As a positive psychology coach, I am dedicated to supporting highly accomplished women who encounter unique financial challenges and opportunities during significant life transitions.
These transitions, often catalysed by events such as illness, career reinvention, inheritance, or divorce, can create financial inflection points that lead to profound changes in one’s financial landscape.
Drawing from my experiences and those of my clients, I explore how positive psychology and cognitive behavioural coaching (CBC) can facilitate healing and transformative growth.
In What Way Do Money Matters Hurt So Much?
Illness or Burnout
It’s not uncommon for midlife women to encounter significant financial challenges. You may have experienced sudden financial pressures due to a health crisis or burnout, requiring immediate attention to medical bills and a re-evaluation of your financial planning.
- Challenges: Sudden medical expenses, reduced income, and concerns about long-term financial planning.
- Emotional Impact: Anxiety, fear of financial instability, and feelings of vulnerability.
Career Reinvention
Many women find themselves at a crossroads, contemplating a career reinvention. Transitioning into a new field or pursuing a passion can bring financial uncertainty and require investment in new skills or education.
- Challenges: Financial uncertainty during the transition, investment in new skills, and potential initial drop in income.
- Emotional Impact: Self-doubt, fear of failure, and stress over financial adequacy.
Inheritance
Receiving an inheritance can be both a blessing and a source of stress. Managing newfound wealth responsibly, while navigating potential family conflicts, requires strategic planning and emotional resilience.
- Challenges: Managing newfound wealth, potential family conflicts, and strategic long-term planning.
- Emotional Impact: Guilt, responsibility, and stress related to investment decisions.
Divorce
Divorce often necessitates a reevaluation of financial plans and independence. Splitting assets and managing legal expenses can be daunting and emotionally taxing.
- Challenges: Division of assets, legal expenses, potential decrease in standard of living, and re-establishing financial independence.
- Emotional Impact: Grief, anger, uncertainty, and a sense of loss.
The Compounded Suffering for Women
Women’s financial struggles are often compounded due to societal conditioning around financial matters.
Cultural Norms and Social Conditioning
From a young age, girls are often socialized to prioritize relationships and caregiving roles over financial independence. This includes being encouraged to focus on non-financial responsibilities, perpetuating a cycle of financial dependency and lack of confidence in handling money matters. Traditionally, women are not expected to be the primary financial decision-makers in households, reinforcing a sense of disempowerment.
Historical Exclusion from Financial Systems
Historically, women have been excluded from participating fully in financial systems. For example, in many countries, women only gained the right to have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or mortgages without a male co-signer within the last few decades. This exclusion has long-lasting effects, contributing to a lack of financial literacy and confidence among women .
Gender Pay Gap and Economic Inequality
Women generally earn less than men, impacting their financial autonomy and ability to accumulate wealth. Economic disparities make it challenging for women to invest and save at the same levels as men, reinforcing the perception that financial matters are more suitable for men.
Lack of Financial Education
Financial education is often not targeted towards women, resulting in lower levels of financial literacy. This gap means women may feel less equipped to manage their finances effectively, further perpetuating the cycle of disempowerment.
Psychological Factors and Self-Perception
Social norms and cultural conditioning often lead women to undervalue their financial skills and decisions. This lack of confidence can prevent women from taking proactive steps in managing their finances, negotiating salaries, or making investment decisions.
Representation in Financial Roles
There is a noticeable lack of female role models in high-level financial positions and industries. This underrepresentation can discourage women from pursuing careers in finance or taking charge of financial decisions in their personal lives.
My Personal Journey
I have been there too. Navigating my financial journey through coaching involved uncovering past beliefs and redefining my goals.
I had to have difficult conversations with family members who held different beliefs about money, and this process was crucial in shaping my current understanding and approach to financial well-being.
How Coaching Can Support Your Journey
The coaching I provide is particularly effective as it looks into your full cognitive experience of money matters, both inherited from the past and those that you can choose for your future.
We uncover money thoughts & beliefs, emotions, behavioural patterns and new actionable steps to take, and we create a new compelling vision for your financial future.
Here are some actionable steps to begin your journey towards financial empowerment:
- Identify Your Values: Reflect on what matters most to you in life and how your financial goals can support these values.
- Set Effective Goals: Create specific financial goals, such as saving a certain amount each month or paying off debt, ones that possibly ate measurable and time-bound.
- Develop a Financial Vision: Imagine your ideal financial future and write down what it looks like, incorporating your values and long-term aspirations.
- Practice Observation: Regularly write down things you are thinking, feeling or actions you keep repeating in your financial life, so you can start to raise your awareness on your relationship with money and finance.
- Challenge Negative Beliefs: Take stock of your negative typical /automatic thoughts / beliefs about money and actively work to reframe them into more positive and empowering statements.
Embracing Your Experience
If you are going through such transitions, it’s vital to appreciate your experience and understand that financial inflection points can be powerful catalysts for personal growth.
By working with a coach, you can navigate these changes with resilience, clarity, and empowerment. Together, we can transform financial challenges into opportunities for profound self-discovery and growth, crafting a fulfilling and balanced life.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Sophie
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Inspired by:
International Monetary Fund. (2012, March). Empowering women is smart economics. Finance & Development. Retrieved from https://www.imf.org
Moneylife. (n.d.). Women are socially conditioned for not taking interest in family finances. This outlook has to change. Moneylife. Retrieved from https://www.moneylife.in
Mint. (2011, March 8). Why women should take charge of money matters. Mint. Retrieved from https://www.livemint.com
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