BOOK REVIEW
Women Wise: The Essential Guide to Financial and Lifestyle Decisions as We Age by Eleanor Blayney, CFP® and Marjorie Fox, CFP®
By Lazetta Rainey Braxton
As a Gen X female financial planner, I quickly raised my hand when offered the opportunity to review Women Wise: The Essential Guide to Financial and Lifestyle Decisions as We Age, written by sage baby boomer financial planners Eleanor Blayney, CFP®, and NAPFA member Marjorie Fox, CFP®. These powerhouses blazed trails as astute business owners who paved the way for the next generation of financial planners, including me! Their brilliance, wit, humor, courage, and compassion invite readers to view them as partners on one’s financial planning journey—a role they have faithfully demonstrated for countless advisors and clients.
Women Wise openly and candidly maps key areas of financial planning for single women navigating retirement and aging. Specifically, the authors offer guidance in key areas such as accepting the mental transition of aging, finding purpose and your community, protecting yourself from elder abuse, navigating housing as you age, creating a budget, securing the right Medicare plan, optimizing Social Security benefits, managing long-term care, investing wisely, strategies for retirement income, and gifting your family with a defined legacy instead of a mess.
From facing reality about getting older to concrete research and guidance on end-of-life matters, Blayney and Fox demonstrate how they practice what they preach as practitioners in their own lives. Their dual roles in the book as financial experts and women grappling with retirement themselves invites both advisors and general readers to give themselves permission to have a robust dialogue about fears and uncertainties about managing finances, housing, safety, medical conditions, and legacy when you’re older and possibly managing life alone. They refuse to let you bury your head in the sand to deny the fact that you are no longer a spry, in-charge business mogul. With compassion, they invite you to be wise and accept the grace that comes with aging—if you continue to take charge of your life as you did with your work during your career.
While all the topics represent critical areas for retired women, some readers may find difficulty in implementing the guidance without the assistance of a financial planner. If the authors shared this fact in the beginning of the book, it might prevent readers from feeling overwhelmed when the authors introduce more technical aspects of financial planning later in the book. Also, while their firsthand experience is one of the main highlights of the book, the heavy emphasis on a specific third-party firm’s approach to retirement income may be viewed as a stumbling block to digesting the Dedicated Portfolio Theory concept.
Despite having advised clients to retirement and beyond, I found Blayney’s and Fox’s anecdotes startling. Their accounts of the aging and financial planning journey during retirement struck me in a new way—up close and personal. It’s one thing to be an armchair quarterback when guiding clients to and during this stage in life; it’s another matter when you’re leading yourself into an unknown future.
Envisioning myself in their shoes as a possibly single, retired woman (one widowed and one divorced, in their cases) required an appreciation for practical considerations such as safety issues when living alone, realizing your physical and mental limitations, and depending on trusted family, friends, and advisors for support. Reality becomes less daunting when you are prepared for what it may bring.
How will I feel once I am no longer saving and must rely on my investments for a comfortable living (a realization shared by Eleanor)? Will my only daughter have any interest and capacity for caring for her aging parents (a realization posed by Marjorie)? Having moved frequently in my marriage, what community will I call home? Their book has successfully challenged me to plan with more intentionality and care.
Through sharing their personal details—and not hiding the challenges—Blayney and Fox have created a reader’s companion in glorious and tough retirement times. By weaving the essence of their companionship throughout the book, the authors showcase that although you may be and feel alone at times, you don’t have to travel the journey alone.
Women Wise: The Essential Guide to Financial and Lifestyle Decisions as We Age is published by Amplify Publishing at a list price of $30. It is also available as an e-book.
Lazetta Rainey Braxton, MBA, CFP®, is co-founder and co-CEO of 2050 Wealth Partners, a 100% virtual, fee-only financial planning and wealth management firm. She also leads Lazetta & Associates, guiding financial services firms with nurturing, culturally aware, and hospitable workplaces.