The Confidence Shift – Why Younger Women Are Doing Better

Here is something that gives me hope. A growing number of younger women are becoming more self-assured in their financial decision-making. The proportion of women who feel confident in their savings and investment decisions has increased steadily over the last few years. This trend is strongest among younger women and those earning higher incomes.

The use of financial advisers is also rising, with 45% of women now seeking professional advice compared with 40% in 2023. That is a real shift, and it matters because professional advice can make a huge difference. When you have someone who can help you navigate the complexities of retirement planning, investment strategies, and tax implications, you are far less likely to feel overwhelmed.

If you are in your forties or fifties, you are in a powerful position. You still have time to make meaningful changes. You can start building additional income streams through freelancing or a small sideline business. You can boost your emergency savings to cover three to six months of essential living expenses. You can review your life, disability, and income protection insurance cover and keep your beneficiary information up to date.

But most importantly, you can give yourself permission to be a little less conservative. A balanced investment approach can help you grow your savings while still protecting against risk. It is a fine line, but with guidance, it is one you can walk.

The Financial Hurdles Women Face (And How to Overcome Them)

My daughter is hitting fifty this year. So are my daughter-in-law and many of their friends. They have partners, good jobs, and a sense of financial independence. But I still worry about them, because women face distinct financial hurdles that men simply do not.

The numbers are stark. Women earn less than men over a career, which means lower saving and investment potential. They take time off work for maternity or family care, which reduces cumulative income and retirement fund contributions. They live longer than men, which means their retirement nest egg must stretch across more years. And in general, women tend to take a more conservative investment approach, preferring the safety of money-market or fixed deposit accounts. That means more safety, but often less growth.

On top of that, women are the main caregivers of dependent children and aging parents. There is a cost to this caregiving—not just emotional, but financial. Time out of the workforce means lower earnings, lower pension contributions, and less compound growth over decades.

So, what can you do?

Do not delay investing. Start now, even if you are starting small. Time in the market is your greatest asset.

Most of us underestimate what we will need. If you can contribute consistently to retirement accounts and increase your contributions whenever your income grows, you will be in a much stronger position.

 Carrying debt into retirement is a heavy weight. Prioritize paying off credit cards and personal loans while continuing minimum payments on others.

Whether you manage the day-to-day finances or not, stay involved in budgeting, investments, taxes, insurance, and long-term planning. Knowledge is power, and it also gives you peace of mind. 

The Moment the Panic Sets In (And What to Do About It)

I remember the exact moment. I was in my early fifties, sitting at the kitchen table, staring at a spreadsheet that was supposed to tell me if we would be okay in retirement. We had some savings. We had a good defined benefit plan. And yet, something felt off. The numbers looked fine, but the knot in my stomach said otherwise.

That was the moment I realized: I needed to start building our own savings. Not because we had to, but because I wanted to. I wanted to know that we would be okay, no matter what happened.

If you are in your forties or fifties and reading this, you might be feeling that same knot. You might be wondering if you have saved enough, if you have started too late, or if you will ever be able to retire comfortably. And you are not alone.

A recent survey from Money Stress Tracker reveals that women are 10–15% more financially stressed than men. Financial anxiety is rising, especially as women shoulder heavier burdens across home life, personal health, and workplace demands. The weight of caregiving, the reality of living longer, and the persistent wage gap all contribute to that stress.

But here is the good news: building savings isn't about perfection. It is about making consistent, informed decisions over time. I did not start early, but I started. And that is the most important step you can take, starting.

The best time to start saving for retirement was twenty years ago. The second-best time is today. If you have not started, do not wait. Start now, even with a small amount. Time in the market is often more important than trying to find the perfect moment to invest. And for women, who on average live longer than men, time is both a challenge and an opportunity. Your money needs to stretch further, but it also has more time to grow.

Life Is a Game, But Don't Forget to Play

I have always liked games.

Maybe that is because games make life seem a little easier to understand.

There are rules.

There is usually a goal.

There are ways of getting there.

And, if you are lucky, there are other people sitting around the table or standing on the field with you.

