You're not broke. You're at war.

The advice you were given left out the war

You got advice about saving money and working hard, and none of it explained why saving is so difficult or why the hard work has not been enough. You concluded the problem was you, and this book shows you where it lies.

Poverty behaves like an opponent. It studies your patterns and waits for the weeks when you are tired, or ashamed, or grieving, and it strikes there. This book names what it does, tactic by tactic, and what takes each one apart.

What you will be able to do

• See the patternRecognise the repeating structure poverty follows inside ordinary decisions.
• Name the tacticIdentify the specific move at work, from the social cost of saying no to the emergency that was never random.
• Protect your attentionUnderstand what happens to your focus when money gets tight, and the cost of that narrowing everywhere else.
• Take the countermeasureEach tactic named and decoded, with the countermeasure that takes it apart.