“Every single time there’s a recession, women are the collateral damage.”
Let’s be real—2025 is shaping up to be a hell of a year financially, and not necessarily in a good way. Between Trump’s tariffs, a tanking stock market, and recession fears popping off everywhere you look, it’s overwhelming out here. That’s exactly why I recorded this episode — not to scare you, but to prepare you. If it feels like the financial world is spiraling and you’re wondering how the hell to protect yourself, your savings, and your sanity, this episode is your lifeline.
I’m breaking down everything you need to know to weather this economic storm––why this financial crisis is different from 2008 and 2020, what to actually do with your money right now depending on your age, and how to build security without spiraling into panic. Whether you’re just starting your financial journey or you’ve been stacking coins for years, this episode is packed with clear, actionable, no-BS advice. Share this with your friends and family!
Tl;dr––here’s what to do right now:
- Bolster your emergency fund. Aim for a minimum of 3-6 months of expenses
- Make sure your savings is in a high-yield savings account. See our recommendation here.
- Get strategic about spending. Cut any unnecessary spending at least until your emergency fund is saved.
- Pay off high interest debt––but only after your emergency fund is saved.
If You’re Under 50 (and not close to retirement):
- Stay the course. Keep investing — consistently and calmly.
- Don’t panic sell. The market is down, but that’s temporary. Stocks are “on sale,” and long-term investing is still the move.
- If you have extra cash, consider investing more after your emergency fund is set and high-interest debt is handled.
- Keep your money in the market. You haven’t “lost” anything unless you sell — let your investments ride the rollercoaster.
If You’re Over 50 (especially if retirement is <10 years away):
- Talk to a fiduciary financial advisor — now. Make sure your portfolio is gradually shifting away from high-risk investments (like stocks) into more secure ones (like bonds or CD ladders).
- Reduce exposure to risk. You should be protecting more of your portfolio as retirement approaches.
- Do your due diligence in hiring an advisor. Ask:
- Are you a fiduciary?
- How do you get paid? (Look for hourly, not percentage-based fees.)
- How are you protecting my retirement in light of current market conditions?
Key takeaways:
This crisis is different — and deeply political.
To name it plainly: 2025’s financial freefall is a “self-imposed financial crisis” triggered by Trump’s tariffs. Unlike the 2008 crash (housing and banking) or 2020’s pandemic panic, this one is fueled by a deliberate political choice. That means the volatility is manufactured, and women, as usual, are being left to clean up the mess. Understanding the political root of this crisis is essential to navigating it with clarity and purpose.
Financial basics don’t change in a recession — they matter more.
Emergency funds, paying off high-interest debt, investing consistently, and diversifying income? Those principles are recession-proof. Tori emphasizes that if you’ve been following these basics, you’re better off than most. Now’s the time to revisit and reinforce those fundamentals — not abandon them out of fear.
Don’t panic — plan.
The “Don’t Panic workshop” is all about control over chaos. It’s about avoiding panic buying, emotional spending, or impulsive investing. Instead, make a calm, strategic plan based on what’s in your control. From building up your emergency savings to cutting back discretionary expenses temporarily, it’s all about smart, steady moves.
The stock market is down — but that doesn’t mean you’ve lost money.
Stock losses aren’t real until you sell. If you’re under 50, stay the course and keep investing — it’s like buying stocks on sale. And if you’re close to retirement? Time to consult a fiduciary financial advisor and shift to lower-risk options like CD ladders or bonds.
Small businesses — especially women-owned — are going to feel this hard.
Tariffs mean operating costs rise, and small businesses bear the brunt. Now is the time to support feminist, BIPOC, and LGBTQ-owned businesses with your dollars, reviews, and advocacy. Economic resilience doesn’t rely on just individual action but community support.
Emotional resilience is just as important as financial resilience.
Understand that it’s ok to feel the fear, the burnout, the frustration—but channel that into action. Financial education is one of the only tools we do have to protect ourselves under capitalism, especially when everything else feels broken.
Notable quotes
“Every single time there’s a recession, women are the collateral damage.”
“This is a self-imposed financial crisis — this is 100% Trump’s fault.”
“If you haven’t been taking your financial education seriously, now is the time.”
“If you’re an emotional spender, find that same dopamine hit in saving money — it’s the same thing.”
Episode-at-a-glance
≫ 02:45 The Impact of Trump’s Tariffs
≫ 03:42 Emotional and Financial Preparedness
≫ 11:35 Interview with Karina Patel: Lessons from 2008
≫ 22:23 Financial Strategies by Age
≫ 25:26 Understanding Tariffs and Their Effects
≫ 29:24 Preparing for a Recession
≫ 30:55 Building an Emergency Fund
≫ 31:18 High Yield Savings Accounts
≫ 31:46 Diversifying Your Income
≫ 32:53 Cutting Discretionary Spending
≫ 35:18 Managing High-Interest Debt
≫ 37:09 Stock Market Strategies
≫ 41:42 Q&A Session
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Register for our Don’t Panic workshop: https://herfirst100k.ac-page.com/dont-panic
Stock Market Secrets FREE masterclass: http://herfirst100k.com/secrets
Our recommended financial resources: https://herfirst100k.com/tools
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Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
Between the stock market crashing, tariffs making everything more expensive, recession fears looming, and Trump being Trump, there’s a lot going on right now. You need a financial plan to navigate it. Let’s talk. But first a word from our sponsors.
