42: A Midlife Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom with Steph Wagner

Send us Fan MailHow Midlife Women Can Stop People Pleasing, Set Healthy Boundaries and  Live With Intention ...Writing Their Own Recipe For A Life That Feeds Their Soul.Ready for a Midlife Boundary RESET?  Click here for YOUR FREE 5 Day RESET____________________________________________________________________________________________What if your next chapter felt wider, calmer, and fully funded? Steph Wagner joins us to share how she rebuilt her life after a blindsiding divorce—transforming shame and avoidance into clarity, confidence, and a mission to help women own their financial future. As the National Director of Women and Wealth at Northern Trust and author of Fly: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom and Building a Life You Love, Steph blends disarming honesty with practical tools that make money feel learnable and liberating.We start by unpacking the link between emotional health and financial autonomy—why abdication often begins with family money dynamics, and how identity loss creeps in long before a crisis. Steph walks through the first crucial step of exploring your money story and recognizing fluid money personalities like the giver, penny pincher, spender, and trailblazer. From there, we build a vision worth budgeting for, using simple prompts and accountability to turn hopes into plans without the pressure of a grand “purpose” mandate.Then we get tactical. Steph shares the 45-20-35 model that replaces rigid budgets with a flexible framework: 45% to unavoidables, at least 20% to your future (emergency fund, debt payoff, retirement, investing, education that boosts earnings), and 35% to empowerment money for everything else. We dig into four core concepts—compounding, diversification, opportunity cost, and arbitrage—and outline Steph’s seven-step path from awareness to numbers, plan, daily habits, the right financial team, and healthier money conversations in relationships. Along the way, we talk longevity, the risk of outliving assets, and why confidence is the missing bridge between income and wealth for so many women.If you’re starting over, scaling up, or mentoring the next generation, this conversation offers clear steps and a hopeful mindset to match. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a money reset, and leave a review to tell us the first change you’ll make this week.Find STEP WAGNER Here:Website: https://stephlwagner.com/BOOK: FLY! A Woman's Guide to Financial Freedom and Building a Life You Love : https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fly!/Steph-Wagner/9781637747650Support the showLOVING THIS CONTENT? Become a Supporter of the SHOW HERE: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2405011/supporters/newFIND MARNIE HERE:https://lifeisdelicious.superpatch.comWebsite : https://www.LifeIsDelicious.ca                Join the FREE Facebook Community here: MINDSET MASTERY FOR MIDLIFE WOMENhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/24181886758064052Get your FREE COPY of the MIDLIFE MANIFESTO HEREReady for a Midlife Boundary RESET?  Click here for YOUR FREE 5 Day RESETBuy my Guided Journal: "HAPPY IS NOT AN ACCIDENT" orTHE LIFE IS DELICIOUS Weekly and Monthly Planner here:https://www.LifeIsDelicious.ca/bookshelfIf this episode resonated with a full body YES!…→ Share it with a woman you love who needs to hear this message→ Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify