Financial Feminist - 225. Recession, Tariffs, and the Stock Market: A No B.S. Guide to Economic Volatility

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Worried about the stock market or a possible recession? Register for our Don't Panic workshop for your 3-step plan for financial security in 2025: https://herfirst100k.ac-page.com/dont-panic  Let’s be real — 2025 is already shaping up to be a hell of a year financially, and not necessarily in a good way. Between Trump’s tariffs, a tanking stock market, and recession fears popping off everywhere you look, it’s overwhelming out here. That’s exactly why I recorded this episode — not to scare, but to prepare. If it feels like the financial world is spiraling and you’re wondering how the hell to protect yourself, your savings, and your sanity, this episode is your lifeline. I’m breaking down everything you need to know to weather this economic storm––why this financial crisis is different from 2008 and 2020, what to actually do with your money right now depending on your age, and how to build security without spiraling into panic. Whether you’re just starting your financial journey or you’ve been stacking coins for years, this episode is packed with clear, actionable, no-BS advice. Please share this episode with your friends and family! Resources: Stock Market Secrets FREE workshop: http://herfirst100k.com/secrets  Looking for accountability, live coaching, and deeper financial education? Check out our exclusive community! Join the $100K Club: https://herfirst100k.com/100k-pod Our recommended financial resources: https://herfirst100k.com/tools Not sure where to start on your financial journey? Take our FREE money personality quiz! https://herfirst100k.com/quiz Read transcripts, learn more about our guests and sponsors, and get more resources at https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-show-notes/225-recession-tariffs-and-the-stock-market-a-no-b-s-guide-to-economic-volatility/ Special thanks to our sponsors: Squarespace Go to www.squarespace.com/FFPOD to save 10% off your first website or domain purchase. Rocket Money Stop wasting money on things you don’t use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to RocketMoney.com/FFPOD. Quince For your next trip, treat yourself to the luxe upgrades you deserve from Quince. Go to Quince.com/FFPOD for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Netsuite Download the CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning at NetSuite.com/FFPOD. Masterclass Get an additional 15% off any annual membership at Masterclass.com/FFPOD. Indeed Get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com/FFPOD. Gusto Run your first payroll with Gusto and get three months free at gusto.com/ffpod. ZocDoc Visit Zocdoc.com/FFPOD to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. ResortPass Visit Resortpass.com and use code FFPOD to get $20 off your first ResortPass experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between the stock market crashing, tariffs making everything more expensive, recession fears looming, and Trump being Trump, there is a lot going on right now. You need a financial plan to navigate it. Let's talk. But first, a word from our sponsors. This episode of Financial Feminist is sponsored in part by Squarespace, Quince, Gusto, Rocket Money, Indeed, and NetSuite. Build a beautiful website to get your message out into the world with Squarespace, Quince, Gusto, Rocket Money, Indeed, and NetSuite. Build a beautiful website to get your message out into the world with Squarespace. Squarespace was the first purchase I made for my

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pairings. Day passes start at just $25. So if you're ready to upgrade your day, head to resortpass.com and use code FFPOD for $20 off your first booking. That's resortpass.com code FFPOD because even one day away can feel like a true getaway. Hi, everyone. My name is Tori. I am a money expert. I'm a multimillionaire and I am the founder of her first 100K, which is a money and career platform for women. I believe I was put on this earth to fight for your financial rights. I am thrilled to see you as always.

If you're an oldie, but a goodie, thank you for joining. And this is a great first episode to be an introduction to this show. We talk about how money affects women differently. We give you actionable resources to better your money and our whole approach is empathetic, non-judgmental and feminist. And we appreciate you being here and we appreciate you sticking around. Right off the top, before we get into the rest of today's episode, I did a free mini workshop. I literally hopped on a loom and I recorded it really quickly. It is called the Don't Panic Plan, your three-step plan to financial security even as the world's

burning. Yes, that is the official title. You can go to herfirsthundredk.com slash don't, D-O-N-T, hyphen panic, herfirsthundredk.com slash don't hyphen panic. And we will also put the link down below in our show notes. It is a free mini workshop about 20 ish minutes that is going to help you immediately have a plan to go in to the unknown of the next couple months, knowing what you're supposed to do with having that plan. So please take that free resource, it's available to you.

I'm just gonna tell you, this is an episode to share. And yeah, that is self-promotional, but it's deeper than that. Right now, a lot of people are making a lot of bad financial decisions, purely because they don't have the necessary education they need. During a really emotional time,

it's very difficult to understand what sort of decisions do I need to be making. And this is one of those episodes I need you to share with your friends, with your family, with your coworkers on social media, because I don't want people making uneducated financial choices because they don't know the do's and don'ts right now.

