Wonderful readers, it’s Moriah from Our Table for Two here to guest curate this week’s edition of Women’s Person Finance Wednesdays.

Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays is one of my favorite spaces on the Internet. From the start, Angela has done such an amazing job curating great content and making sure that newer voices are heard.

When I first got featured, I had been blogging for less than a year, and I was just starting to figure out my voice as a writer. But that week my blog traffic skyrocketed, and even more amazing, readers kept coming back.

So when Angela asked me if I would be interested in curating a week, I knew I had to! What a great way to pay her back for the kindness she did me than by highlighting other new blogs that I’m absolutely loving.

Personally, I gravitate toward blogs that have a story component, I don’t care for the numbers of finance (although, I’ve written quite a few numbers based posts myself), as much as the story. I’m captivated by the “why” behind money. What’s your story? How did you get to where you are? And what have you done to influence your story?

Some of these stories I resonate with on a personal level, and others I love because they talk about an entire community coming together to create systemic change.

But either way, I’m in love with those stories. And here are some of my favorites right now.

Women’s Personal Finance Wednesdays – Week 75

1. Mindful Money: Key Lessons Learned about Intentional Spending Millers on FIRE

“When I discovered the FIRE community, financial independence retire early, I didn’t increase my income or reduce my living expenses at first. The first question I had to answer was, “Where’s my money going?” I had to really evaluate and understand what I was doing with my money.”

I loved this post because Mrs. Miller talks about her first conversation with herself while exploring FI/RE. It wasn’t budgeting or increasing spending or cutting costs. It was something else entirely. She focused on her mindfulness and asking values based questions like “Where is my money going?”

I think this is so infinitely important when dealing with money. Money is a super emotional topic. And recognizing and exploring that is part of fighting for financial equality. Women are often not recognized as financial experts because we’re seen as “emotional” and money is about stoicism.

But that’s simply not true.

2. Dreams and Goals and Money: Are Yours United? We Want Guac

Dreaming is needed for your finances. It is unquestionably crucial for your financial well-being and future wealth. I cannot emphasize the “needed” enough, because you absolutely cannot get your finances to serve you well without having goals and dreams as your main motivation.

Darcy does such a great job exploring her goals and asking hard questions that got me thinking about mine. Then she takes it a step further and explores how to make your money fund your dreams and turn them into goals.

That’s huge in the personal finance sphere. We spend a large chunk of time talking about saving. Saving for retirement, saving for financial security, saving, saving saving. Saving is great, but what’s the point of saving if there isn’t an end goal to it?

Darcy does a great job looking at short, medium, and long term answers to those questions. I thought the whole article was wonderfully aspirational.

3. Palm Oil Revolution Ecofrugals

Angela and Kristine Vike-Jonas created a great site called EcoFrugals. And Kristine wrote an amazing article about her first hand experience with consumers changing the narrative.

Ingredient lists on the back of foodstuffs were updated with exactly which vegetable oils they contained. But people were still refusing the ones that contained palm oil in big enough numbers that producers felt the sting.

So they adapted.

Palm oil-free products became a marketing advantage. Previously palm oil-riddled products were changed and relaunched with big, bold “Now palm oil free!” signage.

Personal finance is personal, but I loved that consumers spoke on a large level to get corporations to change their behavior. Finance is personal, but it’s also political. And it’s also collaborative with the rest of society.

I’m so happy that EcoFrugals is focusing on personal and systemic change. Both are important for changing the narrative around money and being more environmentally conscious.

–Moriah

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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