If you’ve been feeling a mix of anxiety and uncertainty about your future finances due to Trump’s presidency, you’re not alone — and this episode is for you. Today I’m diving deep into practical steps to protect your money and sanity over the next four years, with actionable advice to help you navigate these challenging times. Trust me, now more than ever, your financial education is your best form of protest.
Before we get into what you can do, let’s do a quick rundown of what to expect from a Trump presidency (based on what he’s already said he will do):
Trump TL;DR
Tax cuts
- Households with incomes in the top 1 percent will receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60 percent.
- The economic stimulus from tax cuts would be partially offset, however, by Trump’s proposed tariffs, which would raise costs for U.S. businesses and consumers and likely invite retaliation from U.S. trading partners.
- Forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics project that a 10% tariff would increase inflation by about 0.8 percentage points next year and impose an additional drag on U.S. manufacturers.
Social programs
- SNAP program. Reductions of roughly $200 billion over 10 years, or about 25 to 30 percent, in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program), as proposed in all four Trump administration budgets.
- Medicaid/ACA: Substantial cuts in Medicaid beyond eliminating the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, and in the first Trump administration budget, some scaling back of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The proposed reductions, including ACA repeal, totaled roughly $750 billion to $1 trillion or more over 10 years under the various Trump administration budgets.
- Housing & rental assistance: Large reductions in rental assistance and other housing-related programs that, in all four Trump administration budgets, included rent increases that would average more than 40 percent for about 4 million low-income households that rent their units with rental vouchers or live in public housing. Elimination of various housing-related programs including the HOME program, the Community Development Block Grant, and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
- Cash assistance: Large reductions in cash assistance in all four Trump administration budgets, including (1) reductions in benefits for low-income children with disabilities through Supplemental Security Income (SSI) when more than one child or both an adult and a child in the same family receive SSI, (2) a reduction of more than $20 billion over 10 years in federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding to states, and (3) a reduction in initial Social Security disability benefits for some beneficiaries.
- DEI programs: Trump has expressed his desire to cut any and all DEI programs –– which affect more than just people getting jobs or access to things like school; it affects data collection that allows people to make informed choices at policy level.
Tariffs
- Trump has proposed adding a tariff of 10% to 20% on all imports, with significantly higher levies on imports from China.
- The economic stimulus from tax cuts would be partially offset, however, by Trump’s proposed tariffs, which would raise costs for U.S. businesses and consumers and likely invite retaliation from U.S. trading partners.
- Forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics project that a 10% tariff would increase inflation by about 0.8 percentage points next year and impose an additional drag on U.S. manufacturers.
Key takeaways:
- Take your financial education seriously: Now is the time to become proactive about learning and managing your finances to build resilience against economic uncertainties. Dedicate time to learning about personal finance. Use free resources like workshops, podcasts, or books to educate yourself on investing, saving, and budgeting.
- Build and strengthen your emergency fund: Aim for at least three to six months’ worth of living expenses in a high-yield savings account (terms apply). Set up automatic transfers from your checking account to consistently grow your emergency fund, providing a financial safety net against uncertainties.
- Cut unnecessary expenses: Do a thorough audit of your spending to identify and eliminate non-essential expenses that don’t bring you joy. Redirect those funds toward your emergency savings or debt repayment to enhance your financial stability.
- Start/continue investing wisely: Despite market volatility, staying the course with your investments can lead to long-term financial growth. Maintain your investment strategy and avoid making fear-based decisions like panic selling. Focus on long-term growth by regularly contributing to your investment accounts and educating yourself on market trends.
- Prioritize community and self-care: Protecting your mental health and fostering community connections are crucial for navigating emotional challenges during this period. Engage with and support your community by shopping at women-owned, black-owned, and queer-owned businesses. Protect your mental health by setting boundaries on news consumption and dedicating time to rest and activities that bring you joy.
Notable quotes
“We cannot allow fear to make our financial decisions for us.”
“You cannot rise up as part of the resistance if you are tired, if you are broke, if you are burned out.”
“If the only thing you do these next four years is take really good care of yourself and your community, you’ve done more than enough.”
