Here’s something we don’t talk about nearly enough: How financial worries can ramp up our stress levels and limit our life choices in midlife. A 2021 article published in the journal American Psychologist warned about the combined impact of growing financial pressures, a shrinking social safety net, and increased mental and physical health challenges in particular (all of which are interconnected). To put it bluntly: This is not your parents’ or grandparents’ midlife experience. It’s a whole lot messier and more precarious.

It’s no wonder there’s so much anxiety among midlife women in particular about the financial implications of growing older. There’s so much to feel anxious about. Sure, women who are moving through midlife today are more likely to have had full-time jobs outside the home than their mothers or grandmothers did, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily on more solid ground financially.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to interview 118 midlife women about their lives and experiences. (This was while I was researching my 2022 book Navigating The Messy Middle: A Fiercely Honest and Wildly Encouraging Guide for Midlife Women.) Given that........

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