Violeta 0:00

There's social media and there's a lot of comparing of hey, so and so made money with this, so and so is only 25 and already a millionaire, and they did it with this. You can feel like okay, what am I doing wrong, or feeling behind, or be tempted to follow what they did, but again, reminder they don't know your situation, they don't know your goals and capabilities, and they might even be telling you the whole story. There is so much financial advice out there on the internet, on social media, from your friends and families, from the person down the street. There is a lot of financial advice out there, and today I want to share some of the best advice that I got throughout my investing journey through my learning how anything about finances journey, right? And some of this advice is what has helped me grow to a net worth of over $500,000 and a combined net worth with my husband of over 600k. And a lot of these things I learned along the way, and I started implementing them. So I want to share them with you. And as we go along, I want to hear from you like which ones have you heard and which ones have you implemented already, or which ones are you planning to implement? But before we get into it, quick reminder to like, share, subscribe, follow so that way we can reach others and grow because it's hard out here for small creators. So do me a favor, or just comment below if you're watching on YouTube. But yeah, let's get into some of the financial advice that I've gotten throughout these years. And I will say that the number one that I really implemented off the bat, and I feel like one of the biggest and best financial advice right now that, in my opinion, anybody should start thinking about is giving your money a job. Every dollar should have a job, a reason that you are making that money, and of course, obviously, is so that we can pay bills, yada yada, right? And and it seems kind of like common sense or whatever, but when you're first starting out, especially like when I was in my early 20s and I started getting a stable paycheck, and obviously I knew okay, I gotta pay rent and stuff. That's all I thought about, and maybe okay, yeah, save money for a rainy day. But it wasn't until I started being able to see other people what they're doing with their money that I started realizing, oh, maybe it's not just paying bills, and I started learning about hey, people telling me, like, hey, your money should have a job and all that. And I will say at this time I was in the military and we did have some good financial training, and this is where I got this advice of hey, start basically creating a budget and give each dollar a job, a specific goal. And there's a few main goals that I think everybody should start kind of creating as categories for your money to go and fund those, right? And number one, of course, obviously your bills. So I'm not gonna go too much into details, like obviously have your bills paid, but of course, you also want to have some savings, and that gets broken up into a few things because when I first started paying my bills and being an adult, yeah, I knew to save, but I didn't realize to break it down into different buckets even further, right? So, uh, number one is obviously investing, and at this time I was thinking the only thing about investing was 401k. So obviously send money to your 401k for your retirement in the future. So that's what I was doing, right? Now my money has that job of saving for the future for future retirement. The other one was for fun money, right? Making sure that I have money to go at this point was to go see my parents, right? Because I lived out of state, and so I want to make sure that I had the money to go visit my family, but also have some money for having fun with my friends and stuff, so I made sure I had that, and then also have money for emergency funds, right? Like at this point, okay, things that I would be thinking about is if I needed to replace a tire, oil change, something that happened to my car, and then I also had a house, so it's like okay, if I needed like plumbing or something. Now, at this very beginning piece of my journey, like I wasn't really, I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't really that good, but I still was starting right, like you don't have to be perfect at these things when you are first starting or implementing these things, it's gonna take some practice, you're building a brand new habit. And I fell off this habit several times, and then I had to come back and remember and whatever. And throughout this time, it eventually becomes kind of second nature where I don't have to have a whole spreadsheet and excel is kind of like in my head a little bit, and we'll get a little bit into the other one of how to just not have to think about it anymore. But one thing that I didn't think of having my money do as giving it a job to do is also having the money for learning, and I'm not talking about like necessarily college, but I mean that could apply here too. But I'm talking about extra money to for books, maybe a course, like coaching or things like that. That's developed over the years. Now I, you know, save money for like coaching, consultations, courses, webinars, things like that, and of course, books and things. But at that time, I was just thinking, okay, like books, simple things. So start off with like something simple and basics. But yeah, that