Women stand to control around 67% of stock market wealth by the year 2030. That’s only FIVE years away. This unprecedented shift is being talked about constantly in the Wealth Management industry, but beyond that, I don’t think this is common knowledge.

Like most things though, hearing a prediction doesn’t often cause anyone to behave any differently. Male advisors aren’t preparing to serve more women, but more importantly, women aren’t preparing with financial education. This is what matters, what I’m extremely passionate about – so if you’re reading this, please, tell your mom, your sister, your grandmother. They are likely to be responsible for the financial decisions of their households, statistically, at some point in their lives. The sooner we become financially literate and familiar with investment strategy, the better. No one is too old, and no one is too young.

Women often control one side of the household income statement – the expense side. Women tend to carry more of the labor, even still in 2025, in terms of grocery shopping, paying the bills, hiring professionals around the house, etc. And this is true even if she’s bringing in half of the income. It can also be true if she’s the primary breadwinner. In my case for instance, while my husband does the grocery shopping, that cost goes on a credit card, which I am responsible for tracking and paying, just like all of our other bills. In this way, women may tend to become cautious, conservative, budget conscious – which can later translate into being more conservative with investing. That’s ok – we’ll talk about that later.

Paying the bills also comes with what I call financial fatigue. When you see the money going out of the accounts day in, day out, it can be mentally and emotionally draining. Our money “scripts” come into play. Brad Klontz named 4 common money scripts – You may engage in money avoidance, money worship, money status, or money vigilance. Like Sex and the City characters though, I find that while there may be one you most identify with, we all have a little bit of all 4. Bill paying brings them all bubbling right up, and if you’re aware of it, I’ll bet you notice your body tensing up when you’re sitting at your laptop paying the bills, balancing the accounts, even when those spam texts come in that say you’re overdue on a payment. I used to watch my mom at the kitchen table, cigar box of receipts and bills, checkbook register and calculator in hand. Her shoulders were probably touching here ears, she was so tense.

Being aware of this tension is a great first step to discovering your financial scripts and stories. From there, you can start with techniques like box breathing to help calm your brain and remind you that money is not a threat. Step outside for a second and do some horizon scanning, again, reminding your brain that you are not in peril right now. Journaling helps a lot for many people. Even if you’re not normally someone who keeps a journal, writing down what you’re feeling, expressing it in words, has a magical power to pull it out of your body. You can write whatever you want, and burn it afterwards if you want. It’s the practice of putting pen to paper that matters most in calming and recentering your thoughts.

Once you’re calm, you can start addressing some of the reasons your money anxiety shows up in whatever way it does. The first of the big questions is when/where/how you can save. Saving is one of the main things in money that you CAN control. For widows inheriting money, of course you’re past this stage, but bear with me, because the psychology matters. Saving money can require us to live with forced scarcity. This can literally impact your brain. Feelings of scarcity can cause tunnel vision, which causes decreased cognitive bandwidth, meaning that it’s harder to problem solve or make decisions. In modern times, our brains are wired for instant gratification, not deferring pleasure. If you’re inheriting money, you likely know intimately the years of forced scarcity that you and your partner faced to save those dollars. You know if you lost sleep over volatile stock markets. This impacts your perceptions about spending those dollars, or where they should go as part of your own legacy. These are all reasons that automating your savings is crucial to saving successfully for those of us in our saving years.

If you’re inheriting, whether from your spouse or a parent, grandparent or someone else, my first question is whether you’re working with a financial advisor (and not the kind who sells insurance). If you and your spouse were working with an advisor before, you now have a decision to make as the surviving spouse. Is this “your” financial advisor? Research tells us that 70% of widows fire the advisor they were previously working with. This happens for many reasons, but the primary one I find is that you were never listened to or consulted in the meetings for years, if you were even invited to the meetings. You want someone with whom you can have a real relationship, someone who understands your story, your goals, and will collaborate with you to build your legacy. The best advisors will become part of your strategy, and will understand your particular scripts with money – your fears, your concerns, your story.

If you’re in your saving years (which is all of them, until you begin drawing from your portfolio), your first step is to open a High Yield Savings Account (HYSA). You may be able to do this at your bank, or with your credit card company. I use Ally, because I like their system of savings “buckets.” There are different options and opinions on how much to save into this account, but start with ANY amount. $25 doesn’t seem like much, but if you do that every week, it will start adding up fast. If you’re further on in your career, earning well but you haven’t started saving, you need to get more aggressive. Once you begin saving, and the deposits have been adding up for about 6 months, THEN set a goal of the amount you want in this savings account. If you’re single, many people recommend 6 months of income in your savings – I think this depends on your field of work. If you’re in high demand as a knowledge worker or other fields with low unemployment rates, 3 months might be comfortable for you. If you’re married, the risk increases that you or your partner could be out of work, so discuss what feels comfortable to both of you. Could you live off of one of your salaries? Good, then your emergency savings can be a bit lower than 6 months – but also, if that’s the case, you should discuss how you can come to a point where you are saving that second salary anyway. It doesn’t have to happen right away. Perfection is the enemy of progress. All you have to do today is start.

Saving is step 1, but some pretty straightforward math will tell us that to support a similar lifestyle in retirement, saving will not be enough to get us there. Our purchasing power weakens over time with inflation, so putting savings in a bank account, even a High Yield Savings Account, will never be enough. Our savings needs to work for us, we need our money to make money. The good news is that nothing makes money as well as money, due to the miracle of compound interest. We’ll talk about that lots more here at Girl Meets Money.

Whether it’s saving, investing, spending or giving, I love to talk to women who are ready to learn more about how to manage their money. If you’re one of them, I’m right here.