Hello! Are you new here? We are pleased that you found our little corner of the internet. Here at Debt Free Guys, we’re all about helping people experience the freedom of becoming debt free! Would you like to feel that relief? After reading our article below, Find out here how we can help you.
The missing value of our pink dollars
Pink dollars? Dorothy Dollars? Lavender dollars? Are you using yours for the highest good? If you want to help build a strong LGBTQ community, there are several things you can do to make it happen. Start paying off your credit card debt for free 7-Step Credit Card Debt Reduction Here.
Hear our strategies for using Pink Dollars:
Here’s how to make the most of your pink dollars
1. Spend more of your money in the queer community
- Contact your local LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce
- Shift spending to LGBTQ-owned and operated businesses
Queer Money Facebook group survey.
- 24 sometimes search for LGBTQ companies
- 10 Never look for LGBTQ companies
- 3 are primarily looking for LGBTQ businesses
2. Work toward individual financial security
- Diversify income streams and increase income
- Save more and look for accounts with the highest interest rates
- Pay it off and avoid further debt
3. Donate money/time to causes + leaders that promote equality
- Deposit your paycheck directly to the charities you support
- Financially strong individuals = financially strong community
Let’s go from Insta-fabulous to total equality (Hint: It’s in our pink dollars)
Who are these Insta gays with their fabulous Insta lives? When and how did they get all this money and if so many gays are so great, why hasn’t the queer community achieved full equality yet?
This was last reported by Witeck’s The purchasing power of the LGBTQ community is approximately $917 billionalmost $1 trillion. That’s probably higher today.
Regardless, the pink dollar represents the largest minority group in the US, even though we make up between 4 and 7% (and rising) of the total US population. Also, According to LGBT Capital, our global purchasing power is approximately $3.7 trillion – probably higher today too.
That’s a lot of our pink dollars that could be used both for our fabulously fun lives and for advocating for complete equality around the world.
Consider that Experian found that the average same-sex couple earns about $7,200 more than our heterosexual peers, and the Williams Institute found that only about 20% of us have children.
While heterosexual families have children, the gay couple next door adopts three French people. While straight parents fund 529 plans to put their children through college, queer couples fund vacation club accounts.
But we’re wasting our pink dollars
That’s what MassMutual’s LGBTQ financial security study found 58% of queer people are worried about money weekly. Seventy percent of us, compared to 63% of the general population, say we are behind on our retirement savings.
This is what the Prudential 2016-2017 LGBT Financial Experience Survey showed 48% of us consider ourselves to be big spenders instead of savers, based on 32% of the total population.
Could this be due to our “live for today” philosophy? Possibly. MassMutual’s study also showed that more than half of us consider spending today more important than saving for tomorrow.
Madison College published “Understanding the LGBT Opportunity in Financial Services” in September 2015, showing:
Only 52% of same-sex couples had mortgages compared to 62% of heterosexual couples and Only 8% of same-sex households owned their property outright compared to 13% of heterosexual couples. Also, Gay men are 25% more at risk of poverty than heterosexual people, according to several surveys; 20.7% of single LGBT people live on incomes under $12,000.
But hey, we’re all going to Santorini next year when this pandemic is over.
And we make throwing away our pink dollars worse with high-interest credit cards. Last year, Americans paid $122 billion in interest and fees on credit cards, and queer people contribute a disproportionate amount.
What can we do about it?
Freeing the queer community from credit card debt
Have you heard about the Avalanche and Snowball methods of paying off debt? Well, neither method will help you pay off your credit card debt as quickly, save as much money, and improve your credit score as what we have in store for you.
This triad of winning pink dollars, getting out of debt fast, saving money, and improving your credit score is why you’re about to learn the best ways to pay off credit card debt.
The best
We racked up $51,000 in credit card debt in all of the ways mentioned above to feel better about ourselves because we were bullied and teased and told we were going to hell and all the things you probably experienced and all the reasons why our community wastes so much of our pink dollars.
When we committed to becoming debt-free, we had 15 years of experience in financial services and, despite what was in our bank accounts, knew a little about money.
We also tried several times to pay off our debts and we learned from those experiences. We knew we could find a better way to pay off our credit card debt – and faster.
So we did it. We developed the debt lasso method.