is one thing that really kind of kicked off my whole financial journey is understanding that every dollar should have a specific job and not just the basics of just bills and savings. So yeah, and that's what kicked off my whole journey. The second piece of advice that I got during the time in my military at the very beginning when I was starting to learn was that hey, have this kind of mindset of as we get pay raises, because in the military you have like promotions, and then every year we would get an adjustment based on inflation and all that. So you would get a small increase on those, but then every few years you get an increase in your salary. And so my mentors really promoted the mindset of hey, when you hit those, also adjust those jobs that we just talked about. So increase the money that you send to those buckets. So if I got an increase, then I'm going to increase the money that I sent for my retirement, the money that I have for savings, and so on, right? So the big major things. So you're paying yourself first, and you're still going to want to keep those bills because your bills, for the most part, yeah, they might increase a little bit, but also sometimes we forget to also increase like our savings or investing and so on. So that was one kind of mindset that really kind of was taught to me at that young age. Maybe later on I would have developed that mindset, but I'm glad that someone mentioned that and told me, like, hey, start having this mentality of every time you get a pay increase, don't just go and increase your expenses or whatever. And sometimes I did that, I definitely did that a few times, but I always had that little voice in the back of my head of being like, Hey, like you're doing too much. Remember, you also gotta increase the percentages you're sending to your 401k and so on. So that was another game changer for me. The third one was automate everything. A lot of times, especially now, you can set so much automations that makes it so easy. All you have to do is just make sure that you understand your budget, your goals of what you are trying to have, you know, your funds, and you understand your checks. You know, this kind of like works for like more like stable paychecks. If you're varying with checks, then you can automate some things like your bills and things like that, but automate as much as you can. And especially one thing I was also taught was like, go ahead and don't even let that money hit your bank account. Like a lot of times we started like allotments, which is just like automatic deductions that would get sent to these things directly from our paycheck. See if that's an option for you. Of course, like with 401ks, that's possible, so you could do that automatically, so it doesn't even hit your bank account, and you get used to that amount that's hitting your bank account, so that way you're not tempted to oh well, you know what? This time I'm just gonna send less because of X, Y, and Z. You just build that habit over time, and also it gets automated. That's less mental load to you. And I know I have way too many things to keep track of, so automating things really has helped me not only to stick with it, but also reduce the anxiety and the stress that comes from like having to constantly track everything, especially with finances. Uh, it really helped me a lot and really build that habit. Number four is of course, is creating your emergency fund, and I kind of wanted to include it as its own separate thing because it's easy to just be like, Oh yeah, create a savings fund, but you kind of want to understand what you are capable of, what's your risk. So at that time, I knew I had a stable paycheck, I didn't really have debt, I only had a car payment, so I only needed a small cushion to tie me over for little things that would pop up, right? Like, you know, I was single, no kids or whatever. But your cushion, your emergency funds should be catered to what your situation is and what expenses you can possibly come up with. If you have a house and you know you have maybe your water heater, like it's coming up, it's starting to get old, or things like that. Then maybe you need to include that in your emergency fund, right? If you have cars, like tires, oil changes, things like that, like you want to add those on there, so you can really get nitpicky, but it really depends on your situation, on your risk. So for me, I don't save any more as a large emergency fund because I just have very low risk, I have very low expenses, right? And so I can like if something crazy out of the norm comes out, like I have some ability to use a credit card, which if you are at an early stage, you want to avoid doing that and get yourself into debt that you can't pay out of. You don't want to do that. But for me, I'm at a certain stage where I have cash coming in and stuff like that that will be easy to pay off that debt. So that's basically kind of like my emergency fund. I still have some for you never know what may happen because some things you do have to pay in cash, some things you might not be able to pay with a credit card, like some contractors I've learned. So just you know you, right? You know your financial situation. So figure out what is comfortable for you as an emergency fund, but also keep in mind with everything going on right now. You might want to also include some expenses to you know, layoffs. You hear about layoffs, or