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Letting Your Adult Children Make Their Own Decisions (And Who You Become in the Process)

financial empowerment for women kids and money money and relationships money mindset personal empowerment women and money

Let me ask you something. When did the job of being their mom quietly change on you?

Letting your adult children make their own decisions is one of the hardest transitions a woman goes through in midlife, and almost nobody prepares you for it. Your role changes. Your relationship changes. Your money conversations change. And your own identity has to evolve right alongside them, whether or not you feel ready.

I am not writing this as someone who has figured it out. I am living it in real time, and parts of it have been harder than I expected.

This comes up constantly inside The Empowered Sisterhood. One member is packing a kid for college. Another is watching her child sign a first lease. Another is meeting her first grandchild and realizing she has a role nobody handed her a description for. Different transitions, same underlying question. Who am I in this next version of my family?

If that lands for you, you are not alone.

The Job of Mom Changes Before You Are Ready

For years,...

Goals vs. Intentions: What's the Difference, and How Do You Use Both?

financial planning tips intentional money method money mindset personal empowerment

Let me ask you something. When was the last time you set a goal that sounded productive, checked it off, and still felt like you were standing in the same place?

Goals vs. intentions is the difference between the result you want and the way you want to move through the work of getting there. A goal is a specific outcome. An intention is how you want to think, act, and show up while you pursue it. Goals tell you where you are going, and intentions guide how you get there. You need both, and most of us are only using one.

We hear plenty about goals. Make them specific. Write them down. Give yourself a deadline. That advice is fine, and it is also half the picture. Sometimes we get so focused on what we want to accomplish that we never ask how we want to move through it. Other times we set a beautiful intention and never turn it into a single action.

What Is the Difference Between a Goal and an Intention?

A goal is something you can complete or measure. An intention is something that ...

Why Capable Women Still Need Support (Even When They're the Expert)

financial empowerment for women intentional money method personal empowerment women and money

Let me ask you something. Where in your life are you the one who's supposed to know? The one people call for advice. And where in that same life are you white-knuckling something alone because asking for help there feels like admitting you're not who everyone thinks you are.

I've had a business coach or strategist since the day I started this business. Not one, at various points more than one. And here's the part that might surprise you: for some of them, I walked in already knowing more than they did about how to value a business, or how to build value into one. Years as an analyst will do that.

Knowing more doesn't mean knowing enough

Here's what I want you to sit with. Being ahead of your coach on one piece of the puzzle doesn't mean you don't have blind spots. It doesn't mean there isn't a long list of things they understand better than you do: marketing, operations, people, positioning, the parts of running a business that have nothing to do with a spreadsheet. And it doesn't m...

How to Build Healthy Financial Habits (The Hard Truth Nobody Talks About)

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In August 2024, I had VSG surgery. Vertical sleeve gastrectomy. A major procedure that permanently changed the size of my stomach, and with it, my entire relationship with food.

The recovery was hard. Not primarily because of the physical pain, although it was certainly uncomfortable. It was hard because for the first time in my life, I could not use food for comfort. Not even a little. While my stomach healed, food as a coping mechanism was completely off the table. And that meant I had to sit with every uncomfortable emotion I had been numbing for years.

That experience cracked something open in me. Because I had spent years sitting across from clients who were doing the exact same thing with their money.

Not facing their numbers. Not opening the statements. Spending in ways that felt good in the moment and terrible afterward. Using money the way I had been using food. As a way to avoid feeling something they did not want to feel.

When you cannot run from the hard thing anymore, ...

The Intentional Money Method: A Values-Based Approach to Building Wealth

financial planning tips money mindset personal empowerment

A few years ago, I was sitting across from a client who had done everything "right." She had a solid income. She was contributing to her 401k. She had no credit card debt. On paper, her finances were in great shape.

And she was miserable.

Not because of the numbers. The numbers were fine. She was miserable because none of it felt like hers. Her financial plan had been built by a previous advisor who never asked her what she actually wanted from her life. He asked about her risk tolerance and her time horizon and her tax bracket. He never asked what kept her up at night. He never asked what she would do with her life if money were not a factor. He never asked what mattered to her beyond the spreadsheet.

So she had a plan that looked good on paper and felt hollow in practice. She was saving for a retirement she could not picture. She was investing in a strategy she did not understand. She was following a financial path that someone else had drawn for her.

That conversation, and dozen...

Women's Empowerment Network: Why You Need More Than a Group Chat

financial planning tips money mindset personal empowerment women and money women's empowerment network

Let me tell you something I wish someone had told me earlier in my career: the women who build real, lasting wealth are almost never doing it alone.

They have a women’s network. They have mentors. They have a community that holds them accountable, celebrates their wins, and tells them the truth when they’re playing small.