Life, unfortunately, doesn't come with quite such a useful instruction manual.

Bernard Suits, the philosopher who wrote The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia, spent a great deal of time thinking about games. His definition is complicated enough to make you wish you were playing Scrabble instead, but his central idea is wonderfully simple.

A game has a goal. It has rules. It has ways of achieving the goal. And, most importantly, we agree to accept the rules even when they make achieving the goal harder.

Think about golf.

The object is to get the ball into the hole.

If that were the only thing that mattered, I could walk up to the green, pick up the ball and put it in the cup.At times I may have done that just to end the hole, bujt don't tell anyone.

Goal accomplished.

Except it wouldn't be golf.

Golf is golf because we agree to make it difficult.

We stand on a tee hundreds of yards from the hole and attempt to hit a tiny ball with a club. We then chase it around the course, occasionally finding water, sand, trees and other places where golf balls go to disappear.

We voluntarily accept all those unnecessary obstacles.

That is what makes it a game.

Suits calls this attitude toward the rules the "lusory attitude."

In plain English, we agree to play by the rules because we want to play the game.

And that got me thinking.

Maybe life works the same way.

We spend an enormous amount of time trying to make life easier.

We want fewer obstacles.

Fewer disappointments.

Fewer complications.

Fewer things going wrong.

But without obstacles, there is no game.

The difficulty is part of what gives the game meaning.

A chess player doesn't complain that the opponent is making things difficult. That's the point.

A golfer doesn't object to the fact that the hole is too far away. That's the point.

A Scrabble player doesn't complain that the letters are inconvenient. That's the point.

Perhaps life is much the same.

The obstacles are not always interruptions to the story.

Sometimes they are the story.

There is another important distinction in Suits' thinking. There are people who participate in a game without really playing it properly.

The trifler recognizes the rules but ignores the goal.

The cheat recognizes the goal but ignores the rules.

And the spoilsport recognizes neither.

We have all met them.

The person who changes the rules when they start losing.

The person who will do anything to win.

The person who doesn't care whether anyone else is having a good time.

And then there is the true player.

The true player understands both the goal and the rules.

But here is the part I find most interesting: the reward is not simply winning.

The reward is playing.

That may be one of the most useful ideas we can carry into retirement.

We have spent much of our lives being measured by outcomes.

Grades.

Promotions.

Paycheques.

Titles.

Houses.

Savings.

Awards.

Achievements.

We became very good at keeping score.

Then one day retirement arrives and many of the old scorecards disappear.

There is no boss waiting to tell you that you had a productive Tuesday.

There is no annual performance review.

Nobody gives you a promotion because you finally learned how to make sourdough bread.

You have to create a new definition of success.

Perhaps that definition is less about winning and more about playing well.

Did you help somebody today?

Did you learn something?

Did you laugh?

Did you spend time with someone you care about?

Did you try something you had never tried before?

Did you make somebody else's day a little better?

Did you get out of the house and into the world?

Did you enjoy the game?

I think this is why games have stayed with me.

They remind us that life isn't simply about reaching the final score.

It is about what happens between the opening whistle and the final one.

The conversations.

The surprises.

The mistakes.

The comebacks.

The people we meet.

The stories we collect.

The occasions when we thought we had lost but discovered another opportunity.

When I was young, I thought I played games because they were fun.

Now I suspect I played them because they were teaching me how to live.

Softball taught me to recover from an error.

Football taught me to keep moving.

Scrabble taught me to make the best of what I was given.

Checkers taught me to anticipate.

Chess taught me patience.

And all of them taught me that you cannot play alone.

Life is a game, but it is not a game we play simply to win.

We play because we are alive.

We play because there are people beside us.

We play because the rules give shape to the experience.

We play because obstacles make the journey interesting.

And, eventually, we learn that the greatest prize isn't the trophy sitting at the end of the game.

It is the game itself.

So, if you are retired, don't ask yourself only, "What have I accomplished?"

Ask a different question.

"What game am I playing now?"

And then, whatever your answer, make sure you are actually playing.