The Financial Outsiders
In chapter two: The Financial Outsiders, we introduce a community-minded group living and giving outside of elitist money systems
17 July, 2024
Introduction
We have heard a lot of brash claims about changing the economy lately. But the leaders of Silicon Valley and the culture of ‘tech bros’ have been revealed as venal; cryptocurrency and NFTs exposed as fragile, and inclusive capitalism and philanthropy is faltering under a backlash.
Yet the desire for freedom from traditional financial systems is still here. The question is how to do it in a socially minded way. We spoke to people across the US and Europe who are rethinking how we (all) buy and save. It’s a quieter bid for a collective sense of freedom done by a group who opt out of high street commerce, and think differently about what wealth actually means.
In this chapter, we introduce them as The Financial Outsiders. We learn about what drives them to find alternatives, how they reimagine self interest, make work better and encourage social change via financial literacy.
It’s a priceless insight into a new way to ‘do money’ – and from The Financial Outsiders’ jumping off point of care, inclusiveness and collective financial freedom we find values so many of us want in our lives today.
Self Interest, Revalued
Acting in your own self interest to be about giving (not taking)
Millennials are set for the greatest generational wealth transfer in history. But we talked to people who are actively choosing the opposite: to reject inheritance, regardless of personal circumstances. We heard about why they felt compelled to turn down the ‘bank of mum and dad’, or give away their trust funds to be in fellowship with the 99 percent.
“I could blindly invest my inheritance or buy luxury items. But I want to give the money away, which grants me freedom from systems that harm others.”
Male, 45, UK
It’s about being free from money that has been generated from inequities of privilege and wealth – rejecting something that has concentrated on the few, or harmed individuals, communities, and the planet in its creation. The Financial Outsiders turn away from the one percent “by asking ourselves as people with a lot of privilege, how can I practise good followership?” explains Pierce Delahunt who is connected with Resource Generation and talked to us about his wealth giving plan*.
When it came to asking what’s in it for them, The Financial Outsiders describe it as an act of self interest. They told us that being free from generational wealth makes them better because they are more part of the world, as it is right now.
This group gets a huge sense of freedom from rejecting predefined wealth and its accompanying values. Inheritance is a burden. In short: for them, the freedom from money that they haven’t worked for leads them to a better life today. They have revalued wealth (and self interest) for how it makes them feel, not what it gives them.
“To act on financial decisions aligned to my values – and not just talk about it – gives me immense peace of mind, every day.”
Female, 33, US
“To take from my parents would be to continue money privileges that I don’t believe in, even if it means I struggle more.”
Male, 26, Netherlands
*Organisations like Resource Generation in the US support people who want to be free from inherited wealth with a ‘giving plan’ (ie to donate or support equitable economic infrastructures like credit unions, or worker-owned businesses).
The Financial Outsiders are onto something…
How the media joined the solidarity movement against the one percent
The Bereft Billionaire
The wealthy are lonely, emotionally bankrupt, and power-at-all-costs in The Elon Musk Show, Squid Game, and Succession (BBC/Netflix/HBO).
The Never Satisfied One Percent
The troubled and tone-deaf super rich on their vay-cay from hell in The White Lotus series (HBO).
Above: HBO’s award-winning Succession Photograph by David Russell/HBO
Rich Folly
The dramas about the excess (and lies) of start-ups, Theranos and WeWork, in The Dropout and WeCrashed (Disney+).
Corruption
The documentaries, Philip Green And The Trouble With TopShop and Madoff: The Monster Of Wall Street, showed how corrupt men secured great wealth at a great cost to ordinary people (BBC/Netflix).
Schadenfreude
The documentary FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened about the disaster of the luxury music festival revealed the flaws of the high-end influencer economy (Netflix).
The Kindness Economy
A trade that pays it forward
Traditional work setups – and the rigid salary structures that go with them – are being noisily challenged. Career ideation has changed (37 percent of younger Brits see stopping full time work as financial freedom) and anti-work conversation is viral (#lazygirl#rageapplying#quittok, and the growing anti work and passive income communities on Reddit).
“I can barter with someone rather than be $600 out of pocket. It makes me feel a lot better, and benefits both people in the exchange.”
Female, 24, US
The Financial Outsiders aren’t accepting (or just creating sticky content) about these frustrations. A tribe of barterers and fixers are seeking to be free from the payroll as the only way to get by. They nurture an economy that puts kindness to others ahead of money for one. They build relationships to get to the position where skills and goods (and whisky – see below) can be exchanged instead of cold hard cash.