And as much as I would love to get on here and talk about the White Lotus season finale, because I have thoughts, mainly it was predictable for the first time ever, we can'ts right now. And as much as I would love to get on here and talk about the White Lotus season finale, because I have thoughts, mainly, it was predictable for the first time ever, we can't do that today because there's a lot of other things going on. We're gonna split this episode into four-ish parts. The first part is just acknowledging everything

that's going on from an emotional standpoint and also giving you the information you need to know. The second, we're gonna talk about tariffs. What are they? What impact are they going to have? And should you be buying more stuff right now? Hint, the answer is no. And third, recession. Fourth, stock market. And then I'm going to round out with some final thoughts. I'm going to pack a lot into this episode because we get so many questions around

economic volatility, around craziness in these moments. And I want to be able to answer most, if not all of your questions. However, please know, I am recording this Monday, April 7th at 9 a.m. Pacific time. And the reason I'm giving you a timestamp is because Trump is moment to moment at this point. Things change, things update. We'll talk about this, but I would not be surprised

if suddenly the tariffs just either go away or get delayed because he realizes they're vastly unpopular and then tries to take credit for the stock market rebounding. So that's when I'm recording it. Things might change, but the information in this episode will not. And that's my first point before we do anything else. If you have been following Financial Feminist this show, if you have read my book Financial Feminist, if you've been following Financial Feminist this show, if you have read my book Financial Feminist, if you've been following me on Instagram, if you have been actually doing the things we have been teaching for literal years, you are actually in a very good financial spot right now.

Nothing changes about my financial advice if the economy is good or if the economy is bad, if the stock market is performing well or underperforming, if we're in a recession or not. My advice is still the same, which is emergency funds and paying off your debt and diversifying your income and continually investing. So if you've been following us for a while, if you've been doing all of the things we've been telling you to do for years, you're actually in a really good financial spot right now. But I know this feels scary. This feels terrifying. This feels so outside of our control, so overwhelming.

I was literally talking to my partner about this last week. I'm not immune to this, right? I have millions of dollars in the stock market. I am an emotional being just like everybody else. And the thing I said to him is it pisses me off so much that I can vote, I can protest, I can use my platform, I can do all of the quote unquote right things to get the people that I believe should be in power elected. And it still doesn't matter. My stock market gains are still going to disappear because we have stupidity in office and because we had people who voted for stupidity in office. This is democracy, I guess,

is just, unfortunately, when the person you don't want to get elected gets elected and he does everything he said he was going to do. Tariffs are mentioned some 50 odd times in Project 2025. We all are impacted. That's the reality of this. So I know it feels scary. I know it feels overwhelming. I know it feels so frustrating. I'm just like so angry about it. I get it. And one of the reasons I'm so upset is this is 100% on Trump. We've had stock market crashes. We've had the stock

market underperform in the past for various reasons, right? Housing crises, war, certain news events, right? 9-11, for example. But this is 100% Trump's fault. This is a self-imposed financial crisis because he has decided that tariffs are a good idea, even though they are vastly unpopular, even though they are going to mean everything both for individual consumers as well as small businesses gets way more expensive. So don't believe him when he tells you things like,

oh yeah, but the stock market's gonna recover and it's a temporary setback. My man, this is your fault. This is your fault. And again, I would not be surprised if after we finish recording, who knows what day, he then decides to pause the tariffs or roll them back, and then the stock market rebounds,

and then suddenly he is the savior. My not so conspiracy conspiracy theory is that he's doing this in part so that all of his billionaire buddies get to cash in and the rest of us suffer. So there's a couple different things that are happening right now in 2025 compared to 2020 and even compared to 2008. So 2008, the financial crisis, the Great Recession, it was the craziness of the housing market plus the banks, right? 2020 was COVID. That was unforeseen. That was a global pandemic. 2025 is 100% Trump. 2025 is Trump's tariffs. That is the single

reason that we are now in financial freefall. And my friend over at Under the Desk News, this is the quote that I need you to keep in mind. V said this morning, quote, Instability makes the population easier to control. It exhausts people. There's a purpose to all of this, but it is not to bring manufacturing back to America, end quote. I mean, I can't say it better than that. Instability makes a population easier to control. That's what's happening right now.

Oh, gosh. Like, I get so angry. We can keep this as fine. I'm just like, I get so, I'm just so upset because like, I, and this is what we talk about all the time on this show, where you can do all of the right things financially, right? You can do all of the correct things. And there's still 80% of the financial equation

that is outside of your control. That is politicians making ridiculous decisions and racism and sexism and ableism and homophobia and lack of education and all of the rest of it. So just know if you're scared, if you're angry, I am right there with you. Here's what we need to keep in mind. And're angry, I am right there with you. Here's what we need to keep in mind.

And this is where I get on my soapbox. Please know, especially if you're new here, that this is dripping with empathy. This is dripping with empathy and understanding, but also a little bit of a wake up call. If you have been ostriching your finances, bury your head in the sand, act like your problems don't exist, not looking at your money, not taking your personal finance education seriously. If you've been mindlessly spending and just thinking like, oh yeah, okay, I'll fix that later, or you've not been dialed in, this is the time.

We don't have any more excuses. We have to take this shit seriously. Because we have to control what we can't control. And I know that's not a lot right now. I know. But if you are the person that's been putting off your financial education, if you're the person who's saying, I'll get to that next week. I'll get to that next month. I'm too busy. Girl, I need you to take this shit fucking seriously because this is the shit that protects us. This is the only shit that we have to protect us right now.

This is the things we have to do. This is the contracts of being a human under capitalism right now. Is that you have to do the things that are in your control. That is your end of the bargain. And if you are so freaked out and so overwhelmed and so scared, I promise you that doing these financial steps we're going to talk about today, that we've been talking about forever on this show, is it going to make your fear of going away entirely? No.

