How Do You Afford This?

#09: From Poverty to a $510K Net Worth: How This First-Gen Eldest Daughter Made It Happen

Ashley Feinstein Gerstley Season 1 Episode 9

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Viviana Vazquez is the first-gen Latina creator behind OverGenPoverty. She grew up in New York City watching her dad support a family of five on less than $30,000 a year, became the family breadwinner on a teacher's salary, and today she and her husband Xavi have a combined net worth of $510,000. She's a former teacher turned full-time business owner and co-host of the Tech Quiero Más podcast. In this episode, she sits down with me to break down how she actually affords the lifestyle.

Viviana and I walk through her income climb, from a $57,000 teaching salary to earning $185,000 in tech, and the $130,000 in revenue her business has already brought in this year. She breaks down her actual payday routine with Xavi down to the dollar, shares exactly what makes up her $510K net worth, and takes us inside their World Cup trip to Mexico they spent three years saving for.

Viviana reveals what it really costs to be the first, from helping her parents pay off $80,000 in debt to taping her dad's credit cards, how she and Xavi turned a college friendship into a wealth-building partnership with two weddings and a People magazine feature along the way, and what she's working toward affording next.

Download Ashley's free "Get Paid What You're Worth" negotiation guide (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/get-paid).

Follow Viviana on Instagram at @overgenpoverty (https://www.instagram.com/overgenpoverty). 

Listen to Tech Quiero Más wherever you get your podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/techquiero-m%C3%A1s/id1877341355).

Check out Ashley's Money Club (https://www.thefiscalfemme.com/money-club) to join a community of women unabashedly going after their money goals.

Take this quiz to get a personalized Wealth Building Blueprint (https://bit.ly/4v94g2C)

SPEAKER_00

It feels really lonely when you get to the point where you're like, oh my god, I'm debt-free and you want to celebrate, but you don't really have anyone to celebrate with because nobody really understands it.

SPEAKER_01

My guest today is a first gen Latina, eldest daughter and the creator behind Overgen Poverty. She grew up watching her dad support a family of five on less than $30,000 a year. And today, she and her husband Hoffi have a combined net worth of $510,000. We checked it live. And as always, we get into the actual numbers. Viviana breaks down the income climb from a $57,000 teaching salary to working two full-time jobs at once to $185,000 in tech to crossing $130,000 in revenue in her first five months as a full-time business owner.

SPEAKER_00

This year I surpassed $130,000 in revenue.

SPEAKER_01

She shares how she became debt-free before $25,000 while supporting her family.

SPEAKER_00

I was home, but I was still helping my family because I was the breadwinner. So I was paying for the rent, I was paying for all the expenses. So I was buying my gross rates for a family of five.

SPEAKER_01

Plus, what it really looked like to be the first, helping her parents pay off $80,000 of debt and the credit card intervention that involved actual tapes.

SPEAKER_00

I literally had to put tape over his cards. I put a post-it note on his credit cards, and I was like, no stop. Like, do not use.

SPEAKER_01

She walks us through the World Cup trip she's been saving for since 2022, how much she spent on 13 tickets, flights for her family, and whether it was all worth it. And then finally she shares why she does what she does, what's most important to her.

SPEAKER_00

At the end of the day, I think like what truly brings me happiness is being able to gift experiences to my family and like have new experiences with happy.

SPEAKER_01

I'm Ashley, certified financial planner, founder of the Fiscal Fund, and I'm asking the question everyone is already wondering. How do people actually afford their lives? This is how do you afford this?

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the show, Viviana. Thank you so much, Ashley. I'm so happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01

So happy to have you. I'm so excited to get into it. You went from poverty to having a net worth of 510,000. We just checked it. You live in New York City, you run your own business full-time, you just attended the World Cup in Mexico. How do you afford this?

SPEAKER_00

Oh my goodness. Well, it's been a long journey. I'm not gonna lie. Like my husband and I have been together for 10 years. And so we met in college. The 510 number is our net worth combined. So just as a disclaimer, like if anyone thinks it's just me, no, it's been a team effort. We got on the same page financially when I started my debt-free journey in like 2020 and started kind of educating myself, got him into it, and then we both just became really, really disciplined with not just managing our finances and like tracking every dollar, but also increasing our income. And so that's helped a ton.

