“Money Proud: The Queer Guide to Generate Wealth, Slay Debt, and Build Good Habits to Secure Your Future”

c.2025, Wm. Morrow, $24.00, 320 pages

Before you came out, you didn’t talk about it. Everything was hush-hush, zipped mouth, change the subject. But then you started to share, a little here, a little there with people you trusted. Before that, though, no discussions. Same thing with your finances: You didn’t talk about them, either, and so you didn’t learn — but the new book “Money Proud” by Nick Wolny fixes all that.

Once upon a time, Wolny says, he avoided thinking about his money. He was “living what felt like a great queer life,” but he often noticed that there was never enough cash in his pocket and thoughts of security nagged him. What if there was ever an emergency, and he needed serious funds, fast?

Like so many gay people, he says, understanding his sexuality, coming out or staying in, was the focus of “every waking second of my adolescence…” and that took precedence over money manners. Because of it, he never really learned how to be money-savvy.

And “yes, being queer affects your money.”

Being financially illiterate, Wolny says, is an LGBT issue because of the heavy mental toll that debt and lack of knowledge can have. Also, he points out, “queer people have a long history of enduring economic discrimination,” plus, “politics are downright diabolical these days…” To begin seizing your best financial life, there are seven “Homophobic Thought Patterns to Unlearn,” including avoidance as normal, and “comparison culture.”

Learn how to map your expenses, so you know where you sit. Understand why you’re in debt and remember that not all debt is bad, then learn the “snowball method” of eliminating what you owe. See how easy it is to build wealth without feeling sad or restricted. Learn how to avoid “traps” in spending and in making more money — and on that note, find tips on ways to raise your income. And finally, learn what you need to know about investing, because you might not need an expert to do it.

Does all this sound like common sense? It is — until author Nick Wolny explains it from the POV of a gay man. That’s when “Money Proud” becomes sharply relevant to millions of LGBTQ people who need this info.

Using this book is like taking a class on money management. Wolny starts out easy, with the very basics that are more psychological than they are financial. He moves through each category of wealth management and debt elimination, slowly but with an appropriate amount of gentle scolding so that readers understand the importance of what they’ll read, without getting mired down or lost. Plain-talk sidebars of “Tea” (drag slang for “truth”) will help you decipher financial terms and acronyms, and easy-touse charts and prompts serve as guides to make you confident and smart about the moolah you make.

And if your wallet’s a bit thin, well, open it up and invest in “Money Proud.” You’ve spent all this time silent about your finances. Now’s the time to read up and talk about them.

— The Bookworm Sez