She Lost $50,000 in Her 20s. Here's the Financial Lesson That Changed Everything

How to Build Wealth Without the Stress, Confusion, or Financial Jargon | Featuring Pri Cosentino

Money is one of the most important tools in our lives, yet it's still one of the least talked-about topics.

In this episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, I sit down with Priscila "Pri" Cosentino, Senior E.A.S.E Advisor, wealth mentor, and financial educator, to unpack the psychology of money, the hidden beliefs that shape our financial decisions, and how to create a wealth strategy that actually aligns with the life you want to live.

After losing $50,000 in her twenties due to poor financial advice, Pri made it her mission to understand money on a deeper level. Combining over a decade of financial planning experience with an MBA in Neuroscience and Human Behaviour, she now helps individuals and entrepreneurs simplify their finances, make confident decisions, and build lasting wealth without sacrificing their quality of life.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, professional, or someone who simply wants a healthier relationship with money, this conversation is packed with practical insights and mindset shifts that could change the way you think about wealth forever.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• How Pri lost $50,000 in her twenties and the lessons it taught her
• Why financial education is still missing for many successful people
• How to spot red flags when choosing a financial advisor or investment professional
• The connection between neuroscience, psychology, and financial decision-making
• How scarcity mindset and childhood money beliefs impact wealth creation
• The biggest money mistakes entrepreneurs make
• Why financial planning should be simple, not overwhelming
• The E.A.S.E Methodology: Educate, Analyse, Strategise, and Enjoy
• How to set meaningful financial goals that support your ideal lifestyle
• Practical strategies to improve your relationship with money
• Why paying yourself is essential as a business owner
• The true definition of wealth beyond dollars and cents

Key Takeaway

Wealth isn't just about accumulating money. It's about creating freedom, enjoying the present, planning for the future, and building a life that aligns with your values. As Pri shares throughout this conversation, money is simply a tool. The real goal is designing a life you genuinely love.

Connect With Pri:

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• Facebook

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DISCLAIMER: We are an independent financial services firm helping individuals create retirement strategies using a variety of investment and insurance products to custom suit their needs and objectives. Investment advisory services offered through Virtue Capital Management, LLC (VCM), a registered investment advisor. VCM and Xexis Private Wealth, LLC. are independent of each other. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. No investment strategy can guarantee a profit or protect against loss in periods of declining values. The information is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual’s situation. Content is provided for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation to buy or sell any products mentioned. 