SPEAKER_01

I am so excited to have you on the show because you really live what how do you afford this is all about like transparency and experiencing real joy while building wealth. We were just at a conference together a couple of months ago in Puerto Rico, and Viviana was going around asking everyone their net worth, which, you know, it's like so, I loved it so much. What kicked off your money journey? And can you share some of the highlights and challenges along the way?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was actually so funny because in 2020, you know how everybody started talking about investing. So on social media, I would just see people trading and telling people what to invest in. And so I kind of fell into that trap. And it started off by just me seeing all these social media posts and being super interested in making more money because I was a teacher at the time. I'm an eldest daughter, and so I wanted to support my family. I wanted to do more for them. I thought that me having a teacher salary at the time that was like 57,000, and I was paying my way through grad school, I thought that was a lot of money because my dad growing up, he was making less than $30,000 a year and he was supporting a family of five. So it's like, oh, I'm making almost double. I can definitely take care of the family. I can, you know, build wealth, I can I c we're basically rich, is what I thought. And then when I actually got paid and started paying off my bills, and you know, I had credit card debt from college. I was like, How did my dad do this? Like, how did he raise all of us off of just his income? And so it kind of was like um a moment for me where I woke up and I was like, No, I need to I need to change something. I started just Googling like how much do people make in New York City? You know, what's the average salary? Like, what does an a new grad make? And so a lot of my friends went into banking and they were making, you know, 70 to 100,000 right out of college. And I just thought, well, if they could do it, if they could make that kind of money, why can't I? And so that's how I kind of pivoted out of teaching and explored other career options and I landed in like the fintech space, specifically doing like writing, copywriting, and then marketing work. But I think that it was just, you know, social media that opened these doors for me and a whole new world. And I'm so grateful because I actually I've been following you for a while. I've been following like Janice for such a long time. She was like one of the first people that I followed on social media. And it was so nice. I know it was so amazing to see women talk about those things because I feel like a lot of the traditional finance content out there, it just I couldn't relate to it.

SPEAKER_01

And it's so full circle because that's what so much of what you do is sharing. You like you got started on this journey, caught the the bug, if you will, from social media. And then now that is how you share so much value and content. Curious, you mentioned growing up and how your dad figured out how to afford it. Did you grow up in the city?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, we grew up in the city, but we were in a rent control department for the longest time, and those are basically extinct. But basically, rent control versus rent stabilized apartments, rent stabilized apart apartments, they go up, you know, like a little bit of a percentage every year in rent. It's basically controlled by the city. And then rent control departments are like the super, super, super cheap apartments that it's like you have had to live there 20 plus years to be able to, I guess, like fall under that law. And so we're paying a thousand dollars in rent for like old building three-bedroom. It wasn't a really nice apartment, you know. There was like issues with the water, with the electric, with you know, it was very dirty. There was like rats and roaches and all that stuff, but it was a three-bedroom in the city for a thousand dollars, which was like very, very, very rare. Right.

SPEAKER_01

I want to break down, so you mentioned the 500k, and I love that you shared it's like UN hobby, it's a team and that's so inspiring. And it sounds like it started in 2020 when you were essentially your net worth was below zero. It was your debt-free journey. Yeah. Are you open to sharing how like old, like how far out of school you were, how old you were, how old you are now, like, and what makes up those numbers outside of the breakdown between you two?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I remember this clearly because my goal was to become debt-free by 25. And so I was aggressively, I worked two jobs during COVID. I was working my teacher job and I was working another full-time job because at that point. I was an EL teacher. So English is a new language. So I taught immigrants, which was very much aligned to, you know, my values, my passion. I taught recent arrivals and I got to teach a personal finance course. And that's also another reason why I kind of got into teaching on social media. But I was working that job and I was working a paralegal job at a nonprofit. And so between my teaching job, which was like $57,000 and the nonprofit job, which was $50,000, I was making over $100,000, but I was using all the money from my nonprofit job salary to pay off all my debt aggressively. And also my parents were in debt. My parents had combined maybe close to $80,000 of debt. And I had, I was starting off with like maybe $30,000 between student loans, between credit card. So we were, yeah, we were struggling back then, but I paid off my debt first and then I helped them figure out like a debt payoff plan. And then they became debt free a couple couple years later. I became debt free in 2020, right before moving out. But it it was very quick because, like I said, I was using, you know, my whole paycheck and putting that towards my debt payoff.

SPEAKER_01

And so that was so you hit the 25-year-old goal.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. I became debt free before 25, and that was like a big, big deal for me.

SPEAKER_01

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00

And you said moved out, so you were home. Yeah, so I was I was home, but I was still like helping my family because I was the breadwinner. So I was paying for the rent, I was paying for all the expenses. So one of my checks was used for household stuff. And at the time, my brother was still living there, my parents were living there, me, my sister for a little bit. So I was buying like groceries for a family of five. You know, it was I was basically taking on my dad's role at that point. The other paycheck I was using to just pay off debt and save. And one of the things that Javi and I did was before moving out, he was very supportive of my debt-free journey. He even offered, like, he had money saved. He was like, I can lend you the money, like you don't have to pay me. You can pay me back slowly. And I was like, No, I want to do this on my own. And I did do it on my own. And then he said, Well, if we want to move out together, because at that point we were together for I think four years. At that point, we were already together for four years since college, but we were both living at home. He was able to save because he didn't have as much responsibility financially as I did. And I told him, Hey, I really want to move out. And he said, I think we should save a year's worth of rent before moving out so that we could feel extra great about where we're starting financially. So he saved half and I saved half. And we set a budget of like $1,500, which was like low back then per month for rent. So we saved around like $12,000, something like $12,000 to $14,000. So like $7K each, right? Let's just say $7K each. And that was a lot of money for me. I was like, you know, I was at a negative and then going from negative to $7K before moving out in my and what year is this? This was still 2020. This was still 2020. Yeah. So wow. It it happened very quickly because of the, like I said, working with two jobs. And so, yeah, and then we moved out together and we found a really amazing deal. We found rent stabilized apartment in Astoria for $16.69. And so that wasn't your number. Yeah, so that was a COVID deal, and it was amazing. We spent that first year just basically chilling financially because we had savings, we both had stable jobs, and so it didn't feel as stressful like moving out together for the first time because money wasn't really an issue.

