The Western United States has had unprecedented wildfires this September. More land burned in Oregon, Washington, and California in days than had been seen in entire fire seasons. The region was blanketed in smoke with hazardous air quality for weeks. And whole towns went up in flames. We were the lucky ones, “only” having to…
Today’s post comes from a friend of mine, Sara Leighton. She shared these words, and I asked if I could publish them, because I felt them so deeply. Right now, in the throes of a seemingly endless pandemic, I think we all are. She and I have been friends for a very long time, but…
While I clearly don't have a large family, I grew up in one (I'm the oldest of four children and my grandmother has lived with my parents since I was a baby). While my parents were frugal to a degree, ecofrugality wasn't a huge focus when I was a kid. We learned about nature and…
I first heard some of Tami's story before she was a blogger herself. A couple years ago, she recorded an episode on FIRE Drill Podcast. Disability and chronic illness is rarely discussed in the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community - oftentimes it seems to be overlooked on purpose because it flies in the face…
If you remember reading a guest post last year about a woman who retired at 44, you might also remember that I promised to try and get her to write another post here on the blog since everyone loved hearing her story as a non-blogging early retiree. She and I have become better friends since…
As I've mentioned any number of times, my family lives in a smaller "starter" home. While it was the typical size of a single family home back in the 1960s when it was built, it's considerably smaller than the typical home built in the last few decades by at least half. Especially now, with so…
I love hearing the personal finance stories from my Women's Personal Finance Facebook group. The members all have such different life experiences, and I've learned a ton in the two years since I created the group. With this blog, I realize I have a rare opportunity to amplify women's voices in the personal finance and…
While there continue to be more women writing about personal finance, the mainstream narrative is still that it is mostly men pursuing financial independence. I have a group of more than 10,000 women actively talking about money together on Facebook though, so I know well that that isn't the case. In order to continue one…
Have you ever purchased second hand clothes from a thrift store for yourself? I grew up putting together thrifted Halloween costumes, but it wasn't until college before a friend introduced me to the frugal treasure hunting that can be done at places like Goodwill and Value Village for dirt cheap everyday clothing. I still remember…
A common argument against the financial independence community is that anyone who "retires early," really isn't - that they blog or side hustle or do something for income after their retirement from their day job. And to that argument, many people's contingency plans actually do contain the idea that worst case, they "can always go…