Date Night Club (November 2021): Use Your Money to Shift the Financial System

 

What if you could use your money to make real change in the world? What if your money could fight climate change, promote equitable pay, close the racial wealth gap, and honor indigenous people? Even though these issues may feel too big to tackle on our own, the ways we spend, save, share, and acquire can help to shift the financial system.

Take a Bite:

  • If I gave you a magic wand and you could fix one systemic issue in our world today what would it be? (Need help thinking of ideas? You might close the racial wealth divide, eliminate homelessness, reverse climate change, etc. Dream big - you do have a magic wand after all :) )

DATE NIGHT MATERIALS LIST:

  • Pen and paper

  • Copy of your budget

__________________________________________________________________________________

15 MINUTE SNACK: CHANGING THE WORLD ONE DOLLAR AT A TIME

Ready to tackle one of the world's biggest problems? Instead of shying away from a big problem, I encourage you to use your money to create systemic change one dollar at a time.

  1. Focus on One Problem: Return back to the teaser question for this month: If you had a magic wand what systemic problem would you solve? Choose one problem you both care about solving.

  2. Get Your Creative Juices Flowing: Draw a circle on a piece of paper and divide it into 4 quadrants. Title the quadrants: spend, save, share, and acquire. REMINDER: Acquiring is about how you bring money into your life whether you earn it, inherit it, or receive it from another source. For each of the four quadrants think of as many ways as you can that you could use your money to solve this systemic problem. For instance, if you chose ending climate change and you were looking at the saving quadrant, you might consider impact investing your retirement account in solar and wind energy companies or you might seek out sustainable investment options. Give yourself 3 minutes to think of as many ideas as you can for each quadrant. Need help thinking of ideas? Check out this week's blog post.

 __________________________________________________________________________________

If you like, you can take this month's topic deeper ...

MAKE IT A MEAL: APPLY WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

Take a look at each of the quadrants and circle one way of using your money to make this systemic change that you'd like to incorporate into your budget. Take the time to make any necessary changes to your budget to incorporate these 4 new ideas. Next month, be sure to check-in and see what progress you've made toward these goals.

MONTHLY BUDGET CHECK-IN

Take a moment to look back at last month's budget together.

  • Did you stay on track?

  • If you got off track, what 1-2 steps can you each take to get back on track again?

  • Did any surprises come up - positive or negative?

  • Take a look over the expenses, did the way you used your money align with your values?

  • What changes will you make for next month?

  • How are we doing with the things we decided to continue doing, start doing, and stop doing?