SPEAKER_01

And I wanted to get into this later, but just because we're talking about it, what does your support for your family look like now?

SPEAKER_00

Now it's so much, I feel so much more, I guess, like less stressed because I've worked really hard to set my parents up or teach them how to set themselves up for an emergency. So they have a fully funded emergency fund. They don't have any debt, they're debt-free. And so all the money that my dad makes is kind of set up automatically so that 20% is automatically being saved in his high-yield savings account. He finally got a job where they have a 401k match. So I like helped him enroll in that right away. And also, like the money that they're saving, like at the end of the year, we kind of sit down together and we're like, okay, we're gonna put this into your Roth IRA. Like, what do you guys want to invest in? So they they're a lot, they're in a lot better place than they are now. So now it's kind of just for I help them when whenever I want to for fun. So if we're going out to eat, like I'll pay for the whole family. Or when you know, my mom is like, Oh, I don't have it's funny. I use it. This is not an ad, by the way, guys, but it's just I used to work at a company called Greenlight, and it's a debit card for kids and teens, but we would get it as a benefit as employees for free because it was a subscription. And so I signed my mom up as my child, and I would put money in that every single month for her. So it used to be that kind of system where I would put in like $400 to $600 a month for her to spend on like groceries. And, you know, if she had any money left over, like she could spend it on her her stuff. Now I put money in that card for her to spend on like fun stuff. So I'll put in like $200 to $400 a month in there, you know, as needed. Like if I see it, if I see her balance running low, I'm like, here, here's $200 so you can, you know, go buy yourself something. So now I I provide that kind of support and I it's like my favorite thing to do because you know, I want them to feel like they can also spend on fun stuff, experiences, going out, because that's something that I don't think we ever got to do without it being stressful.

SPEAKER_01

I've definitely noticed that in your philosophy, and we're gonna talk about the World Cup, but like you're building, but you're also living and enjoying life. Just to that 500k number, can you break down? You mentioned now there's no debt in that number, that there's you and Javi, there's probably emergency fund. Like, how is that broken out between investing, retirement? Like, how do you think about breakdown?

SPEAKER_00

So part of that is like my business. So I have a lot of cash sitting in the bank because of my business because it's my first year being a full-time business owner. So I'm, you know, kind of holding on to that money and seeing if I maybe reinvested in the business or like invest the money. I I'm still kind of figuring that out. So we have I have like my own business account, and in that I probably have around $60,000. So that's so a big portion of this is cash because $60K, and then Javi has his own like mini emergency fund for his family. That's another like $2K. I have my own like family emergency fund as well. That's like $3K, and then we have our joint account where we have cash in there. We have around $20,000 in there. The rest is all investments. It's like Javi's investments through his 401k, his Roth IRA, his brokerage, and then I also have the same accounts. I have my 401k for my old jobs, and then I have a new solo 401k that I opened recently because I'm a business owner and I can. And yeah, and then Roth IRA brokerage, and we have an a joint. Well, he has an HSA through his job. So we recently got on a high deductible health plan, and so we've been contributing to that as well.

SPEAKER_01

Amazing. And you mentioned that a big part of this was having two jobs and have being able to put that income towards it. What has your income looked like over time? Like things have changed over the years.

SPEAKER_00

It's been so crazy. And I've posted about this a lot where like I've shown exact numbers throughout, you know, when I started working. I started working when I was like 12 as like a church assistant. And then I I've just done a bunch of odd jobs. I've done like soccer coaching, I've done like martial arts instructor. Like I've, you know, I've done a bunch of different things. I used to do Uber, my husband and I, now husband, when we were teachers, like this was still during COVID, I guess 2020, 2021. We would, because everything was remote, we would pick up random side hustles. Like we would do focus groups, we would do Uber Eats, like delivery walkers. And yeah, and he would go do like studies and they would pay him. Like all of that money, I think, has helped. But yeah, I think over the years, thankfully, I've been able to increase my income exponentially. Like I started 2018 was my first year of like salary, and that was 57,000, right, as a teacher. And then I took a pay cut for that nonprofit paralegal job that was 50K. Then I went back up to 57K when I broke into tech. And then from there, it just, you know, I started job hopping and looking for new opportunities every time I could. And my last full-time job, I was making $180,000. And that was because I was making, I think, one or no, $185,000 because I was making $170 base and then a $15,000 bonus.

SPEAKER_01

So that was what were you doing for the tech firm?

SPEAKER_00

So my last job, I was a basically a creative marketing manager. So senior creating senior creative marketing manager. So I worked my way up from copywriter, which is like people that just, you know, and anytime you see like an email or you see a billboard or any sort of ad, the people that write the words for those ads, those are the copywriters. So that's how I started. And then I became a content manager. So I did more of like planning and educational content instead of like marketing copy. And then from there, you know, I just kept moving up and started doing more creative stuff, leading teams. And yeah, I my last role, I was working as like a combination of all of that at a startup.