But it's going to make you feel a hell of a lot better. And I cannot have you be collateral damage in another financial crisis. Because every single time, every single time there is a stock market crash, every single time there's a recession, every single time there is some economic volatility at a mass scale, women are the collateral damage. Women are the ones who suffer. And again, there's a lot outside our control. There's a lot of systemic reasons that's happening. But I need you to control the things you can control. I need this to be a wake-up call for you. I need you to start taking this shit seriously. So whether that's continuing to listen to this show, other shows, reading my book, reading other financial education books, looking at your money even if it feels

scary, that's what I need you doing right now. While we're in an economic crisis that feels so acute and so scary, I promise you that taking strides to be better with money, to have control over your money rather than letting money and all of the craziness control you, that is going to help you sleep better at night. It's not a perfect solution, but it is a damn good start. Please take your financial education seriously. You need to be well informed right now about what not to do,

what to do, what to do, what to keep in mind as we navigate this season of uncertainty. Before we get into the next part of the episode, I thought it'd be really helpful to bring in both a friend and also the person I run our business with, Karina Patel, who's our COO. Karina is almost 40 years old and I think offers a really great perspective of what this felt like in 2008, where she went wrong in terms of her own choices at that time financially, but also what you can learn from her and her experience. And I wanted to give like big sister vibes here as someone who is younger, who was, I

think, 13 when 2008 happened. It was even helpful for me to hear her perspective. So we'll go ahead and drop that interview here after a word from our sponsors. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online. If you need a website, you gotta use Squarespace. We've all been on

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get alerts if bills increase in price or if there's unusual spending activity, or if you're close to going over budget. Rocket Money has over five million users and has saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions. That is half a billion people saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash FF pod today. That's rocketmoney.com slash FF pod rocketmoney.com slash FF pod. Hi, KPA.

I appreciate you being here. Hello. So you came on last week when our team was having a fun little internal huddle about recession fears, about stock market fears, and you said a lot of really astute things, but you also are a little older than me. Do you mind saying how old you are? I am 39. Actually, I will be 40 in two weeks.

Yeah, very exciting. Congratulations. So you have lived through 2008, and obviously I have lived through it too, but I was a baby. So I think every time there's talks of a recession or some sort of economic volatility, we have very short memories. It's very hard to remember what that felt like. So what do you remember about 2008? Okay. I was in grad school and already a broke college student. So finances, I had to be smart about finances, but what 21 year old is smart about finances? I think what I remember was just everyone was panicking. Everyone was talking about recession. This is happening. There was just, there was panic.

And when I say there was panic and all this noise, it was the adults around me. And yes, at 21, I was an adult, but also very much still in my bubble of I am still in school. My focus is getting through my thesis and getting through getting to graduation. So not so much of the world around me. I remember my dad telling me, make sure that you put money into your savings, be smart about your spending. So what did that mean at 21? I was in grad school in Europe. So I was spending weekends hopping on the train,

going wherever the URL take me. That meant, okay, do I hop on a train and go travel this weekend? Or the week you pay rent? It was like,, I'm gonna have pasta and sauce this week or canned tuna and crackers this week because that is all I can afford this week. It was very much like, there was a lot of noise. A lot of it I didn't understand, I would say like thoroughly, but I did know that everything kind of came to a standstill. People weren't hiring.

I just remember the world coming to a standstill. I remember the chaos and the noise. A lot of it I didn't understand as a 21 year old, but I did understand that things were becoming more expensive. I had to like think through things and be like do I want to spend? Do I not want to spend? And again, it wasn't like spending meaning am I buying a house or am I paying a mortgage? No, it was am I hopping on the train and going going away for the weekend or am I going out for drinks? Or am I doing a mortgage? No. It was, am I hopping on the train and going away for the weekend or am I going out for drinks? Or, yeah, do I go out for dinner or do I cook at home? Those were my decisions back then as a student. But it was thinking about, okay, graduation is going to be

coming up in X number of months. I need to be preparing and making connections and figuring out what am I going to do in terms of a job. In your younger 20s, the concept of long-term savings, long-term decisions is really hard to grasp. I think this is where emotional spending comes in. I know you're right now, everyone everyone is hearing don't panic and just ride the wave and this is a great time to invest. All valid advice. But when you're in your 20s, you don't even know what that means. It's hard to think long term, especially with the world,

the way things are happening right now. But truly, it was, I think, tackling it a bit at a time. So for me, my goal was, okay, I got to get make it to graduation. I got to finish my thesis, I got to get to graduation, I got to get a job. And it was rough looking for a job. No one was hiring. There were 31 people in my grad program. And I want to say, almost all of us went back to jobs that we were in when we were in our undergrad. We went back into jobs that were sort of recession proof in a way that like service industries

or hospitality, just it was like I need a job to pay the bills. And I will think about the career that I want after but I just, I needed to be able to pay the bills because I was living off of savings at that point. And one of the things I would do differently, this is the things I would do differently. I would not be so quick to just spend my savings ahead of great savings while I was in school, this is something that I had learned from my dad. Great savings while I was in school. This is something that I had learned from my dad, but When the recession hit when I graduated I basically spent 2009 job hunting and For six months. I just paid rent

Out of my savings now. I could have been smarter. I could have lived at home I could have I thought no I needed to be in the city I need to I want a career in and And the opportunities are going to come to me when I'm in a place that I'm, when I'm surrounded by the work and opportunities. And now I think what I would have done differently is I would have stayed at home with my parents. I would have saved while working. And now with the world being remote, opportunities,

it looked differently back then. But now I think I would have for anyone who's like, I've just graduated and I want to work in this industry, but the city I live in doesn't have this industry, stay at home. Live with your parents, live with a family member, live wherever rent is free or cheap because- Yeah, if you're able. Yeah. If you're able because you have to, I think, pad your savings.

