SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're here too, come with me, right? So I think sometimes you're first gen and you're thinking, like, oh man, I've made it. And then because maybe your parents, you felt like they're not reaching that certain financial security that you're reaching because they again crossed a border, they crossed a river to get here to help you. Then you're kind of like, oh man, now I feel this pressure to provide for them, to do a bunch of things for them financially to support them.

Violeta 0:27

We always talk about wealth building on our own, especially as first gen Latinas. We are usually like the trailblazers. We're out here figuring out it all on our own about our finances, how to invest, and all of that. And yes, we are making leaps and bounds, we are succeeding and all that, but man, does it get exhausting? And imagine how much easier, how much faster, how much further we could get if we do it as a family, we team up with other households and we decide to move together. So that's what we're going to be covering today, and that's what today's guest is going to be sharing her journey, her tips and thoughts, and all of that. I have with me Diana Lopez Luna, who is a first-generation college graduate and queer daughter of Mexican immigrants. And in 2021, she made a strategic career pivot from a low-paying research role into a data profession, increasing her income nearly fivefold in five years. And now she speaks, educates, and coaches others to help them along in their journey and their financial well-being, helping clients break into data, tech, and AI careers while building financial literacy and you know making that grow sustainable. And she is also the founder of Latinas in Data and Analytics, a community connecting and elevating Latinas in the data industry. So, hola Diana, thank you so much for joining me today. So, yeah, Diana, thank you so much for being on here today.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, thank you, Violeta. I am so excited that I got to talk about multi-generational wealth building. As you said, my name is Diana Lopez Luna. I am the co-founder of Suchil, alongside my mother, uh Yolanda. And I am also the founder of the group Mujeres Datistas, which is a community group that is for Latinas either in data, wanting to work in data, or in another career, but they want to build those data skills.

Violeta 2:40

Yeah, when I saw the topic of this, I was like, yeah, exactly. Like that's how I feel a lot of us feel like as we're going through this, as we're investing, as we're building wealth. It's like, dang, I wish I didn't have to do this all on our own, trying to bring my family into it, and then other people that I know, friends and family, and then also, you know, making sure the future generation, like my family. So definitely a lot of weight in my shoulders of just carrying that. It's a lot, it's a lot of stress. So I want to first get into like what does that mean to you? We're talking about building wealth together. What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yeah, I guess I will start with how it's often maybe portrayed in social media or in general in our culture. You know, there's always when you're a child of immigrants, this is any immigrant, not just Latinos, there's this kind of feeling of like you crossed a sea, you crossed a border, and the example of my parents, my parents crossed the border. And because of that, you know, they did that to sacrifice for me and for me to have a better life. And I think even as a child, when I would hear that, and maybe at the time I didn't understand why it was a little weird to me, but now I know it's like, okay, well, but what about them? You know, like I'm like, they also did it for them to have a better life, and there isn't a certain point that they stop and then I take on the rest. You're here too, come with me. Right. So I think sometimes you're first gen and you're thinking, like, oh man, I've made it. And then because maybe your parents have you felt like they're not reaching that certain financial security that you're reaching because they, again, they crossed a border, they crossed a river to get here to help you. Then you're kind of like, oh man, now I feel this pressure to provide for them, to do a bunch of things for them financially to support them. And what I've kind of reached after frankly, many different experiences in my life is like, it doesn't have to be this relationship. It's it's a little bit almost like shifting the mindset as well and shifting like your practices and how you behave towards one another. It's like my family, I'm not supporting just supporting my family at the expense of my own financial security. And there's also situations where it's the parents supporting the child, right? And it's at the expense of their own financial security, their own retirement. It doesn't have to be that way. You know, you can say that we are supporting one another. It is reciprocal. And that is a way that you can combine your resources, your assets, and build wealth together. And I'll add that this is what the wealthy do. You know, they have what are called family offices that is dedicated to managing wealth as a family, right? And that's how they see their wealth, a lot of them, right? We have some other millionaires and billionaires that maybe don't see it that way with their kids, but for the most part, they have these family offices. So if they're having this mindset of that's how they manage their wealth, why can't we do the same? Right, especially since inherently we are a more collectivistic culture, it just kind of fits well, right?

