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).
OurWomen’s Personal Finance Facebook groupalso 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 thing 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 34
1. Why I’m Putting Aggressive Debt Paydown on Hold Rose Colored Water
Debt repayment is hard, period. This is especially true when the debt compared to your income is really large and not something that can be hustled through in six months or two years or even three years. Debt repayment is sometimes a sprint, but when it’s a marathon, pacing yourself is important, probably even necessary.
And then Liz goes on to explain:
“I believe moving away from this idea that I have to be debt free by a certain time is ruining my ability to live in the now. I am young and some of the best days of my life are happening. I never want to look back and regret not living in the moment and appreciating the opportunities I have right now.“
This is exactly how I feel about the journey to financial independence. Sometimes we get so caught up in the end goal that we forget that we are living NOW and that good things are happening NOW. There is such a huge gray area between looking to the future and blowing it all today.
2. Why I’ve Never Posted Net Worth Updates (Until Now) Eat Sleep Breathe FI
Plain numbers aren’t nearly as exciting as the why and the how behind them, and I love that Chrissy’s realizing here that there are ways to share net worth and spending without baring it all. I share quite a bit as far as our expenses each month, but I don’t share the totals by leaving out a few key expenses (namely our mortgage and daycare costs), and I don’t share our current net worth.
While I’ll admit I do love the bloggers who DO share their numbers 100%, I agree that it’s much more difficult if you are not completely anonymous. Regardless of how monthly or quarterly updates shake out, I know I can’t get enough of them.
And I can absolutely get behind anyone who decides to share a little more about their personal lives and about the decisions they make about their finances. While the numbers themselves are fun to follow, it’s the heart of it that really matters the most and can be most inspiring and informative along the way.
3. Protect Yourself From A Failed Relationship Smile and Conquer
Let’s just start with the meat of what Sarah’s post is about here:
“The scarier stat, at least to me, is the number of people who remain in bad relationships because of money, or I guess lack of money. A 2014 study conducted in the UK found that19% of people stayed with a partner because of their financial situation.“
Those are crazy high, crazy scary numbers. Because what you have to realize that if that many people stay in a relationship because of money, there are at least as many who are in a relationship they want to be in but are just as financially insecure.
While Sarah goes on to go into great detail about how to protect yourself financially – yes absolutely everyone should have at least one individual account, regardless of whether they otherwise share finances 100% – I want to talk about that other number, the people who want to stay in a relationship so they don’t realize how precarious their money situation is.
Even if your relationship lasts ” until death do us part,” will your money security last beyond that? Or in the case of disability or other financial bomb? Just because things can be great on the relationship front doesn’t mean they are necessarily great on the financial front.
Especially for women, who are much more likely than men to live in poverty over the age of sixty five, this one in five stat of not being able to leave a relationship due to finances should be a jarring thing. Be prepared. No matter what, thinking about what you’d do about finances if you were single, outlive your partner, or become the only one able to work is so, so important, and we do ourselves a disservice to not give it the attention it deserves.
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 theWomen of the Finance Independence Community.
