Fly! A Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom and Building a Life You Love
Steph Wagner
Matt Holt
Matt Holt/An Imprint of Ben Bella Books (November 2025)

For women especially, financial independence is not desirable…it is IMPERATIVE.

My parents divorced when I was four years old, an only child, and my mother never remarried. Two of our three sons divorced and later remarried. I am a married male (once and still)  and can identify with only some of Steph Wagner’s experiences but with most of her feelings and especially her anxieties.

Writing Fly! has helped Wagner to achieve two separate but interdependent objectives: to tell a compelling story based on real-world experiences (hers) and use the sequence of events (as a plot) within which to explain how women can, indeed, MUST achieve financial independence.

Consider: “The average age of widowhood is a surprisingly young 59, and more than half of us will eventually divorce. In fact, the divorce rate for people over 50 has doubled in the last 30 years, and for those over 66, it’s tripled. We’re also living longer than ever — some of us well into our 90s. All of this means that 80% of women will eventually face life alone. And most of us will not be prepared for the financial fallout.”

Wagner then confides, “My remorse was exacerbated by my loss of purpose and an urgent need to regain my financial independence. I remember thinking, [begin italics] What am I going to do with the rest of my life? How in hell will I be able to support my kids after being out of the workforce for 13 years? [end italics] I also knew I didn’t have a choice. I had to recreate my life and restart my career because the alternative was too bleak to contemplate — 54 percent of older women can’t afford to pay for their basic needs. I was not going to become one of those women.

“And after you read this book…neither will you.”

Her specific recommendations (with only minor modification) are relevant to far too many women of almost any age and circumstances. I do not make an inappropriate disclosure when noting that she presents a process — a series of seven “steps” to achieve and sustain financial independence. They are:

One: Explore Your Relationship with Money
Two: Know Your Numbers
Three: Expand Your Knowledge
Four: Create a Plan
Five: Stay the Course
Six: Build Your Team
Seven: Get Smart with Your Love Life

Wagner explains HOW to complete each of these seven steps, and does so in layman’s terms. I commend her for revealing incidents in her personal life to dramatize the importance of WHY financial independence for women is imperative.

As another holiday season rapidly approaches, you may wish to give a copy of Fly! as a gift to female family members and friends who are preparing for a  career or have already embarked upon one.

Just a thought….

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Here are two other suggestions while you are reading Fly!: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at-hand to  record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to the remarks that conclude each of the ten chapters because Steph Wagner stresses several key points. Also to the Conclusion, Pages 185-188.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.