Taking Social Stock

Today’s topic of budgeting builds on part 2 of our series, which was focused on tracking spending. Budgeting can feel really messy at times, especially when you’re first starting out building that habit. But doing that work can help you develop systems that result in having breathing room when something breaks at home or on your car unexpectedly. And it can help make paying for gifts for weddings, graduations, birthdays, and the holiday season feel more manageable. We talk about some things that have worked for us over the years, about how to make sure you’re getting a good rate on insurances, and share some thoughts on how to make your dollars go further when paying down your debt. Note: neither of us are certified financial planners, and we are only sharing ideas that have benefited us.  

Last week, part of a glacier fell in Uttarakhand, a state in northern India that is recognized for its beauty. The collapse pushed rushing flood water through a dam,  claiming lives and damaging two hydroelectric plants. At the time of this episode’s airing, nearly 40 people have been confirmed dead and 170 are missing. And while tragic, Uttarakhand residents have been sounding the alarm of flood risk for several decades. In 2013, a devastating flood killed nearly 6,000 people. It hasn’t yet been determined what caused the glacier to break in the most recent flooding, but leading speculation points to global warming and/or continually growing infrastructure that supports increasing numbers of tourists.

Article: Famous for its tree huggers, village at center of India glacier collapse warned of impending disaster for decades. No one listened:

Article: 140 are missing after glacier breaks in India’s Himalayas:

Part 2 of our personal finance series focuses on building a spending - or budget - tracker. We discuss three options that we have liked over the years: a pen-and-paper tracker system, a budget tracking app, and a detailed spreadsheet (linked as 2 Google Docs, below). Tracking our spending has helped us see where we spend way too often and way too much (hello, Target!). And it has reminded us to cancel subscriptions--those payments of $5-$20 often fly under the radar, but they really add up over time. And our spending trackers have helped us readjust our spending, helping us pay down our debt more quickly. Do you have tips or tools that help you track your spending? Let us know at [email protected].  

Budgeting/spending app: Mint: https://mint.intuit.com/

Detailed Budget Doc: Budget Planner: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HjDCOvkhFxchqAr2bjLZScaHWApenlzq/view?usp=sharing

Make a copy of this template and adapt it to meet your goals and needs. Note: We recommend downloading this doc into an Excel file to ensure all formulas work properly.

Basic Budget Google Doc: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xfysm_W8I4dmVjSqtVcKV1Gz0vDKZunS/view?usp=sharing

Make a copy of this template and adapt it to meet your goals and needs. Note: We recommend downloading this doc into an Excel file to ensure all formulas work properly.

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Intro - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/Tumbling_Dishes_Like_Old-Mans_Wishes/Green_Lights 

The word privilege carries a weight. It means someone has an advantage. It can also mean that someone has an unearned advantage, which can cause defensiveness. The term white privilege means this: white people are shielded from some significant challenges that Black people and people of color have to deal with because of their skin color. And it can be difficult for white people, who have worked hard for their achievements or overcome adversity, to acknowledge that simply being born white has brought them advantages, or privileges.

This week we talk about some of the ways white privilege can be observed in the U.S., and how even the best of intentions can cause negative and harmful impact.  But we can all choose to learn and to do better--we can acknowledge our privilege and our biases in a healthy way. We can make choices to continually learn and do better. Linked below are articles and video clips sharing a few of the many ways white privilege looks in action, and some thoughts on how it can be used to help make the world a just and equitable home for everyone. 

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Thinking about personal finances is something most people do, and they are often a stress in a lot of people’s lies. With it being the beginning of the year, Andy’s kicking off a series on some tips of tools and strategies that have worked for us and are user-friendly for everyone. This week we talk about SMART goals and how they help with saving for the things that we really need to have, like an emergency fund, and for the things that we want to do, like going on vacation. Note: neither of us are certified financial planners, and we are only sharing ideas that have benefited us. 

Lisa Montgomery will be one of the four federal inmates executed in the last leg of President Trump’s administration. And she will be their first woman in close to 70 years to be executed by the federal government in the U.S. In 2004, the now 52 year old Lisa Montgomery committed the heinous murder of Bobbi Jo Stinnett. No one defends her grisly actions. But a number of people and groups are fighting for Lisa’s life. Her history of severe and prolonged abuses spans many years: she was a victim of child sex trafficking, gang rape, and incest, with her first exposure to abuse happening when she was a toddler. Her story has been describe as being as being ‘the most broken of the broken’--society grossly failed her at multiple points of her life, and now her life will be snuffed out at the order of Trump, who proclaims to be the most pro-life of the pro-life. Sign a petition for an execution clemency here: https://tinyurl.com/y6buhqvb

Article: ‘A lifetime of torture’: the story of the woman Trump is rushing to execute

Episode 16: Getting paid to move to the Heartland

One of the byproducts of 2020 has been lots and lots of people working from home who formerly worked in an office. And communities that want an influx of professionals are making an offer that may be too good to refuse for some ‘laptop workers.’ Incentive programs have emerged in states throughout the middle of the U.S. to entice people to take up residency in their towns and cities--and programs in Tulsa and Northwest Arkansas are offering $10,000! We talk about some of the potential pros and cons of these programs, with some thoughts on how they could impact communities. 

A few months ago the term defund the police gained traction. And St. Louis’ infamous and hellish workhouse (that has been called a modern day debtors jail) was defunded. Now close to $900,000 from its former budget will fund a program called Cops & Clinicians, which connects social workers to some 911 callers and some in-person police calls. This isn’t St. Louis’ first attempt at partnering police departments and social workers--a program existed for 3 years in the 1980s. But it isn’t common knowledge. In 2021, Cops & Clinicians will kick off in St. Louis, modeled after a successful program in Houston. Only time will tell the program’s level of success. But the 2021 program will have a unique strength that the 1980s program did not: it’s happening a time when people are demanding that policing is rethought. 

Article: In The 1980s, St. Louis Police Partnered With Social Workers — Only To Abandon The Effort

(Supplementary reading) How Cops & Clinicians Aims To Change Policing In St. Louis, Beginning With Just 16 Hires

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In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission began an antitrust investigation against Facebook. And now the federal government and nearly 50 U.S. states are suing Facebook in an antitrust lawsuit. They claim that the social media conglomerate squashes competition, making it a monopoly. Facebook, which could lose ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp, says that people choose to use the site because they place high value on it. Several laws - the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act - that were written over 100 years ago (long before social media was a glimmer in the world’s eye) will influence the court’s decision. 

We talk about the contentious space Facebook occupies, possible implications of whatever the outcome is, and how this could impact other powerful tech-related companies that have also been accused of having problematic ethical issues.

Article: Facebook must be broken up, the US government says in a groundbreaking lawsuit

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Food insecurity and hunger has long-been an issue in the U.S., and with the pandemic, as many as 50 million people could experience food insecurity (up to 17 million of food insecure people are children). And across the country, undocumented people - who already experience a disproportionate gap in being able to access needed resources - have to weigh risks of getting food against the risk of being deported.  People are stepping up to the plate in a variety of ways to shine light on the issue and to help--among these stories is an immigrant in Connecticut who has transformed her home into a food pantry to serve undocumented people. Her story is inspiring, but there are other impactful ways to help: Giving food to local pantries is greatly appreciated, and donating money directly to food banks allows them to buy a lot more food than a shopper could buy with it at the grocery store. We’d like to hear from you: let us how you have been or are planning on helping with the hunger crisis this year.

(Supplementary reading) Feeding America: Hunger in America https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

(Supplementary reading)  Key findings about U.S. immigrants https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/

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