Reinvention After 50: You've Built the Life—Now What?

Welcome: You've Built the Life—Now What?

Announcer 0:07

Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion, the podcast designed to inspire your greatness and thrive through life. Get ready to conquer your fears. Here's your host, psychotherapist, coach, and empowerment expert, Beverly Glazer.

Beverley Glazer 0:34

What happens when you've achieved everything you worked for, and you're wondering, is that all there is? Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion. I'm Beverley Glazer, a life and work transition coach and reinvention strategist for women over 50, helping you bridge the gap between the life you've built and the life you're ready to live next. And you can find me and this podcast at reInventimpossible.com. These conversations share powerful stories from accomplished women who face life's challenges and use their wisdom, resilience, and experience to create meaningful new chapters. We don't sugarcoat our struggles here, but we learn from them, grow through them, and discover what's possible on the other side. So meet Laura Rotter. Laura is the founder of True Abundance Advisors, a value-based financial planning firm and host of the podcast Making Change with Your Money. After nearly 30 years on Wall Street, she built an impressive career and checked all the boxes. But Laura knew something was still missing. This led her to evaluate not only her relationship with money, but also her definition of success, purpose, and what truly means to have enough. If you've ever wondered if your life still fits the person you are today, this conversation is for you. And stay with us until the end, and I'll share key takeaways and simple actions that you could use right away. And if you find yourself thinking that's me too, let's have a conversation about what's next for you. That link is also in the show notes. So Laura, welcome. Thank you for that great introduction, Beverly. Looking forward to our conversation.

The Childhood That Fueled Her Drive to Succeed

Beverley Glazer 2:38

Take us back. What was your family like back in the day? Were you always interested in business and finance?

Laura Rotter 2:48

That's a great question. Um I actually was uh an English literature major in college. I originally started out as a math major, but it became almost like philosophy, if you know, you know, when you do advanced math at university. And um, and one of the things that I always liked about literature was that it um was a synthesis of, you know, if you read a novel about what's going on historically, what's going on politically, um I love the stories. And if I uh were to look back on my career at Wall Street, um I really loved it for I would say at least the first decade. And it's very similar to literature in that when you're in value, if you're evaluating investments, you are questioning how is the political environment going to affect this company? How is the economic environment gonna affect this company? What has happened historically in this industry and what might be changing? And the stories always were interesting to me. And um I'll talk a bit about what I do now working with individuals around their money. Sure, always the stories. I just want to say that it's the stories, and the money is the scaffolding, but it's the stories that always draw me in. Sure.

Why Wall Street Felt Like Home

Beverley Glazer 4:23

So because it's the stories and because it's people, what drew you to Wall Street? When I think Wall Street, I think pressure. I mean, I know New York, I know Wall Street, although I have not been in this industry. I've always been on the people side. What uh what drew you there?

Laura Rotter 4:45

So uh, you know, obviously we create meaning from our stories when we look, you know, over our shoulders and look behind us. Um I am I'm always struck by the fact that both my sister and I became the primary breadwinners of our family. So I say this is was not quite conscious when I went through it, but um my parents struggled financially. Um don't know if you have something similar in Canada, but in the States and in New York, there's something called rent control. My mother, when she passed, was living in the same rent control apartment that I was born in and shared a bunk bed with my sister in a small bedroom that was meant to be a dining room. So though I didn't feel lacking, um, we didn't grow up with the lifestyles of rich and famous when I was young, and yet there was some way in which the message was, I want to earn money. Right. I don't want to be reliant on someone else for my financial security. Um, the story itself is much more as you might imagine, ever scenary. Like this led to this, led to this.

When Success Becomes Your Identity

Beverley Glazer 6:01

Sure. And and so what did success mean to you when you first started out? I mean, you practically said that.

Laura Rotter 6:10

I think success, as I practically said, was very much about. Well, look, if you work on Wall Street, whether or not that was your intention when you joined, you measure yourself by how much you earn. Certainly, again, I was in the um, I was not a cost center, I wasn't back office, I wasn't clearing trades. That's a very different environment. I was expected to come up with investment ideas, and the more successful those investments were, the higher my income was. And so you're measuring your value by how much money you earn. In many ways, culturally, we all may end up doing it, but there's a very direct correlation between how talented you are as an investor and what your what your income is. Um, pretty.