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Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
We’re going to start off with something fun because this rest of the episode is going to be pretty serious. A controversial opinion. Dick in a Box is the best Christmas song ever written. It is. I am the biggest Lonely Island fan. I have loved them for so long. And fun fact is I performed Dick in a Box at my college coffee house. They do that in the basement of one of the dorms. They’d get a bunch of people together and you could perform songs or poetry or whatever, and I did a three song set and my last song, I said, “In all seriousness…” Because It was like a comedy set mix with music. And I was like, “In all seriousness,” because it was right before the holiday break. “Christmas is about bringing people together, so I want to sing my best Christmas song to remind you what’s important in life.” And then I did an acoustic version of Dick in a Box. It was my shining peak crowning moment.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about and you’re like, “That sounds offensive,” welcome to the Lonely Island. You should go watch it. If you forgot that Lonely Island exists, now might be a great time to revisit because we’re going to need comedy for these next four years. That’s my segue, my transition.
Hello, if you’re new to the show, my name is Tori. I run Her First 100K, which is a money and [inaudible 00:01:38] platform for women. I believe I was put on this earth to fight for your financial rights. I’ve helped over five million women save money, pay off debt, start investing, start businesses and feel financially confident. And if you’re an oldie but a goodie, you knew that already.
I have a cold today, I have for about a week, so if I’m a little stuffed up, that’s what’s going on and it’s not going to stop me from getting some good information across. You knew this episode was coming. It’s the most requested episode we got post-election, which is basically what to do. What’s going to happen in my bank account? How do I both financially and emotionally prepare for four more years of orange, maybe four plus more years if he gets his way?
So we’re going to talk about everything in all things, how to prepare. So this will probably be a longer episode. Before we even get started, this is really a part two to our election content. We did a post-election episode, that if I do say so myself, was I think one of the most powerful episodes we’ve ever done. If you have not listened to that, that is required listening before you come and listen to this episode.
So if you are still feeling pretty emotionally raw, and I know we all are, I need you to pause on this episode, I need you to go back. It’s called Post-Election Pep Talk. You can find it. Please listen to that episode. It’s about a half hour and then I’ll see you back here. This is required listening before you come and listen to this episode.
Okay, so quick lay of the land and what we’re going to talk about today. We are going to talk about a quick TLDR on some of Trump’s policies. Now, we know that just because politicians say they’re going to do something, doesn’t actually mean they’re going to, and also we should take it seriously. We discussed this when we had an expert on to talk about Project 2025. A lot of this stuff sounds insane and sounds like it could never happen and God, we hope it never happens, but it might. So I am going to review his policies to remind you what he’s set out to do and to give you the quick and dirty on some of the ways that you can navigate those policies.
We’re going to talk about step-by-step, really actionable guidance around how you can prepare your finances for a Trump presidency. And then we’re going to talk about more of the emotional stuff at the end of how do we protect our peace? How do we keep showing up and doing this work? And again, that pairs really, really well with the first episode, the Post-Election Pep Talk episode we did.
Okay. Oh, let’s talk about it. And also all of these things are shitty I’m just going to say that right off the bat. You know I’m not happy about this. I know I’m not happy about this, but I’m going to put my journalist hat on and try to give you this information in a way that’s just giving you the information rather than commentating on how bad it is the entire time. Please know that I am not in approval of these things. I’m just giving you the information, so I’m not going to couch every single bullet point by being like, “This sucks, right?” And then going on a whole rant about it because we got shit to do.
Okay, first, let’s talk about Trump tax cuts. He has promised tax cuts for the wealthy. Households with incomes in the top 1% will receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025 compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60%. We’re seeing major tax cuts for the rich, but we’re seeing no tax cuts, basically, for lower income households. So the economic stimulus from tax cuts would partially be offset. However, because Trump has proposed tariffs, they’re going to raise the cost for US businesses and consumers and then likely invite some retaliation from US trading partners.
I was dreading this episode because I knew I was going to have to say the word tariff for the first time ever. To remind you what a tariff is, is basically a tax on imported goods that is not paid for by the country importing them, even though that’s what Trump says. Trump says, “We’re going to make China for them.” That’s not what’s going to happen. Tariffs instead are going to if passed and if implemented, make the cost of these goods for us, the American consumer, a lot higher. So we’ll talk about some ways later of actual steps around preparing for that.
