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Welcome to the Women’s Personal Finance Wednesday Roundup! We started this series back in 2018 on TreadLightlyRetireEarly.com to showcase the fabulous women in the online personal finance community who are talking about money online. Even now, there is 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 our way of doing a small part to change that perception. There is 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.
Why does it matter? Because representation matters. Because reading and hearing stories from those who (may or may not) look like us show us that yes, we too can figure out this money thing, that we too have important stories to tell. And that we too know quite a lot about money and are experts worth listening to.
Since Women’s Personal Finance has grown up to get its own website, it’s time to transition these roundups over here to the dedicated website. Same great content, new home!
Our Women’s Personal Finance Facebook group on Facebook also 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 and nonbinary folks, 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, we will be continuing this series every week to showcase some of the best of the new content we read. If you ever read a post you think we absolutely need to consider for this roundup, please let us know! We are always open to reading new blogs and want to celebrate those newer voices as well as the more seasoned ones.
And with that, here is the best (in our opinion) content by women and nonbinary folks this past week. Let us know what you think in the comments! We love discussion.
Table of Contents
Women’s Personal Finance Weekly Roundup #78 (Actually, 217)
1. Examine your financial goals Healthy Rich
“A store of money is key to easing your financial stress. Having money that’s not earmarked for anything and is always there when you need it lets you live life without money weighing in.
I call this store of money your comfort fund — and I deliberately use that label instead of the popular term “emergency fund” to help you make an important shift in your relationship with money.
Building an emergency fund implies that a change in your financial circumstances constitutes an emergency. I don’t believe that narrative.
The most that money fluctuations can do is make you uncomfortable — they cannot break you.”
2. Why I’m Fine with Failing a No Spend Month She Picks Up Pennies
“The real reason why I don’t jump into these challenges like the frugal fanatic I am is because I’m not sure I like the ultimate lesson. Money isn’t good or bad. Money has no moral value. And yet, these challenges certainly assign one.
I don’t like feeling shame around my money. I felt that for years and years. It’s gross. It weighed me down and burned me out. Obsessing over every penny in a document–no matter how aesthetically pleasing–feels like if Diet Culture and Scarcity Mindset had a baby, that’s what you’d get. Restriction that’s hard to sustain with a whole lot of shame mixed in.
But let’s say that I could participate in the challenge only joyfully. Imagine a world where I got to the end of the month and took a high-speed victory lap around my dining room table or around my social media circles.
I’m not sure money is supposed to feel triumphant either. Money is a tool meant to help us add joy to our lives; not become the source of our joy.”
3. Is My Nomadic Life Immune To Inflation? A Purple Life
“Yes, those costs can be passed to me in other ways, but overall, I’ve suspected that my global nomadic lifestyle doesn’t have the same level of inflation that is listed in the CPI and am curious to see if that’s true. So let’s see if I’m right or wrong .
I want to answer this question, but I also know that the very lifestyle that helps protect me from the full brunt of inflation also makes it hard to quantify since I move every month to different states and even countries that have wildly different costs of living. I guess I couldn’t make it easy on myself.”
Thanks For Supporting These Creators!
As always, if you’re looking for a categorized list of self-identified women and nonbinary folks writing and speaking about personal finance, here is the comprehensive guide to the Women of the Financial Independence Community.