Writing these posts – and inadvertently becoming a specific champion of women’s voices in the personal finance space – has changed the way I’ve looked at things at work and in the rest of my life as well. I grew up in a home where being a women meant nothing different than being a man, and that bubble continued on into college.

Now though, working in a male dominated field, blogging in what has been an area that’s been traditionally thought of as the man’s domain, I’m no longer able to ignore the biases and roadblocks that still exist in our society. Just as my goal here is to lift up all women’s voices, paying attention to intersectionality in my selections for this roundup, I’m also paying attention to the same in the workplace.

That means that this week, when putting together a list of names for a proposed working team, I was well aware that the list had one sole woman on it initially, and one person of color. The final list had more; still not equal, but a heck of a lot more diversity than where it started. The hard part is working within a framework of the people in roles that would work for the team, but that doesn’t mean the small tweaks are worthless. Slow but sure, things will change, and my goal is to be an active part of that change. And here on this blog of mine, this means keeping track of who and what I share on this weekly roundup.

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).

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 11

1. Losing My Husband And Financial Security To An Unexpected Death FI And Wine via Mama Fish Saves

This was an extremely hard read, but such an important one. We never want to consider the worst, but it happens. We do such a great job in this community about setting ourselves up for run of the mill emergencies: job loss, home repairs, vet bills. It’s so much easier to think concretely about those kinds of financial emergencies, because ultimately, they really aren’t all that important in the grand scheme of things.

This post was yet another reminder to me that I need to get us set up fully on both ends in case of the worst; I have almost all of our finances sorted on my end only, and my husband would be left floundering. Life is busy – so busy – but I’ve left off going through and setting up an In Case Of Emergency binder for far too long. Time not to put it off any longer. We’re young and healthy, but as we all know (but don’t fully KNOW) that doesn’t guarantee us anything.

2. Aimless personal finance Graduated Learning

To be honest, I think there’s a lot to be said for pursuing “aimless personal finance” as long as that includes a stable base of saving and investing at its core. While I’m obviously all in on why financial independence is a good idea for everyone, perhaps such an intense – yet far off – goal isn’t always the best choice.

When your goal is financial independence above all, it’s not family happiness, it’s not career success and impact on the world, it’s not the end goal; even after reaching financial independence, there’s a whole heck of a lot of life left to live, and perhaps letting it frame our choices isn’t the best way to get there.

3. Why I Stopped Budgeting for Gifts to Save Money The Debt Shrink

As someone who spends very little on Christmas presents (especially for our son), this idea really resonated with me. I like our tradition of just exchanging gifts that fit within our stockings, but this is a great alternative. I don’t budget in general for a similar reason, and I can see how setting that dollar amount can suck you into spending more than you planned just because you haven’t hit a certain number.

Now that our son is getting a bit older, I’m considering possibly getting him ONE gift beyond what he gets from us in his stocking, but even if I do, it won’t be a set budgeted amount and more a specific item that will be appreciated (and useful) for him in the long term.

The Debt Shrink is a new to me blog, but I think it’s one I will go back to now, because she seems to be very likeminded about how she’s raising her children in regards to stuff. Parenting is tough in general, and Christmas is harder than the rest of the year in some ways, though it can also be the most fun.

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.