Welcome to another week of the Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays roundup. I started this series after months of debate because I wasn’t certain I wanted to up the ante and commit to publishing three posts a week. However, now that I’ve started sharing these posts, I’m so glad I started.
There are so many fabulous women writing about personal finance online, and yet there is still a perception that women aren’t good with money, don’t care about money, or don’t understand it on a granular level beyond perhaps knowing how to coupon and score a good shopping deal. These roundups are my way of doing a small part to change that perception. There are no shortage of women online doing their part to make it clear that they DO understand money, and these posts are meant to amplify that fact.
The hardest part of this post every week always is narrowing it down to my favorites, because there is just so much good content out there. If you’re ever interested in what else I’m reading, I share quite a few other posts on Twitter (and that’s also where I read most of the content to begin with these days).
OurWomen’s Personal Finance Facebook groupalso has a sharing thread on Fridays, and that’s the place to read all the blog posts written by members over the previous week. If you’re looking for more articles written by women, that’s a great place to continue reading (plus we have plenty of great discussions on finances the rest of the week as well!).
If you don’t have the time or inclination to go searching down myriad posts, though, I will be continuing this series every week to showcase some of the best of the new content I read. If you ever read a post you think I absolutely need to consider for this roundup, please let me know! I am always open to reading new blogs (and posts of blogs I do know, because I miss some).
Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays – Week 45
1. After Burning Out: This Is How I Spend My Money Now Sunday Brunch Cafe
“Spending seems to be an after-thought. Or an inevitability. We view spending passively. We work on saving, but spending is something that justhappensto us.”
I devoured this post. Saving was also something that was ingrained in me at a young age, but I would have to agree that how to then spend that money tends to be an overlooked piece. Spending can obviously go too far, but so can saving.
I’m pretty adamant here that personal finance is so personal, and that goes for the spending side as well. There seems to have been a switch where those of us in this community will not question money spent on an experience, especially travel, but will still thumb our noses at a much less expensive make up purchase because it doesn’t fit the “experiences over things” box. Just like we won’t all succeed with the same savings method, we won’t be happy with the same spending habits either.
2. Retail Therapy: Is Emotional Spending Ever A Good Idea? Women Who Money
This was a fascinating read. I’m someone that’s done some emotional spending in the past – usually bored, tired, or as a way to spend time chatting with friends. I was especially vulnerable when I had a young baby and saw the few minutes I could escape to go shop for things “he needed” as much needed me time. Looking back, it was a clear coping mechanism and one that didn’t bring positivity to my life (and way too much clutter in the way of thrifted toys and books).
It’s been easy for me to land automatically on the thought that retail therapy and emotional spending are negative reactions to a myriad of experiences. But like most things, it’s not so black and white. I loved this post for its balanced examination of the topic and the ability to show the good with the bad.
3. I Drive a Beater — But Don’t Ask Me to Love It Brave Saver
I also drove a beater – a 1996 Buick Century – for more then seven years, and I have to admit, I still do miss it sometimes. I don’t exactly drive a new car now – a 2008 Camry Hybrid that’s closing in on 100,000 miles – but it still feels quite new in comparison.
I miss the ability to leave my car at lonely trailheads or on a dark city street at night without worrying about someone breaking into it because there was clearly not worth stealing. I miss the giant truck and the comfy couch like seats. I miss the ability to be completely uncaring about nicks and dents. I miss being able to proudly point out that my car was the oldest and the simplest in the lot (clearly, I’ve been a frugal weirdo for a long time).
But I don’t miss having to unlock the doors manually. And I don’t miss the somewhat regular maintenance, especially each window motor that went out one after the other. I don’t miss the reduced gas mileage.
Elyssa has clearly had a different experience with driving her beater, and it goes to show how much variance there can be in our lives, even among us self professed money nerds. There tends to be a lot of love and pride in this community about old cars – at least on the surface – but this post pulls back the curtain about why maybe it’s not all sunshine and rainbows even when you’re making the purposeful choice to keep the beater.
I hope you enjoy the posts this week as much as I did. I read a ton of content and it was hard to narrow down my favorites. I’m looking forward to sharing some new ones with you again next week!
As always, if you’re looking for a categorized list of self identified women writing and speaking about personal finance, here is my comprehensive guide to theWomen of the Financial Independence Community.