Violeta 5:56

Yeah, I want to kind of like really focus on what you mentioned about that realization that you don't have to do it all on your own. And I think it's something that we just end up taking on that responsibility. And I've been going through it with my parents lately, especially with my dad, because I'm like, you gotta do this, this, and this and that, or whatever. And I realized that he's been thinking about these things. It's just the problem was that we weren't communicating. So I'm over here stressing out that they don't really have a retirement plan. But in the background, my dad's actually been taking some steps and stuff. And yes, of course, like you mentioned, it's new financial system over here and figuring it all out, but they're not like most of the time, they're still capable, right? You can still just guide them, you don't have to do it for them or do everything on your own. And so, with my parents with their retirement, like I'm over here, like I gotta provide for all of them, and every move that I made, every decision that I made was with that mindset. But the past year or two, now that my parents are almost well, basically technically like my dad's 66 now, my mom's just around the corner for the Social Security or whatever. So they've already thought about like Social Security stuff. My dad actually worked over there in Mexico, so he ended up getting a pension from Mexico. So that's an added thing, and then other things that he's just kind of taken steps. Yeah, it's not the perfect retirement plan, but it's not as how I thought at the beginning, and it was such a relief to realize that. And so, yeah, when you mentioned that, I was like, Yeah, you're so right. Like, I'm over here freaking out, and my dad's been doing some stuff in the back room, and it's just he wasn't telling me.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Yeah, I think it's very interesting that you say that because the thing that comes to my mind as you're speaking is yeah, let's not underestimate our parents, right? They have the capacity for increases in knowledge, the ability to change, just like any human. Sure. Is it harder because they're older? That's the case for everybody. A lot of people, it's harder to change when you're older, you're very comfortable. And your brain, it's a little more difficult to like take in and change your habits, right? But that doesn't mean it's impossible, right? So I was the same place, like the probably like this time a year or two ago, I was worried. I was like, your guys' retirement plan, I don't know how I'm feeling about it. I don't think it's enough. It's really expensive to retire in this country now. What is your guys' plan? But it's it's about how you communicate it, right? Instead of communicating it, because it's hard because it almost feels like that role reversal. And you see it on TikTok all the time when you start parenting your parents. And it's funny. It is funny to like see that content and relate to it. But what that's kind of introducing is a really hard dynamic where like you had that parent-child relationship and now you're feeling like the parent, and then they're the child. That just is really difficult to navigate. It's a true feeling a lot of the times. But if you instead think of it as more of like, I am like a co-collaborator, co-investor, whatever, and we're gonna work this out together instead of me being like pushing and pushing and pushing. It's like, no, let's learn about all of these topics together because I'm no retirement expert. I'm not that close to 60s. You know, they're thinking about that stuff. I'm also thinking about it. But, you know, there's things I'm more interested in learning about now for what's relevant for someone in their 30s, 40s, what have you, right? So you can go into that conversation and be like, I just want to collaborate with you, do this as a family, really help each other out. And I have found that that has just caused like all of us to change, not just me. I'm not the perfect one necessarily, right? I've changed, my parents have changed, and I'm very proud of them. Like they're like, all right, yeah, we are gonna retire in 10, 15 years. And this is part of the plan, but I think we need more to the plan. And then we're talking about, you know, in this past two years, you know, my mom set up her IRA, right? So she's self-employed, so she doesn't have a traditional 401k with an employer, right? So she has the IRA, and now I'm uh we're like, okay, now the next step, let's look into some of the self-employed options, like the 401k SEP or the SEP IRA. Let's look into that, right? And then my dad, my dad has like a traditional 401k with a W2 salary job. And but he has an HSA. So it's like, okay, what can we do with the HSA? How can we maximize that? Especially because you know they're married, so you can put more money in the HSA, right? So going into things with more of a collaborative mindset, instead of feeling like, oh man, I am like, I'm now becoming the parent and I now have to teach lessons. It's like, no, you also have things to learn because you're not at the stage of life that they're at either. You may learn new things about retirement and such because they're like living in it and thinking about it, right?

