More Money Podcast - 254 Investing for Your Future After Becoming Debt-Free - Jully-Alma Taveras, Founder of Investing Latina

Episode Date: November 25, 2020

We’ve all seen the stats…if you started investing in your teens you’d end up significantly wealthier than if you wait until your 20s or 30s. But most of us have no idea where to start or even have the confidence to invest our first dollar before we’re fully ready. Well, as my next guest Jully-Alma Taveras (a.k.a. Investing Latina) shares in this episode, you’ll never be fully ready. And that’s ok! She started investing at 19 and now in her 20s, she’s much further ahead on her financial journey because of it. And now, she creates financial literacy content on your Instagram and YouTube channel, in addition to being a contributing editor at Next Advisor and public speaker, to empower and educate other young women to start investing as soon as possible. Because the thing is, you’ll never be completely ready to start investing and you may make mistakes. But that shouldn’t scare you off from getting started because you can change your investment strategy as you become a more confident and knowledgeable investor. Just take my journey. I started with index funds (but had no idea what those were), then switched to mutual funds, then moved everything to ETFs, and now I do a mixture of ETFs and individual stocks. It’s taken me years to discover the best way to invest for my goals, but I’m so glad I didn’t wait until I was “ready”. For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/254 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Mo Money Podcast. This is episode 254 of the show and I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back, or if you're brand spanking new, hello, welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Stay a while, subscribe and listen to my crazy library of shows. So even though most of my shows have numbers, like episode numbers, like I said, this is episode 254. There's actually a number of episodes that don't have numbers. Like when I did my, I don't even remember what it was called now. I'm going to have to like look on my podcast. When I was doing those like, oh yeah, money minute episodes back at the first half of this year when I was very ambitious and had a lot of energy. And then that kind of went away as the pandemic kind

of blew up in our faces. And then I've done a couple of solo episodes, some special episodes. Apparently, I was on Spotify the other day. I actually have 275 episodes. Isn't that wild? What? Crazy. So there you go. There's almost 300 episodes for you to listen to. Such fun. And also, if you ever want to find out more details about the guest or some links that we talked about or some resources we mentioned in whatever episode, there are show notes for almost every episode. Basically, every episode that has an episode number, you can find out the show notes on my website. So for this episode, 254, you would go to jessicamorehouse.com slash 254 or just go to jessicamoorehouse.com

slash podcast. You'll find everything there. Any mahoo. I don't know about you, but I'm getting super excited because we're wrapping up this year. We're wrapping this up and then we're going to put it in a closet and never open it. We're never going to talk about it. We're never going to, we're just going to forget 2020 happened because it was a garbage year. Like, let's be honest, it was a garbage year. So 2021 has to be better than this, but we still have to get through the latter half of this year. Got a few more weeks to go. But luckily to help you out with that, to kind of take your mind off this dumpster fire year, I've got some amazing guests to wrap up this year and also wrap up

season 11 of this show, including my special guest for this episode, Julie Alma Taveras, better known online as Investing Latina. So I discovered her back in the spring as I kind of, and I kind of mentioned this in the show, I did a bit of a spring cleaning, so to speak, with my social media, unfollowed a ton of people and followed a bunch of new people who I just, you know, I just want some fresh content, fresh voices. And I discovered her and I love her stuff on Instagram and YouTube. As you can kind of guess from her name, she talks a lot about investing, which is such an important topic, especially for young people, especially for women. We need to start investing. We need to start investing now. And we need to start kind of empowering ourselves with that knowledge. And

sometimes we need different voices to explain it to us in a way that is not boring. And that is what she's all about, which is why I have her on this show. So in case you don't know Juliette, but you will from this episode, she is the founder of Investing Latina, an online community for financially powerful women. She's a writer and producer, and you can find her on her YouTube channel where she creates videos to educate women about personal finances, investing, and entrepreneurship. She also hosts the Ask Me Money things or at Ask Me Money things on her show on YouTube, where she answers questions from her viewers and how to manage their money more efficiently. And she's also a contributing editor at Next Advisor in partnership with Time, where she writes about

personal money stories from the lens of an immigrant Latina. And she's also a speaker and facilitator. And she's spoken for financial service companies such as Flourish, NextAdvisor, and for events at Google. And as she kind of mentions, if you have a question, you can totally slide into her DMs and she will answer you back. She is that cool. And she's all about just helping people and spreading the knowledge. So I know you're going to love this episode. But before I get to that episode with Julie, Investing Latina, just a few words about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Mo Money Podcast is supported by TD Direct Investing. Investing just got a whole lot easier. Remember about a year ago, I did a blog post and made a video about TD Direct Investing's new feature in WebBroker called