As you mentioned to the team last week, focus on your emergency fund. That is so important because we, again, we don't know what companies are doing and how they're reacting. I think that's the first thing is if, unfortunately, someone does lose their job, that's the fund you're going to turn to. And knowing that you have that emergency savings, I can't even tell you what kind of relief it brings you. So I would say that, especially if things continue to go down and jobs are no longer

a safe. I would also say don't panic sell for anyone who has invested don't panic sell your investments Again, tori, you said this to the team. You haven't lost anything because you haven't sold yet So just yep, it's hard hearing the words write it out, but it's so true and last advice I talked about emotional spending if you can and I know it's hard because I talked about emotional spending. If you can, and I know it's hard because I comfort eat,

I comfort spend sometimes when I'm like, I need this and it'll make me feel better. And sometimes it does avoid making emotional decisions. I think my last thing too, that I asked you last week, did it feel like the end of the world in 2008? It did, but it didn't. I think it really, it was more like, it didn't feel like the end of the world. It felt defeating because you were I was applying for jobs over

and over again. And I was like, Okay, at some point, it has to get better. I know that but like, when am I going to get my break? When am I going to find that job? When am I going to get my break? When am I going to find that job? When am I going to start my career? I think I felt when the world was ending, quote unquote, it was probably felt more fear around like the unknown about like with 9-11 and like the day it happened, that was very much like, oh no, what is happening and like the things after. Even with COVID, it was just the unknown and that just scares everybody. It's the unknown. But definitely not that the world was ending. It

was just like, okay, we don't have a script for this. We don't know what's happening. And so what do we do? And now that I've been seeing all the memes online and it's like, for millennials who are now in their fourth recession or 10th unprecedented. Their 12th unprecedented life event. We just posted our own memes last night. It's like, yeah, it's true. And I never want to come off unempathetic or just- You don't. Or cold or just not in touch.

But it's like,'s I'm it's the world is an ending and it is okay and this is just another thing that we go through and some good things do come out of this you know and so if someone is able to invest invest and like you said Tory I think you even posted this the other day I was like if it's $10 or $100, invest if you can. And if you if that isn't something that's feasible or doable right now, that's okay. Put it into a savings account. High yield savings. Savings is the one thing that honestly got me through and didn't make me panic as much.

There's some people who are going to be listening who are not in their early 20s. There's going to be some people who are which is so listening who are not in their early 20s. There's going to be some people who are, which is so helpful. But everything you just said can be applied regardless of where you're at, which is like diversify your income. Start networking because you don't know if your job is going to be safe. Start thinking about what is the next step in my career and if I do have to take a job that is quote unquote under my education level, but it's gonna pay the bills. We gotta remove our ego from that.

And like that's a necessary step, protecting our savings, making sure that we're thinking strategically when we do spend money. And I think, again, I've seen the memes of like, trying to save money because life is hard, but also trying to spend money because life is hard. It's like, that's the balance right now that we have to strike is understanding, yes,

when we do spend money, it often makes us feel better, but is that the smartest financial choice right now? Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. Yeah, I definitely, I think about, truly I think about lockdown during COVID. And honestly, when I talk about emotional spending, for me, a pint of salt and straw got me through the week. Thank you, when I talk about emotional spending, for me, a pint of salt and straw got me through the week.

Thank you, KP. That was great. Thank you. So I have this dream and I'm going to announce it right now so that I have to do it. I want to do a cooking intensive in Italy for like at least six weeks. I want to go to Italy. I want to learn how to cook. But the thing is, as great of a home cook as I am, my knife skills need work. So I'm going to Masterclass to better my knife skills so I don't make a fool of myself

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Again, that's gusto.com slash FF pod. So let's talk about what you can do first in terms of decades. I'm going to give this to you in a couple different ways, both by theme. So what to do during a recession, what to do to prep, what to do when the stock market's collapsing. But first we're going to talk about what to do in terms of your age, the things to keep in mind. If you're under 50 years old and you're expecting to retire at the normal age, which is 65, we are staying the course. That's it. We're staying the course.

I'm doing this, right? I'm continuing to invest. But also, if I do have some extra money, this is a great time to invest and actually invest more. Why? Well, because stocks are on sale right now. This is one of the ways I became a millionaire in 2020, is I was taking my entrepreneurship gains, I was making good money from being an entrepreneur in 2020, 2021, and then I was investing those gains at a time when the stock market was underperforming so that my investments could grow for me. If you are over 50, this is where it gets trickier.

