Financial Education and Community Engagement

Violeta 0:00

So it is 2025 and this year we have to get our finances , together with the new president and the new administration coming in , and everything that they plan to implement as far as policies and stuff that is going to hurt our bag , and so with me today to talk about how we can protect the bag is Leah Landaverde , founder and jefa of Riqueza .

Lea Landaverde 0:26

Well , thank you so much , Violeta , for having me . I am excited to have some money . Chisme conversations and you know 2025 is going to be a year of uncertainty . A lot of things are up in the air , so it's time that we have this conversation .

Violeta 0:44

I think it's important to understand the mentality that resulted in you know Trump getting reelected before we get into you know how we can protect ourselves in 2025 , because we have to figure out what where our mindset was in order to move forward . To figure out what where our mindset was in order to move forward , and one of the reasons was you know the economy , that people you know saying they were paying higher taxes , and you know the egg prices .

Lea Landaverde 1:13

That's all you heard and everything , so I wanted to just get your thoughts on that yeah , I think in 2024 , with all the campaigns that were ran from both parties , there was one misinformation pushed to a demographic that specifically doesn't have a lot of knowledge on economics . So , for example , specifically like speaking on the Latina community right , a lot of campaigns and a lot of issues that were brought up was the economy , oh , the economy , this , the economy , this the economy , that egg prices , inflation . But when we even really dive into inflation , in 2024 inflation was around like 2.4 to 2.6 percent . So , financially speaking , inflation is usually supposed to be around one or 2% . High is a 3% . But what we saw was , post pandemic , we had seven to eight , even , I think , almost reached 9% in inflation because of , obviously , supply chain issues . We obviously had a lot of individuals not working anymore .

Lea Landaverde 2:21

So there was , there was a lot going on during the pandemic and all of that has an aftermath effect , like it's not immediate sometimes and it usually takes like two to three years post , you know , whatever recession for us to really see what happened . And so , because obviously we are a community that a lot of the time live paycheck to paycheck , we love to make sure that we know where our dollar is going sometimes , especially when it comes to food , housing , those are the things that we're paying the most attention to , right , and so , in result , no matter who the president is , we're gonna to blame the president for inflation , for cost of goods being high , cost of rent , when , in reality , a lot of the time , a lot of , like , the policies that get put into effect don't really make an impact until the next president , right , and a lot of people don't know that . So , for example , like tax policies , people are like oh , I'm paying higher taxes . Well , the tax policies that we're following are actually trump's policies back when he was president . So we're still under his policies and actually they're supposed to be renewed in 2025 and so , now that he's being re-elected , his goal is to um a re-establish those policies and he has no plans and , based on what he stated online , you know , and to others , it's it's still the plan to keep it the same .

Lea Landaverde 3:51

So , um , when people blame the current president for these issues , it's like are you really understanding where the source is coming from ? Like policies don't go into effect . I see immediately and I think that's the problem that we saw this year , in 2024 of the lack of understanding of economics , of the lack of understanding how inflation , how it costs of you know housing and goods go and change , because we don't know a lot about this stuff . No , it's not . Like is going on here explaining this inflation , right , they're talking more about what's going on with , you know , a all the celebrities in Latino America or even what's happening in the United States .

Lea Landaverde 4:40

They're not talking about what's happening from a business economic perspective here , and so I , united States , they're not talking about what's happening from a business economic perspective here , and so I pinpoint this specifically , because media is what construed our perspective 100% during the elections , because we had this noise , I would like to say , say coming from one side that our economy is bad , we need to fix our economy , wages are still too low and taxes are high . Is the one who's trying to win right um the election ? And so we you , a lot of our community , because it was presented in the data post elections really voted for Trump for that reason , for economic purposes . Pero ya de allí . Cuando uno habla de tariffs y todo eso , they have like no idea what a tariff is .

