EP66 Money is Political: Latino Representation & Navigating Community Challenges Together

The election results left our community feeling shocked and frustrated.  In this episode, I’m getting real about the recent election results and breaking down the surprising voting trends among Latinos. This is more than a reaction—it's a call to understand how political decisions directly impact our finances and our comunidad. Money is political! It’s time we take charge, connect the dots between politics and our personal finances, and get smarter about how we vote and advocate for ourselves.

I’ll also share how I plan to create more financial education content for our community. With more Latino voices needed on YouTube, TikTok, and in real estate, I'm pushing myself to create content in Spanish and bring more resources. We have to advocate for ourselves—without overlooking the issues in our communities—for real change.

Where do we go from here? Well, now more than ever, we have to push for financial education, especially in Spanish! As we move into next year, I’m thrilled to bring you more resources, including the relaunch of the Rental Property Bootcamp, a fresh new website, and expert voices to keep you informed. Your ideas and feedback are everything as we grow this space to educate, engage, and empower nuestra comunidad.

Chapters

• 0:00 Community Unity and Political Awareness
• 13:14 Empowerment Through Education and Advocacy
• 24:39 Financial Literacy and Wealth Building
• 30:45 Community Engagement and Content Creation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

We need to talk. Tenemos que hablar. And, yes, this is going to be political, because you know what Money is political and it affects our community and, honestly, tenemos que you know like, learn to. You know, stop separating both. You know, politics and our money because los afecta mucho politics and our money because it affects them a lot. And you know this is gonna be unedited because I just, I just want to get here and share my thoughts and feelings and talk about you know what's next, what do we do now? Because, um, you know, I've been gone for about a week or so since the election results came out Because, la verdad, I was in my feelings, I was very shocked and surprised at the results, you know, and then, at the beginning, the way that the stats came out and I saw how our Latino community voted.

Speaker 1: 1:06

But then, once you look deeper into the stats, it made me feel a little bit better. But it shows that we have a lot of work to do and it's for several reasons that I feel are some of those Latinos that voted for the other guy, uh, voted the way that they did, and so I kind of want to share a little bit of my thoughts. Where, what do we do now? Where, where can we uh focus our, uh, our work in? And again, this is going to be unedited, so there's going to be a lot of maybe dead silence or whatever as I I think about things, and la verdad que first let me talk about, like my feelings at the beginning, que I got really depressed. It really hit me hard, um estaba llorando and shit, and my husband's all trying to, like you know, comfort me, and the next day I had to go to fucking work and I was so, like, I was so upset being at work and I had to go to the ship and do an inspection and, like la verdad, I don't even like, I just like did whatever because, um, I wasn't my feelings and I was really, you know know, hurt by again, the initial statistics of the Latino community Because, like I'm not going to lie, I felt some type of way of seeing how many people in our community voted for him, for him, and seeing the Latinas, latinx community that are out here like working so hard to to teach finances and how to start businesses and all that and um advocating and trying to, you know, uh, get us out there and into these spaces and then for it to. You know, it seemed like it was just getting tossed to the side because of, you know, whatever their reason was for voting the way they did. So, um, it kind of hurt my feelings a little bit and I had to just like process them and, um, um, but again, once I saw the like statistics, I had to look at, you know, the bright side, because I do tend to be a little bit of um, half glass. Uh, what is it? Half a glass, half full versus well, half empty versus half full, right, and it's a lot of work that I have to do with my mindset and you know, that's why I'm in therapy to get over, um, well, you know, fix that mindset a little bit and I've done a lot of progress.

Speaker 1: 3:55

But, man, um, the day after elections I was not in a good space and so I stayed away, um, somewhat. You know, last week I was supposed to post an episode. It was going to be about, you know, the potential economic impact of, you know, kamala's policies that she had put out and everything. But you know, obviously that didn't matter, so I didn't post it and I didn't have the energy to post something else because I was just like, I was just in my feelings and I just decided to rest, although I was active on threads. So follow me on threads. I'm starting to become more active on there and more vocal and I'm finding it enjoyable.