maybe cut back on hours, things like that. You want to help yourself cushion that blow. Maybe it used to be like three months. Now people are saying like six to a year. Again, you know yourself. Are you able to go hustle and make up that income if needed or whatever? It's up to you. So just really the main thing is create a number, find what is going to help you and for how long, and just know that and just have that savings. And you can have it in a high-yield savings account, you can even have it in a brokerage account. Like I had some in savings or whatever, just the caveat with that. The little note there is that if you do have to use those funds, like they're not as liquid, but if it's something that could like not be as an emergency too much, and you can wait to sell those stocks or whatever, that could be an option as well. I did it for saving up for a rental property, and that was fine, but like you can get creative with your savings, but definitely have it in a at least a high-yield savings account so that way you have some interest coming back to you, especially with inflation right now. The last thing you want to do is have it in a regular bank account. So, yeah, that's my notes on emergency uh funds. The next thing that you really, as we were talking about, that you know yourself, you know your risk, your lifestyle. Like, I can give you some tips, but I don't know like your bills, I don't know your habits or anything like that, what your financial responsibilities are. So, with that, one of the things that I learned along the way is to create a financial plan around the life that I want and that I can support and that is achievable to me. Because when you're first starting out in your financial journey, again, there's so much out there, there's so much information, it could get so overwhelming, but also there's social media and there's a lot of comparing of hey, so-and-so made money with this, so and so is only 25 and already a millionaire, and they did it with this. You can feel like, okay, what am I doing wrong, or feeling behind, or be tempted to follow what they did. But again, reminder they don't know your situation, they don't know your goals and capabilities, and they might even be telling you the whole story. Even with me, I try to be transparent and honest and everything like that, but there might be stuff that I forget to mention that might not be applicable to someone, right? To someone else that maybe has more financial responsibilities than me or whatever. So, one of the other best tips was that create your plan, but create it based on what you want. And I still tell this to people who are interested in real estate investing because I'm a real estate investor and I always get asked, Well, like, oh, what's the best strategy? What's the best investment? What's the best market? What's the best way to buy or whatever? And then should I do Airbnb? Should I do fix and flip? And yada yada, because you see this person is becoming a millionaire with fix and flips, but I then I see this person doing it with RV parks and so on. It's tempting, and that's why a lot of people get so overwhelmed when they're trying to get into real estate investing because there's just too much, there's so many strategies, and all of them make you money, but not each strategy is for you. And same thing with your financial plan. Maybe you don't need to be completely financially free at 30. Maybe you love your career and you just want to become work optional, right? And just buy back some of that time. I know people that are still working in their careers, they love their careers, and they just want to be able to work less hours. They still want to help patients, they still want to do whatever their career is, but they just want more like kind of like a safety net and ability to walk away from that job, to take extra vacation time. They don't have to worry about, oh, I don't have enough PTO to make up if I missed a day and now my hours are cut back and now my paycheck suffers. So that may be you, or maybe you're fine waiting till like you're 59 or whatever, or that is the only option available to you, right? Because maybe you're older or you're just not able to do that fast track or whatever. Just figure out what you are able to do, what your capabilities are, and what you want, right? Because you know what kind of life you want in the future. Like for me, I knew I wanted, I didn't really want to work. I wanted to have the time to do money cheese med, do my real estate investing, spend time with my daughter, watch her grow, and also I wanted a homestead. I want to grow my own food. Didn't work out this year. I got a few peppers and some zucchini, and that's it. But like zucchini, like you really suck if you can't grow zucchini because those grow like weeds, but and also chickens and stuff like that. So when like I wanted that financial freedom, I wanted to be able to like just do lo que me da la gana whenever I want. And matter of fact, I'm going to Mexico, but by the time this episode, I'll be back. But like I did that on a whim because I don't have a job that I have to ask for permission, because I did that through my whole military career of having to ask for permission to do anything, so that was important to me to get my life back because I spent almost 15 years being told what to do and having so much restrictions, even like dyeing my hair, this type of lipstick. So