Here’s a question for you. If a stranger with a mic and camera came up to you at your favorite coffee shop while you were enjoying your steamed almond milk latte and asked you your favorite sexual position, would you tell them?
If, in that same scenario, rather than asking about your favorite sexual position they asked what your bank account balance was. Would you tell them?
That’s exactly what Gaby Dunn, of the newly published Bad with Money: The Imperfect Are of Getting Your Financial Sh*t Together, did in the premiere of her Bad with Money podcast. To satiate your curiosity, everyone answered the sex question and refused to answer the account balance question.
Dunn made her name as a personality for Buzzfeed and YouTube and her wildly popular first book, I Hate Everyone but You. Her Bad with Money podcast is a money show ‘for the rest of us,’ and was a project she undertook because, as Dunn claims she’s honestly bad with money.
Dunn appeared on the Queer Money® podcast to talk about why her generation is turned off by traditional financial advice and the systemic challenges marginalized communities, including the queer community, face today. In a culture that celebrates the fabulous no matter how fake, Dunn’s take on money is a breath of fresh air.
Being bad with money
“Even though my whole thing is radical transparency, there was one thing I [was keeping] secret, and that was my money situation,” says Dunn. This is what prompted Dunn to start her podcast, Bad with Money, and provide a unique take not seen in traditional money media.
“As I learned more and more about my own money situation and other people’s money situations, it became clearer to me that [money] was more of a social justice issue than I had previously realized,” Dunn says. She continues, “All the advice is for middle- to upper-class, able-bodied, largely straight, cis white people.”
Being about the rest of us
“It’s better to look at something through a specific lens rather than a generic one,” Dunn continues. Especially with money, the traditional advice alienates large segments of the population. When you’re concerned about your job security or physical security, the financial security promoted through traditional advice seems unreachable. Now, today, there are alternatives now.
Dunn’s show started with her talking about her talking with people about their experiences with money. By the second season, Bad with Money became as much about the social issues about money as money itself.
This is about when Dunn assumed the show description of ‘money for the rest of us.’ Today her show looks at money through a female, person of color, queer, disable, neuro-atypical lens. Dunn wants to reach people with her message who traditional resources aren’t reaching.
Being turned off by traditional money media
Dunn says that traditional finance media is condescending, it doesn’t consider most people’s ‘real lives,’ and, she argues, the shame is palpable because “everyone can’t start their retirement savings in kindergarten.” Dunn explains that traditional financial advice isn’t connecting with broader demographics and younger populations because it often leaves out the disenfranchised and minority communities, both economically and demographically.
Dunn says one of the best things she learned during her first season was from a disability expert who shared that disabled people are discouraged from earning more than $2,000 monthly (and sometimes less) or they risk losing Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits. Thus, when traditional money media suggest having a certain amount of money by a certain age, they’re losing whole segments of the population. After a while, Dunn says, “it feels classist.”
Dunn says, “the best people to talk about money with are people from your same demographic because they likely have similar lifestyles, risks and concerns.” This is one of the benefits of the gig economy.
Once upon a time, there were three television channels for everyone, and those three channels had to speak to the largest demographics in order to sell the value of advertising on television. Today, with podcasts, YouTube, blogs and social media, nearly every demographic can find money experts from their community.
Being inundated with financial education and not being educated
To be true, contrary to popular belief, there’s a lot of financial education out there. From the internet to cheap books on Amazon to podcasts to YouTube videos, there’s a lot of financial education and much of it is good.
Why is it not connecting with so many Americans? Dunn attributes this lack of connection to systemic issues. “For so many, there’s almost no economic mobility, and no matter how much individual advice you follow, there are so many historical factors to consider that the traditional advice almost doesn’t apply.”
For marginalized people, Dunn continues, “There are a million ways to punish you.” Most people, when presented with enough challenges, give up or find the path of least resistance. The latter is often the most criticized.
Being in a world ruled by Gaby Dunn
If Gaby Dunn ruled the world, she’d “eliminate shame about money because it presents so many problems that people don’t even approach it.” Dunn would encourage “people to stop taking their financial circumstances as a personal failure.” She’d make clear that “People who are born on second base didn’t earn a double.”
Being willing to talk about sex more than money
So, what’s Dunn’s take on why her coffee shop experiment exposing people’s willingness to talk about their sex lives and not their account balances? “You seem ‘cool’ talking about sex, and people want to be ‘cool.’ Money isn’t cool. Money’s boring,” she says.
Dunn continues that, especially because of social media, everyone wants to be “living the dream.” No one wants to claim to have a poor sex life. Money’s an embarrassment for many. So, they dismiss talk about money, especially something as quantifiable as account balances, as too personal. One wonders how people would’ve responded to questions about their income, as incomes are a point of pride for many people.
Too often, and to an extent it’s true, that social justice warriors are dismissed as trying to tear people and systems down. But many are trying to help everyone get a fair shot, create true opportunity equilibrium. That’s Dunn’s mission and why she’ll continue being bad with money.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/
Theresa Todman, Managing Partner/CEO of B&M Financial Management Services, LLC . Theresa works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to assist them with financial management and creating organized systems and procedures. She specializes in bookkeeping, accounting, QuickBooks solutions, small business tax issues and consulting.
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