Goal Assist? Well, that same feature is now called Goals, and they've reimagined GoalAssist to become a standalone investing app that is now available to download on iOS and Android. If you're looking for a new, simplified way to invest and want to save on fees, you'll want to check out TD GoalAssist. It not only guides you through building a goals-based investment plan, it allows you to build a diversified investment portfolio aligned with your goals using TD ETFs, stocks, or TD one-click ETF portfolios. The best part? There are no balance minimums, monthly fees, or inactivity fees. And you know what that means. More money in your pocket. And when you trade TD ETFs, there are zero commissions on trades. That means the only fees you'll be paying are the MERS embedded in the ETFs themselves. Want to learn more? Visit the show notes for this episode

or go to jessicamorehouse.com slash goal assist or try it out yourself by downloading the TD goal assist app by the App Store or Google Play. TD goal assist is a service of TD direct investing a division of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc is subsidiary of the Toronto Dominion Bank. Well, welcome to the Mo Money Podcast, Julie. I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you, Jessica. I'm so happy to be here with you to talk about money. I know. I know. I feel like I've been following you on Instagram and Twitter for, I think I may have discovered you over the springtime when I started just kind of taking a better look at who

I was following on social media and kind of doing a little bit of a harvest. I don't think that's the right term, but basically like getting rid of some people and adding some new people just so I can kind of freshen up my feet and see who is in the finance space. And I want to hear different voices and different perspectives and also ones that are like positive and inspirational and motivational because that is what I want on my feed. And I know lots of other people obviously think the same since you have a fairly big audience. And also, I love your YouTube videos as well. So I'm so glad that I discovered you and have you on the show so we can talk about money. And I'm very excited.

Thank you. I'm so excited too. And let me tell you, when I saw your TikTok video, that was just kind of explaining the basics of how to do finance in literally 15 seconds. I was so impressed. So I know that TikTok is like, people are, it's so big right now and people are so into it. And a lot of the people that are talking about finance are like, oh, what do I do with TikTok? But what you did was perfect. And I loved it. Well, thanks for saying that. I no longer have TikTok. I lasted a week. But now we have reels. Yes. Now we have reels. Isn't that so funny? I know. Cause I'm like, I like the idea of making different types of content and video and that's kind of fun. But TikTok in and of itself was not for me. I was spending way too much time and it was making me way too much stressed out. Yeah, I had to shut it down.

I agree 100%. I made like two videos and I'm like, you know what? No. It's funny though, after being on TikTok for literally seven days and it took up so much mental energy. And then going back to Instagram, I found Instagram such a light and positive atmosphere. I'm like, well, that's scary. So who knows what that means? I mean, I think it means that pressure, I feel like, when it's a new platform. And I felt the same way when Snapchat came out, everything was fine with the way that we use Instagram,

but then Snapchat came out and I was like, Oh, we got to rush over there and have to create content over there. And honestly, if it gives you pressure and if it's too much work, sometimes it's not worth it. So no, and you don't have to be on every platform. And that's just, I mean, I didn't really want to add a new platform. Thought I'd try it out, try it out. Not for me. And that's just fine. But yeah, now there's, there's real. So there we go. I can still make those little fun videos, but I really

like your videos and everything that you're doing with your, your kind of brand investing Latina. So I kind of want to start with where did you start out? Because I feel like a lot of people like me just discovered you. I'm like, oh my gosh, she is amazing. Can you kind of share some of your story? How did you get started in all of this? Yes, absolutely. So I actually started about a year ago, really with the brand and the name as Investing Latina. And funny enough, I really didn't plan all of the things that I have going on right now, which is really crazy. And it's very interesting the way that life, the way that life kind of takes

you on adventures. I want to call them adventures, surprises. But I, my journey started because many, many years ago, after graduating from Fashion Institute of Technology, I also went to the High School of Fashion, but my major is design and minor in economics. And I left school and went into the workforce and started making money. And I was super excited about my career. And being in the fashion industry, I felt a lot of pressure to always maintain a certain lifestyle. And I really got a bit of lifestyle inflation as I started making more money. But what happened with that, and usually is the case when it comes to lifestyle

inflation, is that it kind of took over me. And I really became a bit of a shopaholic. And it was really, really quickly that it happened. And before I knew it, I had all this debt. And I'm like, wow, how am I going to get out of all of this debt with my salary? It doesn't add up. And it took a lot of, it took a couple of years to really get out of it and to change the way that I thought about things and how I really thought about life and money, those two things together, what they both meant as individual things and how I was going to tie them together into one to be a little bit happier and to be less stressed. Because the thing about debt is that it brings us way too much stress and it causes this sort of reaction and this sort of cycle that makes it very difficult for people to get out of, right? So it took me some time, but I accomplished it a couple of years ago with a lot of what I call financial minimalism. And I talk about this in an article

