On 2 September 2026, Gloria Steinem passed away at the age of 92.
Steinem was renowned as a fierce leader of the second-wave feminist movement and a protector of women’s rights and civil liberties.
She was also incredibly financially successful. Steinem wrote 10 major books over the course of her life, co-founded Ms. magazine in 1971, and made savvy real estate decisions, contributing to her estimated $20 million net worth.
Her wisdom resonates through the quotes she leaves behind. Below are five that might inspire your own financial planning journey.
- “I think one of the most important things I learned about money is that I could support myself and buy freedom”
Steinem was passionate about breaking the traditional mould of the 1950s housewife and redefining the role women played in a male-dominated society.
Financial independence was a significant part of this mission. Supporting herself with the money she earned as a prolific writer and public figure meant that contemporary social obligations, like marriage, became a choice rather than an expectation.
Steinem proves why financial freedom is important. The money she earned provided personal security and opportunities to live her life as she chose.
This lesson is important for your own personal finances. Through careful planning, effective strategy, and discipline, you can achieve financial freedom for yourself and your family and the power to control your future rather than have external forces decide it for you.
- “After all, hope is a form of planning”
Gloria Steinem’s philosophy revolved around hope – the hope that her arguments, activism, writing, and beliefs could introduce genuine change for women in the US and around the world.
Rather than accepting the world as it was, she set out to redefine women’s role in society. Steinem helped expand women’s political freedom through her efforts to improve reproductive rights and indirectly through the change she inspired in others.
Hope is crucial in financial planning. It motivates you to build a vision for a better future, one driven by optimism, not limited by doubt or anxiety.
Hope can also help you achieve more with your wealth than you might have previously thought and motivate you to stay committed to your plan so that you are more likely to reach your long-term goals.
Consider injecting hope into your financial goals today so you can achieve more from your financial plan in the future.
- “Dying seems less sad than having lived too little”
Steinem’s lesson here can certainly be applied to all areas of life.
From a financial planning perspective, it stresses the importance of balancing your long-term goals with your short-term needs.
It’s easy to overemphasise saving and long-term goals in financial planning when it’s equally important that you derive satisfaction from your wealth in the present. This can mean anything from travelling the globe to buying a new car.
When your vision is farsighted, your experience of life in the present may be diminished.
If you are overly cautious, you can unlock your spending confidence using tools like cashflow modelling. This can help you plan out how much you could afford to spend without jeopardising your long-term goals.
It’s also important that you embrace this mindset in retirement so that you can enjoy the wealth you’ve worked so hard to build across your lifetime.
- “The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day”
Small actions can have large consequences.
Steinem applied this lesson to make the world a better place for women day by day. You can make your own decisions like these to improve your financial future.
This can be as simple as staying committed to your plan so that you consistently build wealth towards your goals, or increasing your pension contributions by just 1%. It might be choosing to take on more risk with your investments to give your wealth greater opportunity for growth.
Embracing a mindset of small improvements ensures you are putting your best foot forward with your wealth.
- “We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach”
As a proponent of radical change, it’s no surprise that Steinem practised open-mindedness.
In fact, Steinem’s mindset regularly adapted along with the generations of feminists who succeeded her. She actively collaborated with younger activists, embraced new platforms, and adjusted her understanding of social issues as the feminist movement itself transformed.
This two-way street of communication is a guiding principle in financial planning.
Your financial plan is also constantly transforming and adapting to new challenges. It’s important that you remain open-minded to strategies your financial planner suggests to help you stay on track towards your goals.
It’s also important that you stay open-minded to what might scare you. According to DIY Investor, three in five UK savers avoid investing because it feels too risky, even though investing gives your wealth the opportunity to grow.
Staying receptive to change puts your financial plan in the best position to succeed. Find out how by reaching out to a member of our team today.
Get in touch
Please get in touch or email us at advice@mlifa.co.uk for more information.
Please note
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at individuals only.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.
The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Investments should be considered over the longer term and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate cashflow planning.
Image attribution
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.