We’re seeing forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics project that a 10% tariff would increase inflation by about 0.8 percentage points next year and then impose an additional drag on US manufacturers. So we’re going to see if he gets his way, tax cuts for the wealthy plus tariffs that the country’s importing goods are not going to pay, but that we all are going to pay.
Let’s talk about some social program impacts. Changes that the Trump administration budgets proposed include the following. They want to cut SNAP, which is like food stamps. They want to reduce SNAP by roughly 200 billion over the next 10 years or about 25 to 30%. This is proposed in all four Trump administration budgets. For lower income folks, for people who need food assistance the most, it’s going to be a lot harder. It’s going to be a lot harder to get food assistance and going to affect the lower income people in their access to the things that they need.
Medicaid/the Affordable Care Act, there’s going to be substantial cuts to Medicaid beyond eliminating the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. In the first Trump administration budget, they talked about some scaling back of the children’s health insurance program, which is known as CHIP, so the proposed reductions including repealing the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare, totaled about 750 billion to 1 trillion or more over the next 10 years under the various Trump budgets. So we’re going to see a huge slash in Medicaid benefits. Trump’s talked about eliminating the Affordable Care Act since he was in office the first time.
Housing, rental assistance. There’s going to be a large reductions in rental assistance and other related housing programs in all four Trump administration budgets. They’re talking about including rent increases that would average to more than 40% for about four million low income households that rent their units with some rental voucher or folks who live in public housing. The four budgets that the Trump administration has laid out also call for eliminating various housing related programs. Yeah, I promise we’re going to get to the actionable stuff. I know this all feels doom and gloom. Just give me a second.
Okay. They’re also looking to reduce benefits for low income children with disabilities through supplemental security income, which is SSI, when more than one child or both an adult and a child in the same family receive SSI. This is a large reduction in cash assistance. We’re also looking at a reduction of a bunch of billions of dollars in federal temporary assistance for needy families, funding to states, and a reduction in additional social security disability benefits for some beneficiaries. We’re also already seeing an impact on DEI. We are already seeing companies either slash DEI efforts or completely cut them. We talked about in the Project 2025 episode, this desire to cut any and all DEI programs.
This affects more than just people getting jobs or access to things like school, and the ability for Black, brown, any other minority group in the workplace to feel celebrated and to feel included. It also affects data collection. It affects how data is consumed and collected in order to make informed choices at the policy level and in these larger corporations about diversity initiatives.
We’re looking at some increases in the stock market, which seems like the only good thing, but we could be in for a really interesting roller coaster. We’re going to talk later about how to ride that. And finally, let’s talk about student loans really quick. Let’s listen to a voicemail from our community. This is from Anna.
Anna:
Hi, Tori. My name is Anna. I am a social worker in North Carolina. I’m wondering, for those of us who took out student loans, if we should consider moving those student loans to private loan providers. For example, I know that my bank always offers I can refinance my student debt with them. The reason I haven’t ever done this is because my intention with taking out student loans was to utilize public service loan forgiveness. When I was in college, that was the trade-off I made in my mind, was that if I take out student loans, I’m going to work in the nonprofit sector or government sector for X amount of years so that I can take advantage of that program.
But with the incoming administration promising to get rid of the Department of Education, I wonder if you would recommend going ahead and moving those loans now to a provider of our choice, or if you think the incoming administration will require us to move our loans after they take action with the Department of Education, or if you think maybe there’s no meat to that claim.
Just curious what you are recommending or what you foresee happening as a financial expert. Thank you.
Tori Dunlap:
The voicemail’s over. I have to laugh. I forgot to be honest with you, Anna, that he is, quote-unquote, going to eliminate the Department of Education. There’s just been so much and I think I’ve blocked a lot of it out. Okay, woof. Okay. Great question. I don’t know. That’s not me copying out. I don’t know. None of us really know. I like to think that him eliminating the Department of Education is not going to happen, but he has potentially the full support of Congress. He’s got the Senate. Republicans have the Senate and the House, and although they’re supposed to be unbiased, he has this in Supreme Court too. So I don’t know. I truly don’t know.
The last thing I want to recommend to you is moving your federal loans to private loans because that eliminates any likelihood that you’re going to get student loan forgiveness, just for student loan forgiveness to happen under a Democrat, maybe after Trump, or for Biden to throw a Hail Mary in the last couple months here and try to pass student loan forgiveness.
