Why I wrote an anti-capitalist personal finance book

It’s out TODAY!!

Sorry about all the exclamation points. No, I’m not! This is a very exciting day!

I’ve been a personal finance writer since 2015. I’ve learned a ton of “rules” about money throughout my career, and they never seem to work for me — or a vast array of folks who aren’t like the typical middle-class dudes who peddle most financial advice.

I created Healthy Rich in 2021 to find and connect with the artists, queers, autistics, feminists, leftists, self-employed, marginalized, racialized, paupers, activists and other misfits who are tired of struggling and striving against a system that’s not made for us.

Through this community, we’re leading a new kind of conversation about money.

I wrote You Don’t Need a Budget to create a capsule for this conversation. Through this delightfully anti-capitalist personal finance book, I investigate our cultural relationship with money and offer a critique of and an alternative to conventional advice that’s rooted in restriction, shame and greed.

Typical financial advice offers up broad strokes and binaries, a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t leave room for the diversity of our relationships with money. Through Healthy Rich, I’ve had the benefit of learning from folks whose voices we don’t hear enough in conversations about money. And I realized, the world has a lot to learn from our misfit perspectives.

I wrote You Don’t Need a Budget to spread this conversation further and to explore the question: What if we didn’t have to follow their rules?

Through the book, I expose the weakness of common financial advice about budgeting, debt repayment, earning money, investing and more. I flip popular assumptions on their head and say hey, you don’t have to do it this way.

You DON’T need a budget.

You DON’T have to pay off debt.

You DON’T have to work so hard.

You DON’T need an investment account.

Is this sounding good? The book breaks down nine overplayed tenets of budget culture and offers an alternative, budget-free approach to help you stop worrying about debt, spend without shame and manage money with ease — in spite of a system that wants to make everything hard.

I’m so proud to share this book with you.

🎉 You Don’t Need a Budget is available TODAY!

Get it wherever you buy books — if they don’t have it, ask them for it; they can order it. It’s available in hardcover, ebook and audiobook (which I read in my own voice!), so you can absorb the information however it comes best to you.

A few people have asked how they can support this launch, so I’ll include some steps you can take below. I will love any help you can offer to get this book to everyone who needs it!

For some talking points, here’s a two-minute summary of the book:

@justdanamirandalet’s fix our disordered relationships with money #ydnab #youdontneedabudget #fintok #personalfinanceforwomen #personalfinance #booktok #budgeting #debtmanagement

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📚 Help readers find this book!

All or any of these steps will help give the book a huge boost.

1. Buy the book: Get it from Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble or any of these other places that sell books.

2. Request it at your library and local bookstore. Most won’t carry it automatically, but they can get it if you ask for it. That’s good for you, and it’ll put the book on display for others to find.

3. Tell one friend: Forward this email, send a text or call a friend who hates capitalism but still needs to pay her bills. Tell her she’ll love this book.

4. Leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. (More reviews encourages their algorithms to suggest the book to more people, I’m so sorry but it is truly powerful.)

5. Take a selfie with the book! When your copy arrives (even if it’s on your phone or tablet!), snap a selfie and share it on social media. You can use the hashtags #ydnab and #YouDontNeedABudget to connect with other budget-free buddies. Tag me @ justdanamiranda on TikTok and Instagram and I will definitely cry when I see you.

6. Follow me on LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram and/or Goodreads for book updates and giveaways (and to see what else I’m reading 🙃).

Want copies for your book club, classroom, organization or company training? Let’s bring this conversation to the people you’re already talking to!

• Respond to this email if you’re interested in a bulk order discount, and I’ll connect you with the right folks at Hachette.

• I’d love to join your group virtually or in person to speak about budget culture and budget-free financial wellness, and I’m happy to waive my speaking fee if you make a bulk order.

• Grab discussion and instruction guides here.

Need a money management expert for your next story, podcast, radio or TV show? I’d love to talk to you! For media inquiries, please contact my Little, Brown publicist, Lauren Ortiz.

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