Happy Wednesday, friends. We’re at hump day once again, and another edition of my women’s personal finance Wednesdays. The content published this past week was amazing, and these are just a few of my very favorite post by some of the women writing about personal finance and financial independence online.

Representation matters, and you reading this articles and sharing them helps to broaden the reach of the idea that yes, women care about money, we are pretty good at it, and we’re talking about it plenty, but we’ve got a long way to go until everyone realizes that fact. And if this roundup can do a little to change the perspective, then here it goes.

Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays – Week 4

1. Reaching The Halfway Point Of A Debt Free Journey Debts To Riches

I shared a payoff story last week, but this one is a bit different. Veronika is three years into her debt payoff journey to free herself from her student loans, but she just now hit the halfway point. So often we read about the stories once they’re already complete, and here she’s given us a glimpse of what this look and feel like when you’re still in the thick of it.

Not all sunshine and rainbows, but she’s done an incredible job so far. If you don’t yet follow her on Instagram, she shares her thoughts and struggles along the way and shared video clips where she drops a new chocolate coin in a jar for every $1,000 paid off. It’s one thing to stick hard to a debt freedom journey that lasts a year or two, and it’s another thing to do it for three times that. I can’t wait to celebrate with her when that final coin drops in the jar and she gets to eat a whole bunch of (totally stale) chocolate to mark that day.

2. To All The Stuff I Loved Before Tiny Ambitions

Getting rid of stuff is HARD. I’m no minimalist (though I would certainly love to be one). As much as I feel strongly that it’s the experiences and people that matter and not things, letting go of the stuff in my life is not easy. Britt shares a beautiful ode to this constant struggle of holding on and release of all those things that no longer belong in our lives.

For me, the very hardest stuff to let go is always books. As a little girl, the only Disney Princess I envied was Belle for her fabulous library courtesy of the Beast, and part of me holds on too tightly to books because of that dream of the library to hold them all. We have a small home on purpose, however, and there certainly is no place for an entire library within those walls.

3. Why Is Your Why? Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics She Picks Up Pennies

Vanity metrics are such a bizarre thing, especially in terms of blog numbers as Penny so honestly shares. Like her, my blog is not a get rich scheme, or really, a money making scheme much at all (though I absolutely appreciate every one of you who clicks one of my rare affiliate links!).

And yet. I find myself time and time again checking my blog view metrics. What for? I have a fabulous group of regular readers and the best online community I could ever ask for. My spending habits are far better for the transparency on this blog, and we are close to hitting a much higher savings rate this year than I could have ever dreamed possible while still spending money on the stuff that matters.

None of those things change with a 2X, 5X, 10X in readership. I shouldn’t care, but I do. Perhaps it is a simple matter of my competitive nature, but it is something that’s sure hard to shake no matter how much I reason it through.

Now, there is one number associated with this blog that is absolutely not a vanity metric, and that is the number of referrals that this blog sends out to other sites. I love that because of my blog, others are also being read and seen. This is also true of my women of financial independence post; it throws out referrals every single day, and I love that I’m sending new eyes to so many different bloggers. While huge numbers do not make a blog, the knowledge that you aren’t shouting into the void sure makes a difference. Plus, there’s just some pretty great stuff out there that deserves to be read.

4. Can You have FIRE and Faith? Montana Money Adventures

I had already selected my three posts for the roundup this week when I read this post by Jillian, and it was just too good not to include it. However, I didn’t want to take away any of the three posts I initially chose to share, so I decided to include a bonus fourth post this week. Take a read, and you will see why I couldn’t not share this one too.

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 the Women of the Finance Independence Community.