Research indicates that women’s work and family histories are associated with well-being in later life. Prior work tends to consider women in later mid-life, rather than at older ages, and examine outcomes measured at one point in time. However, the salience of socio-economic and socio-demographic indicators may change as people age. For example, the status and stimulation accruing from a professional career may become less relevant to well-being many years post retirement whereas support and social interaction with family and community may become more important. In the current study we examine how work/family orientation is associated with changes in the health and well-being of US women over a five year follow-up. We use six waves of data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), collected 2011-2016 from a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older (5,572 observations nested in 1,342 women). Using latent class analysis, we identified four life course types: (1) “career and family”, (2) “family oriented”, (3) “career oriented”, and (4) “precarious”. Multinomial logistic regression a indicated that Non-Hispanic black women were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have “career and family” or “family oriented” life course types, and more likely to have a “precarious” life course type. Poor financial circumstances and poor health when growing up were associated with a lower likelihood of having a “career and family” life course and a higher likelihood of a “precarious life course”. Linear growth curve models showed that women in the “career and family” type consistently had the highest self-rated health and wellbeing scores, and that the “precarious” group had the lowest scores. The self-rated health model showed some convergence over time between the “career and family” and the “precarious” groups.