How does someone become the first in their family to build generational wealth… without doing so at the expense of marginalized communities?
How do recent grads pay down absurd amounts of student debt… while helping ensure the next generation doesn’t have to navigate endless student debt in the first place?
How can everyday people reclaim personal finance… so that wealth-building is part of a larger movement for collective well-being?
These are some of the questions that led my Candide Group colleague Jasmine Rashid to write her first book, The Financial Activist Playbook: 8 Strategies for Everday People to Reclaim Wealth and Collective Well-Being (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, September 10, 2024). A social change strategist and true Zillenial — born in the cut-off year for Millennials and Gen-Z — she spends a lot of time thinking about emerging trends in the flow of money and power, and building pathways for liberation.
Gen Z currently occupies the age range of twelve to twenty-seven. From tweens to late twenties, they’re culture makers who value authenticity, diversity, and social awareness. They are also market movers, representing an estimated $450B in spending power, expected to increase by 48% by 2030. According to a survey of 4,000 Gen Z consumers, the majority say their spending decisions are informed by their values, and one in five abandoned a brand in the last year based on a negative reputation for sustainability and ethics.
Layer that personal finance trend with the macroeconomic trends of “The Great Wealth Transfer” — the projected transfer of trillions in wealth from Baby Boomers to younger generations, especially women — and unprecedented “Financialization” — the increasing dominance of financial motives, markets, actors, and institutions at every level of society. In this moment, Jasmine sees a massive opportunity for everyday people to be empowered to disrupt “business as usual,” and help create a fundamentally more just economy, using the tools of financial activism.
With eight strategies to explore from her book, I sat down with Jasmine for a multi-part conversation series to explore what financial activism looks and feels like in 2024. We start here with the basics.
MORGAN SIMON [MS]: For those who may be unfamiliar — what exactly do you mean when you use the term “financial activism”?
JASMINE RASHID [JR]: I love the definition first introduced to me by The Just Economy Institute: financial activism is how we shift the flow of capital and power to solve social and environmental problems. At its core, it’s an invitation to reimagine the role of money in our society, to help build a more sensible, equitable, and sustainable economy in service of all people and the planet.
Movement activists have collectively crafted visions for the next economy. For example, the Just Transition framework — developed by the trade union movement and built upon by organizers from environmental and climate justice communities like Movement Generation and Climate Justice Alliance — aims to ensure that the shift to a more sustainable economy is fair and inclusive, addressing the needs of workers and communities affected by environmental policies.
Financial activism is a part of how we resource that shift; empowering people with practical tools to reclaim agency over what our money is collectively funding.
MS: We’ve worked together in a number of “financial activist” capacities, from large scale private prison divestment campaigns, to pushing the impact investing field to partner more deeply with social movements. Walk me through what everyday financial activism looks like in practice.
JR: Financial activism looks like someone being the first person around them to talk openly and honestly about their money trauma. Or friend groups making movement-informed decisions about where they bank or shop. It’s what we’re seeing when we see student protests calling on universities to disclose and divest their endowments from apartheid, or people on social media calling on clothing companies to pay their workers fair wages, or communities investing in their own communities… the list goes on.
It’s what we see when people say “no” — in ways big and small — to elements of modern capitalism that are harmful by design.
I offer eight financial activist strategies, rooted in stories from and conversations with people who, in one way or another, shifted money and power toward a more just economy, against the odds. These strategies offer insights on
- how we talk about money;
- how we bank;
- how we buy;
- how we give and receive money;
- how we show up for one another, beyond money;
- how we invest;
- how we budget; and
- how we work,
At both the personal and collective levels.
MS: I appreciate how these strategies invite in radical possibility, while still focusing on accessible practicality. Of course a major challenge of the reality of the US financial system today is that wealth inequality continues to grow. A very small number of people disproportionately control the majority of capital. Your writing instead focuses heavily on the power of everyday, working and middle-class people to lead the big changes in our financial system. Why is that?
JR: For 99% of us, the current financial system wasn’t designed for our thriving. Instead — as Marjorie Kelly says in her book Wealth Supremacy — it’s been increasingly working to extract wealth “from the pockets of ordinary people, our common government, and the planet,” sapping our collective resilience and funneling money toward the ultra-wealthy and industries that harm people and the planet. This equation of economic extraction intensifies for folks from communities of color, working-class legacies, the Global South, and more.
Of course, philanthropy and impact investing can make meaningful strides to shift who has access to some capital. But to undo decades’ worth of wealth theft and create an economy that truly works for everyone, we need to democratize the strategies to make participation in that change more accessible by everyone.
What excites me most about financial activism is this: you don’t have to be a financial expert nor independently wealthy to participate. Those of us who don’t fall into either of these categories have for too long been left out of conversations about the role of finance in our everyday lives, let alone proactively invited in to help shape the future we deserve. I hope my work is an invitation for people historically excluded and harmed by the financial system to begin reclaiming the tools of finance in everyday life.
MS: Speaking of hope, what’s your hope about bringing visibility to the concept of financial activism, both in the immediate and long term?
JR: I want to be clear that financial activism has been around for as long as financial systems have — especially by those forced to innovate and respond to oppressive systems. My job right now is to illuminate those stories and show how the next economy is not only an idea: it’s deep in motion, and led in large part by Black and brown women, frontline workers, and underestimated communities.
My biggest hope is people see themselves in these stories, and see themselves in existing movements. And that they begin seeing opportunities in everyday life to reclaim wealth and well-being, both for themselves and those around them.
There are so many collectives building power and momentum with financial activism, like The Debt Collective for individuals with student and medical debt, Third Act for Americans over 60 who care about climate change, and Dissenters for young people ready to reclaim resources from the war industry. And there’s been a powerful addition of accessible resources to break down some of the gatekeeping around personal finance, like The Social Justice Investor, Finance for the People, Money Out Loud, Keeping Finance Personal, and many more. So for me, even in the hardest times, I’m surrounded by so much momentum reminding me that we’re making progress.
MS: I’m looking forward to diving into the strategies and stories as we continue in this conversation series. Until then, one last question: what’s one thing people can do right now to lean deeper into financial activism?
I love a practical question as much as I love a philosophical question.
My answer is that readers can practice reclaiming wealth and collective well-being in their daily lives: starting with curiosity and self-awareness.
For example, maybe you pause to wonder why the small businesses in your town are being replaced by big box stores. Or why it’s so hard to see what your 401(k) is invested in. Or why the price of a prescription your loved one needs is so astronomically high.
Questioning (1) “Why is this like this?” in relation to money is a portal to change, if we then (2) permit ourselves to check in internally, (3) imagine different possibilities, (4) start with one personal act of resistance, and finally, (5) connect with others doing the same.
When it comes to shifting money out of extractive industries and into the types of abundance and care we deserve, we all have a role to play. Start where you are.
DISCLOSURES: Jasmine Rashid is the Director of Impact at Candide Group. The firm and post author Morgan Simon have no financial interest in Rashid’s book.
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