Putting Your Money Where It Matters

In this episode of Disrupt Your Money, we dig into what it really means to put your money where it matters in a system that was never designed for us to thrive. If you’re a woman, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or otherwise part of a historically marginalized community, this conversation is about why your money work isn’t optional—it’s survival and it’s power.

Through stories, data, and a whole lot of real talk, we unpack the three buckets of economic distribution—income, pay, and wealth—and how they show up in your everyday life. Then we zoom out to the bigger fight: how to use your money as a tool for collective liberation. 

This episode is your invitation to stop feeling helpless and start using your dollars, your business, and your voice to fund the world you actually want to live in.

⏱️ In This Episode:

00:00 – Introduction: Why we’re talking about inequity before budgets and tax tips
01:48 – Economic inequity 101: income, pay, and wealth
04:08 – The racial and gender wealth gaps and who’s most impacted
06:58 – Opting out vs. protecting your power
08:35 – Why building wealth is part of activism
10:51 – Three ways to fight back: build wealth, create new systems, support each other
12:21 – Putting your money where it matters
14:10 – Educate Yourself: One Fair Wage
15:10 – Minimum wage, tipped wages, and what “fair pay” really looks like
17:27 – The World Is a Dumpster Fire: Roe v. Wade and reproductive justice
20:36 – Taking action: supporting Planned Parenthood and local reproductive justice orgs
22:35 – Closing thoughts

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode:

👉 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) – Federal Reserve data on household financial well-being
👉 Commonwealth – Nonprofit focused on building financial security for financially vulnerable communities
👉 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) – U.S. law governing minimum wage, overtime, and tipped wages
👉 One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America by Saru Jayaraman
👉 Planned Parenthood Action Fund – Advocacy arm fighting for reproductive rights
👉 Disrupt Your Money Bookstore – More justice-centered money reads curated by Meg

💬 Connect with Us:
🌐 Website → https://equitablemoneyproject.com
📸 Instagram → https://instagram.com/equitablemoneyproject
🎧 Podcast → https://equitablemoneyproject.com/podcast