SPEAKER_01

And then now fitting for what you do now. Yes, I know. Those are great skills.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I loved like doing that kind of work. If one day I, you know, find an opportunity where it's like super, super aligned, then honestly, I'd be open to like going back to full-time work. But it's hard because social media is so demanding and so you know, owning a business is like much more work than having a full-time W-2 job, is what I've learned. But the payoff is, you know, there's there's no limits to how much you can make. So this year, I haven't shared this yet. This year, I already surpassed $130,000 in revenue. Yeah, and that was like that was when I calculated it at the beginning of May. June June, end of June, I think I'm ending with more. And it's it's amazing because it's like, wow, I your first year too. Yeah, I already I kind of feel like part of me is like, wow, I can't believe I did that. I can kind of relax now because I was working so much every single day. And then the World Cup came around and I kind of got to relax a little bit and kind of take a break from you know being on every single day. But also with social media, like you've seen this, some people are making $130,000 in one month. So it's like inspiring because I know that there's so much more that I could do, but I'm just taking my own path and figuring out like what works for me, especially on the like balance side, right? Like having a good work-life balance is super important to me. So I feel happier and I feel, yeah, I just feel way better about the work that I'm doing when I'm not super, super stressed.

SPEAKER_01

And can you tell us like what types of revenue sources the 130 came from? And yeah, I like how do you decide what to pay yourself? Like I know you mentioned especially your first year wanting to keep this buffer and the savings and deciding what to reinvest. Like, what are you paying yourself now?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I just started paying myself in June. No, May. May I started paying myself $3,000 a month. That's amazing. And I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but I do as a business owner, like we get to write a lot of things off. So some of my business meals, like anytime Javi and I are working on a podcast together or we're he's helping me film or something, we're doing something outside. Like once in a while, I'm like, hey, let's go, let's go eat out, like let's go to dinner and I'll pay for it. Like, you know, the business will pay for it, which is allowed if it's like a business meal, right? If you're discussing ideas, filming, all that stuff. So it feels like I can still kind of pay myself in other ways, even though I'm not paying myself a six-figure salary yet.

SPEAKER_01

And I think too, when you think about what you pay yourself as a business owner, it's after tax, right? So, like if you're it's it's is kind of sometimes fun to like put that in a payroll calculator, add in the meals. You're probably, you know, you were building up your business on the side before. Now it's a write-off. So you're getting 30% off for all those things or whatever it is. So it's fun. Sometimes it's fun to work backwards and see like, what would this be? What would I have to earn in a salary job to get that, you know?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I also have business expenses. So, you know, it I have a VA now. I'm hiring a couple interns. I had a podcast producer that I was paying, you know, $900 a month for. So there's there's a lot of like pros and cons to being a business owner. And so that's why I'm kind of being a little bit more conservative on the financial side of things, because I know that it really, it could really fluctuate month over month. Like I've been very lucky the beginning of this year, but I'm not expecting to make that same amount. I hope to, but you know, I'm not like it's not a guarantee like it is with my W-2 job.

SPEAKER_01

And the 130, that's because that's the top line, right? That's yeah, yeah. That's revenue.

SPEAKER_00

And then, you know, minus expenses and all that, it's definitely way less. And taxes.

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna ask about your team. So you have a VA.

SPEAKER_00

Do you still have the podcast producer or we're taking a break from the podcast right now? So we're in between seasons, but we're gonna start that up again this summer. And so that expense is gonna come back. But the VA is $500 a month and it's part time, it's only a couple hours a week. And then the interns. That I'm hiring, we are hiring for $20 an hour, fully remote, and again, just a couple hours a week. So what are they gonna help with? They're gonna help with hosting events in different cities because we're doing more in-person stuff this year and also like virtual events as well. So we're gonna do a lot of like workshops and community stuff. I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You met we talked about this a little already, but you are first gen, hence the business name, and you can already see that you're passionate about it. But what do you think drives your passion to talk to first gen specifically and how is that conversation different?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I love this question because when I started my page, the reason why I started it was because I felt very lonely in my financial journey. I felt like there was no one that I could talk to about not just the numbers side of finance, but also the emotional side. You know, I'm the eldest daughter. I'm the first one in my family to speak English, to go to to graduate from high school, to graduate from college, to like step foot into an office. You know, my parents, my dad worked in a garage for all his career pretty much. And then recently he became a porter in the same building. So he's never had like like a nine to five, you know, he's always worked like overnights or like, you know, people people at work in his building, like they give him stuff because they're like, oh, here, you need this. Like here, here, like give this to your children, you know. So, you know, being now first gen, a first-gen college grad, and then also like first one to have a career, first and only one, because my brother still works at a coffee shop. My sister didn't graduate from college. She's actually a full-time dog walker and she's trying to start her own business too. My cousins, like, unfortunately, they didn't get to go to college, even though they studied here in the US. I have, yeah, no one in my family to really talk to about these things because I feel like they haven't gone to the point where they're even financially stable yet. So it feels really lonely when you get to the point where you're like, oh my God, I'm debt-free and you want to celebrate, but you don't really have anyone to celebrate with because nobody really understands it. And I always say this I say that it is going to take us more time because we have, as first gense, more family to worry about. Like we're not just worrying about our own finances, but while I was paying off my debt, I was still helping my family. After I paid off my debt, I was still sending my parents money every month. Even now for the World Cup. Like I had to pay for my sister, not had to, but I wanted to. And I could pay for my sister and my brother to fly out to Mexico City. I paid for their hotel, I paid for their flights. And yeah, I just, I'm very grateful that I can do that. But sometimes it just feels like, oh, I wish that I had like a friend that would understand what this feels like. And so that's kind of what I'm building or what I'm trying to build is a space, a community for those for Shen Latinas to come together and talk about those things and just connect and build friendships and help each other out. Because oftentimes it feels like we're the ones that are just helping, helping, helping. And sometimes it doesn't feel like we're being helped or we're we're being supported. So that's my mission. That's my goal. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

