Here's a list of things you should do to protect and help yourself going into 2025. I've organized them hard/medium/easy based on their time consumption and difficulty of execution.
GET A PASSPORT & OBTAIN DOCUMENTS (HARD)
• Get or update your passport so it will last through these next 4 years. Your passport is a very strong piece of identity keeping material. Everything in this section is especially important for people who have legally changed their name in any form. 2025 will likely contain some legislation targeting people whose name doesn't match on all their legal documents. Also if you need to flee the country this will be super important to have. Certain passport renewals are eligible to do online.
• Get copies or originals of all your legal documents. That means you should have your birth certificate, your social security card, and any diplomas or degrees. Keep those yourself at home in a safe location or in a safety deposit that you have legal access to (your name should be on the access slip and you should have a key)
CONTROL YOUR MONEY (MEDIUM)
• Move your money to a local bank or preferably a credit union. Big banks collect data on you and use your money to back their own evil causes. The people going into power don't care about people, they care about money, so that is our most powerful mouthpiece. Moving it sends a message to them and also denies them the data they get from monitoring our purchases and it protects it better. This is one of the most proactive things you can do right now.
How to move your money:
It is probably best practice to call your bank and let them know that you are going to be closing your account there and transferring your money. This is so they can make sure they have enough cash on hand to give you. Then you'll just take that and head over to your new local bank or credit union and they'll get your accounts set up. It can be accomplished in a morning or afternoon. The hardest part will be just finding the time, and then moving all online accounts to a new billing situation. I did this a few years ago and it was actually super easy.
• Shop Local ! Shop Small ! everyone has been preaching this for years, but you need to keep doing it or start now. Shopping local has always been more expensive, but with the tariffs coming, its not going to matter any more. Don't shop Walmart, Target, big conglomerates. Especially for groceries. Food safety is going to continue to be relaxed under the incoming administration. Eating local and knowing where your food came from will be the best way to protect yourself.
• Get a budget. You can use a budget app like YNAB or just track it yourself on paper or on a spreadsheet. Just being aware of how much you spend and where will help you save money in the expensive time we're going into, and realize if your money is going to someone you don't want it to go to.
• Future of birth control and abortion is uncertain. Stock up now on Plan B and Plan C abortion pills. Do this even if you are not a person affected, because you never know who in your life will be. (be aware of the effectiveness of these pills. Plan B lowers in effectiveness on people 165 pounds and over. Other Plan B options have similar issues.)
• Consider your options for long term birth control. Talk with your doctor about how much birth control pill you can stock up on, or consider an IUD. Do your research about your options, they all affect different people differently. Most of these will last through the next 4 years. If yours is set to expire before or during that time period, ask if your doctor will go ahead and replace yours early.
• here is the list of doctors in the states who will perform sterilizations or permanent birth control
• update your vaccinations now. the future of vaccines are also uncertain. the updated covid and flu shots are available, ask your doctor or check your records to see what vaccines you need a re-up on. you should have an updated tetanus/tdap shot every 10 years. you can get these at your doctor or at CVS, Walgreens, etc.
• stop use of all period tracker apps or tracking your period on any digital platform based on the internet, cell data, or the cloud. track on paper.
• if you take prescriptions talk with your doctor about how much of it you can have on hand at once. stock as much as you can.
CONTROL YOUR RELATIONSHIPS (MEDIUM)
• Women are divorcing and breaking up with people who voted for Trump. If there are people in your life who don't align with your values its time to consider cutting them out, especially if they are a romantic partner.
• The 4B movement is taking off in America as a movement to show right wing men that they can't have their cake and eat it too. The 4 B's stand for no dating men, no sex with men, no marriage to men, and no childbirth. If that interests you now is the time to start.
• Delete your dating apps and your profiles on your dating apps. These guys will be scrolling past the same two women every day with no other offerings. Your body, your choice, no exceptions.
• Cancel your amazon prime and delete or forswear use of your amazon account. Amazon has always been evil but now it is evil backed by evil. It collects your spending data and it is the biggest proponent of convenience culture. Getting real rights for workers means all of us recognizing that convenience has a cost, and it is far more than amazon is charging. A good life for everyone means you get your things slower, and we all need to learn to be ok with that.
• Unsubscribe from all shopping mailing lists. When you get the shopping newsletter in your inbox from wherever, hit the unsubscribe button. We need to be telling corporations and companies we don't care about their crap, and junk emails are bad for us and the planet. This is an easy way to cut temptation and stick it to them.
• Where you buy from matters. Buying small business or local means a safer product and it means your money does not go directly to the pockets of evil. The best easy thing you ca do during the next 4 years is CARE WHO YOUR MONEY GOES TO.
PROTECT YOURSELF ONLINE (EASY)
• SWITCH TO FIREFOX. It's said all the time on this website, but do it this time, actually do it. I finally did and it was super fast and easy and took less than a minute and it migrated all my bookmarks and passwords from chrome. Though the safest way to be online is with Linux, if you have that capability.
• add necessary extensions to your new firefox. these will be recommended when you install and you should 1000% add them: Ublock origin, privacy badger, facebook container, and clear urls. avoid adding savings extensions - honey is the biggest culprit. they make money off of your spending data. now is the time we have to fight harder than ever for our digital privacy and security, and that starts by denying them access.
MAKE YOUR PURCHASES NOW (MEDIUM)
• consider your life and if there is anything in it that is necessary and might break or need replaced in the next 4 years. I mean big purchases like appliances, car maintenance, house maintenance. Everything is going to get more expensive, and if you can get these big purchases now at a cheaper cost, you should do it.
• stock up on any imported goods that you have space for and want to prioritize having. Olive oil, wine, spices, to name a few.
HAVE AN EMERGENCY PLAN (MEDIUM)
• maybe when you move to your new credit union you move some of your money to a designated emergency savings fund. Everyone should have an emergency fund or money to fall back on in case anything happens, but that is going to be even more important to build and pad that fund going into an administration that is going to jack the prices of everything. Also because if you do need to flee you'll need money to fund your escape.
• make a plan for if you do decide to flee the country or it becomes necessary. consider where you will go and how you will get there. its important to think about how long you will stay there and how long you can stay legally or if you can immigrate, and to consider what the political climate / human rights situation in your hopeful new country is like.
• we all have to be part of the change, and we all have to fight for it. we can start by educating ourselves. My reading list includes Mutual Aid, Except for Palestine, Let this Radicalize You, Becoming Abolitionists, The Jungle, Assata, The Purpose of Power, Social Movements, We Do this till We Free Us, Strangers in their Own Land, and The New Jim Crow.
Knuckle down. We're not going into 2025 afraid, we're going in prepared.
Additions welcome, let me know if there's anything I missed. I know I'm missing how this affects people in college or going into it and ways you can protect yourself as an LGBTQ individual. I'll add to this as I learn that information.