that I wrote for NextAdvisor, time.com slash NextAdvisor, where I talk about a survival number. So the first step really for me was figuring out what were my basics, what I needed to survive and to be, you know, relatively happy and content and starting. And that was kind of where things started. And now years later, I decided to really share my story and talk to people about it and to now help and educate women to really become financially powerful and to invest into themselves. Do you want to kind of share when you were at that point where you're like, oh my gosh, I have this debt. There's no way that I can afford to continue living the way I'm living. What resources did you find or how did you get started? Because I feel like a lot of people that find themselves in similar situations,

they feel almost paralyzed because they don't know where to start or there's too much information, which makes it hard to decide what's the right path for me. How did you kind of go about that? Yeah, that's a really good point because we are in a time of way too much information, where there's a lot out there. But for me, this was before talking about personal finance was like such a big thing on Instagram. It is very big now. And it's really nice to see so many people just being so open about their finances, their numbers and things like that. I didn't have that back then. I would say that I took it in a very self-reflective route. Like that's what I kind of did. I really didn't have a method in terms of, or even like someone that I looked up to that

I could be like, oh, I want to do this because they've done it like this. I really just sat down with myself and said, Julie, is this what you want? Do you want to live your life in debt all the time? Do you want to constantly go shopping when you're not feeling happy, when you are feeling excited and happy? Because goal was, I just repeated that. So it was a lot of power of repetition and repeating to myself, you know, save money, get out of debt, pay this off. And I did things immediately. As soon as I got paid, I put money on my credit card. And that was my goal to just attack, attack, attack that debt and get rid of it. And I think that it can take time to get into that mindset. But, but you can definitely do it. You know, you could definitely just kind of sit with yourself and decide what you want. And if you are very, if you feel a lot of shame, the way that I did when it came to my

debt, recognize that and don't let it get to you in a negative way. Let it get to you in a positive way where you can take action and you can take small little steps in the right direction. I think another thing that I hear from a lot of people who, you know, have gone through similar things or find themselves in similar situations that you were is it's hard to stay motivated, especially when it can take you years to achieve your goal of becoming debt free and to stay focused because there's so many distractions in life. How were you able to kind of overcome that? Especially, were you still working in the fashion industry? And was there still that pressure to kind of, you know,

buy clothes and look a certain way to kind of fit into this industry? Oh, yeah, absolutely. The pressure was there the whole time. And what I did was I got really creative with the things that I already owned. And I think that that's really important because I can guarantee you that there's so many of us, the majority of us have more than we need. And sometimes we just don't even recognize that because we're so focused on the new and the shiny and the what's next. But if you really stop and look around your home and your closets and your, even when it comes to your technology, like we already have so much, there really is almost no reason to continue to build and add. And that's really where like

financial minimalism came into play for me because I felt like I wanted to keep things simplified. If I can simplify my life, that could lead me to simplifying my finances. And if that was simplified, I would have all of this extra time to focus on things that I really wanted to do. I love that. I really like that. So this all makes a lot of sense. And I think a lot of people are like, yeah, this is something I can do. But what happens when something, you know, a wrench is kind of thrown into the situation? I'm also terrible with sayings. So I'm like, I always get them like wrench into something, you know what I'm talking about? When basically life happens, like we've all kind of experienced over the spring.

And lots of people that I know were on like their debt-free journeys, they just didn't know how to handle, whoa, I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't expecting my investment portfolio to go down as much as it did now I'm panicked or me to feel not so stable in my job or me to lose my job. It was a very crazy time this spring and we're still experiencing it. What was your experience or perspective when all that happened in the spring? And what would you just say to someone who was on a similar path or doing all the right things, were paying down their debt, being responsible, being minimalist, and then this happens. How do you stay sane? How do you stay on course? Yeah. I mean, we are still in a crisis right now. And it's really scary with everything that's going on. And I think that when something happens and there is an emergency, and it could be something small or it could be something major, we get thrown off.

And our emotions really get off balance. So for me specifically, things were going really well. I was traveling right when it was announced that coronavirus was happening in the US and I happened to have been in Europe at the time. And I was literally kind of living my best life. And then this happens. And I rushed back home, like I was planning on being in Europe for a whole month. And I rushed back home, only to find out that my dad was diagnosed with COVID. And it really flips your world upside down when something like that happens. And it's really scary when things like that come up and your plans really kind of are dissolved from one day to another. So it takes time. That's the advice that I would really tell people to recognize is that it does take time when something like that happens

and your whole life kind of changes a little bit, but you remind yourself. You know, a couple of weeks later, I kind of got back, I got life back together and I, you know, continue with the habits of, the positive habits that I had prior to the crisis for my family that we went through within my family. Luckily, my dad recovered, thank God. So it was, it was a little bit of a tough situation that luckily didn't become worse. But it's hard. And I can never tell you that it's not hard. And

I can never tell you that I have myself experienced a lot of these things, both in a personal way, with relationships and with family, and also in a financial way. Because even when I was going through my debt-free journey, of course, there were so many things that I wanted to buy and I wanted to do. And there were a lot of moments of sort of embarrassment when my friends would ask me to go out and travel with them. But I would say no, because I knew that I had to pay off the set. It wasn't something that I was talking about because I definitely didn't feel comfortable talking about those things back then. But it was, you know, it was hard.