So I don’t want you making any sort of decision in this case that is preemptive, because we just don’t know. It’s going to depend on what happens or what doesn’t happen. I think that this is part of what we’re going to talk about in a second where you need to make sure you’re well-informed, you need to make sure you know what’s going on so that you can make that decision. Refinancing is not a bad thing. I’ve said it many, many times. Refinancing your loans to get a lower interest rate can mean you help pay them off sooner, but if you take federal loans and you refinance them to private loans, you eliminate any chance of student loan forgiveness.
Now, I get where you’re saying, is there going to be student loan forgiveness at all? Under Trump, I can almost, with 100% certainty say no. But we might have an administration that comes in after, and I don’t know how long your loans are. If I could see a case that if you think you can pay your loans off before Trump gets out of office, it might be… I just don’t want to give you… I don’t know you. I don’t know your life. I don’t know what he’s going to do. I don’t want to give you a resounding yes or no. But this is where we start learning more about and paying attention to what’s going to happen. And understanding for everybody listening, the difference between those federal loans and those private loans, and when you refinance what actually happens.
So yeah, there’s no for sure answer here because I don’t exactly know what he’s going to be able to get done. I don’t exactly know if he does get it done, how it’s going to directly affect everybody. We don’t know this yet.
This goes hand in hand with our next section, which is let’s talk about some practical steps you can take.
You’re going to hear this, and you’ve already heard this if you’ve been listening to our recent episodes. You’re going to hear this as a resounding theme over the next four plus years. But really, I’ve been saying it forever. The number one thing I need you to do is take your personal finance education seriously. I know I joke a lot on the show, and even in this episode I’m trying to make light of all of these things that he’s promised, but it’s not looking good. It’s not looking good, and really the best thing that you can do if you are feeling this sense of, “I don’t have any control. I don’t know what to do. I feel hopeless, or I just feel so fearful,” I need you to lock in and I need you to take your financial education seriously.
If you have been a casual listener to this show or to other financial podcasts, I need you to listen to every episode. I need you to read books and actually take steps that we’ve been talking about forever, but maybe you haven’t done. Maybe you haven’t opened that high yield savings account. Now’s the time to do that. Maybe you haven’t started investing. Now’s the time to do that. Maybe you feel like you are underpaid and overworked, but you’re like, “This job is fine.” No, it’s not. It’s not. We’re going to ask for a raise. We’re going to find a new job. Take this fucking seriously because this is fucking serious. Take this fucking seriously because this is fucking serious. I need you to learn everything you possibly can about money and then take action. Take your own financial education seriously.
If you haven’t learned how to invest, we have a free workshop that’ll teach you how to invest. We’ve linked it down below herfirst100k.com/invest. If you haven’t opened up that high yield savings account yet, and yeah, this is going to be a shameless plug for all our resources, but we create these resources for you. herfirst100k.com/tools, we have it linked down below. If you need to know the basics of personal finance and you want me to guide you step by step, guess what? We have something very exciting coming in January. You can go to herfirst100k.com/secret-waitlist to be the first to know about that. We have all these links down below too. Just take it seriously. Take it seriously. A financial education is your best form of protest. Take it seriously.
Okay, number two, I need you to shore up your emergency fund. If you don’t already have one, that is your number one step on any day regardless of who’s president, but especially with a Trump presidency. We don’t know the full scope of these tariffs yet. We don’t know the full scope of potential mass deportation. We don’t know the full scope of all of these cuts that he wants to do to social services. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but on any day, we can make sure that we’re financially protected by having that emergency fund. Three to six months of living expenses in that high-yield savings account. And again, high-yield savings account is crucial here because I need your money to work harder for you.
Now, if you are someone with uterus, I would love for you either as part of this emergency fund or elsewhere in a separate emergency fund to also save what I’m calling a reproductive emergency fund. Make sure that you can get the healthcare that you need, abortion services, birth control, et cetera, even if you have to cross state lines to do it, even if you have to pay money to go somewhere else, if you have to pay money to take time off work to get on a flight, to get a hotel room for the night, I need you to have some money saved for that.