that was important to me. And the way that I was able to do it was specific to me as well because I started when I was young and single and everything. Now, my financial investments and all that stuff have shifted because I'm no longer able to house hack and stuff like that. So long-winded, but basically figure out what works for you, not what's working for somebody else. Yes, you can take that as a maybe uh interest and see if that might be something that's doable, but don't try to force it either, right? Don't be like, well, so-and-so was able to do it, then I should be able to do it. Yes and no, maybe you just needed some extra skills, but maybe it's not doable for you, like fix and flips. Fix and flips requires time and management and all that stuff. You might not have the time, and maybe buying rentals and self-managing. I've seen a lot of people do that because they're like, Oh, that's more cash for me, and why would I pay somebody else? But you might not have the time. I have the time, and let me tell you, it's doable, but I can't imagine having to do this with a full-time job. I could do it now, but I don't plan to continue doing it like eventually as I grow, then I could hire somebody and so on. So, yeah, just make sure your own financial plan is for you. So, yeah, long-winded, but yeah, I can't stress that enough because it really irks me when people are trying to tell somebody else to do a specific thing without taking into account what their situation is, and then they feel guilty and they feel bad, and then they might decide not to they give up or whatever. There's different avenues for you to reach your financial goals. Don't stress it if you can't do a specific way, right? There's a lot of ways. Now, the other thing that with that kind of goes hand in hand is the idea of buying assets to pay a bill. Now, I started thinking of it this way because when you talk about financial freedom, retire early, that whole fire movement, you start hearing about your fire number. How much money do I need to be able to retire early? And then you do all these calculations, and then you see that oh, I need like three million dollars to be able to support myself and all that, and so all that can get super overwhelming, and then it feels like out of reach or like three million dollars. That's what I think was mine at the time when I calculated my number. I'm wondering what it would have what it would be now that my expenses dropped so much. But at that time, that that was like about three million dollars, and it just felt so out of reach for me, and kind of gave me more anxiety and more stress, thinking that I'm never gonna reach it. And then I switched to the mentality of just okay, what bills do I have? And now I'm going to buy something that's going to pay that bill. And I did this with real estate, and again, that fire number is usually going with stocks, but you can do that with other things, right? What can you do? What kind of asset can you buy? Maybe you need a certain amount of stocks that give you a certain amount of dividend to pay a certain bill, and then just focus on that. Be like, for example, my electric bill, let's say it's $300, right? I go and look for a rental property that's going to give me cash flow to cover that bill. And by cash flow, I mean after all the mortgage paid and other expenses. So now I have that house that's tied to that bill, and now that is one less bill that I have to worry about. And so, same thing with stocks, you can kind of do some calculations. I like to do it with real estate, but you can kind of do it with stocks as well. If you're focusing on the dividends, you kind of be like, Okay, like how much dividends am I getting from these stocks? And then you got to figure out like how much you need to buy to get the dividends that you need to pay that bill, and then you could just focus on that. There's different ways, right? Like whatever is comfortable to you, or you just try to go for that three billion. That's another thing that you. Can do as well, so it's a little bit trickier with stocks. So, in my case, I'm just gonna stick with real estate, but yeah, that's the way I'm doing it buying an asset that's gonna cover that bill, and so I've been doing that, and now I've become basically work optional through that, and I actually did it a little bit faster than I thought I would, and so here I am, right? So, yeah, just find an asset that works for you and that's achievable for you. And the last thing that is great advice that really has accelerated my whole financial freedom journey and my financial journey in general is finding like-minded people, like really find those people that have kind of like similar goals or are going for kind of like the similar plan that you are going with. And it doesn't necessarily have to be exactly right, but you want to at least start with finding like the like-minded people that are looking to become work optional if that's what you're trying to do, and find like a Facebook group, a community. Like there's so many communities out there on social media, and that's where I started off was through the Facebook groups with real estate, and that really accelerated my journey because I was able to surround myself with people that had a more can-do, number one, a can-do attitude, right? Because I find that the people around you, not that they're like bad or anything like that, but most of the time