: am I buying this because I am already this person, or because I want to feel like I am? If it is the second one, the purchase will not get you there. The internal work will.

14. You cannot keep money when you suddenly have it

This one is deeply rooted in financial trauma and almost nobody in the personal finance world talks about it honestly.

You get a tax refund. Or a bonus. Or you finally get paid back that money someone owed you. Or a brand deal lands. For about thirty seconds you feel amazing. Then something happens. Within two weeks, sometimes less, the money is gone. Not on anything specific you planned. Just... gone. A meal here. A delivery there. A thing you had been wanting. A small treat that became a medium treat that became a weekend that somehow cost €400.

This is not irresponsibility. This is a documented psychological phenomenon called the windfall effect.

Research published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found that people treat windfall money fundamentally differently from earned income — they spend it faster, less carefully, and with less guilt, because the brain categorises it as “extra” rather than “real.” The money does not feel like yours in the same way. So it leaves in the same spirit it arrived: quickly and without ceremony.

But here is where financial trauma specifically amplifies this. If you grew up in a household where money was scarce and unpredictable, your nervous system learned something very specific: money does not stay. It arrives and then something bad happens and it disappears. So when money arrives now, your nervous system does not feel safe holding it. Spending it feels like neutralising a threat. The money cannot be taken away if it is already gone.

Research on financial trauma consistently identifies this “money cannot be trusted to stay” belief as one of the most common inherited patterns — and one of the most expensive ones, because it ensures that every unexpected financial opportunity evaporates before it has a chance to change anything.

Fix it: The moment any unexpected money lands, move it to your separate savings account at the other bank before you do anything else. Not most of it. All of it. Then sit with it for 72 hours before making any decisions about what to do with it. The urgency you feel to spend it is the trauma response talking. It is not real. The money is not going anywhere unless you move it.

15. You have subscriptions you forgot you were paying for

This one gets its own number because the data is genuinely unhinged.

A 2024 CNET survey found that US adults spend $91 on subscriptions per month on average — over $1,000 a year — and 48% have forgotten to cancel a free trial before it rolled into a paid plan.

But it is worse than that. Late 2025 saw subscription price hikes of just $1 to $3 per service quietly pushing many households $15 to $30 higher per month. Each increase is too small to notice individually. Combined across every service you have, they add up to a meaningful monthly drain you never consciously agreed to.

The gym membership you joined in January and have been to four times. The meditation app you downloaded during a stressful week in March and opened twice. The cloud storage that auto-renewed. The premium version of an app you downloaded for one specific feature and forgot about. The streaming service you share with your ex and neither of you cancelled it because that would require a conversation.

You are funding a small company of services that you have not consciously chosen to keep.

Fix it: Open your bank app right now. Filter by recurring charges. Write every single one down. Then go through the list and for each one ask: did I use this in the last 30 days? If no, cancel it today. Not tomorrow. Today. You are not alone — each person wastes about $127 a year on unused subscriptions alone. That is not money you spent on something you enjoyed. That is money that left your account while you were not looking.

Every single one of these habits has a financial trauma root. The full audit, including my own personal numbers from applying this to my own finances this month, is in Friday’s paid letter.

$12.12 a month. Cancel whenever.

Subscribe to The Real Numbers

With love, ambition and a little rebellion,
Isabella, Founder of 💋

I need to tell you something I have never shared publicly before.

Something that explains why I am so obsessed with breaking women out of financial hell.

Look at this chart (source: Cobodo J., 2025). 42.6% of all hypnotherapy sessions are for financial trauma. Nearly half.

That means almost every other person walking into a therapist’s office is there because money has broken their mind, their relationships, and their sense of self-worth.

But here’s what’s terrifying: most people don’t even realize their anxiety, depression, and “burnout” stem (most of the time), from unhealed money wounds.

When I was 14, I genuinely believed I was cursed.

Not the mystical kind of curse. The real kind. The kind that destroys families, breaks fathers, and forces mothers to scrub other people’s toilets just to keep the lights on.

My father had three businesses. Three. All of them failed within two years of my birth. Bankruptcy. Mental breakdown. The whole devastating spiral that financial trauma brings.

We went from a house in the nice part of town to a tiny apartment in the roughest area overnight.

I watched my mother transform from a confident stay-at-home mom to a woman who came home every night smelling like industrial cleaning chemicals, her hands cracked and bleeding from scrubbing floors for families who had what we used to have.

My father... darling, my father lost the will to live. Psychiatric care became our normal. Some days I wasn’t sure if he’d still be there when I got home from school. At 14, I was convinced I was the reason for all of it. That my existence had somehow cursed our family’s financial future.

Do you know what financial trauma does to a teenage girl?

It makes you consider things that would horrify your future self. I watched friends deal drugs and make more in a week than my mother made in months. I saw family friends turn to sex work and afford things we could only dream of.

The only thing that kept me from those paths was my mother’s unwavering faith. She devoted her life to God, and I couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing her or Him. Even when everything else was falling apart.

But here’s what I learned that changed everything:

Those weren’t random financial disasters. They were patterns. Generational curses disguised as “bad luck.”

My family had been unconsciously programming failure into their money DNA for decades. And I was about to inherit the same broken blueprint.

Until I decided to rewrite it.

The Curse of Inherited Financial Trauma

Most women don’t realize they’re carrying their family’s money wounds in their nervous system. Your body literally expects financial chaos because that’s what it learned was “normal.”

When my father’s businesses failed, it wasn’t because he was incompetent. It was because he was unconsciously sabotaging his own success. He’d get close to a breakthrough, then something would “mysteriously” go wrong.

Sound familiar?

How many times have you been on the verge of a financial breakthrough, only to have an “emergency” drain your savings? How many times have you started building momentum, only to unconsciously make decisions that put you back at square one?

That’s not coincidence, darling. That’s programming.

The Curse of Sacred Poverty

My mother’s devotion to God came with a side of poverty worship. “Money is the root of all evil.” “Rich people can’t get into heaven.” “Suffering brings you closer to God.”

These beliefs kept her cleaning other people’s toilets for decades when she could have been building her own cleaning empire.

The most dangerous part? She genuinely believed that wanting more was selfish. That struggling financially was somehow more virtuous than thriving.