Speaker 1: 4:43

I really like how easy it is just to type stuff out, instead of like having the camera and putting, you know, makeup on or whatever. Even though, if I do decide to post the video form of this podcast, if you do like video formats, I'll link it down below if I do decide to post it, because I don't have any makeup, I'm grumpy and stuff, because I'm going to get a facial later. So I didn't put on makeup, didn't put my face on, but yeah, so those are my initial thoughts of the election, the election, and so then it's like okay, pues, you know I had, you know, my moment of grieving and you know they yachille and process my anger and addressed some of the, the feelings and dark thoughts that I had and, um, feel better now. Now it's back to like all right, let me put my chongo up and it's back to the grind and, uh, back to, you know, continuing the work that, um, I'm trying to accomplish and I feel the uh, the community, the spaces that I'm in. It's kind of we all went through kind of like a similar process and all of us feel more motivated than ever to get back on here and continue to promote advocacy and all that. So let me take a little sip of my coffee because my mouth is kind of dry. But so what? So? What do we do now? Where? Where do we go?

Speaker 1: 6:36

And over this time that I was grieving and, uh, just reflecting a lot and I was like, okay, pues, what do I do? What can I do better? And it's not just me, because I've seen it again. I was on threads and stuff, and so a lot of discussion went on in there between mutuals or community and stuff, and discussing, okay, like, how can we get our community to um, to not um, como decir, like, not, like, not fall for the trap that uh, I think happened with some of the voters, because some of them, like no, los puedes ayudar, the other ones are just kind of like, fell a little bit in the trap of the extreme, right, and so que hacemos? And one of the things and it's not in any particular order, right, it's just things that I just reflected on and thought about, on things that we can work on, and the first one, community, and we've been doing a pretty good job.

Speaker 1: 7:49

I have found a lot of community online. I've even, you know, doing this podcast, the guests that I've had, the people I've met and networked. I have, you know, lot of community and so I just want to like continue building that community up and especially now because, uh, como dije earlier, like it really, you know, broke a lot of our hearts that are in this space trying to help our community come up and be in these spaces and take up space and all that and so, cuando miramos eso, like it really broke our hearts. So it's back to healing that and and go back to building up this community and bring, and you know, being more uh, strategic on on reaching our community. Uh, because I think one of the things is that, uh, I don't know where, who said it or whatever, but I think we did become a little bit of an echo chamber because, you know, the algorithm pushes like-minded people and so, um, which is why I found a safe and supportive space in threads and Instagram, and but we really need to learn to come out of that zone and reach, uh, those that are on the outskirts and try to bring them in and include them more when they have a slightly different type of mentality.

Speaker 1: 9:31

I don't know how to feel la verdad with the people that are right now in the extreme right extremists, um, like I don't know how to bring them back. Like, how can I reach them when they're so far right, like the, the middle ones that are kind of out there? Cause I have some thoughts on some of the people that voted that way was, uh, because of the economy, right, they uh of the economy, right, they uh prefer um, making sure that you know they they're able to, you know, uh, buy groceries and pay rent and all that, and those are all legit, right. So I don't I I well not going to lie, because at the beginning, but now, after a lot of reflection, and I realized, like you know what, like I can't be mad at them because they're doing it, because that's what they thought they were doing. Now, mind you, it was still going against what would have helped, which is one of the other things. I guess I just won't go in order of my list that I wrote is one of the other things I guess I just won't go in order of my list that I wrote um, but is the idea of that they fell into that trap because they are worried about the economy, that they can't pay bills, that they can't provide for their families.

Speaker 1: 10:56

One other thing about our community is que, like we like to work hard, we're all about our money right and making sure that we we provide for our family. So, tenemos, you know um that mentality. So when something is messing up our money and don't says, they start searching like well, what you know, how can we fix this? And so you, you got here, this guy that's over here saying like like I'm gonna fix the economy, fix the economy, and you have, you know, biden, that was like they think that's you know the reason, um, and not understanding how the economy works and how government works.

