The Strength You’ve Built: What Financial Wellness Really Means Now
By the time a woman reaches midlife and beyond, she has usually lived through some twists she never saw coming. Careers took turns. Families grew and changed. People she loved needed her in ways she never expected. She adjusted, stretched, rebuilt, and kept going.
I’ve noticed again and again that women do all of this with a strength they rarely acknowledge. They just get up, handle what needs to be handled, and keep moving.
That strength shows up in their financial lives too. Even when the path has been complicated or life has thrown surprises, women have a remarkable ability to adapt, grow, and keep moving forward. Which is why financial wellness at this stage becomes something deeper than math. It becomes about peace of mind, personal authority, and the freedom to live the years ahead on your own terms.
Financial wellness at this stage is not about chasing a perfect plan. It is about creating peace of mind and knowing your financial life supports you, not the other way around. It is about giving yourself the same care you’ve poured into everyone else for so many years.
The Three Pillars of Meaningful Financial Wellness
1. Clarity: Understanding the Landscape of Your Life
Clarity is powerful and often overlooked. With twenty-five years as an advisor across multiple industries, I’m a firm believer in building a team of trusted professionals. But in order to gain real confidence, it’s important to understand the big picture. You don’t need to get into the weeds on every topic or decision, but you should know what you own, why you own it, and how it supports the life you want.
Clarity reduces stress. It strengthens your voice in conversations about your future. It helps you make decisions on purpose, instead of out of pressure or habit. If you are working with the right advisory team, it will be their goal to help you reach that clarity and you’ll feel comfortable asking questions and clarifications.
2. Control: Choosing With Confidence and Zero Guilt
The concept of “control” gets a bad rap. Often control is seen as automatically leading to restriction and limitation. But I’m going to propose a different perspective: control is not about restriction but rather is about intention. It is about choosing how your money supports your life, rather than feeling carried along by obligations or expectations.
Control looks like:
Spending in ways that bring joy, comfort, or meaning
Saying no without guilt when something does not feel right
Pursuing experiences that matter to you
Investing or saving with a sense of purpose instead of pressure
Control places your needs back at the center.
3. Preparedness: Protecting Your Peace and Your Future
Recently I had a new client who told me after our first onboarding meeting that it was the first time they felt confident in their financial future. This client has done many of the “right” things – achieved career success (and the related equity comp), minimized debt and maximized savings. But life got in the way and they never got around to getting truly prepared for what comes next, especially if things don’t go as planned.
Preparedness is not fear based. It is proactive. It is thoughtful. And it brings enormous calm.
Preparedness touches every part of your life: estate planning, income tax planning, retirement planning and more. And unless you take the time to move from “it will probably work out” to feeling truly prepared, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve confidence that your future will be secure and comfortable.
Your Money Story Still Matters
Every woman carries a money story, no matter her background. You might have built your success from the ground up. You might have inherited responsibilities you learned to manage over time. You might have rebuilt after a major life change. You may have spent years supporting children, partners, relatives, or entire households.
Many women were taught mixed messages: save everything, spend nothing, never talk about money, stay humble, be grateful, put others first. Some were told they were not good with money, even as they quietly held everything together. Others succeeded in male dominated industries and learned to downplay their own accomplishments.
These experiences shape how you feel about spending, saving, or investing. They shape whether you feel confident or hesitant. They shape how you respond to opportunity or risk.
As I tell clients, working with me creates a shame-free zone. That’s because your money story deserves attention, not judgment. Once you understand your story, you can:
Release habits that no longer fit the woman you are
Trust your instincts instead of second guessing
Recognize negative self-talk that doesn’t further your goals
Replace guilt with empowerment
Your money story becomes a source of strength rather than sabotage.
Flexibility Is a Gift
Life after 45 is full of transition. Children grow up. Relationships deepen, shift, or take new shapes. Careers evolve, whether by choice or by circumstance. Health becomes something you pay closer attention to. Retirement often seems too far away yet terrifyingly close. And your interests expand in surprising ways. You may want more travel, more quiet mornings, more meaning, or simply more space to exhale.
What matters is that your life is not static, and your financial plan should not be either.
