The Ultimate Act of Protest a Woman Can Do in Trump’s America Is Getting Rich

So what are three ways to get started today?

First: Know your numbers. Schedule what I call a money date: a dedicated half hour, once a month, to sit down and look at your money. Allow yourself to control your finances, rather than the other way around. This is true self-care.

It can be scary, but it’s necessary. If money is tight right now or you’re financially struggling, it’s even more crucial that you understand what money is coming in and where it’s going out. Even if you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, the knowledge can help you be strategic and improve your financial health. By tracking your monthly income and expenses, you can likely find areas where you can cut spending even slightly, and pour that extra bit into your emergency fund. Even if you’re only saving a few dollars here and there, that’s still progress.

Second: Automate your savings. Set up an automated transfer from your checking account into your high yield savings account. That way, you’re saving at the beginning of the month before you have the temptation to spend all your money, and it’s accruing without you having to think about it. Start small with maybe 5% of your paycheck, or whatever is doable, and make it slightly more challenging every month until you’ve found a good number. Your emergency fund should be your number one priority, because it’s going to give you the peace of mind. Ensuring your safety is still a form of financial protest.

Third: Understand that personal finance is about 20% your personal choices, and 80% systemic issues. We’ve been fed the lie that if we’re struggling, it’s because we’re not working hard enough. This shame seeps into every decision we make. The truth is that racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, the student debt crisis, lack of federal paid family leave, and stagnating minimum wages have a lot more to do with why our generation of women is financially struggling than a $5 latte.

So, give yourself some grace. Being “good with money” is a learned skill just like any other. Control what you can control—educating yourself about money, making financially responsible decisions—and work to change everything else by voting, protesting, and donating.

And lastly: Vote with your dollars. Your money is your voice, and how you spend it matters. Support local businesses and woman-founded companies. Buy your books from an independent bookseller. Set up a recurring donation (or volunteer your time). As a woman business owner myself, it’s hard to run a feminist-forward company right now, and we appreciate the support more than you know.

So how do we survive these next four years? You have to become obsessed with personal finance—obsessed with learning everything you possibly can about money. Learn about how to save more money, about how to pay off more debt, about how to invest, about how to negotiate your salary. We need you whole, stable, and content so that we can fight the system together. You can’t fight the system when you are broke, when you are depressed, when you are scared, when you are sad, when you are overworked and tired and burnt out. We need you whole.