Speaker 1: 11:37

And so that brings me to that point of one of the things that we kind of need to focus on as well in our community is not just talking about money, but talking about how it flows and how it affects the economy and just putting that information out there and teaching how government works, because a lot of um and I'm saying this because of my, my circle circle, my family and stuff like that so when I talk to them and, uh, I mean, I don't have and everything. But I'm talking to, like, my parents or whoever right, and they came into this country. You know, saben, how it works, and so I, you know not seven how it works, and so I, you know, not that I know exactly how it works, but I have a better understanding and idea of how things get passed and everything like that and. But they don't, and so they just see surface level, um things. And so I think that's going to be one of my goals as well is to kind of push that content out there of of teaching these things, of how things don't get passed and and just be more vocal about that and in in regards to everything, because I know, uh, we have creators out there that talk about, like immigration and, uh, I see, I still see, you know some of the finances. I'm just saying let's push that more and I'm going to try to include it more in my content as well.

Speaker 1: 13:14

And that really just comes down to education with, which is one of my other points of we really got to up our education game. We've been doing really good. We really gotta up our education game. We've been doing really good. And I want to say I'm proud of our community, of how we've been like, really coming into the space. I mean I have, like um books, yeah, like my bookshelf is getting filled up of, you know uh, of minorities, of of black, of latinas, of, you know, uh, people of color, of financial books that are teaching and um, it's relatable to, to our struggles, and so I am seeing us really coming up in the education space.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Um, and I think we need to push more um in social media, uh, especially on YouTube, like, uh, when I am on YouTube, uh, I try to find, you know, latinos, and it's uh kind of hard to find. Uh, I'll be trying to find someone that's investing in real estate and I really haven't found one. Uh as much. So let's, you know, try to get more into the youtube space as well. Um, when I search on tiktok, a similar thing there's, you know, obviously, people out there is just that it's we just need to get take up more space is what I'm basically saying and educating our community and being strategic about the education, but also and this is for myself too and holding myself accountable, because I, when I first started, I was trying to create content in Spanish as well.

Speaker 1: 15:05

But I kind of fell off of it. One Just the bandwidth, like I was struggling trying to make content, just regular content, and and then balancing, you know, with my daughter being a new mom and all like so many moving pieces. So it kind of fell on the wayside and that's my fault, moving pieces, so it kind of fell on the wayside and that's my fault. So I'm going to make sure you know, next year, the goals next year, that I am creating more Spanish content because there's definitely a lack of and you know the, the stuff that's getting pushed out to our community in Spanish. You know that's what kind of can steer them a little bit on, you know, to the wrong side and and just making sure we're. We're just doing that, I guess.

Speaker 1: 15:55

And then that kind of brings me to, um, not just education but advocacy, be more vocal. You know, at the beginning I said how we tend to kind of want to separate, and it's not just us, like many businesses and things like that want to separate politics. Pero la verdad is, you know, it is in everything, it's in everything that we do, it is in everything, it's in everything that we do, especially in our businesses Everything that gets passed in politics has real life effects in the things that we do and how we build. But there's a lot of things, um the types of programs we have access to, if funding gets cut for them and and uh, programs get taken away. All that, and so kind of having um a very well-rounded advocacy, so making sure that we're being inclusive and doing our best to advocate for everyone in this space and especially our community, and getting out there and not being scared to do it. I know it's a little intimidating because it does affect our money, right, but like I don't want the that type of people's money, right, I do not care to have, um people that really put our, our, our community down and vote against our, our interests and benefits, um rights and stuff. I do not, you know, want to be part of that community of those that are so extreme, right, um and uh. So, yeah, advocacy and you know, part that one of the things kind of side note, because I just remembered it is because I was having a conversation with one of my family members, and again kind of mentioned it at the beginning, of why some Latinos voted for the other guy and it was because of the economy, right, that's who they thought would fix, because they want to be able to buy groceries and and stuff like that, so they don't care about rights at the moment. Because, like, and I get it like, how can you, you know, worry about rights and everything like that when you're struggling to feed your family yourself? And I understand that and I get it. Um, but we have this mentality, and especially in the Mexican community, because we have a lot of pride in how hardworking we are and we're again about our money, right, and so I have noticed that we tend to, uh, not necessarily accept abuse, but, uh, just let it roll off our backs.

