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 89

1. We need to talk about FinCon Reaching For FI

If you aren’t a personal finance blogger or someone actively in the community, you may not be aware of FinCon, the biggest conference for money nerds every year. I went last year – and won the Plutus Award for best FIRE blogger – and had an absolutely wonderful time.

For me, the event was all about hanging with friends in real life and almost none about the panels and more official networking opportunities. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t aware of some of the rumblings regarding the problematic leadership, and those rumblings came to a head recently. I can no longer in good faith attend or support the event, unless things change pretty dramatically. This post explains why.

2. Mourning our stolen lives I Pick Up Pennies

“A friend recently commented that the pandemic is essentially stealing one to two years of our lives. I can’t stop thinking about that.“

Some good, but mostly bad. I felt this post pretty strongly. While clearly there is some good in this time of COVID, it is freaking hard and I’m starting to really have it sunk in how long we’re going to have to be at this. And just because we don’t have it “that bad” compared to others doesn’t mean we don’t get to grieve what we’ve lost and what we’re losing still.

3. Financial Independence vs Financial Freedom: What’s the Difference? Cooking Up FIRE

“One is just to sell stuff and get your money.

The other is to teach you the skills and mindset to build wealth over time.“

Yep. One only needs to click on those two hashtags on Instagram to note the clear and utter difference. In theory, they should be pretty Interchangeable terms, but in practice, they’re used very, very differently. Let’s just say, be wary if someone is out there touting their path to “financial freedom” – especially if it’s quick and easy.

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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