From an emotional standpoint, it takes a lot. But I know that looking back now, everything I did was for a reason. And I think that that's the type of lesson that you learn when you overcome something, whether it's a small emergency that you probably maybe didn't have the money to pay off and you had to put it on a credit card, or if it's something big, where you needed this huge expense to make something happen or put something back together. When you overcome that, you find how powerful you are. And you're proud of yourself

for that. And I think being very proud of yourself for the things that have happened in the past and the way that you've handled things in the past gives you more power, gives you more ammunition to continue on a positive path. Wow. I want to switch gears a bit because you did mention investing in yourself. And I feel like, especially people that have been on their debt-free journey for so long, and then they finally get to the point where they're debt-free, it's a totally different journey after that. And I think I've seen it, and I know friends who have experienced this, where they were so focused on that one goal of paying off debt, they actually didn't have a plan for what happens after. And that can easily lead you to make some bad choices and get back into debt because debt is all you know. So I know one of the things that

you talk a lot about is investing in yourself, investing, growing wealth, which is kind of like that's the other side of it. Once you reach that debt-free goal, this is the other side. You want to kind of talk a little bit about once you kind of get to that point, you're totally debt-free. And then you're kind of at this other point where you're like, where do I start again, which kind of makes you feel like a beginner. You're just starting from scratch. How do you kind of start with that or not feel super overwhelmed with this new phase? Yeah, that's a great question because we think of ourselves in terms of what we're doing and what's going on in our life and what our current goals are, right?

So for me, when I became debt-free, I didn't necessarily have a huge major plan on what to do next. So that was everything that you kind of mentioned. That was what I went through. That was me. I just knew that I wanted to become debt free and not have any consumer debt. And I just knew that I would be much happier after that. But I didn't put together a plan while I was going through the journey. The plan really came afterwards. And I think that it's such a great feeling when you're debt free.

And the world just seems to open up and there's so many possibilities and investing for me was like the coolest thing. And it's something that I have been doing even while I was in debt. Like I started investing when I was 19 years old. So that's smart. I know it's like the one. And it's funny because it's like, it was such a small decision that I made, but I didn't realize how powerful it would be later on in life. And, and if you, you know, know a little bit about investing, you know, that time in the market is the most powerful thing. And, and that's really kind of where the name Investing Latina came from, because I'm like, wow, I've been doing this already for so long. And it was

something, it was my 401k. It wasn't even anything complicated. It wasn't like I was buying Apple stocks since I was 19. I was just investing through my company's retirement plan. And I think that that was what I use as a springboard. I said, you know what? I've already been doing this. I've been consistently putting a little bit more and a little bit more into these retirement accounts. Now that I'm debt free, I can really amp this up. And I can think about other different ways of investing. And you talk about investing in ourselves and education and putting more attention into what our strengths

are and how we can also build on those strengths. I think that's really, really important, especially for us women to recognize what our strengths are, what you enjoy doing, and foster those things. Get more education on those things. Really elevate yourself in what you already are good at and what you enjoy. And there's always going to be things that we don't know. It's impossible to know everything in this world, but there are things that you do already know. So use that to your advantage, build on that and create something really amazing for yourself. I think one thing that it took me a while to learn, and I know lots of other people probably feel this way, is that when you're about to start something, you want to do it right. You want to get it right.

You want to get it perfect. And I think we need to kind of open up the conversation, especially with investing, because it is kind of complex and you don't know everything right off the bat. You won't. Or if you want to know everything before you start investing, then you're just delaying how long it'll take you to start investing. And it's really a journey. And like you said, it's so important to continue to build your knowledge and educate yourself. For me, it's, I mean, I'm lucky in that I, you know, this is part of something I do. So I get to research and it's also part of my work. But for

lots of people, it seems so scary and intimidating. And I'm assuming that's kind of why you wanted to open up the conversation more on your Instagram and your YouTube channel and kind of break down investing. So you're a different voice. I mean, for me, whenever I'm on specifically like YouTube, and if you just Google anything about investing, you're going to see a guy talking to you. And it's going to be a very different messaging, very different tone. And I think we need to have more women talk about investing in different language so different people can understand it. Do you want to kind of talk about what's your kind of goal and what do you really want to achieve with educating women and everybody with your YouTube channel? Yeah, totally agree. But the people that we typically see, even when we do a simple search of investing are male, white, older, and I'm sorry, it's boring. And it's not interesting.