If you already have three months of living expenses, I would do what you can to increase it a little bit. Try to get up to six. And if you already have six and you still don’t feel super comfortable, might be a good time to get up to nine. The easiest way to do this, we’ve talked about on the show before, is set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account, so make sure that your money is going to your high-yield savings account for your emergency fund on autopilot.
On that note, while we’re talking about savings accounts, a couple of you have asked me, “Trump wants to get rid of the FDIC. Should I stop putting my money in a bank account?” I don’t think, at least when we’ve done our research, that Trump wants to FDIC. He, just like most Republicans, want to cut a lot of the regulations. We’re not sure what that means yet.
While we have FDIC regulations, which are the regulations meant to keep your money protected so that if a bank fails, you get your money back, those aren’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future, so keep saving your money in a high-yield savings account, the one we recommend is FDIC-insured. Any good bank will be FDIC-insured, so don’t worry too much about that.
Number three, I need you to cut down for a little while on the things that you don’t need. Quote-unquote, like trim the fat. Please still make sure that you’re not depriving yourself. I know that life is hard. We’re not cutting the things that bring you joy. You need that more than ever. But we are cutting the things that don’t bring us joy. We’re doing an audit of our budget. We do this in any sort of emergency situation. We would look at our budget, we would figure out what we can cut, what doesn’t make sense, so that we can either save that money in an emergency fund or better prioritize what we are spending our money on.
This is a great time to pay down your debt, especially these next couple months before Trump takes office. Do everything you can to pay down your debt if it is on the larger side or if you can eliminate it, lovely, beautiful. But please do that after your emergency fund, after beefing up your emergency fund. Start or keep investing. Yes, there’s a lot of volatility right now. There’s always a lot of volatility. You’re going to see, and it’s already happening, people tell you that now is a great time to invest or now is a bad time to invest.
There is never a bad time to invest because I need you to just get into the stock market and allow it to do its thing. Again, we have a free workshop down below. If you’re wondering about how to invest and you want to start taking your financial education seriously, amazing. We’ll see you there. There’s a lot of large companies who are taking advantage of tax cuts by Republicans and they see this optimistic future for their bottom lines, so the stock market is actually performing pretty decently, at least as of this recording.
We know that trickle down economics does not really work, so you need to make sure you get a piece of that pie too, because they’re not going to willingly give it to you. So you’re going to go, you’re going to invest in the stock market. You’re going to build your wealth. You’re going to take that seriously. You’re going to allow your money to work harder for you.
You’re also not going to panic sell if you are investing, because the stock market has a bad day or because Jim Cramer on fucking CNBC told you that you need to sell. You’re not going to do that. You’re going to stay the course. You are not going to allow the emotions that you feel to get the best of you. You are not going to be driven by scarcity, by fear, by anxiety, and allow your fear to make your financial decisions for you. You’re not going to do that. You’re going to understand that investing is a long-term strategy, a long-term game. We’ve been saying this forever. It’s not a day to day. It’s not week to week. It’s not even month to month. It is a years, if not decades long strategy. And when Trump does something super shitty and the stock market plummets, you’re going to stay the course.
This is why we created something like Stock Market School, which is our investing education platform because we’re giving you the education that you need, both literally the financial education but also the emotional reassurance that what you’re doing is the right thing.
When it comes to everything personal finance, we want to start small. We want to focus on one actionable step at a time, so I’m giving you a lot of options here, but in my book on the show, we’ve talked about the emergency fund being your top priority. You do not get to pass go. You do not get to collect $200. You do not get to progress along the personal finance monopoly board until you have that emergency fund and until you set up those automatic transfers to your savings, to your retirement fund. This helps you remove that decision fatigue.
With all of this, we want to prioritize what we can control ourselves. You can control how you react. You can control your savings. You can control your investment choices. You can even control what sort of information you’re getting from what source. You can control your own financial learning. You can control being absolutely obsessed in a healthy way with personal finance, and we want to hone in on what really matters to you.
We get so many messages about where you’re supposed to be, what you’re supposed to have. “This person has this amount saved and I feel like I’m behind. I don’t have this thing, but all of my friends do, and so I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong.” It’s a huge distraction to focus on all of the things that don’t really matter to you but feel like markers of success. So what I need you to do is hone in on the things that truly matter, the ways you want to use money as a tool to build a life that you want, that you love. Prioritize yourself, your needs, know that is not selfish. It is really important all days, but today, especially that you prioritize your own rest, your own self-care, your own personal finances.