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Transcript

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Today on the show we have Priscila, also known as Pri Cosentino, who is a senior E.A.S.E advisor and wealth mentor who takes a refreshing human approach to financial planning. With over a decade of experience across Brazil and the US, she helps clients simplify complex decisions, align their money with their values, and create strategies that lead to freedom and peace of mind. Combining her MBA in neuroscience and human behavior with the proven Ease methodology, Pri empowers people to not just build wealth, but to truly enjoy the life they've worked hard for. That's something that we all want. Welcome to the show, Pri. Well, it's a pleasure to be here, Tarryn. It's an absolute pleasure to have you now, everyone listening or watching before we dive in, we are talking finances. We may be talking about methodologies and investment strategies, that sort of a thing, but please consider that we are just having a conversation and that it's best to seek your own individual advice before going ahead with doing anything. Right, Pri, I'd love to start with your story because I know that it's a super interesting one. What led you into the world of financial planning and eventually into this E.A.S.E methodology? I think the best way to tell you that is starting with the truth what happened. Young age, young age and I lost $50,000. Maybe you might be thinking, oh, that's not too much. That's why I start with your young age, right?$50,000 when you were in your 20s. It's everything that I was able to get together and some. I don't know if you remember that time. Hmm. used to every single cent that you're just starting your career, trying to accumulate money you want to enjoy. And I lost everything because I thought that I knew it all. And I had the wrong people surround me. Look, 50 grand in your 20s is quite a punch to the stomach. What happened? What was the journey? So the journey was, I understood that I wanted to save because I had in my mind that I want to go ahead and retire early. And some of you guys are listening here, you might have this desire. And that's a great idea. As early as you start, as better will be. But I was young enough that I thought that I knew everything, that I didn't need the right people surrounding me, that I would be able to have the right choices. So I choose. the one person that I said, no, they're going to do something incredible for me. Do you know when it's almost like magic, they were promising something that's too much than the average of the market? And that was kind of happened. I put that amount of money in my investment, I choose the wrong person, I didn't vet them, I didn't check if they really were the right person to be helping me, didn't check if it wasn't correct advisor and all the money was put in. I didn't see a penny even years and years later trying to just grab back what I paid in not even talking about the benefits or anything. I just trying to get my premium back. The cash that I put in and it was like, no, there is nothing. There are so many charges, so many uh there's fees, costs that I couldn't save one single penny. of what I put it in. And for me, that put me in a position that I was, OK, no, that's not right. I need to understand more about finances. I need to understand more how all of this work. And that's when I start going for business administration and understanding about finances, understanding about the importance of having the right people by my side. Hmm. Yeah. That must have felt absolutely horrible in your 20s. How did you recover? I start looking for and restarting. So I had to do something hard that was stop blaming myself and start moving forward and making the new right decisions. So finding the right people to be by my side, understanding the right knowledge about it, understanding what really I wanted as a goal. Because a ton of times, and that was a little bit of it, I was looking so forward to have a goal of retiring early that I stopped to think if that was doable in the timeframe that I was looking for. Mmm. So I was trying to make those type of like, retire before you're 25. Is that possible? Not saying no, I'm just saying not for $50,000 if I want to live the life that I wanted. My goal was to have a life where I had money enough for a helicopter.$50,000 wouldn't do it. Yes, yeah. It's all shiny, you know, optimism when we're in our younger years and we don't really stop to think, oh, you know, is this doable? How am going to get there and put a plan in place? It's like, oh, and especially with marketing and it's a taboo topic, I guess, still such as finances, money, investing. It's really, really confusing if you don't know what you're doing. I, you know, I'm not, numbers are not my first forte. I own a publishing company. I'm a words girl. And so if people start talking to me about numbers, my eyes glaze over and I'm just like, I know I need to know this stuff. But I kind of just cut tune out. I don't know why. And, and many entrepreneurs, high achievers shy away from financial planning because it does feel overwhelming. There's so much information on the internet and there's a lot of tech bros and finance bros out there talking all this financial jargon. Why do you think that financial education is so missing even for successful people? What you just said, Tarryn, is that they try to do is fancying themselves up saying, I have all this knowledge of all this background. And that's one of the things that we get is that, we understand those jargons and are able to accommodate that, or we, because it's so complicated, and we think about numbers, we think about a complicated math and Excel and a spreadsheet and all those complications and formulas that you say, I don't want to deal with that. But if we can get that in a simple word, how to truly become someone that can educate you with