I inherited that belief. For years, I sabotaged my own success because deep down, I thought being wealthy would make me a bad person.

Until I realized something revolutionary:

God doesn’t want you poor. Poverty doesn’t make you holy. It just makes you powerless to help others.

The Curse of Trauma Bonding with Struggle

Here’s the most twisted part: We become addicted to financial struggle because it’s familiar. Your nervous system would rather deal with known chaos than unknown abundance.

I was so used to crisis mode that when money started flowing, I’d unconsciously create problems to get back to familiar stress levels.

Does this sound like you?

Do you:

• Get money, then immediately have an “emergency”?

• Feel guilty when things are going well financially?

• Find yourself more comfortable planning for disaster than success?

• Sabotage opportunities right before they’d change your life?

That’s trauma bonding with poverty, and it will keep you broke until you consciously break the pattern.

Breaking the Generational Curse

Today, my father has finally paid off decades of debt. His mind is clear, his body is healthy, and he’s rebuilding his relationship with money from a place of healing instead of trauma.

My mother still works as a cleaner by choice now, not necessity. But I’m building something that will give her the retirement she deserves and the financial freedom she never thought was possible.

And me? I’m not the cursed child who destroys everything she touches. I’m Isabella - the woman who broke generational poverty and built an empire helping other women do the same.

But here’s what I need you to understand:

These curses don’t break themselves. They require conscious, deliberate action. They require you to face the uncomfortable truth about why you’re really struggling with money.

Most women would rather stay broke and blame external circumstances than do the inner work to reprogram their financial DNA.

But you’re not most women. You’re here. You’re reading this. You’re ready to break the pattern.

The Brutal Truth

Most women will read this email, feel inspired for 30 seconds, then go right back to the same patterns that keep them financially stuck.

They’ll make excuses. “I don’t have time for inner work.” “My situation is different.” “Maybe next month when things calm down.”

But things will never calm down. The chaos will never stop. The emergencies will keep coming. Because that’s what unhealed financial trauma creates - an endless cycle of crisis that feels normal because it’s all you’ve ever known.

The women who break generational curses don’t wait for permission. They don’t wait for the “right time.” They don’t wait until they feel ready.

They decide that they’d rather be uncomfortable for a few months than stay broke for the rest of their lives.

Here’s what no one tells you about building wealth:

Your biggest enemy isn’t the economy. It’s not your circumstances. It’s not even your bank balance.

Your biggest enemy is the voice in your head that sounds exactly like your broke family members. The voice that says “Who do you think you are?” when you dream bigger. The voice that whispers “You don’t deserve this” when opportunities appear.

That voice kept my mother scrubbing floors for decades. That voice almost killed my father. That voice was about to destroy me too.

Until I realized something that changed everything:

That voice isn’t yours. It’s theirs. And you can choose to stop listening.

The woman you’re becoming doesn’t inherit trauma - she heals it. She doesn’t repeat patterns - she breaks them. She doesn’t just survive poverty - she ends it permanently.

But first, you have to stop being loyal to the struggle that’s been destroying your family for generations.

Are you ready to be the disloyal daughter who chooses wealth over wounds?

The rebellious woman who breaks every rule about staying small and humble and grateful for scraps?

Because that’s what it’s going to take, darling. And if you’re not ready for that level of transformation, this isn’t for you.

But if you are... if you’re finally tired of inheriting other people’s limitations...

Then watch for what I’m sharing this week.

With fierce love and zero tolerance for your excuses,

Isabella
Founder, The Wealthy Women Guide 💋

Leave a comment

P.S. This week, I am sharing what financial healing actually looks like from the inside. The real numbers. The real mistakes. The real wins. Not the aesthetic version. The honest one. If you are ready for that, Friday's letter is for you.

If this letter resonates with you, then this week's paid letters are for you.

Most of your “anxiety” isn’t a chemical imbalance.

It’s the landlord's email sitting in your inbox.

It’s the credit card bill you’ve been ignoring for three weeks.

It’s the $47 left in your account with six days until payday.

We have been sold a beautiful lie.

The lie says: your mental health struggles are a clinical condition inside your brain. Go to therapy. Take the medication. Light the candle. Do the breathing exercise.

And don’t get me wrong!!! Therapy does save lives! Real clinical depression and anxiety disorders are devastating and deserve proper treatment.

But here’s the part nobody says out loud: a significant chunk of what we call “anxiety” and “depression” is actually just poverty expressing itself through your nervous system.

You can’t meditate your way out of not being able to afford rent. Researchers have found that adults with less than 5,000 in savings report over two times the odds of depression and anxiety compared to those with 100,000 or more.

Two times.

The difference between panic and peace is sometimes just a savings account.

And yet we pathologize the panic instead of fixing the poverty.

The research is screaming at us. We aren’t listening.

A massive systematic review analyzing 66 peer-reviewed studies found that debt consistently correlates with adverse mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and even suicidality.

Another study conducted across the USA, England, China, and Mexico with nearly 22,000 participants found that negative wealth shocks (sudden loss of money) were directly associated with subsequent depressive symptoms (regardless of which country people lived in).

This isn’t cultural. It’s human.

Norwegian researchers tracked over 10,000 university students and found that those who frequently experienced financial difficulties had a 3.55-fold increased risk of a major depressive episode just one year later.

The anxiety isn’t in your head.

It’s in your bank account.

And the most brutal finding? Financial stress doesn’t just hurt you today. A USC Dornsife study found that people who experienced financial strain in childhood started showing symptoms of anxiety and loneliness nearly 20 years earlier than those who grew up financially secure, often as early as their 50s instead of their 70s.

The trauma of being broke gets baked into your bones. Even when you escape it later, your body remembers.

Debt is psychological warfare.

Let’s talk about debt specifically, because this is where the lie gets exposed.

A systematic review of U.S.-based research examining thirty-nine studies found that personal debt (including student loans, unsecured debt, mortgage debt, and bankruptcy) consistently links to increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.

The mechanism isn’t complicated.

Debt collection pressure. Reduced sense of control. The feeling that your life belongs to someone else.

One study found that people in debt were more than three times more likely to have a mental health problem than those who were not in debt.

