FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #87 How To Build A Simple Plan For Debt, Savings, And Wealth
Money should feel calm, not confusing. We sat down with family financial coach Juliana Alcantara of Financial Health Solutions to talk about practical ways parents, couples, and newlyweds can create a plan that fits real life—without giving up joy or relying on rigid rules. From her early days as a bank teller to years in public accounting, Juliana brings a grounded view of cash flow, debt, and the human habits that make or break a budget.
We unpack the two most common starting points she sees: households tackling heavy debt and households with little debt but no plan. Juliana walks through how to choose a debt payoff strategy you can actually keep, set guardrails to avoid new balances, and still make smart moves on taxes, insurance, and retirement. If you’ve ever been blindsided by birthdays, holidays, or quarterly renewals, you’ll learn how sinking funds and monthly planning stop those “surprise” expenses from wrecking your momentum.
What sets Juliana apart is her rejection of one-size-fits-all advice. Instead of strict mandates, she offers options and trade-offs so families can pick a sustainable path. We talk openly about common misconceptions—like needing to cut every comfort to get ahead—and why a budget that includes joy is easier to follow. She also shares candid advice for anyone eyeing a leap from corporate life to entrepreneurship: build community, find mentors, and borrow proven systems to move faster with less stress.
If you’re ready to replace money guilt with clarity and progress, this conversation will help you map a simple plan, automate the basics, and align spending with what matters most. Listen, take what fits, and start small today. If you found value, follow the show, share it with a neighbor, and leave a quick review to help more local families find money peace.
Juliana Alcantara
Financial Health Solutions
hello@fhscoach.com
Loudoun County, VA · Fairfax County, VA · Washington D.C., DC · Winchester, VA · Frederick County, VA
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We have Juliana Alcantara joining us, and she is with Financial Health Solutions. Juliana, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Hello, thank you for having me.
Speaker:Well, I'm excited to dive in and learn all about you and your business. So let's start there. Share with us a little bit about financial health solutions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I am a family financial coach and I help families, moms, parents pretty much just make a plan for their finances because a lot of us are just kind of on autopilot in life and really have sometimes no idea where our funds are coming from or where they're going. So I help families build that plan.
Speaker:I love this so much and it's so needed. And I imagine others like myself hadn't really heard of a family financial coach before. So I'd love to learn a little bit more about that, but also tell me about your journey and how you got into that and and kind of how that came to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so um out of college, my first job was as a bank teller. And that was kind of my first introduction into seeing people, you know, in their day-to-day budgeting with what like their liquid cash was. Um from there I went into um accounting uh in college. I did my masters, and then from there I went into public accounting. So I was there for about five years. And I just once I had my son, I was like, I really don't think I want to be in public accounting anymore. I think I would love to build something and work for myself. And over the years, I've kind of always been the go-to person for like friends and family of just like budgeting stuff. So even from like budgeting weddings, budgeting um a vacation, honeymoons, um, your day-to-day budget. So I kind of like a lot of friends and family would come and ask me those questions. And then we probably have all heard of Dave Ramsey. He was the first one that I came um in contact with of seeing, like, oh, so this can be like a business. People can get paid by helping others um create a plan for their finances. Um, so from there, it kind of led me to seeking out other financial people. And I feel like the past like five or six years, it's really blown up, blown up. And um, there's a lot of really awesome resources out there and a lot of people who are opening up this conversation.
Speaker:I love, I love this. And tell walk me through kind of um who you help, like who is um who's your ideal uh client? Who are you, who do you typically work with, and how do you help them kind of walk me through the process?
Speaker 1:So it's kind of like two categories. So my first would be someone, again, you know, family, moms, newlyweds, um, couples with young kids, um, they might come to me and they have a large amount of debt. So they're gonna come from more of the debt management route. This can feel a little bit more overwhelming. So, although I do go into the other um parts of your finances, like um making sure you have a tax account in, if you want to invest, uh bringing you to the right people. But um for these families, we're gonna kind of like create their game plan of how we're gonna pay down that debt first, what different strategies we can implement to not continue building more debt. And then after that, then we would get more into the long-term building wealth planning. Then the other side is people who may either have little to no debt, but they just don't have a plan. They're just spending, maybe they're putting into savings, um, but they really they haven't thought about, you know, should I get life insurance? Should I um check if I have the best health insurance? Um, do am I maxing out my 401k? Like the building wealth side of it. So those are kind of the two spectrums of um clients that I help.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that. That makes a lot of sense. And there's a lot of confusing and conflicting information out there. So it's really nice to have someone like you that can kind of hold your hand and walk you through the process and share with you all the different ways. Because I mean, there's things that you should be doing that you don't know that you should be doing, and it's uh it's such a needed service. So I love it so much.