I’ve been a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst and financial planner for nearly two decades. I’ve sat across from hundreds of women in some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives, and one pattern shows up again and again: women who are isolated make harder, more expensive, more emotionally draining decisions than women who are connected.

That’s not a knock on anyone. It’s a call to action.

If you’re looking for a women empowerment network that goes beyond surface-level networking and actually helps you build wealth, clarity, and confidence, keep reading. This is for you.

What a Real Women’s Empowerment Network Actually Looks Like

Not all women’s networ...

5 Money Lessons My Mom Taught Me (That Changed How I Think About Wealth)

financial empowerment for women financial planning tips money mindset personal empowerment women and money

A tribute to the woman who showed me what financial intentionality looks like in real life

My mom didn't teach me about money through a course or a textbook. She taught me through how she lived and the lessons she passed down became the foundation of everything I do today.

Today, February 18th, would have been her birthday. And I wanted to honor her the best way I know how: by sharing what she taught me, so you can carry it forward too.

My mom was an accountant, a business owner, a director of operations at a nonprofit, and she retired as a director of financial aid at a college. She had an undergraduate degree in accounting and an MBA. She reinvented herself more times than I can count. And every single time, she did it with intention.

These five lessons are woven into the Intentional Money Method™. They're woven into my book. And today, I'm sharing them with you, along with one thing you can actually do with each one this week.

Lesson One: Reinvention Is Always on the Table

...

Where Your Money Beliefs Come From (And How to Change Them)

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The first thing I learned about money had nothing to do with a bank account.

I was about ten years old. My mom was a single mom, and she had hurt her back badly enough that she could not go grocery shopping. So she sent my brother and me to the store with a list and a set amount of cash. I remember standing in the aisle doing math in my head, trying to figure out if we had enough for everything on the list. We did not. We had to make choices about what to put back.

That experience taught me something I carry to this day: money is about choices. It is about trade-offs. And your feelings about those trade-offs start forming long before you ever earn a paycheck.

I share this because when I sit down with a new client and we start talking about money, the conversation almost always goes deeper than numbers. It goes to a place that feels more like identity. She will say something like, "I have always been bad with money." Or, "I do not deserve to have more than I need." Or, "Money just st...

Life Isn't Fair: How Women Can Build a Stronger Money Mindset Anyway

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by Liesel Darby, Mediator & Divorce Coach

Growing up, you probably heard the "F-word" at some point, and it wasn't "fudge." In this post, we're talking about a different F-word, one that can quietly undermine your financial empowerment and overall wellbeing: FAIRNESS.

For women navigating careers, money, relationships, and midlife transitions, the belief that things should be fair can be a surprisingly powerful obstacle. Here's what the research and real life experience tell us about why fairness thinking holds us back, and what to do instead.

Why "Life Isn't Fair" Is Actually Useful Wisdom for Women

The concept of fairness seems harmless enough. It has the ring of righteousness. When things go our way, fairness feels like justice. But that's precisely the problem: the expectation that things should be fair sets us up for indignation, resentment, and paralysis when life doesn't deliver.

At the extreme end, a rigid attachment to fairness can keep us stuck, waiting for the world to ...

Building Financial Confidence: How Women Can Develop a Stronger Money Mindset and Take Intentional Action

financial literacy financial planning tips money beliefs money mindset personal empowerment

I remember the full range of emotions I felt when I bought my first house in 2007. Pride that I was doing something so significant. Worry that I was making the wrong decision. Excitement to finally have a place of my own. And overwhelming anxiety about all the new expenses and responsibilities ahead of me.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I was doing exactly what it takes to build financial confidence. I was taking intentional action, even in the face of fear.

Building financial confidence is a journey, not a destination. With each financial decision, we get an opportunity to flex our confidence muscles. Yet so many women shy away from these moments due to fear, self-doubt, or the belief that they don't know enough yet. What if the very act of making decisions, imperfect, uncertain, sometimes scary decisions, is exactly what builds the confidence we're waiting to feel?

Clarity and Values Come First

Before you can take confident financial action, you need two things: cla...

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Leah Hadley, AFC, CDFA, MAFF

Leah Hadley, AFC® CDFA® MAFF™, is a bestselling author and financial planner with over 20 years of experience helping women build wealth with intention. She is the founder of Watch Her Thrive and Intentional Wealth Partners, and the author of Intentional Money: The Modern Woman's Guide to Building Wealth, Purpose & Peace.

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Investment Advisory Disclosure:

Leah Hadley is a Licensed Investment Adviser Representative and the Founder of Intentional Wealth Partners, a Registered Investment Adviser. Advisory services are offered exclusively through Intentional Wealth Partners.

Watch Her Thrive is not a Registered Investment Adviser and does not provide individualized investment advice, financial planning, or securities recommendations. All content provided through Watch Her Thrive is for educational and informational purposes only.