Welcome to another week of the Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays roundup. I started this series after months of debate because I wasn’t certain I wanted to up the ante and commit to publishing three posts a week. However, now that I’ve started sharing these posts, I’m so glad I started.

There are so many fabulous women writing about personal finance online, and yet there is still 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 my way of doing a small part to change that perception. There are 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.

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 18

1. The Life-Changing Magic of Downgrading Your Phone Jennifer T Chan

Downgrading a cell phone seems like such a minor act, and yet I wonder how many people actually go that route – not simply sticking with what they currently have, but actually going backwards. In a society where the expectation is to want to upgrade whenever an upgrade is possible, the intention to do the opposite is a bigger deal than it seems on its face. Hedonic adaptation is a sneaky thing, and we don’t notice the slow creep over time. Arresting that and creating a new baseline can really change the narrative.

Jennifer’s new phone is four versions old, and the same one I have. I knew it wasn’t brand new, but I didn’t realize there were four iterations beyond it. I know myself though, and I’m not sure I would go through the effort of downgrading, so I do another version of this and never upgrade – much like our “starter home.” And if I can blog on this phone, it’s probably good enough.

2. Sometimes Money CAN Buy Happiness The Frugal Wallet

So much of what we hear in the financial independence space is about how we need to ruthlessly decrease our expenses and that more money is never the key to happiness. While I understand the principal of the concept, there are SO MANY instances when having more money is actually the way to happiness. Perhaps only someone who hasn’t had to attempt to scrape together an impossible amount of money can’t understand the difference.

There are so many expenses that DON’T lead to happiness and instead to stress and possibly more debt, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t at least as many situations where money actually creates more happiness. In this case in particular, I can’t think of a better way to spend that money – $12,000 to be exact.

3. How To Effectively Ask For A Raise (From Someone Who’s Done It Twice) Financial Mechanic via The Luxe Strategist

Well. I would love this to be required reading for anyone applying for their first job (as well as anyone else who is planning to continue working in a traditional job for any amount of time). I was so impressed by this thoughtful, thorough game plan on how to effectively ask for a raise.

I’ve personally only asked for a raise once, and while I was successful, I wish I’d had this post in front of me six months ahead of time because she’s got a way better handle on this than I do even now. If only I was this together at 26 (or even now would be great). If you do anything today, go read this. And then send it on to a friend to read as well.

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.