Money Is our Most Powerful Tool - How Are We Using It?

Money isn’t good or bad—it’s power.

And in a world where the economy was never built for most of us, that power can either quietly uphold the status quo… or help dismantle it.

In this episode of Disrupt Your Money, Meg breaks down how every dollar you earn, spend, save, or invest is a tiny vote for the kind of world you want to live in. From where you shop to how you price your work to the way you pay your people, your money is already doing political work—whether you mean it to or not.

You’ll learn how to line your money up with your values on purpose: using your business as a tool for equity, building community wealth, starting (or growing) an emergency fund, rethinking debt without shame, and taking small but real steps toward a more just economy—for you and your people.

⏱️ In This Episode:

00:00 Why Money Feels So Heavy

02:23 Every Dollar as a Vote

04:26 Tip #1: Audit Your Spending

04:51 Directing Your Dollars to Aligned Businesses

05:19 Tip #2: Pay Yourself First

06:41 Tip #3: Invest with Impact

08:34 Using Your Business as a Tool for Equity

09:18 Creating Flexible, Human-Centered Workplaces

11:04 Pricing with Intention and Accessibility

12:38 Building Community Wealth with Other Small Businesses

14:36 Your Emergency Fund as a Power Move

15:58 Rethinking Debt Without Shame

18:09 Talking Honestly About Money as a Radical Act

21:11 One Small Step + Call Your Representatives

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:

👉 We Buy Black → https://webuyblack.com
👉 Shop Latinx → https://shoplatinx.com
👉 Smart Steps to Zero Debt – shame-free debt payoff support
→ https://equitablemoneyproject.com/debt

👉 Call Your Representatives – Meg’s weekly Substack with scripts to call your lawmakers → https://callyourrepresentatives.com

💬 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website → https://equitablemoneyproject.com
📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/equitablemoneyproject
🎧 Podcast → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/podcast

🚀 Your Next Step:

Ready to make your money match your values and use it as a tool for liberation? Download our free Wealth is Resistance Action Kit → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/kit

