Helping her clients take control of their financial wellbeing before retirement

Helen Williams

Author, Public Speaker & CEO of Be Retirement Ready

I had a wonderful childhood. I was raised by adoptive parents from the age of six weeks old and was plucked from obscurity from a nursery full of newborns all those years ago.

At the age of 22, I was diagnosed with a chronic kidney condition which meant that eventually I would die or be reliant on a renal transplant to continue with life.

However, it wasn’t until I was 29 years old that my life changed again—and was going to keep changing—unless I did something about it. I became divorced and it was then that I realised that it was going to be up to me to look after myself, both health-wise and financially.

It was at this stage of my life that I wrote down that my personal goal was to be a millionaire, so that I could have a substantial amount of money in my super account. This was so that when the time came, I could retire and not have to worry about how I was going to get my next dollar.

It was from this time onwards that I set about making sure that I achieved this goal and put into place my strategies to achieve this.

In 2011, I reached the magic milestone. I now had investment properties worth $1.2 million dollars. Tick. Mission complete! From then to now, 10 years on, I’m nearly 65 and I have those $1 million dollars in my super fund.

I started Be Retirement Ready in August 2020 when I achieved another personal goal of becoming a published author. The impetus was, strangely enough, the national lockdown from COVID-19. I had recently moved to Redcliffe, Queensland from Melbourne and didn’t know anyone here as all my family and friends are still in Melbourne.

I had all this time to do something and so I thought, well, why not use this time to write my book? That’s what I did.

Besides having the time, I wanted to be an author of a book with a simple and clear message to women—that as individuals we need to take control of our own financial wellbeing. Each one of us needs a clear understanding of our current financial position. Having this basic financial understanding will help us to achieve our financial goals as we head into retirement.

I’ve always been a nurturer and having been a personal and executive assistant for over 47 years, where I’ve had to manage people and be organised, has certainly helped me in developing my business.

I’m no stranger to running my own business. In fact, in the 1990s, Helen’s Executive Secretarial Services was born. Then in 1995, having studied massage therapy for 18 months because of my own previous health issues, I launched Health Wise Massage.

I worked five days a week at my secretarial business and then I would come home, have my dinner and go out and fulfil my massage appointments.

I’ve always regarded myself as a ‘people person’. Perhaps it’s my zodiac sign because as a Sagittarian, I am free spirited and adventurous and I am able to connect with others to be their best feminine self.

I’m not sure what my innate ability is. However, I do know that as I’ve been on the planet for nearly 65 years now, my life experiences, wisdom and sense of humour seem to resonate with everyone that I’ve met, be it personally or professionally!

Having worked as a personal and executive assistant for over 47 years, I’ve had several female bosses who thought that they needed to act like a man to be successful in their role. Unfortunately, those who did think like this didn’t last long, and were not the nicest to work with. I don’t know why this is as I’m no psychologist, however, they seem to think that they are better than you and know more than you. Quite often that is not the case.

I think women in the business world who ‘give a damn’ about the people they are dealing with, seem to have more empathy and are generally better communicators. They also tend to collaborate better with their stakeholders, so their ability to work with their whole team and those around them seems to give them an advantage over men, generally speaking.

My Feminessence® is about educating and empowering women, in particular those in their 40s and 50s, to take control of their own financial wellbeing. I believe that we should have at least a basic understanding of the subject and language of finance, particularly if we want to have a stress-free life that’s been planned and thought about on a regular basis with regards to our own financial situation.

Most of us take the time to look after our physical health, but don’t think about our financial health.

This is important now more than ever, particularly since we have experienced changing times due to COVID-19. I’ve created a budget template for my clients to help them get started on working out a budget to reflect their own financial position and help them get organised.

Also, to get some clarity on money boundaries, I offer a free 30-minute conversation to help clients bust through their money fears. I discuss my clients’ money worries and offer help with reining in their spending habits. We then put pen to paper and create a budget. Many people think they can’t do it, but they can, when I give them the know-how.

Lastly, I’ve become increasingly concerned with just how financially fit people are. My goal has become to enlighten and assist people to improve their financial knowledge, so I also do customised presentations for events to help people become more financially savvy.

My book Retirement Ready – What They Don’t Teach You That You Need To Know is an Amazon #1 best seller. In it I help you to transform your money situation by improving your financial literacy. You will quickly see that by having some knowledge of how money works you will be able to get better involved in household budget decisions, get better at saving and become less vulnerable to financial stress.

In summing up, having knowledge is power! It’s time to check your ‘wealth health’ by putting into action some of the tips and strategies outlined in my book. You will soon learn that your financial wellbeing in your daily life can influence your outcomes in your future dramatically.

I’m now a healthy nearly 65-year-old who has overcome challenges and hurdles in my life. Thanks to my kidney transplant all those years ago, and being financially savvy, I now lead a normal life and am enjoying semi-retirement here in Queensland after spending the past 63 years in Melbourne.

I’m keen to get out and about and speak on sharing my experiences on being retirement ready. Now, more than ever, we need to improve our financial knowledge.

I want to provide women with the information to enhance their financial literacy by doing what I did all those years ago. I can now say, with my hand on my heart, that I’m living the dream. I have both fantastic physical and financial health, which enables me to enjoy life to the fullest.

You too, can achieve your goals, it’s time to become Retirement Ready today!

“Most of us take the time to look after our physical health, but don’t think about our financial health”