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Welcome to the Womenâs Personal Finance Wednesday Roundup! We started this series back in 2018 on TreadLightlyRetireEarly.com to showcase the fabulous women in the online personal finance community who are talking about money online. Even now, there is a perception that women arenât good with money, donât care about money, or donât understand it on a granular level beyond perhaps knowing how to coupon and score a good shopping deal.
These roundups are our way of doing a small part to change that perception. There is 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.
Why does it matter? Because representation matters. Because reading and hearing stories from those who (may or may not) look like us show us that yes, we too can figure out this money thing, that we too have important stories to tell. And that we too know quite a lot about money and are experts worth listening to.
Since Womenâs Personal Finance has grown up to get its own website, itâs time to transition these roundups over here to the dedicated website. Same great content, new home!
Our Womenâs Personal Finance Facebook group on Facebook also has a sharing thread on Fridays, and thatâs the place to read all the blog posts written by members over the previous week. If youâre looking for more articles written by women and nonbinary folks, thatâs a great place to continue reading (plus we have plenty of great discussions on finances the rest of the week as well!).
If you donât have the time or inclination to go searching down myriad posts, though, we will be continuing this series every week to showcase some of the best of the new content we read. If you ever read a post you think we absolutely need to consider for this roundup, please let us know! We are always open to reading new blogs and want to celebrate those newer voices as well as the more seasoned ones.
And with that, here is the best (in our opinion) content by women and nonbinary folks this past week. Let us know what you think in the comments! We love discussion.
Womenâs Personal Finance Weekly Roundup #103 (Actually, 242)
1. A Slow Immersion into Slow Living The Slow Life Society
âThe journey of slow living is one that requires you initially to take a step back, assess your current situation, define, and explore what you truly want for yourself and your life, and begin to slowly integrate and immerse yourself into a new way of living. You review your progress periodically and adjust accordingly. The more you become connected with who you are and are striving to become, the easier and more fulfilling the journey becomes.
What youâre not going to do is rush the process and try to cut corners in order to put a checkmark on the slow living box.â
2. Why I Let My Kids Go Into Debt Frugalwoods
âThis is perhaps the toughest lesson of all and a lesson that a lot of adults still struggle to internalize. At last yearâs county fair, there were inflatable unicorns for sale. Kidwoods fell deeply in love with a turquoise one and was adamant that she wanted to spend her money on this plastic horse with a horn. As it turned out, the unicorn was $13 and she only had $9. I told her I was willing to pay the extra $4, but that sheâd have to work off her debt. She agreed and clutched her unicorn with glee. Once home, the reality of âwork off your debtâ began to sink in. I explained that, since she was in debt, chores-for-payment were not optional until sheâd re-paid the $4 Iâd lent her. Chores were now required. After a solid hour of work, she remarked:
âIt is not fun to do chores to earn money for something Iâve already bought. This is a lot of work and Iâm not getting anything!â
This was, again, a very basic lesson: donât spend more money than you have. But itâs something kids have to experience for themselves. I allowed Kidwoods to go into debt because I wanted her to know the feeling she articulated aboveâthat it stinks to work to pay for something youâve already bought. Me explaining debt to her in the abstract would do nothing to help cement this visceral understanding for her.â
3. If youâre buying groceries and then throwing them away I Am Rho Thomas
âForget this idea that buying groceries is the financially responsible thing to do.
Instead of playing into the game of what you think you âshouldâ do, look at actual data.
Whatâs happening in your schedule and your life from week to week?
Plan your food around that.â
Thanks For Supporting These Creators!
As always, if youâre looking for a categorized list of self-identified women and nonbinary folks writing and speaking about personal finance, here is the comprehensive guide to the Women of the Financial Independence Community.