they're just not in the same mindset yet. Everyone's in different like journeys, they might just not be there or they might just be negative or whatever. So making sure you intentionally go and search for people that have a of a more growth mindset, a can-do attitude, and actually working towards their goals motivates you and it holds you accountable, right? Because now you're talking to people and they're asking, Hey, what's the status of X, Y, and Z? And you're like, Oh, dude, I've been slacking. And they're like, All right, come on, like, even simple things like I have a 10k step challenge that I'm supposed to do every day, and I have a support group for that, which happens to also be my real estate besties that we hold each other accountable for our real estate investments and just support. You also find support because, like, sometimes you you need a pick-me-up. Not everything goes well. Maybe you fell off track of savings or investing because maybe an emergency came up and now you had to do that. So, and then you feel like defeated and kind of like a failure. Well, your group is there to support you and bring you back on track and motivate you and guide you and stuff like that, or everybody's at different levels, so or different types of things, and you learn from each other and everything like that. So that really helped me so much, and that's why I ended up creating my own community. Quick little plug here is that I saw how effective this was that I wanted to create my own community for Latinas and women of color who want to learn about real estate investing or already investing in real estate, but are like you're finding that you're like maybe the only one and you want some support, some community, learn from each other. So I have a Latinas in real estate investing community over there in school. The link will be down below. And yeah, we're growing. We had our first monthly call, our next one is in November, the second week, and we're getting there, we're gonna have resources and all of that. So if that's of interest of you, check it out. So that's one of the things that really accelerated my financial journey, and all of these really made a big impact, and all of these were taken throughout years as I learned, as I grew, as I learned more about finances, and I want to know again which ones have you heard, which ones are you implementing? And I do have some homework assignment for you. Number one, if this is like your very first video, like you're starting your financial journey, pick one of these and just go with it. Take action on it. I think too many times we start going on YouTube, reading all the books and everything, then we just absorb, and then you get kind of like informational, like information overload is so much that you're like, I don't know which way to go. Like, what do I do first? Pick something from here, preferably if you're at the very beginning of your journey, start with how I did of understanding how money works, giving it a job, and then grow from there. Because I think from there, then it kind of like branches out because now you have your investing and fun money and all that stuff, and so then you start growing from there. And number two, find your community, right? Find something. If you're wanting to learn about investing stocks, go on Facebook or Instagram or wherever and find a community. If you find them on YouTube, see if they have a community. Most of the time they do and join their community. Like, I know we're a little bit goldos, like, we don't want to pay for things or whatever, but like, even if it's a like a paid membership, if it's within your budget, join, right? There's a lot of free ones out there. My community is free for like the forum and stuff like that. And then after January, I'll have a paid option for like the calls and other trainings that I plan to have. But the general community forum where you could ask questions, network, support each other, blah blah blah. Like, that's going to be free. So, like, there's tiers as well. So, don't be shy, go on there and be active. Be active, don't just join and just be a ghost in the background. I know it's intimidating and stressful because you don't want to be like, Oh, is this a a dumb question or whatever? Like, just ask if somebody thinks it's a dumb question, like they can fuck off, like whatever. Don't let their bullshit hold you back just because you're scared to ask a question that maybe somebody asked before. Like, whatever, ask your question. A lot of people are either gonna point you to like maybe a post that already had that with answers, or they're going to answer your question. Like, more people are wanting to help than the onesie twosies that are gonna be assholes about it because I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. There's always that one point dexter that's like, well, blah blah blah. Just learn throughout your financial journey to just tune those people out because they're just like ignore those. I've learned throughout my years, there's always onesies or twosies, but yeah. Anyways, that's pretty much it. Remember resources down below, the communities down below, and yeah, let me know if there's any other ones that I didn't include in this one. Just put it down in the comments if you're watching on YouTube so that way other people can see it and again learn from each other. Other than that, I will see you in the next one. Bye.