The 5 Money Mistakes Midlife Women Make (And How to Fix Them)
I pulled out my credit card at checkout not long ago and it declined.
There was money in the account. It was just a processing glitch that fixed itself in about 30 seconds. But in those 30 seconds… I was back. Back to the season of our lives where Bret and I were buried in debt and that exact scenario was a very real possibility every time I paid for anything.
That feeling doesn't just disappear when your financial situation improves. It lives in you.
So when I asked my Instagram audience what their greatest fear was about getting older… I expected to hear things like losing their looks, health declining, people they love getting sick. It was money. Specifically, outliving it.
That's exactly why I brought Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche onto The Chalene Show. Because if anyone understands that fear from the inside out, it's her. She was nearly $300,000 in debt in her late twenties. She spent her 30th birthday sleeping in her childhood bed thinking she had more money babysitting at 14 than she did right now. She's a New York Times bestselling author now, she's been on Netflix, and she's helped millions of women drop the shame and actually get good with money.
She broke down the five biggest money mistakes midlife women make and I want to give you a peek at what we covered… but honestly, you need to hear her say it.
Read until the end for the list of books I recommend (and have read that have helped lead to my financial success).
Mistake 1: Your Mindset Is Running Your Money
Before any spreadsheet, any budget, any savings account… your mindset has to shift first. Because your money will never do more than what your mind will allow. Tiffany is clear that for most midlife women this isn't a competence problem. It's a confidence problem. And she makes the case in a way that is genuinely hard to argue with. Listen to how she explains it in the episode because it will stick with you.
Mistake 2: Nobody's Actually Managing the Money
Money comes in. Money goes out. And most of us have no real system governing what happens in between. Tiffany has a four-account framework that takes about 24 hours to set up and essentially budgets for you without requiring you to budget. She calls it “split it before you get it” and once she explains it, you'll wonder why nobody taught you this years ago.
Mistake 3: You Don't Know Your Noodle Budget
Do you know what your actual bare-minimum monthly number is? Not what you normally spend. What you need to survive if things got hard fast. Most women don't know this number and it's one of the most important things you can have ready before you need it. Tiffany explains exactly how to figure it out and when to use it.
Mistake 4: Earning Without Growing
Bringing in money and growing money are two different skills entirely. If your money isn't working for you somewhere… it's dying. Tiffany walks through exactly where to start investing even if you feel like you don't have enough, don't know enough, or think it's too late. It's not too late. She started from negative $300,000.
Mistake 5: No Protection Plan
This is the one nobody wants to think about until they have to. Tiffany lost her husband suddenly at 41. He never made more than $60,000 a year. Because of the financial decisions they had made together, he left her nearly a million dollars. The protect step isn't about being morbid. It's about making sure the people you love are taken care of no matter what.
Go Listen to the Full Episode
I'm giving you the outline but Tiffany gives you the how. The specific steps, the real talk about shame, the practical tools she's used with millions of women… it's all in the episode. This is one of those conversations that hits differently depending on where you are right now, and I've had women tell me they've listened to it more than once.
Listen to the full episode here.
And if you want the step-by-step companion to everything Tiffany covers, her book Get Good With Money is exactly what it sounds like; a clear path forward. Here's my full list of finance books worth reading if you're ready to go deeper.
Love you, mean it. Chalene