If you are over 50 and expecting to retire in 10-ish years or less, you need to talk to a financial advisor right now. This is one of the only times I'm going to recommend people actually seek out a financial advisor because you need to make sure that the vast majority of your portfolio is not invested in things that are riskier like stocks or funds. You're looking to protect more of that money, right? The closer you get to retirement. I'm seeing a lot of people in my comments right now who are 50 plus and who are like, oh, what's going on with the stock market? How is it going to impact my retirement? My financial advisor? If you have a financial advisor who is not making sure that you are slowly divesting from the market and putting your money in more secure investments like bonds or a CD ladder, get a new financial advisor because they are not doing their

job very well. My dad, for example, my parents are in their early sixties and they for the past 10, 15 years have slowly been taking some of their money out of the stock market. Not all of it. I think my dad, when I last talked to him a couple days ago, has about 40% of their money in the stock market still, which is even still pretty high, but he's more risk tolerant. But they've been slowly taking their money out and putting it in a CD ladder.

And he literally told me, he goes, we have enough money to survive in cash slash accessible investments like a CD ladder for the next 10 to 15 years, right? This is where as the closer you get to retirement, you need to be thinking strategically about moving some of your money out of those riskier investments

because you need to protect more of your money as you get closer to retirement. If you're gonna talk to a financial advisor, which again, this is the case I recommend you should, you need to make sure there are two things. One, you need to make sure they're a fiduciary, meaning they're legally obligated to act in your own best interest.

If they are not a fiduciary, I don't care who they are. I don't care if they're your cousin or your brother. You need to not work with them. The second thing is you need to make sure they charge you hourly, not a percentage rate. Make sure they're charging you hourly. So let's talk about tariffs. I was just on CNN this weekend and the host of CNN asked me,

should we be buying more stuff right now because things are about to get more expensive? And the answer I gave her is, I don't know. Now that sounds like a stupid answer. That sounds like I'm not informed. No, we just don't know. We don't know how tariffs are gonna directly impact everything except to make it more expensive. We all remember the toilet paper panic buy of 2020.

Don't be that person. Don't be that person. Don't hoard and stockpile right now when everybody else needs stuff too. That is not you being a good villager. That is not you being aware of the people around you. Buy the stuff you were going to buy already. Do not panic buy.

Do not do it, okay? Do not allow tariffs and Trump to impact your financial decisions. If you were going to buy toilet paper already, great to impact your financial decisions. If you were going to buy toilet paper already, great. Buy your toilet paper. If you were going to buy canned goods already, great. Buy them.

But don't get in the habit of buying six of these things because you're scared when everybody else needs one too. Okay? And to those people asking, are iPhones gonna get more expensive? Are these TVs gonna get more expensive? Like I've been seeing all of the news articles of people like wheeling their new flat screen TVs

out of Costco. If you weren't planning on buying a flat screen TV already, don't fucking buy a flat screen TV. Yeah, you're getting kind of harsh Tory today. I'm sorry, I gotta be real with you. If you are not gonna buy the thing already, don't go panic buy it because you're getting kind of harsh, Tori, today. I'm sorry, I got to be real with you. If you are not going to buy the thing already, don't go panic buy it because you're worried about the price going up. It's not a sale if you go and buy the thing.

Be smart with your money. Don't think, oh my gosh, the price of this thing is going to go up, so I need to buy it now, unless you're already going to buy it. If you have already been planning on buying an iPhone for a while and you truly need it, you need the new iPhone, yeah, maybe it's a time to buy it. Or maybe it's not. This is the time to make smart financial decisions,

especially when it comes to your spending. And we're going to talk about this in a second, but you need to be increasing your savings right now. And one of the easiest ways to increase your savings is to decrease your spending. So do not panic buy things. Do not let the craziness of this tariffs moment impact the way that you spend your money. Make smart, educated financial choices that are backed in logic, not you freaking out. The last thing I'll say about tariffs,

Trump's out here being like, Jane is gonna pay for them. No, my man, that's not how tariffs work, okay? So tariffs are not beneficial. They are not helpful for us as individuals. They are gonna make things way more expensive if he truly does implement them. Again, I think, God, I hope he has a change of heart.

And the second thing, I've been having a lot of conversations with business owner friends of mine. This is about to get a lot more expensive to be a small business owner. It's about to get a lot more expensive for small businesses, for women-owned businesses, for BIPOC and LGBTQ-owned businesses. So if you haven't started protesting Target, now is the time. If you haven't started thinking strategically about how you can vote with your dollars you do spend, now is the time. If you haven't left positive Yelp reviews and Google reviews at your favorite restaurants and your favorite brands, now's the time. Shit's about to get a lot harder for a lot of people. And it's going to be really hard to survive

as a woman-owned business or a small business these next column months, column years. So please be smart with your money, both in making smart financial decisions with your spending, but also thinking strategically about where your money can make the most impact. Let's talk about a recession. First of all, we're not in a recession yet.

Again, recording this at 9 a.m. April 7th. We're knocking wood. We're not in a recession yet. I am not in the game of predicting recessions. One, because nobody actually can. And two, because that's not helpful for me to crystal ball it and try to tell you. However, it's not looking great. Okay? So I am preparing myself and our business for a recession.

You should be preparing yourself and your finances for a recession too. You should be prepping for a recession in April of 2025. You should be prepping for a recession in January of 2026. You should be prepping for a recession way back in every year. What I say does not change, right? We need to be prepping for financial emergencies, whether that's your own, like losing a job or somebody getting sick, but also the external emergencies too.