Beverley Glazer 7:06

But you had it all. You had success, you had a family, and and what was the turning point for you? When did you say, okay, there must be something else?

The Moment Success No Longer Fit

Laura Rotter 7:19

So um I'm I'm sure I'm not alone in saying when that sense of dissatisfaction came up, and when I actually left that career was probably about a decade. So um as I often share, I had again, as you said in the introduction, close to 30-year career. The first 10 years I loved it. It was so interesting and exciting and intellectually challenging and lucrative. And then the middle 10 years, I, though I was the primary breadwinner, not the primary caretaker, that role fell to my husband. Um, I still had a very busy home and three young children. And so I didn't really think about it like this is what I do for a living. The last 10 years, the dissatisfaction came from, I think, the industry itself changing. Um, I've often said I was part of the cohort of nerds in high school that found a challenging lucrative career. And by the time I left, it was really predominantly populated by the frat boys in college who were leveraging their relationships to make money. It was just about making money. And so I didn't share the worldview, I didn't share the politics, um, among other things, of the people I was working with. So it was no longer a comfortable environment. I dreaded going into the office. I still remember having like a root canal appointment and feeling like, oh, good, I don't have to go into the office this morning. I just um, and yet when you're earning that kind of money and you're the primary breadwinner, family of five, large home, vacation home, etc., it was very hard um to leave. Um, as uh, and um I think you asked me this. I could I can go on to speak about what was the catalyst ultimately for leaving, if if if you'd like me to address.

Listening to the Voice Within

Laura Rotter 9:27

Um and that catalyst was really finding mindfulness practices. At some point, and I think it was about a decade before I ultimately left, I went to a yoga class. And through that teacher and being exposed to meditation and puga and slowing down and really hearing my own voice, the sense of dissatisfaction grew. Um, yeah. So ultimately, I um I was laid off. I think I had to be laid off. I experienced that actually as a spiritual um message from the universe because I was miserable and yet I could not bring myself to leave. And there was um a company-wide layoff. I was part of a cohort of people let go with a very nice severance package. And um, though it was very disorienting in terms of my identity, it was also the push that I needed to go on to the next chapter

The Layoff That Changed Everything

Laura Rotter 10:33

of my life.

Beverley Glazer 10:33

And that was a question I was gonna ask you. I mean, you spent your whole life on Wall Street with investments, even though you hated it and you had the golden handcuffs, and now you have a package, and then it's like, okay, Laura, you're gone. How did you transition there?

Laura Rotter 10:56

It's it's it's an interesting question, Beverly, and thank you for like encouraging me to reflect. Um, I had one other layoff in my Wall Street career, and in both times, I had signed up for a yoga teacher training that I intended to do full time. So my first layoff was in 2011. I had uh signed up for yoga teacher training that was going to be like Wednesday evenings and Sundays, and um, I ended up doing that full-time and then uh went back to Wall Street. And the second time, this last time, I had signed up for another hundred-hour, if anybody knows how yoga trainings work, with um a woman that was teaching like monthly on Sundays. So the intention again was to continue working, and that became my full-time job. If you're in a yoga teacher training, you're going to the teachings, you're leading teaching yourself, you're taking notes from other classes. And um and I explored. I was a high enough executive that I was given an outplacement firm. I remembered my particular outplacement officer was a Buddhist, and we talked more about the meaning of life than we did about. I was clear that I was not going to go back to Wall Street again, that that was not my intention. Um, I was teaching yoga to friends, and I decided that with tight hamstrings and the need to build a business no matter what, whether it was going to be a yoga business or whatever else I decided to do, I would need to be on Instagram. I would need to market, I would need to be out there. And so I thought um I decided to become a financial advisor for women. That was um what I had in my head. And I figured that had the potential still to be more lucrative. So I hadn't let go of the idea of defining myself, if you will, by my income or wanting a robust income. And so I decided to pursue the financial advisory path rather than the yoga teacher, yoga teaching path.

