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 57

1. It’s Okay to Feel Guilty About Spending Money Cash For Tacos

Wait, what? She’s talking about guilt as a GOOD thing? Instead of trying to push past our guilty feeling or pretend they don’t exist, Melody is asking us to truly feel them and figure out why they’re there and what they mean. And I think she has a point.

In order to look at those feelings, she asks three questions to help figure out the WHY behind the guilt. While the first two are ones that I regularly ask myself, number three caught me off guard and has me going back to think about my own spending. Money is complicated, no matter how much we would like to think otherwise.

2. The Cost of “Parental Leave” in the USA Wise Mind Money

Read this. Even if you aren’t a parent or don’t even ever plan to be one. Maternity, and paternity, leave is a really important topic for all of us to understand. And to understand why it is absolutely not a vacation, nor should it be treated as such. Unless you’ve been through it yourself, my guess is you don’t really understand how it works.

And even if you have gone through it, policies vary so wildly from company to company and state to state, your experience is likely to be very different from someone else’s. With that, go read Emilie’s story of her first twelve weeks with a baby.

3. Debt: Who F*cking Cares The $76k Project

“Somewhere along the way, I got sick of feeling like making money and paying off loans were the most important non-family things in my life...

I guess I’ve realized that it is truly possible to live, really live, with debt. Like, you can have a student loan and also have a life. You can invest in the experiences and things you value and still be good with money.”

This post is specifically about debt payoff, but it could just as easily be used to talk about financial independence (hello, SlowFI!). Just because paying off debt : saving boatloads of money as fast as possible sounds good on paper doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best choice for your life. Or, if you’re in it for the long haul, it might not be the best choice forever.

Life is meant to be lived, not sidelined while you achieve higher numbers on the money scoreboard. After all, that scoreboard grinds to a halt for all of us someday, so how much does it ultimately matter? Being a good human, enjoying life (while balancing preparing for the future) is pretty dang important. After all, what else is there, really?

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.

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