Violeta 5:39

Yeah , yeah , they , they really played on because you know our community , we deal with a lot of financial anxiety . They , they really played on because you know our community , we deal with a lot of financial anxiety , so they really played on that of you know how everything's going to the economy and blah , blah , blah . So , like we're already prone to that anxiety level , you know , just to feed into it more . Plus , you know it's a , it's something that's really hard to overcome , even when you're trying to overcome it , like you know , starting to heal and everything like that . So , right , um , and one thing that you pointed out of how things take time which is what , why it's so important that we'll get into a little bit later was the importance of why we want to take action in 2025 , because things take time and so you want to have 2025 to plan , because the policies , como de justes , are going to take a few years to hit .

Violeta 6:32

So you want to be prepared for when that hit takes and we are kind of that bridge of learning how the economy works . Uh , and so , with that knowledge , I feel like I don't know if you felt that way because , like you're trying to convince your parents or you know the older generation , the generation prior of how the economy works , and then you're trying to set up the future generation . We , we're becoming educated , which is , you know , being uh learning how to be knowledgeable and being in the know . So I kind of want to get your thoughts on uh building that knowledge especially . Yeah , um , like I kind of realized with the results and the mentality and I guess I don't know if you had similar conversations with your family members or friends that they're so just work , work , work , work , but they don't take the time to learn , like finances .

Lea Landaverde 7:37

So I just wanted to get your thoughts or tips on somebody for someone yeah , when I even think about my own family during the elections , I was like dad , papi , mommy , like this is not how we have these conversations . Like how can you consider , um , this person as a president when they're talking about our community in such a horrible light ? But yet y'all believe in this because he's good with money or he has proposed better economic changes to our economy . But do you really understand our economy , you know ? Or they'll go back and they're like oh well , we had covid relief and we didn't really have to pay that back and that helped us so much . Okay , but any president during a pandemic would have proposed a COVID relief , not you know , just this person , right ?

Lea Landaverde 8:27

So there is a lot of like misconception , right , and I think our community , at least when I look at my parents , they look at who really has helped me financially from a business perspective . My parents are entrepreneurs but as well as it's this white gaze , right that they have like , oh my God , this president has done been this in this industry for so long . He's a businessman , he knows what he's doing . When you compare this to a black woman , oh well , you know , I don't think it's true . What has she done in her in her term as vice president ? Blah , blah , blah . And I'm like baby , like educate them for like , for a little while , please . Like that's like this man has filed bankruptcy multiple times and and like that is not a sign of success . Let me just say that that's a sign of cheating the system , uh , and getting out of the mess that you made . But , okay , si tu crees eso , by all means , um and so what ?

Lea Landaverde 9:30

I for me , as being part of the sandwich generation and , like you know , having all this knowledge and finance , and I try to do my very best to educate and like , prove my point and be like , okay , well , even if you don't believe me , at least do this , this and this . At least set up your high yield savings . At least prepare your estate plan . At least you do like you know these certain steps . And I'm actually um . Post the new year , I'm going to um go visit my parents to start setting up their estate because , as long as , like whoever's president , they're getting closer to retirement and I need to make sure that my parents have some sort of plan in place if they decide to move to a different state to retire or if they decide to go back to salvador to retire . These are things and questions that I need answers to to ensure that they have some sort of plan in place . And we can talk about that just in general here in a minute .

Lea Landaverde 10:24

But like , um , when we think about our parents and like even just like the culture we're so gullible to believe , but the messaging is really what proved its point in 2024 with the elections of like you , it doesn't matter who you are , as long as you have good messaging and you tie to the needs of the community , of the concerns they are going to listen . Because when we look on the other side , if we look at camilla's campaign , did she really tie her messaging to the latino community into her latino concerns . No , she didn't really bring up economics . She really didn't bring up those concerns . She brought more of like okay , well , I plan on giving those who want to buy their first home , you know , a down payment assistance , or I want to ensure that we have those who have kids get more for the tax refund Right , a tax credit for their children and all these things Right .

Lea Landaverde 11:15

And so that was what we saw post election that the messaging was not on par yeah , right For , for at least even the men , because we saw latino men vote the other like vote for trump . We saw even latinas vote for trump and a lot of the time , like I said , it was either based on religion beliefs or economic beliefs .

