Society has always been very specific about who is allowed to have, keep, use, and grow money. It puts a few people at the top while everyone else struggles. That's Money Culture and it's still going strong today! It doesn't need to be that way though. Join us to explore financial history and inclusion, grow your money skills, and see how the supportive tools of astrology and tarot can heal your Money Wounds and disrupt Money Culture.
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Friday Financial Focus - November 7, 2025
Published 4 days ago • 11 min read
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
Want to get a handle on finances? We have two upcoming classes this month that are all about the Benjamins! Both of them are about pricing, but from very different viewpoints: the consumer and the business.
If you are a small business owner, thinking of becoming one, or simply want to better understand what you are spending your money on, you will want to check these out!
It Costs How Much?? (Nov. 17)
The headlines can seem like a Buzzword Bingo of anxiety-inducing terms - stagflation, inflation, shrinkflation, FRUSTRATION!
What do these terms even mean? How do they show up in your daily budget and monthly bottom line? You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers about all this… stuff. We’ll break it down into simple terms that help take the fear out of finances.
Take a deep breath and join Rebellious Resources for It Costs How Much?? The Hidden Impact of Rising Prices*, where we’ll take a closer look at how the macroeconomics all around us impact the microeconomics of our personal budget. We keep things fun, informational, and relevant to your life!
Get the Deets
Date: Monday, November 17, 2025
Time: 7:00 pm EST
Where: Online (Zoom link will be sent prior to event)
Money makes the world go ‘round, but how do you know if your business is actually making money? It all starts with your COGS, or “Cost of Goods Sold”!
Knowing how much your product costs to make and how much your business really needs to earn in order to break even is the first step towards setting a profitable price and determining whether your business is financially viable. So, how do you figure that out?
Join us for The Price is Right… Right? In this live virtual workshop, we take you step-by-step through calculating COGS, your operating expenses, and how to determine your real profit margin. We’ll also look at where “hidden expenses” can eat into your budget, helping you to decide if a business, product, or event is really worth investing in.
Get the Deets
Date: Monday, November 24, 2025
Time: 7:00 pm EST
Where: Online (Zoom link will be sent prior to event)
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York just released their report on household debt and credit for Q3 of 2025. That might not make the top of your reading list, but it's definitely on ours! What is this report and why does it matter?
Every quarter, the NY Fed takes a look at what has changed for Americans in terms of debt and credit use, then compiles that information in a report that highlights where financial matters are trending up, down, or maintaining equilibrium. That gives us a better sense of how well folks are - or aren't - managing their debt and credit.
These numbers are more than just dry macroeconomics speak. They can help us put our own financial situation into focus, shining a light on where the economy and federal money policy could be heading. In short, it helps give us perspective, so here is what you need to know!
What a Debt-lemma! 💸
If you are expecting some good news about the amount of debt that Americans are carrying, you will likely be disappointed. However, the first step in tackling a problem is knowing what it is, so let's define some debt terms.
Household debt is the combined debt of all people living in a household. It can include consumer debt and mortgages. Consumer debt is debt that funds consumption, not investment. These are purchases that do not appreciate in value, such as credit card debt. Real estate and mortgages would be examples of purchases that do appreciate in value and can be considered an investment.
Household debt in Q3 of 2025 (July through September) rose $197 Billion, to a new record high of $18.59 Trillion. That increase is 1% of the Q2 balance, and this is the 21st consecutive quarter that the household debt balance has set a new highest record. Not exactly the sort of records we want to be setting. The last time that the household debt balance decreased was Q1 to Q2 of 2020.
To put this in perspective, household debt balances were a "mere" $12.116 Trillion in Q4 2015. That means our collective household debt has increased by 53% in just the past decade. Now, your individual mileage may vary, but that is a significant difference.
U.S. Household Debt Balance Total from 2015 to 2025. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
You might be saying, "But some of this household debt could be for investments like real estate, so is this balance increase really a bad thing?" Fair question! Let's take a closer look at the types of debt.
You Can Have My Credit Card, Baby 💳
Just how many credit cards do Americans have? A few... hundred... million. There are 642.31 Million open credit card accounts in the U.S., to be exact. That is up 6.28 Million from last quarter and sets another new record high.