Because, and we’ll talk about this in the next section, you cannot rise up as part of the resistance if you are tired, if you are broke, if you are burned out, if you are overwhelmed, if you have allowed the MAGA riptide to continue depleting you of all of your energy and hope and joy. Take this shit seriously. Become obsessed in a healthy way with personal finance, with learning everything you possibly can about money. Because, as we’ve said so many times as our literal tagline, a financial education is your best form of protest. It is your greatest form of protest against unjust systems. Money gives you options. It gives you choices. It gives you flexibility. And how you wield that financial power matters. It matters every day, but it especially fucking matters today. That’s why we’re talking about this.
There will likely be an all-out attack on women, on queer folks, on minority groups, Black and brown people, disabled people. Your money and your attention is what fuels those movements, to cut important social services, to leave you depressed and anxious and scared, to eliminate protections. Don’t give that group of people the power that they need to enact those things. Take care of yourself. Prioritize your financial education. It is your best form of protest. When you have money, you have options, you have choices, you have freedom, you have flexibility. Take that fucking seriously because it is fucking serious.
If you ignored my warning up top and you didn’t listen to the Post-Election Pep Talk episode, you’re going to go back right now and you’re going to listen to that episode, because that’s basically all that episode, is is how do we maintain our sanity? We’re going to disengage from the MAGA riptide. We’re going to stay informed, but with a huge asterisk on it. We’re not going to allow that information to panic us, to deplete us of hope, and if you do find that the information diet you are consuming leads you to feel that way, get a new diet. I’ve done this. I’m three weeks sober on election podcasts. I have not listened to an election or news podcast since the election happened, and I still know what’s going on. It gets to me. I still know that Matt Gaetz took himself out of the running. Great.
I still know these things, but I’m going to be honest with you, I’m doing way better than I thought I was going to do in terms of my emotional stability because I’m not engaging with it all the time. I’m doing really well. I’m really focused. I know what I need to do. I am channeling all of this energy into hope and joy and education for you all. I’m going to be honest, I’m doing a lot better than I thought, and it’s because I’m not consuming this diet of constant information, of constantly, quote-unquote, being informed, but really just drowning in that riptide.
So think about the diet you’re feeding yourself. Think about the information you’re getting. We talked about this in the previous episode. I need you to build community. This is the time to support businesses that you want to see more of. This is the time to put your money where your mouth is. This is your time to vote with your dollars. Support women-owned, Black-owned, queer-owned businesses, invest in mutual aid. Set up a donation to an organization you believe in.
Go out of your way for your friends. We need each other now more than ever, and it’s going to be a really rough four years if you are alone and you are siloed. Build in-person community, do not bury your head in the sand, but keep your peace, and please focus on your community, on your relationships, because that is all we’ve ever had. I am thinking about how I can start volunteering in the next four years. How can I just spend, even if it’s one hour a month, if I am traveling and I’m out of town and that’s all I’ve got, what is one hour that I could contribute a month? What is one hour I can contribute a month?
We need to become a menace to our reps, especially if they’re not working for you, but also show support to the reps who are doing good work, because they’re going to need a lot of support. They’re scared too. So call them, text them, write them letters. If they’re not doing the shit that you need as a constituent. Emily Tiss-Sussman said it on the show. They work for you. They work for us. Tell them, tell them they’re not working for us. Demand the kind of policies and the kind of information that we want to see.
We also just need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. White woman, hello, I’m one of you. I’m talking to you too. We need to reckon with our fear of discomfort and our attachment to proximity of power, especially as DEI is under attack right now and under threat, anti-racism work is very important to understand that even well-meaning things can ultimately not be beneficial. A lot of the efforts that white women take to self-soothe, to seek comfort in unknown situations actually just cause harm to Black and brown people. I’ve been there. I’ve done it. I will probably do it again.
Anti-racism work, especially right now, is going to be really important. And if you are a white woman or a man listening to this show right now, I need you to think about actionable places that you can show up for your friends of color and your colleagues of color. Invite them into meetings that they are not in. Talk them up in spaces they’re not in. Your Black coworker who’s doing a great job, bring that up. Promote her. Your female coworker who’s doing amazing things, call her into the meeting. Say, “Hey, I would love to hear your thoughts. Tell me what you think.” Give her a voice in the meeting or allow her voice really to be amplified.
