Voting With My Wallet: My Plan

Disclaimer: I’ve really struggled with writing this post. I knew I wanted to talk about voting with your wallet this week, but, in light of the escalating protests that have spread throughout the country, I had a hard time expressing my thoughts in a way that felt useful.

As a white, middle class woman I am incredibly privileged. So privileged that I’ve been able to stay disengaged with the fight against systemic racism and police brutality in this country. I’m working to change that and one of the ways that I am doing that is by being more focused on how I vote with my wallet, which is the subject of today’s post. As I shared with my instagram community last week, I am committed to doing better and I need your help. That means that if I say something that is steeped in racism or that ignores the greater cause of equality, please call me out.

I talk about voting with your wallet all of the time. Voting with your wallet is simply the idea of displaying and adhering to your values by how you spend money. For some people that means donating to specific causes and for others it means supporting certain businesses and organizations over others. For me it means both (and I urge you to include both too), but, if I’m really honest, I’ve done more work on the latter than the former. I want to increase the power of my donations by spending more and spending smarter. I am sharing my plans with you in part to show you a financial coach’s thought process on the matter, but also because I selfishly know I need accountability to do this well and knowing that you know what my plan is will help me follow through.

I have a constant running list of money goals, some of which are incredibly action oriented a la some of these past gems:

Pay off credit card debt (done and done!)
Save for trip to Japan (done!)
Surpass $100k revenue goal (done!)

Some of the others are more, as I say, squishy:

Feel at peace with all clothing purchases (sometimes, sometimes not)
Have all income come from work I enjoy and feel aligned with (done!)
Vote with my wallet by supporting organizations that I love (a work in progress)

I want to spend time today on that last bullet point. Right now I donate money regularly in the following ways: (1) recurring monthly donation to an organization I love; (2) member of a non-profit board and pay my annual give-get; (3) regularly give “randomly” to organizations or causes that I feel strongly about. By randomly I mean truly randomly - there are months when I give to multiple organizations and months when I don’t. The frequency and amount is all over the place. While all of the ways I give are aligned with my values, the third way always feels haphazard and, because of that, I know that I don’t end up giving as much, as often, or in as targeted a way as I would like.

So here’s how I’m going about changing that:

My Long-Term Plan

My husband and I would like to work up to donating 10% of our annual income each year. We are nowhere near that goal yet. Right now we are averaging about 2%. I don’t think of that as a failure though. We’re on a financial path that is continuously allowing us more flexibility and freedom to give more. We probably won’t reach this goal in 2020 or 2021 or maybe even 2022, but I know we’ll get there. And, I hope, that once we reach that goal we will move the target out even farther.

My Medium-Term Plan

I love recurring donations. They are easy for me as the donor because I’ll never forget to pay them and they are wonderful for non-profits that are trying to project revenue in uncertain times (note: I have many non-profit clients and this is hugely helpful). However, I haven’t yet decided on another organization (or handful of organizations) that I would like to commit to giving to every month. My 3 month goal is to have narrowed down to a list of organizations I love whose work I care deeply about and then move over to a system where I have multiple recurring donations each month and give additional money to other organizations when it seems especially timely or when I feel moved to do so. The amount I give per month will be dependent on our household income (i.e. right now I am the only one working, but my husband’s work will likely restart in the next couple of months assuming that no plans change re: film and COVID-19 safety. When that happens our monthly donations will go up).

My Short-Term Plan:

Over the next 3 months I am going to set aside an additional $100/month to go to any organization or organizations of my choosing. This will be my time to research organizations to determine which are the best fit for my values and which are able to impact the most change right now; experiment with monthly amounts to determine how much I want to give on a recurring basis after the 3 month period ends; and most importantly, spend more time unpacking my values and deciding how I can be of the most service.

I’ll keep you all posted on how this plan plays out over the next several months, but in the meantime I want to hear from you. Are you struggling with something similar? What are your voting with your wallet goals? How can I support you in that work?

As always, I’m here for you and your money journey.

XOXO