Facts: People in the LGBTQIA community face particular challenges when it comes to money — which is why we wanted to give some members a platform to share their stories. So we’re excited to feature some of our LGBTQIA+ identifying employees in a video series in which we ask the question: “How has your identity affected your finances?”

Here’s Kirstyn Hippe, social media manager.

Meet Kirstyn:

My name’s Kirstyn Hippe. I identify as queer, and my pronouns are she / her.

I made the decision to become financially independent after school because I didn’t want to be tied to any kinds of strings that could determine where I lived, who I lived with. Having my own money and my own agency was really important in that moment.

We say all the time here that money is power, and you really don’t understand the extent of that until money can be used as leverage against you and as a way to control what you’re doing. So that was really important to me, out of school, to know that I was calling the shots in my own life.

I definitely think that it is equally, and more, important for LGBTQ people to have a handle on their money. My situation was more low-key in the sense that I made the decision to be financially independent, but for a lot of people, that isn’t an option. I was lucky that I was right out of college. I could job hunt, and I could stabilize myself. But a lot of queer people don’t have it that good.

So it’s helpful even just knowing that you should be putting a little bit of money away, if you can. Hit that emergency fund hard, as often as you can, with as little or as much as you can.

What I would hope to see in the future for the queer community is honestly just more conversations about money. Money is a taboo subject as it is, but I think even more so with queer people. And I think data will help that, but also just talking to one another about it — more studies, more articles, more conversations.