Preparing our finances for a fascist regime

Why I’ll keep writing about budgeting and other boring stuff

Like many folks on the left, I’m contemplating my role in the forming resistance against the MAGA regime. This is our life now…

The movement leader Deepa Iyer teaches that we join an ecosystem when we take part in a social movement. No person can do all the kinds of work that need to be done, but each of us can do something we’re best suited to do.

My strength as a writer has set me up with a vocation that feels disconnected from the big work of politics. The pending installation of a despot bolstered by a Christian nationalist playbook is a conspicuous problem, and my work as a financial educator doesn’t feel relevant. Watching that happen in the periphery while writing about budgeting seems silly.

But I know personal finance is unavoidably political.

I’m going to keep writing about personal finance in the coming months even when it feels silly, because I know it’s not. Money in a capitalist society is freedom and safety and security and self-actualization and power and rest. And I have an opportunity to help folks have a better relationship with this vital resource.

We do need politicos to dig into the root of voters’ “economy” problem, organizers to pull together physical communities, caretakers to protect the vulnerable and so much more.

As for me, I’ll continue to write.

Sometimes I’ll write about the big stuff, like naming capitalism. But sometimes I’ll write about stuff that feels small, like credit cards, because this is the role I play in this movement. At my core, I’m what Iyer dubs a “guide,” here to teach, counsel and advise. This is what I’m good at, and I’m confident my counsel will be valuable in the years to come.

We’re going to need more money

I’ve kept returning to this thought over the past couple of weeks. If money is freedom, then I should use what I know to help people get more money.

We’re making plans that rely on money: I need to spend less time in my rural county that voted 67% for Trump, so building my travel fund has become imperative. Queer folks will move to cities where their identity is affirmed but cost of living is high.¹ Women will move to blue states for safe abortion access.² Health insurance costs are expected to go up. The cost of living will spike if tariffs are successful. Jobs could disappear as mass deportation crumbles industries. Student loan payments will be back in full force.

I hope we’re able to avoid the worst of all of this. I’m not one of those leftists hoping our country burns to the ground so MAGA voters have to reap what they’ve sown. But if Republicans do tank our economy and make it harder for everyone to make ends meet? I’m ready to help people through it.

I was a broke millennial during the Great Recession. I came up through the crop of personal finance media that sprouted to help us make money in the face of 10% unemployment. I know how lenders and fintech will pivot if our country is overcome with poverty again (because I heard them talk about it; egck).

I know how to be scrappy, how to scrape by, how to make more when it seems impossible, how to dig out of a deep hole of debt on the other side. I know how to enjoy a life that costs money when I don’t have any.

If MAGA has their way, a lot of us will be thrown back into those dire financial straits. You all might not be interested in philosophical conversations about our cultural relationship with money..? But you’ll probably have some questions about how to make ends meet.

This I know how to do.

Expanding your resources to prepare for a fascist regime

I haven’t written a lot lately about making money, because it’s hard to have that conversation without playing into the project of capitalism and relying at least a little on greed. But if money is freedom, we’re going to need money, so we have to talk about how to get it.

(I heard a great point on the

Autistic Culture

podcast recently about the difference between making a living and being a capitalist that’s helping me get this in perspective. I’ll write more about that when I get my thoughts in order.)

I know that, if the economy is going to suck, a few things will make life easier:

• Independent work.

• Community support.

• Social services and government benefits.

• Access to credit.

In You Don’t Need a Budget, I talk about expanding your resources by considering not only your income from work but all four types of resources: income, assets, community support and debt. In the coming months, you can use this as a guide to bolster your financial situation against any future calamity:

• Strengthen your freelance skills and relationships to diversify your income.

• Assess your property and financial accounts and how you could tap into them.

• Connect with affirming and supportive communities in your area and online.

• Research social services and benefits in your city and state so you know what’s available before you need it (and keep an eye out for changes).

• Increase your borrowing limits on credit cards and lines of credit.

I’ll write about these topics in the coming months — add any questions you have in the comments so I can address them! I’ll focus more specifically on helping you access money, along with continuing to help you find freedom in your relationship with money.

I’m reminding you now — because I have to remind myself — that this isn’t about playing into budget culture’s goals of extracting resources and amassing wealth. It’s about using the strongest tool I have as a financial educator to help you weather whatever’s to come.

Ask me anything!

What questions do you have about freelancing, independent work, expanding your access to credit, connecting with community support or accessing public benefits? Or any other questions about preparing your finances for the next presidential administration? Drop it all in the comments or reply to this email!

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1. Not everyone has to move to San Francisco! See Debt Free Guys’ list of affordable queer friendly cities for more options all over the country.

2. See where abortion is accessible around the United States on this map from Planned Parenthood.