Three times.

If a pharmaceutical company invented a pill that tripled your risk of mental illness, it would be pulled from the market immediately.

But we call debt “normal.”

We call struggling “adulting.”

We call panic “anxiety disorder” and prescribe medication instead of asking the real question:

Why are so many of us just one paycheck away from falling apart?

The scarcity mindset is not a personality flaw.

In their groundbreaking book Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives, researchers Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir demonstrated something revolutionary.

Scarcity: whether it’s a lack of money, time, or even companionship, captures the mind.

It creates what they call “tunnel vision.” You become so focused on your immediate financial crisis that you lose the mental bandwidth to plan ahead, make good decisions, or think about the future.

This isn’t because poor people are lazy or stupid.

It’s because poverty itself reduces cognitive function.

In another study, researchers found that poverty causally contributes to major depressive disorder and schizophrenia, and that cognitive ability accounts for about 30% of poverty’s effects on the brain.

Being broke literally changes how your brain works.

And yet our solution is... “Have you tried journaling?”

The cycle nobody talks about.

This is the part that broke me when I first understood it.

Poverty causes mental illness. Mental illness causes poverty.

UK Biobank researchers discovered a causal bidirectional relationship: poverty contributes to major depressive disorder and schizophrenia, while conditions like ADHD and schizophrenia can also causally contribute to poverty.

It’s a trap.

Once you’re in it, the system pulls you deeper.

You’re anxious because you’re broke. The anxiety makes it harder to work. You earn less. You get more anxious. The debt grows. Your mental health worsens. You take time off work. You fall further behind.

It’s a downward spiral with no obvious exit.

And the cruelest part? Society sees you at the bottom of that spiral and says: “You have mental health issues. Get treatment.”

But the treatment won’t work if the cause is still there.

You can’t therapy your way out of food insecurity.

The one study that proves the solution.

Here is the evidence that changed my entire perspective.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis conducted a randomized trial among Black women in Georgia. They gave a guaranteed income to participants living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.

The results?

Participants reported lower mental distress and better sleep quality compared to those who didn’t receive the income.

Money — just regular, predictable money — improved mental health.

Not therapy. Not medication. Not wellness apps.

Money.

Because money is not just currency. Money is control.

And control is the opposite of anxiety.

Another study examining income fluctuations across the UK and France found that monthly income volatility was associated with poorer health, more anxiety, and more depression (independently of the actual income level).

It’s not just how much you make. It’s whether you can trust that the money will keep coming.

Stability is medicine. Uncertainty is poison.

So what do we actually do with this information?

I’m not telling you to stop therapy. I’m not telling you to throw away your medication.

I’m telling you to stop pretending that emotional healing alone will fix a financial problem.

You can do all the breathing exercises in the world. You can journal until your hand cramps. You can manifest until your vision board falls off the wall.

But if your bills aren’t paid, your nervous system will never fully relax.

Because your body knows something your therapist might not say out loud: survival comes first.

So here is what I want you to do differently.

Stop pathologizing your panic. Every time you feel “anxious” or “depressed,” ask yourself: Is this my brain chemistry? Or is this my bank account? Be honest. The answer might change how you treat the problem.

Prioritize income stability over “self-care” spending. That $15 candle isn’t going to protect you from debt collectors. Use that money to build a buffer instead of buying the aesthetic of peace while living the reality of panic.

Stop believing the wellness industry’s biggest lie. They profit when you believe your mental health struggles are an internal chemical problem you need to buy products to fix. But many of your symptoms are external. The solution isn’t inside you. It’s in your financial systems.

Build something you own. As I’ve written before, people who own assets get rich. People who rent everything stay stuck. The same applies to your mental health. When you own your income streams, you own your peace of mind.

Recognize that anxiety about money is rational, not pathological. The system isn’t broken because you are. You’re having a normal response to an abnormal situation. Stop diagnosing yourself for reacting appropriately to financial instability.

Here’s a lifehack nobody puts in wellness articles:

When you feel the panic rising, the tight chest, the racing heart, the 3 am dread, DO NOT reach for a breathing app first.

Reach for a pen. (wait for it)

Write down exactly what you’re afraid of financially. Not the feelings. The numbers.

“I have $214. Rent is due in 6 days. I need $586.”

Now look at that number. That’s not an anxiety disorder. That’s a math problem. And math problems have solutions.

Here’s the second lifehack: separate your financial anxiety into two buckets.

1. Bucket one: Things you can change in 48 hours. Picking up a gig shift. Selling one unused item on Facebook Marketplace/Vinted. Sending three DMs to potential clients. Doing one hour of freelance work. These small moves won’t fix everything, but they will remind your nervous system that you have agency. And agency is the antidote to panic.

2. Bucket two: Things that need a system, not urgency. Building a digital asset. Growing an audience. Creating a product that pays you while you sleep. You don’t solve these at 3 am. You solve them with a roadmap.

Most people stay stuck because they treat bucket two problems with bucket one energy. Exhausting themselves with hustle instead of building leverage.

Here’s the third lifehack, and this one is uncomfortable:

Stop consuming content about mental health and start consuming content about income.

Read the research on poverty and anxiety. Then read about how to slowly OWN assets. Then learn how to create these assets. Start helping others on how to do this too.

Because here’s the truth that changed everything for me:

Your anxiety will not fully leave until your income is predictable.

Not high. Predictable.

When you know money is coming next week, next month, next year, your nervous system finally exhales.

So here is my real, raw, unfiltered offer to you today, not because I want to sell you something, but because I wish someone had given me this shortcut years ago:

If you’re tired of feeling like your brain is the problem when it’s actually your bank account, do one thing today:

Become a paid subscriber to The Wealthy Women Guide. Not for this article, this one is free, because you needed to hear it. But for the next one. And the system after that. Paid members get the exact frameworks, templates, and monthly deep-dives that turn financial panic into financial peace.

Or if you’re not ready to commit yet, start with one of the tools that built my own foundation:

→ How to grow a faceless Instagram account – the exact blueprint I used to build an audience from zero
→ A to Z of Threads – the strategy that turned my words into a digital asset
→ Or start your own digital store (2 weeks free on me) using my affiliate link.

