Supporting Financial Wellness in the LGBTQ+ Community

Supporting Financial Wellness in the LGBTQ+ Community

Despite the incredible advances that the LGBTQ+ community has made in recent years, it still faces some unique challenges. A disproportionate number of LGBTQ+ individuals living in the US today routinely struggle to maintain their financial health.

One illustrative study, for example, found that 44% of LGBTQ+ respondents “said they struggle to maintain adequate savings vs. 38% of the general population.” That same study reported that over one-third of LGBTQ+ respondents said they have “bad spending habits that they'd like to improve or change vs. 28% of the general population.”

Now, it’s important to clarify that these financial trends in the LGBTQ+ community are the result of a wide variety of socioeconomic and political factors. Our current social and political climate seems geared, in some respects, to perpetuate financial strife within the LGBTQ+ community. Luckily, there are some simple and effective ways that investors can financially empower LGBTQ+ colleagues, friends, and loved ones. There are also several resources out there which can help LGBTQ+ individuals to maintain or improve their financial health.

Investing in LGBTQ-Friendly Companies

There is a spectrum among publicly traded companies that varies from being very LGBTQ+ friendly to being not so LGBTQ+ friendly at all. In other words, every individual company has a certain amount of built-in inclusion, nondiscrimination, and anti-harassment policies. Some have more sophisticated and numerous policies than others, and some have virtually none at all.

As investors, we have the ability to support the LGBTQ+ community by choosing to invest in companies that include and actively advocate on behalf of everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, identity, or sexual orientation. But here’s the thing: carefully researching the inclusion and anti-harassment policies of every company that might be worth investing in requires a considerable amount of time, energy, and attention - far more than most investors can hope to carve out of his or her average workday.

Thankfully, there are several resources out there that are specifically designed to rate publicly traded companies based on how inclusive they are to marginalized demographics, including the LGBTQ+ community.

Here are a few of those resources that we recommend checking out, and that can help you to build a more inclusive and LGBTQ+ friendly investment portfolio:

Okay - now that we’ve outlined how a conscientious and inclusive investment strategy can support our LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors, let’s now turn our attention to some resources that can help LGBTQ+ individuals improve their financial wellbeing.

Financial Wellness Resources for the LGBTQ Community

As we saw in the introduction, there are a wide variety of factors at play that have contributed to the trend of financial unwellness in the LGBTQ+ community. (If you’re interested in learning more about that trend, check out this article.) Now, just because those factors exist doesn’t mean that any given individual who identifies as LGBTQ+ needs to feel trapped by them. At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal financial education and strategy.

With that in mind, here are three resources to check out that can provide valuable insights and assistance for LGBTQ+ individuals who are looking to improve their own financial health:

Debt Free Guys (they are also the hosts of the Queer Money podcast)
NerdWallet LGBTQ Financial Planning Guide

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