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Well, hey there, I'm Meg Wheeler, CPA, entrepreneur, and political activist, and you're listening to Disrupt Your Money, the podcast that's pursuing liberation through financial education. Let's face it, our economy and financial institutions weren't built to support the majority of us. So if we're going to achieve financial equity and justice for all, we've got to build our own. So let's do it, my friends. Let's get ready to disrupt your money. Well, hey there, friends. Welcome back to Disrupt Your Money, the podcast where we talk about how to build wealth and burn the old economic systems to the ground. Metaphorically, of course. I am your host, Meg K. Wheeler. I am a CPA, financial educator, and founder of the Equitable Money Project. And today's episode is a big one, a juicy one, a rethink how you move through the world kind of episode. And honestly, one of my favorite topics to talk about. Today we're talking about why money is our most powerful tool for creating change. And more importantly, how we can use it with intention to disrupt the inequities that are baked into our economy, like those raisins in a cookie that nobody asked for. Now, let's be real for a second. Talking about money can feel really heavy. It can feel overwhelming. And this is especially true for those of us who weren't handed a financial playbook growing up. If your family dinner table was more like, how do we make this last until Friday? And less let's talk about generational wealth, then friend, you are absolutely in the right place. But here's the thing I want you to hear loud and clear. Money, whether it's a little or a lot, has power. It's not good or bad by itself. It's just a tool, kind of like fire or glitter. It depends on how you use it. And when we align our money with our values, we're not just building better lives for ourselves, we're laying the foundation for a more equitable future for everyone. So grab your coffee, your tea, your oat milk, chai, whatever it might be, and let's dive into how you, as a small business owner, as a community member, and as a person who gives a damn can make your money work for justice. All right, so first let's talk about why money is such a powerful tool in the first place. At its core, money is energy. It flows, it fuels, it amplifies. It's not just the bills in your wallet or the number in your business account, it's the force behind your choices, your access, and your impact. But here's the issue: for way too long, our systems have been hoarding that energy like it's a dragon guard in gold. Generational wealth, tax breaks, capital access, those things didn't just magically happen for white cis wealthy folks. They were designed that way. They were literally engineered to benefit the few while excluding the rest of us. So if you've ever felt like you're playing Monopoly, but everybody else already owns Boardwalk and has four hotels on it, you are not imagining things. By the way, Monopoly was my favorite game as a child, and I really feel like that should have been a sign that this is the job I want it to end up in. But I digress, and this is a really big but. We are not powerless. Every dollar that you earn, save, spend, or invest is a vote. It's a signal. It is you saying, this is the world I want to live in. Now that may look like buying from black-owned bookstores instead of the giant online empire, or paying yourself fairly instead of living off peanut butter while your business grows. But the way we use our money matters, and that is the message I want you to understand today. So I'm going to ask you a slightly uncomfortable question. What story is your money telling right now? Is it a story of equity, of justice, of liberation? If not, that's okay. There is no shame here. We are not in the business of guilt. We are in the business of education and transformation. All right, so let's get into the how, because theory is cute, but you came here for the good stuff. Here are my tips for how you can use your money for justice. First, audit your spending. Now, I know, I know, nobody loves going through their bank account like it's a Netflix binge, but hear me out. Take a look at where your money is going. Are you spending in alignment with your values? Are you supporting businesses owned by folks from marginalized communities? Websites like We Buy Black, Shop Latinx, or Queerly can help you find businesses that reflect the kind of economy we want to build. And start small. Maybe this is just switching your coffee beans or buying your next birthday gift from an indigenous-owned shop. These micro decisions add up. Do not let this be the thing that overwhelms you. You don't have to do everything differently today. Just start with one thing. Second, pay yourself first. Now, this one is a doozy for my small business folks. We are often the last to get paid in our businesses. We tell ourselves we'll pay ourselves once things stabilize, once we have more money. But spoiler alert, the business is never not chaotic. So here's the challenge. Even if it's 10 bucks a week, start paying yourself. Build that muscle. Treat yourself like the CEO that you are. Because wealth building starts with you. And my tip here, and my folks who have been around for a while know exactly what I'm going to say, is make it a habit. So whether it's 10 bucks a week or a dollar a week or whatever it might be, commit to paying yourself a number, any number, on a regular basis, and do not stop that. Stick with that. And then every time you do pay yourself, see if you can increase it, even if it's just by a dollar. So maybe you start at$10 a week and next week you you go to 11, and the next week you go to 12. But here's the thing: every time you increase it, you are committing to that new increased amount. So that way you're helping yourself build the habit. You're getting into this routine of paying yourself regularly, and the amount that you're getting paid is increasing over time. All right, step number three, invest with impact. If you're in a place to invest, whether that's your retirement account, stocks, or just supporting other businesses, choose investments that reflect your values. Talking about things like impact investing, socially responsible funds, or even crowdfunding other marginalized entrepreneurs. These are all powerful ways to use your dollars for good. The beauty here is that you can grow your wealth and support