Speaker 1:Too is that um everything is not one size fit all. So, you know, where I started off, like I said, with those, you know, I think it's like the 10 baby steps or however many baby steps Dave Ramsey has. Um great resource, an amazing place to start, but it's kind of makes it seem like, okay, I need to do exactly that. And it can be make the situation even more overwhelming for someone. Whereas, you know, we can all build wealth in so many different ways. We can pay down debt in so many ways, we can leverage debt in different ways. So um, it's really about creating a customized game plan to each client's needs, wants, and going from there. And I never will tell a client, like, this is what you need to do. I will always like, okay, here are our options and what would like which option makes you feel best if we were to go down this road or that road.
Speaker:I love that. Are there any common mistakes that you see people making?
Speaker 1:Common mistakes. Um I think for all the clients that I have first starting on, the common uh mistake would to not be planning ahead. And this is just when I say plan ahead, sometimes we think of like really far down. And when uh what I mean is just month to month, like planning, what are these expected um once-a-year um expenses that will come up every now and then, maybe quarterly, um, what's a birthday? You know, we have the holidays coming up. How many parties do I usually go to and kind of like making a list and putting a game plan together of just like month to month, realistically, of what our expenses are gonna be?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, that's really good advice. I'm glad that you work with people that way. It makes it um much less intimidating too that you are giving them options and it's not just, you know, one way of doing things. I love that. Do you find that there are any misconceptions about what you do?
Speaker 1:I think that would, you know, exactly what you're speaking to of um giving them options. That's probably the biggest misconception is that people think that, okay, if I go and work with a financial coach, they're gonna tell me that like I have to have this really strict budget and I have to stick to it, and I'm not gonna be able to get my Starbucks, or I'm not gonna be able to mess up, but they're gonna make me feel really guilty about it. We're it's like we're all human. At the end of the day, what I want for my clients is for them to just have peace and clarity as to where their finances are and to not feel stressed about it and not to not feel guilty, because at the end of the day, you know, money comes, it goes, and we just want to use it to our best ability.
Speaker:Yeah. I love that. So if someone was is in uh was in your shoes and in a corporate job, and maybe has started a family and has been thinking, maybe I want to do something on my own and start my own business, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 1:I would say to go find a community of people that you can find for um advice, for mentorship, and be a sponge, listen to podcasts. That has been something that's been really helpful for me because sometimes um just like the simple parts of starting the business could be like the hardest. So it's really nice to find other people, get in the right room, and find um other people who are also doing the same thing, building a business and get, you know, get advice from them.
Speaker:Yeah, learning from others who are who are doing what you want to do. It's really important. I love that. So tell me this. Um, you're clearly you're working really hard because you know, this is something that you're starting up and you're really uh ramping things up. What are you doing for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 1:For fun, I live in like wine country, Virginia. So fun to my family is going to a vineyard. They're so like family friendly, so they're like just huge fields and just relaxing and taking in the views. And I'm also trying to start reading again. So nothing fun. They're like a bunch of financial books, but I'm starting to read again.
Speaker:So well, the wineries sound lovely. Yes, yes. Sounds like a wonderful way to spend a fall afternoon, and the leaves are perfect right now. So it's beautiful out there. So, what is something that you wish the listeners knew about financial health solutions?
Speaker 1:Um I hope that everyone knows that no matter where they are in their financial journey, that there is someone right here that would love to hop on the call and just talk about the things that are keeping you up at night and helping you to create a plan so that you're feeling better about it all.
Speaker:Love that. You'll meet them where they're at. Yeah. If the listeners want to connect with you or learn from you, where can they find you?
Speaker 1:So you can uh go on my website. It's fhscoach.com or find me on Instagram at your financial health coach. And I uh I'm pretty active on there.
Speaker:So amazing. Juliana, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing your business with us.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me. It was a great time. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG Neighbors Podcast.com.