Building a Business That Reflects Her Values

Laura Rotter 13:06

Sure. And is that when true abundance advisors started? So actually not. I was informational interviewing and I interviewed with um a firm that uh um I worked for them for a little under two years. I'm hesitating because I learned a lot. Um, the firm was owned by a woman who had had and continues to have very deep relationships with all her clients. And it was the first time I was exposed to what one would call the retail side of the business, which had some incentives that were very uncomfortable to me. There were products that were sold for commission. Again, I never saw anything um inappropriate done, and I felt like I don't know if they, you know, I that there was incentives to sell life insurance, there were incentives to sell investments that were not publicly traded and had large upfront fees. There were, and I that just made me uncomfortable. I felt like I was not walking away from a lucrative career to be a I didn't have the intention of being a salesperson. Um and so um I ultimately about the ability to start a fee-only financial planning firm. That is to say, that I charge a flat fee for my advice, which includes investments. And I wanted to align my incentives as much as possible with my clients. And so, um, like I said, after a little under two years, I'm quite aware of that because I'm a certified financial planner. Um, I got that designation after I left that firm I was working for. And you needed to be working under a CFP for two years. I missed that by about three months. And so I um it took me a little bit longer to actually be able to use the designation after passing um the exam. So a little under two years. At that point, having learned about becoming a flat fee fee-only advisor, I hung out my shingle and started my own firm. So that was 2016, about 10 years ago, I had um left Wall Street the end of 2013.

Why Financial Planning Is an Act of Self-Care

Beverley Glazer 15:41

So what you say very often is taking care of your finances is a type of self-care.

Laura Rotter 15:51

Yes. Talk about that. I I think um when I share that with you, Beverly, I think about the fact that many women are uncomfortable about spending money on their cell on themselves. Like I said, it was my intention to work almost exclusively with women when I started this firm, and yet I found that when women came with husbands, or when men came to me on their own, there was more of a readiness to spend money on themselves. And it specifically came up to me with a woman that I've now been working with for years. She was relatively recently divorced. Um, and she met with me and called me back a year later and began to work with me as a client, saying that she didn't respect herself enough to actually pay the fee I had quoted to her. And um again, it's it's always very heartwarming for me to see how she's now gone on, purchased a home, um, is heading towards retirement, and has learned to trust herself and to know what's right for herself. I feel like, again, as a woman, we might be likely to pay for a manicure or go get facials or um and certainly pay for things for our children and family members, and yet to pay for um something for ourselves is is often not that easy for us.

What True Abundance Really Means

Laura Rotter 17:32

Why is true abundance advisors different? Um so, first of all, in in the name, which I often think about, I chose that name. I had a a male uh relative say to me, True abundance, I don't know what that means. I said, David, you are not my target client. Um that is that many people, I most people don't know what financial planners and financial advisors do because most broker dealers, the names we all know, you're basically like, How much money you have, I'm gonna manage it for you. Um I really approach abundance differently, having been someone that really felt the trade-off between time, energy, and money, and came to the realization that I had chosen to be a victim of my life and was trading off life energy and time just to keep padding my bank account. Um, as you said in the introduction, like if you work on Wall Street, there's just never enough. And um, I really see my role as a sacred role to create a safe space for my clients to truly hear that inner voice inside and say, this is what is important to me. And once that's defined and understood, to look at their credit card bills, to look at their bank account and say, why is that not reflected in how I'm spending my money? Why is not reflected in how I'm spending my time? And not to dictate to them as a parent, I don't want to be anyone's parent, but to open the space for them to come to their own realization and to have their own sort of movement of intelligence towards what is truly important. And that happens sooner for some clients than it does for others. For some people, maybe they're not open to that at all. But to me, like I said to you earlier, when I started this business practice, Beverly, it was really to be a yoga teacher for money, if you will. And and that continues to evolve through the work I do with different programs teaching or helping me to hold silence longer, to ask meaningful questions, to really help my clients evolve themselves into their best life. Terrific.

Why More Money Doesn't Create Peace of Mind

Beverley Glazer 20:00

What's the biggest money myth that you've seen high-performing women over 50 believe? They actually believe this about money. What would you say?

