If you don't have the money to patent it, then publish it - rendering it unpatentable due to your prior art. Nothing keeps you from being the expert in the field, but you're protected from somebody else patenting it and charging you a royalty.

The first-to-file provision essentially just makes it easier to decide who gets the patent if two people patent substantially the same thing. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference in the existing breakage of the patent system.