Welcome to Friday Financial Focus!
Each week, we bring you a round-up of the headlines that impact your bottom line. Some you may have heard about, and others may have gotten buried in the chaos of the week. Either way, they all matter when it comes to managing your money!
Distilling all of the current events into a single newsletter is impossible, so be sure to follow us on Bluesky. Join our Patreon community for financial history and resistory stories that inform and inspire, along with astrological and tarot support for the month. There are 3 paid tiers and a free level with limited posts - something is accessible for everyone!
Have a news story or financial topic you want us to explore further? Let us know about it!
Upcoming Classes
All December classes are now up on our website! Remember that our monthly resource forecast workshop and financial class are included in their respective Patreon tiers, but you can still register for individual classes even if you are not a Patreon member.
We also have a special end-of-year workshop to help you deal with this dumpster fire of a decade and start off 2026 with renewed resilience!
Taking Back 2026: Reclaiming Your Power & Resources (Dec. 28)
Is this dumpster fire of a decade dragging you down?
You're not alone! Between pandemics, recessions, trade wars, and insurrections, the 2020s have been an exercise in exhaustion.
We might be over the halfway point, but that doesn't mean the future is smooth sailing. In fact, it might now feel like more of an uphill battle than ever. How do you keep going??
There's no easy fix for all this... (gestures broadly) mess, but there are tools you can add to your Resource Toolbox to get a grip on this everchanging world in which we live in. You are NOT powerless, even if it feels that way at times.
Join Rebellious Resources for Taking Back 2026: Reclaiming Your Power and Resources. In this live virtual workshop, we take you step-by-step through assessing where your resources stand, where they need additional support, and how you can work with the energies of change instead of being overwhelmed by them.
During this workshop, we'll focus on:
- π₯ A 2025 Resource Recount & Inventory
- π₯ Keeping track of your Emotional Bank Account in 2026
- π₯ Some tips from history on navigating dark times
- π₯ Upcoming transits and tarot spreads for guidance
You donβt leave empty handed! This live workshop includes:
- Interactive activities,
- Q&A sessions, and
- A workbook to support you throughout the year.
Get the Deets
- Date: Sunday, December 28, 2025
- Time: 7:00 pm EST
- Where: Online (Zoom link will be sent prior to event)
The Rebellion of...
Make Your Own Damn Dinner!
Did your holiday have an extra helping of drama? Hopefully not, but some folks aren't so lucky. They get stuck doing the cleaning, planning, shopping, cooking, serving, wrapping, and everything else. We're talking about the invisible workload, and that usually falls on women.
In the latest installment of The Rebellion of..., we hear the stories of 3 women who were fed TF up with that nonsense and rebelled with a loud cry of "Make Your Own Damn Dinner!" We hope you enjoy this post and find your own ways to disrupt the status quo.
This Week's Financial Focus
This weekend marks what is historically the biggest shopping stretch of the year, but those numbers might look a bit different this year. Many folks have said they are participating in boycotts of some major retailers. Others will partake by racking up their credit card bills, a topic we covered a few weeks ago.
However, some folks are simply not in a financial position to partake in this annual celebration of capitalism in any way at all. This is not because they are so spiritually ascended that they can eschew all material needs and wants. It is because they are just trying to survive.
The concept of poverty and how exactly it is defined has gotten a lot of attention lately, from the realities of SNAP benefits to the alleged rants of a Campbell's Soup (now former) executive that disparaged both the brand and the consumers who purchase their products,
What exactly defines poverty? How many people are struggling with the economic state every day? Is it time the word was redefined to meet the realities of the 21st century?
The answers may surprise you. The face of poverty is changing, and it looks nothing like you were told it would or should. Let's dive into it!
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Get in the Poverty Line
We touched on the concept of poverty while discussing SNAP benefits a few weeks ago. SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, has some of the most stringent qualification guidelines in the nation. In general, if one qualifies for SNAP, they will automatically qualify for a number of other social safety net programs, at least from a financial perspective.
This is because SNAP is limited to those whose gross income can be no more than 130% of the federal poverty level, and net monthly income must be at or below the poverty line. Household assets, including cash, cannot exceed $3,000, with a few exceptions raising that to $4,500.
So... what exactly is the federal poverty level, or FPL? The FPL*, or "poverty line", is supposed to be the minimum amount of income needed to support the most basic of essential life expenses - food, shelter, transportation, utilities, clothing, etc. - for one year. It is an economic measure set by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and adjusted annually for inflation.
*Note that the FPL/poverty line is different than the poverty threshold, but we'll get to that in a moment bc it makes my brain hurt and this is coming from a Virgo Rising/Taurus Mercury. π
The FPL varies according to location and family size. Alaska and Hawai'i have slightly higher FPLs than the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, which are the numbers we're using here.
For 2025, HHS set the FPL for a single person is $15,650. Each additional person in the household adds $5,500 to that number, so a 2-person household would have an FPL of $21,150. A 3-person household is $26,650, a 4-person household is $32,150, and so on.
