This post may contain affiliate links and WPF may earn money or products from companies mentioned. More info
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 #98 (Actually, 237)
1. I Write About Insurance for a Living, and This Is the One Type of Insurance I Always Recommend Kat Tretina
“I (foolishly) adopted my first dog right after graduate school, even though I was drowning in student loan debt and rent payments for a tiny apartment outside Philadelphia. While my dog quickly became a part of my family, I worried about how I’d handle an emergency veterinary bill; I didn’t have a lot of extra cash.
Then I saw an ad for pet insurance at my veterinarian’s office, so I researched some options online and eventually chose a basic emergency plan with a well-known company. At the time, it seemed like everybody—including a debt counselor—told me I was wasting money I could instead use to pay down my loans. They warned me the insurer would never reimburse any claims, so I was just throwing money down the drain.
But a few months after signing up, a freak accident showed me how valuable coverage can be. And over the past decade, as my pack of animals has expanded, my pet insurance policies have saved me thousands of dollars.”
2. Focusing on friendships helps us move beyond the confines of the nuclear family Woke Scientist
“It takes a village. One or two people cannot be our everything. One or two people cannot reasonably meet all our intricate survival needs. Yet, this is often the box we try to fit whether it is disproportionately focusing on a romantic partner above all other relationships, seeking a ‘soulmate’ to fulfill all our needs, prioritizing the nuclear family or biological relatives over friendships, or romanticizing the idea of a best friend.
In all those equations, putting certain relationships or people on pedestals above all else ironically creates problems, increases the strain on said relationships and decreases their long-term health or sustainability. Focusing on 1 romantic partner or on an isolated nuclear family unit leads to distress and ill health on all fronts. Our wellbeing & liberation depends on us being enmeshed in a diverse ecosystem of equally important relationships— aka a community.”
3. Lessons I learned during the pandemic Your Local Epidemiologist
“A healthy population is a healthy economy. These interests are not competing, but rather complementary.
Inequality is so very apparent in health and well-being.
It’s really easy to forget how bad and scary it was. Revisionism is real and can happen unconsciously.”
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.