And outside of so we you talked about setting up the green light, right? And that and teaching parents, helping them make a plan, supporting them financially, like any other things that came up for you or challenges as first gen, like or like any expectations or norms or things that were hard as you earned more.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my goodness, yes. Well, first I think it's the lifestyle creep, right, that comes with you making more. You've never seen that much money in your life, especially as a first gen, right? I said that my dad was making less than $30,000 a year growing up. So when my husband and I got to the point where we were making over $300,000 combined, it felt like, wow, we are just on a completely different level financially. And part of it is like guilt, like we should be helping more, we should be doing more, you know, we should be paying for everything. But then at the same time, it's like stressful because I'm very transparent. So everybody in my family knows that I'm well off. And so I think there's like this expectation now. Whenever we go out to eat, it's like, oh yeah, Viv, Viv's gonna pay, or like, yeah, Viv got it, especially with my siblings, you know, they're younger, so they're like, oh yeah, my sister is like rich. So like she's money bags, so she, yeah, so she got it, you know. And so I don't ever want them to feel like they can't come to me for money or you know, support when they actually need it. But I also don't want to in Spanish we say acostumbrar, but I don't I'm blanking on the word in English, but we don't I don't want them to like expect for me to be accustomed. Yeah, be accustomed to it, yeah, every single time. You know, I want them to also, and it's so funny because I feel like maybe parents feel like this with their kids, like they don't want them to be spoiled, they want them to like learn to work hard, and that's kind of how I feel with some of my family members sometimes. It's like I really want them to to pave their own way. And so I think it's like this balance of how do I treat my family and give them the life that I worked really hard for us to have, but then also educate so they could do it on their own. Right. Like teach them to fish. Yeah, yeah. So that that's one thing, and then the other thing is like habits. Habits are so hard to break. And so a lot of people that, especially in the immigrant community, furtian community, they pay off their debt and then they go into debt again. And that happened to me before 2020. I had like in college, I had maybe had like $3,000 of credit card debt, paid it all off. I was really happy, and then I got myself into even more debt. Same thing happened to my dad, and I was so and I remember telling him, I'm like, you guys are debt free now, like no more, you know, misusing credit cards, like stick to the debit card. What I did is like I stopped using credit cards altogether for like a year or two, trained myself to basically not overspend, and then when I felt comfortable, I was like, okay, I can use my credit card now, but I'm gonna pay this off every single week or every single day because I I do not ever want to get into debt again. And so I think that's also been hard is like instilling better financial habits or like helping them get there. I literally had to put tape over his cards. I put a post-it note on his credit cards, and I was like, no, Usav, like do not use. So so now like all his credit cards are like taped up with that, those letters on it. And I told my mom, like, you have to make sure that he actually like keeps these cards at home and only takes his debit card because that's the only way he's gonna learn. And so it's funny because it's like I kind of have to treat them as kids sometimes, but that's part of the whole first gen experience, right? It's like a lot of us are parentified and like we we have to kind of act like parents sometimes. And now I laugh because it's like I'm in such a good position. But back then I was very, very resentful. I was very stressed all the time. And so it's because you're trying to make it as you're helping them get by and yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's it's been an up and down journey, but I think finally I'm at a place where I'm like, okay, I can breathe now, everybody's responsible, like we're good.

SPEAKER_01

A lot because of you. And when you when you did the training of yourself with the debit card, did that work? Like when you started to add in, and that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it worked, it worked, and I I remember because I did, I also have a lot of experience with like consolidation and all that stuff because I've done that myself. Like I've done snowball method, I've done avalanche method, I did like a debt consolidation program with a nonprofit, and I also looked into the other type of debt consolidation that it's like you you you stop paying the cards and then your like your credit score drops. But I didn't do that type of consolidation, I did like a different one, and so I was still renegotiate. Yeah, yeah. Also calling the cards and renegotiating the rate and all that stuff. So they a lot of the companies that lowered my rate, they were like, we can lower your rate, but we're gonna close the card. So I had to rebuild my credit. And so I when I was ready to rebuild my credit, I opened a secured credit card. And I would just, you know, put like $20 on it every month and just slowly rebuild my credit. And then at the end of the year, they were like, Okay, you you you're getting your deposit back. We're graduating you into a real credit card. And I was so scared to use it. But I think my husband helped me a lot with, you know, being like, Oh, because he's always been pretty good with he's never had any debt, like he's always been a saver, and so he helped me a lot with just put $20 on it and like, yeah, we're gonna put a reminder or like put it on auto pay, and like you're for sure gonna have the $20 in your account. So yeah, the habit building I think has helped a lot. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_01