Hi everyone. My name is Tori. I am a money expert, I’m a multimillionaire and I am the founder of Her First $100K, which is a money and career platform for women. I believe I was put on this earth to fight for your financial rights. I am thrilled to see you, as always. If you’re an oldie but a goodie, thank you for joining and this is a great first episode to be an introduction to this show. We talk about how money affects women differently. We give you actionable resources to better your money, and our whole approach is empathetic, nonjudgmental, and feminist, and we appreciate you being here and we appreciate you sticking around.
Right off the top, before we get into the rest of today’s episode, I did a free mini workshop. I literally hopped on a Loom and I recorded it really quickly. It is called The Don’t Panic Plan, Your Three-Step Plan to Financial Security Even as the World’s Burning. Yes, that is the official title. You can go to herfirst100k.com/dont, D-O-N-T, -panic. Herfirst100k.com/dont-panic and we will also put the link down below in our show notes. It is a free mini workshop about 20-ish minutes that is going to help you immediately have a plan to go into the unknown of the next couple months, knowing what you’re supposed to do with having that plan. So please take that free resource. It’s available to you.
I’m just going to tell you, this is an episode to share and yeah, that is self-promotional, but it’s deeper than that. Right now a lot of people are making a lot of bad financial decisions purely because they don’t have the necessary education they need. During a really emotional time, it’s very difficult to understand what decisions do I need to be making, and this is one of those episodes I need you to share with your friends, with your family, with your coworkers on social media because I don’t want people making uneducated financial choices because they don’t know the do’s and don’ts right now. And as much as I would love to get on here and talk about the White Lotus season finale because I have thoughts, mainly it was predictable for the first time ever, we can’t do that today because there’s a lot of other things going on.
We’re going to split this episode into four-ish parts. The first part is just acknowledging everything that’s going on from an emotional standpoint and also giving you the information you need to know. The second, we’re going to talk about tariffs, what impact are they going to have and should you be buying more stuff right now? Hint, the answer is no. And third, recession, fourth stock market, and then I’m going to round out with some final thoughts. I’m going to pack a lot into this episode because we get so many questions around economic volatility, around craziness in these moments and I want to be able to answer most, if not all, of your questions. However, please know I am recording this Monday, April 7th at 9:00 Pacific time. And the reason I’m giving you a timestamp is because Trump is moment to moment at this point. Things change, things update. We’ll talk about this, but I would not be surprised if suddenly the tariffs just either go away or get delayed because he realizes they’re vastly unpopular and then tries to take credit for the stock market rebounding.
So that’s when I’m recording it. Things might change, but the information in this episode will not, and that’s my first point before we do anything else. If you have been following Financial Feminist, this show, if you have read my book, Financial Feminist, if you’ve been following me on Instagram, if you have been actually doing the things we have been teaching for literal years, you are actually in a very good financial spot right now. Nothing changes about my financial advice if the economy is good or if the economy is bad, if the stock market is performing well or underperforming, if we’re in a recession or not, my advice is still the same, which is emergency funds and paying off your debt and diversifying your income and continually investing. So if you’ve been following us for a while, if you’ve been doing all of the things we’ve been telling you to do for years, you’re actually in a really good financial spot right now.
But I know this feels scary, this feels terrifying. This feels so outside of our control, so overwhelming. I was literally talking to my partner about this last week. I’m not immune to this. I have millions of dollars in the stock market. I am an emotional being, just like everybody else, and the thing I said to him is, “It me off so much that I can vote, I can protest, I can use my platform, I can do all of the ‘right things’ to get the people that I believe should be in power elected, and it still doesn’t matter. My stock market gains are still going to disappear because we have stupidity in office and because we had people who voted for stupidity in office.” This is democracy I guess is just unfortunately, when the person you don’t want to get elected gets elected and he does everything he said he was going to do, tariffs are mentioned some 50 odd times in Project 2025, we all are impacted. That’s the reality of this.
So I know it feels scary. I know it feels overwhelming. I know it feels so frustrating. I’m just so angry about it. I get it. One of the reasons I’m so upset is this is 100% on Trump. We’ve had stock market crashes. We’ve had the stock market underperform in the past for various reasons, housing crises, war, certain news events, right? 9/11, for example. But this is 100% Trump’s fault. This is a self-imposed financial crisis because he has decided that tariffs are a good idea even though they’re vastly unpopular, even though they are going to mean everything, both for individual consumers as well as small businesses, gets way more expensive. So don’t believe him when he tells you things like, “Oh yeah, but the stock market’s going to recover and it’s a temporary setback.” My man. This is your fault. This is your fault.
And again, I would not be surprised if, after we finish recording, who knows what day, he then decides to pause the tariffs or roll them back and then the stock market rebounds and then suddenly he is the savior. My not so conspiracy conspiracy theory is that he is doing this, in part, so that all of his billionaire buddies get to cash in and the rest of us suffer. So there’s a couple different things that are happening right now in 2025 compared to 2020 and even compared to 2008. So 2008, the financial crisis, the Great Recession, it was the craziness of the housing market plus the banks. 2020 was COVID. That was unforeseen. That was a global pandemic. 2025 is 100% Trump. 2025 is Trump’s tariffs. That is the single reason that we are now in financial free fall.