You don’t need more candles. You don’t need more journaling. You don’t need another diagnosis.

You need a system.

And the first step of that system is admitting: My anxiety is not a disorder. It’s a signal. And I’m finally going to listen to it.

With love, ambition, and a little rebellion,

Isabelle
Wealthy Women Guide 💋

P.S. If this post made you feel something real, share it. Tag another woman who needs to hear that her anxiety might not be “crazy”, it might just be economics. The more we talk about this honestly, the fewer of us stay trapped in the cycle. 💋

That sentence exploded across the internet a few years ago after a scenario video from the World Economic Forum about what life could look like in 2030.

People turned it into memes.
Conspiracy theories.
Political debates.

• It was written by Danish politician Ida Auken

• It was presented as a future scenario, not an official policy plan.

But almost nobody asked the question that matters:

What happens to people who own nothing… in a world where ownership creates wealth?

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:

The people who say “ownership doesn’t matter anymore”… usually own everything.

And the people who rent everything?

They stay stuck.

Let’s talk about it. (if you have a weak stomach, I discourage you from reading the rest)

The Quiet Shift Nobody Is Talking About

Look at your monthly expenses for a second.

Netflix.
Spotify.
Apple storage.
Canva.
Gym membership.
Uber rides.
Takeaway memberships.

Welcome to the subscription economy.

Companies don’t want you to own things anymore.

They want you to rent your entire life.

Your entertainment.
Your transportation.
Your software.
Your home.

And sometimes… even your job.

The rise of gig work means millions of people now work through platforms instead of owning businesses or careers.

Research from the Pew Research Center shows a growing number of workers rely on gig platforms (like Uber, DoorDash, etc.) as part of their income.

Which sounds flexible and modern.

But let me translate it into brutal English.

You don’t own the platform.
You don’t own the customers.
You don’t own the system.

You just work inside it.

And when someone else owns the system…

They collect the money.

The Moment I Realized Something Was Wrong

A few months ago I had a weird realization.

I was paying subscriptions for almost everything in my life.

Music.
Movies.
Software.
Storage.
Education.

Every month money quietly left my bank account like little digital vampires.

And I thought:

What do I actually own?

Not access.

Ownership.

Because access feels convenient.

But ownership creates wealth.

The Ownership Rule Nobody Teaches Women

There is a brutal rule about money.

The people who own things get rich.

The people who rent things stay stuck.

Look at the difference.

People stuck financially usually:

• rent homes
• rent cars
• rent software
• rent entertainment
• sell their time

Wealthy people usually:

• own businesses
• own intellectual property
• own investments
• own audiences
• own systems

See the difference?

One group pays monthly.

The other group gets paid monthly.

(You see what I’m doing here on Substack? Now you know)

The Book That Explains This Perfectly

In the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki explains a simple idea:

The rich acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities.

An asset is something that puts money into your pocket.

A liability takes money out of your pocket.

A Netflix subscription?

Liability.

A digital product that sells every day?

Asset.

A rental property?

Asset.

An audience that trusts you?

Asset.

Why This Hurts So Much to Admit

Let’s be honest for a second.

Most of us were never taught how to build assets.

We were taught how to:

Study hard.
Get good grades.
Find a stable job.
Be responsible.

Nobody told us:

“Build something you own.”

And when you grow up without that knowledge, life starts to feel like a treadmill.

You run.

But you don’t move forward.

Bills keep coming.

Rent increases.

Prices go up.

And suddenly you’re 49 wondering why you’re still tired.

The Emotional Truth Nobody Talks About

Financial stress is not just about money.

It’s about control.

When you own nothing, everything in your life can change overnight.

Your landlord can increase rent.
Your job can fire you.
Your platform can ban your account.
Your boss can replace you.

Ownership is power.

And power creates peace.

That’s why so many people feel anxious about money all the time.

A study often cited in The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel explains that financial stress is often about lack of control, not just lack of income.

You don’t just want money.

You want security.

Ownership gives you that.

The Ownership Ladder

Here is the framework most people never learn.

Level 1 — Labor

You sell your time.

Most people stay here forever.

Level 2 — Skill

You get better and charge more.

Freelancers live here.

Level 3 — Audience

People trust you and follow your ideas.

Creators live here.

Level 4 — Assets

Things make money without you working every hour.

Business owners live here.

Most people never reach level 4.

Not because they are lazy.

But because nobody explained the ladder.

The Internet Changed Everything

Here is the crazy part.

The internet made ownership more accessible than ever.

You don’t need millions to build assets anymore.

You can own:

A newsletter.
A digital product.
A theme page.
An online community.

The internet quietly created an entire generation of people who built digital assets.

Some of them make more money than doctors.

And many started with nothing but a phone.

The Invisible Asset Nobody Talks About

An audience is an asset.

If 100,000 people trust your voice…

You own something powerful.

You can sell:

Courses
Books
Digital products
Communities
Consulting

This is exactly how many creators built their income online.

Including me.

The Day I Realized the Internet Was Different

When I started my theme page, I thought it was just content.

Little posts on the internet.

But something strange happened.

People started listening.

Then following.

Then trusting.

Then buying.

That’s when I realized:

I wasn’t just posting.

I was building an asset.

The Life Hack Nobody Told Us

If you want financial freedom, stop asking:

“How do I make more money?”

Start asking:

“What can I build that I own?”

Because the difference between struggling and thriving often comes down to this.

Do you own the system?

Or do you just work inside someone else’s?

How Some Women Are Quietly Escaping the System

Many women in my community are building digital assets.

Faceless pages.

Digital products.

Online audiences.

Some of them started with zero experience.

Just curiosity and consistency.

If you want to learn how this works, I explain the full process in my guide:

How to grow a faceless Instagram account
https://stan.store/wealthywomenguide/p/how-to-grow-a-faceless-instagram-account

Or my full Threads strategy:

A to Z of Threads
https://stan.store/wealthywomenguide/p/a-to-z-of-threads-

Because the truth is…

If the future really moves toward renting everything…

Then owning digital assets might become the smartest move you can make.

One Last Thought

Most people will read this and go back to normal life.

Subscriptions.

Paychecks.

