Women's Money Wisdom
You’re working hard, caring for everyone else, and managing a thousand details a day—but when was the last time you focused on your finances?
As a woman, you might carry the emotional and logistical weight of caregiving, parenting, career-building, and household management. It’s no wonder financial planning tends to fall to the bottom of your list—yet it’s one of the most important tools you have for protecting your future, your family, and your peace of mind.
Women’s Money Wisdom is here to change that.
Hosted by Melissa Joy, CFP®, founder of Pearl Planning in Dexter, Michigan, this weekly podcast is your space for practical insights and relatable advice to help you take control of your financial life. From investing and retirement to navigating life transitions and shifting your money mindset, you'll gain the clarity and confidence you need to make empowered decisions.
Maybe you’re preparing for retirement, juggling the needs of both kids and aging parents, or growing a business you’ve built from the ground up. You want to build wealth in a way that reflects your values. You want guidance that honors your full life—not just your portfolio. And most of all, you want a trusted partner who sees the whole picture, not just the numbers.
If you’re ready to stop putting yourself last—at least financially—this podcast is your starting point.
Subscribe to Women’s Money Wisdom and make your financial future a priority.
The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...
Women's Money Wisdom
Episode 304: The Financial Exhale: A Gentle Year-End Money Reset
As the year comes to a close, Melissa Joy, CFP® invites you to slow down.
This short, reflective solo episode is a pause button — a chance to step off the financial treadmill, release guilt, and reset how you think about money before jumping into goals, resolutions, or to-do lists.
Rather than focusing on what still needs to get done, Melissa encourages listeners to notice what worked, acknowledge invisible financial wins, and reconnect with a definition of wealth that goes beyond account balances.
This episode is designed as a mindset reset — an “exhale” — to help you enter the new year with more clarity, intention, and self-trust.
In this episode, Melissa explores:
- Why year-end reflection matters more than year-end hustle
- How to identify and celebrate your financial wins, including the quiet ones
- Releasing guilt and shame tied to past money decisions
- Reframing wealth around values, time, and relationships — not just numbers
- How aligning spending with personal values can simplify decision-making
- The power of “set it and forget it” systems to reduce financial stress
- Choosing a money word or theme for the year ahead
- Simple challenges (like no-spend periods or intentional splurges) to reset habits
- Using a “stop, start, continue” framework to carry clarity into the new year
Key takeaway
You don’t need a perfect plan to move forward — you need a lighter mindset, clearer values, and permission to acknowledge progress.
Before diving into goals and action steps, this episode offers space to breathe, reflect, and reset your relationship with money.
The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...
Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence, and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money, and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. Happy New Year's Eve week, everyone. It's Melissa Joy here today, and I wanted to take a pause, really slow down in today's episode. We don't have a guest, it's just me talking to you. Um, but I thought it would be nice to close out the year with some intention and some space to really refresh the money mindset as you reflect upon 2025. I think there's so much hustle and bustle when it comes to um this time of year. If you're like me, year in feels like just a treadmill that keeps getting faster. And I'm not built for fast treadmills. And so I really wanted to take a little bit of time and acknowledge that challenge and give you some good framework to be thinking into the new year. So this is like our exhale episode. Um, it's continuing the theme that we talked about over the summer of slowing down to do better. Um, it's also giving you an opportunity to focus on the tiny little joys that are really working for you when it comes to your money. Um, and so, you know, we're gonna be a little shorter than typical episodes, but I want to encourage you to just, you know, have a little bit of a mindset and meditation um framework as you take it all in today. And if you have a sheet of paper and want to jot down a few things, I would love to encourage you at the end of our conversation to set a few intentions for the new year, not a to-do list and not your resolutions yet or necessarily. In fact, we'll be having an episode next week that's all about how to start the new year and is less mindset and more to-dos and technical. But in the meantime, um, let's just go through a few exercises to see how you're doing. And if you're not feeling all that positive, I hope I can give you some encouragement to reset the framework of how you're feeling about yourself and your money. So, topic number one, um I think is to audit and make a list of your financial wins. So, what happened this year that isn't negative, isn't glass half empty, isn't scarcity mode that really worked well for you? It could be just noting some improvement, even if it's just listening to a few of these podcast episodes over the year. Um is there something that you did that you might not have acknowledged, um, whether it was bumping