And my friend over at UnderTheDeskNews, this is the quote that I need you to keep in mind. V said this morning, “Instability makes the population easier to control. It exhausts people. There’s a purpose to all of this, but it is not to bring manufacturing back to America.” I mean, I can can’t say it better than that. Instability makes a population easier to control. That’s what’s happening right now. Oh gosh, I get so angry. We can keep this [inaudible 00:07:58]. I’m just like, I’m just so upset because, and this is what we talk about all the time on this show, where you can do all of the right things financially, you can do all of the correct things, and there’s still 80% of the financial equation that is outside of your control. That is politicians making ridiculous decisions and racism and sexism and ableism and homophobia and lack of education and all of the rest of it.
So just know if you’re scared, if you’re angry, I am right there with you. Here’s what we need to keep in mind, and this is where I get on my soapbox. Please know, especially if you’re new here, that this is dripping with empathy. This is dripping with empathy and understanding, but also a little bit of a wake-up call. If you have been ostriching your finances, bury your head in the sand, act like your problems don’t exist, not looking at your money, not taking your personal finance education seriously. If you have been mindlessly spending and just thinking like, oh yeah, okay, I’ll fix that later, or you’ve not been dialed in, this is the time. We don’t have any more excuses. We have to take this shit seriously because we have to control what we can control.
And I know that’s not a lot right now, I know, but if you are the person that’s been putting off your financial education, if you’re the person who’s saying, “I’ll get to that next week, I’ll get to that next month, I’m too busy,” girl, I need you to take this shit fucking seriously because this is the shit that protects us. This is the only shit that we have to protect us right now. This is the things we have to do. This is the contracts of being a human under capitalism right now, is that you have to do the things that are in your control. That is your end of the bargain.
And if you are so freaked out and so overwhelmed and so scared, I promise you that doing these financial steps we’re going to talk about today, that we’ve been talking about forever on this show, is it going to make your fear of going away entirely? No, but it’s going to make you feel a hell of a lot better. And I cannot have you be collateral damage in another financial crisis because every single time, every single time there is a stock market crash, every single time there’s a recession, every single time there is some economic volatility at a mass scale, women are the collateral damage. Women are the ones who suffer.
And again, there’s a lot outside our control. There’s a lot of systemic reasons that’s happening, but I need you to control the things you can control. I need this to be a wake-up call for you. I need you to start taking this shit seriously. So whether that’s continuing to listen to this show, other shows, reading my book, reading other financial education books, looking at your money, even if it feels scary, that’s what I need you doing right now. While we’re in an economic crisis that feels so acute and so scary, I promise you that taking strides to be better with money, to have control over your money rather than letting money and all of the craziness control you, that is going to help you sleep better at night. It’s not a perfect solution, but it is a damn good start. Please take your financial education seriously. You need to be well-informed right now about what not to do, what to do, what to keep in mind, as we navigate this season of uncertainty.
Before we get into the next part of the episode, I thought it’d be really helpful to bring in both a friend and also the person I run our business with. Karina Patel, who’s our COO. Karina is almost 40 years old, and, I think, offers a really great perspective of what this felt like in 2008, where she went wrong in terms of her own choices at that time financially, but also what you can learn from her and her experience. And I wanted to give big sister vibes here, as someone who is younger, who was, I think, 13 when 2008 happened. It was even helpful for me to hear her perspective. So we’ll go ahead and drop that interview here, after a word from our sponsors. Hi KP, I appreciate you being here.
Karina Patel:
Hello.
Tori Dunlap:
So you came on last week, when our team was having a fun little internal huddle about recession fears, about stock market fears, and you said a lot of really astute things, but you also are a little older than me. Do you mind saying how old you are?
Karina Patel:
I am 39. Actually, I will be 40 in two weeks.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, very exciting. Congratulations. So you have lived through 2008, and obviously I have lived through it too, but I was a baby. So I think every time there’s talks of a recession or some sort of economic volatility, we have very short memories. It’s very hard to remember what that felt like. So what do you remember about 2008?
Karina Patel:
Okay, I was in grad school, and already a broke college student. So finances, I had to be smart about finances. But what 21-year-old is smart about finances? I think what I remember was just everyone was panicking. Everyone was talking about recession, this is happening. There was panic, and when I say there was panic and all this noise, it was the adults around me. And yes, at 21 I was an adult, but also very much still in my bubble of I am still in school. My focus is getting through my thesis and getting to graduation, so not so much of the world around me. I remember my dad telling me, “Make sure that you put money into your savings. Be smart about your spending.” So what did that mean at 21? I was in grad school in Europe, so I was spending weekends hopping on the train, going wherever the euro will takes me.
That meant, okay, do I hop on a train and go travel this weekend? Or the week you pay rent, it was like, I’m going to have pasta and sauce this week or canned tuna and crackers this week because that is all I can afford this week. It was very much like there was a lot of noise, a lot of it I didn’t understand, I would say thoroughly, but I did know that everything came to a standstill. People weren’t hiring. I just remember the world coming to a standstill. I remember the chaos and the noise. A lot of it, I didn’t understand as a 21-year-old, but I did understand that things were becoming more expensive. I had to think through things and be like, do I want to spend? Do I not want to spend? And again, it wasn’t like spending, meaning am I buying a house or am I paying a mortgage? No, it was am I hopping on the train and going away for the weekend or am I going out for drinks-
Tori Dunlap:
Very discretionary.