All right, so Javi, you're married recently, and I saw that your wedding, your engagement and your wedding were covered by People Magazine.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was so weird, honestly. Um tell us about that. Yeah, so I met Javi in college in 2014, is when we met, and then we became friends on the soccer team. He was the goalie, I was a team manager, and we actually worked together. I did work study at the athletics department, and he also worked, you know, part-time in college there, and we would spend a lot of time together, so we would just talk about fan our families, and he's also the eldest in his family, and so he's from Ecuador, Mexican, and so we just shared a lot of similarities, had a good friendship, and then we started dating officially in 2016, and we've been together, you know, ever since we're gonna be it's gonna be 10 years this year, this October. But we got married last year, and we had a four-year engagement, so we got engaged in 2021, we got married in 2025, and at first we were thinking of just like eloping because you know, financially it just made more sense and we didn't want to spend a lot of money on the wedding. But then his brother got married in Cancun, I think in like 2023 or 2024, and we loved the experience of like allowing everyone to travel, experience a resort, and also it wouldn't be such a big financial cost because with destination weddings, the people have to, you know, pay for their flight and pay for their stay. And so the cost would kind of be off us and onto the guests. And so the reason why we had a four-year engagement was because one, we were kind of undecided on like, do we want to love, do we want to have a big wedding? We both have big families. And then when we did decide the the whole like, okay, we're gonna do a destination wedding, we were like, we have to give people enough time to save. So we gave everyone like a year and a half heads up, maybe even two years. We told everybody, start saving up because it is destination wedding, so you're gonna have to pay for the flight and the hotel, and also gave us a lot of time to save because we knew we were gonna have to cover costs for some of our family members that we really wanted to be there or provide some like financial aid. So we ended up covering the flights for my family, one room or two rooms for two families on my side, and then on his side, thankfully, like his family is pretty financially stable. You know, they they save off for vacations every year, so this was kind of their vacation, and it was an amazing time because we literally got to not just like enjoy four days with everybody, but we also like seeing people that had never traveled before experience that, you know, like we had family from Mexico that they literally do not live in the city, like they've never like traveled to a like a nice hotel ever, and they flew in from the outskirts of Mexico City into this resort, and they were like, wow, like they were crying. They were like, We've never I never thought that I'd live to experience something like this. Like this is beautiful. This is like what you see on TV. They had a great time, and it felt really good having the money to be able to afford to help get people there.

SPEAKER_01

It's so on brand to give guests time to save up for the wedding. I love that. How did you know who you needed to support? Were there conversations had, or you just knew in advance that certain family members or were people were you offering or yeah, curious how those conversations went?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So it was me and Javi talking about like, is his family gonna need any support? And we decided no because they like go to that hotel often. So they kind of yeah, and also his family who who all came to his brother's wedding, like we knew, like, okay, they're gonna say yes, and they're we're giving them heads up, so they'll definitely be there. And then for my side of the family, we were like, okay, we definitely need to save up for anybody from who lives in Mexico to be able to help them because it it's gonna be really expensive for them. So we we gave them a heads up, but we also told them, like, hey, if you guys really want to go, we can help with some of the costs. And so initially we were like, you know, we can pay for half the room, and you all you guys have to do is pay for the pay for the flight and the other half of the room. And for some people, like that was still too expensive, but for some people it was like, oh, okay, like yes. So we had one aunt, one uncle accept that offer, and then we had a family of four, a family of three who I'm really close with who lives here in the US. They had never traveled, they had never, yeah, they've never traveled outside of their their like area. So they live in Virginia and they've never traveled outside of New York, Virginia, because that's where our family's located. It was the first time for my cousins, my three cousins, to get on a plane. So we paid for their flight and we play paid for their room because I really wanted them to be there. And then my family, like my immediate family, like we paid for all of their flights and half of their room because again, we knew that it was gonna be hard for them to come up with the money, and we really wanted them to be there too.