up your savings rate, finally getting your beneficiary designations checked off the list, um, making the right withholding elections when it comes to your taxes? Um, so record those invisible wins that you might not have given yourself credit for. Um is there something you bought or received or gifted that really brought you joy? Did you make a charitable contribution to an organization that you love or um make a purchase? As a client told me one time this year, he said, I'm I'm really happy with the money I've spent this year. And I I just paused and really appreciated that moment and that comment because I feel like oftentimes there's shame when it comes to spending money. And um that is, you know, kind of not necessarily a requirement when it comes to spending. You don't have to feel shameful about how you spend money. Did you do anything that was kind of recurring, like an automatic investment and an increase to your retirement contributions, um, an automatic payment to a piece of debt that is really compounding just with the habit of recurring items. Um, if you're doing those types of things, give yourself credit for that too. Number two on my list of things to do today is um release some guilt when it comes to money. Now, I mean, those of you listening who are just like, what's guilt? I don't have any guilt when it comes to my money conversations. Well, kudos to you because so many people, when I'm talking to them one-on-one, share feelings of shame or guilt that I don't think um, well, I just know probably are really weighty to carry around from day to day. And so um, if you have a lot of regret about past money actions that you don't have control over or the option to change, if you're constantly referring back to what if I had done things differently then or then, um, you know, it might be time to let go of those burdens of guilt from the past. I'm not saying to make decisions that aren't in your favor going forward at all. Um, but so many times people are anchored to a burden of um disappointment and frustration from past financial decisions that are never going to be changed and just are part of your history, not a part of your um present and future. And so I would encourage you to um release some of that guilt and understand that um, you know, really you need to refresh and edit um your money narrative. Um, you know, if you've been in permanent purgatory when it comes to um, you know, your past money behavior, and that's really how you define yourself, even if you're doing a great job today or you have trends of improvement, then um my words to you would be is now the time to kind of make a break with that past, and is that past um really, you know, knowing about it and acknowledging it more harm than good? Number three is a reflection on your values and what wealth means to you. So, in so many cases, people in my world who think and talk about wealth all the time recognize that the people with the most are not always the people who have the biggest account balances. Um, time is an extraordinary resource. Your relationships are so important. Um stuff and having the most stuff is not necessarily a measure of uh success. And so that is not the message we always receive when it comes to like the consumer cycle at the end of the year, when it comes to, you know, what reels and shorts are telling you to focus on. Um, and so I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what is really important to you and prioritize the things that are most important to you. Um, one of my intentions for 2026 is to focus on relationships and um make time and space for the most important people in my life. Um, it's really easy to schedule, you know, meetings with friends who I really love that are professional, but um, there's not as many like kind of defaults for the people, like family members and um close friends who are not professional friends to automatically create space and time and prioritization. So that's one of the things I'm focusing on for next year. You might do a values exercise just with yourself or with your partner or family members to determine what's most important to you because this might help you to define when you're doing well, if you're spending on the things that align the most with your values. Um example from this year, um, we didn't did not end up going through with it, but my family considered um solar panels for our home. And um, it was all about the finances. Um, in our my conversation with my husband. Um, and financially it didn't necessarily make sense because of a variety of factors. Um, but then I like kind of rethought and re-prioritized and said, as a family, you know, kind of environmental considerations are really important to us. We might have a bigger environmental footprint because of the home that we have. And this decision would be aligned with our values on um, you know, making um a priority for the environment. Ironically, it didn't matter because um it was um the pathway we were going down was not gonna work out, um, wasn't feasible. But that was so much more, that reframe was so much easier for me to make the decision with. And so, you know, kind of just doing an assessment of where you see the most important things for you and your wealth, and um defining it based on you, not society or outside influences, external forces, and then um assessing how your life is aligning with either your values or or the way that you see wealth, I think is so valuable. Um the fourth thing I would mention is look for things that you can kind of set and forget. Um, look for things that you can set on recurring. Um, this