So what I'm about to say, if you've been a listener to the show for a long time, shouldn't be news. This is why we do the work. This is why it's so important that you listen to financial education and financial media because really good stuff, like our podcast if I do say so myself, is going to give you this information whether the sun is shining or it's pouring down rain outside. So, recession. Here's what we're going to do.

One, we are going to save up our emergency fund. Three months of living expenses at least. If you already have that three months emergency fund, now might be the time to increase it. Increase it to four, five, six, even more than six if you can swing it. It's a good time to pad your emergency fund to increase the amount of cash you do have on hand. The second thing is if you have not opened a high yield savings account, there is no excuses right now. There is no excuses.

High-yield savings accounts are just like everyday savings accounts, except they're going to earn you more in interest. And we need our emergency savings earning us as much money as possible. So your emergency fund needs to be in a high-yield savings account. High-yield savings accounts also achieve a really important goal, which is my second point in preparing for a recession. Diversify your income. Do everything you can to not just be reliant on one source of income

because if your job gets cut, if your hours get cut, if you get laid off, if something happens, you need to be able to sustain yourself should something happen. Now, side hustles are great. Getting an additional source of income through labor is fine. But I don't want you necessarily always having to work more for more money. This is where high-yield savings accounts are so powerful. No, they're not at the crazy high interest rates we saw a couple years ago.

But they are around 3% as opposed to about 0.3%, which is in your average savings account. That's a lot more money for you doing no additional labor, no additional work, not having to take out a second job. High-yield savings accounts are a must at any time, but a requirement while we're preparing for financial volatility. To recap, an emergency fund, at least three months of living expenses, two in a high yield savings account. And thinking about ways you can diversify your income is so important right now.

Let's talk about spending. Any discretionary spending that's currently happening, I'm not gonna tell you to completely cut it, but I am gonna tell you to cut it temporarily if you do not have your emergency fund. I know, usually I am like fun, cool mom who's like, yeah, we can spend money on the things we love and also save money. However, we are preparing for a financial crisis.

We are preparing for economic volatility. And I need you temporarily, if you do not have emergency savings, to cut the things that you're spending discretionary money on so you can save that money instead. This is temporary, but if you do not have that emergency fund, you're going to be in a world of financial hurt. If, again, something happens to your job, if someone gets sick, if just the recession does get really, really bad, if we are thrust into the midst of it.

So if you don't have that emergency fund, I need you to cut your discretionary spending, put that money towards that emergency fund in the high yield savings account. If you already have an emergency fund, this is the time to look at your spending through the lens of the things that no longer bring you joy, the things that feel mindless, the things that you can cut right now to hunker down a little bit. Okay? So this might be the streaming subscription that you don't really use anymore. Severance is over. There's no reason to have Apple TV anymore, everybody. I'm sorry. There's no reason. That might be something you cut, right? Thinking strategically about when am I going out to eat versus when am I cooking at home?

How am I using the produce that I already have before things go bad? We have an incredible episode that we've done previously with my friend Carly, who's a cookboat author and a food creator, to talk about how you can not only save money on groceries, but reuse a lot of the things that you would normally throw away. We're also thinking strategically about our emotional spending.

Shit's hard right now. It's a lot easier to spend money to try to cope. But the irony of doing that is that it puts you in a worse financial position. So that same dopamine hit you get by spending money, I want you to find that same dopamine hit with saving money. And yeah, it's the same thing that goes on in your brain. When you hit add to cart, when you decide, yeah, I'm going to spend this money, and it gives you that excitement

that like, okay, I'm feeling really good about life. That same dopamine hit can happen when you save money too. And finally, let's talk about debt. If you have high interest debt, we're looking at credit card debt really is the only culprit here. After your emergency fund, after you've beefed that up, after you've opened that high yield savings account, it's really important to do everything we can to eliminate that debt. This potentially is a great time to get what's called a personal loan.

We have the one we recommend. We will link it down below. You can also go to herfirsthundredk.com. A personal loan is going to allow you to consolidate your credit card debt, especially if you have debt in more than one place and you've had a really hard time paying it off. We've talked about this on the show before, but personal loans allow you to have one singular payment that doesn't accrue interest every day. That's why credit cards feel so powerfully damaging, is that they're accruing interest on a day-to-day basis that compounds.

Personal loans consolidated allow you to pay just one payment without the debt accruing every single day. So this is a potentially great time to look into that if you have credit card debt that currently feels beyond your control. So, reminder to prepare for a recession. We are looking at increasing our emergency savings feels beyond your control. So reminder to prepare for a recession. We are looking at increasing our emergency savings or saving that emergency fund if we haven't already by cutting our discretionary spending temporarily.