Speaker 1: 19:19

Because, uh, I remember growing up when I had to face like racism and stuff as a little kid, I would tell my mom or whoever, and I'd be like ¿Qué importa? Right, you know, don't let it mess you up, like keep pushing forward and blah, blah, blah, and just let it roll off your back. Que no te afecte, ¿qué importa Si tú sabes que no eres así? ¿qué importa? Qué te dijeron? Whatever, and same thing, like you know, they'll work for you know, abusive managers or whatever, because, pues, ¿qué más hacían? They need to work, so they're not going to be like oh, you can't talk to me that way, or you're being racist or whatever. And it's true, because I've had to, you know, quedarme callada a lot of times.

Speaker 1: 20:10

What matters is, you know, being able to pay my bills, and it's happened a few times in some of the jobs that I had. You know they were just being racist, asking for papers and you know, like, randomly Be like, oh, you mix it, but they wouldn't ask, you know, the white people or anybody else. So it's, you know, and Because, like, I had to pay my rent, I had to pay this, and so it's something that you know, I didn't even think about that. We're doing that. We tend to like, I wouldn't say that we do it on purpose, because estamos, you know, like, picking, like, or I keep this job and pay my bills, or you know I go with my pride and, and you know, tell them off and report them, but then I had to go find another job and then I'm out on the streets and I feel like that's what kind of happened here was the reason why, because all of us were like so it's okay.

Speaker 1: 21:14

You know, I can't believe that they voted for someone that's calling Mexican illegals and Puerto Ricans trash and all this stuff, and Hispanics are like blah, blah, blah, right, but I think that's a little bit of the privilege that I have because I'm more financially stable and I'm able to do that, like I have so many skills and everything and um, education and investments and everything. I just have a big old um, like a lot of things that you know I can do, whereas you know the average, you know Hispanic, the latino, that is just like living paycheck to paycheck. They don't have the luxury to be able to. You know mandarlos a la chingada when they say something like like that. So that's one of the things that I reflected on, uh, this this past week. So, yeah, so you know community education, uh, to include government, uh, how it works and how the economy works and that. And I guess the last thing I want to um include is, you know, getting our money right, like that's the next step, right, because I just said, um, the reason I'm able to have these thoughts and and you know, you know advocate and be over here out fighting is because I have, uh, the privilege and luxury that I have my finances in order and I have financial stability and on my way to financial freedom, right so I'm able to step out of this rat race and actually think about the big picture and human rights and women's rights and all that stuff and advocating for, you know, black people, the Latino community and all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 23:14

But for those that are living paycheck to paycheck, no tienen the ability and in order to bring more, you know people to advocate and well, pues, también, you know, get out of the rat race is, you know, learning how to get our money right and getting that, you know, financial stability to where you have the ability to start making change and that's, you know, one of the goals too, is, you know, money is power. Like money is seen as evil because of the things that is done with money. Pero la verdad que our community, you know we do tend to think that, like you know, no más quieres ser rica para que you know whatever and para presumir or whatever, you just need to have enough to provide for yourself and your children, to provide for yourself and your children. But really we need to accumulate wealth and be able to use that money for good and to drive change. Because if you look at it which is one of the reasons también to teach about government you'll see how much lobbying happens and how much money flows into politicians Even now, like Elon Musk.

