This post was inspired as a response to a long discussion that began as my friend LaSara's blog post, so check her's out for the references to a very alternative family trying to decide which neighborhood to live in as they plan a move out of state. people.tribe.net/lasara/bl...79ab9b33ab If anyone reading this wants to go to a full day of wealth coaching on Jan. 21 in SF for free, just drop me a line here at tribe and I will hook you up.

I have been debating money issues with my progressive friends over the last few weeks as I have been inviting them to join me in a seminar being held in SF by a woman they call "the Millionaire Maker." See, the pursuit of our dreams, and the corresponding lack of money, has led me to the absolute end of my financial rope. OR, has it?

What this famous speaker and writer is teaching, even though the goal is accumulation of wealth, is progressive, as far as I am concerned. She starts her new book talking about the first woman millionaire, a black slave who, once free, started a business with borrowed money, selling a product, and became the first woman millionaire. She then goes on to state that only 7% of the world's millionaires are women, and that the primary reason is lack of financial literacy.

Financial literacy. Sounds scary doesn't it? BUT, increasingly, I am coming to believe it is what determines whether we are able to A. feed our families with organic food and afford real (alternative) rather than corporate health care, B. affect lasting social/political change, and C. experience sustainability and stability in our lives.

The most important value for progressives, IMHO, is the practice of sustainability.

The prevailing behavior in this country, whether you are in a rich neighborhood or a poor one, whether you are talking about the US treasury or a grassroots non-profit, is to spend now, pay later. This will never bring about sustainability. This is why our GNP is roughly equal to our national unsecured credit card debt. It's a vicious cycle that lines the pockets of greedy transnational corporations and robs everyone and the earth.

Sustainability is a very important value for progressives-when talking about the environment, obviously, but when speaking of money, too. How is it progressive to be so unconcerned with money that we ignore it until we almost run out then scramble to get some until we run out again? This seems to be the modus operandi of many progressives, including myself in the past. So rather than looking at people in terms of rich/poor, I am now looking at sustainable/unsustainable, and challenging myself to be in the former category.

Here's why. What I have observed is that many of the people that make way more money than I do, are nonetheless stuck in the same "lifestyle cycle." What no one teaches us in school, weather Ivy League or community college or home school, is how to manage our money in a way that is SUSTAINABLE. And as a matter of fact, once many of us begin to make more money than we had before, we just expand our lifestyle to fit our new incomes, and it doesn't change our net worth a bit, and in many cases, decreases our net worth. This is so easy to do, and was very common in the dot com boom our little cyber town experienced. Many of us got our big dot com jobs and started immediately spending the money we predicted we'd make that year, the minute the checks started comin' in. Worse yet, many of us incurred debt we never would have, had we not anticipated making so much. Then the bubble burst.

Just before the big "dot bust," I went into business. I took a crash course through the SBA that introduced me to some of the basics like assets and liability and net worth, and wrote an award-winning business plan. I still I didn't have the kind of success I know I am capable of. I really struggled with the issue of pursuing dreams vs. financial sustainability. Had I learned just one of the lesson's the "Millionaire Maker" teaches, the difference between good debt, and BAD debt, I would not be so broke right now. See, I was advised at the time to finance my business on credit cards, but no one taught me how to be sustainable with that little game. Back then, I learned about passive income, but I lacked a real understanding of how to apply these concepts so I am hoping to learn more from the "Millionaire Maker" herself. Not because I want a million. That's just a sexy title for a book. It's the sustainability and financial literacy that she teaches that attracts me-and I assert that these ARE progressive concepts. Knowledge is power, and progressive's lack of that power is killin' us. And sustainability is clearly a progressive concept, if you look at what "conservatives" are doing to our deficit.

In closing this rather long rant, I must mention one of my mentors...Catherine Austin Fitts. Check out what she has to say about the role of money in moving our nation forward. She comes from money, but left Wall Street after realizing how morally bankrupt the folks she was working for and with were. She lived in a trailer park and risked loosing everything to blow the whistle on the corruption within the US government, and now she is teaching folks how to use money to "extract yourself from the tapeworm economy." www.solari.com I think her example illustrates that we can change our attitude towards money and how we spend it and it can become a vehicle for progressive change, instead of an impediment to it.

Oh, and if anyone reading this wants to go to a full day of wealth coaching on Jan. 21 in SF for free, just drop me a line here at tribe and I will hook you up.

Thanks for listening. Your comments here encouraged.