14. On Managing Your $ to Support your Life with Bridget Jones

Overview

On this episode, I’m in conversation with Bridget Jones, a finance coach and founder of Smart Sister Finance. Prior to Smart Sister, Bridget worked in finance and was an executive leader at several leading food companies like Clif Bar and Whole Foods Market where she held finance and operations leadership roles.

I wanted to chat with Bridget, because finances is directly tied to work-life integration and managing our careers from decade to decade. While salary is not an intrinsic motivator, meaning the core thing that gets most of us excited about our work, the reality is our jobs pay the bills! They support our lives. And so, being wise about one’s finances is important to facilitating Sustainable Ambition.

And impressively, Bridget was so good with her own finances, she met and exceeded her goal of being able to retire by the age of 50. Now, that's someone I want to talk to!

I love all the insights in this conversation about how work and finances are intertwined in creating a sustainable life. We talk about Bridget’s own career journey, why she had a goal of retiring by 50, and what surprised her most after she had downtime and recharged. We explore the importance of setting financial goals and tying those to your overall life goals - what are you working and saving for? We advocate embracing planning for what you want in your life, focusing on the big rocks and accepting that it is iterative. And, we close by covering just how important it is to talk about money. From Bridget's perspective, it’s powerful to set an intention, because it will then likely manifest.

Thanks for being on Bridget! Such an important topic and appreciate you sharing your own story and tips for people to find freedom by getting smart about their finances!

More about Our Guest

Bridget Jones grew up in a family that always managed to take care of her needs, but never really talked about money. Like many of us, she didn’t learn much about saving or investing at home, school or in my early working years. Thankfully, she was raised with a fear of debt and that kept her mostly on track.

After grad school, she was 29 and had student loans from both the institutions she attended, no savings and no retirement accounts. She was living in Boston and had a job auditing mutual fund companies, banks and their service providers. She learned A LOT about how the financial industry worked and it set her on a path to saving, investing and the audacious goal of retiring by 50. As her career advanced and she became an executive leader at several leading food companies, she was able to save and invest even more to reach her dream ahead of her projection. She believes very strongly that you should know what you want from your life and set conscious goals to achieve it. She now can devote herself to supporting other women reaching their goals through financial coaching and classes!

Bridget holds a BA in Theatre and Economics from Kalamazoo College and an MBA from Boston University. She was a licensed Certified Public Accountant for over 15 years and is also certified in Change Management by Prosci. Her work experience includes time as an auditor and consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers before switching to the food industry where she held finance and operations leadership roles at Clif Bar, Potbelly Sandwich Works, and Whole Foods Market. She is an avid cook, a mediocre runner, and a loyal friend.

Topics Covered

  • Why Bridget was driven to have a plan to retire by 50.

  • How losing her father at an early age made her realize the importance of time. It also inspired Bridget to work for companies with a mission and purpose.

  • Bridget’s advice is to not force transitions, to give yourself permission to take your time and let things develop organically.

  • How she found it better to define for herself what she was looking for next and how she wanted to use her time in her second half of life, as opposed to talking to people too quickly and letting them dictate possibilities based on old tapes of how they viewed her.

  • Her encouragement to give yourself time and space to be with yourself and listen to your own internal voice.

  • Her #1 tip on managing your finances - get clear on what is enough and get clear on what you want your life to be about. #2 - understand your base rate of spend. From there, set your financial goals. And make them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound)! And, enroll people in these conversations.

  • The importance of setting an intention, which leads to manifestation.

  • “We don't spend enough time thinking about and crafting a life we want.”

  • How financial planning starts with life goals - what are you making and saving money for?

  • Focus on the big things - you don't have to have it all figured out.

  • Accept that things may change over time. Life is iterative.

  • Pay attention to if you are satisfied in your current path and if your ambitions have changed. Do you want to do what it takes to get to the next level?

  • Believes in taking pauses - it’s important to take breaks from work.

  • To fund a sabbatical, Bridget advice comes back to first knowing your base rate of spend.

  • At times, it’s hard to find the next thing and know what you truly want next when you are buried in your current job. It can be valuable to take some time off between jobs and give yourself space so you can do the investigation needed. And, save the funds to give yourself that room.

  • The foundation of finding balance - realizing that everybody is replaceable. It is in this knowing that you can put things down and let people cover for you.

  • Yes, you can outsource some things, but be careful about outsourcing everything because it can get expensive. Consider outsourcing those things that you really hate or are really bad at, because you'll get a lot of value out of it.

  • Final piece of advice - talk about money! Don’t push it under the rug. Get educated!

  • If you want to be in conversation, check out the classes and workshops Bridget offers through her website link below!

Resources Mentioned

Thanks for Listening!

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14. On Managing Your $ to Support your Life with Bridget Jones

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2021Kathy OnetoRight Success, Right Aspiration, Right Effort