Financial Survival Guide for Uncertain Times

Lea Landaverde 11:38

So these are some things that I noticed that I'm like okay , what's the key issue here ? Lack of education , because when I would make videos saying guys , he is proposing to deport our people , like how can you support this ? Well , they're only going to deport people who have a bad , you know , criminal history . They're only going to deport this , this , this , this trump is gonna save us , trump is gonna fix daca trump is gonna do la , la , la , la .

Violeta 12:08

And I'm literally here like I've never felt so frustrated after playing all this stuff . I was like I was like I don't understand , like um . But I think one of the um , the things we're kind of fighting against is that you kind of mentioned it earlier about how our communities are usually living paycheck to paycheck . So now that I'm financially stable and everything like that , I have a little bit leeway to be able to actually like step out and be like , oh my God , look what's happening in the world .

Violeta 12:45

And you know and then I was like how do you not see this ? And then it didn't dawn on me it's because they're not financially .

Lea Landaverde 12:53

They're so centered . They're so centered and close-minded too . Hay comida en la casa . ¿cuánto nos está costando los huevos ? ¿cuánto nos cobran de la renta de la casa ? Or how much are we paying on interest on this mortgage ? And those are the concerns of our people . That's the truth , regardless of religion , regardless of anything like regardless . They are concerned about how their dollar is being impacted um .

Violeta 13:19

But now I want to get into um . What now , like ? What do we do now , in 2025 , to ensure that we survive trump's presidency and whatever impact in the future after he's gone ? You know , make sure that we are financially good .

Lea Landaverde 13:38

Yeah , so for 2025 , one of my main focuses is making sure that we have some level of financial protection and I create , like post election , a lot of people that I that followed me and I create like post-election , a lot of people that followed me were reaching out to me saying I don't want to be under a president that doesn't want to help my people , or women , or queer women , and so there's a lot of things that like spooked us up , even me , like my wife and I were ready to like pack our stuff and move to a different state that was a blue state like so fast .

Lea Landaverde 14:15

I was like , let's go . And I really had to sit there and be like , yeah , okay , don't , don't do anything irrational right now . Okay , you don't even got moving money right now because moving is expensive . Okay , you don't even want to stress yourself out with this . So what I did is I sat down and I kind of broke it down into 25 steps of things that we have to do as adults to protect our finances , especially if we have parents to worry about or children to worry about , or even just like a family , if you're married and and you're growing your wealth , or even if you're a single individual and you have some assets . These are things that we have to start protecting , and the beautiful thing about being latina is that .

Lea Landaverde 14:55

So a lot of us have this escape . You know the scapegoat of going back to our country and getting dual citizenship . So the first concern was like , okay , where do I go ? And I was like , okay , we'll consider dual citizenship because , first of all , if you're first gen and potentially second gen , you have the option of getting a second citizenship from the país of where your parents are from , right . So a lot of people right now are working on their Mexican citizenship . I'm actually in the process of working on my Salvadoran citizenship . When I go to Utah with to visit my family , um , that's going to be my main focus is um , give me papis me sienten en la embajada de Salvador . And that's the first step that your parents have to bring their birth certificate . You bring your birth certificate and they sit you down in the country as like a Salvadoran citizen . And that's step one , and then you go through the next step .

Lea Landaverde 15:47

So I I told people , start there with your , your citizenship . Right , that's one place . But when we talk about money now , because , first of all , people are like I need a scapegoat , well , that's one . Second of all , your finances are going to be the thing that's going to help you with your scapegoat or leaving the US . And so I said I divided it into like minding the bag , so your money mindset , and working the bag , so how you manage your money is securing the bag with credit , because credit is what gives us better opportunities . Good credit can get us better loans , better interest rates , and then growing the bag through investing in different types of investing and then grow the bag or not grow the bag , protect the bag through estate planning and legal documents that we have to set in place , and a lot of this is about financial planning fundamentals . It's what most financial planners offer their employees , or financial planners offer their clients .

Lea Landaverde 16:56

And so , that being said , I was like , okay , let me take my principles from financial planning and let's make it a little bit simple that someone can self-serve and do this for themselves . And so the first thing is the mindset part . Right , because right now , we're all in scarcity mode and we're like okay , estoy espantada , I don't know what to do . But first of all , we need to know , okay , what's our financial triggers right now , like , why are we feeling so anxious ? And what is like , where do we want to go with our money in the first place ?

