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 think 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 40

1. Leaving Home before 18: A Practical Guide for Cast-Offs, Runaways, and Everybody in Between Bitches Get Riches

Happy Pride Month! I so wish that this post wasn’t necessary, but it is, especially for LGBT youth, as well as too many others. I grew up playing softball, and many of my teammates have come out over the years. The responses from their families have been so varied, from complete acceptance to complete rejection and disgust. And every stage in between.

While I am hopeful for a future where much less of this is needed, there will always be young people who feel unsafe, unloved, and unwanted in their homes, for myriad reasons. This post is for them. And while they may not get it from their family as they should, I want to show love and affirmation in every way I can. You are loved. You are wanted. You matter. By more than you will ever know.

2. I Am My Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams Their Money Goals

I have to admit, Juneteenth is not a date that was in my vocabulary growing up. I’m not sure I even heard it before I was an adult and out of college. I consider that a failing of my education, and an example of how far we have yet to come. The internet isn’t always good, but it can be a disseminator of information like no source before it was able to do.

Happy Juneteenth. We have maybe come a long way since that day recorded in history, but it’s naive and privileged to think that we’ve come so far that the events of our past have no bearing on our present. Go read this post, and then keep paying attention. Rho, you are your ancestor’s wildest dreams, and they would be so proud of you.

3. Why We Won’t Front College Ed For Our Kid Kassandra Dasent

Perhaps if more parents saw fully funding their children’s education as a bonus and not an absolute requirement, they would be more inclined to take care of their own retirement first. There are so many ways you can help your child succeed, and a paid for college education is not the end all answer here.

The very best gift you can give your child as they grow is a fully funded retirement. Not the freedom from student loan debt, but the freedom from having to worry about you financially in your old age. We need more stories like these to make it understood that it’s not just okay but better to take care of yourself 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 Financial Independence Community.

9 thoughts on “Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays: Week 40 Roundup

  1. I’m surprised at how many people seem to think they have to pay for their children’s post high school education. The most important thing I got from my parents at that time was support but it wasn’t all about money. They let me know that they could help with a little money to help pay for college but I was expected to save my own money, get scholarships and loans to pay the balance. My graduation gifts from my parents included my own towels and sheets and they took the time to travel with me to school when I moved. Most important I knew that if something really went bad they would help in any way they could and if I needed to I could come home. In contrast my spouse got a full scholarship to college but the day he left to start school his mother wasn’t even around. He slept the first night under his coat with a sweater as a pillow because his family didn’t remind him or help bring his own bedding. He struggled in school without support and left after a few years.

    1. Goes to show there is a LOT more to support than just dollars. And that safety net of knowing they have your back is huge – I had that as well. I’m sorry to hear your partner didn’t get that.

  2. One day my daughter started to freak out because she was watching the news and saw all of these college students telling how much money they had borrowed for school and could not pay back. So this led to a great discussion on financial planning. I went to school with students who had everything paid for by parents, some who took loans out for everything (food, gas, rent, books, tuition, clothes, etc), some who had grants/scholarships, and some who had student loans for just tuition and worked to pay for everything else (like me). We discussed the pros and cons of each type which helped her to see that you always have a say in your circumstance. Our plan is to take dual enrollment courses during high school (which we can easily pay for, since it is at a local community college) and will hopefully fulfill the first two year requirements of her college degree. Then if she works (and saves) while she is in high school (and chooses an in-state college) she should be able to save up enough to pay for her last two years or get a part time job during college to fill in the gaps. After reviewing our plan, she feels way more in control of her future. **We are homeschoolers, so I do not know if they teach financial planning in schools, but they definitely should. So many of the money issues that new college graduates face could have been easily solved with that type of information in hand. Life is hard enough without a ton of debt on your back when you are first starting out.

    1. It sounds like you are well on track for your daughter’s education. We definitely plan to pay for part of our son’s college but will also want him to have some skin in the game.

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