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When Lisa Zamparo was 19, she wrote down her goals. By 30, she had accomplished them.

She was a chartered professional accountant. She spent years at a big firm on Bay Street before taking a finance director’s role with an $85,000 salary. She lived what she calls a “Sex and the City” lifestyle, shopping and wining and dining.

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Yet, she faced the days with anxiety and felt unfulfilled and decided to re-evaluate her life and her relationship with money.

“I was at a high-paying job and I was spending a lot — almost as if I was compensating for not being happy,” the 32-year-old Toronto resident says. “I came to realize that I had set goals based on the idea that I measured my success by dollars. But that kind of success is empty.”

So Zamparo quit her job and, in August of 2015, started her own financial coaching company, helping people realign their spending with their values.

While not everyone will reach an outcome as drastic as Zamparo’s, challenging your financial beliefs and behaviours can go a long way toward replenishing your bank account and enriching your life in general.