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, and welcome back to another episode of Disrupt Your Money. Before I start getting into all the nitty-gritty of how to actually make money, what to do with it, how to track it, all the things you need to know about taxes, and really all that stuff that you're probably here for, I wanted to take this episode to talk to you about something really important. And that's why we're here in the first place. I know I touched on this a little bit in the first episode, but I want to really come back to this conversation about why understanding and being in control of your money matters. And why it especially matters if you are in a historically marginalized group, whether that is if you're a woman, if you are a BIPOC, if you are part of the LGBTQIA plus community. For anyone for whom our society is frankly not set up to be fair, it's not set up to be just for you, then this is really critically important. And when we think about things like economic inequity, which is a term that you'll hear me throw around a lot, I want to make sure that we completely understand what we're talking about here. Because the reality is that our society was not set up to be fair for everyone. It was not set up to be equitable for everyone. This wasn't by mistake, it wasn't happenstance, it was designed that way. And so when we're thinking about economic inequity, we're talking about economic distribution. And typically economic distribution is described in three buckets: income, which is the money you make, whether that be from your job or from your investments or anything else you have, the pay, so the actual rate that you earn, you know, our minimum wage, for example, and then your wealth, what you have and what's what's growing for you. And those three buckets are what make up economic distribution. And those are the three buckets that have wild disparities depending on who you are and what group of society that you fall into. There was a uh Federal Reserve did a study in 2020. It was actually a survey of how they called it the Household and Economic Decision Making Survey. And there's a group called Commonwealth that did a great job of interpreting the data from this survey. And in the survey, 36% of people reported that they were unable to cover just a$400 emergency expense. So if something happened and it would cost$400 to, you know, to pay that medical bill or to take time off work, whatever it might be, 36% of people said that they couldn't do it. And in reality, I think that number is probably a lot higher, but uh, but that that's what was reported in this survey. However, what was interesting and probably not surprising to most of us is that 58% of the people surveyed, uh, that were, I'm sorry, excuse me, 58% of women who were surveyed said that they would not be able to cover that expense. 70% of the Hispanic respondents said they wouldn't be able to cover it. And 72% of the low to moderate income black respondents said they wouldn't be able to cover it either. So what I see there in those numbers is that we have a huge disparity between what white people and white men in particular are able to do with their economic distribution, with their income, with their pay, with their wealth, than what other groups have and are able to do. And we know that that's true because we've heard these statistics thrown out a lot, like, you know, women only make 70% of what a man makes. And by the way, those numbers are even more uh grim when we start talking about black women or Hispanic women or Native American women. Uh, we hear statistics about, uh, in fact, I'll throw out another one for you. In that same survey, the median black household has roughly one-eighth of the wealth of the median white family, and this is one-fifth for Latinos. We also found out from that survey that the median single woman has less than a third of the wealth of the median single man. And single black women have the lowest net worth of all groups. The median wealth of single black and Latinx women is 1% or less than that of single white women. So we see this inequity show up across all areas, whether it's housing and affordable housing, whether it's access to education or healthcare or climate action, what's being done for the environment in higher income whiter areas is a lot different, is a lot more aggressive than what's being done in lower income or, for example, black uh black communities. Uh, we see this in policing. We see this in the so-called criminal justice system, we see this in voting, in advocacy, and policy making. We see this across the board. And the costs of inequity are really freaking high. We see these costs show up in decreased production in lost opportunities. For example, you know, a woman who is paid only 70% of a man throughout her lifetime is just going to end up with less wealth. And less wealth means that she is going to invest in fewer things. She is going to be able to put her money into fewer opportunities than a white man, for example, which means that if she has children, they are going to have fewer opportunities. We also see these increased costs come about in medical care, in the, again, the so-called criminal justice system, in policing. Massive amounts of money is being spent by our governments, by our communities, by organizations to fix or to further this inequity. So sometimes it's one and sometimes it's the other. But it's this is a huge financial crisis as well across the board. And the reason I bring all of this up is because if you're listening, I'm guessing that you may fall into one of these historically marginalized groups. And you're here because you want to learn more about how to make more money and what to do with it and how to better manage it and all of those things, which is great. And we're gonna do that. We're definitely gonna talk about that. But I also want to remind us of why we have to do this. And it's not to depress the hell out of you, which I may have already done, and I'm sorry for that. And it's not to tell you something that you probably don't know, because I'm guessing if you are a member of one of those historically marginalized groups, that you get how shitty the things are in this world sometimes. You get that inequity because you're living it on a daily basis. I'm bringing this up as a reminder because every time I talk to someone who says, I don't want to think about the money stuff, I don't want to deal with the money stuff, I don't want to talk about the money stuff, or maybe they don't even say it because they they're just feeling that inside. And so they they shrink away from these conversations. If you are that person, and to be clear, I've been that person too. So this is not a shame exercise. You are not alone in this. If you are that person, I am here to remind you why it's so damn important that we do have these conversations. Why it is critical that we talk not just about accounting systems and tax deductions, but about how we can actually use what we have to build more for ourselves, for our families, for our communities, for our networks, and how we should take that wealth we're building and use it for impactful, meaningful, everlasting change. And I know I sound a little bit, you know, optimism, hope, you know, sort of in the clouds right now. But the only way that I have been able to survive the political and activist work that I do is by being hopeful. And I am hopeful. And I'm not hopeful because I think the world is sunnier than it really is. I'm hopeful because I have seen the power of people when they come together, regardless of how little resources they've been given, regardless of their standing in