Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First $100K, joined Cheddar News to explain the new personal finance trend on social media known as 'Girl Math.'

<div class="block">Tori Dunlap, founder of Her First $100K, joined &#39;Stretching Your Dollar&#39; to explain the new personal finance trend on social media known as &#39;Girl Math.&#39;</div>

Stretching Your Dollar

Stretching Your Dollar: Explaining the New 'Girl Math' Personal Finance Trend

Have you ever heard of Girl Math? It's a social media trend where women share the mental debates and calculations that they go through when justifying a purchase, whether buying something on sale or coffee or that unnecessary Amazon purchase that you may never use while it may seem like a silly trend, right? It's encouraging the idea of spending money that you really don't need to. We're gonna bring in Tori Dunlap, who's the founder of her 1st 100 K to help Tori is so good to see you. Thanks for having me. Excited to talk Girl Math. So first off, can you elaborate a little bit more on the Girl Math trend? Yeah, you defined it pretty well. It's the mental gymnastics that women feel like they need to make to justify their purchases. So it's I bought Beyonce tickets a year ago. So me going to Beyonce now means they're free, right? Or this balance of oh I put money in my Starbucks app a month ago and now my coffee is free even though of course it's not free. It's just money that you've already spent. So obviously you are huge on social media with 2.4 million followers on tiktok. What did you think when you saw this trend? It's one of those things where the internet is gonna internet, right? Like it's, it's satirical. It's supposed to be funny. It's not really supposed to be taken seriously. And at first I thought it was really funny. Right. And I always welcome any time that women are talking about money because in this society where, you know, money is extremely taboo, especially women talking about money as taboo. We love to see it, however, it's really damaging for two reasons. One, we do as women feel like we have to justify our purchases in a way that men don't. These things that are considered feminine are innately frivolous or these things that we label as frivolous spending are la lattes manicures, right? Taylor Swift tickets, they're not NFL season tickets, they're not golf clubs. So these things that we're labeling frivolous that we feel like we need to justify to ourselves and to others as women are the things that we're having to Girl math. So that's the first thing. And the second thing to your point earlier is that you're potentially spending money you don't have just for the bit, right? Just because you might think it's funny because it's Girl math and I would love to see Girl Math instead be I'm saving a portion of my income so I can take that vacation without taking on debt or I am building my wealth so that I have choices and opportunities or? Yeah, I'm buying this thing that I really want that I can afford and I don't have to justify it. So, should users be wary of any trend that encourage you to spend money? Yeah. I think it's always, you got to take it with a grain of salt. Right. It's, it's one of those things where you have to know your money and you have to know what feels right for you. I always say that personal finance is personal, right? What I choose to spend my money on according to my values is going to be different than what you choose to spend your money on. But any trends that pop up on social media encouraging you to do anything you really, you have to analyze. Is this something that reflects my values? Is this a place I actually do want to spend my money and if so great, if you can afford it fantastic. I don't want you to ever feel ashamed of buying that latte of buying that pair of shoes, of buying the things that make you happy. But if you are spending money that you don't have on things that you don't really like, let's make a different choice, let's make a different choice. And on the other hand, is it good to create a culture where people don't feel guilty for treating themselves? I think 100%. If there's one good thing we're taking from girl math. Right? Or one thing that we can extrapolate from girl math, it's that I want you to use your hard earned money, not just to save and not just to invest and not just to take care of future you, but also to live your life because we know that diets don't work. Right. 98% of diets fail because the more you tell me, I can't have fried chicken, the more I want fried chicken and that's not willpower. That's literal psychology, right? And it's the same with spending if you tell me I can't spend money. Not only is that not fun, but it's not sustainable in the long term. So rather we have to find that balance, we have to find that balance between saving for our future goals, paying off debt and also spending our money on the things that we really love. But the key there is, do you really love it? Right? Does it reflect your values? I want your hard earned money going to things that you absolutely love that make your life better, not things that feel lukewarm. The money should go to things that we absolutely love. So, is there a better alternative than using this girl math? Yeah, I think just contextualizing like even if you spent it six months ago, right? It's still your money. You did still spend this money. And I think we do have to understand that we have tasked women with this mental gymnastics, with this justification because we have told them to scrimp and save, right? I mentioned this in my book, Financial Feminists, but even the advice, the financial advice. Now in 2023 is different for women compared to men. When we talk about financial advice for men, we talk about expansion, right? We talk about how do we make more money? How do we invest in the stock market? How do we buy real estate? How do we negotiate our salaries? Right. And for women, the advice is scrimp, it is safe, it is here are five meals, you can make under $5 right? And I think the girl math trend is us. I think attempting to make fun of that while also unfortunately also playing into it. So rather than feeling like again, we have to justify our purchases to ourselves or to others, let's start spending our money on things that we love and let's start actually using girl mouth to build our wealth so that we have more agency, more choices, more freedom and more power. I love that distinction. How often women and girls are taught to scrimp and save whereas men are taught to expand and it's very good that you actually point that out. So what should people be cautious about? You are obviously hugely successful on social media. But there are also a lot of other people on social media who are offering financial advice how do we discern what is useful advice and what is just gonna get us in trouble? Yeah. I mean, this is, uh, something that's been going on since the dawn of time. Right. There's been snake oil salesmen forever. They're just on a different medium right now. Right. They're on Tik Tok, they're on Facebook, they're on Instagram, they're on Reddit. So there are so many people I include myself in that who are giving really incredible advice. That's really important, that's really again, values based, that acknowledges systemic oppression. And there's a lot of people out there who are giving really damaging advice or just telling you lies and the get rich quick kind of schemes. So the first thing to think about when you're consuming advice on social media is what does your gut tell you if your gut is telling you that seems too good to be true. It's probably too good to be true, right? If somebody is out here telling you they can make you rich tomorrow or this is this hot stock that you're going to take to the moon, right? It's probably too good to be true. So that's the first thing. Second thing, an easy Google like just do a little bit of research, right? If you Google me, you can find that I'm a New York Times best selling author, right? I've appeared on chatter and other credible news organizations and a simple Google is a really good way to figure out are they credible and are they worth listening to and finally, do the people you're following actually share your values? Do they approach personal finance in a way that makes you feel good in a way that makes you feel empowered or are they shaming you judging you for your choices? So we're looking for credibility, right? We're looking for that gut check and we're looking to make sure that the people who are giving us advice actually share our values, credibility, gut check and sharing values. Thank you so much, Tore Dunlap for that advice.