others. It is a win-win. Number four, advocate for fair taxes. Yes, I'm going to be that person who talks about taxes on a podcast. And no, I will absolutely not apologize for it. Taxes are not the enemy. We love taxes around here. But you know what is the enemy? Unfair taxes. Now, let me be clear. Taxes do a lot of good. When we pay money into the tax system, we are putting money in for our schools, for our healthcare, for our infrastructure. But there are unfair taxes. We need wealthy folks and corporations to pay their fair share. We need public investment in schools, in healthcare, in infrastructure. And we have the power as business owners to push for that. This is where I'm gonna get on my soapbox and tell you to call your representatives, join your local advocacy groups, or frankly just yell about it on TikTok, whatever works for you, but get the message out there. Taxes are not the enemy. Certain small groups of people not paying their fair share of taxes are. All right, so let's zoom in on your business for a second, because I want to talk about how your business is one of the most powerful tools for equity that we have. Whether you're a one-person operation or you've got a team, your business is your platform. Think about it like a little microeconomy. And you can absolutely use it to create change. Here's how you can do that. Number one, you can hire intentionally. If you're hiring, prioritize equity. Look beyond traditional resumes, look beyond where somebody went to school or how many years of education they have, because remember, those are things that are gate kept from a lot of people. Create job descriptions that don't require five different degrees and 10 years of unicorn experience. Recognize the fact that most people in this country may have had a bumpy path to where they've gotten to today and don't penalize that. And once folks are actually on your team, once you've hired them, pay them well. Offer them flexibility, honor their humanity, recognize that they are a full, living, thriving human being that has a lot to offer to your company and treat them as such. I cannot stress this point enough because I know, especially for small business owners, when money is really tight, the instinct is to pay as little as you can, or maybe to hire somebody abroad for a dollar an hour. I get that. But remember that that choice is taking a step back in our journey to equity and justice in this world. And every time that we have strict policies about how people have to show up and do the work, every time we deny flexibility, we're making it harder for people who have so much value to share that value with our businesses, with our teams, with our communities. That's why at Equitable Money Project, we're pretty relaxed about all of this. Family and health come first. If you need a mental health day, you take it. If you have a family issue, you go. You do not worry about the work. You do not worry about needing to be button chair. All of these things that you can do are so powerful to building and creating the world that we want to be a part of. Now, the second thing you could do in your business to use it as a tool for equity is to offer accessible pricing. And I'm delighted that so many more people are doing this now, but it's still very much not the norm. Now, when I say offer accessible pricing, I don't mean devaluing your work, but I do mean being thoughtful about how you choose your pricing. Can you offer sliding scales? Can you offer payment plans? Can you have scholarship spots? Or can you not upcharge payment plans like you're a credit card company? When I came into the online space, it was not unusual for you to pay a 20% or 30% premium on a payment plan. Here at the Equitable Money Project, we do offer payment plans. And when folks go on them, they don't cost very much more. In fact, for the longest time, they didn't cost anything. And I said to our community, we will continue not to charge you a single dollar more for our payment plans as long as it's not costing us. Meaning, as long as people are actually honoring their payment plans. Now, unfortunately, as always happens in business, you do get some folks who, you know, just stop paying their payment plans and it does become a cost to the business. But even then, I didn't start charging a 20% premium for the payment plan. I charged just a little bit more. I charged only as much as I needed to cover the cost of those failed payments. So thinking about how you charge people, how you price things in your business is so powerful. Another thing we do at Equitable Money Project is we actually do offer different pricing levels for the same product. And you know what? It works great. We have some people who pay at the lowest level, some people who pay at the highest, and some people who pay in the middle. And as a business owner, I don't feel cheated or robbed or anything like that. I feel grateful that not only am I able to help support our community, but that our community is supporting each other. So let this be a sign and evidence of that you can build wealth and make your work accessible. These two things can and absolutely do coexist. Now, the third thing is that you can build community wealth. What if your business wasn't just about you thriving? What if it was about your people thriving? And here at the Equitable Money Project, that is on our minds every single day because we are but just a few people in our beautiful, beautiful collective community. This is where I'm going to encourage you to partner with other small businesses. Share your platforms with each other, refer clients, uplift others in your communities. Think about this as an ecosystem, not an empire. And lastly, use your voice. You do not need 10,000 followers or 100,000 followers or a million followers to make an impact. Speak up. Speak up on social media, speak up in your newsletter, speak up at your local town hall, advocate for higher wages, healthcare access, housing justice, whatever sets your heart on fire. Recognize that your voice matters, even when you feel like it's drowning in a sea of opposition. Your voice matters. The only thing that has ever changed anything for the better in this world is regular people speaking up and speaking out and fighting for equity and justice. Now, as we come to the almost end of our time here, I want to bring it home literally. Your personal money habits are the foundation of your power. So let's talk