Definitely different tone. Like sometimes it's like, okay, this is technical. Okay, sure. Let me get a little personality. How about, you know? Right. Like you're not really pulling me in. You're not enticing me to really want to dig into this subject matter. And I think that I, I think a little, I think about it a little bit in terms of when we were in school and how we had a kind of diverse mix of teachers. We had the like goofy teacher and we had the very serious and strict teacher. And I think that we need that in life. And I think that that's the point of having different voices in the personal finance space. And the reason why I really wanted to start my channel so that people can really have options.

Who doesn't want more options, right? Who doesn't want to be able to hear different perspectives and points of view and different strategies? And for me, the Latin community, we struggle with a lot of financial barriers. The community itself is constantly targeted, especially when it comes to kind of payday loans. And we suffer a lot through home buying, that process where 15% of Latinos are denied mortgages versus the 7% average in the country. So it really made me think, what is it that's missing?

And what is it that we need to do to get better and as a whole be in a better place? In general, Latinos don't really invest in the stock market. And it has a lot to do with the fact that there is no trust there. And I want to try to educate people on that. And that's the purpose of investing Latina on YouTube and on Instagram, because I want people to know, hey, listen, I'm Latina, like I'm an immigrant. I was born in the Dominican Republic. I'm an island girl and I've been investing since I was 19. And I can be an example of why this is a good idea and why you should feel

comfortable doing this and why it's so important to really educate ourselves as adults, because we can't learn everything in school. It's impossible. But we have to make an effort to learn more in our adult life in order to build generational wealth and to be, we can do in a better way if we find the power within ourselves. And if we take steps to become financially literate and confident and fight for our rights, like those are all things that will come into play when you really want to look back on your life and say, you know, I'm proud of everything that I did. I'm curious because you mentioned generational wealth. And I feel like that has been more a part of the conversation recently, which I am glad. I feel like there's been, and I'm not sure if you agree, but a big shift in the personal finance community. And the personal finance community has changed so much in the past. I mean, I've been doing this for eight years. It has definitely changed a lot and for the better,

but I think we still have a lot of room for growth. What is your perspective, everything that happened in the spring, you know, especially with like the protests, Black Lives Matter, becoming more part of the conversation, people being more vocal and kind of demanding, you know, we need to talk about this and why isn't this being talked people being more vocal and kind of demanding, you know,

we need to talk about this and why isn't this being talked about? What's your kind of perspective on everything that's been going on, especially in the personal finance community? I love it. I love to see it. I love to hear different people talk about issues that are a reality. I think that sometimes in the personal finance space, it could really be kind of a little bit idealistic and superficial and just, you know, kind of sugarcoated. And we have to stop. We have to stop doing that if we really want to make change, if we really want to connect with more people and bring this to a larger audience, we have to keep it real. And nothing is more real than the systemic racism that we face, not only in this country,

but all over the world. And nothing is more real than the struggles and the feelings that people go through in corporate environments and in a lot of different parts of their financial journey, even a visit to a store or a visit to a bank. It's very different for everyone. Everybody has a different experience. And it's so important to bring different experience and it's so important to bring that up. It's so important to magnify those experiences and amplify those voices in order for us to help more people. Absolutely. And one thing that I've definitely learned and realized is there needs to be, and this is why that's definitely part of what I'm working on for this season of the podcast. I want to have a lot more

different voices and perspective because I was falling into a rhythm of maybe getting a lot of white people. Let's just be honest, a lot of white people. And sometimes you kind of think, oh, maybe there's just a lot of white people in the finance space. Sure. But there's a lot of non-white people and we need to hear their stories because otherwise you're just hearing the same thing over and over because that's one perspective. And so we need to open this up. I've definitely loved seeing all the different stories and experiences and conversations happening that I think a lot of people just like me, sometimes you're in a bubble and you don't realize it because you didn't go through that, but we need to hear it. Because like you said, a lot of the advice out

there is a bit ideological and it has no stemming from what actually is going on. And I think we need to acknowledge what's going on because without that, then it's not the same. We're not on the same playing field. So giving kind of advice for everybody, it's not going to work. Right. Yeah. And I appreciate that so much because I think that it's something that everybody has to collectively do in order for there to be a real change, in order for us to make progress, in order for the financial space, personal finance space to really expand and to reach new audiences. Like, you know, you were nominated for a Brutus Award. And I'm gonna bring that up because I'm so happy that I saw that. Thank you. You're one of the first people

that were announced. And I was so excited for, for, you know, Canadian content and I love that. And I think that those are the types of moments that are really important. I think that it's so important to be able to reach other people and to continue to have these conversations and to make sure that we're, you know're reaching a diverse audience because at the end of the day, every single body needs to up their financial literacy. No matter how old you are, no matter what stage in life you're in,

you can always learn a little bit more. I don't think I know anybody that knows everything there is to know about personal finance and about money and about investing. And even if they do know a lot, there are also so many changes that we have to always adapt. And I think that that's also something that we as a community, as an industry, we have to also keep in mind, like things change and we have to be able to, to speak about those changes and relate them to our audiences. Absolutely. It's funny that you bring that up. There's a, I put on Twitter the other day, Hey, does anyone have any personal finance book recommendations? I have a little bit more time

