Anna Jo Beck - Broke, Not Broken: Personal Finance for the Creative, Confused, Underpaid, and Overwhelmed (Good Life)

Broke, not broken

Personal Finance for the Creative, Confused, Underpaid, and Overwhelmed

2021 Anna Jo Beck

This edition Microcosm Publishing 2021

First edition - 3,000 copies - June 8, 2021

eBook ISBN 978-1-64841-004-8

This is Microcosm #445

Cover by Anna Jo Beck

Edited by Lydia Rogue

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https://microcosm.pub/broke

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Microcosm Publishing is Portlands most diversified publishing house and distributor with a focus on the colorful, authentic, and empowering. Our books and zines have put your power in your hands since 1996, equipping readers to make positive changes in their lives and in the world around them. Microcosm emphasizes skill-building, showing hidden histories, and fostering creativity through challenging conventional publishing wisdom with books and bookettes about DIY skills, food, bicycling, gender, self-care, and social justice. What was once a distro and record label was started by Joe Biel in his bedroom and has become among the oldest independent publishing houses in Portland, OR. We are a politically moderate, centrist publisher in a world that has inched to the right for the past 80 years.

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Reframing Thoughts

What do you think of when you think of money?

Chapter 2: The Fundamentals

First Lever: Maximize income

Second Lever: Minimize expenses

gratitude

The financial tool set

Chapter 3: Earning Money

hobbies, jobs, careers, and vocation

Earning an Income

Work Expenses

Time

your hourly wage may feel less impactful than it initially appears

Chapter 4: Spending Money

Tracking your spending for one month

Do you spend less than you make?

Needs before wants

Spending Summary

Balanci n g Your Budget with 50/20/30

Tailoring and Maintaining the Budget

Tips on Curbing Expenses

Chapter 5: Saving Money

Emergency F*ck off Fund

Free money and 401(k)s

A note on debt

Savings Goals

Advanced savings strategies

Chapter 6: Owing Money

What is debt?

Put it on plastic: Credit cards

Credit Score

Good vs bad (debt)

Evil debt

Debt Management

Chapter 7: Repairing Money

Loss of income

Getting a checking account when youve made banking mistakes

Improving your credit score

If your debts are too much to handle

Recovering from Financial Abuse

When your income is just too low

Chapter 8: Protecting Money

Some insurances to prioritize

Insurances that you may want to (critically) consider

Insurances that are basically scams

Shopping for insurance

Your community

Chapter 9: Investing Money

Before we dive in

What is investing?

Compound interest!

The investment ladder

Other Investment Products

Chapter 10: Giving Money

Chapter 11: In Closing

Further Information and Assistance

References

Introduction

This is a book for people who hate thinking about money.

There are so many personal finance books for people who enjoy thinking about money. There are books about stock picking, early retirement how-tos, even books for children about starting businesses. Many of these books are aimed at those who are obsessed with fine-tuning their strategies. But there arent many books for people who cant bear gazing into the abyss of their financial choices, let alone their bank statements. I wrote this book because every book I read on personal finance seemed to be aimed at somebody else: the aspiring investor, the hapless debtor, the single-minded seeker of the American Dream. While each of these books brought me insight, none of them had exactly what I craved: a clear outline of the basic tenets of personal finance, without the frills and narrative angles of traditional prosperity. And most of all, a bit more cognisant of the current time and social standing many of us are in. The narratives of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and being poor is a state of mind felt hollow and unhelpful as a queer woman with an immigrant spouse. I can appreciate that a positive spin may be inspirational to some, but in my experience, dealing with finances can feel hard, and even unfair. Managing your finances is a long game that favors the people who already are in the know. Its commonplace for the topic of money to conjure feelings of confusion, anxiety, and fear. We absorb our emotional associations with money and how to handle it from our family, our upbringing, and our culture. For those of us who came of age around the Great Recession, the national narrative around money was one of insecurity and loss. Many from that generation are also saddled with one form of debt or another, with opportunities and wages not keeping pace. And thats what I think many books miss the mark on: they often operate with a homogenous set of conventional goals in mind and similarly assume that people are all at the same starting point, when actually our realities and abilities are vast and varied. Tips and tricks are great, but the path most books offered were limited to people who were building towards a future I didnt (or couldnt) aspire to: a big wedding, homeownership, traditional family. I wanted a book that acknowledged that thinking about my financial future brought up feelings of anger and hopelessness while still giving a way forward to the life I wanted to lead. This is that book.

I want to change how you think about money.

I wanted to write a book for people who have been burned by money people who have been trying to follow their gut, but it keeps costing them. The margin of error on healthy financial habits has become razor-thin in the last few decades. Wages have stagnated, while the cost of living increases rapidly. There are aspects of our financial lives that are beyond our control, and that is super frustrating. We should advocate for systemic change, but in the meantime, one must learn to survive and thrive within the current capitalist world order.

We will cover the fundamental building blocks of a low-stress financial life. It sounds overly optimistic, but it is possible, although it does take real work on your part. I hope to guide you through this work of taking hold of your finances in a way thats easy to understand and implement. Truly, a lot of these concepts will seem insultingly obvious, but the real trick is having patience and compassion for yourself while you work on rebuilding a foundation of habits that will improve your situation and outlook. Incredibly inspiring, I know, and not the silver bullet you were looking for, but its true.

This book will sympathize with you, help you realize what matters most to you, and show you how to try to get it. I know money is hard, and all situations are different. There is no one-size-fits-all, right way to do money. We all go on our own journeys towards the individual life we want to lead, and we all have different starting points. Balancing the distinct ideas of what matters most to you, and equally important, what matters least to you, can have a massive effect on your life, and not just financially. This is a truly exciting and life-altering endeavor! I dont want to sound too grandiose, but when so many forces in our lives try and tell us what we should want, its radical and empowering to decide for oneself what to seek and what to ignore.