Hi friend,
Last week, a woman I coach told me something I've heard a hundred times in different words.
"I have a great salary. I have benefits. I'm fine."
Then she paused.
"But if my company called me into a meeting tomorrow and let me go, I think I'd fall apart."
That right there is the gap I want us to close today.
A great salary is not the same thing as financial stability. A full benefits package is not the same thing as a plan. And feeling fine is not the same thing as actually being fine.
For years, I confused all three. I was a high earner with no real safety net, no clear understanding of my insurance options, and no written plan for what I would do if my income disappeared overnight. I was performing stability without practicing it.
When I left corporate in 2023, I had to build the structure I should have had all along. And here is what I learned the hard way: real stability is quiet. It does not look like a luxury car or a fancy title. It looks calm. It looks like options. It looks like a woman who can leave a toxic job, pivot her business, or weather a layoff without losing her dignity in the process.
This week's newsletter is about how to build that.
I'm calling it your Stability Audit, and it has four pillars. We're also going to play a quiz halfway through so you can see where you actually stand. Be honest with yourself. The score does not matter. Your awareness does.
Pillar 1: The Hold On Fund
Most people call this an emergency fund. I call it a Hold On Fund because the word emergency makes it sound like something you only need when the roof is on fire. The truth is, a Hold On Fund is what allows you to make smart choices when life changes, not just when life breaks.
Six months of essential expenses. That is the minimum I want you working toward. Not your full lifestyle. Your essentials. Rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, insurance, transportation, minimum debt payments.
Why six months? Because the average professional job search in 2025 takes longer than people think, and because business pivots take even longer than that. Six months gives you time to think, not just react. Time to choose, not just settle.
If six months feels impossible, start with one. Then two. Then three. Most women I coach are surprised at how fast it builds once they automate it and stop calling it optional.
Quick question: if your income stopped tomorrow, how many months could you cover your essentials without touching retirement accounts or credit cards? Write the number down. We're going to come back to it.
Quiz: Are You Stable or Just Comfortable?
Answer yes or no. No one is grading you but you.
If I lost my job tomorrow, I would have at least 3 months' worth of essential expenses in cash.
I know exactly what my health insurance costs my employer per month, not just what it costs me.
I have read or skimmed my company's severance policy in the last twelve months.
I have a one-page written plan for what I would do in the first 72 hours after a layoff or loss of income.
My net worth is not concentrated in a single asset (like home equity or company stock).
I have at least one income stream outside my W-2 or main client, even if it is small.
I know my exact monthly burn rate, down to the dollar.
Score yourself.
5 to 7 yeses: You are structurally secure. Keep building. You are the friend other women need to learn from. Forward this newsletter to one of them.
3 to 4 yeses: You are comfortable, not stable. Comfortable feels good until it doesn't. Pick the weakest area and start there this week.
0 to 2 yeses: You are exposed. Not broken, not behind, just exposed. The good news is awareness is the first move, and you just made it. Read the rest of this newsletter twice.
Pillar 2: The COBRA Homework
This is the part nobody talks about, and it costs women more than almost any other blind spot I see.
If you lose your job, your health insurance does not magically continue. You will be offered COBRA, which lets you keep your employer plan, but you will pay the full premium plus a small administrative fee. For most women I work with, this is the moment they discover their "free" health insurance was actually costing their employer between $ 800 and $ 2,200 a month.
Here is your fifteen-minute homework assignment for this week.
One, log into your benefits portal and find the total monthly premium your employer pays for your health plan. Not your portion. The whole number.
Two, go to healthcare.gov or your state's marketplace and pull a quote for an ACA plan that matches your current coverage as closely as possible.
Three, compare the two. Sometimes COBRA wins. Sometimes, ACA wins by a wide margin. You will not know until you look.
This single exercise has saved women in my community thousands of dollars and weeks of panic. Do it before you ever need it.
Pillar 3: The Layoff Response Plan
When stress hits, the brain freezes. The fix is to make the decisions before the stress arrives.
Your Layoff Response Plan is one page. Five lines. That's it.
Line 1: The first three people I will call for support and connection.
Line 2: The exact amount I need to live on each month, stripped to essentials.
Line 3: The first three roles, contracts, or income paths I will pursue immediately.
Line 4: The benefits and tax decisions I need to make in week one (COBRA vs ACA, 401k rollover, severance review).
Line 5: The non-negotiable self-care commitments I will keep through the transition (sleep, movement, prayer or meditation, one social connection per week).
Print it. Save it. Share it with your spouse or a trusted friend. You will probably never need it the way you fear. But the act of writing it down changes how you carry yourself at work today, because you stop being afraid of the worst case. You have already met it on paper.
Pillar 4: The Asset Diversification Question
This is the question I want every woman reading this to ask herself by the end of the week.
If I sold everything I own today and looked at my net worth, where is it actually sitting?
Is most of it locked in home equity that you cannot access without selling or borrowing?
Is it sitting in your employer's stock, which rises and falls with the same company that signs your paycheck?
Is it parked in a checking account earning almost nothing, slowly losing value to inflation?
Or is it spread across funded retirement accounts, taxable investments, cash reserves, and one or two assets you actually control?
There is no perfect mix, but there is a wrong mix, and that is when one bad event in one place can wipe out your entire foundation.
A diversified woman is a hard woman to knock down. That is the goal.
One last thought.
Stability is not a personality trait. It is a structure. You build it the same way you build muscle: small, consistent reps, in the right places, until your whole frame is stronger.
You don't need to fix all four pillars this week. Pick one. Run it for seven days. Then come back and pick the next.
If this was useful to you, do me one favor. Forward it to a woman in your life who is performing stability but quietly worried she isn't actually there yet. She will know who she is when she reads it. And she will thank you for thinking of her.
Until next Wednesday, build quietly. Build deliberately. Build like a woman who plans to be free.
With love and structure,
Najma Zanelli
Explore Offerings
Founder, NAZ Global Consultancy
Follow me on IG: @najma_zanelli
Email: [email protected]
P.S. If you want help building your Stability Audit one-on-one, hit reply. I'm opening a few coaching spots this month, and I'd rather work with women who read this newsletter than anyone else.
