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 19

1. What I Did During The Last Recession & What I Would Do Now Money The Wright Way

I graduated college at the same time, and finding a job at that time was next to impossible, especially one that would pay more than peanuts. Funny enough, this post was inspired by the recession post from Bitches Get Riches that was featured on a previous Wednesday round up. Not surprisingly, an impending recession is on most of our minds these days. We may not know when it will happen or how bad it will be, but it is coming at some point, so we may as well be as prepared as we can be for when it does.

I found myself nodding along in agreement to so much she writes in this post. Regardless of the situation I find myself in during the next recession, we will be so much better prepared and more knowledgeable. These musings are especially helpful for anyone who is fresh out of college or transitioning careers because there’s such a better way to move forward than she or I tried the last time around.

2. How Upsizing Increased Our Income Frugasaurus

As someone who never upsized from our starter home, this post intrigued me from the get go, but Kristine’s reasoning here makes so much sense. Kind of like many different discussions in the personal finance / financial independence space, it seems like upsizing your home is never suggested as the right answer moving forward.

However, much of that type of advice seems to be centered on people who’ve already upsized without any kind of intentionality, and that is wholly different from moving to a larger home when you have specific reasons for that expansion. I am so thrilled for their home purchase this past fall, and I think they made absolutely the right choice – both for their lifestyle and their savings account.

3. Self-employment, frugality, and FIRE Picky Pinchers

Mrs. Picky Pincher took the plunge into full self employment three months ago, and this is her reflection on that first quarter year as her own employer. I love that she dives into both the really good and not so great, because like everything in life, striking out to earn your own income isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, no matter how prepared you are when you take the leap.

She was extremely well prepared though and spent most of a year getting ready for the switch. Would they have reached their ultimate goal of financial independence sooner if she’d continued to hustle both at her old full time job as well as her freelancing career? Certainly, but a solid FU fund is a great way to set yourself up to make changes NOW that get you closer to that ideal lifestyle, and it appears that’s exactly what she’s done here.

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.