How To Think About Money As A Single Woman
a frank conversation with financial expert Jane Barratt [from 2025]
I probably hear about this post more than any other. What I mean by that is people have literally stopped me on the street to tell me what a difference listening to Jane Barratt talk with me about money, specifically single women and money, has made in their life.
It came up again a few times this past week, and I took that as a sign this would be a good moment to rerun it. Money is, alas and alack, evergreen. It is also my personal love language (in the form of New York City real estate).
I’m in the early stages of thinking through how to expand on this subject, and a few more, in the form of in-person events. More on that when I have more. In the meantime, enjoy Jane being brilliant (hopefully with a side of some good chocolate that has just gone on sale).
Money, money, money.
I heard from a lot of you following this newsletter. Thank you! So many of us are having the same conversations about finances, if only with ourselves.
As promised, I figured out how to use the Substack video option, and sat down with my friend and brilliant financial person Jane Barratt, to talk retirement, real estate, savings and how Gen X will continue to lead the way.
Some highlights:
Statistically half the people on your train car, are feeling exactly as you feel right now. Something like 25%- 30% of people actively avoid engaging with their finances. The reality is the vast majority of this country live paycheck to paycheck. Feeling shame just leads to financial avoidance.
Money is a tool that serves you: This is the number one mindset shift because we are trained our whole damn life to chase the money.
Don’t Bitch, Just Switch! We need to have higher expectations of the companies that serve us. Stasis is what wins in this world.
The world is delicious and distracting. And humans aren’t designed to withstand this level of distraction and temptation ($5 trillion was spent in e-commerce!)
You’ve got to know the system(s) that you’re in. How to think about health care. There are no easy answers, but I found some of Jane’s suggestions intriguing. [The line about the “system” literally applies to everything.]
Broke is such a loaded word. It feels like a throwaway, but often it is applied to [situations like] I don’t have much in savings or I’m living paycheck to paycheck or I’ve got again statistically credit card debt that I can’t pay down. [AND YET] In the big scheme of history we’re living better than any generation ever.
Gen X will be charting the path forward for Millennials and Gen Z [ed note: AS ALWAYS]. How to think about retirement…or more accurately, how to rethink it. The narratives we have around money and savings are outdated and only every applied to a tiny slice of population during an equally tiny slice of time. Florida and golf is not going to be statistically possible for the vast majority. There isn’t actually a magical date and a magical number. The better questions: What does retirement mean to you, what are you working towards? [I actually found this reframing incredibly helpful!]
Jane is just so good at distilling ideas down into compelling, easy to understand phrases. More than once, I told her I would like an AI Jane avatar to greet me in the morning with some of her wisdom (don’t bitch, switch!)(think creatively!). She also says you should reach out on LinkedIn. Of every ten people she hears from, nine are dudes. Get in there ladies!
Our full video conversation after the jump.