Violeta 10:51

Yeah. And I feel like we had to take some responsibility. I think it was also a mindset when I started going through their whole retirement plan this past two, three years, is that I had to realize that you know what? I think it's just kind of like a mindset of that I have to do it and just kind of take over everything. And sometimes we gotta kind of like realize that we're doing that, we're becoming overbearing. I know I I have, and my mom's like, hey, I'm still my own person and whatever, and you know, there's a few banters back and forth because I'm over here taking on that role that you were talking about of now parenting the parent. But if you think about it, they came over here, they got their jobs, they started, you know, got banks, accounts. My dad started a mechanic business, my mom worked and all that stuff. So they are capable. I mean, they put us in school, they provide us for us, you know. So it's not like I don't know why, but I I like the growing up, for some reason, it was just always, and I still remember, like when I was younger, always feeling this way of that responsibility. And I think it stemmed from because yes, I'm the translator and things like that because I was the one that knew English, and that stuck with me and kind of gave me that mindset that okay, well, then I'm responsible for everything because they don't know anything. It was no, they just didn't know yeah, you you know the financial system, whatever, but it's not that they're not capable of doing it, it's just they had that one little barrier that I was helping. But I think a lot of us then kind of switched to just owning all of it. And so I think now we're having to figure out okay, now how can we, like you're talking about, collaborate instead to build a retirement plan and wealth building and all that.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Yeah, and just recognizing that you have to have like your own financial boundaries, right? So because you don't want to be in a situation where you're helping to the point where your financial security gets threatened, right? Or vice versa, if a parent's helping a child, right? You still want to be like, okay, I can help in these ways, but also I'm just also ensuring that my financial security, my financial plan is also on track. I think that's very important and very hard to do in a lot of Latino families because there is you sometimes get shamed if you don't help out to the max that you are being asked to help out, right? So that can be really difficult.

Violeta 13:16

Yeah, that's definitely something that we have to learn to navigate. So I'm curious to see how you've been navigating that to put that barrier in really like you mentioned it earlier. We come from a culture that is more collective, and then we're over here in an individualistic culture, and so I've had to navigate that these past few years, but also put some boundaries as well. So, like, how have you been dealing with it?

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah, I would say financially, honestly, it's mostly my parents helping me. My parents are like we talked about, they're very capable, right? So, my mom, her main income is coming from her daycare business. She has a daycare in her home. And then my parents together actually, and this relates to your other topic that you talk about, they actually have a rental property business. So they have two properties currently that they rent out. So, yeah, a lot of the time it's them helping me out. Like I had a time, I think I was on disability for about two years. So when you're on disability, it really it's you get like very little portion of your regular salary. So yeah, it was rough. And my parents, another way we're kind of building generational wealth is like, hey, one of your properties is open. If me, Diana, if I move in, then you know, the money that I make is going right back to us as a family, right? Instead of me renting to someone else and the money's going to someone I don't know, you know. So anyway, during that time, it was difficult. I had enough money to pay rent, but there would be these blocks because with disability, you have to consistently prove that you're still having an issue. So then there would be gaps where I'd be like, okay, I'm not getting paid regularly. Like for these two months, I have to go back and forth with the disability and I don't have any money left, right? So then my parents would be like, okay, well, we'll, we'll move it over. Like, it's okay if you pay a little late, or they'll say, Oh, you know what? If you help us with like our rental business in general, we'll like lower the price for a little bit, like those types of things. Those were all very helpful. And it actually took a lot of therapy as well to not then turn that into like my own internal shame or like this feeling of okay, well, now I owe them back, and now I have to always take care of them because they're taking care of me right now, and like that sort of feeling. And yeah, I think now I look back on it and I just feel very blessed that like we had gotten to that point where my parents started a property rental business and I had a hard time, and we were able to work that out, right? And I know in the future, if one of my parents has a hard time, then we'll be able to work together on a bunch of stuff. So yeah.