in the summer and I want to just really, you know, read as many kinds of books as I can just to get different perspectives and see if there's any like books that are like, Oh, this is, you know, a really good recommendation. I want to start recommending because sometimes you got to fall into your old ways and I just recommend the same old books. And it's interesting to have the conversations, a lot of great different recommendations I wasn't expecting. So that's really cool. But I had this one conversation with a friend of mine, who's just like, ah, all the books are the same. They just tell you to basically like be frugal and all this stuff. I'm like, that's interesting that you have that perspective because I have a different perspective because I've been reading a lot of different books.

So it's like, it's so important to be open-minded and to not get complacent, but to search. If you feel like it's all the same, that you need to maybe search in different pockets of different areas for something different, you know? Yes, yes, yes, yes. All of that. Because it really does, it comes down to us as creators to look because it's there, you know, the issues are there. And I think it's our job to really find solutions to those issues in order to better serve our audience. And that's definitely what I've been finding this spring, you know, doing my kind of like, all right, little reset on Instagram to find new creators. I've been finding so many amazing people that have always been there, but they're new to me.

And I'm like, this is exciting because it kind of it makes you remember that, no, we don't all just know it all, you know, and it's not this like bubble of five people. It's, there's so many amazing people out there and we need to get the word out because you never know who's going to be that person to be that kind of pivotal person for someone else. You know, like we all have someone or maybe a book we've read or someone we stumbled upon. We're like that person triggered me to, to think differently or to do something differently or to take an action. And so we need to share that. And that's why I'm excited to have you on the show. Cause you're another person. Now it can be like this girl, check out her YouTube channel, check out her Instagram. She's doing some amazing things and talking about things in a very interesting way. Yeah. And I think something that I do, I really encourage people to ask questions. And in this space, sometimes it feels intimidating to do because you are insecure about how much you know about something. And my thing is always, listen, ask the question. And that's why the series that I have on YouTube is called Ask Me

Money Things. And I constantly tell people, ask questions, ask me if there's anything that I can help you with, ask me. Ask whoever you know and see has a little bit of experience or even is an amazing expert on something. Because that's the only way that we truly grow, by asking questions and learning from others, we don't come into this world knowing things. That's not how it works. And we go through a four-year degree and sometimes master's and even more years studying something, one specific thing, and it just leaves so many gaps around our entire lives on things that we didn't learn. So it's so important to just not feel bad and always ask questions. Like my

DMs are always open. And as my Instagram has grown, I created a completely separate Instagram mailbox and it's called Ask Me Money Things. And I always encourage people to go in there, ask me a question and I'll get back to you on it. You know, I carve out time to really answer specific questions when it comes to personal finances. And it's a safe space, you know, because sometimes you don't want to share it publicly or ask publicly, but it's a way for you to kind of get started. And I feel like as soon as you get started, at least this was my experience, as soon as I started talking about it just a little bit and sharing it with my cousins and then my friends and then, you know, my parents and my sisters, I didn't want to stop talking about it. And that's kind of why I'm at where

I'm at right now, where I am doing this, you know, essentially kind of on a bigger stage and bigger platform, because to me, it's so important. And for me, it's really important to help people in my community and people that really are looking for more education and looking to really get out of tough situations. Because we talked about this a little earlier, stuff just happens. Stuff happens. You don't know what to do. You feel stressed. There's emotions involved. And you're like, oh my God, I just need someone to answer this one question and from my experience answering those questions uh on Instagram with people gives them so much relief and all of a sudden they come back a month later two months later and they're like listen those two words that you sent to me meant so much because they

just needed that tiny little push. They needed that little bit of kind of affirmation and excitement on something to really push themselves forward. So it happens a lot with me when it comes to investing because that's like my favorite topic. And someone said to me, like, Oh, my God, I've been thinking about opening a Roth IRA. And I don't know what to do. Should I open it with Vanguard or Fidelity? And I don't know why. But in that moment, this is, of course, on the on many things, the mailbox. And at that moment, I said, listen, open up the account and text me back. And they had sent me this huge paragraph on why they were so scared and why they've been hesitant. And even though they knew exactly, they already knew exactly what they wanted to do. They wanted to open up a Roth IRA to invest for retirement, to save on taxes today

and never have to pay taxes ever again because of the way that the Roth works. And they did it. They came back 20 minutes later and they said, oh my God, I opened the account and I cannot believe it. So sometimes it just takes that one little moment and that one little exchange of ideas and push of suggestion for life to change for someone. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'm sure we're going to get a flood of DMs after people listen to this episode. So get ready for that. I love it. Listen, we have to do that.