The second thing we're doing is making sure we have a high yield savings account. That high yield savings account is not only going to bolster our savings, it's also going to allow us to diversify our income. Third thing is we're going to think strategically about our spending. We are cutting anything that is not actually giving us value to our lives. And again, we are cutting our discretionary spending completely, temporarily, but completely if we don't have that emergency fund saved. And finally, paying off our debt, thinking strategically, especially about our credit card debt, using tools potentially like a personal loan, but eliminating that debt after our emergency fund is saved. Let's talk about the stock market. I've talked about this on

Instagram quite a lot. We also have a free masterclass, herfirsthundredk.com. It's called Stock Market Secrets. It gives you all of the secrets of the stock market, But I just recorded one, so it's all about what's going on right now. It gives you some really good information to navigate all of the financial craziness. So please, after this episode, it's a free resource. It's a free masterclass. Herfirsthundredk.com slash secrets gives you everything you need to know right now. The TLDR on the stock market. Again, we talked about this before. If you're

under 50, really, if you are not nearing retirement anytime soon, you are staying the course. I know it's terrifying. I know it's scary. I will go on mic and say this. My investments have lost over half a million dollars in value the past four days. Like, that's crazy. That's crazy. That feels so scary and terrifying. So please know that when I tell you to stay the course, I'm also having to remind myself to stay the course. But every single financial dip in previous years has seen not only a full recovery, but an increase in the stock market gains.

And a reminder that this dip that we're currently experiencing, again, as of 10 a.m. on Monday, April 7th, this dip is just now about where we were at in 2021-2022. So the dip is from an all-time high. The stock market has been climbing since 2021 and has not really had a correction since then. So while the media will make you feel so scared and terrified right now about everything that's going on. Please know that they're in this for clicks. They're in this to get ad revenue when they have a headline that's like Dow Jones drops all time low.

I'm not saying sometimes it's not true, but they're using inflammatory language. So I'm trying to ground this in reality for you. Does it feel scary? Absolutely. Is the stock market underperforming? Yeah, to put it lightly, but it's because we've seen such incredible gains over the past couple of years. Now, if you do have money to invest, now's a great time to get in, even if it's just $10, $50, $100, maybe more than that. But don't feel an additional sense of panic to buy the dip

if you don't have the money to. You should not be buying the dip and taking advantage of stocks on sale right now unless you have an emergency fund, unless you don't have high interest debt like credit card debt. There's things that we have to do to protect our financial house before we can take advantage of these opportunities. And I said this before, but I'll say it again. The last stock market downturn, which happened in 2020, that's the thing that made me a millionaire. I was making a lot of money in the business. The business was really lean back then. I was able to invest a lot and I was able to get in at a really good time. And regardless of whether the stock market's underperforming or overperforming,

I'm going to tell you to invest. I'm going to tell you that every day you wait to invest loses you money. But if your money's in the market right now and you feel so panicked, a reminder that you have not lost or gained money unless you choose to sell. What does that mean? If I bought a house

and after owning that house for five years, Zillow tells me it's worth $50,000 more. Great. I don't have $50,000 more though, unless I choose to sell the house. It's an asset. The asset goes up in value and goes down in value. It's just the same thing with the stock market. So when you hear people say, I lost so much money today, even me, right?

Oh, okay. The market, that's why I said market value specifically, not I lost, you know, half a million dollars because I only actualize those losses if I choose to sell. And I heard this great quote the other day and I need you to keep it in mind. The only person that gets hurt on a roller coaster is the person who tries to get off.

I'm gonna say that again. The only person who gets hurt on a roller coaster is the person who tries to get off. I'm going to say that again. The only person who gets hurt riding a roller coaster is the person who tries to get off. Okay? So we're staying the course. I know it's scary. I know it's terrifying. This is why I did that master class for you. This is why those resources exist. But the TLDR, we're staying in it, even if it feels terrifying. We got so many questions for our incredible community over on Instagram.

We are over on Instagram at Financial Feminist Podcast, if you want to be featured in an upcoming episode. I'm going to do these in kind of a rapid fire. I'm investing in my 401k for the match, but should I keep investing beyond that? Yes. Assuming you are under 50, we're going to keep investing 100%. Should I start investing in non-US funds? We teach this in stock market school, which is my incredible program that teaches you how to navigate the stock market. Great time to join by the way.

But the answer is yeah. If you want a diversified investment portfolio, which is what smart investors do, you want to think strategically about investing, not potentially just in United States based investments, but outside. This is what I do. This is what many successful investors do to help mitigate your risk. However, I will say this is the impact of the United States is that Trump can say the word tariff and every stock market in every country is impacted.

So just keep that in mind. What questions should I be asking my financial advisor? Great. First, are they a fiduciary? And two, how do you get paid? Those are the first two questions. And if they don't say, I, yes, I'm a fiduciary or I get paid by the hour, it's time to get a new financial advisor.

But assuming they passed the test, we're going to ask them a couple of questions. One, are you doing anything to change my portfolio because of what's happening right now? And if so, how are you making those choices? The second thing is, especially again, if you're over 50, how are you protecting my retirement as I get closer and closer to that day? And the third thing is, how are you making sure my investments are diversified for the long term. Again, most people don't need a financial advisor. You need to be in something like stock market school getting education. You need to be listening to this show. You can manage your own investments. But if you're getting closer and

closer to retirement, this is a great time to meet with somebody even if it's just one time. Should I stockpile? No, we covered it. But stockpile your investments, stockpile your savings. That's a great time to do that. But do not stockpile toilet paper. Do But stockpile your investments, stockpile your savings. That's a great time to do that. But do not stockpile toilet paper. Do not stockpile necessities that other people need. Don't be that person. Best case scenario. I love this question.

Honestly, right now I think the best case scenario, and I do think it's truly pretty likely, is for Trump to come out and be like, just kidding everybody. Just kidding. We're not doing tariffs or we're going to put a 90 day pause on them because everybody's really mad at me. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. That is the best case scenario right now. And then I think the market will recover. If that doesn't happen, yeah, things are probably about to get pretty ugly.