Violeta 16:02

You mentioned about how there is that shame if like you get help from your parents, because like over here, you have the mindset of like pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and all that stuff, so it gives you that shame. But you kind of touched on it a little bit earlier about like the wealthy do it all the time, they be helping their kids left and right, but for some reason we are made to feel the shame that we are like still living with our parents, or they helped us with this or that, or whatever. When the wealthy do it all of the time, and we're the only ones that are kind of getting left behind having that mindset. They help them get into college by like making donations or just being able to provide all this extra stuff with them, getting them into businesses, setting them up like little stocks, setting them up with their credit, all that stuff. But for some reason, when it comes to us, it's seen as a bad thing. So exactly. Yeah, I think we need to get over that mindset too.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Yeah, and it's interesting because obviously the wealthy are applauded for how they move and how they work, but then oftentimes society kind of sees some of the things that Latinos bring to the table as a bad thing or a negative, like too collectivistic. So then people feel you know they can't pursue their dreams or they can't go for what they want because they have to be in this in-group. And it's like, well, you're kind of using some collectivistic culture stuff in managing your wealth, but no one points that out and says that that's a little negative, right? So obviously, that's you can tie that back to you know, xenophobia and racism and all of those things, but yeah.

Violeta 17:44

Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. And I want to get a little bit into you were talking about it a little bit earlier of how we can make that switch and little things that we can do as a collective and household. And you brought one up with the multi-generational kind of housing, or just having houses where like then you can move in, or and then vice versa, and things like that. And that's kind of like what the mindset was over here for the way I moved over here. I bought some land and I convinced my parents to buy the lot right next to me. So now we have kind of like a little uh 20-acre combined, right? Family compound, and my sister lives here, and my parents should be moving next year, they're finishing up their house. But I've told my stepson and of course my daughter, I was like, y'all could just put a house somewhere, right? You know, that's the point of it, and I guess that's the kind of mindset and wealth-building idea that I had with little things that you can do with that.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Yeah, what you're describing is kind of my dream scenario. I mean, I hope my family and I can accomplish that in the next year or two. But yeah, I mean, right now, my family and I we're looking into buying a property together. So that's like a combo of three incomes, right? Like my dad, all three of us now do very well for ourselves now that for me, transitioning to tech. And then them two just like working many years and a salary increase every year. So yeah, we're we're looking into doing something similar of like maybe kind of family compound. I mean, we're out in the Midwest, so it's kind of like not super rural, is exactly what we're going for, but still near and so I live near Rockford, Illinois. Love Rockford. So we're kind of in between Rockford and Chicago, so we're kind of looking for a good like midpoint to be. But yeah, we're very excited and hopeful that, you know, hopefully in the next year or two we find something that fits for us. And like you were saying, of like you can just invite people to join along for the ride, right? Like you have these amounts of acres, like you have the house built, the person can buy something right next door, or you can build something custom. Like, I think what gets you to that point, at least for me, is communication. I started helping my family manage their finances, right? But then it turned into okay, now we meet regularly to talk about all of our finances, not like we're gonna combine them all, but just of being like, okay, what's going on with your finances? Okay, what's going on with my finances? What are my goals? And then you start to communicate and talk, and you're like, well, it kind of sounds, you know, we have similar goals. So what would it be like to pursue that similar goal together, right? And I haven't mentioned my two siblings who are are wonderful, but you know, my parents and I, when we imagine like the life that we like and that we want, like we want a little rancho where like we like sit on the porch and it's a little quiet, it's quiet, there's not as many neighbors, it's really calm. Like we want that life. And you know, my dad wants a couple goats, you know. So, like, that's like for us, we're aligned, right? But for my siblings, you know, like right now, my sisters want a city life. Love it. I lived in the city in a city for many years. Like, it's just not aligned now. It may align later, it may not, but you know, that's how you have to talk about these things is be like, okay, if there is within this whole family dynamic, like me and my parents are very aligned on how we want to live and where we want to live, and also aligned on the fact that we do want to live near each other. You know, getting a property together is a good idea. It's a it's a potentially like amazing idea, right? And a lot of people do it, the wealthy do it. Why can't we? Right.