Imagine saying that about your pink dollars
I really believe now that my husband and I – we will have a comfortable retirement in Florida, and we don’t have to wait until I’m 75. –Fred N
We haven’t been prepared for emergencies in a long time. I don’t like having to pay this bill (sump pump repair), but we have the money for it now. We are less stressed. –Karen D
My husband and I have been traveling in the southern United States for the last four months. We have never had so much freedom. We wouldn’t have been able to do this if you hadn’t helped us pay off all our debts. – Claudia P
See what we told Good Morning America about the debt lasso method:
Use our pink dollars for personal benefit
While the queer community has recently won federal employment protections, what impact this will have remains to be seen. As we recently shared on Queer money®, that’s a small step towards progress. We have much more to come.
Hear how the Supreme Court recently protected LGBT rights (and what we should do next):
However, the Equality Act is still blocked in Congress. As a result, we may still be denied placement in services in up to 30 states based on our LGBTQ status. Additionally, staff at senior centers and nursing homes are inadequately trained to care for older LGBTQ people. What’s potentially worse: Queer couples can still be separated from their spouses or forced into restraint when we go into assisted living.
There are more resources available to LGBTQ people in retirement these days, but they don’t necessarily come cheap. If you are retiring within the next 10 years, Start researching your options today.
For these reasons and more, it is critical for our community to become better savers and investors and giver within and for the queer community. The traditional advice is to save three to six months of living expenses in an emergency savings account.
Due to the lack of full equality, we suggest saving even more. But how? That’s a lot.
One option is to make better use of the best savings and investment tools available today. For current and savings accounts with great conditions, see Capital One 360 accounts.
For these reasons, too, LGBTQ people need to make retirement planning and savings more important than the statistics currently suggest.
For example, queer people must open employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k)s, pensions, SEPs, or simple IRAs if they are available. By making the minimum contribution necessary to achieve the maximum possible employer contribution, we will make great strides towards our individual and collective financial security.
If you don’t have an employer-sponsored retirement plan available to you or are fortunate enough to have more money to invest, invest in an individual retirement account (IRA), such as a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA.
This doesn’t have to be done alone either. There are amazing resources to help LGBTQ people invest better.
1. Blooom for 401(k) or 403(b) (and IRAs)
Get 401(k) and 403(b) investing help from Blooom. Investment advice for 401(k)s and 403(b)s is limited and it can be difficult to select and manage the investments yourself.
Let Bloom do it all the work for you.
If you have a traditional or Roth IRA with Schwab, Vanguard, or Fidelity, Blooom can still help you.
If you are concerned about the current market volatility and its impact on your 401(k) and 403(b), Blooom provides you with three special O’s to help you with your investing during these turbulent times you can see that here.
2. M1 Finance
If you are an independent investor, try an account with M1 Finance. M1 Finance is free for retirement accounts with a minimum access amount of $500 by clicking on this link Here.
M1 Finance is a flexible, automated investment platform and is ideal for people comfortable managing pre-built and customized exchange trade fund (ETF)-based portfolios (see below). However, you can also model pre-built portfolios from Wall Street experts and AI. designed models.
- Trading is free
- There are no fees for asset management (AUM).
- There are no account fees (for brokerage accounts with a minimum balance of $100 and retirement accounts with a minimum balance of $500).
M1 Finance also practices socially responsible investing, which is very important to our community.
Invest with M1 Finance by clicking The Link here.
3. Acorns for investing in small pink dollars
Think you’re too broke to invest for retirement? Incorrect. Investing through Acorns here has made investing with small pink dollars easier!
With your spare change, Acorns allows retirement account holders to invest their spare change. This is a great way to start investing, especially if you think you don’t have any money to invest.
Let Acorns guide you down this easy path by clicking this link.
It’s also important for queer people to consider purchasing long-term care insurance (LTCI). LTCI can help with basic needs such as cooking, eating and cleaning. LTCI can mean living in retirement villages that do the manual labor required to maintain a home, or it can mean assisted living that provides physical assistance such as eating and bathing.
Speaking of insurance: We should be adequately insured, i.e. 360 degree protection. This is because we are a higher risk community and setbacks affect us more severely.
1. Get life insurance through Haven Life
Gone are the days when you had to endure the arduous task of speaking to an insurance agent and then feeling oversold with a life insurance policy that you would never use. You can use it to comprehensively research, find and apply for offers for term life insurance MassMutual at HavenLife.com.
Plus, you can take out life insurance immediately – without waiting!
Prudential’s study also showed that fewer of us than the general population have financial planners. LGBTQ people who don’t have a financial planner should get one here.
This is important because, as an HSBC study showed, people with a financial planner have almost 29% more retirement wealth than those without a financial planner.
Maximizing our pink dollars
How can we do it better?
