Women Are Sharing Their Life-Changing Financial Moves, Including Getting Divorced, Not Having Kids

While some choose to keep their money moves under wraps, sharing is caring. Especially when it comes to knowledge about how to create wealth. In fact, women on Reddit are gathering to share the best financial decisions they’ve ever made— and some responses are pretty surprising.

A Reddit thread directed to women titled, “What is the best financial move you’ve ever made?” has amassed hundreds of comments and two thousand upvotes. We 10-out-of-10 recommend reading up on this thread, which includes tips on investing, getting a pay raise, and yes… getting divorced and “not having to support [your] husband.”

Here are the best money lessons we learned from this fascinating thread.

Several women said “getting divorced” and “not having kids” are their best financial moves

Interestingly, some of the most upvoted responses on the Reddit thread are about getting divorced.

One person wrote that their best financial move was, “Getting divorced! Not having to support my husband freed up a lot of money.”

It received 1,300 upvotes, as well as tons of replies. In fact, one user commented, “I did this also, and I have so much more money. He handled it all and always told me we were broke. I’m pretty sure he hid a lot of it.”

Another agreed, “Me too! He loved to spend money. And though he made about 1.5 [times] what I made I had the ‘pleasure’ of giving him 10% of my 401k.”

“Divorcing my ex was the best financial decision,” yet another replied. “They were finally in charge of their own finances, maintaining a job, and paying for their own insurance.” Oof.

Several others wrote about divorce as a great financial decision, so much so, that one person replied: “I’m sensing a theme here 🙃.”

Still, another theme on the thread was about choosing not to have children. It’s no surprise that having kids is extremely expensive— even more so with inflation (even if it is slowing down). Diapers, formula, daycare… and then college, eventually. One word: How?

One person wrote that “Not having children” was their best financial decision, with someone replying, “Ah, yes, this too!” Another upvoted response said, “Not having kids. Wow are they expensive!”

Yet another revealed: “Honestly? Not having children.”

Many more echoed the sentiment of these responses, including: “Being single lol. So many of the men I met were so bad at money and finances.”

Still, a few other responses seemed to see things the opposite way. One person admitted their best decision was, “Married a man who’s better with money than I am.”

“Seriously though, he’s very into spreadsheets and budgeting and investing etc, and I am not,” they explained. To each their own!

Still, a response with two hundred upvotes resonated with many, and for good reason: “Marrying someone who has the same ideas about money as I do.”

Others on the thread talked about negotiating higher salaries

Other financial tips on the Reddit thread didn’t focus too much on their personal lives, but rather on investing in themselves.

For example, one response with five thousand upvotes explained their strategy for negotiating a higher salary.

“I asked my old job for a raise as I was well underpaid for the work I was doing. They told me how valuable I was, but that they couldn’t just raise my pay,” they recalled.

“I applied for jobs and was offered a job at a different agency. To get me to stay, my old job suddenly found the money to be able to give me a raise, but it was too late,” the Reddit user explained. “Now I make more than I would have if I had stayed. I’m also much less stress and have so much more freedom.”

One person commented on the thread, “This is essentially what I was going to post. Congrats! Go ask for what you’re worth!!!!” Many more resonated with the situation: “A similar thing happened to me, but I left for a job that gave me a 60% pay bump. My previous employer was shocked.”

Many more talked about switching jobs to negotiate more pay. One person explained: “Leaving my old job after 5.5 years and starting my new job! Made more money per hour and they give so many more raises and opportunities to grow.”

Meanwhile, a former school teacher talked about leaving their “lifelong passion” to make more money.

“Quitting being a school teacher! Being a teacher was my lifelong passion. I wanted to be a teacher ever since I was an extremely young child. However, I was so poor doing it. I quit a little over a year ago and got a job in a totally different field. I can buy groceries and save money now which is awesome!”

Many more talked about investing, buying property and paying off debt

Apart from negotiating pay raises, other women talked about their investing strategy.

One remembered, “I worked a commission job from 21-27. Every paycheck all commission went into savings and I lived only off of my hourly wage. Was not easy or fun, but it definitely paid off for me in the long run.”

Another explained, “Putting away 10% of my income the second I get it (monthly). I don’t even think of that money as mine.”

Yet another highly-upvoted response said, “Buying a property the moment I could afford the deposit. It seemed like a bad time to buy but I did it anyway. Best thing I ever did financially for sure.”

One other person wrote, “Investing early! Even if it’s just a little. I’m mid-40s and my husband and I just hit $1 million in investments (including our $300k house)….never would I have thought we would see that number.”

And about credit cards? Another talked about not carrying balances: “Learning how to use credit cards effectively. I used to carry balances and all that jazz. Now I pay them off every month and rack up points to use for other things.”

As one Reddit user put it, “learning how finances actually work” was their best money move.

“We all owe it to our future selves to maximize our ability to save money, ESPECIALLY us women,” she said. “It is so much easier to get out of a bad relationship… when you have at least a few months’ expenses in a high-yield savings account, know how to use credit/debt to your advantage, and have made regular contributions into a retirement account.”