Lea Landaverde 17:23

Because money needs a purpose . Money is not something that we use just to spend for happiness and joy , like , yes , that's part of it , but it's something that fulfills a need or a goal , right Of buying a home , moving out of the country , right , retirement . So there's bigger things that money does for us , right , eventually , it is to spend money , but it's a tool for us to protect ourselves in some way , shape or form . So what is that level of future that you want to have for yourself like , where do you want to go with your life ? And that's step one to discover right . So if you're thinking about 2025 with all this uncertainty because we haven't even talked about trump's staff selections okay oh my god , you know like , and that's not even .

Violeta 18:07

Look at tiktok , right , right , like we can't even go there because it's a lot .

Lea Landaverde 18:12

It's a lot to really process that like people . You know , like elon musk now has all this power in government and we're just like what the heck right the president and trump vice president right no , and that's the scary part .

Lea Landaverde 18:26

So , like with all this uncertainty , we have to first mind our bag , first , focus on our own personal economy and understand okay , where's my money mindset and where do I want to go ? Because if I'm concerned , what is my future going to look like ? What is my like , my next alternative , right ? So , whether it's moving to a blue state , moving out of the country , you have to envision what that's going to look like and what are you like the financial obstacles that you're going through now . So listing those out . So in the first part of the guide , it's like more understanding , like who you are , what your like money mindset is , what are your thoughts of scarcity , like what are your limiting beliefs ?

Lea Landaverde 19:03

Because most of the time , regardless of what's happening in the economy , our relationship with money , a lot of the times we have this money mindset that we have to work through first , because if we don't work through this mindset , at the end of the day we could have a lot of money and still overspend , or we could have literally like I know people who have little funds of 30 to 40k in salary , but they're really good savers , are really good like with their money , and so it's all about the mindset . Then , when I was thinking about the next process is working the bag , which is the money management part . How are we spending our money and does it align with our values ? Especially now more than ever , when we are in a place of understanding that CEOs are now stating who they supported where their dollars went , we have to be more mindful with where our dollar goes , and so I put in the guide like support your local economy , support your small businesses , support your friends and family who have businesses , because then your money starts revolving into a circular economy with close you know friends , family , latina business owners and everything like that , instead of supporting our traditional , you know amazon corporations , where we know that they donated millions to a cause that does not align with us , right . And so , first of all , people were like wow , I didn't even realize that , that these companies support this , this and this , and I'm like , yes , do your research , because where your money goes matters

Building Financial Security and Emergency Funds

Lea Landaverde 20:39

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Lea Landaverde 20:39

And then the third thing is okay , security is through , first of all , an emergency fund . We don't play with emergency funds because that is our first level of financial security . We have three to six months of savings to protect us from any job loss and cut hours , anything along those lines . That's where an emergency fund comes in , and I know for a fact a lot of our people no tienen emergency funds , usan sus tarjetas de crédito , en final terminan endeudados , no sabiendo cómo salirse de la deuda , and they still have emergencies or costs to expenses to cover .

Lea Landaverde 21:18

And so when I , when I see that I'm like you know , yes , saving six thousand , three thousand dollars is a lot , but start with your first five hundred dollars , like start saving for something because even if a tire pops let's just say the minor inconvenience of a tire popping you have some level of money to protect that . Like emergency funds are supposed to be used , I always tell people that I'm like emergency funds are meant to be spent on emergencies . They're not just supposed to be kept there just for fun . And like growing interest at 4% is great . And even then , like we're going to see I think recently the Fed just decreased interest rates again , but it's probably going to be the last one for a while , because they're trying to figure out what's going to happen in 2025 with all of these shifts , so we might see even high-yield savings account . Even then , it's still like it's going to be like around 4% or high 3% , but regardless , I'm like that's good . Yes , but this money that you have in your emergency fund is supposed to be a rotating fund , meaning lo usas ahorras , lo usas ahorras , lo usas ahorras , and that's base one of financial security . This is just for like immediate need purposes , right ? Like si te cortan el trabajo las horas , whatever . Ahí tienes un fund para usarlo para los gastos de la casa , whatever , right , and that's like step one , right .

