Managing Money

A woman once told me she needed a new sofa. Not wanted. Needed. The one in her living room was old, uncomfortable, and had been repaired more than once. She had found a replacement she loved, and buying it wouldn’t have put the slightest strain on her finances. But she couldn’t bring herself to order it…

“I think I want to do something different, but am I too old to change careers?” It’s a question I hear often as a career coach for women over 40. I work with women who know something needs to change. Some are considering a career pivot, while others are wondering if it’s finally time to explore something entirely new…

So, I’m grabbing coffee with my friend Margaret last month. She’s this incredibly smart nurse who retired after 35 years of taking care of people. And she tells me something that made my jaw drop. She’d spent months calculating her retirement budget down to the penny. Social Security, pension, the whole nine yards…

Forty years ago, in the early years of my career as a funeral director – and after doing a little modeling on the side to make extra money — I accepted an offer to pose for Playboy. I was told my career would be over. The pronouncements weren’t quiet or subtle. They were direct. Colleagues and friends alike predicted that my life in funeral service would come to a screeching halt…

Have you ever thought about starting your own business? Do you feel like you have so much more to do and say with your life?

When I was growing up, retirement looked quite different. My parents’ generation expected to stop working in their mid-60s, collect a pension/Social Security and enjoy the years they had earned. Today, almost one fifth of Americans over the age of 65 are still working, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the majority of which work because they have no choice…

A common question when people are nearing retirement or in retirement is, “How much of my money should be in ____?” They may be referring to stocks, bonds, or cash. An alternative approach to developing a retirement investment strategy starts with your time horizon: When will you need to use the money?

If you’ve started to hear whispers in your head it’s time to get out of your business, time to exit, what’s holding you back from starting the exit journey? The following is a list of reasons I’ve heard from business owners over the years. How many of these…

There’s a particular kind of anxiety that can settle in later in life: quiet, persistent, and difficult to explain. It often sounds like this: I should be further along by now. Maybe you feel it when a friend talks about her investments over lunch. Or when someone mentions paying off their mortgage. Or when you hear about someone retiring early, downsizing comfortably…

Retirement can usher in a variety of mixed emotions with our financial stability being at the top of our list of concerns. Who can we trust? How should we manage our money?