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 74
1. Fun Money & How It Changed My Life Handful of Thoughts
“What I didn’t realize is that my need to restrict spending was about control and trust. I had this deep-rooted need to control money. I felt that if I controlled my money then nobody could take it away from me. Unfortunately, even though we had joint finances at the time I was still thinking of it as my money, not our money.”
This post was more personal and a more intense read than I was expecting from the title, and I love her for it. It’s not easy to write a vulnerable post like this one, and then publish it for the whole world to see, when it doesn’t paint yourself in the best light.
While the positive, good sounding stories are great too, I feel like posts like these ones are the most important. Once we get to the root of how we interact with money – and share those experiences – we can more fully understand ourselves and the way to a more intentional, happier life.
2. Ice Cream & The Value of a Dollar She Picks Up Pennies
Like Penny’s son, our kiddo has a pretty decent grasp of a dollar as well – but measured in packs of bubble gum instead of ice cream. Not all our money lessons need to be big, important ones. Sometimes they’re just early memories that lay the foundation around the concept of money.
So often, we think kids are too young to understand or do something for themselves, when we would be surprised at how much they really can do. My goal with my son is that even at just five years old, I allow him what autonomy I can – which means his own money to buy a pack of bubble gum for a dollar. Or deciding he doesn’t want to spend five dollars on that new Lego.
3. Yo Quiero Dinero: Latinx money, where is our earned money going and how we can start building wealth The Mujerista by Kara Perez
I am all here for this new monthly column on The Mujerista by Kara of Bravely and The Fairer Cents. As this is the first, she throws down a bunch of data on why this column is so damn important. If you don’t understand, or you haven’t read the numbers, go check them out.
The first time I heard the disparity of wealth – especially generational wealth – between white families and families of color, it was hard to even wrap my head around. We still have a long way to go. Understanding the facts is just the first part of it. And Kara is just one piece of that visibly changing narrative.
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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