Wednesday yet again, and another rendition of my Women’s Personal Finance Roundup. The hardest part of this post every week 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 tweet quite a few other posts on Twitter (and that’s also where I read most of the content to begin with these days).

Our Women’s Personal Finance Facebook group 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, 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 thing 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 5

1. Downsizing Isn’t Right for Everyone Living Life Loving Us

We never upsized our house in the first place, so I can’t quite identify this post, but she does a great job walking through their thought process until they arrived at their current home. In a time where tiny living is all the rage, perhaps you may need to think a little harder about what life is right for you. Just like bigger isn’t always better, smaller isn’t necessarily either.

And what is right for one family doesn’t mean it has to be right for you. Choices aren’t made in a vacuum, and there are always other angles to consider.

2. Breaking my clothes shopping ban two months early Reaching For FI

I ate up this post because while I’ve successfully continued a clothes shopping ban for eighteen months now and counting, I’m really unsure of what it’s going to look like once I’ve officially ended it. My goal is to make some sort of plan to be a mindful consumer going forward, but I have no structure for that yet.

To be honest, at this point, I’m where it feels less daunting to just continue the ban than spend the time and mental energy figuring out how to move forward away from it. When I’m finally ready to make that leap, I’ll be going back and re-reading this post.

3. Pick Up Shifts or Cut Back? The Frugal Physician

I feel like something we are especially guilty of in the personal finance community is convincing ourselves that debt payoff / more money shoveled toward retirement is always the right choice. It’s a strange dichotomy between hustling as hard as possible right now to have the ability to let off the gas once you “get there” (be it debt freedom, mortgage payoff, financial independence).

Sometimes though – many times, I’d argue – the right choice is to step back and enjoy the day to day. Once you can hit your basic financial goals and are on stable footing, I’d encourage everyone to look long and hard at their current lifestyle and not wait until the very finish line to make choices that make everyday better along the way.

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.