words that we understand in the day to day, it's easy to do. Like you mentioned, you work with words. In the beginning, if I would think about words and like book or anything like that, I would just freak out about just the idea of having to put words side by side. Yep. It's simple like that. It's like, Pri, can you write a book? I'm like, no, that's something impossible. It's not. And I know that you've worked with that and it's proof that how many people that had so many challenges uh thinking about writing a book, they are capable to do it. The challenge that we make that financial industry super fancy and complicated and doesn't need to be. we need to understand the basics. We need to understand how it works and have the right specialist. So if I want to write a book, I need to talk to you. If I want to go to change my hair, I need to go to my hair stylist. They would know what I can and cannot do. And with finances is the same. I tell more about this, you mentioned about the book, I'm part of a movement that has a book involved and I tell a little bit about my story in that, that's Business in Heels. And when we were talking about, when I was writing that, for me it was hard because I was used to put numbers in. Mmm. But when I started understanding and explaining the exact same way that I would explain finances for someone, was like, OK, that's doable. I can manage that. I can take control. I don't need to try to figure all out. I didn't need to do all the work that you do. if you tell me about publishing, I know that you can layer like 20 good steps. That's the right way of doing it. I don't need to be that pro, but I need to understand enough so I can know that you are the right person to be by my side when I'm writing my solo book. The same with finances. We don't need to understand everything. We need to have a good understanding so we can find the right people and finding the people that can help us understand. Are they really looking to help me? and educate me or they are just trying to say buy this glass of water because this glass of water is better than this one what's the difference? None. Definitely. So how do we go about being more discerning about who we are working with? Whether we're hiring a bookkeeper, a financial advisor, an investment planner, a property investor. Tell us how we can be more discerning. What should we be looking for? I think it starts to understand who they are, right? And principles and values. Are they having principles and values that match with you? A ton of times when we are looking for people, how would we make friends, right? What are the right principles and values that matches that I have to have? That other person, if I want them to help me in my life, they need to respect those. and they need to be at least neutral and understand those principles and values. Are they looking for, especially for those categories that you mentioned, an accountant, a financial advisor, a bookkeeper, are they looking for their own benefits or are they looking for your goals, uh what you're looking for for your benefits? Because that's a big difference. When we are looking about that. they really looking to your, if it's an accountant, are they looking for your business and saying, hey, those are the important pieces. Where do you want to get your business at? What we need to work with your taxes? If you're talking about investments, even real estate, if you're thinking about buying a house, is that agent looking to find your right house or the best house that they can be offering you. I don't know if I was clear. Yeah, so it's really about finding the person whose value aligns to yours and understanding are they actually here to serve me or are they here to sell me because there's a difference. Huge difference, exactly. Yeah, what else should we be looking for? Because that's just, I feel like, one small aspect. Testimonials, portfolio. And understanding, think one important thing, there is no magic. Right? don't, uh there is an average in the industry. Yes, there are some people that can come above average, but that those are the outliners. In general, don't do like I did. Don't try to think that with a tiny amount of money, you can do it in a short period of time, a hundred times more. What's the average? Those numbers are there for us to give a guidance. If they are offering you that they are going to do 15, 20 times the amount that you're investing, that should be a red flag. Pri, are you saying that those doesn't exist? No. But they normally are a red flag that you need to be looking a little bit deeper to see if they have the knowledge enough to offer something like that. Mm-hmm. because it's trying to make something it's Compared to to our day-to-day is basically you're mentioning to them. Oh you can write a book in two hours I'm pretty sure in general most people would not be able to write 300 pages 250 pages in two hours No. themselves. No, there's like, I'm pretty sure you have all the numbers. I don't even need to go that direction. It's like, you need to have, there's a time frame that you need to do it. Can a person write a book alone with 400, 500 pages? Yes, but then the time frame needs to be different. Yeah, exactly. That makes sense. Okay, so we already mentioned that money is still quite a taboo topic for most people. People tend to be a bit uncomfortable around money. And I think this comes a lot from our societal conditioning and the fact that people, a lot of people have been burned. Like I've lost so much money in crypto when it first came out because I just didn't know and I trusted the wrong person. And I was just like, oh, and it looked It felt too good to be true and it was. That's usually the way it is. uh You have an MBA in neuroscience and human behavior, which I find absolutely fascinating. I have a degree in criminology. um So a lot of human behavior and psychology in that as well. How does understanding