I myself do this all the time. Do you know how many times I slide into other people's DMs to ask questions? I'm like, excuse me, can you help me? Oh man, I need to do that more. Oh, girl, you'll find that 99% of the time, you're going to get an answer. And they're going to be helpful. Because the fear just comes from us thinking about what won't happen or what they'll think or what they'll say. And then but when you do it, you realize that you know, it was all for no, you had this fear for no reason, because they're people just like us, you know, these are just people. And we all have different

ideas. And at the end of the day, I think a lot of us have this, this sort of excitement to help others. You know, I think most people are like that. And I think that once we recognize that we're like, okay, let me reach out to so and so and do this. Yeah, exactly. Especially if they're like a content creator, like they're all about just like sharing knowledge, they should probably be open to like getting some questions. But yeah, I mean, I love getting questions. I love I thrive on it. And because I know someone's question means they don't know something and I can fill that gap for them. How exciting because I've been in the same shoes and I know you have too. So, um, it's, it's

exciting to, to see, you know, what we can kind of participate in and, and, you know, our little, uh, thing that we can do to kind of, uh, help people, uh, improve their financial literacy and their confidence. Yeah. And thank you so much for what you do. I know that you have like the bootcamp happening, not a bootcamp, it's a masterclass, right? Yeah, I do. The Fix Your Finances masterclass happening. Well, we're recording this in the summer, but I'm hopefully going to do another one in the fall, but it's been really, really cool. But yeah, it's just like, and again, it's like, you know, different kind of perspective, but it's something that didn't exist and I built it in the wintertime and now it exists.

And it's one of those things where it's like, just because you're not doing something now, you could be doing it in the future and not like, you know, it doesn't have to take that much time. Just like you said, you know, open up the account. Not such a big deal. Now it's open. Now you have an account, you know? So sometimes just taking, just like pushing through and just doing it. And then usually that fear goes away. Yeah. That leap of faith, I think. I think when it comes to finances, like there are so many decisions that we make every single day and money decisions are a part of that list of thousands of decisions that we make per day and taking leaps of faith on things that will benefit you is something that you

that that gives you so much power like you go for it I know it's scary I know that it's unknown but just get started and you'll see how you really fall into like a cool momentum and you really start to build on whatever it is that you're after. And do it sooner rather than later, because as I am now approaching my mid 30s, time goes by fast, so fast. So you will thank yourself. You'll thank your future self will thank you that you took action now rather than a year from now. That's for sure. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. Where can people find you if they want to find your content, ask you some questions? Where can people find you?

Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure. My name is Julie, also known as Investing Latina. You can find me on Instagram and you can find me on YouTube and Twitter as well. I make educational videos as well as current events videos on my YouTube channel. So when things happen, you'll probably see me and make a video reacting to it and give me you tips and advice. So definitely feel free to find me on there. Amazing. Thank you so much. Again, you're going to get a flood of DMs after this.

So I can't wait to see the videos that you put about all the questions that you get. So, but thanks again for chatting with me and being on the show. And that was episode 254 of the Momente podcast with Julie Alma Taveras. Make sure to check her out on all the things. So YouTube, you can find her at youtube.com slash investing Latina on Twitter at investing Latina and Instagram at investing Latina. Very easy. Of course, you can also find out, you know, find all the links to all those at the show

notes on my website, Jessica Morehouse.com slash 254 is where you can find that out. I've got some important things to share. For instance, she mentioned, because we recorded this back in the summer, which is wild, that seems literally like 25 years ago this summer. Anybody? Just me? Okay. She mentioned that my Fix Your Finances Masterclass, and I was like, oh, thinking about doing it in the fall. Well, a lot of things have changed, so I've got a lot of things to share with you. So stick around. Just have a few words I want to share about this episode's sponsor, and then I'll share you all the juicy

details. Also some information about some exciting giveaways. This episode of the Mo Money podcast is supported by TD Direct Investing. You guys, you know, when it comes to investing, there is one product I'm a sucker for ETFs, which is hilarious considering five years ago when I started this podcast, I had no idea what an exchange-traded fund even was. Well, a lot can change in just a few years, which is what happened to TD Direct Investing's Goal Assist. It started as a feature introduced in their web broker platform to help investors set investment goals so they could be more intentional with their investment portfolios. That was back in April 2019. Now, in November 2020, GoalAssist has evolved into a standalone investment app called TD GoalAssist to help you set and monitor your investment goals

and manage your portfolio on the go. And the best part? There are no monthly or inactivity fees like most brokerage apps charge, and TD ETFs have unlimited commission-free trades, including their TD one-click ETF portfolios. You can also trade individual stocks at a flat fee of $9.99. Want to learn more? Visit the show notes for this episode or go to jessicamorehouse.com slash goal assist. Or try it out yourself by downloading the TD Goal Assist app, by the App Store or Google Play, and opening an account. TD Goal Assist is a service of TD Direct Investing, a division of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc., a subsidiary of the Toronto Dominion Bank. Okay, so let's jump right in. So when I was in summer mode, when I was studying pretty much just recording episodes and studying for the Canadian Securities course,

