Life Kit: Money Can you afford to make a big life change?
34 snips
Sep 30, 2025 
Jill Schlesinger, a certified financial planner and CBS News business analyst, dives into making significant life changes with a finance-first mindset. She shares a five-step framework to assess your financial readiness for big moves like quitting a job or relocating. Jill emphasizes evaluating job benefits, liquid assets, and liabilities before making decisions. Her advice includes emotional pauses, analyzing spending habits, and forecasting financial scenarios. Plus, she shares her personal career transition, showcasing the importance of clarity and planning.
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Focus On Liquid And Convertible Assets
- Treat assets as things you could convert to cash quickly without large tax costs when planning a reset.
- Include savings, investment property, and home equity in that calculation.
List All Liabilities Honestly
- Tally up all liabilities: mortgage, credit cards, car loans, student loans, and lines of credit.
- Don’t panic if you have debt; use this step to understand possibilities, not to quit the process.
Money Is The Vehicle, Not The Goal
- Pausing to reflect is crucial: ask if your desired change aligns with how you truly want to live.
- Jill frames money as the vehicle to achieve deeper life decisions.