the psychology behind money change the way that we make financial decisions? Great question. And Tarryn, when we are talking about that, I think what is going to, you can see that in the same way is that when we are talking about money, even though we might calculate rationally to have the numbers, the decisions are emotionally. So we will just justify them so the numbers can fit in the math. Hehehehe But our emotions are the ones that are taking control. If I decided to buy this cup, will I buy it or not, is not only about based on the price. It's more about which emotions me buying this cup would make sense. Talking about the cup, but I'm talking about the car, I'm talking about the house, how much money I spend per month, how much money I save. It's so crazy that, for example, If a person that doesn't feel that they deserve have a smaller tendency to save money for the future. Mmm. because of how all their behaviors connect can put them in a scenario. How can we do that? There are ways and tools that can help us in financial products that can help us mitigate that until the person is working towards their own belief system. That's why for me, Neuroscience connects 100 % with finances. Mm. So if someone does have, I don't know, let's get into a little bit of psychology here. A belief of lack or an underlying scarcity mindset. Maybe they've been conditioned or have a trauma response to not deserving so they don't save money and they just spend it as soon as they come in. How can A, someone work to identify those because a lot of the time it's subconscious and B, work to address those so it stops happening and they're not caught in the loop. those are really interesting ways. So a few ways that we can see that, how to assess that is seeing how they deal with day to day. When they have those type of behaviors of not feeling themselves or not trusting themselves in seeing the whole power of who they are, they have a tendency of not having any savings accounts. They have a tendency to, even if there is money in their account, even they make for example, $10,000, they would make a way to spend it. Not necessarily with them. They can donate, they can help family members. Doesn't mean that they even see the possibility with them. Sometimes some of them will spend with themselves. So if you are lacking savings because savings are important, as enjoying life right now is important, there needs to be a balance, right? And there's a specific balance that really helps with all of that. When we can see those and see that the person cannot put together, if you say, how much? Save $100 and see how you react to that. Are you going to be at the end of the month with still that $100 or something came up or someone came up and took that away? And that's okay. There's some strategies that you can make it. In general, a person that's like that have the tendency to pay their bills in time. That's not connected to paying bills. So you can make sales a payment of a bill. So it would trick themselves that they are paying a bill. It's not really tricking, because they are aware of that. But until they can get rid of that behavior, they can start putting money aside in a bill format in a way that they cannot see that they are saving that money with easy access. That can be a different type of financial products all the way to have a separate bank account in another bank that's not easy to connect to your day-to-day cell phone. So you keep a login that's far away and you make automatic withdrawals setting up for like$20. That can be helpful for the person because they are not seeing that coming out that they are physically saving and just automatically doing and they are seeing as a bill they are checking that, and paying that bill every single month. And that's a really good tool that can help in those sense. And a little bit more, if you want a little bit more and better investments, there is other financial tools that exist and there's a variety of them. For each case, there is a better one depending on the year goals. Yeah and most people fall into traps around wealth involving their mindset. Mindset and money are so closely linked. What are some of the biggest traps that you see people falling into around wealth? think the biggest one is what you mentioned is everything that they heard when they were kids. I'm pretty sure that you heard about money doesn't grow on trees. It's the biggest one of them. A tree can give you fruit. You have the wood from them. You can have a better environment. So I can see at least really quick here in our conversation, three great benefits that can become money. So we bring all of those or who has too much money cannot be a good person because if you have too much money you are not a good person, you don't have the heart of donation. So those uh realities can be super hard in a person. And when that happens, what we can do is start working with their mentality and mindset. All of us came here to have wealth. We have the possibilities for that. But because of our lives and everything that happens since uh teenagers, that can restrict us. So what we can do is start understanding and seeing the scenario and seeing if you need it. seek for help or understand what you want and where do you want to go in relation to your finances. All the possibilities are achievable. You can achieve everything that you wanted, you just need to really put the direction to that and you will start making good decisions. What lacks for us a lot when we are talking about wealth in our financial goals is that we don't really know where we want to be. We just know that we want to have some money saved. But how much? When? How many years? We want to have some money for retirement because we heard the whole life that's important. But how much is that? What's the lifestyle that you're looking for? And I see with a ton of my clients, when I ask those questions, they go to me and say, I don't