Lea Landaverde 22:44

And then the next thing that I mentioned , even in the guide .

Lea Landaverde 22:46

I was like , okay , well , if by chance que no tenemos ahorros and we need to like , let's say , consolidate our debt , well , in order to consolidate our debt , we have to have good credit in order to get a good interest rate on that loan .

Lea Landaverde 22:59

Right . So working on our credit or reaching get a good interest rate on that loan , right . So working on our credit or reaching that 30 utilization rate on our debt is going to be key , even if you don't pay off all your debt . Just reaching that 30 , because you're going to see a big shift in your credit score from going to like 70 of utilizing your credit limit to 30 , like creditors love the 30 number , but they just love that number and anything less that you have in your credit under 30% . So let's say you make it to paycheck , but even then , tackling that high interest debt because , yes , interest rates are close to 30 . I always challenge people like , check on your credit cards , go check how much you're paying on interest right now go see and you're gonna be shocked I think for me it was definitely that's like okay , okay , like in 2025 , to make sure that I'm good over there .

Violeta 24:04

So , like you know , I I think um , I'm not sure because , uh , I had to determine , like , if I still have dual citizenship because I was born over there , but I don't know if , like when I joined the military , I don't know . So I gotta figure that out , so that's one of my steps , definitely making sure that I have .

Violeta 24:23

I'm boosting up my emergency fund . Um , so , like the , the typical one they used to say was like about three months or whatever . So I'm gonna probably push it to maybe six to nine months , because you never know what's going to happen with everything , especially with yeah , because it's a four-year term .

Lea Landaverde 24:40

Yeah yeah , because it's like a whole , a four-year term . It's not a year that he everything , especially . Yeah , because it's a four-year term . Yeah , yeah , because it's like a whole , a four-year term .

Lea Landaverde 24:43

It's not a year that he's in , you know , it's four years so , like I said , that emergency fund is going to be rotating or growing because , like , when we think about our financial plan , we need to have money , liquid , right , um , for these emergencies , and then we have to have money for growth , like for the next four years , for five , 10 years , right from now , which is through investing , right , whether you have real estate properties , whether you have investments in a brokerage account , right , or your retirement account , because people are always thinking , okay , well , like , hey , I'll use my emergency funding , yeah , but again , there's multiple levels of protection , right , um , and and you know about this because I know you have real estate properties , right , but , like , worst case scenario , you can sell a real estate property and get your ganancia right .

Violeta 25:32

something that just recently happened that just popped in my head was with the with party city que they just like late like they're closing down , I was like , and who knows what's going to happen now with the tariffs and stuff ? That's what I'm planning for . I might be out of a job for six to nine months and I have to cover my costs and everything like that . That's one of the planning things that I'm doing .

Estate Planning and Financial Protection

Lea Landaverde 25:59

The last part that's really the most important , which is financial protection through legal estate planning . So this is setting up your will Most of the time . I think it's like 33% of people in the United States have a will and there's like 70% of us who don't which goes over .

Lea Landaverde 26:15

What's going to happen with our funds if anything happens ? Right , what happens to our , our home , our like , everything , our assets ? If something does happen to us by chance , right , and that's one . And I usually think about this for our parents , not for us most of the time and , yes , it's important for us to have one , even just a simple one , but I think about my parents . Okay , what do you want to do with your assets when you pass ?

Lea Landaverde 26:40

Um , the next thing is considering a trust . Does it need to go into a trust to save on probate taxes ? And when it goes ? Because most of the time when someone in our family passes , if we don't have a will or trust or anything like anything listed , it goes to the courts , the government , to decide what happens next , and that's where we lose money on probate taxes and everything like that . So that's like one of the key principles , and there's templates online . There's , I think it's called estate and trustcom , where you can get one for $200 , a will to start out with , or start out with a trust for a few hundred dollars for your family . And that's like I said . That's what I'm going to go do when I go see my parents is actually set up , the will figure out what trust we need for each property or whatever assets they have .