SPEAKER_01

So it's amazing. Can you share how much you spent on the wedding? Like the four days and all of it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so specifically for we had two weddings. We had a wedding in New York, which wasn't supposed to be anything big. Like I told my parents, this is just so that we could get married at the church, because we're both religious, we're Catholic, and it got out of hand because my parents just love inviting everybody, and so we had to kind of like disinvite people where like only the people that can't travel for immigration purposes are allowed to come to that. So, you know, I have family in the US that like they can't travel, and so we specifically did that wedding for those people. So it was like maybe 14 total people in the New York wedding, and my parents offered to pay for the dinner, so they have a friend in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, and they gave them like an offer of like, oh, for uh for um unlimited drinks, unlimited food for like 15 people, it's gonna be like 3k, right? But the bill ended up being less, and so Javi and I were just like, we're just gonna pay for it. It's not like we can afford to pay for it. So my parents didn't end up paying for anything, it was just us. So for that wedding, it was around like seven thousand dollars, and then with everything, with like donation to the church, you know, photography, all that stuff. And then for the wedding in Cancun with everything, everything flights, stay, us at us paying for people, it was around $30,000, $35,000. So definitely over budget because we were trying to keep everything under $30,000. But I feel like without the dinner that kind of came up last minute, without the family support, it would have been closer to way closer to 30.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. That makes perfect sense. And you so wedding relationship, you have a podcast, Tequiro Mobs with with Javi. Yeah. What inspired it and how did you get him on board? Because he's not he's not a creator, right? He's he does has a different type of job.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, he's a technical account manager. No, actually, he used to be a technical account manager, he's a solutions engineer now. But I think just his story is like so amazing. You know, we both went from teaching, he did a boot camp, and we actually in 2021, I moved, I told him I'm moving to Atlanta. We were dating at the time, living together. And I told him, I really want to break into tech, and this is the only opportunity that I'm seeing, and I'm gonna take it. So I'm moving to Atlanta. And he said, I'm gonna move with you. And I was like, What are you gonna do? He was like, Well, I think I'm gonna do this boot camp so that I could also transition into tech, but become a software engineer. And his reasoning was because in his high school where he was teaching at, he was he's a math teacher or was a math teacher, they assigned him to teach a computer science like intra-level class. So he was teaching coding to kids without him even knowing it himself, but it kind of piqued his interest, and so he did the boot camp. He was unemployed, right, doing the boot camp while I was working in Atlanta, and it took him almost like six months, maybe more, to find a job. But when he found his job, I was so proud of him, so excited for him. He his first job was paying him 90, $90,000 a year. Wow, with a bonus. So it was like close to 100k. And I was like, like, wow, like he literally went from teaching to almost making a hundred K in tech. And then, you know, he's just he's so smart. So like he just kept getting recruited and interviews at amazing places, and now he's his salary, his his total compensation is 170k. So his salary is 150 something, and then he has a bonus, he has great benefits, you know, he's like really happy at his job. And a lot of people ask, like, how did you guys do it? How did you guys do basically the same thing? And I think it's one just being super aligned and on the same page with your partner, just talking about finances, talking about career growth, like having those conversations and actually actioning on them could take both of you guys super far. And I feel like we've kind of proved that. And so, you know, we were having dinner one night and I was like, this should be a podcast. Like us talking about our journeys and like what we did to get to where we are, should should we should like share this with people? And he was just, he was like, Yeah, I'm down. And so I was like, Okay, I'm gonna ask my friend who who has a podcast, how do we go about this? And so she helped us with like setting up everything equipment, like software, all that stuff, and then helped us produce it. So I was like, this is a win-win, you know. I get to help her, she gets to help us, and we get to share our story. And and it's been going super well. I think a lot of people really admire like how we both are first gen. We literally like our families never introduced us to anyone. Like, we don't have a network, you know. We kind of built everything that we've had that we've we have right now in our life from scratch.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. And it reminds me when you said, like, if you're aligned, you can go so far together that how important of a financial decision it is, like who your partner is, because it can also do the opposite. And I think money conversations between partners and just getting to hear how you talk through it is so powerful. Yeah. Shows like how you've catapulted each other in this wealth building journey.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And it's always been, not always, but it I think it's it's been like a really good balance of like sometimes I'm too frugal. Like I'm like, no, I don't think we should spend that much money on those tickets. And he's like, like, we have it. Like we're we're good. Like we can, we can afford to do that. Like, let's do that, you know? And so sometimes it's been, you know, that, or sometimes it's been him being like, oh, I don't need, I don't need new clothes. And I'm like, all of your clothes have holes in them. Like, we need to buy you new clothes. So I think we balance each other out really well, and we're both on the same page when it comes to yes, saving and taking care of our future selves, but also, you know, our families have never experienced a lot of the things that we get to experience now or that we can afford to experience now. So we're going to enjoy life presently as well. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And I've realized I never heard the story. So I want to ask about your payday series because I love them and I want to just talk like, but first, can you tell us how the People magazine thing came about?

SPEAKER_00

I forgot you never Oh yeah, the People Magazine. Honestly, I didn't even know that they were doing that. They just they just, I guess, shared it because they saw that I was it was in Business Insider. So I write articles to Business Insider as like a freelancer sometimes, and they're about personal finance. So when I was saving up for the wedding, I wrote a couple of articles about the plan of how I was gonna save up and what our our original budget was. And then, you know, then we got married and obviously like we kind of went over budget. And I think People Magazine just liked that I was being so transparent with the numbers and and shared it like through their through their channels. Got it.

SPEAKER_01

Because I was looking up like researching before our conversation, I was like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. Okay, take us through your latest payday routine as dinkwads. And can you explain what dink quads are?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, dinkwads is. Dual income, no kids with a dog. Oh, got it. And I I love Callie, like our dog. She is our baby. We rescued her from the streets of Mexico and brought her back when she was a puppy. And I just want to spoil her so much. Like I am such a dog lover. But yeah, so payday. I have a budget template that Javi and I use every single pay period. And that's kind of how the payday routine started is because like both him and I, every time he gets paid, before we spend any money, we like sit down and we fill out our budget template. And this helps us just get a an understanding of like, okay, this is how much money came in this month or is coming in this month, and this is what we're gonna spend it on. And we have very big families, so every month there's like a birthday, a baptism, like something, you know. So I feel like our biggest expense is like not because we have plans, but because other people invite us to things, and then we have to consider okay, it's this person's birthday, we have to gift, we have to budget for our gifts, we have to budget for like the dinner, we have to, you know, it's Father's Day. We're gonna take both our dads out and like do something special for them. So we love going all out for our friends, our family, but when it comes to us, we're kind of like a little bit more frugal. So, like in June, since we haven't done our July one yet, in June we brought in $9,690, and that includes the $3,000 that I paid myself, and then Javi's take home was six thousand six hundred and ninety dollars and ninety-five cents, and then we actually spent five thousand dollars. This doesn't include any World Cup stuff because we have a separate budget for that. Like we we had a sinking fund in our high yield savings account specifically for World Cup. Yes, I want to know all the World Cup deeds.