Rent.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

But a small group of women will read this and think differently.

They will ask:

“What can I build that I own?”

Those women are dangerous.

Because once you start thinking like an owner…

You can never go back to thinking like an employee.

If you’re serious about building digital assets, you can also start your own digital store.

You can try it 2 weeks free on me here:

Most people rent their entire lives.

A few people build things they own.

Which one will you be?

With love, ambition, and a little rebellion,

Isabelle
Wealthy Women Guide 💋

I stalk some of you guys’ pages and see the “soft life” aesthetic everywhere. I saw a girl lighting an expensive ass candle in a room (that she admits she can’t afford).

Yet, she was “manifesting money” while her bank account was literally screaming for help.
That isn’t a soft life. That is a horror movie with nice lighting. We have been lied to. We’ve been told that “vibrating higher” pays the bills. But the universe doesn’t care about your mood board if you don’t have a skill that makes people pull out their credit cards.

The Goddess vs. The Landlord

Look at Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.” She is the goal. She looks peaceful because she is a goddess. She doesn’t have a landlord named Gary calling her about the rent. You do.

To live like Venus, you need the spirit of Rihanna in “B*tch Better Have My Money.” Real peace isn’t “relaxing” while you’re broke. Real peace is relaxing because you built a machine that makes money while you sleep. Being broke and “chilling” isn’t a vibe. It is a tragedy. Even the Hindu goddess Lakshmi represents wealth as a form of light. If you are in the dark financially, you can’t be radiant.

As I showed in this viral post, the next 20 years belong to people who own systems, not people who trade hours. If you aren’t building a skill, you are building a cage.

You can buy the candles. You can wear the silk robes. You can "manifest" until your vision board falls off the wall. But if you don’t have a skill that the market is afraid to lose, your soft life is just a house of cards.

The 2026 Financial Glow-Up Roadmap

January: The System Reset

• The Environment Purge: Unfollow 10 brokie pages and follow creators who actually teach wealth systems.

• The Subconscious Repeat: Listen to a 5 minute audio of your financial goals while you sleep to reprogram your “poverty” thoughts.

• The Dopamine Discipline Block: Learn the art of the pomodoro technique to master deep working. Excel in your skill or business within the time frame without touching your phone or getting distracted.

• Invest in Power: Stop spending on hobbies like Netflix and start reading the Must-Read Books to Unlock Your Femme to increase your earning power.

February: High-Stakes Problem Solving

• The Sub-Reddit Audit: Find a specific business pain on r/Entrepreneur and sell a 1-page PDF solution for $19.

• The Review Miner: Find “missing” info in Amazon book reviews and create a digital guide that provides those exact answers.

• Skill Positioning: Package high-income skills like copywriting or data analysis so you can charge for results instead of your time.

• Value Creation: Solve problems that save a business owner time or remove their stress so they pay you premium rates.

March: The Visibility Mission

• Inner Faceless Content Creator: Start a page posting quotes to earn $5k to $10k a month using my specific products.

• Short-Form Video Editing: Master captions and retention editing for Reels to help brands stay relevant.

• Personal Branding: Position yourself as an expert in a niche like “Content Direction” for online coaches.

• UGC for Brands: Create aesthetic clips of products in your home and get paid for the conversion power of your content.

April: The Arbitrage Adventure

• The Ghost Project Manager: Middle-man high-paying Upwork jobs by outsourcing the work to experts on Fiverr.

• The YouTube Transcript Flip: Summarize viral educational videos into “Quick Start” guides for busy professionals.

• The Etsy Keyword Thief: Use eRank to find “low competition” digital products and launch a prettier version in 30 minutes.

• The Affiliate Bridge: Promote my guide and get a cut every time someone else decides to glow up financially.

May: Networking for Net Worth

• Rich Area Waitressing: Work in the wealthiest neighborhood in your city to overhear how the 1% discusses money and investments.

• The Wealthy Gym: Join a gym where the membership costs more than your car payment to rewire your environment.

• The Seminar Quest: Attend local business seminars to meet people who own systems and avoid those who trade hours.

• The LinkedIn Glow-Up: Message CEOs to ask for their “roadmap” and offer them a small service for free to get your foot in the door.

June: Digital Systems and Automation

• The SaaS Housekeeper: Find a CEO with a messy digital life and charge $1,000 to organize their systems.

• Automation Setup: Use tools like Zapier and Notion to save businesses time: time is the one thing they will pay anything for.

• The TikTok Search Hack: Build simple Google Sheet calculators for problems people complain about on TikTok and sell them.

• Storytelling Mastery: Use your voice on socials to influence and inspire people to buy into your vision. Train your voice to be more charismatic and avoid buffer words.

July: Persuasion and Profit

• Stan Store Creation: Make $$ By Building Your Store. The Easiest Way To Generate Money Is By Creating Your Own Stan Store. Click here to create one (2 weeks FREE on me!)

• Cold email & dm outreach: Provide value in the comments of industry leaders and link your own resources.

• High-Ticket Sales: Master the art of connecting money to ideas for a percentage of the deal.

• Negotiation Power: Learn to influence others with your words to secure higher rates forever.

August: Preservation and Wisdom

• Tax Strategist Quest: Learn how to keep more of your digital income through local tax regulations.

• The Elderly Legacy Quest: Create digital movies of elderly life stories and charge families for the “Digital Inheritance”. If you are bold, ask about their financial mistakes and wins. And which advice they have for someone your age.

• The Budgeting Glow-Up: Log a friend’s financial transformation to use as a case study for your own consulting business.

• Cybersecurity Shield: Learn to protect digital assets from hackers through YouTube and TikTok tutorials.

September: Creative Innovation

• Design Thinking: Learn to prototype new content or campaigns through creative problem-solving.

• Theme Page Scaling on Threads: Monetize a (faceless) Threads page through brand deals and digital products.

• Brand Deal Negotiator: For other influencers and creators. Be the middle man between the creator and the brand.

• Create an agency: Create an agency of people who need your skill in order to enhance their careers. For example: brand deals negotiator, social media talent creators, find photographers for them, etc

October: Consistency and Mastery

• The Master of Thoughts: Practice mastering your thoughts so you don’t quit when the results are slow.