Karina Patel:
Yeah. Or do I go out for dinner or do I cook at home? Those were my decisions back then, as a student, but it was thinking about, okay, graduation’s going to be coming up in X number of months. I need to be preparing and making connections and figuring out what am I going to do in terms of a job. In your younger 20s? The concept of long-term savings, long-term decisions is really hard to grasp. I think this is where emotional spending comes in. I know right now, everyone is hearing, “Don’t panic,” and, “Just ride the wave,” and, “This is a great time to invest,” all valid advice. But when you’re in your 20s, you don’t even know what that means. It’s hard to think long-term, especially with the world, the way things are happening right now.
But truly, it was, I think tackling it a bit at a time. So for me, my goal was, okay, I got to make it to graduation. I got to finish my thesis, I got to get to graduation, I got to get a job, and it was rough looking for a job. No one was hiring. There were 31 people in my grad program, and I want to say almost all of us went back to jobs that we were in when we were in our undergrad. We went back into jobs that were recession-proof, in a way, that service industries or hospitality. Just it was like, I need a job to pay the bills and I will think about the career that I want after, but I needed to be able to pay the bills because I was living off of savings at that point.
And one of the things I would do differently. The things I would do differently, I would not be so quick to just spend my savings. I had great savings while I was in school. This is something that I had learned from my dad, but when the recession hit, when I graduated, I basically spent 2009 job hunting and for six months, I just paid rent out of my savings. Now, I could have been smarter. I could have lived at home. I thought, no, I needed to be in the city I want a career in and the opportunities are going to come to me when I’m in a place, when I’m surrounded by the work and opportunities.
And now I think what I would’ve done differently is I would’ve stayed at home with my parents. I would’ve saved while working. Now with the world being remote opportunities, it looked differently back then. But now I think I would’ve, for anyone who’s like, I’ve just graduated and I want to work in this industry, but the city I live in doesn’t have this industry, stay at home. Live with your parents, live with a family member, live wherever rent is free or cheap because-
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. If you’re able.
Karina Patel:
If you’re able, because you have to, I think, pad your savings, as you mentioned to the team last week, focus on your emergency fund. That is so important because we, again, we don’t know what companies are doing and how they’re reacting. I think that’s the first thing is if, unfortunately, someone does lose their job, that’s the fund you’re going to turn to. And knowing that you have that emergency savings, I can’t even tell you what kind of relief it brings you. So I would say that, especially if things continue to go down and jobs are no longer as safe. I would also say don’t panic sell. For anyone who has invested, don’t panic sell your investments. Again, Tori, you said this to the team, “You haven’t lost anything because you haven’t sold yet.” So just, it’s hard hearing the words, “Ride it out,” but it’s so true. And last advice, I talked about emotional spending. If you can, and I know it’s hard because I comfort eat, I comfort spend sometimes, when I’m like, I need this and it’ll make me feel better, and sometimes it does. Avoid making emotional decisions.
Tori Dunlap:
I think my last thing too, that I asked you last week, did it feel like the end of the world in 2008?
Karina Patel:
It did, but it didn’t. I think, really it was more like, it didn’t feel like the end of the world. It felt defeating because I was applying for jobs over and over again and I was like, okay, at some point it has to get better. I know that, but when am I going to get my break? When am I going to find that job? When am I going to start my career?
I think I felt “when the world was ending,” it was probably felt more fear around the unknown with 9/11 and the day it happened. That was very much like, oh no, what is happening? And the things after. Even with COVID, it was just the unknown and that just scares everybody. It’s the unknown. But definitely not that the world was ending. It was just like, okay, we don’t have a script for this. We don’t know what’s happening. And so what do we do? And now that I’ve been seeing all the memes online, and it’s like for millennials who are now in their fourth recession or 10th unprecedented-
Tori Dunlap:
Their 12th unprecedented life event. We just posted our own memes last night.
Karina Patel:
Yeah. It’s like, yeah, it’s true. And I never want to come off unempathetic or just-
Tori Dunlap:
You don’t.
Karina Patel:
Or cold or just not in touch, but it’s like the world isn’t ending and it is okay, and it’s just another thing that we go through. Some good things do come out of this. So if someone is able to invest, invest. And like you said, Tori, I think you even posted this the other day. I was like, if it’s $10 or $100, invest if you can. And if that isn’t something that’s feasible or doable right now, that’s okay. Put it into a savings account. High yield savings. Savings is the one thing that, honestly, got me through and didn’t make me panic as much.
Tori Dunlap:
There’s some people who are going to be listening who are not in their early 20s. There’s going to be some people who are, which is so helpful. But everything you just said can be applied regardless of where you’re at, which is like diversify your income, start networking because you don’t know if your job is going to be safe. Start thinking about what is the next step in my career and if I do have to take a job that is “under my education level,” but it’s going to pay the bills, we got to remove our ego from that. I think that’s a necessary step. Protecting our savings, making sure that we’re thinking strategically when we do spend money, and I think, again, I’ve seen the memes of trying to save money because life is hard, but also trying to spend money because life is hard. It’s like that’s the balance right now that we have to strike, is understanding, yes, when we do spend money, it often makes us feel better, but is that the smartest financial choice right now? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.
Karina Patel:
Yeah. Truly, I think about lockdown during COVID and honestly, when I talk about emotional spending, for me, a pint of salt and straw got me through the week.
Tori Dunlap:
Thank you, KP. That was great.
Karina Patel:
Thank you.
