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).

1. A Taste Of Early Retirement Modern Fimily

This post is well titled, as Nic is still at home full time with a toddler. While this may not be the “early retirement” many of us imagine, it’s a reality for those of us with young children at home (and perhaps one more reason I’m not quite interested in early retirement at this stage in my life, but I digress…)

The reason I included this post in the roundup today is not to celebrate Nic officially putting in her notice to leave the workforce – though that’s an awesome big leap as well – but because of her well thought out discussion on mindset and perspective. Life is just life, no matter what we like to tell ourselves, and as she says, even your dream goal life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows (one of my favorite phrases!)

Life is pretty awesome for their little family these days, and it’s easy to look in from the outside and see it as perfect, but there’s no such thing. Choosing to filter the lens a little bit absolutely is.

2. 6 Ways to Fight Deep Debt Traumatized Budget via Medium

“My informal definition of Mega-Debt is debt that requires a decade or more to pay down, proportional to your income.”

For many of us in the financial independence space – but less so in the online personal finance world in general, the idea of debt that requires a decade or more to pay down generally falls into two categories: a mortgage, or maybe student loans. And usually, they are an intentional long game, with low interest rates that may not beat inflation.

Those discussions are valid, absolutely, and financial independence is a fabulous goal. But SO MANY more Americans are struggling with debt on a grander scale, and I don’t often see a deep discussion about what that’s like and the mindset piece that goes with a marathon back to zero. And even going “gazelle intense” isn’t such a great idea when the journey is so long. I loved this post instead because it is full of real thoughts – and steps – for those who have a really big mountain to climb. And that’s a heck of a lot harder than retiring at 30.

3. How To Downsize Your Wardrobe To A Maximum Of 50 Clothes Financially Independent Mom

As I approach 2.5 years of my clothes buying ban, I’m loving reading different takes on minimalist wardrobes. After all, my initial goal with putting a hard stop on buying new clothes was to sustainably whittle down my wardrobe by wearing out what I already owned.

Thanks to some hand me downs from my mom and a number of lovely friends, this shrinking of my wardrobe hasn’t quite gone as planned. I’ve been very selective about what comes home with me these days, but I think it may be time to go through the process that Janneke describes in this post, because I’m certain I still have at least a few things that should be passed along to someone else who will actually wear (and enjoy wearing) them.

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.