• The Situation Quest: Do the work regardless of your mood or personal drama. Learn the art of discipline. Motivation means nothing in this world. A tough mindset, smooth consistency & strong discipline will make you rich.

• The Failure Loop: View failures as data for your next system rather than a reason to stop. Understand your financial mistakes and what to do better from now on.

• Self-Analysis: Audit your performance monthly to see which systems are making money and which are wasting time. Use apps or Excel to see your performance. Be financially honest with yourself.

November: Expansion and Outreach

• The Group Savior: Answer questions in business groups for free to build authority and drive traffic to your bio. Go to facebook pages or reddit groups to answer these.

• The Wealthy Neighborhood Drive: Spend time in rich areas to normalize the supercar lifestyle in your mind.

• Public Speaking: Practice speaking to large groups to increase your influence and authority.

• The Ask for Help Quest: Reach out to those ahead of you to learn how they broke down their success into steps.

December: The Blueprint Lockdown

• Visual Wealth Tracking: Download a Savings Template to color in so you can see your money growing; dopamine hits from coloring in a $10k goal are better than any candle. Get your templates here:

• Neuroplasticity Vow: Re-commit to your new neural pathways and refuse to go back to the “broke” version of you.

• The High-Net-Worth Network: Take up a “rich person sport” like golf or skiing to put yourself in rooms where the 1% discusses their investment systems. Your environment programs you more than willpower, so play where the money is.

• Public Speaking: Get used to speaking in front of crowds and have a topic you can talk about for hours without stuttering. You can get invited to extraordinary places and get a very good pay as well.

You are not stuck. Every new decision you make can vote for a new brain. Gary the landlord is still calling. Are you going to answer him, or are you going to build a life where you don’t even know his name?

If this resonates with you and you are interested in starting your own theme page on Instagram or Threads, find it here: https://stan.store/wealthywomenguide

If there are any topics you'd like me to discuss further, please comment them down below.

Thank you so much for reading.

Wishing you a financially abundant year.

All the love,
Isabelle,

I see you.

I’ve seen how hard you tried this year.

I know you struggled.

I know you pushed, fought, and eventually broke down.

I know you looked at your life and thought, "this isn't fair."

Financially, this might not have been your year. And honestly? That is fine. Because it wasn't mine either.

Being a faceless wealth content creator is weird when your reality doesn't match your aesthetic. While I was posting about "abundance," my world was collapsing. My dad got heavily sick this year. It took a toll on me mentally, physically, and financially. It’s hard to talk about "money moves" when you’re crying in a hospital hallway or checking your balance in bed just to see if you can afford another week of life.

I felt like a fraud. I felt like I was failing you. I spent a lot of nights staring at the ceiling, wondering if I should just delete everything and go work at a grocery store.

But then I thought about my mom. She was a little girl in another country with nothing but a dream of coming to the West. She had no money and no plan, but she had the "audacity" to believe she could do it. She achieved that dream.

So, what stops me? And what stops you?

Starting January 2026, I am going from $0 to $100k. I am starting over. No "savings," no "secret help," just me, my financial knowledge and my phone with my social media. I am going to show you every single step for one year. It might sound totally delulu. People will probably laugh at me. But I believe that where there is a will, there is a way.

I want to prove that even if life kicks you in the teeth and leaves you broke in bed, you can still build a foundation. You can still win.

If you are currently at $0, or if you are in debt, or if you just feel lost, I am standing up now with you. I will wipe the tears off my face and get back to work.

2026 is the year of the comeback.

Do you want to join my healing financially journey?

With love and zero filters,

Isabella

The Wealthy Women Guide

I fucked up.

Last Tuesday, I was feeling particularly unhinged and posted what I thought was an innocent question to my 200K+ followers on Threads:

"What does the wealthiest lady you know do for a living?"

I was expecting some predictable responses. Maybe a few doctors, some lawyers, perhaps a tech executive or two.

What I got instead was a masterclass in female wealth that completely shattered my worldview and made me realize we have been given the wrong advice this entire time.

The Response That Made Me Question Everything

The first reply that made me spit out my overpriced oat milk latte:

"She literally marries rich men."

I laughed. Then I kept scrolling.

"Knocks herself up by a multimillionaire."

"Marries wealthy men, then divorces."

"Divorces well. Let's get it started now lol."

Wait. Hold up.

I kept reading, expecting the "real" answers to show up. You know, the inspiring self-made stories we love to tell ourselves about how hard work always pays off.

Instead, I got this:

"Most of the wealthy women I know inherited their money and make very little in their day jobs."

And then this gut punch:

"Every woman I know with money got it from what her parents left her."

By the time I finished reading all the responses, I was having what my therapist would call "a complete paradigm shift" and what I call "a financial identity crisis."

Because darling, if this data is accurate, almost everything we've been taught about building wealth as women is complete bullshit.

The Moment I Realized I Was Teaching You Wrong

Here I am, running around telling you to optimize your LinkedIn, negotiate your salary, network around, and build your personal brand.

Meanwhile, the actual wealthy women my followers know, are out here playing a completely different game.

They're not grinding. They're not hustling. They're not "leaning in."

They're inheriting systems, marrying into networks, and buying assets while we're over here color-coding our budget spreadsheets.

I felt like I'd been selling you a bicycle while everyone else was driving Ferraris.

So I did what any rational person having an existential crisis would do: I categorized every single response to figure out what the hell is actually going on.

The Five Paths to Female Wealth (That Nobody Talks About)

Path 1: The Inheritance Game

"She's an heiress and philanthropist."
"Had parents who died."
"Won the lottery. Retired."

This one stung because it's so obvious yet so ignored. The fastest way to wealth? Be born into it or have someone die and leave it to you.

Revolutionary advice, right? Except here's what we can learn: Wealthy families don't just pass down money. They pass down systems, connections, and most importantly, the MINDSET that wealth is normal and expected.

Your takeaway: If you didn't inherit wealth, you need to create it for the next generation. Stop thinking like you're spending your family's last dollar and start thinking like you're building your family's first fortune.

Path 2: The Strategic Partnership (aka The Marriage Portfolio)

"She married a rich guy & is fed up with him & wants to take half of his 2M dollar home."
"The richest woman I know married the richest man I know."

