Why 50 Plus Are The Years Where The Magic Happens For Women In Renovating

How Women Over Fifty Can Transform Their Lives With Renovating

How Women Over Fifty Can Transform Their Lives With Renovating

50 is a magic number if you want to transform your life by renovating. Why do you need to think about this? What action steps do women over fifty need to take? If you have the reno gene, this is for you.

If you were to mention renovating to some women, all they would see is chaos. They couldn’t imagine working under such circumstances, and they would run a mile. Working in renovating is not for everyone. 

I know our tribe thrives in this space:

Of course, there are times when it challenges our sense of perseverance, but on the whole, it is our absolute passion. So when I say you need to have the Reno gene, you’ll know whether you have it or not.

How do I know I have the reno gene? I just can’t help myself. I keep telling myself I will have fewer projects, but I can’t say no to the next project! My family have intervened. We now have a process for whether we take on a new project or not. And I’m not the decision maker because I’m a renovation addict!

How My Renovating Business Changed In My Fifties

You can be in the renovating business and not get the results you were hoping for. I learned this over the last thirty-plus years. It was only when I was nearing fifty that I realised I needed to up my game. 

I was ambling along just doing what I liked – creating beautiful spaces. I paid little attention to the financial side of the business, and I wasn’t reaching my wealth-building goals. But, as I matured, the more my reno business grew.

I often talk about having a two-speed strategy for building wealth through renovating; flipping properties is very exciting. However, as time passes, you realise you need to take a longer-term view of your business and generate a profit.

Why Women Over Fifty Are At An Important Time For Renovating For Profit

How Women Over Fifty Can Transform Their Lives With Renovating

It is common for women over fifty to take a step back and review their situation. Your kids have grown up, and you have more time to think. You’re looking at life and thinking, “okay, this is the end of that stage of my life.” What’s next? 

By the time I turned fifty, I had been renovating for a long time; I retired from nursing very early to make time for my family and took up renovating for profit as a way to contribute to our household. So you may be tired of your job. 

It seems women over fifty have a rough time in their work environment when they enter middle age. I believe that they are more prone to sexism and ageism than men. Society relates to men as they age as if they were a fine wine that gets better with age. For women over fifty, once you start getting wrinkles, you’re seen as being past your best.

Women over fifty also tend to start looking more closely at their finances. You may have an epiphany when you realise retirement is approaching. How are you going to fund that? 

Some women face more life changes than the children flying the nest and are disillusioned with their jobs. Awareness of the need for retirement funding becomes more intense if your relationship breaks down or you lose your partner. You could find yourself facing these cold realities sooner rather than later. 

My Mum’s Experience With Money In Midlife

My interest in women & money came from my mom’s experience. You may have already heard this story, but allow me to share it again. It is a beautiful tale. 

My parents were farmers, and my father had a mental illness. They both worked hard. I wouldn’t say we were poor, but we were what you would call the battlers. And when my mother was 45, my father died suddenly, and she was widowed. All the farmers in the district were swarming around her, thinking she needed them to help her survive. 

My mother was faced with a decision. She could have just sold up and existed as a widow, but she had bigger plans for her kids. I had two brothers who both wanted to be farmers. And so she made the decision. They were quite young at the time. One was 15, and one was about 10, but she decided to carry on with the farm. She went against all the advice she was given so that they had a future in their chosen career.

The years followed were extraordinary because they had to endure ten years of drought. My mum mentored the boys, and they worked their way through buying out every single one of their neighbours. Almost all the local farmers threw their hands up in despair and walked away because they couldn’t hack the challenging conditions they were working in.

My mum managed not only to survive but thrive. She turned their one little farm into five in partnership with my two brothers. 

I saw how my mum made the best of a bad situation and thought that was normal. As I’ve got older, I have come to realise two things:

  1. As a woman, you really can do anything.
  2. It doesn’t matter how loving your relationship is; a man is not a plan.

You have to be able to fend for yourself. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been so determined to create financial independence, even though I have been in a loving relationship for nearly forty years. It’s a message I want to spread far and wide. The divorce rate is off the charts, and so many women have to forge their own way.

My mum was a great role model. She sadly died earlier this year, but I have very beautiful memories and philosophies I’ve gained from her. And so she lives on in spirit.

The World Is Your Oyster When You Are Financially Independent

How Women Over Fifty Can Transform Their Lives With Renovating

Life expectancy is longer than it has ever been. For women over fifty, age 50 is no longer the beginning of the end; we could say that fifty is the new thirty. We have women in our community in their forties, fifties, sixties and even seventies. In midlife, the world has become your oyster. You want more out of life. 

You’ve devoted much of your life to the people you love. I am sure you still want to be able to do that, but there is more to life than taking care of the ones you love. There is travelling, new things to learn, and new experiences to have. For that reason, many women are taking up the challenge and deciding to employ themselves.

Entrepreneurs Who Are Women Over Fifty

I read an article in Forbes magazine that said women over fifty are entrepreneurial superpowers. Women over fifty have the value of life experience. They may have less energy than someone in their twenties, but they have a better perspective. They have more clarity. They have leadership skills; even if they’ve not been in a leadership role at work, you’ve been a leader in your family and community. 