the world, regardless of the equity that has been afforded to them or lack of anequity. I've seen what happens when people who really freaking care, people who give a damn, come together and fight for change. And I've also seen that as business owners, we are an incredible untapped resource of strong, powerful people who can use what we're creating to be that change. And so that's why I wanted to record this episode before we dive into all the specific details. Because I just want this to serve as a reminder of what we can accomplish together. Okay, so if you're sitting there and you're thinking, well, that's great. I know that the world is crappy, I know that this is a very inequitable world. What do I do about it? Because I don't have a lot of money, I don't have a lot of time for all the reasons that we've talked about. What can I really do? First and foremost, we can build our own wealth. We know that in the society we live in right now, money is power. We see this in our elections, we see this in boardrooms, we see this in government, we see this across the board. Money is power. Money buys access, money buys uh a platform for your voice, and money buys the decisions that are made that affect our everyday lives. I don't love this system. In fact, I freaking hate it. I wish we could take money out of politics, and that's a fight that I'm gonna keep fighting. But for right now, this is the system that we're working within. So we need to build our own wealth, not only so that we can gain access to the tables we need to be at, to the rooms we need to be in, to the seats that we need to hold where the decisions are being made, but also so that remember, I talked a little bit ago about how a woman who earns, you know, 70% of what a white man earns has this uh trailing effect where she's then able to invest less into the economy and she's able to invest less into her children and her family, which means they're going to have fewer opportunities. Well, that's the first thing that we need to do is build our own wealth so that that doesn't happen, so that we have sufficient resources to invest into our communities, to invest into society, to invest into our families, to invest into our children and create that ripple effect so that they can do the same. So, number one is build our own wealth. And that's what we're gonna focus on a lot on this podcast. Number two is to create our own systems. I said that the systems we have right now don't work, and I absolutely believe that we should tear them down. But I also recognize that that kind of change does not happen in a day. Right now, we have to work within those systems while we work on the plan to tear them down and build our own. But in every possible way that we can, we should be creating those own systems today. Think about uh industries that have traditionally been male, been white, been patriarchal. Think about banking, think about finance, think about lending. These are systems that we can break into and create our own better ways out of them. I'm thinking about uh different platforms that exist now for lending and the ability for people to invest at lower levels without having lots of money. Uh, the ability for businesses that aren't multi-million dollar businesses to get investments from everyday people so that they can build their uh their business, they can build their dream. We need to be creating systems like that that give us more opportunities to do what for many, many years was reserved solely for the very wealthy. And so when we think about creating our own systems, we really need to think about where are the places in our world right now where wealth is being denied to everyone? And how can we go into those places and do it differently? Another thing that we need to do that's so critical to this work is to support each other so that we're investing back into marginalized communities and the wealth builders in those communities. Every time I spend money in my business, I am always asking the question of who is this money going to? Now, I want to be clear, again, this is a no-shame, no judgment space right here. Every dollar in my business does not go to a black person or a woman or a marginalized business owner. There are just some spaces, some tools in my business that I have not yet been able to find a way to make that money work as well as I want it to. And you know what? That's okay for now because what I'm going to continue to do, what I do do every single day in my business, is always ask that question of who is this money going to and can I do better? And so every time we put another dollar back into the business, whether it's hiring a team member or choosing a tool or hosting an event at a location, we're always asking that question of who is this money going to and can we do better? So we need to really think about where we're investing that money and how we're supporting each other in being those wealth builders. Now, my hope for the podcast moving forward is that we're gonna have a really great section coming up with all of your incredible questions. So I want to know what's on your mind. And maybe it's just a thought, maybe it's not a question, maybe you have a deep-seated question that you really want to ask. And it can be big about inequity in the world, or it can be simple about what bank do you like? I don't care. I want to hear all of those questions. So you can submit your questions by going to disruptyourmoney.com and we may include them in a future episode. Now I want to move on to a special segment I'm gonna call educate yourself. I love this segment because I love to educate myself, whether it's workshops or classes or books or conversations. I love learning. I am a lifelong learner. I can't get enough of it. So in today's Educate Yourself, I am gonna give you a book recommendation. The book is called One Fair Wage, and I am a huge reader. So this definitely made my book list for this year, and I'm very excited about this one. It's called One Fair Wage. It's by uh Saru Jayu Rahman, and I apologize if I'm mispronouncing that. Hopefully I got that right. Uh, Saru is the director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley. And in the book, this book profiles 11 workers who are um disproportionately black, female, or immigrants, and really argues for why we need to eliminate laws that allow employers to pay workers less than the federal minimum wage. So think about things like the tipped laws, for example, where workers can make, I think it's$2.35 currently plus tips, but that amount is so minuscule compared to the needs of these workers. And so this book uh profiles these 11 workers and talks about the need for this. Now, here's why I want you to read this book. Uh, you you may or may not have employees. It doesn't matter. I want you to read it anyway. If you have employees, I want you to read this because it gives a really good perspective on why it's critical for us as employers to pay our workers fairly. And by the way, I don't think the federal minimum wage is enough. I just want to be clear right there and put that out there. Um, but it's if you are an employer, I think this book's gonna give you a really uh good perspective. If you're not an employer, I think it's gonna incite in you a little bit of rage. And I want that. I want that fire to burn. I want you to get angry about what's going on in this world and recognize the interconnectedness of all of these systems. Because even if you don't employ people in your business, I guarantee that you are taking advantage, I don't mean that in a bad way, but taking advantage of opportunities out there where these workers exist. So whether you take an Uber