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 42
1. Home Squeezed Home: Why I Love Living In 160 Square Feet From One Geek To Another, by Radical FIRE
I live in a home that’s a bit bigger than this (there are four of us in 1,350 square feet). Really, that puts me at about 335 square feet for my “share” of that house, and I can see how we’d be able to go even smaller and be pretty comfortable. We do have two large dogs though, so the space doesn’t feel too large.
We also live with a roommate (and I’ve never had an apartment to myself). I actually prefer having people around most of the time, though I realize not everyone feels this way. I love that Radical FIRE wrote about this here because there is definitely a stigma that you aren’t a “real adult” until you can live by yourself / just with your significant other. There are so many reasons to live with others – and in small spaces – and she does a great job outlining some pretty good reasons to consider it.
2. Money Anxiety Ladder Modest Millionaires
I actually just recently asked on Twitter about who still has money anxiety. Most of the people I interact with there are particularly good with money (hello, personal finance niche), and yet that tweet resonated with so many people. Apparently having and being good with money doesn’t automatically preclude you from being anxious about it – or maybe we’re more inclined to that anxiety since we’re paying attention?
Ms. Mod walks through what she calls the “money anxiety ladder,” and lays out some great ways to combat that feeling. She even created some worksheet examples for how to fill them out yourself – so cool. I love it, and I think you will too.
3. How to Avoid Getting Taken Advantage of as a Female Breadwinner Partners in FIRE
While I’ve been lucky enough to avoid this in romantic relationships (I’ve been married to my husband since we were just twenty one), I definitely recognize a number of these from past friendships. As Melanie says, many of these problems can crop up for men as well, but women tend to be raised to be more caring/nurturing/etc and those tendencies can definitely exacerbate this kind of thing.
I’m really loving the open and honest dialogues that seem to be going on in the online space as of late, and this is definitely one of those. It’s hard to share the not so good parts of life, but those are sometimes the pieces that someone needs to hear the most.
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.
Oh what an amazing surprised to come here to open up some articles to read later and see my own name! Eeek! Thank you for the feature. I love these roundups so much to discover great posts and am so honored to be a part of this one!
Well you wrote a pretty fabulous post! I had to include it ❤️
i always thought sharing housing is good for mental health. i always liked having somebody around and it comes with the bonus of saving money.
i plan to write an article for the malevolent missy new employee series similar to the “taken advantage of” one. it probably applies to both men and women but the gist will be not to put 100% of your eggs in one relationship basket. for instance, if a recruiter calls to offer you a promotion in another location but your boyfriend/girlfriend is set on staying put it’s worth taking the call anyways. options are great to have and sometimes putting career on hold is right and sometimes it’s wrong.
Oh yeah – and there’s never a time when just listening and learning more is a bad idea. You just never know.
I didn’t realize how much anxiety propelled my quest for a high net worth. It certainly ranked up there as one of my most motivating factors. A lot of FI and FIRE folks want to escape. That was never my focus. I wanted money to feel safe.
I think a lot of (women at least) who pursue FI are definitely focused on the long term security aspect.
Great posts this week in women’s personal finance. I enjoyed the concept of the money anxiety ladder. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks! And I agree – it was very well done.
I have money anxiety often. Being away from work now and not having a large steady income is tough to get used to. I get occasional freelance jobs but they really only cover a few small annual expenses and the rest needs to come from my savings and investments. So with that burden on my investments I often stress over there being enough funds there and keeping my costs low. Whereas those outside of our niche would tell me that I have plenty of money, I’m privileged and also probably tell me to get back to work.
It sounds like even so you are mostly happy to be where you’re at now. But money anxiety is hard to ditch.