Tori Dunlap:
So let’s talk about what you can do first in terms of decades. I’m going to give this to you in a couple different ways, both by theme, so what to do during a recession, what to do to prep, what to do when the stock market’s collapsing. But first we’re going to talk about what to do in terms of your age. The things to keep in mind. If you are under 50 years old and you are expecting to retire at the normal age, which is 65, we are staying the course. That’s it. We’re staying the course. I’m doing this right, I’m continuing to invest, but also if I do have some extra money, this is a great time to invest and actually invest more. Why? Well, because stocks are on sale right now.
This is one of the ways I became a millionaire in 2020 is I was taking my entrepreneurship gains. I was making good money from being an entrepreneur in 2020, 2021, and then I was investing those gains at a time when the stock market was underperforming so that my investments could grow for me. If you are over 50, this is where it gets trickier. If you are over 50 and expecting to retire in 10-ish years or less, you need to talk to a financial advisor right now. This is one of the only times I’m going to recommend people actually seek out a financial advisor because you need to make sure that the vast majority of your portfolio is not invested in things that are riskier, like stocks or funds. You’re looking to protect more of that money the closer you get to retirement.
I’m seeing a lot of people in my comments right now who are 50 plus and who are like, “Oh, what’s going on with the stock market? How is it going to impact my retirement? My financial advisor,” if you have a financial advisor who is not making sure that you are slowly divesting from the market and putting your money in more secure investments like bonds or a CD ladder, get a new financial advisor because they are not doing their job very well. My dad, for example, my parents are in their early 60s and they, for the past 10, 15 years, have slowly been taking some of their money out of the stock market, not all of it. I think my dad, when I last talked to him a couple of days ago, has about 40% of their money in the stock market still, which is still pretty high, but he’s more risk tolerant.
But they’ve been slowly taking their money out and putting it in a CD ladder, and he literally told me, he goes, “We have enough money to survive in cash/accessible investments like a CD ladder for the next 10 to 15 years.” This is where, the closer you get to retirement, you need to be thinking strategically about moving some of your money out of those riskier investments because you need to protect more of your money as you get closer to retirement. If you’re going to talk to a financial advisor, which again, this is the case I recommend you should, you need to make sure there are two things.
One, you need to make sure they’re a fiduciary, meaning they’re legally obligated to act in your own best interest. If they are not a fiduciary, I don’t care who they are. I don’t care if they’re your cousin or your brother, you need to not work with them. The second thing is you need to make sure they charge you hourly, not a percentage rate. Make sure they’re charging you hourly. So let’s talk about tariffs. I was just on CNN this weekend and the host of CNN asked me, “Should we be buying more stuff right now because things are about to get more expensive?”
And the answer I gave her is I don’t know. Now that sounds like a stupid answer. That sounds like I’m not informed. No, we just don’t know. We don’t know how tariffs are going to directly impact everything, except to make it more expensive. We all remember the toilet paper panic buy of 2020. Don’t be that person. Don’t be that person. Don’t hoard and stockpile right now, when everybody else needs stuff too. That is not you being a good villager. That is not you being aware of the people around you. Buy the stuff you’re going to buy already. Do not panic buy, do not do it, okay? Do not allow tariffs and Trump to impact your financial decisions. If you were going to buy toilet paper already, great, buy your toilet paper. If you were going to buy canned goods already, great, buy them. But don’t get in the habit of buying six of these things because you’re scared when everybody else needs one too.
And to those asking, “Are iPhones going to get more expensive? Are these TVs going to get more expensive?” I’ve been seeing all of the news articles of people wheeling their new flat screen TVs out of Costco. If you weren’t planning on buying a flat screen TV already, don’t fucking buy a flat screen TV. Yeah, you’re getting harsh, Tori, today. I’m sorry, I got to be real with you. If you are not going to buy the thing already, don’t go panic buy it because you’re worried about the price going up. It’s not a sale if you go and buy the thing. Be smart with your money. Don’t think, oh my gosh, the price of this thing’s going to go up, so I need to buy it now, unless you are already going to buy it.
If you would’ve already been planning on buying an iPhone for a while and you truly need it, you need the new iPhone. Yeah, maybe it’s a time to buy it or maybe it’s not. This is the time to make smart financial decisions, especially when it comes to your spending, and we’re going to talk about this in a second, but you need to be increasing your savings right now. And one of the easiest ways to increase your savings is to decrease your spending. So do not panic by things. Do not let the craziness of this tariffs moment impact the way that you spend your money. Make smart, educated financial choices that are backed in logic, not you freaking out. The last thing I’ll say about tariffs Trump’s out here being like, “China is going to pay for them.” No, my man, that’s not how tariffs work.
So tariffs are not beneficial. They’re not helpful for us as individuals. They are going to make things way more expensive, if he truly does implement them. Again, I think, God, I hope he has a change of heart. And the second thing, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with business owner friends of mine. This is about to get a lot more expensive to be a small business owner. It’s about to get a lot more expensive for small businesses, for women-owned businesses, for BIPOC and LGBTQ owned businesses. So if you haven’t started protesting Target, now is the time. If you haven’t started thinking strategically about how you can vote with your dollars you do spend, now is the time. If you haven’t left positive Yelp reviews and Google reviews at your favorite restaurants and your favorite brands, now’s the time. Shit’s about to get a lot harder for a lot of people and it’s going to be really hard to survive as a woman-owned business or a small business these next, call them months, call them years.
