Women's Power Wednesday
As I shared last week, in honor of Women's History Month in March, I am dedicating my blog on Wednesdays in March to supporting other fabulous women personal finance bloggers out there (Women's Power). This week I am focused on two who happen to have the word "Millennial" in their blog names.Millennial PowerThe Millennial Generation frequently gets a bad rap from other generations like Baby Boomers or Gen X'ers, and I personally have many friends who vent to me all the time about the "entitlement" issues or the difficulty hiring and managing individuals of this generation. I understand that blanket generalizations are part of our society's general fabric; however, I think that we are all individuals and we should view others for their uniqueness and what is different about them. I am happy to highlight Erin and Kali this week because I believe that they are two young women who should not be labeled and judged based on the year(s) they were born. They open themselves up to attention both good and bad for having the word "Millennial" in their blog titles, but their end goal is to help educate their generation and make them financially more astute along the way. I would love to see more young women like this making such a positive influence in their space.Erin at Broke Millennial
Why I love ErinI actually spent some time recently with Erin, and I have to make a confession that someone else already made to her, I was definitely "wary" of what I might find when I read her blog title. I confess that I assumed that she was just a person in her early twenties "whining" about having no money. However, I quickly realized that you should not judge a blogger by her blog title and was pleasantly surprised to find many humorous and insightful posts on living in an expensive city, but making choices and working hard to get ahead on her own. I love her strong stances on various topics and her "back bone" in supporting what she believes.Favorite Blogs
- Erin recently wrote about how the student loan burden is growing for students by the tune of $1,000 a year. It is difficult when you are in college to wrap your mind around this difference; however, it is significant and has a ripple effect. The more you can control your student loans while you are taking them, the better off you will be in the long term.
- In one post, Erin raised the question of whether or not you expect an inheritance from your parents should something happen to them. I have seen many clients include this expected income as part of their retirement only to see their parents live longer than expected and spend through a large part of this nest egg. It is best to just save for your own retirement and have no expectations, rather than come up short on your retirement because of unforeseen circumstances.
- In one post, Erin encourages parents to charge their kids rent if they are living at home. I know this can be a touchy subject, but you are not doing your kids any "favors" by not helping them live through the realities of life that they will face as adults, and rent is one of those.
Kali at The Commonsense Millennial
Why I love KaliWhere Erin's blog title might have caused me to judge in the wrong way, initially, I had the opposite reaction to Kali's. I was instantly attracted to her blog title, and she is just as she advertises herself to be. Sometimes I read her blogs and think she is far more mature and put together than anyone I know or knew at her age. She is focused on saving significantly to have options later on in her life, and she is very self-aware of her strengths and weaknesses along the way.Favorite Blogs
- Something that both women are good at utilizing are gifs in their blogs and Kali recently had a great post about personal finance bloggers reactions to certain situations.
- As I mentioned before, these two certainly open themselves up to negative attention, and Kali recently posted on this and how she works through the negativity.
- I knew that Kali was a self-aware woman when she wrote about the fact that she did not want to have children and why that didn't make her a bad person. I have seen plenty of people have children and regret it, and you save so much time, energy and drama by having some self-awareness at the beginning of the process.
Do you follow these women? If so, why? If not, why not?