Can anyone recommend good sources of financial advice from the left?
My company has an employee stock purchase discount. I've worked there for a few years but never participated mainly because I don't really understand how it works. I hear many people talk about their dividends from our company stock alone, as well as other investments they make. In particular the coworker with whom I work the most has recently become a wannabe wallstreetbets newbie. He bought up some shares that crashed hard in April and has not shut the fuck up about them since then. He is a complete moron and is also regularly telling me about how he is planning to buy a house in the next few months after he pays off his massive credit card debt.
All this has got me thinking about my future. How do I balance my financial security with ideology and action towards ultimately dismantling the same systems I'm investing in?
I already know I'm a dumb lib. But is there a good place to learn about personal finance from an anti-capitalist perspective?
That's a tough one and I struggle with it too. Because we live in a capitalist hellword I'm pretty much forced to invest in my 401k in the stock market if I don't want to (or can't) work for the rest of my life. I'd gladly give it up if we lived in a socialist system where people's material needs were taken care of. As far as anti-capitalist finance goes all I've come up with for now is donate to mutual aid organizations and obviously don't be a landlord. In the future when I'm out of debt and better off financially I'd like to do something cool like start a housing co-op or bail fund or something.
It's not leftist but reddit's Personal Finance wiki is actually pretty good for the basics of personal finance and Bogleheads is good for more details about investing.
Honestly, buying shares of the company you work at is praxis. Literally an instance where the workers owns a portion of his own corporation.
I think buying stocks and maintaining portfolio isn't as bad as the other options like "investing" in real estate are.
You should look into Resource Generation. They're a center-left group focused on getting the children of the obscenely wealthy to do slightly better things with their hordes, but importantly they compile less-evil financial advisors. Personally, I believe the organization exists to let the rich off the hook, but also I think it provides an outlet for left-curious rich people to do harm reduction which is valuable; you can't expect people to be good automatically.
For what it's worth, I personally believe that your personal contribution to capitalism as a worker saving through the stock market for retirement is close-to-zero, so as long as you do real work as you are able that's the important thing. Ultimately, there is an acute conflict of interest between being an investor or small capitalist; that's the point, it keeps workers (esp. white collar) loyal to the truly rich and powerful which is why they let us 'own' companies and stocks. However, it is not wrong to want to survive in this vicious system. In this episode of Champagne Sharks, guest Frank Wilderson III (one of 2 americans to join the ANC and join the post-apartheid South African gov't and marxist scholar) talks about his time working as an investment banker because it gave him the material security to escape the most brutal aspects of racism in the US and to pursue organizing. I think he lets himself off the hook a little too much, but his perspective is really helpful in working out what our position to finance and the stock market should be as class-concious workers.
In general, 'money managers' and stock brokers are parasites who are not really working in your best interest. Generally, you cannot get better returns than an index fund which tracks the major lists like the DOW or NASDAQ (which are propped up by the US gov't). These funds have basically no fees unlike a broker and historically have the highest average return on investment.
Beyond this basic stuff, my knowledge is really limited and I am not a financial advisor or anything of that sort. I had the immense privilege of inheriting about $20k when I was younger and I learned a little bit about finance before I learned even more about the world and gave away the spoils.