So please be smart with your money, both in making smart financial decisions with your spending, but also thinking strategically about where your money can make the most impact. Let’s talk about a recession. First of all, we’re not in a recession yet. Again, recording this at 9:00 AM April 7th. We’re knocking wood. We’re not in a recession yet. I am not in the game of predicting recessions. One, because nobody actually can, and two, because that’s not helpful for me to crystal ball it and try to tell you. However, it’s not looking great. Okay? So I am preparing myself and our business for a recession. You should be preparing yourself and your finances for a recession too. You should be prepping for a recession in April of 2025. You should be prepping for a recession in January of 2026. You should be prepping for a recession way back in every year.
What I say does not change. We need to be prepping for financial emergencies, whether that’s your own, like losing a job, or somebody getting sick, but also the external emergencies too. So what I’m about to say, if you’ve been a listener to the show for a long time, shouldn’t be news. This is why we do the work. This is why it’s so important that you listen to financial education and financial media because really good stuff, like our podcast, if I do say so myself, is going to give you this information whether the sun is shining or it’s pouring down rain outside.
So recession, here’s what we’re going to do. One, we are going to save up our emergency fund. Three months of living expenses, at least. If you already have that three months emergency fund, now might be the time to increase it. Increase it to four, five, six, even more than six, if you can swing it. It’s a good time to pad your emergency fund to increase the amount of cash you do have on hand. The second thing is if you have not opened a high-yield savings account, there is no excuses right now. There is no excuses. High-yield savings accounts are just like everyday savings accounts, except they’re going to earn you more in interest, and we need our emergency savings earning us as much money as possible. So your emergency fund needs to be in a high-yield savings account.
High-yield savings accounts also achieve a really important goal, which is my second point in preparing for a recession. Diversify your income. Do everything you can to not just be reliant on one source of income because if your job gets cut, if your hours get cut, if you get laid off, if something happens, you need to be able to sustain yourself should something happen. Now, side hustles are great. Getting an additional source of income through labor is fine, but I don’t want you necessarily always having to work more for more money. This is where high-yield savings accounts are so powerful. No, they’re not at the crazy high interest rates we saw a couple of years ago, but they’re around 3% as opposed to about 0.3%, which is in your average savings account. That’s a lot more money for you doing no additional labor, no additional work, not having to take out a second job.
High-yield savings accounts are a must at any time, but a requirement while we’re preparing for financial volatility. To recap, an emergency fund. At least three months of living expenses. Two, in a high yield savings account, and thinking about ways you can diversify your income is so important right now. Let’s talk about spending. Any discretionary spending that’s currently happening, I’m not going to tell you to completely cut it, but I am going to tell you to cut it temporarily if you do not have your emergency fund.
I know, usually I am like fun, cool mom who’s like, “Yeah, we can spend money on the things we love and also save money.” However, we are preparing for a financial crisis. We are preparing for economic volatility, and I need you temporarily, if you do not have emergency savings, to cut the things that you’re spending discretionary money on so you can save that money instead. This is temporary, but if you do not have that emergency fund, you’re going to be in a world of financial hurt if, again, something happens to your job, if someone gets sick, if just the recession does get really, really bad, if we are thrust into the midst of it. So if you don’t have that emergency fund, I need you to cut your discretionary spending, put that money towards that emergency fund in the high yield savings account.
If you already have an emergency fund, this is the time to look at your spending through the lens of the things that no longer bring you joy, the things that feel mindless, the things that you can cut right now to hunker down a little bit. Okay, so this might be the streaming subscription that you don’t really use anymore. Severance is over. There’s no reason to have Apple TV anymore, everybody. I’m sorry. There’s no reason. That might be something you cut. Thinking strategically about when am I going out to eat versus when am I cooking at home? How am I using the produce that I already have before things go bad? We have an incredible episode that we’ve done previously with my friend Carly, who’s a cookbook author and a food creator, to talk about how you can not only save money on groceries, but reuse a lot of the things that you would normally throw away.
We’re also thinking strategically about our emotional spending. Shit’s hard right now. It’s a lot easier to spend money to try to cope, but the irony of doing that is that it puts you in a worse financial position. So that same dopamine hit you get by spending money. I want you to find that same dopamine hit with saving money. And yeah, it’s the same thing that goes on in your brain. When you hit add to cart, when you decide, yeah, I’m going to spend this money and it gives you that excitement that like, okay, I’m feeling really good about life, that same dopamine hit can happen when you save money too. And finally, let’s talk about debt. If you have high interest debt, we’re looking at credit card debt really is the only culprit here, after your emergency fund, after you’ve beefed that up, after you’ve opened that high yield savings account, it’s really important to do everything we can to eliminate that debt.
This potentially is a great time to get what’s called a personal loan. We have the one we recommend. We will link it down below. You can also go to herfirst100k.com/tools. A personal loan is going to allow you to consolidate your credit card debt, especially if you have debt in more than one place and you’ve had a really hard time paying it off. We’ve talked about this on the show before, but personal loans allow you to have one singular payment that doesn’t accrue interest every day. That’s why credit cards feel so powerfully damaging, is that they’re accruing interest on a day-to-day basis that compounds. Personal loans consolidate it, allow you to pay just one payment without the debt accruing every single day. So this is a potentially great time to look into that if you have credit card debt that currently feels beyond your control.