If the queer community donated 1% of our purchasing power to the charities and politicians who support us and advance progress, that contribution would equate to nearly $1 billion in donations.
If we saved 10% of our purchasing power for our individual and collective financial security, we would invest $10 billion annually. If that $10 billion earned a conservative 7% per year for 10 years, we would have almost $150 billion and would be 56thTh largest economy in the world.
These are huge numbers. When we look at the numbers in this context, it is easy to see the potential power of our pink dollar for common interests. That’s why we need to show more pride in our pink dollars.
Pink Dollars are only as good as the good they do for us as LGBTQ individuals and as a queer community. Let’s forget the gay stereotype of pretending to be fabulous even though we’re incredibly broke.
Let’s create a new stereotype of being fabulously responsible, charitable and self-determined.
Help the LGBTQ community with your pink dollars
In this episode of Queer money® we present three strategies to help you get more out of your pink dollars. We’ll start with the challenge of spending more of your money in the queer community and share ideas on how to shift your spending to LGBTQ-owned and operated businesses.
We’ll then explain why it’s important to work towards your own financial security and offer insights on how to increase your income, save more and pay off debt. Hear advice on how to give your time and money to causes that promote equality, and learn what YOU can do to make the most of your pink dollars—and help the queer community as a whole.
Income streams for more Pink Dollars
The true power of our pink dollars
“In the digital world, the Super Bowl is every day, and the brands that aren’t focused on delivering an inspiring message to LGBTQ audiences are missing out on their chance to shine.” New research shows your pink dollars are more powerful are than ever before.
Sean Howell is co-founder and president of Hornet, the world’s leading gay social network. The platform recently released a research study in collaboration with Nielsen that examined the effectiveness of LGBTQ-themed advertising on queer consumers. The survey compared the effectiveness of inclusive marketing strategies to generic ads from the same brands and measured engagement in terms of brand recall, familiarity and affinity, and purchase and recommendation intent – the powerhouse of your pink dollars.
Sean tells the story of The Hornet and explains how the network has grown to a remarkable 25 million members. He explains key findings from the LGBTQ advertising format effectiveness study and discusses the benefits for advertisers who demonstrate an affinity for the community. Sean describes how advertisers can target the LGBTQ community to earn our pink dollars and why it makes good business sense for companies to do so.
The Hornet’s Sean Howell addresses this critical study Queer money®:
The benefits of showing an affinity for the LGBTQ community in advertising
- 40% higher ROI (purchase intent)
- 60% more likely to recommend
How advertisers can target the LGBTQ community to win pink dollars
- The community represented in advertising (e.g. gay couples shopping)
- Acknowledge the diversity within the LGBTQ community
The most important results of the Hornet study
- LGBTQ-themed ads resulted in increased brand recall
- Inclusive brands are seen as progressive and caring
The power of your pink dollars
- 5Th or 6Th largest economy in the world
- Brands need policies to protect us
The importance of brands moving into the LGBTQ space
- Willing to accept a conservative backlash
- LGBTQ allies in Generation Z represent a large market
One of the best ways to use your pink dollars
Purposeful spending was one of our keys to getting back on track financially.
Personally, we have noticed that we fall into the trend of spending money on things that are not important to us but that give us instant and temporary gratification.
We don’t spend on loans. Our emergency savings account is fully funded. We are well on our way to achieving our retirement goals. We simply don’t spend wisely on a daily basis, and that impacts our short-term financial goals – or our spending that serves a purpose – our community.
Dr. Dimartini’s quote inspired this Queer Money® Podcast below, and we’ll rephrase it: “Fill your life with the important things, because if you don’t, it will automatically be filled with the unimportant things.” If you feel unfulfilled, your life may is full of unimportant things and you can get what you want with targeted spending.
Learn more about the benefits of purposeful spending Queer money®:
The LGBTQ community needs smart philanthropy
When we achieve financial security as individuals, we inherently become a stronger community. When we use this individual financial security to drive progress, we become an even stronger force for equality.
Tim Gill talks about smart philanthropy Queer money®:
Resources for your finances
Note: This article contains affiliate links. This means that we receive payment at no cost to you when you purchase through these links. We only recommend products that we use or thoroughly review and would recommend to our mothers. If you buy too many of them, you’ll live fabulously broke. Life fabulous with financial security, Start here.
We are David and John Auten-Schneider, the Debt Free Guys and host of the Queer money® Podcast. We help queer people (and allies) live fabulous and non-fabulous broke lives by helping them 1) pay off credit card debt, 2) become part- or full-time entrepreneurs, and 3) save and invest for retirement.