Take Control of Your Money

This is what it all boils down to. You don’t need to be dominated by fear anymore. 

You’re making enough money to more than get by. But the future is scary, and you’re not sure whether you can withstand a financial emergency should it come to pass. How will you be able to pay for adoption or in-vitro fertilization when you’re ready to have a kid? How will you handle the costs of a gender transition? How can anyone in our generation really buy a house?

If you are not aware of what's going on with your money and intentionally deciding what it should be doing, then you're just following whatever the mainstream idea is of what should be important to you. That means that you're spending money on stuff you don't care about!

It might mean your strategy for saving looks more like a dragon sitting on its hoard than a careful plan that aligns with your values. 

Maybe anticapitalism is too defined by what we don’t want. We know that hoarding wealth is bad, but sometimes we can lack a vision for an alternative. Humans are herd animals. We need to take care of each other; to be in relationship with each other. What else is the point of a society? 

Capitalism teaches us that we need to have a huge pile of money to take care of ourselves – to take care of “me,” the individual. I want all of us – especially as a queer community – to say instead, “here's what I have, and here's what you need.” It doesn't mean giving your rent money away, but it does mean knowing how much you actually need. 

Never lose sight of your non-monetary resources. Sure, you have money in the bank in case of an emergency, but you may also have a friend who can make you a meal sometime. You have a friend who can edit your resume. You have a friend who can introduce you to someone who can fix your house on the cheap, or get you a job. 

There are these non-financial resources that are part of how we exist in community with each other – how we build the world that actually cares about keeping us alive. In this very cold, late-stage capitalist era, it’s how we look out for one another and ourselves. 

It might mean that you’re not saving enough for the things that you want in the future. 

I see a ton of impulse spending – certainly for folks with ADHD, but also the rest of us. It’s, in part, a symptom of capitalism. We are trained to be workers and consumers and nothing else, so if you're not actively at work, then you are supposed to be buying stuff. And that means that we are trained to buy stuff that isn't actually important to us, which in turn means that we are using money for stuff that isn't actually important, leaving us with less for the stuff that actually matters to us.

I want people to think deeply, carefully, and deliberately about the answer to this question: 

What do you want?

Knowing what you want is the bedrock of intentional planning. From there, you can begin to answer the key question: How am I using my resources to get what I really want (instead of what I'm told I should want)? 

Having that answer makes everything else less abstract. Budgeting, planning – everything becomes about your goals for your life, and not some amorphous concept of “doing things the right way.” 

It might mean you have debt that you're not handling efficiently – or not handling at all. 

Do you know how to approach getting a car loan or a mortgage? Without knowing how to navigate the information in your credit report, how could you? 

Being blindsided by a bad interest rate doesn’t just happen in a vacuum – it drains money from your goals, making it harder to redistribute income, enjoy your life, retire or have kids. This is even truer when you have existing debt that you’ve put on the back burner. 

Debt is a tool, and using debt is morally neutral. It doesn’t say anything about your character. We can learn how to use that tool more effectively, though, and in doing so, we can free up more resources and use those resources to live more intentionally and more authentically. 

I’m here to show you how to get your personal finances in order, no matter the challenge. 

Let’s have a conversation! If you’re seriously considering working with me, schedule a free consultation so we can talk about what’s going on and the best way for you to move forward. I’ll ask about your income, debt, savings, goals, money management practices, financial literacy, and struggles - then use all of that information to figure out whether working with me is the right move for you or not!

I’ve helped over 350 folks with their finances to date. I’m sure I can help you, too.

A note on reparations

It is my reparations practice to offer my services at lower cost to those most harmed by white supremacist capitalism. Usually, that is Black queer folks and Indigenous queer folks. If this is relevant and supportive to you, let’s have a conversation to figure out what price helps you feel invested in your financial planning without causing more harm.