Speaker 1: 24:39

That's a freaking billionaire that's out there. He owns twitter, a major social media uh platform, and he's able to control misinformation and propaganda and stuff like that in his platform, and so you can imagine how much um of a difference that has made in the way the government works and things get pushed and you know what? Yeah, something happens like you could be, like. You know what I want to like pass a law, okay, let's day, uh, a good, a good, livable wage for everybody, right. But as soon as you get something like Elon Musk can start pushing propaganda on his Twitter and whatever, it doesn't get passed because there's been money put in to deter us and change our minds. Money put in to, you know, deter us and and change our minds. There's money that gets put into politicians to go there and fight and against a bill like that, and so, again, money is power, is that we could use it to get into these spaces and I see a lot of people getting into like government. So that's money that you have to do, have to campaign and be able to get into, you know, even local government. That's still a lot of money that you have to put into to get a position in local government so you could start, you know, making change that way and then imagine it all the way up.

Speaker 1: 26:15

And so we have to start viewing money as that way instead of thinking of like like my mom says sometimes to me, like it's like hello, I'm trying to, I'm trying to do something here. There's a reason, um, I'm doing this and again is the the lack of education of how finances works. Like con cuatro casas is not enough cash flow to, you know, live off of um. I calculated and just you know, for myself, I need like 20, roughly 20, if I want to be in the middle range of, you know, living financial freedom. Um, probably could do with 15 if I want to be kind of frugal, but like 20 is my, my goal of replacing my income and not having to worry about my bills and everything like that. I'm still providing for my kids and savings and investing, still having money to invest.

Speaker 1: 27:21

But, yeah, we got to learn how to build money by investing. We have to get over this fear of investing and start getting comfortable with things, of taking risks and debt, of course, going, going, uh, with caution, right, um, learning how to balance risk with the reward and learning how to properly use debt in order to build wealth. Like how I do con casa, how I invest in real estate. I use debt but it's making me money, and so that's really what we have to do is learning how to get our money right. And not just that, but those who are like living paycheck to paycheck with financial literacy, financial education I know we're doing.

Speaker 1: 28:22

I see a lot of people in my space out here doing big things, educating Como dije hay libros. But, like I said, we just kind of got gotta switch over or include también spanish content. So those are kind of the main things that I think, um, I will be focusing on next year. So I have a lot of work to do, a lot of planning to do, because now, okay, I got my thoughts down, I'm coming up with a plan for next year. So there's going to be a little minor changes for the podcast Still going to have interviews, but I want to create more content of more financial education, because I realized that it became just interviews, which is nice because I brought a lot of experts that taught a lot of things, but also kind of need to do maybe more how-to's or um scenarios or things like that I'm not sure yet kind of the direction, um y también.

Speaker 1: 29:28

Get back to trying to create some podcasts, because I think I only had like two or three episodes in Spanish and then, like it was just too much, trying to like do double. But that was because I was creating the content. I was coming up with the scripts or the, the, the outline, what I want to talk about, and then, of course, I was doing um, the course and all that stuff, and it was a lot. But I have hired an editor, so now it should be easier for me to just like create a podcast, he said, and they edited it and then I could post. Yeah, I'm about to. I was just waiting to pay one more bill because I was in a mentorship program, but also redesigning my website. That will be launching soon, so I'm excited for that. And I will also be relaunching my real estate investing course. It's now going to be called rental property bootcamp, which is going to take you from start to finish on buying a rental property. So that will be coming out this month and a ver que mas?

Speaker 1: 30:39

What else was have I been working on, uh, yeah, those two things and other than that.

Speaker 1: 30:45

Like I am really focusing the end of this year and beginning of next year on figuring out, um, how to add these, these things into my content and, um, you know, help our community do better. And so let me know what your thoughts are. You can send me a text on um I think there should be a link, if I remember correctly, on the podcast in the description it has a little thing or if you're watching this on youtube, just leave a comment or hit me up on instagram. Tell me your thoughts and what kind of content you would like to see, what kind of topics you would like to learn about. Um, I could, you know, create some episodes on that on YouTube and on here. And, you know, bring more experts, of course. But, yeah, let me know. And then that, yeah, yeah, hablé bastante. 30 minutes, over 30 minutes, but I'm going to let y'all go and you know I will be posting regular content back on track. Ya me siento más mejor, so I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.