So reminder, to prepare for a recession, we are looking at increasing our emergency savings or saving that emergency fund, if we haven’t already, by cutting our discretionary spending temporarily. The second thing we’re doing is making sure we have a high yield savings account. That high yield savings account is not only going to bolster our savings, it’s also going to allow us to diversify our income. Third thing is we’re going to think strategically about our spending. We are cutting anything that is not actually giving us value to our lives. And again, we are cutting our discretionary spending completely, temporarily, but completely if we don’t have that emergency fund saved. And finally, paying off our debt, thinking strategically, especially about our credit card debt, using tools potentially like a personal loan, but eliminating that debt after our emergency fund is saved.
Let’s talk about the stock market. I’ve talked about this on Instagram quite a lot. We also have a free masterclass, herfirst100k.com/secrets. It’s called Stock Market Secrets. It gives you all of the secrets of the stock market, but I just recorded one. So it’s all about what’s going on right now. It gives you some really good information to navigate all of the financial craziness. So please, after this episode, it’s a free resource, it’s a free masterclass, herfirst100k.com/secrets. It gives you everything you need to know right now.
The TLDR on the stock market. Again, we talked about this before. If you are under 50, really if you are not nearing retirement anytime soon, you are staying the course. I know it’s terrifying. I know it’s scary. I will go on mic and say this, my investments have lost over half a million dollars in value the past four days. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. That feels so scary and terrifying. So please know that when I tell you to stay the course, I’m also having to remind myself to stay the course. But every single financial dip in previous years has seen not only a full recovery, but an increase in the stock market gains. And a reminder that this dip that we’re currently experiencing, again, as of 10 AM on Monday, April 7th, this dip is just now about where we were at in 2021, 2022.
So the dip is from an all time high. The stock market has been climbing since 2021 and has not really had a correction since then. So while the media will make you feel so scared and terrified right now about everything that’s going on, please know that they’re in this for clicks. They’re in this to get ad revenue. When they have a headline that’s like Dow Jones drops all time low, I’m not saying sometimes it’s not true, but they’re using inflammatory language. Okay? So I’m trying to ground this in reality for you.
Does it feel scary? Absolutely. Is the stock market underperforming? Yeah, to put it lightly, but it’s because we’ve seen such incredible gains over the past couple of years. Now, if you do have money to invest, now’s a great time to get in, even if it’s just $10, $50, $100, maybe more than that, but don’t feel an additional sense of panic to buy the dip if you don’t have the money to. You should not be buying the dip and taking advantage of stocks on sale right now unless you have an emergency fund, unless you don’t have high interest debt like credit card debt. There’s things that we have to do to protect our financial house before we can take advantage of these opportunities.
And I said this before, but I’ll say it again, but last stock market downturn, which happened in 2020, that’s the thing that made me a millionaire. I was making a lot of money in the business. The business was really lean back then. I was able to invest a lot, and I was able to get in at a really good time. And regardless of whether the stock market’s underperforming or overperforming, I’m going to tell you to invest. I’m going to tell you that every day you wait to invest loses you money. But if your money’s in the market right now and you feel so panicked, a reminder that you have not lost or gained money unless you choose to sell. What does that mean? If I bought a house and, after owning that house for five years, Zillow tells me it’s worth $50,000 more, great. I don’t have $50,000 more, though, unless I choose to sell the house.
It’s an asset. The asset goes up in value and goes down in value. It’s just the same thing with the stock market. So when you hear people say, “I lost so much money today.” Even me, right? Oh, okay, the market. That’s why I said market value, specifically, not I lost half a million dollars because I only actualize those losses if I choose to sell. And I heard this great quote the other day, and I need you to keep it in mind. “The only person that gets hurt on a roller coaster is the person who tries to get off.” I’m going to say that again. “The only person who gets hurt riding a roller coaster is the person who tries to get off.” Okay? So we’re staying the course.
I know it’s scary. I know it’s terrifying. This is why I did that masterclass for you. This is why those resources exist. But the TLDR, we’re staying in it, even if it feels terrifying. We got so many questions for our incredible community over on Instagram. We are over on Instagram at Financial Feminist podcast, if you want to be featured in an upcoming episode. I’m going to do these in a rapid fire. I’m investing in my 401k for the match, but should I keep investing beyond that? Yes, assuming you’re under 50, we’re going to keep investing 100%. Should I start investing in non-US funds? We teach this in Stock Market School, which is my incredible program that teaches you how to navigate the stock market. Great time to join, by the way. But the answer is, yeah. If you want a diversified investment portfolio, which is what smart investors do, you want to think strategically about investing, not potentially just in United States-based investments, but outside.
This is what I do. This is what many successful investors do to help mitigate your risk. However, I will say this is the impact of the United States, is that Trump can say the word tariff and every stock market in every country is impacted. So just keep that in mind. What questions should I be asking my financial advisor? Great. First, are they a fiduciary? And two, how do you get paid? Those are the first two questions. If they don’t say, “Yes, I’m a fiduciary,” or, “I get paid by the hour,” it’s time to get a new financial advisor. But assuming they passed the test, we’re going to ask them a couple questions. One, are you doing anything to change my portfolio because of what’s happening right now? And if so, how are you making those choices? The second thing is, especially, again, if you’re over 50, how are you protecting my retirement as I get closer and closer to that day? And the third thing is, how are you making sure my investments are diversified for the long term?