Before you judge, let me ask you something: If men have been using marriage as a business strategy for centuries (hello, every royal family ever), why are we pretending it's not a valid wealth-building tool for women?

Your takeaway: Whether it's marriage, business partnerships, or investor relationships, wealth is built faster with other people's resources. Stop trying to do everything alone.

Path 3: The Asset Empire

"Real Estate but held IN TRUSTS."
"Owns several nail salons."
"Owns nursing aged care homes. Spitballs money."
"Owns a construction company."

Now we're getting somewhere. These women aren't working IN their businesses, they're working ON systems that generate money without them.

The nail salon owner isn't doing manicures. She's collecting rent from nail techs. The construction company owner isn't pouring concrete. She's collecting profits from other people's labor.

Your takeaway: Stop selling your time. Start buying other people's time.

Path 4: The High-Barrier Expert

"National level litigator."
"Tax attorney who did assessment appeals for commercial real estate."
"Chief of Staff for one of the biggest banks in the country."

These women didn't just get good at their jobs. They became irreplaceable in fields with high barriers to entry.

But here's what's interesting: You don't need a law degree to build expertise that pays. The highest-paying skills right now are actually digital: AI tools, SEO, paid ads, data analytics, copywriting, email marketing, and automation are dominating as the highest-paying digital skills in 2025. FYI, my high-in-demand skill I first started with was faceless content creation, focusing on digital marketing and branding (Instagram).

Experienced copywriters with five or more years of experience can charge between $75 and $125 per hour, while sales page copywriters can expect to make $6,267/month. Email marketing has an impressive ROI of $42 for every $1 spent, making it one of the most valuable skills you can learn.

Your takeaway: If you're going the expertise route, focus on high-demand digital skills. These are the skills that let you work from anywhere, charge premium rates, and build the foundation for your own asset-generating business.

(Full transparency: This is exactly how I built my wealth. My skills in copywriting, persuasive selling, branding, content creation, and digital marketing are what generate my monthly income and fund all my other investments.)

Path 5: The Underground Economy

"She sells water filters and bought multiple properties from that." "Mortician." "Voodoo." (I cannot make this shit up)

This category fascinated me because it proves you don't need a revolutionary idea. You just need to find something people need and scale the hell out of it.

Water filters? Boring but essential. Death services? Recession-proof. Voodoo? Hey, if people are paying...

Your takeaway: Stop looking for the perfect business idea. Start looking for problems people will pay to solve.

The Response That Changed My Entire Business Strategy

But the response that really broke my brain was this:

"Investments make money, finance bro is a term for a reason. Why isn't finance ho a term? Invest into the stock and crypto markets."

This woman just asked the question that's going to haunt me forever:

Why ISN'T "finance ho" a term?

Why are we so comfortable with men being aggressive, obnoxious, and shameless about money, but women are supposed to be "grateful" and "humble" about wealth?

While we're over here being polite about our financial ambitions, men are making millions being absolute menaces about money.

Maybe it's time we tried their approach.

The Uncomfortable Truth That Will Change Your Life

After analyzing 10,000+ responses, here's what I learned:

The women who actually have money didn't get it by working harder than you.

They got it by working smarter systems than you.

They didn't out-hustle you. They out-strategized you.

They didn't out-grind you. They out-leveraged you.

And most importantly: They didn't follow the same "work your way up" advice that's keeping you broke.

Why Your Current Wealth Strategy Is Sabotaging You

While you're optimizing your morning routine and reading productivity books, wealthy women are:

• Buying assets instead of budgeting expenses

• Building systems instead of building skills

• Leveraging other people's money instead of saving their own

• Creating passive income instead of active income

• Thinking like owners instead of employees

The brutal truth? Most women will stay broke because they're loyal to strategies that don't work.

They'll keep grinding for raises instead of buying the company. They'll keep saving pennies instead of making dollars. They'll keep being grateful for crumbs instead of demanding the whole damn cake.

The Three Mindset Shifts That Will Make You Rich

Shift 1: From Time-Seller to Asset-Builder

Stop asking "How can I work more hours?" Start asking "How can I make money while I sleep?"

Shift 2: From Solo-Player to Strategic-Partner

Stop asking "How can I do this alone?" Start asking "Whose resources can I leverage?"

Shift 3: From Employee to Owner

Stop asking "How can I get promoted?" Start asking "How can I own the thing that promotes people?"

Your New Wealth Action Plan

Based on the data from 10,000 women, here's what you should actually be doing:

This Month: Choose your wealth path. Are you building assets, developing irreplaceable expertise/high-in-demand skills, or finding strategic partners?

This Quarter: Take one concrete action toward that path. Buy your first rental property, start your first business, or develop a skill that makes you irreplaceable.

This Year: Build your first income stream that doesn't require your daily presence.

The Women Who Will Stay Broke (Don't Be Them)

These women will read this newsletter, feel inspired for 3.2 seconds, then go back to their regular programming:

• They'll keep budgeting their way to wealth (spoiler: it doesn't work)

• They'll keep waiting for permission to want more

• They'll keep being "grateful" for situations that aren't serving them

• They'll keep following advice from people who aren't wealthy

The Women Who Will Get Rich (Be Them)

These women will read this newsletter and do something different:

• They'll get uncomfortable with their current financial reality

• They'll start asking wealthy people for advice instead of broke people

• They'll stop being loyal to strategies that aren't working

• They'll start thinking like owners instead of employees

The Question That Will Determine Your Financial Future

After reading 10,000 responses about how women actually build wealth, I need to ask you:

Are you ready to stop being polite about money?

Because that's what this comes down to. The wealthy women in these responses weren't polite about money. They were strategic about money.

They didn't ask for permission to want more. They didn't apologize for their ambitions. They didn't make themselves smaller to make others comfortable.

They played the wealth game like they intended to win.

Your Next Move

The data doesn't lie. Traditional wealth advice is keeping you broke.

If you want to join the ranks of the wealthy women my followers described, you need to:

1. Stop following broke people's advice about money

2. Start thinking like an owner, not an employee

3. Build systems that generate money without your constant presence

4. Leverage other people's resources instead of just your own

5. Stop being polite about your financial ambitions

The women getting rich aren't asking for permission.

