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 63
1. FIRE Doesn’t Fix Everything Millennial Revolution
“It turns out I haven’t beaten anxiety. In fact, anxiety isn’t something you can beat. It’s a beast that stays with you.”
This is something I’m still learning, and I can so relate with Kristy here in the way she writes about her anxiety. And she’s absolutely right. I may not have reached financial independence yet, but I’m under no misunderstanding that reaching FI or retiring early would make things all sunshine and rainbows and anxiety free.
In fact, some of my most anxious nights before work were when I was working at Petsmart – clearly not a high stakes environment. I do love her clarity as well that if you care about something, whether it’s a job or not, you will be invested in it, and if you’re an anxious person, it will cause you some degree of anxiety.
Thankfully, FI is still worth it though, even if it doesn’t change you into a new person (which I wouldn’t want anyway). I do absolutely agree with the idea that it gives you space to figure out what you want with your life instead of just the status quo. And the good news is, so many of those benefits can start before you even get there, as soon as you step mindfully on the journey to financial independence.
2. Why I’m Fired Up About Driving A 10 Year Old Car The Useful Root
I love, love, love this mindset switch. I too am driving a car with 100,000+ miles, also paid off. The freedom of not having a car payment is huge. Like I mentioned in Monday’s post, having low fixed costs is a key to our flexibility and peace of mind around finances even beyond our emergency fund.
From starting out at nineteen with her first financed car and the expectation that forever debt is normal and to be expected, to finding the financial independence community and figuring out a new way to look at life, I loved reading about her journey along the way through a line up of new cars. The status quo might be okay, but freedom is so much better.
3. The Starbucks Predicament Trip of a Lifestyle
“Did I want companionship, caffeine, or both?”
I love the evolution of Lauren’s realization about what she actually wanted out of the Starbucks Tripp’s with her coworkers. It took me even longer to realize that I just wanted a walk around the block out of the office, not necessarily a take out lunch, before I finally started bringing my lunches again.
And she also brings up the fact that neither her Starbucks purchases alone (nor, similarly, my work lunches) were going to derail her path to financial independence. After all, neither added up to a significant amount of money alone. The point though is to be intentional with all of your spending, so you can choose how to spend your limited dollars and your limited hours on this planet. If something doesn’t align with those values, it’s probably time for it to go. It’s just amazing sometimes how long it takes to realize when something doesn’t line up, especially when it’s enmeshed with something that does.
Ihope 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.
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