Violeta 21:29

Yeah, that's definitely very doable. And matter of fact, I I remember uh there's this TikTok girl, I forget the full name, but I know it's like Jules or whatever, and I think she has Dominican and Puerto Rican, I think what she is. But she content creator, but she used those funds to buy a multi unit property, and she moved her family members in there, and they're all in different units and stuff, and that's another way to also create that multi generation. Housing and continue like now because housing is one of the biggest expenses. So now y'all come together. You get this. I don't know how many units, uh, I'm assuming like three, four, maybe from what just based on what she talks about of how many members are there, family groups. So she has, I think, at least two or three family groups, like her parents, and then I think the siblings are there in another unit or something like that. So that's already you're already helping so much by just reducing sharing the housing cost, but they still get some privacy if that's a case for you, or just get a house with lots of rooms. I mean, there's so many ways for me. It was the family compound. So there's so many different ways that you can do, especially with the housing, because housing is number one that will take the biggest expense. And just by taking care of that, that frees up that money to put more towards investing, you know, savings, retirement, all of that. Even medical, you said they had the HSA, so all of that.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, if we move in together on a property, then this house that I'm in now can then be rented, right? So then that that just like the income gets supplemented by whoever the new tenant is. So overall, you know, we're looking, we're seeing what's out there. But we also, I think I have never bought a house. I've always rented, and it's a crazy process. My goodness. It is like sometimes fast paced, sometimes slow. Sometimes you're like in your head, you're like, oh my God, do we do we put an offer? Do we not put an offer? And you go back and forth, and then you put an offer, and then you don't get it anyway. And it's like, it's like a roller coaster of emotions, right? But I think that's where the communication part comes in so importantly is like you have to communicate. If it's either you or your parents or you and your child, of just like, what is it exactly the type of home that we want, and how much are we willing to, let's say, put into it to get it to that place, right? Because sometimes you do need to modify what you buy, right? So I think that all of that basically, I guess not only is this about like financial security, this is about psychological communication and and being able to be good communicators and good partners with your parents or with your child, right?

Violeta 24:24

Yeah, yeah. That's definitely something I had to do when I got this idea back in like 21, 22, and I bought this land in 2022, and I took a lot of convincing, a lot of convincing because they couldn't see the vision that I had. Yes, yes, because it was raw land, it was like nothing here, it's just trees and shrubs and everything. And and then even this whole area wasn't developed yet, and so like they couldn't see it, and so it took a lot of communication, a lot of telling them, like, okay, but if y'all are here, can we do this? My sister, she y'all put her on the D with yours, and she helps pay y'all. Like, I'll focus on mine, right? On my property because I'm stable enough to do it. But y'all could go do that. Y'all are here, I could help y'all with anything that y'all need. It it's a cheaper cost of living over here, y'all are closer to Mexico because that's one thing I didn't mention was you know, they they don't have health care, so what we do is we just cross the border and go to Monterey, and my dad gets seen all his medical stuff over here, my mom does too, and my sister does too. I'm fortunate to have medical here and paid for, but I could also have the option of going over there if for some reason I I lose my benefits over here, and so that's already another one of us. Like, I could easily just put you on a bus, it's right here. We're like maybe three hours from the border, right there. Go even so, yeah. But so it's really easy to cross, or they just take the bus and go straight to Monterey and then they go get seen. And my aunt over there helps them do all their appointments, so yeah, all that took a lot of communication because I had to think about okay, well, they're older, so what about their health care? So that's taken care of. They're gonna need funds, and they paid this and bought the house, and so they have that. It's cheaper here. We'll be able to get the agricultural thing tax benefit. I gotta work on that for them, but they're over 65, so they get a benefit already, and then you know, social security is not much, but then they got the pension, and then you know, my sister will help pay the lot, and then whatever I give them. And also been thinking about you mentioned earlier because I invest in real estate. I've been I was an out-of-state investor, now I'm more local, and because of the idea is that I can hire them for little things like cleanups or whatever and give them extra pay, which then I get a tax benefit, they get money, and exactly, you know, you were talking about it earlier, is like there's this ecosystem that you build with your family members to keep that wealth. You mentioned it with the rental, like you're paying it to your parents or whoever, family member, whatever, and same with the business. So, like, I think just starting to think about these things in that way, because the wealthy do it, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:15

