Financial Tactics for Community Resilience with Vicki Robin

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How do you engage with the monumental shift happening in America? Do you see baby boomers and millennials coming together to take a stand for what is most valuable? We do.

Our “Money-Wise Women” guest is Vicki Robin, a pioneer in transforming our relationship with money. In 1996, she and Joe Dominguez coauthored the best-selling book Your Money, Your Life. In addition to enlightening hundreds of thousands of people how to improve their individual relationship with money, she has created innovative community projects. Her recent visit to Standing Rock affected her profoundly. The unification of all ages and tribes in prayer to protect the waters is a powerful force to assert true value. We explore the significance of this movement, and agree that money conversations are crucial at this time of transformation. She says:

“Money is a tool like fire that we harness for the capacity to account for exchanges…it abstracts our relationship with the material world into a shared concept. It only has value as long as people believe it has value.”

Standing Rock is an example of the gift economy and collective unification around stewardship of the commons. Thousands of people from hundreds of native tribes and many other walks of life have joined to protect the water. They take a stand and say “water is life.”

In the words of Chief Arvol Looking Horse, “Standing Rock is everywhere.” This movement will not cease when the Dakota Access Pipeline is stopped, because this is about relationships. It is about healing the relationship with our creator, with our land and water, and between the generations and tribes. It is about welcoming world peace through forgiveness. Even as forces continue to commodify our natural resources, generosity is weaving collaborative relationships that develop resilience.

The movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline has included the greatest call to action to defund banks which are invested in these violations. In the last month since I’ve been watching, the total amounts withdrawn and reported on this site have grown to over $21 million. http://www.defunddapl.org/

How do we connect in meaningful ways to steward our resources?

Change begins within. As we heal the colonized mind, we open to new ways of exchange. This is the sacred economy, where the generosity of spirit is acknowledged. Vicki and I assist thousands of people to transform their fear, shame, and guilt about money. We have seen the relief when people realize they are not alone in their financial struggles. Secrecy about money is keeping existing power structures in place.

Vicki is giving Your Money, Your Life a makeover for Millennials, because the youth are experiencing unique opportunities and challenges. “As things come apart, the basic building blocks become more readily available. It’s an incredibly creative time…. As an elder, I support you as a youth unfolding your life with relational intelligence, success on a material level, and community connection; you are the future.” 

Through connection and creativity, we become free of the manufactured story of not-enough that has us filling our identity through consumption. Vicki describes “the enough point” and the importance of reflecting on what is most important. 

With each act of kindness and generosity we are healing the rips in our social fabric created by racism, violence, and the corporatocracy. As Vicki says, “The power of connecting things that have been separated is the source of wisdom and transformation.” We are the ancestors of the future. It is time to take a stand for what is most valuable, to connect in meaningful ways, and to create a legacy of true wealth.

Vicki Robin is a prolific social innovator, writer, and speaker. She is coauthor with Joe Dominguez of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, and her recent book is called Blessing the Hands that Feed Us: Lessons from a 10-Mile Diet.

Called by the New York Times as the “prophet of consumption downsizers,” Vicki has lectured widely and appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, and Good Morning America. She has also been featured in well over one hundred magazines. 

Vicki has helped launch many sustainability initiatives, including: The New Road Map Foundation, The Simplicity Forum, Sustainable Seattle, Conversation Cafes, Transition Whidbey, the 10-Day Local Food Challenge, the Local Food Design Lab, and more. http://vickirobin.com/

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