know, Pri. I don't really have the idea. Maybe I want the same amount that I'm spending right now? It's like okay maybe that amount and then have you thought about do you want to travel? Do you want to buy a new car? Do you want to visit your family? Do you want to give gifts? And they're like oh all of this I have to count right? It's like yes, when we are working we might not have enough time to travel as much we want it or maybe we do. Maybe you say no I want to just relax and lay back and enjoy the time. So those are types of conversations that can help us direct us to wealth. So we need to get super specific and set goals. Yes, that's the best way for us to really accomplish wealth is to have goals and have numbers. Be specific as much as you can. When they talk about smart goals, and I know that that's a concept, we have heard about it, it's not a joke because we only can accomplish something when we do it. absolutely. So let's talk about another acronym other than SMART. It's the E.A.S.E methodology that um I know that helps break down, you know, and simplify your financial choices. Can you break it down for us? What does it stand for? How do we use it? Okay, so E is to start with E of education. So we need to start with our foundations. So that's the first thing that when we are talking is explaining about finances, removing the jargons and understand simply what that means and how that applies to your life. If you want to build your financial house, how can I do that? So it's to educate you through this process. You understand everything that's going on with your finances. So you can build brick by brick like you build your house. Then we go for A of analyze. When we are, need to analyze your life, understand what's important to you. So we go back to the question, what matters to you? What goals do you want to accomplish? What's important for you is family or friends is time with your loved ones is doing a specific trip to Europe is Buying a car those things needs to be accounted for so then we can go to the S that's created the right strategy So we can go to the last E that's the best part for me. That's to enjoy Enjoy life right now and be able to enjoy your life all the way to the end. Yep, I love that last step. it's the steps are educate, analyze, strategy and enjoy. And why is enjoyment such a critical part of financial planning and how do you guide clients to get there? I think it's the most important part because finances doesn't need to be you counting pennies when you are retiring. You don't need to be choosing between, I can only go out if I go out in a happy hour menu and things like that. So for me, enjoying is being able to enjoy the moment and enjoy your future in the exact same level. I don't know about you, but. I like a lot when I can enjoy my life, when I can have a great time with friends, like we are having here. I like to have those moments. And finances needs to lead for the same thing. And how we can help clients to find that is when we go through the whole process. And the clients normally come and say, thanks, because I can feel that. I can see that you're helping me go to that direction. I feel the security that I know what each part of my money is doing for me and what I can do and what I cannot. I can go to a trip. I know that. I can see that's possible. I can go and do the Michelin star restaurant if I want to. Yep, there's nothing I like more than a good fancy restaurant with delicious food. It's so nice to enjoy. Yeah, you've got to enjoy you've got to have fun. Otherwise, what's the point but you also have to be smart about where you're at. So for someone listening or watching us right now who feels behind in their finances, embarrassed about their finances, what's one first step that they can take to kind of shift that mindset, shift their trajectory and get on track towards their goal. I know that most people are going to hate me for this tip, but write it down. I know that is annoying. You need to know how many subscriptions you're paying. You need to know how your money is going out and how many times you have money coming in. You cannot make changes if you're not aware of your current scenario. So the first step is creating the list. Spend the time. Book a meeting with yourself and set the time to write it down your expenses. have the family together, bring up the kids too. It's important for even them because that's going to be one of the biggest gifts that you can give to them and start educating them as young as possible. So they don't need to be passing through the same mistakes that we did. First step, write it down. And second step is creating a relationship with money. I'm going to explain what that means, right? Nowadays, it's super easy for us to pay with our phone and credit cards, and we lost the understanding about how much money really is worth. So have money currency in your wallet. Use that money understand that you have money in your wallet that if you need sometimes going ahead and if the place accepts go ahead and pay with currency So you understand if you're giving a hundred how much that came back? So we start understanding again that value because it's super easy nowadays anything you just tap Yeah. And that's great. I love the technology. Don't get me wrong. um I love the fact that I can tap with anything and in 30 seconds is paid. But because of the tapping, we lose the understanding how much that really was worth, how much that amount of money reduced my bank account. So using the exercise of carrying back currency in your wallet and paying again, especially if you have kids because they even didn't use that. I at least remember giving some money and getting some candies back so I knew how many was in return. But they didn't even know that. So it's really important for us to go back to that understanding.$100, give me how much back?