As many of you know, I run the Women’s Personal Finance (Women on FIRE) group on Facebook. It initially grew out of my Meet The Women Of The Financial Independence Community post almost two years ago. After publishing that list, it was clear that beyond just sharing the women bloggers, podcasters, and authors writing about money, there was a real desire to have a community place as well. From that, the Facebook group was born.

It’s grown more than I could have imagined since then, and we recently hit the 10,000 member mark. By far, it is my favorite place on Facebook, and maybe my favorite place on the Internet. It is the most uplifting, supportive, friendly group I’ve ever been a part of, and that sense of community has continued even as the number of women has grown to significant numbers.

With the bigger group, I’ve started to record Facebook Lives, where I’ve spontaneously given away books or financial training associated with the women joining me in the video chats. And then Military Dollar, one of my fabulous Admins (the other is Stephonee from Poorer Than You) created a Red Bubble shop with Women’s Personal Finance swag with the intent of using those profits to give back to the group.

Through that effort, we’ve now regularly gotten to share giveaways of different personal finance books with the idea of increasing the financial literacy of the women in the group. While the initial reason for the creation of the community was specific to financial independence, I made a very conscious decision that it would not be just a FIRE group.

Instead, it is a general Women’s Personal Finance group first. I want it to be a place for all women to learn and talk about money, regardless of where they may be on their personal journey. We have women who have early retired, women who are deep in consumer debt, women from the ChooseFI community and women from the Dave Ramsey community. No matter who you are or where you come from, if you identify as a woman, you are welcome in the group.

I feel that welcome that extends to all women has created a much richer group, and one where we all have very different backgrounds and perspectives to offer. I am constantly humbled with the realization of what an amazing space it has grown to be, and I’m loving that we are beginning to be able to give back and grow the group through the small giveaways and videos we’ve done so far.

For the holiday season this year though, and to celebrate the 10,000 member milestone, we reached out to a number of bloggers, money coaches, and others in the personal finance space. As a result, we are sharing a big giveaway event December 1st to 12th to celebrate the 12 Days of Women’s Personal Finance.

While this is open just to members of the Facebook group, I wanted to share here for those who aren’t a part of the group but who might like to be, and to share and publicly thank all the wonderful people who donated to create such a big, awesome list of giveaways. The three of us who run the group do it out of passion and for no profit and only have our own dollars and that from the Red Bubble shop, so we couldn’t do this giveaway event without everyone who stepped up to be a part of it. We are so grateful to all of you, and so thrilled to be able to continue impacting women’s financial lives in what we hope is a big way.

The 12 Days of Women’s Personal Finance

A big, huge thank you to everyone who have joined us to support this effort to continue women’s financial literacy. As we live longer and are still much more likely than men to end up in poverty in retirement, this is a part of life that the three of us are very passionate about. The majority of women end up needing to be in charge of their finances at some point of their lives.

While in the personal finance community bubble online it seems like all women are well versed and comfortable taking control of their money and investments, the numbers show that generally isn’t true. We’re changing that, and I hope with time those numbers will change in a big way to where the financial literacy that is normal for women in the personal finance community becomes normal for all women. A big dream perhaps, but one we are inching toward each year.

Considering women often couldn’t open a credit card on their own until 1974, we’ve come a long way already. But we have a long way to go yet. And every woman that becomes financially literate creates security for her, and her family’s future. It’s so important, and I’m so glad to be a part of changing that narrative.

The 12 Days of Giveaways

Each day, from December 1st-12th, we will have giveaway posts in the group where members can enter to win one of the prizes. Over the course of the two weeks, we are giving away dozens of personal finance books, coaching sessions, planners, courses and more. This is to celebrate our 10,000 members and demonstrate our commitment to women’s financial literacy.

If you are interested in winning one of the many prizes, request to join the group and be part of the fun! And regardless of this event, it’s a pretty dang great piece of the internet to be a part of. (Open to self identified womxn only, please)

A Special Thanks to Our Giveaway Sponsors:

Military Dollar

Poorer Than You

I Like To Dabble

Crunchy Hippie Life

Josh Overmyer

Hart on FIRE

Fierbird Finance

Kera, a FIRE follower

Faith G Doski

Smart Money Mamas

Sunday Brunch Cafe

His and Her FI

Bravely Go

House of FI

Her First 100k

Kate Horrell

From One Geek To Another

Millers on FIRE

@GirlElevate

Elizabeth Westendorf

She Picks Up Pennies

Debt Free Forties

Cash for Tacos

Holly Grosvenor

Modern FImily

Not a woman, not on Facebook, or not interested in joining the group but want to know how to help in our big goal of spreading financial literacy to women? We will do future sponsorships and giveaways, so please do email me if you are interested in being part of this. To all those who are, thank you one more time. You are pretty dang special.