Lea Landaverde 27:28

And then , one thing that I've been telling people the most out of everything that I mentioned in the guide is having a financial power of attorney . Because if you were not in the US , let's say you go to Mexico , let's go , let's say you go to El Salvador , just to you know , for the time being , to protect yourself . Or let's say we get deported by chance , having a financial power of attorney to make financial moves if you didn't happen to make them in time is going to be essential . So someone that you trust very well , that can move , move your assets , that can do things on your behalf whether it's a child that you have , that's a citizen um or um , a close , close business partner , friend , legally that they can help you know , move funds on your behalf to protect yourself when you are not here . Because the one of the biggest questions I get from , like even um , the documented community is do I lose all my money ? Well , no , your money is still your money . No , one's gonna take it . It's just a matter of you know .

Lea Landaverde 28:33

Can you transfer it out , uh , where you are , and most of the time , if it's big lump sums of money , you might need a power of attorney , since you're not there , to a get that money out on your behalf and make those transfers , and and so if you don't have the app that can do it on its own , then most of the time , like I said , having a financial power of attorney is probably going to be one of the key um legal documents to set up , just in case , okay , it's just saying this person can do these business moves or , you know , if you need to sell your business , if you , you know , by chance you get deported or anything along those lines , and I and I hate assuming that this might happen , but it's , it's a possibility , right ? So I have to go with my parents and set all these up . Who's the financial power of attorney ? Who's going to be their health care directive ? Right ?

Lea Landaverde 29:23

If they get sick ? Because my parents are older and they have diabetes , so if they get sick , who can make those financial decisions or even their health care decisions ? If it's not my mom , who is it going to be next ? Maybe it's me , maybe it's somebody else , right ? So those are . There's a , a lot of things from my a like a state planning perspective that most of us never get to like the will , the trust , the power of attorney , um , or even life insurance right . People usually see life insurance as a scam because most of the time they tend to scam you out and in on policies .

Lea Landaverde 30:00

But when you know what life insurance is best for you right away by doing your research because I always say that do your research before you go meet with somebody for them to tell you what you need to do funeral , paying for a , you know the burial costs and just like family debt or expenses that might come up right and there's different type of policies .

Lea Landaverde 30:26

But like these are things that we need to talk about . This , this , the ending part of the protection , which is the legal aspect , is what we don't do . I have , I can count on like the amount , like fingers of my hand , of people that I've worked with as clients that actually have some sort of like estate plan , like it's less than like 10 . Like , I promise you , I don't know many that actually have an estate plan set in place and if they do , it's because they have some sort of close family relative that has had wealth before , or they have a really close colleague that has money that said this is what you need to do , right , and so it's time for us to wake up and educate ourselves and start taking pasito . A pasito Y si cuesta dinero is not something cheap . But if we're willing to spend money en las canazadas en los gifts de Navidad , might as well gift ourselves some legal protection of what we do own .

Violeta 31:20

That is true , a lot of stuff that I , because I'm on the same boat with my parents . They're about to , you know , getting closer . Well , my dad's already like 65 . So , yeah , so luckily he's tried to take a few steps . So I'm not starting like from complete scratch and stuff . I just got to switch a few steps . So it's not I'm not starting like from complete scratch and stuff , I just gotta switch his uh , a few things . Like his life insurance . He got like one that was just in case for , um , uh , if he got in an accident like car accident , and that's it , that's all that covered .

Violeta 31:53

So I'm like , well , you know , okay , I get it , but I'm not too familiar but that's only partial like yeah , I was like , well , okay , I see what you were trying to do , dad , but which'm not too familiar , but that's only partial like . Yeah , I was like , well , okay , I see what you were trying to do , dad , but which is not , uh , it's not like too bad because , I mean , texas is one of like the deadliest states with car accidents , so I , so I get it definitely , um , but so I gotta help them with that estate plan , which is one of the reasons that , like I I'm having them move um to san antonio with me .