$100 euros, give how much back? Those points are going to be super important for your life and it's going to be changing. it's going to be great two steps for you to start changing completely your financial life. So I'd love to hear a real life story about somebody that you've worked with who's applied the EASE methodology and experienced a real transformation, not just financially, but how they live their life because the two are really intertwined. Yes, of course. I won't be able to have full names here, but I will share as much as possible. uh But there is a couple that I'm going to call Mr. Mrs. K. Actually was just a couple of days ago with them. And when we start the EASE planning with them, they had an idea. They understood a little bit, had some help in a few Thanks, not in everything, and was looking like a Frankenstein. So I got some help here. Someone else sold something there. But no one came together and put all the plans to see if they were able to truly be enjoying life day to day. We simplified that. We start with educations and went back to what they have and start understanding their products. Even in one of those phone calls, ah we just had a great conversation was, thank you. I don't feel free that I had someone explain to me exactly everything that that means. I don't even think the person that sold me this product even knew it. All those points. So they were able to understand what they had. Then we start creating where they wanted to go. They wanted to retire in a couple of years. And the goal was uh five years. We start saying, OK, if you want five years, how is that going to look like? So we were able to set up the goals, set up the income that you're planning. We were able to see how much they wanted for trips. They have a few trips scheduled. They wanted to be with kids. They have the idea that they want to leave money behind. So we map it out everything. And then we start putting in practice all of that. Now, Time has passed and they are accomplishing that. That was like, were just a few days ago together and just mentioned that they have been playing, they are retired, they are playing pickleball. Mr. K has been playing pickleball almost every day. Mrs. K says like, I cannot play as much. I can do a couple hours a week, but that's it. But that's the best part because they are truly being able to enjoy. what we start designing and they understand all the pieces that they have. Beautiful. There's a lot of freedom in that. And a lot of entrepreneurs listen to this podcast. What, if you could reframe one belief about money specifically for every entrepreneur listening right now, what would it be? There is no limits for you in accomplishing and conquering the amount of revenue that you're looking for. You can have everything that you want. Set that as your goal. Make it a goal that you see every single day. Have the goal for the year, break it down for the goal of the quarter, but break it down for the goal of the month and to the day. Hmm. You can as an entrepreneur be able to accomplish that. And as an entrepreneur, you can have money for yourself as well. You deserve it. think one tip that I want to leave for them is don't forget to pay yourself. lot of times as entrepreneurs we kind of start thinking so much about the business and if we have employees and if we have our team we want to be sure that everyone is taken care of but you deserve to because you have been working every single day. It be a smaller salary, that's not how much work but don't forget to give you that because you need to see the recognition of your work every single day. And what does wealth mean to you personally, Pri? That's a great question. Wealth for me means much more than money. It means me being able to enjoy time with my family and my girls. I have four dogs. And travel to visit my family and being able to go and try great restaurants. I agree with you. There's nothing better, Tarryn, than a great meal. So I am someone that enjoys that. And that for me is wealth. For me to be able to accomplish these things, I do need the tool that's money. Wealth is part of being able to have all of that and create a legacy. then money is a tool that can help me get there. Beautiful. Now, Pri, I know that you have written in a co-authored book called Business in Heels. I know that you have a solo book in your ideas realm and we have a tradition on the podcast called The Book Drop. We also want to know what book has impacted you either personally or professionally. The book that has impacted me the most and for both actually is the book Humility from Andrew Murray. Mmm, I haven't read that one. Tell us more. It's an old book. It's not super, not new, but this book talks a lot about the understanding what true humility means. And it's not nothing about being without being humble means not having money or not enjoying your life means about your actions. And that book is a book that I keep it with me. I read at least once a year because it's something that I truly want to keep myself in the right direction, putting my heart in the right direction between being humble and being prideful and doing what's right. Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing and for kind of breaking down finances in a way that's so human and so beautiful and actually inspiring. Thank you so much. was my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to understand a little bit more about what you guys have to say and all those tips and how that has already changed your life as well. Absolutely. Join the conversation in the comments, whether you're on socials or YouTube, wherever you're getting this, feel free to jump into the conversation. Let's open it up and break it down because money is something that is still not talked about enough, but affects us all. And for those of you who want to go and find Pri and maybe talk to her more about the EASE methodology, you can find all of her information in the show notes. Thank you so much, Pri. Thank you. oh