is a great tactic. Um, do you know, do you want to nudge up your savings or your goal for how much you have in emergency reserves? Um, do you want to go through and make sure all of your beneficiary designations are up to date? In this moment, I told you this wasn't about to-do lists. Instead of um getting things done and using this brief moment in time before the new year, if you're listening to the episode on the day it's released, to get a bunch of things done. Studies have shown that it can be really valuable to take that thought bubble that's above your head, that's constantly with you, thinking, oh my gosh, I've got to do this, I've got to do that. When are the presents gonna wrap themselves? Like there's just too many things on the to-do list, but the to-do list is, you know, just this theoretical anxiety bubble that's following you around. If you can just make a list of the things that you need to do, then you can revisit that list in the new year and triage and prioritize what is most important. Um, so do a little set and forget list of the things that you need to pick up in the new year so that you are getting the to-do list done eventually. And it's also not just a burden that you're carrying with you into the new year. Um and then looking forward, number five. I think that um a couple things that might assist in your resolutions. Um, one of them is to pick a money word for the new year, a theme. Um, I have the same money word I'm gonna use in 2026 that I used in 2025 because I think it helped me to give such better advice to people and also make decisions for myself. Whenever possible, if you can organize and simplify, um, fewer accounts, not more, unless there's a reason to have additional accounts. Um, you know, fewer logins and not more. Use the things that you use the most and don't constantly look to add things. Um, those that simplify if you're struggling to find a theme or word for the year is something that I would encourage more people to consider. And then um also, you know, maybe make a challenge where you have um, you know, something that you want to focus on that you spend 30 to 60 days focusing on. It may be um reading a personal finance article every day for 30 days, it could be um thinking about um things that you really enjoy spending money on and having intention to splurge on some of those things because you found some extra room in the budget by editing or subtracting elsewhere. Um, it could be a no-spend January where you are um, of course, spending on the essentials and paying your bills, but not doing as much discretionary spending for a brief moment in time and looking to see how you could um save in that moment in time more. Um, maybe you're using up the gift cards that have been lingering or using a free cycle service to kind of um barter or exchange things. Um so all of those would be under consideration and might be a fun challenge to set yourself up for to continue with this like fresh and maybe a little bit lighter mindset going into a new year. As I leave you, I would also encourage you to consider um stop, start, and continue. Um, so think through the things that you do over the next few weeks. And um, if there's something that isn't bringing you joy or it's just like wasted money, a subscription you've signed up for that you've never used, stop it. So um there's no time like the present. And it's always sometimes when you've signed up for something, you're like, oh, I'll get around to using it. But if if you're really not using it, um and if you get rid of all the subscriptions or recurring payments that are like that, even if you add one or two back, you're probably still ahead. Um, if there's something you really want to do too, don't, you know, start 15 things all at once, but maybe January is the time to get started. Um, and then continue with intention for the things that really should stay the course, um, but acknowledge that you're continuing. And that's a decision to not stop or to not add. Um, so that would be a great way to kind of frame things for the new year. Um, we've had so many um new listeners over the year, and I just wanted to say thank you for all of you that um come and listen, um, whether it's one time or month in, month out. Um, you can certainly show your appreciation if you are enjoying what we do by leaving a review and following us and make sure that you know that we both have audio as well as YouTube on Pearl Planning Financial that's available for you um into the new year. So looking forward to more great things in 2026. But as I leave you with only um hours before the new year, I just want to say thank you and share some gratitude and um uh hope for a better money mindset as you enter a new phase. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way that you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to ProPlan.com and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned. This presentation by Pro Planning is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of this presentation serves as a receipt of or substitute for personal investment advice from Pro Planning or any other investment professional of your choosing. Copies of Pro Planning's current rent and disclosure brochure and form CRS discussing our advisory services and fees are available upon request or on our website platform at proplan.com. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are Melissa's own and those of our guests. They don't necessarily represent any organizations with which Melissa is affiliated. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at proplan.com.