I had it in my mind. I was wrapping up my summer session of my Fix Your Finances Masterclass to do a fall version. And then I do it like quarterly or every season or something like that. Well, I finished the CSE and had a few minutes, minutes, weeks to reflect on what do I want to do? What's the, what are we doing here? Um, and I kind of came to the conclusion that I want to kind of hit pause on the, the format of the, of that course and revamp it. And, uh, that's what I'm doing. So currently I'm taking the rest of November and December to revamp my Fix Your Finances Masterclass, which if you have no idea what that is, it is basically a financial planning course. You'll learn how to create your own financial plan. And then I'm also revamping my Investing Foundations for Canadians course,

revamping that to basically be a little bit more practical. So right now, there's a lot of great information on what you should know about investing. I'm going to add a really special component to show you actually how to start investing, which is the feedback that I've been getting from a lot of people. So also, I guess I should mention, yeah, I'll do this one. I'll mention it because I mentioned it once in my email newsletter, and I'm probably going to mention it this week as well. I am currently doing some research, gathering feedback from current students and potential students for my courses just to find out what they want, what they want, what are your struggles, what do you want to see in a course,

what do you want to help with so I can make sure to put it in the course. I want to make it the best courses ever. And so if you're interested in having a little chat with me, and I'll also let you, you know, ask me whatever questions you want at the end of our call after I ask you some of my questions. All you have to do is go to jessicamorehouse.com slash discovery call. We'll have a little chat. I'll write some notes based on some of your answers. And then you can ask me whatever the hell you want. I am basically only seeking out, I think, another 20 people because I'm doing like a total of like 50 kind of calls for research. So, you know, if you hear this and you want to have a little chat with me, because typically I charge for this, you know, go to jessamoraz.com slash discovery call, book a call with me. Let's have a chat and have a good old time.

But anyways, I will be shutting the doors on both of my current courses on December 1st, not accepting any new students. Any students that enroll before that date will automatically be enrolled in the new revamped courses, which will be significantly more expensive. So I've mentioned this, I think think one or two times on here and in my email list. So if you hear this and you want to lock in the current price and you're interested in either doing a financial planning course or an investing course, I mean, I'd highly recommend to sign up now. And also again, you still get the original course as well on top of the revamped

course. So there's kind of, you know, it's just, I don't know, I would just say it's a good idea, but you know, you do whatever you want to do. Okay, let's talk more about fun things like free things. I am, of course, doing a huge book giveaway for basically featuring any book that is featured on the show and books that will be featured on the show. So I've actually updated my contest page. So jessicamorehouse.com slash contest has all of the books I'm going to be giving away. I'm like, you know what? I probably shouldn't wait until the end of this podcast to put some of the books that I'm going to be giving away because that's going to be like the end of December. And I want to try my best to mail these out or at least draw winners before the end of this year. So anyways,

if you go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest, you'll find a variety of books I'm giving away and you can enter for to all of them basically, and hopefully you'll win. I'm also waiting for the prizing to come in, but I'm going to be doing another fun giveaway mainly on my Instagram page. So make sure to follow me on Instagram at Jessica I Morehouse. It's kind of like a fun kind of gift basket, but like personal finance themed. I think it's going to be really fun. So make sure to follow me on Instagram and I should be announcing that very soon sometime in early December. Okay. What do I have else to share with you? I think that's kind of the most important things at the minute.

Um, if you don't already know this, I do have a free Facebook group that you may want to join. A lot of people join so they can ask people questions, get feedback, um, just to find out what's going on. A lot of Canadians, mainly Canadians, let's be honest. But if you're American or from any other country, you're more than welcome. But we do talk about Canada stuff, which you may be interested in just because. Um, so if you go to facebook.com slash group slash money life balance, you can get in my Facebook

group and have a good old time, chat with us, be part of the community. And lastly, if you're not already on my email list, this is kind of the best way to stay in touch with me and what's going on, some new announcements, all that kind of stuff. Go to jessamorris.com slash subscribe and you can get on my list. I only email like every two weeks pretty much. So don't really bug you. Okay. That's it. That's it. I'm going to wrap this up. I'm going to wrap this up. Thank you so much for listening. Have a very amazing episode next week. I'm very excited. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you who it is. We never do. I have my pal, Kate Flanders, who's been on the show. This will be her fourth time. She was episode three when I was a very new podcaster. And then

I had her on once while she was doing her shopping ban and then had her on again when she put out her first book, The Year of Less. She has a new book out called Adventures in Opting Out, which love, love this book. I'll also have her on the show again. So something to look forward to. Okay, thanks for listening. I'll be back here next Wednesday with that episode. Have a good rest of your week. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.