If we again zoom out to look at how this has changed over the past decade, we can see this is also trending upwards. In Q4 2015, there were 424.65 Million credit card accounts in the U.S. That means the number of open credit card accounts has grown by 51% in that time.
Are you beginning to notice a pattern?
U.S. Credit Card Accounts from 2015 to 2025. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
But the number of cards doesn't necessarily correlate to high credit card balances, right? Thankfully, we have those numbers, too!
Credit card balances hit $1.23 Trillion in Q3 2025, which is...
wait for it...
Another new record high! In fact, Americans have racked up an additional $51 Billion in credit card debt this year alone. Wow... I wonder why that is. Did something happen in early 2025? 🙄
Once again, if we zoom out to put this in perspective, we can see how that type of consumer debt has risen over the past 10 years. In Q4 2015, credit card balances were a paltry $733 Billion. That means those balances have gone up by a whopping 68% in that time!!
U.S. Credit Card Debt Balance from 2015 to 2025. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Holy freaking frijoles, Batman! Considering the average credit card interest rate is 22.83%, it's easy to see how credit and debt can trap folks in a cycle that seems impossible to be break free from, especially if they do not have a strong foundation in financial literacy. Who benefits from that??? We'll answer that question in a moment!
Now, in general, balances do rise in Q4 as people are spending on holidays, travel, social gatherings, and other seasonal expenses. They then tend to go down in Q1 of the following year as folks pay off that debt. We can see that pattern is pretty consistent over time with the exception of Q4 2022 to Q1 2023, where balances stayed the same.
Can we expect to see that trend continue this year? That remains to be seen, but clearly there are some variables that will factor into not only credit card use, but on how those borrowed dollars are being spent:
The Tangerine Tyrant's Tariff Tango continues
The U.S. Government is still shut down, and the Evil Keebler Elf is doing everything in his power to keep it that way
SNAP benefits have not yet resumed, leaving 42 million people struggling to put food on the table
The ACA tax credits will expire at the end of this year, which is increasing premiums by triple-digit percentages
Despite federal labor reports being unprepared due to the shutdown, we still know that over 150,000 layoffs happened in October - the largest in 22 years - due to AI and cost cutting
Student loan debt and auto loan debt remain fairly consistent, and new mortgages have started to pick up as home prices begin to stabilize. The rate of home ownership remains at 65% as home inventory stagnates around the 1.5 Million inventory mark. How about prices?
A Market Basket of Goods & Services 📊
Meet the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. This is an index created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that determines the average price of a figurative basket of goods and services. It is aggregated from over 80,000 monthly prices surveyed from retail stores, rental housing, and service providers that cover the general expenses of 93% of the U.S. population. A change in the CPI from month-to-month or year-to-year helps to determine inflation and deflation trends.
While the exact goods and services in this figurative basket can change over time, they cover 8 major groups: medical care, food and beverages, housing, recreation, transportation, apparel, education and communication, and other goods and services. If the CPI goes up, it suggests that market prices are appreciating, or gaining in value. If it goes down, that suggests depreciation, or a loss in value.
The current CPI is 342.8 points, which indicates prices overall continue to climb. Lemme guess - you already knew that? Yeah, I thought so. The biggest driver in this month's increase is gasoline prices, which are up 4.1%. Food is up 3.1% and energy costs increased by 2.8%.
U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 2015 to 2025. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Back in October 2015, the CPI was 237.83, which means it has gone up 104.97 points in that time. That is an increase of 44%.
Again, this likely comes as a surprise to absolutely no one. I know from my own personal expenses that some prices of individual items I use have doubled or tripled since 2019, so while the average CPI has increased by 44% in 10 years, your own budget may be feeling an even greater pinch. Oh, and just to clarify, I am very judicious with my expenses. No YOLO in these parts!
Some CPI appreciation (READ: inflation) is expected and seen as a good thing, so long as it is manageable for the consumer. This is because wages are expected to keep pace with rising prices, but has that actually happened? Well...
Bringing Home the Bacon (Bits) 💵
We've looked at how both prices and debt balances are increasing, but what about wages? Well, that depends on whose wages you mean!
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the American worker's average annual wages in 2024 was $82,900 USD. Depending on your area's cost-of-living, that could be living large or barely surviving. It's all a matter of your location and living expenses.