Exactly. Yeah, they're just like it's going from one hand to the other, but all the hands are connected. That's how the wealthy work within their families. So, yeah, if they if they do it, why why can't we, right? Especially if you and I will preface this like for some people, like this would not be feasible because you know, they have reasons not to trust their parents or maybe not to trust their child, or vice versa. There are situations where people, you know, maybe are I guess I don't want to know if I'd use the word toxic, but maybe, you know, they have some sort of, you know, maybe they have narcissistic traits, or maybe they just are not a good person. I'm not advocating for you to go in with this person and try and combine finances or do anything together. This is for people who are like, you know, I have like, I'd say average to like excellent relationship with my parents, and I'm willing to work on it and continue working on it so that we can do things together and accomplish more together, right? And I just happen to like really love my parents. I think they're they're great, I think they're funny. And I've told them already I'm not leaving you guys. So I work fully remote. So I'm just like, if it's up to me, like I'm staying near you guys because that's how I want to spend my life. Like, I don't have this desire to go live in another city or go live another place. Maybe temporarily, like two or three months, I go do something. But in general, like I just want to be with you guys. And like if that's where we're at, then I think there are opportunities to do things together financially that make sense and that help grow our family's wealth.

Violeta 28:48

Yeah, exactly. It's not like you said, if it's not feasible because of whatever your family situation is, this is more of hey, did you know this option is out there? You know, start expanding your planning and stuff. Because I think we as first gen or just immigrants in general, we kind of can fall into the trap of we're just thinking about okay, what do I have to do? And I have to do all of this, right? But you can work on it together. And it's not to say that y'all are going to become like multimillionaires, whatever, it is also like wealth building can be just like you know, bringing down your cost and then building up from their savings and having this little safety net that y'all create to support each other and then continue on, and then you know, start building. It can start small with just like coming together and helping each other stay afloat, come up, and then grow from there. So it's just kind of like think about ways, things that you can do to pay each other instead of paying somebody else, maybe with your business, real estate, maybe living together, thing all of that. So, yeah, it's just food for thought. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, and um go ahead and then just pass it on to you for like where they can reach you and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Yeah, you can reach me, me personally. Uh if you just do Diana de los Lopez on pretty much any social media, you will find me. Uh, and then for sutil, you can just do suchil co like suchil s-u-c-h I L C O across social media as well. And then Mujeres Datistas is currently a LinkedIn group, but we will be launching more social media channels for that soon.

Violeta 30:34

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Diana, for coming on the show and having this very much needed conversation. I think it's something that hangs over the head of many, not just like Tina's, but just immigrants in general, trying to figure it out. But again, we don't have to do it on our own. Don't forget that her information is down below in the show notes and also on the blog. So make sure you check it out. And other than that, I will see everyone in the next episode. Bye. Bye.