Bartering is famously seen each year at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City (where you can trade a story for a shot of, say, whisky).
“What we have is valuable because it matters to us. Not because it costs $5 or it costs $100.”
Non-binary, 24, US
Meanwhile, it’s also growing momentum from a community level with the skills and goods trading organisations like the Barter Up Marketplace, who spoke to us about having gone from events in Memphis, Tennessee to #barterup901, 1.2M views and marketplaces across America in less than a year.
It’s about trading with goods, skills, stories – basically anything that isn’t money (even ‘time banking’, which has seen a jump in popularity with initiatives like Timebanking UK). It blows up what can be considered commerce: it’s not just cash, stocks, NFTs, or other cryptocurrency.
“I live in a co-op, and we exchange skills, like a hair cut for a website build. There’s no hierarchy (unlike back with my mum and dad!).”
Male, 26, Netherlands
The Financial Outsiders describe how bartering asks the individuals to assess value themselves (ie your childhood teddy has high emotional value), and this also reframes what can be considered as an ‘asset’. Society then becomes much more inclusive because everyone under this description can be rich with assets – and success can look as simple as holding onto your childhood toys.
Learn Yourself Free
Financial literacy is rebellion – taking money into our own hands and not letting other people control it
Financial education outside of traditional schooling environments has loudly manifested as superficial FinToks and by ‘fin-fluencers’ perpetuating the grind and hustle at all cost (#JobHoppingWillSaveYou), promoting volatile cryptocurrency and unregulated investor advice.
“I don’t want to be left behind. But that’s not just about money – it’s about learning how that intersects with other barriers that I face.”
Female, 24, US
“We’ve lived through two recessions and don’t want to put our trust – or our money – in old and failing institutions anymore.”
Male, 23, Scotland
However, The Financial Outsiders are behind another approach to lifting financial barriers. Instead, they set out to make it easier for more people to move through the world on a level playing field: to find solutions and talk about the challenges specific to marginalised people (or people shunned out of elitist wealth knowledge) – like women playing catch up after taking time off to have children, or people facing the ethnicity gap in pay and property ownership.
It’s a financially educated community (not a group of individuals), run by the people it serves, from the bottom up.
The People Behind The Financial Literacy Rebellion
The UK’s Bola Sol, who has a Rich Girl Chronicles WhatsApp channel, is one of a growing number of content creators talking about the financial challenges faced by Black women. She provides money information within a deep understanding of the community (eg Instagram post: ‘From Middle Class in Nigeria to Working Class in UK’).
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North America’s EYL (Earn Your Leisure) platform teaches financial literacy in the Black community (and has 1.4 million YouTube subscribers), to pass on not just the assets of financial knowledge – but expectation and experience.
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Support for the poorest people in a community, to help them wrest some control over their financial fate, is found on platforms like the UK’s Pennies To Pounds financial literacy platform and award-winning podcast.
How To Talk To The Financial Outsider In All Of Us
1. They’re in it for others, not just themselves. It’s always a delicate business to get involved with a cause. But this group is part of a general movement to do good, and that’s hardly controversial. Plus it isn’t cheesy, or over-wrought. It just rings true.
2. Drown out the noise with approachable financial education. Who doesn’t switch off when hearing about crypto, loans, down payments, or options? But uncomplicated financial lingo goes a long way to making people feel like you’re rooting for them.
3. Think twice before giving everything monetary value. The Financial Outsiders don’t think of their assets as houses, goods or pay cheques. But that’s not as no-entry as it sounds! Money is good, but haven’t we reached a stage in our relationship with it that we can permit alternatives – not least as a compelling narrative.
4. Not everyone wants more. Understand that we’ve all been trained to accumulate more and more stuff, to grow wealth. But think about people who reject inheritance and actively give away; they’re showing us an alternative way of moving through the world. Respect those who only want to leave a small financial footprint.
“I have masses of student debt, and it makes me incredibly anxious. I’m paying the price for no one talking to me about money.”
Female, 24, UK
5. And finally, celebrate The Financial Outsiders and how they are ‘doing money’ differently. This group has an optimism for how to fix what they see as broken, and shouldn’t that be shared as widely and joyfully as possible? As some ethical money management banks have twigged with the slogans: ‘We are not a bank. We are a movement’/ ‘Do well good’/ ‘Your money has power’ (algbra.com, aspiration. com and Amalgamated Bank) – there’s simply so much to be inspired by here…
17 July, 2024