Confronting My Own Financial Classism - youramericanmoney
Author: Michelle
Description: My mother’s financial trauma has influenced my life in some surprisingly complicated ways. Like most parents she vowed that I would never experience some of the painful financial experiences that she had. And in her role of raising me she kept that vow. When my parents divorced we ended up in of all places Boulder, […]
Date: 2022-01-31T10:00:00+00:00

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# Confronting My Own Financial Classism

posted on 31 January, 2022

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My mother’s financial trauma has influenced my life in some surprisingly complicated ways. Like most parents she vowed that I would never experience some of the painful financial experiences that she had. And in her role of raising me she kept that vow. When my parents divorced we ended up in of all places Boulder, Colorado one of the wealthiest towns in the United States. It regularly lands on the top places to live, visit and exist lists. Then we moved to Denver which often does the same. My mom was able to gain access to scholarships for me to attend sleep away camp like “Camp Chief Ouray” just outside of Winter Park for 8 weeks.

The current price for two weeks is $1875 and I was gone for 8 weeks, Outward Bound for a month where I lived with a tiny group of teens for a total of a month backpacking across the Rocky Mountains current price: $6595 for 22 days. What my mom didn’t realize in providing me these opportunities, almost all through scholarships, was that there was an impact to how I viewed the world. As an adult I spend a lot of time thinking about this and really trying to be self-aware especially as I work on my own finances and advocate for people in the personal finance space. I thought I would talk about this in the following episode and no virtue signaling allowed.

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## Show Affiliate

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## Show Notes

- Listeners, I would like to ask you a question. How does financial classism show up in your life? Either your financial classism or how people treat you based on what you do for work, where you travel and, yes, even based on what you eat.

- If you’re in the personal finance space these subtle prejudices are just something that you need to be aware of because it impacts how you view the world.

- Americans will often say that we don’t have classism here. But, we really do and it’s often intertwined with racism and sexism. I’m not even going to touch on that in this short episode. What I will do is share a couple of stories about how living a financially complicated life has impacted my financial decisions.

- When I was in 8th grade my mom put me in private school. This would not be the first time I attended private school. In this case, this school was a country day school that had grounds. I will never forget two events that really stood out from that period of time.

- The first was when my mom’s car, a classic blue mustang that I wish she still owned, died in the parking lot when she came to pick me up. I was wearing tan booties from KMART, you know, cute but plastic. One of the upper classman helped my mom out and recharged her car. I was so embarrassed.

- The other moment that stood was when the chef made seafood newbourg for lunch. It was a delicious seafood treat wrapped in flaky pastry goodness.

- What my mom remembered from that period of time was something that I had said in passing about a homeless woman who I believe was also Black. She decided that I would only attend that school for that year because she’d worked too hard for me to become an asshole.

- We all have our financial classism that comes out in different ways. But, does that classism come out in such a way that you’re:
  - Putting other people down?
  - Not being self-aware that financial classism exists
  - Deciding to ignore your financial privilege when you have it?

- Everyone’s financial classism shows up in different ways. Here’s what I don’t care about:
  - The type of car you drive.
  - Designer Labels
  - Your bling bling
  - I don’t care about your weird boogie trip to Aspen because…I don’t like Aspen.
  - Luxury travel-it’s just not my thing

- What I do seem to notice and pay attention to
  - Where people travel to in general.
  - The fun activities that they do
  - How people’s financial choices impact others.

- Financial classism can happen at any point on the financial scale. Whether you’re wealthy, poor or somewhere in-between.

- I’ve found people using their financial classism as an excuse to mistreat other people, put down other folk’s accomplishments or as an excuse for a belief that is rooted in racism or sexism.

- Confronting our own financial classism isn’t a cry to be perfect, it’s just a call to be a little more self-aware. Myself included. I also think about how my financial classism impacted my previous financial choices and is impacting my future financial decisions.

- Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:
  - I don’t eat fast food. I’ve never really liked it not even as a teenager.
  - I love going to the mountains to hang out.
  - Travel factors heavily in my things I enjoy doing.
  - Even the work that I’m doing provides me many financial privileges

So, why this podcast episode? I just wanted to admit that I struggle with the same prejudices that everyone else does.

## Not a Financial Unicorn

Don’t forget to order your copy of “Not a Financial Unicorn” to be released June 2022. Or, if you’re interested in the behind the scenes conversations specific to the writing of this book sign up for my Buy Me a Coffee Monthly membership where I will share bonus content connected to this project.

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#### Michelle

I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.

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