[Joely]

I was brought up with very much these beliefs: successful people are cheats and selfish, the rich are all obsessed with money and only got it by stealing and cheating, all the same ideas. And yet a huge section of my family is very well off indeed.

Torilink is absolutely right - being rich is about more than money or things. I'm starting to consider myself to be "rich" because I have wealth in other terms. It's taken me a long time to shed the idea of "just having enough to get by" because I'm starting to realise that actually, that is holding me back. Not from having the next pair of Jimmy Choos or an Austin Martin Vanquish, but because I can't sign up for charities. I can't buy presents for the children I sponsor in Africa and Brazil, and I can't afford to sponsor more children and help maintain their communities.

I'm teaching myself to see money as a kind of energy. When you have access to a lot of that energy, you can do a massive amount with it, not just for yourself but for the world.

There was a time when I couldn't even read books on wealth and finance. Now I'm running my own business!