Violeta 32:24

Um , so that way I could be like checking up on them , um , and a lot of stuff with the , with their will , and my stuff too , especially now that I'm going , you have all these properties yeah now I'm like , oh , my god , got to like start figuring out what to do , and so that's the plan for me in 2025 is start protecting it as well , and stuff like that . So I'm excited to get your guide for sure . Like , yeah , yeah , and I had a master class , yeah . Like , oh , do you ?

Lea Landaverde 32:54

Yeah , I'm going to . I'm attach it to the guide now because I did film the master class , so now I have the class plus the guide . It's $ now because I I did film the master class , so now I have the class plus the guide um , it's 25 dollars . I didn't want to make it anything pricey because I know that this is important for our community . Um , and like even the guide , it's like 60 plus pages long because I really spent the time of thinking of like anything that people might have questions on , like how we spend our money , value based systems . Um banking to bank instead of banking with like wells , fargo and bank of america . Switch to a credit union or a online bank , where your values might align better , versus a company that's been like sued multiple times for you know screwing over their , their , their clients .

Lea Landaverde 33:38

So , like I said , like there's a lot when it comes to money . But , you know , I think taking the first year of 2025 , like using this year to really get our ducks in a row and , again , it's not going to happen overnight . It's going to take a few months , a lot of discussions , whether you're doing it for yourself or for your parents . It's going to take some time but , like , like I said , he's a president for four years . So the first year is where we're gonna see a lot of volatility , we're gonna see a lot of change . Um , I don't know if the stock market's gonna perform the same that it , like it has the last few years because , again , the market reacts to the media , it reacts to how companies are moving , it reacts to politics . So I don't know if's going to be a good year again next year than what we've had in the past . But even when we think about investing , we're not investing for tomorrow . We're investing for a long time . We're investing for retirement . We're investing for the next plus five years , not for a year from now .

Lea Landaverde 34:37

So , if you need your money any time sooner than less than three years , I would probably adjust your portfolio and de-risk yourself and put it into more cash or bonds , if that's what your plan is .

Lea Landaverde 34:50

And again , these are some things that , again , we don't have . These conversations and that's going to be my big focus for 2025 is just like the complex little things like this , because we always have this perception that everything's going to be great , the economy's great , we're going to be growing , the stock market's great , we're making money yeah , yeah , yeah , but there's also times of uncertainty , and that's normal . That's what what happens , but that's why we have emergency funds . That's why we have emergency funds , that's why we have all of these things that we need to set up in our financial plan for any uncertainty . So I hope that , like you know , this conversation inspires , you know , your listeners to just take some action , like , whether it's for your own family or for your parents , start sitting down and having these conversations of what that looks like for them , what their future looks like , because a lot of us are like on our toes right now .

Violeta 35:44

You know , trying to figure out what's next uh , link down below and all your information because , again , it's very important . I'm gonna be pushing that all , all , all um , all year because it's a um , very important . When I saw like you talking about it , like , oh man , this is perfect . Well , exactly what we need for 2025 , like este . So I'm glad that you created that guide and hopefully , you know , go out there and get it .

Lea Landaverde 36:12

Yeah , but you know , yeah , thank you for coming on here and having this very important conversation no well , thank you , violeta , for having me , and you know like I think we're to listen and and apply . This is is a win , right ? Um ? Knowledge is power , you know , and that's what we learned in in 2024 , right ? That clearly we don't have a lot of knowledge in some things , and so it's time for us to pick up a few books , listen to some podcasts like this one , you know and get started on our financial journey . And it's not a race . There's no one that we're competing with , there's no one that's better than us . It's us against us , and so if anyone has any questions , y'all know where to find me . But you know , I'm a strong believer that if we have a GDP of like what ? $3.2 trillion in the United States , and that we could be like one of the what ? The fifth largest country in the world of Latinos in the US , we're like a country .

Lea Landaverde 37:17

Okay , we can get our money in order . We're good spenders , you know like . Might as well start , you know , using that power economic power for our own personal economy .

Violeta 37:27

Yeah , yeah , all right . Well , thank you again for being here Again . Her information will be down below and we'll see everyone in the next episode . Bye , bye .