it takes some guts to take 2 f-words that are either taboo (such as finance, after all ‘it’s rude to talk about money’) or have a bad reputation (such as feminist, because ‘don’t you love men?’) and make these the title of your book : financial feminist.
but ‘guts’ pretty much describes tori dunlap. she had the guts to quit her job, the guts (and charm and brains) to start her own business and the guts to call out structural injustices one usually finds in traditional personal finance content. (‘just eat less avocado toast and work harder and you’ll be right.’ yeah right…)
now, you’ve probably heard me talk about the financial gender gap before (if not and that’s your jam, i have plenty of book reviews for you to catch up on), but dunlap takes it to the next level.
she takes all aspects of personal finance from money mindset to budgeting, form spending to debt, from earning to investing and packs it all in a highly entertaining read.
however, the twist of her writing is that her book includes all basic principles of intersectional feminism too.
the reason her writing works for everyone and not just a lucky few is that she gives her reader the blueprint of personal finance. and with that she gives them the agency and control to fit these basic principles into their own lives and therefore make their own choices based not their own needs.
one could go so far as to to say she puts the ‘personal’ back into personal finance.
it’s the combination of all this that makes for the power of this book. if you let it, it will go under your skin and it may just change your life.
on a personal note, dunlap also stressed the responsibility for those who know their way around personal finance better than most to share their knowledge and help others on their journey. this has made me wonder about my personal finance journey and how that journey may help someone else. it has most definitely strengthened my resolve to be more open about it and find more ways to share it with others.
