The Money Morning Minute: A Simple Habit to Regain Financial Control During Menopause
When menopause throws your body, emotions, and finances into chaos, finding stability can feel impossible. Between brain fog clouding your thinking, fatigue draining your energy, and hormonal fluctuations disrupting your mood, managing money becomes yet another overwhelming challenge during this transition. If you're feeling financially adrift in the menopause storm, you're not alone—and there is a surprisingly simple way to start regaining control.
When Traditional Financial Advice Fails Menopausal Women
Let's face it—conventional financial wisdom often feels completely disconnected from the reality of menopause. "Just budget better" or "cut back on lattes" sounds not just unhelpful but downright insulting when you're navigating reduced work hours, unexpected medical expenses, or even job loss due to severe symptoms.
Standard financial advice rarely accounts for the unique challenges that come with hormonal transitions. When you're struggling to remember where you put your keys or fighting through another day of exhaustion, creating complicated spreadsheets or analyzing investment strategies isn't just difficult—it may be temporarily impossible.
What you need instead is something immediate, manageable, and grounding—a simple habit that can help you feel in control again, even on your worst days.
The Power Habit: Your Money Morning Minute
This solution has helped women through the menopause transition: the Money Morning Minute. This practice actually takes about five minutes, but the impact on both your finances and your mental wellbeing can be profound.
This powerful habit is exactly what it sounds like—a brief morning check-in with your money that helps you start each day with clarity, purpose, and a sense of control. No complicated budgeting templates, no judgment, no overwhelming financial jargon—just you and a quick status check of where your money stands today.
How to Practice Your Money Morning Minute
The beauty of this practice lies in its simplicity:
1. Choose your timing: Decide whether you'll do this before, during, or after your morning coffee (or tea). The exact time doesn't matter—what's important is consistency.
2. Open your banking app(s): Take a moment to check your account balances and recent transactions.
3. Notice what's happening: Look at your current balance, what payments have gone out, and what's scheduled to leave your account soon.
4. Take one small action: Based on what you see, make one tiny money move. This could be transferring £5 to savings, canceling an unused subscription, or simply making a mental note about an upcoming bill.
That's it. No elaborate planning, no shame spirals, no complicated financial gymnastics—just awareness and one small action.
Why This Simple Habit Works During Menopause
There's real science behind why this practice is particularly effective during menopause:
Counters Hormone-Induced Brain Chemistry Changes
During menopause, fluctuating oestrogen levels directly impact your brain chemistry, affecting everything from mood stability to decision-making capacity. These hormonal shifts can create feelings similar to those experienced during adolescence—but in reverse. The security and comfort hormones you've relied on are decreasing and leaving, making financial decisions particularly challenging.
The Money Morning Minute provides a structured touchpoint that helps stabilise your thought patterns and mood, regardless of where your hormones are that day.
Combats Menopause Brain Fog
The notorious "menopause brain" makes financial management especially difficult. By engaging with your finances in small, manageable chunks each morning, you're exercising those cognitive muscles and creating clarity where fog often prevails.
This practice requires just enough focused attention to strengthen your financial awareness without overwhelming your cognitive capacity on difficult days.
Interrupts the Psychological Spiral
One of the most insidious aspects of menopause is how quickly things can spiral psychologically. Financial worries that might have been manageable before can suddenly trigger intense feelings of fear, shame, and helplessness when combined with hormonal fluctuations.
Your Money Morning Minute interrupts this spiral before it gains momentum. By grounding yourself in the reality of your finances rather than your fears about them, you regain a sense of agency and control over your situation.
Creates a Foundation for Financial Recovery
While this habit alone won't solve all your financial challenges, it creates the essential foundation for any sustainable financial recovery. Awareness must precede action, and this practice builds your financial awareness muscle day by day.
Getting Started: Make It Yours
The key to making this habit stick is personalising it to your specific situation:
Set Yourself Up for Success
- Keep your banking apps easily accessible on your phone's home screen
- Set a gentle reminder if needed
- Start with just checking balances if reviewing transactions feels overwhelming
- Be consistent about timing—attach it to something you already do every day
Keep It Judgment-Free
This is crucial—the Money Morning Minute is about awareness, not criticism. When you notice patterns in your spending or areas where money seems to disappear, approach these observations with curiosity rather than condemnation.
Celebrate Small Wins
Did you remember to check your accounts three days in a row? Fantastic! Did you find a subscription you'd forgotten about and cancel it? Wonderful! Each tiny victory deserves acknowledgment.
Beyond the Minute: Building Momentum
As this habit becomes ingrained, you might find yourself naturally expanding it:
- Maybe you'll start moving small amounts to savings more regularly
- You might notice patterns in your spending that reveal opportunities
- Your financial confidence may grow enough to tackle slightly bigger money tasks
The beauty of starting small is that growth happens organically, at a pace your menopausal brain can handle comfortably.
Remember: This Isn't Forever
The intense symptoms of menopause won't last forever, though they may continue for several years. The Money Morning Minute is a bridge—a simple practice to help you maintain financial awareness during a challenging time.
Just because your hormones are changing doesn't mean everything is "over and done." This habit helps you move with those hormones rather than being overtaken by them.
Take the One-Week Challenge
Try the Money Morning Minute for just one week. Five minutes each morning to check in with your finances. No pressure to make dramatic changes—just awareness and one small action each day.
Notice how this brief practice affects not just your financial awareness but also your overall sense of control and confidence. Even in the midst of menopause madness, this tiny habit can create an island of calm and clarity in your day.
Remember, regaining financial control during menopause isn't about massive overhauls—it's about small, consistent steps that honor where you are right now while gently moving you forward.
Continuation of Your Menopause Success Journey:
So there you have it—hot flashes, cold cash, and everything in between. If you want to dive deeper into these topics, join me in my Facebook group Menopause Midlife and all the ****. We’re a supportive community of women going through the same thing, and we’re here to help each other through it. The menopause journey is a continuum. From perimenopause and on through into postmenopause, having people who understand and support you is essential. It's not the end of your life's journey; it's a phase, and having the right community can make all the difference.
I make it my mission to support women with their transition along the menopause journey and to signpost to the best financial opportunities for their circumstances. To talk further please use this link to book a call and discuss further support.
If you would like to join a supportive community, please drop me a line here. I love hearing from midlife women going through the menopausal transition.
Pssst, you can also check out my YouTube here. It includes monthly strategies and a community of women at the same life stage as you.
Click here to take a look at our membership to make every day just that little bit easier.