Flexibility gives you the freedom to adjust without guilt. It allows you to respond to opportunities that feel right and step back from commitments that no longer fit. It makes room for reinvention, whether that means downsizing, starting something new, helping a family member, or investing in the experiences that bring you joy.
A flexible financial plan grows with you. It adapts to new priorities, new dreams, and new realities. It gives you the confidence to pivot when life calls for it and the peace of knowing you have options. Flexibility is not a lack of discipline. It is a sign of wisdom. It means you understand that your life will keep unfolding in beautiful and unexpected ways, and you are prepared to move with it.
Communication Strengthens Your Support System
I’ll confess: I’m a sharer (often to my husband’s chagrin). Whether it’s a tricky relationship issue or what to include on a holiday menu, I feel better after I’ve talked it through.
Even if you aren’t a natural sharer, you may find that sharing your financial thoughts with the right people brings clarity and comfort. Whether you speak with a partner, adult children, trusted advisor, or close friends, communication can lighten the load and remind you that you are not navigating everything alone.
For many women, talking about money has never felt simple. You may have been raised to keep finances private. Or you may simply be used to handling things quietly because that is what life required. But openness creates support. It turns worry into strategy. It turns assumptions into understanding. It turns isolation into connection.
Clear conversations also help the people around you understand your wishes, your priorities, and the kind of future you want to create. Partners make better decisions together. Adult children feel less in the dark. Advisors can give stronger guidance. And friends who share similar experiences often offer reassurance you did not even know you needed.
Communication does not mean sharing every detail. It means sharing enough to build alignment, trust, and confidence. When the right people know what matters to you, they can help you protect it. And that sense of being supported is one of the strongest forms of financial security there is.
Generosity Has a Place
Many women are naturally generous. You give your time, attention, support, and resources to the people and causes you care about. You show up for your community. You help children and grandchildren find their footing. You lend a hand to friends who need it. And you do it because it feels right, not because anyone expects it of you.
Generosity can bring deep joy when it reflects your values. It allows you to shape the world around you in a meaningful way. It lets you invest in people you believe in. It connects you to purpose, legacy, and love.
But generosity should not come at the cost of your own wellbeing. The goal is not to give until you are worn out or financially stretched. The goal is to give in a way that feels balanced, thoughtful, and sustainable.
Healthy generosity strengthens your life instead of stretching it thin. It means giving from a place of abundance, not pressure. It means being intentional about what you say yes to and just as intentional about the occasional no. It means supporting others without losing sight of your own needs and the future you are building.
When generosity is grounded in clarity and care, it becomes one of the most powerful expressions of who you are and what you value.
Purpose: The Heart of Everlasting Financial Wellness
Purpose shifts as you move through life. You know what matters now in a way younger versions of yourself never could. And equally important, you know what does not matter. You have outgrown certain pressures, expectations, and noise. You see more clearly what brings meaning, what brings peace, and what brings real joy.
Purpose becomes less about chasing accomplishments and more about shaping a life that feels good to live. It is about honoring your values, your energy, and the version of yourself you are becoming in this chapter.
Purpose might look like:
A calm and secure retirement
More time with people you love
Travel, adventure, or creativity
Supporting the next generation with intention
Giving back to causes close to your heart
Simplifying life so you can enjoy it
Purpose is personal. It is allowed to evolve and even surprise you and may often look different from year to year. When your financial choices support your purpose, your life feels aligned, your decisions become easier and your goals feel more natural. Most importantly, the plans you put in place start to reflect not just what you can do with your money, but what you truly want your life to feel like.
Start With One Step
If you know me, you know I like action. While I certainly enjoy a good planning session, I’m a firm believer that the best way to start is to … start. It doesn’t need to be perfect and the goal is not to simply add more tasks to your list. Rather, it’s about creating space to live more fully and with more ease.
So begin with one simple step:
Review your goals
Ask one question you have been putting off
Revisit your estate plan
Look at your spending through the lens of joy
Celebrate what you have built
Your future self will not just thank you, she’ll be proud of you for creating a life that supports who you are now and who you are becoming. And if you could use some help in that journey, I’d love to connect.
Sorelle Wealth Partners is a business name used for marketing purposes. All advisory services are offered through Savvy Advisors, Inc. (“Savvy”). Savvy is an investment advisor firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Sorelle Wealth Partners is not a separately registered investment advisor.