Research shows that entrepreneurs in their fifties are better rounded. For example, more mature female entrepreneurs are twice as likely to succeed as those in their twenties. This is because you are better wired for success.

Women represent 64% of the spending power. We Learned how to work with money by managing the budget when we had little kids and didn’t have much to spend. That was my experience, anyway. I didn’t have a big budget for groceries and house running. So that’s placed us in a really good position to carve out a life for ourselves. 

Entrepreneurial Homemakers

You need to renovate a property in a way that appeals to your market. The problem-solving and strategising involved are just as creative as the renovating and styling. In addition, renovation feeds into our natural talents as women. We are wired to be homemakers; we are homemakers with an entrepreneurial outlet.

Renovating offers you the best of both worlds. It is a means of having a full-time income while only working part-time. Most projects require six months to complete, but the most intensive part is only about three months. My favourite renovating strategy is the cosmetic plus renovation, which takes only three months from start to finish. So you can work and earn a year’s income in three months.

No Enforced Retirement In Renovating For Profit

Renovating for profit is something you can do for as long as you like. Unless you lose mobility, there is no reason why you can’t do this well into your later years. Keeping active takes care of the perception society has of women over fifty or older people in general, that your brains have leaked out the back somewhere, and you’re no longer intelligent and able to contribute to a conversation. Being involved in renovating projects takes away that sense of feeling invisible. 

6 Steps To Taking Reno Action

By the time you reach your fifties, you have probably built up some assets that can help you get the ball rolling on your dream of renovating for profit. You can start from nothing, but it is easier if you have some capital to get you started. Let me share the steps you need to take to make your dream come true;

  1. Build your base
  2. Get started on your first project
  3. Scale your business

Building your base

Like the properties you are renovating need good foundations, your renovating business does too. How are you going to deliver the outcome you want? The first thing you need to do is figure out how much money you need. Women over fifty often feel uncomfortable talking about money, but you must start getting real about what you want out of life and how you will get there. Some of the things that form the basis of your business are:

  • Financial framework
  • Legal framework
  • Market research

Getting started on your first project

Once you have completed your first project and delivered a result, your confidence starts to build. I have seen that a lack of confidence holds most women back. Your first project is the beginning of developing a process that works for you and repeating it so that you can build your renovation muscle. 

Scaling your business

Developing your renovating process may allow you to wave goodbye to your day job, but it doesn’t secure your future wealth. You must adopt an approach that surpasses your weekly income needs to build financial freedom for the future. It involves a combination of short-term and long-term projects. As renovators, we are in the advantageous position of building a cash-flow portfolio quicker than someone relying on capital growth. 

Women Over Fifty Can Make Magic Happen In Their Renovating Business

Whether you are looking to replace your income and secure your retirement, or simply to make a bit of extra money for a pleasant holiday or to pay off the mortgage, if you are part of the group of women over fifty, you can make it happen. You have developed a perspective based on life experience that puts you in the position to take charge of your financial future.

As it should be, life is changing. Your children are grown, you may be miserable at work, or you are getting divorced. You have more time to think about what you want out of the rest of your life and how you will make that happen. Women can do anything they set their minds to and do it for themselves. Your life has set you up for success.

By building your base, getting your first project under your belt and scaling your business, you can transition from a full-time job to running a renovating business that allows you to make a full-time income, working only part-time. Life has so much more to offer than sitting at a desk daily. Now you can enjoy more time with the people you love, doing things you truly enjoy.

It has become the norm rather than the exception that women over fifty adopt an entrepreneurial pursuit to have a more inspiring and meaningful life. If you want to learn more about developing your strategy to get to that point, I’d like to invite you to join our free women in renovating workshops. 

If you want to meet up with a group of savvy renovators, come over and join the She Renovates Facebook group. It is full of (mostly) women working hard to make their dreams a reality, making a high income through renovating for profit.

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Picture of Bernadette Janson

Bernadette Janson

"My own passion for renovating has helped me build a marriage, a family, friendships and a successful business. I created The School of Renovating to share the power of this career."

Bernadette has over 30 years of experience in the renovating for profit business. She’s a registered nurse, a renovator, a mum, and a teacher.

Learn how to harness your obsession for renovating to transform your life

You will get a FREE “Wonder Women” Magazine that will show you the road map to financial independence a-la-renovating.

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I just wanted to touch base and say how incredibly thankful I am that I signed up for your course! I have learned so much since beginning the course! … Your course has well and truly paid for itself and that’s only one year of premiums, not to mention how much we will save knowing what we didn’t know previously when we take on our next project. (We are) feeling empowered by the knowledge we have now! So thank you a million times over!

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Lyndall Hinton

Hi Bernadette Just wanted to say a big thank you for today. I learned so much and really appreciated all of your advice and insights. You are certainly very inspiring! You’ve given me the confidence to start thinking of my project!

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Jenna Bradwell

Been through the Bootcamp, Bernadette and Stephen are very caring, pragmatic, great at what they do, and financially savvy. Definitely not the infamous fluffy feel good type of seminar. Of course, these kind of works require lots of on the ground learning. However, having such an experienced and genuinely caring mentor provides lots of support and confidence to get projects up and going, and ultimately building wealth.

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Trung Truong