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 20

1. Don’t be a Rich Jerk Tenacious Feminist

This is one of those posts that seems like it shouldn’t have to be written, but it needed to be said. Those of us in the personal finance community, and more specifically the financial independence community, are generally a pretty well to do group. Until you’re financially stable, thinking about bigger picture things like early retirement is pretty much impossible.

In general, this group is a pretty fabulous bunch, but it makes me sad (but not surprised) when someone who has retired early – or has plans to – publicly acknowledges the fact that they do not give charitably or very minimally. While I do believe your first priority is to get to a level of base financial solvency, once you reach it, I think it is so important then to look around you. And to be honest, anyone who has the means to retire early or reach financial independence is pretty dang well off, no matter how you look at it.

2. The Privilege of Self-Employment Fiery Millennials

“It turns out as unhappy as I thought I was sitting in a chair at work for 8 hours a day, I was even more unhappy with sitting in a chair at home for 10 hours a day.“

“I wasn’t happy and wasn’t leading the life I wanted.“

I wanted to quote this whole post, so do me a favor and just go read it instead. Gwen took a serious leap into self employment and an interstate move, and while she really struggled through the process, there is a lot to her story that made it possible to make the moves she did. While there is so much online that glorifies change and “taking a leap” and going after your heart, there is a lot of inherent privilege that usually comes with the people who are able to go for it (and for pivoting as necessary).

And then, theres knowing when to get out when something you’ve gone for doesn’t go as planned. Kind of like the idea of not throwing good money after bad, you don’t want to throw good time and energy after bad either. Life and goals change, and it’s so much better to know yourself and change with them rather than trying to force an old dream, especially when it turns out not to be the one you actually want.

And of course, just because you acknowledge privilege doesn’t mean you also didn’t work freaking hard yourself. Gwen did an incredible job setting herself up to go an alternative path, and even now a year later she is so well set up for her future because she took those steps to do so early. Hard work, but also the transparency to acknowledge the rest of her story.

3. When Cancer Hits, Life Comes First That Frugal Pharmacist

Even though I’ve been listening along to my dear friend through this journey, it still isn’t easy to read through this update. I am so in awe of her strength and stability through this gigantic wrench life has thrown at their family.

Like so many of us in the personal finance space, she has prided herself on always able to take care of her family and to never need to accept help, but cancer has changed that. It is not easy to let people in and let people be your tribe when you need them, but the emergency fund you really need when things get rough is more than just money. And when life get so hard, the time with family and the people you care about gets thrown into a degree of focus that we never really appreciate otherwise.

But really, though, shouldn’t life always come first?

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.