Again, most people don’t need a financial advisor. You need to be in something like Stock Market School, getting education. You need to be listening to this show. You can manage your own investments, but if you’re getting closer and closer to retirement, this is a great time to meet with somebody, even if it’s just one time. Should I stockpile? No, we covered it, but stockpile your investments, stockpile your savings. That’s a great time to do that. But do not stockpile toilet paper. Do not stockpile necessities that other people need. Don’t be that person. Best case scenario? I love this question. Honestly, right now, I think the best case scenario, and I do think it’s truly pretty likely, is for Trump to come out and be like, “Just kidding, everybody. Just kidding. We’re not doing tariffs. Or we’re going to put a 90-day pause on them because everybody’s really mad at me.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case. That is the best case scenario right now, and then I think the market will recover. If that doesn’t happen, yeah, things are probably about to get pretty ugly. You said you made millions in the last recession. How? Well, first of all, 2020 was like a recession-lite. We had tastes of a recession. It wasn’t a full-blown thing. We haven’t had a true recession since 2008. So frankly, we are long overdue. Recessions typically happen every eight-ish years. The fact that we have not had a true one, I have to do the math. What? God, 18, 15 years, how long is that? Why can’t I do 2025 minus 2008? It’s 17 years. That’s a long time, okay.
So it’s a normal economic event. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t mean it’s not scary. It’s a normal economic event. But like I said before, I was well-posed to take advantage of it, and you can be well-posed to take advantage of it too. And finally, the doomsday question. Okay. I’m going to spend a little bit more time talking about this one because we’re getting a lot of variations of it. But Tori, this truly is unprecedented. You’re talking about 2008, you’re talking about 2020, but Trump wasn’t in charge then and he wants to do all this crazy shit and the world is going to end and the system’s not going to exist. And what if we can’t recover from this? And what happens now? Please know that I say this with a boatload of empathy, as always. A lot of people ask these questions as a way to kick the can down the road. As a way to abdicate responsibility for their own money.
So if you’re the person who’s asking this question as a way to opt out, and I want you to get really honest with yourself, okay? I want you to get really honest with yourself. Are you asking the panic, doomsday question as a way to not really learn anything about money or as a way to make sure that you don’t have to look at your credit card spending? Politely, you don’t get to ask this question if you don’t have an emergency fund. You don’t get to really consider this question if you haven’t done every single thing that you possibly can to make sure that, if it is worst-case scenario, you have done everything in your power to protect yourself. This is what I see a lot. And again, I sound harsher in this episode and I know, but it’s because I need you to wake up.
I need you to take this shit seriously. I need you to take ownership over the stuff you can control, because that’s frankly all we have right now. There’s a lot of shit outside of our control. So the one semblance of true control we do have is our own spending, some of our own savings and our own financial education and choices. So if you are doing the, well, this is just different and oh my God, and it’s panic and everything, the system’s going to break, as a way for you to not take your own responsibility. We’re not going to do that. Now, if you are the person who has done all of the “right things” and still has a little bit of fear, that’s natural. I’m in the same boat with you, girl. I have done everything right financially, and it feels a little scary right now. It feels unprecedented.
I don’t know. Again, it makes me sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I would rather do this than blow smoke up your ass. I don’t know. If the system truly ceases to exist and Donald Trump becomes master dictator, I don’t know what happens. None of us know what happens. But the thing that I cling to is that every unprecedented event felt unprecedented while they were in it. World War I, the entire world was at war with each other. Terrifying. World War II, we did it again. That had to feel terrifying. The Cuban Missile Crisis Y2K, 9/11, 2008, COVID, all of these things felt like the end of the world. Vietnam. Forgot about Vietnam. All of these things felt like the end of the world. They felt like some part of what we knew was dying, and we got through it.
That’s what I have to cling to at this point. That’s what I have to keep in mind, is if we survived an all-out war on each other, then maybe we can survive this. And I think that optimism and hope and strategic, logical thinking right now are the way that we make smart decisions, are the ways that we help protect ourselves from the very panic that Trump wants. I’m going to read V’s quote again because it’s a great way to round out this episode. “Instability makes a population easier to control. It exhausts people.” I need you well-fed. I need you well rested. I need you well shored up financially for whatever is in store. Yeah, it’s probably pretty unpredictable. It’s probably pretty unprecedented. But wouldn’t you rather go into an unprecedented event having taken all of the steps that you can to feel financially secure?
And let’s say we get through this, which we’re likely to. You’re in a better financial spot. You continued investing. You made sure you had that high-yield savings account. You made sure to have that emergency fund. All of these things are crucially important any day, but especially today. And finally, I mentioned this resource off the top, but I recorded this mini little workshop for you to answer all of your questions and to give you a plan to prepare. It’s going to be very similar to this, but if you want direct access to me, if you want me talking to you and reassuring you and giving you a pep talk, you’re going to go to herfirst100k.com/dont, D-O-N-T, -panic. So that’s herfirst100k.com/dont-panic. Please share this episode with other people. Please share this episode with the people who need it most in your life. We appreciate you supporting the show. We appreciate you supporting feminist media always, but especially today, stay the course. We’ll be here with all of the updates you need. We’ll talk to you soon.
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First 100K Podcast. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First 100K, our guests and episode show notes, 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.
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, Sasha Bonar, Rae Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Daryl Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclos, Meghan Walker, and Jess Hawks. 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 our show.
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.