You said you made millions in the last recession, how? Well, first of all, 2020 was like a recession light. We had tastes of a recession, it wasn't a full blown thing. We haven't had a true recession since 2008. So frankly, we are long overdue. Recessions typically happen every eight-ish years. The fact that we have not had a true one, I have to do the math, what?

God. 18, 15 years? How long is that? Why can't I do 2025 minus 2008? It's 17 years. That's a long time, okay? So it's a normal economic event. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

It doesn't mean it's not scary. It's a normal economic event. But like I said before, I was well-posed to take advantage of it, and you can be well-posed to take advantage of it too. And finally, the doomsday question, okay? I'm going to spend a little bit more time talking about this one because we're getting a lot of variations of it.

But Tori, this truly is unprecedented. You're talking about 2008, you're talking about 2020, but Trump wasn't in charge then, and he wants to do all this crazy shit But Tori, this truly is unprecedented. You're talking about 2008, you're talking about 2020, but Trump wasn't in charge then. And he wants to do all this crazy shit, and the world is going to end, and the system's not going to exist. And what if we can't recover from this?

And what happens now? Please know that I say this with a boatload of empathy as always. A lot of people ask these questions as a way to like kick the can down the road, as a way to advocate responsibility for their own money. So if you're the person who's asking this question, as a way to opt out, and I want you to get really honest with yourself, okay?

I want you to get really honest with yourself. Are you asking the panic doomsday question as a way to not really learn anything about money or as a way to make sure that you don't have to look at your credit card spending politely? You don't get to ask this question if you don't have an emergency fund. You don't get to really consider this question

if you haven't done every single thing that you possibly can to make sure that if it is worst case scenario, you have done everything in your power to protect yourself. This is what I see a lot. And again, I sound harsher in this episode and I know, but it's because I need you to wake up. I need you to take this shit seriously. I need you to take ownership over the stuff you can control because that's frankly all

we have right now. There's a lot of shit outside of our control. So the one semblance of true control we do have is our own spending, some of our own savings, and our own financial education and choices. So if you are doing the, well, this is just different, and oh my God, and it's panic, and everything's panic and everything, the system's gonna break as a way for you to not take your own responsibility. We're not gonna do that.

Now, if you are the person who has done all of the quote unquote right things and still has a little bit of fear, that's natural. I'm in the same boat with you, girl. Like, I have done everything right financially and it feels a little scary right now. It feels unprecedented. I don't know.

Again, it makes me sound like I don't know what I'm talking about, but I would rather do this than blow smoke up your ass. Like, I don't know. If the system truly ceases to exist and Donald Trump becomes master dictator, I don't know what happens. None of us know what happens.

But the thing that I cling to is that every unprecedented event felt unprecedented while they were in it. World War I, the entire world was at war with each other. Terrifying. World War II, we did it again. That had to feel terrifying. The Cuban Missile Crisis, Y2K, 9-11, 2008, COVID. All of these things felt like the end of the world. Vietnam. I forgot about Vietnam. All of these things felt like the end of the world. They felt like some part of what we knew was dying, and we got through it. That's what I have to cling to at this

point. That's what I have to keep in mind is like, if we survived an all-out war on each other, war on each other, then maybe we can survive this. And I think that optimism and hope and strategic logical thinking right now are the way that we make smart decisions, are the ways that we help protect ourselves from the very panic that Trump wants. I'm gonna read V's quote again, because it's a great way to round out this episode. Quote, instability makes a population easier to control. It exhausts

people. I need you well fed. I need you well rested. I need you well shored up financially for whatever is in store. Yeah, it's probably pretty unpredictable. It's probably pretty unprecedented. But wouldn't you rather go in to an unprecedented event having taken all of the steps that you can to feel financially secure? And let's say we get through this, which we're likely to. You're in a better financial spot. You continued investing.

You made sure you had that high-yield savings account. You made sure to have that emergency fund. All of these things are crucially important any day, but especially today. And finally, I mentioned this resource off the top, but I recorded this mini little workshop for you to answer all of your questions and to give you a plan to prepare.

It's going to be very similar to this, but if you want direct access to me, if you want me talking to you and reassuring you and giving you a pep talk, you're going to go to herfirsthundredk.com slash don't, D-O-N-T hyphen panic. So that's herfirsthundredk.com slash don't hyphen panic. Please share this episode with other people. Please share this episode with the people who need it most in your life. We appreciate you supporting the show.

We appreciate you supporting feminist media always, but especially today. Stay the course. We'll be here with all of the updates you need. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First 100K podcast. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First 100K, our guests and episode show notes, visit financialfeministpodcast.com. If you're confused about your personal finances and you're wondering where to start, go to

herfirst100k.com slash quiz for a free personalized money plan. Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields and Tamesha Grant. Research by Sarah Shortino. Audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf. Marketing and operations by Karina Patel and Amanda LeFeu. Special thanks to our team at her first 100K. Kaylin Sprenkel, Masha Bakhmacheva,

Sasha Bonar, Ray Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Darrell Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclos, Megan Walker, and Jess Hawks. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolf, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First Hitter K community for supporting our show.