My final point, this has been going all over social media and I think it’s really important to say, do not comply in advance. What we mean by that, there’s already backlash happening against Trump’s policies. That’s fantastic. We already have seen pressure work. Matt Gaetz is the perfect example of this. This is already working. You must stay engaged in a healthy way, but you cannot resign to complying before things even happen. I’m already seeing this in our comment section. Since the election happened, the amount of comments we’ve gotten of, “What if this happens? What if this happens? I’m going to do this crazy thing because somebody told me that this might happen.”
With all the love in the world to the people in the comments, you panic decision-making is not helpful. Well-informed, calm decision-making that preps for the potential of these things is what is helpful. But we are not complying in advance. We are not saying, “These things are going to happen. He’s promised them, so fuck it.” We are not doing that. Apathy is not what’s happening. We cannot be apathetic. We cannot be… I was going to say Calvinist. This is where my religious upbringing comes in. But where it’s just resigned, where it’s just like, “Okay, he’s elected. It’s fucked. He’s going to be able to do all these things.”
No, absolutely not. We’re not doing that. At the end of the day, you do not need my permission, but I’m going to give it to you. If the only thing you do, and I put only in the biggest quotes possible, if the only thing you do these next four years is just take really good care of yourself and take really good care of your community, and prioritize your financial education, and prioritize your joy, and prioritize your rest, and do everything you can to make sure your community is prioritizing their personal finances and their joy and their rest, after you’ve prioritized your own, you’ve done more than enough.
Personal finance is your best form of protest. Joy, rest, are all forms of resistance. They want you tired. They want you broke. They want you so exhausted and burned out so that you don’t protest, so that you don’t pour into your community, so that you don’t make money so that you have money to fight back. If the, quote-unquote, only thing you do for these next four years is take fucking good care of yourself and your community, that is your best form of protest. You’ve done more than enough.
Said this before, I’ll continue saying it. We’re going to be here with you every step of the way. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I know a lot as a personal finance expert. There’s also a lot I do not know. I’m going to be learning a lot as you are learning it too, about how these potential policies, if enacted are going to affect us, about what is going to happen.
Please know that the promise I kept to you in the post-election episode is still true. We’re not going to participate in the MAGA riptide. We’re going to keep our heads down. We’re going to do the work. We’re going to continue to keep you as informed as you need to be while doing the things that actually matter. Community, education, camaraderie. Those are the things that actually matter.
I appreciate you being here as always. Thank you, thank you always, but especially again today for your support of this kind of work. It is going to be an interesting four years as a publicly feminist company, and your support, your dollars, your listenership means the absolute world to us, and we really, really appreciate you being here.
Just joy. Just find the joy where you can, find the community where you can.
That’s it. Bye.
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First $100K podcast. Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap, produced by Kristen Fields and Tamisha Grant, research by Sarah Sciortino, audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf, marketing and operations by Karina Patel and Amanda Leffew.
Special thanks to our team at Her First $100K, Kailyn Sprinkle, Masha Bakhmetyeva, Taylor Chou, Sasha Bonnar, Rae Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Claire Kurronen, Daryl Ann Ingram, and Meghan Walker, promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolfe, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound.
A huge thanks to the entire Her First $100K community for supporting the show. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First $100K, our guests and episode show notes, please visit financialfeministpodcast.com. If you’re confused about your personal finances and you’re wondering where to start, go to herfirst100k.com/quiz for a free personalized money plan.
Tori Dunlap
Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over five million women negotiate salaries, pay off debt, build savings, and invest.
Tori’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, the New York Times, BBC, TIME, PEOPLE, CNN, New York Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, BuzzFeed, and more.
With a dedicated following of over 2.1 million on Instagram and 2.4 million on TikTok —and multiple instances of her story going viral—Tori’s unique take on financial advice has made her the go-to voice for ambitious millennial women. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women.”
An honors graduate of the University of Portland, Tori currently lives in Seattle, where she enjoys eating fried chicken, going to barre classes, and attempting to naturally work John Mulaney bits into conversation.