about some of the things that you can do to use your personal finances as a tool on this fight for equity and justice. First, let's start with your emergency fund. Now, your emergency fund does not have to be perfect, it just has to start. My recommendation is that you aim for three to six months of expenses. But I get that for most of us, that feels like a long away goal that we're never gonna reach. So if that's you, start with one week, start with one day. Start with one dollar if that's all you can do right now. Having that emergency fund, even if it feels small, can turn a crisis into a manageable hiccup. I remember the first day years ago when something came up and I actually was able to turn to my emergency fund and the money was there. And I struggled because I thought, well, I don't want to take that money. I it was so much effort to save up that money. But you know what? I was able to handle that crisis like that. I was able to write that check and deal with it because the money was there, and that peace of mind is so valuable. When we are fighting in the battle that we're in for equity and justice, we need every leg up that we can get. And an emergency fund is one of the best ones that we can have here at home. Now, the second thing you can do personally is to think about debt. Everybody loves to paint this idea that debt is a villain, debt is awful, debt is horrible. If you have debt, you're a bad person or you suck at life or you're bad at money. Debt is not a villain. Debt is a tool, just like money. Think about all of the big corporations in the world. Think about wealthy investors. They use debt as leverage, they use debt to invest in other things, they use debt to grow their businesses. Debt is not a villain. The key with debt is about being strategic. You need to understand the terms, you need to have a plan to repay it, and you need to have a strategic plan for what that debt is going to be used for. If that debt is helping you build your business, if that debt is helping you get an education, if that debt is helping you invest in a safe and stable home for you and your family, these are all valid, legitimate reasons, and there's many more out there. But understand that debt is just a tool. And do not let shame around your debt run the show. And by the way, if your debt is for medical expenses or just personal spending because life got in the way, life lifed, right? Or you just didn't have enough money because it's really freaking hard to make enough money to support yourself in this world, that's also not a bad thing. You're not a bad person. You didn't do anything wrong. Do not let shame run the show. Figure out what you owe, find a plan to pay it off, be strategic about it. And a small little plug here, because we do have a wonderful, wonderful resource for you if you are in debt and not in a way that feels strategic or healthy. Head to equitablemoneyproject.com forward slash debt. Check out our Smart Steps Zero Debt Pay Down program. It's affordable, it's accessible, and it's going to help you put a plan into place so that debt becomes something that is a healthy tool for you. Lastly, share your knowledge. Talk about money. Talk about money with your friends, with your clients, with your family. Normalize the conversation around money. Because financial literacy is radical. Education is radical. I was reading a book the other day about, it was a fiction book, but it was about uh someone who was enslaved in the 1800s. And he did something that was completely out of the norm for that time period. He learned how to read and he learned how to write. And if you don't know a lot about history, uh or especially slaved enslaved history, uh one of the ways that um slave owners would work to perpetuate the slavery system was by not educating the people they were enslaving. Because if they educated them, if they taught them to read and taught them to write, then that would give them power. Education is power, knowledge is power. And one of the biggest things that, in my opinion, has crippled regular people's power over the last 50 hundred years is the lack of education about finances, about money. It's the lack of financial literacy. We aren't taught this stuff in schools anymore. When I was leaving high school 20 years ago, a little bit more than 20 years ago, we weren't talking about money and finances. We we barely had home, home economics for all you young people. We certainly don't have that now. And that has crippled our ability to. To fight the system. So we need to take that back. We need to take back that power, and we can do it through knowledge. So whether it's your friends or it's your family or it's your grandmother who, you know, grew up being taught you don't ever talk about money, you've got to change the conversation. You've got to normalize the conversation around money. It's going to be uncomfortable, I get it, but it's so fucking necessary. Because financial literacy is radical. Financial literacy is resistance. Financial literacy is building a legacy. One of the best gifts we can give to the next generation is education. All right, y'all. Disrupting money is not a one-and-done task. It is a journey. It is one that requires intention, clarity, and yeah, sometimes a little discomfort. But when we use our money to align with our values, to invest in our communities, and to build something beyond just survival, we're participating in something revolutionary. So this week, I challenge you to take one step. Just one. Maybe it's opening that savings account. Maybe you're gonna change who you bank with. Maybe you're gonna sign up for that mutual aid fund you've been meaning to support. Whatever it is, know that your one step matters. And speaking of action, another plug, head on over to callyourrepresentatives.com and subscribe to my Substack. Every week I send you a script about a particular cause so that you can call your representatives and tell them we are not here to play. We are here to build. Until next time, keep disrupting your money, keep dreaming of a better world, and keep doing the brave, beautiful, equity rooted work that you're doing. And if you like what you hear, please remember to subscribe to disrupt your money on your favorite podcast player and leave us a review. We may shout out your review in an upcoming episode. And if we do, you'll also get a special little gift from us. Until next time, my friends, let's disrupt our money.