They're taking ownership.

Ready to stop being poor and polite?

The women in my community are building real wealth using the strategies I just shared. Not theoretical wealth. Not "someday" wealth. Real, "fuck you money" wealth.

If you're tired of being the hardest working broke person you know, it's time to change your approach.

With zero apologies for wanting you rich,

Isabella
The Wealthy Women Guide

P.S. The most successful women in my community all have one thing in common: They stopped trying to budget their way to wealth and started building their way to wealth. If you're ready to make that shift, next week's newsletter is going to show you exactly how to start.

P.P.S. That woman who asked, "Why isn't finance ho a term?" just became my new business advisor. Sometimes the most unhinged responses contain the most brilliant insights.

Mascara smudged. Red wine on the floor.
Phone in my hand.
Waiting for a man to text back.

The same man who had ghosted me for 2 weeks after I didn’t clean the place “good” enough.
The same man I cooked for. Waited for. Cried over.

The man I thought who would want to marry me one day…

And in my head? I still thought he would return if I "worked on myself" more.

At work, my boss gave yet another promotion to a man with half my IQ.
My friends were “busy” when I needed them.
I was the Nice Girl who people only remembered when it benefited them.

I was broke in money, broke in love, broke in energy, and mind.

And I thought it was MY fault.

I see it every day now.
Beautiful, talented women. Trapped in broke energy.

Broke in mindset.
Broke in money.
Broke in love.

I WAS HER.
Until I discovered Dark Feminine Energy.

What is Femme Fatale Dark Feminine Energy?

It is not about “healing.”
It is not about being a “good person.”
It is not about being liked or looking hot (though that’s a side effect).

It is about becoming POWERFUL.
It’s about walking into any room, and knowing you own it.
It’s about being the woman that money, men, and life cannot ignore.

It’s Mastering:
💋 Mindset — so life moves FOR you, not against you.
💋 Money — so you have freedom and options.
💋 Men — so you stop being the one who is chosen and become the one who chooses.

And it all started with THESE BOOKS.

These books gave me the codes.
As stupid as it sounds, these books changed my life.
When thinking about those horrific, bad days, I get tears in my eyes.
Especially me thinking whole my life that books were stupid.
And that the idea of “dark feminine energy” was all a scam.

Well, I am here to say that it is REAL.
So real that I am giving this list away for free.
Because after reading my DMs, with how many of you are struggling and lost.
I must guide you and not gatekeep the foundation/start of your femme fatale journey.
And if you’re ready — because this is not for the weak — these books will do the same for you. If you feel stuck, powerless, always "waiting", may this post be your wake-up call, because it’s time to build your Femme Fatale energy.

Why Men Love Bitches

What it did for me:
Stopped me from being the girl crying over "busy" men.
Slapped the pick-me energy right out of my soul.
Stopped me from double texting.
Made me understand that begging for love is broke energy,
and broke energy attracts rats.

How it will change YOUR life:
If you read this — and actually apply it — you will NEVER again cry over a man who barely knows your middle name.
You will become the PRIZE — the girl men obsess over.

If you skip this book? Well, enjoy getting ghosted. Again.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET ‼️

The Art of Seduction

What it did for me:
Taught me that life is not about “working hard” — it’s about ENERGY and PSYCHOLOGY.
Turned me from invisible to magnetic.
Made men, money, and life start chasing ME.

How it will change YOUR life:
This is the Bible for mastering the game of life.
Without it, you’re a sweet little pawn. With it, you’re the Queen.

But go ahead, stay basic if you want.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET ✨

The 48 Laws of Power

What it did for me:
Helped me spot the fake friends.
Helped me stop getting manipulated at work.
Helped me play the game and WIN.

How it will change YOUR life:
If you ever said “I hate drama” — that’s cute.
The world IS drama. This teaches you how to run the show.

If you skip this, don’t cry when your coworker steals your ideas again.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET 🔥

Becoming Supernatural

What it did for me:
Fixed my energy.
Shifted my vibe from “please choose me” to “you’re lucky to even breathe the same air.”
Made life start giving me what I wanted — FAST.

How it will change YOUR life:
Manifesting isn’t magic. It’s physics.
If your energy stays broke, guess what comes back to you?
Read this. Change the damn frequency.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET 🧚

Girls That Invest

What it did for me:
Made me realize money isn’t scary — being broke is scary.
Gave me real financial confidence — not fake “abundance” quotes.

How it will change YOUR life:
You want to "be a rich auntie"? Then act like one.
No rich woman is clueless about money.

If you don’t invest in this economy, well, you are on the highway to poverty.
You might as well start reading this and CHANGE your financial life.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET 💸

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds

What it did for me:
Healed my broke girl money wounds.
Taught me to STOP associating guilt with wealth.
Made me say YES to the designer bag, and the investments.

How it will change YOUR life:
If you think “money is evil” stay broke and ignore this part.
But if you are open-minded.
This book rewires that. Read it or stay financially cursed.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET

How To Win Friends And Influence People

What it did for me:
Stopped me from being socially awkward.
Made me the girl who owns the room, not blends into the background.
Made me actually like people, and get what I want from them.

How it will change YOUR life:
No influence = no power.
No power = no men, no money, no magic.
Simple math. Read it.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET 💋

Embrace The Dark Feminine / Dark Feminine Energy

What it did for me:
Helped me OWN my darkness.
Helped me stop apologizing for my power.
Helped me understand my Dark Feminine Energy.

How it will change YOUR life:
If you want to be liked, skip this.
If you want to be FEARED, DESIRED, RESPECTED — read this now.

→ CLICK HERE TO GET 🖤

FINAL WORD:

I used to be the girl with €3.21 in her account and a man ghosting her.
I used to think life would "reward me" if I just stayed nice.
It didn’t.

I read these books, and I became dangerous. Wealthy. Magnetic. Powerful.

You can stay the old you. Crying, broke, confused.
Or you can wake the helly up, and become HER.

The girls who get it... get it.
The girls who don’t? Stay broke.

💋 Stay dangerous,
Wealthy Women Guide