Why Does Planning for Perimenopause Feel Harder Than Ignoring It?
You’re scrolling insurance options at 11 PM, tabs open, brain blank. The estate planning folder sits unopened since March. You know you need to update beneficiaries—your ex is still listed—but the thought of one more decision makes your chest tight.
Inside this issue:
Why perimenopause planning isn’t about symptoms—it’s about protecting decisions you’ll make when your brain has 40% less bandwidth
The specific financial vulnerabilities that open up during hormonal transition (and close again with planning)
Five concrete questions that reduce future regret and decision load—answerable now, protective later
The Tension Nobody Names
Here’s what’s true: Perimenopause doesn’t announce itself with a starting gun. It creeps in through micro-moments—forgetting why you opened the retirement portal, saying yes to expensive fixes because thinking through alternatives feels impossible, or avoiding the will update because legal documents require focus you don’t have at 3 PM anymore.
Most women wait until they’re in full cognitive fog to address the financial exposure. By then, every decision feels high-stakes and urgent—the worst possible combination.
The Money Reality
This isn’t about predicting symptoms. It’s about reducing decisions.
Current research shows that approximately 20% of women experience significant work disruption during perimenopause, with symptoms lasting an average of 7-10 years. The financial risk isn’t just lost income—it’s the cascade of expensive mistakes made under decision fatigue: panic-quitting without severance negotiation, choosing high-fee investment options because comparing felt overwhelming, or delaying beneficiary updates until a crisis forces rushed choices.
Your Perimenopause Money Meeting (Do This While You’re Clear)
1. Who gets your money if something happens tomorrow?
Check beneficiaries on: retirement accounts, life insurance, bank accounts. If your ex-husband, estranged sibling, or “I’ll update it later” is still listed, fix it this week. This is a 20-minute task now, a months-long legal mess later.
Automate it: Set a yearly calendar reminder titled “Beneficiary Check” every January.
2. What happens to your income if brain fog makes working impossible for 3-6 months?
Calculate: Could you cover mortgage, insurance, minimum debt payments on savings alone? If not, investigate short-term disability insurance before symptoms appear. Many policies won’t cover pre-existing conditions—and once perimenopause is documented, it’s pre-existing.
Protect future you: If your employer offers disability coverage, enroll during next open enrollment. Don’t wait to “see how bad it gets.”
3. What financial decisions are you avoiding because they feel too hard right now?
Name one: refinancing, changing investment allocations, updating your will, consolidating retirement accounts. Pick the smallest version of that task and schedule it for your clearest time of day—usually morning, before decision fatigue sets in.
Make it automatic: For investment decisions, consider target-date funds that rebalance automatically. One choice now, zero decisions later.
4. If you had to quit your job in six months, what would you negotiate first?
Know your company’s severance policy, COBRA timeline, and vesting schedule now. Women who plan exit strategies while still employed negotiate better terms than those who panic-quit during a symptom crisis. This isn’t pessimism—it’s strategic optionality.
5. What’s your “brain fog” financial safety system?
Set up: automatic bill pay, automatic retirement contributions, automatic savings transfers. When cognitive load spikes, you want money moving correctly without requiring daily decisions. Remove friction from the right choices.
Screenshot this: Planning for perimenopause isn’t catastrophizing—it’s the same competence you’d apply to any 7-10 year transition with known financial exposure.
Reply with one word: “Ready” or “Avoiding.”
I hear this constantly from women who’ve always been sharp—the planning feels harder than ignoring it. But here’s the truth: every question you answer while clear is one less decision you’ll face while foggy.
Forward this to a friend who keeps saying “I’ll deal with it later.” Later has a cost.