The FPL matters because it is used to determine eligibility for certain federal and state assistance services, such as Medicaid, CHiP (Childrenβs health Insurance Program), SNAP (food stamps), and the National School Lunch Program. Programs usually multiply the FPL by a percentage to determine eligibility, such as βup to 130% of FPLβ.
Some programs use before-tax earnings and some use after-tax earnings to determine eligibility. βLow Incomeβ is defined as less than double the FPL. Now, before we move on, think realistically about those numbers. Could you survive on $15,650? Probably not!
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The Math Ain't Mathin'
If the FPL seems completely unrealistic, that begs the question, "How is it even calculated?" This is where poverty thresholds come into play and where the terms honestly start to become a bit tedious.
The poverty threshold is determined by the U.S. Census Bureau, and it becomes the basis for HHS's calculation of the federal poverty level (FPL). The poverty threshold is an income level so low that basic human needs cannot be met and the person goes without essential goods or services, such as housing, medical care, or food.
The U.S. began recording data about poverty in 1959, and the numbers were astounding. Almost 40 million people, which was 22% of the population then, were considered to be impoverished. In 1964, President Johnson declared a "War on Poverty", but that required defining the enemy.
Mollie Orshansky, a staff economist at the Social Security Administration, found that folks at the time spent about one-third of their income on food. Agriculture worked differently back then and although food preservation and refrigeration were available, food costs still added up.
Therefore, she decided that the poverty threshold should be derived from the cost of a minimum food diet multiplied by three to account for other family expenses. That metric worked for quite a while, but life and economics have changed significantly in the 6 decades since then.
According to the Census Bureau, 37.9 million people, or 12.4% of the U.S. population, lived in poverty in 2022. This is up from 33.9 million in 2019, an increase of 11.8%, but still down from the 22% of 1959. But are those numbers accurate?
All of these calculations are based on the premise that folks spend one-third of their income on food. Grocery prices are ridiculous, but they likely don't reach the 33% mark in our budget. Michael W. Green, a strategist with Simplify Asset Management, recently went viral after going down a rabbit hole into why this metric is no longer accurate, but he's not the first to notice the math ain't mathin'.
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Meet ALICE
Just as the percentage of our income spent on food has gone down over the years, the number of expenses required to actively and gainfully participate in society has also risen. In 1964, home computers, cellphones, or wi-fi were unheard of, yet it is impossible to navigate the world today without them.
This is not to say one needs to have the best or fastest technology, but that access to even the most basic of these services is required for everything from school to employment to medical needs to housing. The internet has become a necessity, like it or not, and with it so have 24/7 electronic devices.
When we take these required expenses into account, the income required for survival in society starts to look a bit different. That is why the United Way introduced the ALICE threshold - Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE refers to people who earn just above the technical poverty line, but still cannot cover their basic costs of living. This threshold varies from state to state unlike the FPL.
The ALICE threshold is calculated on a much more granular level, providing hyperlocal Household Survival Budgets for individual counties and types of households. This standard can help understand relative poverty, which measures income inequality in a given location.
Using these parameters, 59 million households, which is 42% of America's 129 million households, fall below the ALICE threshold. On a state level, at least one-third of households in each state fell below the ALICE threshold. That is... a lot. It also drastically changes the concept of poverty in America - how widespread it is, who is affected, and what those who are impoverished look like.
Earlier this year, Representative Kevin Mullin (D-CA-15) introduced the Poverty Line Act of 2025 into the House of Representative. This bill seeks to revise "the methodology used to calculate the federal poverty guidelines." It would require HHS to calculate regional poverty guidelines based on a combination of:
- Average household expenditures (food, clothing, utilities, and transportation);
- Average cost of rental housing; and
- Average cost of health insurance
The bill also calls for a publicly available tool maintained by HHS that helps to determine the poverty guideline applicable to a given household.
There has not been any movement on this bill, but if this is something you want to see move ahead, call your representatives and let them know! More accurate income guidelines for assistance could drastically change who can access lifesaving social services.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know!
Rebellious Services & Communities
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Find support and guidance for navigating change, protecting your resources, and reclaiming your power with a 1:1 Resource Toolbox Tarot Reading.
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This community focuses on financial history and literacy to help you better understand current events, while also working on healing Money Wounds. Tarot and astrology support your learning process.
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This informative community will offer insights into world events through the lens of political, corporate, and historical astrology (AKA: mundane astrology). This unique approach highlights patterns on a larger scale.
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Sometimes you need 1:1 help as a business owner and need insight from someone with years of experience. Power Hour is a single 60-minute 1:1 session designed to give you clarity and action items to move you forward.
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Arcana Resource Coaching is a 13-session program designed to explore your relationship to your resources. We uncover the hidden opportunities and challenges you have to embracing your full potential.
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As always, your support is appreciated. Stay well!
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Sincerely,
Rayna, Money Culture Disruptor & Financial Inclusion Advocate
Rebellious Resources
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