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 105
1. Abolish the Early Retirement Police Financial Mechanic
“The second method for defining retirement is called “psychological retirement.” This method says that if you think you are retired, then you probably are. This is the definition that most FIRE proponents go by. The defining factor is not about whether or not you work (because you probably will work in some capacity!) but whether you have the freedom to decide what that work looks like.”
I love this definition of “early retirement,” as it centers the discussion around the person the conversation is about in the first place. The inspiration and the reality only need to be true for them; the rest is simply just noise.
2. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out A Purple Life
“I’ve taken several afternoon naps this past week and they’ve been magical. Being able to listen to my body and rest when it wants – even in the middle of the week – has been amazing. Another side effect of lowering my tiredness level, has been a renewal of that creative energy that was sapped out of me when I was still working. I have new energy and curiosity about the world around me”
After sharing Jessica’s post about the Early Retirement Police, I figure that it’s fitting to share week one of Purple’s early retirement where she – gasp – is making a bit of (unexpected) side hustle money. I am all for her plan to write weekly updates for at least the first month of early retirement, because I am vicariously living through the experience. Even if I don’t personally want to quit my day job and retire early, I’ve been following her journey for so long and want to hear all about how it goes.
3. The legacy of slavery made my grandmother fear investing Michelle Singletary on The Washington Post
“Those who like to pigeonhole Blacks as financial illiterates argue that the disparity results from the failure of Blacks to comprehend the importance of investing. This viewpoint ignores the history of slavery and its enduring impact on the descendants of enslaved people.
And, yes, I’m back to this again.
“Well, Michelle,” you might ask, “what’s your solution?”
No, you don’t get to put this on me. You should be asking, “What can I do?”
The first thing you can do is seek to understand and empathize with how deeply discriminatory policies and practices, past and current, continue to affect Blacks.”
If we are going to see real, true, lasting change, we need to understand how we’ve gotten here. The pandemic has been awful all around, but I do have some hope that this upheaval will do some good in the long run. It’s exposed truths in a big way, and now is the time to grab those truths and really change that future.
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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