U.S. Average Annual Wages from 2015 to 2024. Source: OECD
How have average annual wages changed over time? Again, looking at the 10-year patterns, the average annual wages were $74,800 USD in 2015. That means they have increased by only $8,100, or 10.82% in the past decade.
I think we all know that the cost-of-living everywhere has gone up more than 10% in that time. Hell, it's gone up more than 10% in just this decade! So, as you can see, the average worker's average annual wages have not kept pace with inflation and the rising cost-of-living, but they are not the only ones bringing home a paycheck. Remember we said we'd get back to who benefits from all of this debt?
Let's take a look at corporate profits and folks - you'll wanna sit down for this one. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economics Analysis, corporate profits in Q2 of 2025, which is the latest data available, cha-ching'd in at $3.26 Trillion. They also earned about that same amount in Q4 2024 and Q1 2025. These same motherfuckers just laid off 150,000+ in a single month right before the holidays!
U.S. Corporate Greed from 2015 to 2025. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economics Analysis
So, how has this figure changed over the past decade? In Q3 2015, corporate profits rang in at $1.78 Trillion. Now it is $3.26 Trillion. That is an increase of $1.48 Trillion, or 83%. HOLY FUCKING GREED!
Now, this is not CEO compensation, although we look at a few examples of that inequity last week. If we compare corporate profits to the same time last year, they are up 4.8%. Meanwhile, we have clearly seen how Americans are falling deeper into debt as prices rise, wages stagnate, and this bullshit broligarch regime cuts life-saving services in order to fund another ultra-rich asshole's yacht collection.
Do you get it yet? This is Money Culture on steroids! This regime is pulling a reverse Robin Hood - stealing form the poor to feed the rich, so how do we disrupt that?
Blackout the System ⬛
There is a national boycott and strike planned by the Blackout the System movement for November 25 to December 2 - prime holiday shopping season. This is being called the Second Wave economic blackout after an earlier one in February.
The goal is to remove from the system the one thing that corporations understand: money. Skip work, don't shop, and stay out of the system as much as possible for an entire week, but realistically, not everyone can participate in that and even if they could, would it work?
Boycotts can be effective (looking at you, Chez Target), but they take sacrifice and commitment. Montgomery Bus Boycott? That didn't happen in a single day or week. The boycott lasted over a year. Folks got real creative and real committed, getting up early to walk or arranging carpools where possible. Disrupting the system is also going to be disruptive to you own life, so plan accordingly.
One week - even a week as important to the Shopping Gods as the one after Thanksgiving - is insufficient to shift the economic imbalance that become so deeply ingrained in our society. That takes consistent and radical change in how we approach consumerism in the first place.
We still need to support small businesses and the local economy. We're cancelling corporations, not community.
Some folks will still need to shop at the Amazons or Walmarts because that is what is accessible to them. We do not shame them.
Boycotting one week and then returning to shop at those same corporations the next defeats the purpose. We are shifting our money to small, local, and sustainable businesses.
Shift the support you would normally give to corporations and use it to highlight small and local businesses, or great organizations that need extra support. Do you know any that could use an extra shout-out? Let us know about them!
Here's the thing about change: Folks want a situation to change without having to actually change themselves, but that's not how it works. We are being faced with collective and individual choices about who we want to be and what we want to support. I know what I'm choosing. How about you?
What are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know!
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I'm Rayna, Money Culture Disruptor and Financial Inclusion Advocate. Let's get rebellious!
Society has always been very specific about who is allowed to have, keep, use, and grow money. It puts a few people at the top while everyone else struggles. That's Money Culture and it's still going strong today! It doesn't need to be that way though. Join us to explore financial history and inclusion, grow your money skills, and see how the supportive tools of astrology and tarot can heal your Money Wounds and disrupt Money Culture.
Read more from Rebellious Resources - Disrupting Money Culture
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...
Welcome to Friday Financial Focus! Good things are worth waiting for - like this newsletter! Sometimes, we just need an extra day to pull it together. Thanks for your patience. Each week, we bring you a closer look at 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,...
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! A friendly reminder that we have 2 upcoming classes this month. Join us on Tuesday, October 21, for the Scorpio Resource Forecast Workshop, where we dive deep into the energies of this solar season to heal Money Wounds and...