or you go to a restaurant or, you know, any other place where you have a worker who might be getting paid what we call tipped wages. And I think it's really critical for us as wealth builders to understand the interconnectedness of the work we do in our businesses, in our personal lives, and our activism. And I love this book, One Fair Wage, for that reason. So that is my recommendation to you. I'd love to hear what you think of it after you read it. And I will remind you at this point, going back to my point earlier about where do we spend our money, that if you are going to purchase this book, please consider purchasing it from a local, independently owned bookstore. In particular, if you can, a BIPOC-owned bookstore. Um, just again, think about where that money is coming from. Also, if you have any financial book recommendations, I would love to hear them because sadly, most financial books are still written by white men. So we need more diverse uh voices in this space. And if I haven't heard of them, I definitely want to know about them. So send those in. You can go to disruptyourmoney.com and give us your book recommendations. Okay, so now we're gonna move on to a fun section that I like to call the world is a dumpster fire. What are you gonna do about it? Let's talk about Roe. So, trigger warning, I am gonna start talking about reproductive justice and abortions. If that is not a conversation that is okay for you in this moment, then just skip ahead a couple of minutes at to the next part. But if you are listening to this fairly real time, then you probably know that we're in a place right now where Roe versus Wade, the uh historic Supreme Court decision that codified abortion rights for uh women, is the term they use. I'm gonna refer um to this as anyone with a uterus, uh, that that historic decision is likely to be overturned any moment. And in fact, by the time this episode comes out, it may have already been overturned. The reality is it's going to be overturned. We know that. We know that that is what's coming down the pike. So let's talk about what that actually means. Now, rolling back row is going to be incredibly harmful to people with uteruses on so many levels that I'm not going to talk about on this podcast because we would be here for hours. Um, I will say this: that rolling back row is going to make it incredibly difficult for anyone with a uterus, their families, and their communities, and that it'll make it harder for people to pursue education, to increase their incomes, and to achieve financial stability and to build wealth that we've been talking about. For example, if you have to go out of state to get reproductive health care, that's the cost of travel. It's the cost of any additional medical services that you need to get that your insurance won't cover. It's getting time off work, it's paying for child care. Those costs can be just, you know, incredibly burdensome for a lot of people. And if you're forced to have the child, if you're not able to go out of state to get the medical care that you need, that's potentially years of lost wages and upward mobility that is being sacrificed, let alone the cost to care for the child that you are forced to give birth to. So the financial impact here is just monumental. If you don't fully understand this issue, which by the way is okay because there's a lot going on in the world. And I don't want to ever shame someone for feeling overwhelmed or not being completely up on this stuff. But you know what happens when that's me? I do my research. I get educated. So if you're not completely up on this issue, I highly recommend that you spend a little time learning more about it. If you are someone who is in a place where you um do not support uh access to reproductive health care, I would encourage you to do your research and educate yourself and really understand why this fight is so important. But if you are someone who does support access to reproductive justice, if you understand the impact of Roe versus Wade uh being um being terminated, uh if you if you grasp what's going to happen when this is overturned and you want to help, I would encourage you uh to support Planned Parenthood. There are many incredible organizations out there. I want to be very, very clear. And if you know of a great one locally, I'd love to hear about it and also please support them. But given that I'm talking to people in all different places in the world, uh, Planned Parenthood is a great place to start. Now, there are two parts to Planned Parenthood. There's Planned Parenthood, the clinics, and those clinics are still open and they're still operating. And by the way, abortion is still legal. So in in places where they offer abortions, they are still offering those abortions. You can support the clinics directly. You can donate your time, you can donate your money, you can use their services. That's a great way to support them. A lot of how they're able to get the funding they get is by saying so many people use our services. And so they need people to continue to do that, even if you're not using them for abortion. You can use them for standard health care. There are also places where they're trying to shut down Planned Parenthood Clinics. So if you live in an area where that's happening, you can advocate for keeping that clinic open, whether it's going to your local representatives, it's working with the clinic itself in whatever actions they're taking. But then there's also Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and that's the group that does the lobbying. They're the group that goes to Congress and fights for abortion access. So you can support them by going to PlannedParenthoodAction.org. They offer free trainings on how you can get involved at the local and national level for change. And I really recommend doing that. And in case I haven't made it already completely clear why we're talking about this on a financial podcast, there are a million reasons why we need to be fighting for access to reproductive health care. But this is a big financial crisis because if roe versus weight is overturned, we are going to see an incredible loss of wealth among people with uteruses, unlike anything we've ever seen during the roe versus Wade time. We're going to be reversed back to pre-Row. And it's just going to make it so incredibly difficult for people with uteruses to build wealth. And it's going to further and deepen that inequity. So this is a critical issue. All right. So I'm going to leave it there because we've hit the 22-minute mark and I don't like long podcasts. And I think I've said all there is to say. Next week, with our third episode, I promise I'm going to bring you some practical advice, uh, some things you can use in your business. But I really just wanted to kick off this uh beginning of our relationship here together by going a little activist on you and telling you why all of this is so important. Not even telling you. I think you know, but just really having that conversation because I know I can use that reminder every once in a while of why I'm in this fight. And I just wanted to extend that to you as well. So thank you so much for listening. I hope you'll tune in next week. And in the meantime, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. Thanks for listening to Disrupt Your Money. If you have a money question you'd like answered in a future episode, go to disruptyourmoney.com. To support the podcast, please rate and review it wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want access to all of my free templates, checklists, resources, and guides, click the link for the Biz Money Library in the show notes.