On today’s show we hear from personal finance author and journalist, Dana Miranda, on how to live a “budget-free” life. Guest host Richelle Wilson speaks to Miranda about her new book, You Don’t Need a Budget.

For those of us who aren’t billionaires, wealthy, or even middle class, the standard advice on money management is irrelevant. The prevailing advice is to get more money and keep it. And to do this you must be restrictive, disciplined, and always feel guilty for having “wants.” This is how the logic of capitalism shows up in personal money management discussions, and it tends to focus on individual blame, shame, and greed.

But as Mirnada’s reporting has shown, the approaches to personal budgets and “budgeting culture” are ineffective and create more financial stress than alleviate it. The dominance of Dave Ramsey still teaches people there’s no room for enjoying or even finding ease in the present, every money move we make must be “optimized” for our future self.

Miranda advises how to unlearn these ideas about money and become empowered to redefine “financial responsibility.” The two discuss how to develop a “yes” fund as a “joyful” approach to money management, how banks and credit card companies profit off our need, and the challenges of repaying student loans.  For those of us who are “money misfits,” (people left out of the majority of personal finance conversations–women, queer, disabled, Black folks, etc.)  Miranda has reassurance and advice that includes turning to lending circles and mutual aid.

Dana Miranda is a personal finance author and journalist, and a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF). She’s been writing about personal finance as a staffer, freelancer, author, and creator since 2015, sharing her innovative budget-free approach, which recognizes the ways financial education fails to meet the needs of marginalized folks and shifts the conversation toward a better relationship with money for everyone Miranda is the creator of Healthy Rich, a newsletter about how capitalism impacts the ways we think, teach, and talk about money; she’s the expert behind the nationally-syndicated “Dear Penny” financial advice column; and she’s a contributor to Business Insider, Fortune, Salon, and more.

Featured image via Dana Miranda.

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