Laura Rotter 20:10

So this answer is not exactly responsive only to women. Um, one of my podcast guests actually said this. I'm gonna word it my own way, and it has always stuck with me, which is what do we want? We want freedom, we want independence, we want strong family systems. There are things we want, and yet they're not measurable. Money is measurable. So people imagine I'll get that better job, I'll get that higher salary, I'll find the better investment. When my money grows, my self-esteem will grow. When my money grows, my sense of safety will grow. And you and I know it's the other way around. If you don't feel safe, no matter how many zeros in your bank account, you're never gonna feel safe. You'll always be afraid it disappears. If you don't feel a sense of self-worth, again, same thing. It doesn't matter how many zeros are in your bank account, it has to come internally. And then one might say, I'm not quite a manifester, but if you have your sense of your value, you'll charge what you need to charge. Well you'll you'll create the life that will reflect your inner-centeredness. And um, I think that's something we all need to learn for ourselves. Um, and so it's not only women, it is just people in general. Imagine that money will create what we want, and it's the other way around.

One Simple Habit to Feel More Financially Confident

Beverley Glazer 21:46

Very true. What message would you like to leave us with, Laura?

Laura Rotter 21:52

It is always surprising to me. It sounds so simple, Beverly, and yet it isn't, which is understand your money. Look at what's coming in, not what your salary is, because that's a big round number. But after taxes, after your retirement plan contributions, after your healthcare premiums, what comes into your bank each month? And then understand what comes out of your bank each month. Like I say to my clients, you've slept all month. Well, you're still paying your electric bill, you're still paying your phone, you're still paying your Netflix. So understand your income, understand your spending, and that gives you unbelievably, it's like nervous system regulation. If you stop not looking at it, or conversely, you know, clutching at every dollar. You know, money is energy, money is a flow, and understand it. And that will relieve the anxiety and also give you the knowledge to make the choices that you alone know are the right choices for you. Thank you.

Beverley Glazer 23:05

Thank you, Laura. Laura Rodder is the founder of True Abundance Advisors, a value-based financial planning firm and host of Making Change with Your Money. She is being featured on CNNBC, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Westchester Senior Voice. After nearly 30 years managing investments on Wall Street with firms like Citicor and Para Advisors, Laura shifted to helping people navigate life transitions with financial security, purpose, and peace of mind. Here

Three Takeaways to Help You Move Forward

Beverley Glazer 23:46

are a few takeaways from this episode. Organizing your finances can reduce anxiety and give you the confidence to make better decisions. Money is more than numbers, it reflects your values too. And real abundance isn't about having more, it's about knowing when you also have enough. If you've been identifying with this episode, here's some things that you could do for yourself right now. Spend 15 minutes a day organizing some of your finances. Your clarity reduces your anxiety. Before making financial decisions, ask yourself: will this move me closer to the life I really want? And the goal is to build a life that feels rich with meaning that's specially made for you. For similar episodes on aging with purpose and passion, check out When Success No Longer Fits. That's episode 182. And Success, Burnout, and What Really Matters, episode 184 of Aging with Purpose and Passion. And if you're going through difficult times right now with a loved one, the Dementia Uncoded podcast with Jennifer Fink is a masterclass for the working family caregiver. And that's podcast.show fading memories.

Connect with Laura Rotter

Beverley Glazer 25:12

And so Laura, where can people find you? Please share your links.

Laura Rotter 25:17

My website is true abundance advisors and advisors with an O at the end.com. And once you're on that website, you'll find a way to contact me. My email address is Laura L-A-U-R-A at TrueAbundanceAdvisors.com. I also have a workbook about um money blocks specifically that women tend to have, so you can get that off of my website. And as you so nicely shared, Beverley, I do also have a podcast making change with your money.

Beverley Glazer 25:52

Terrific. Thank you. Laura Rodders links are also in the show notes, and they're on my site too. That's reinventimpossible.com. And so my friends, what's next for you? If you're wondering what's possible for yourself too, let's map that out together. You'll find that link in the show notes and on reinventimpossible.com. And if this conversation spoke to you, please add us to your playlist, share it with a friend who may need it right now. And remember, you only have one life, so live it with purpose and passion.

What's Next for You?

Announcer 26:39

Thank you for joining us. You can connect with Bev on her website reinventimpossible.com. And while you're there, join our newsletter. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Until next time, keep aging with purpose and passion. And celebrate life.