This week I turned 40.

Besides feeling extraordinarily grateful for all the love from friends and family, I also felt a bit reflective.

40, according to Britannica, marks the start of middle age.

Personally, since I got off to a later start on the family front, having my first child at 37, I’m squarely in my “messy middle”. Professionally, having progressed over the course of some 18 years, I’m beginning, if not already in, my “prime earning years”.

I find life at this stage challenging. One the one hand, I want to spend as much time as I can with my young kids. On the other, my nearly 2 decades of professional growth have gotten me to the junior executive position I am in today–it would seem a waste not to push even harder for VP.

My strategy for finding balance is to continue building a wall of financial security around my family.

Let me tell you a short story. Last year, one of the most promising senior executives, long regarded as the next-in-line CEO, abruptly left the company. His departure had no prior announcement, no transition plan–the man literally was here on a Thursday and gone on Friday. The story is that he had secured an 8 figure package with another company, and had used that as leverage in a salary negotiation with our CEO. This is also not his first attempt, but his 3rd. In response, our CEO flat out fired him.

On one hand, I applaud the man–he followed the corporate growth recipe to a T: always angled for the next promotion, always did his job well, and always hustled for more. On the other hand, the price is also real–uprooting his family every few years, working around the clock, and ultimately losing his shot at CEO, at least with my company.

For me, the lesson is that, in the W-2 world, paying dearly for the next promotion is just like putting all your money on a single stock–way too risky. Ultimately, the decision maker is a single person. To trust that that person, who is neither friend nor kin, will have your best interest in mind and reward you fairly for all that you’ve sacrificed is folly.

Only you will have your best interest in mind, and that’s why I’m 100% committed to building that financial wall around my family that nothing can get through.