SPEAKER_01

I think that would be so interesting.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so that so any money like anything we spent on in Mexico relating to the World Cup, that money got taken out from that CC fund. So because we were like traveling for a lot of the month, our expenses were lower. So, like groceries, we only spent $372. Personal care and wellness, I think I got a haircut. I like paid for my mom's haircut, Javi got a haircut. Like, we we did a a a lot more this month, so that was a little higher, $276. Gifts, $362 again, Father's Day. Medical, we spent $499 because I had to go to like the dentist last minute for an emergency. Javi had to go to the dentist as well, and then $200 to my mom, like for her stuff, takeout $58. And anytime we buy takeout, we go pick it up. Like, we don't pay for delivery fees. That's been like a habit that we built up. And then Javi goes into the office and he has a lunch budget. So he spent $17.28 on his lunch since he wasn't really in the office this month. Miscellaneous $50. And then like our bigger fixed expenses rent, our rent is $27.64. The reason why it's so low is because we won New York City lottery apartment that is rent stabilized a couple years ago. So we've been in that. And you can stay until you leave. We can stay for we can stay for 20 years and it's rent stabilized. Yeah. So once you apply and you're in, they don't really check your income after that. But before you, before you like move in, your income has to match, you know, the income level that they're asking for. And they have asset limits. So because we got this a couple years ago, we were still under the asset limit.

SPEAKER_01

And at the income level, they they requested No, I was just gonna say this is something you do retroactively for the last pay period.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, no. I so because we just got back from Mexico, we haven't done July yet. Like we haven't spent any money in July yet. So we have to sit down and do our payday routine for July. But yes, so basically we fill this out at the beginning of the month. We have to check it. Yeah, so we we have an actual column and then we have a budgeted column. So we fill out the budgeted column. So for example, groceries, we budgeted 400, but we only spent 372. For the yeah, for the gifts, for the gifts, we budgeted 300, but we spent 362, so we went over. So in this budget tempo that I'm looking at, so basically I can I'm I I'm looking at like compared to my budgeted numbers, what did we actually spent spent in June? And so some of them are like on target 100%, and then some of them are over, like you spent 185% over your budget for personal care and wellness. And so, and so yeah, so that's how we track our expenses, our income, and then we also track savings in here. So, you know, we track, we save three thousand dollars, we put that in our joint high-ield savings account, and then 300 each to our brokerage. So seeing this, like seeing numbers, I love because I feel like numbers don't lie. Javi loves to say that. You know, June, like I said, was a little bit of a you know, less, less of a spend month. But for example, in March we spent 6,894. So it really fluctuates based on like what we have going on that month. But anywhere from like $55 to $6,000 is kind of what we're averaging.

SPEAKER_01

And you all are so transparent, right, with what you're spending, with your earning. Was it hard at first to share this type of information with the internet?

SPEAKER_00

No, I've been sharing this since when I started my page. Like I literally used to have a little pie chart showing my paycheck and where I'm where I'm planning to send it. Even when I was making like, you know, I was bringing home like $2,500 a month. And I was, you know, like sharing it. Just I never thought that my page would blow up. I never thought I'd have so many eyeballs on it, but now I feel like I hope that it helps inspire people to do the same thing with their partner or even just themselves. Like just have a payday routine. It's it's like fun, you know, especially if you're yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I know it's inspiring many, including myself. Can you tell us about World Cup? How much that costs to go and was it worth it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So we have been saving for the World Cup since 2022 because that was the last World Cup, and we were like, we have to go to the next one. We knew that it was gonna be in the US and in Mexico and Canada, so we we were like, this is our chance. Hopefully, the travel costs won't be too expensive. And the next one is gonna be in Spain and Portugal. So we're already saving for that. I already told my siblings, like, you guys have to start saving. So get ready. Yeah, so our our budget was $10,000, and that would include everything. But this World Cup was so expensive. So we signed up for the lottery as soon as it opened, and the lottery was would just be like, you get selected to buy tickets at face value. So whatever FIFA is selling them out. So we got really lucky, and Javi got selected for the lottery. So at that point, we bought 13 World Cup tickets. Some of them were gifts to Javi's dad, and then some of them we bought for like his brother, and then some of them we ended up selling. So the total cost for those tickets after you know selling and gifting was five thousand seven hundred and ninety-five dollars. And then we actually ended up not using two of those tickets, so it ended up being less, like two thousand dollars less.

SPEAKER_01

So it was like three thousand something for 11 tickets.

SPEAKER_00

So three thousand seven hundred and ninety-five for let's see, I'll I'll give you the exact number. So Javi and I went to two Ecuador games, so that's four tickets, and then we also gifted his dad two tickets, so six tickets, the Houston and Miami are gone. Yeah, so for six tickets, it was around four thousand dollars, three thousand seven hundred dollars. Yeah, and then bus tickets to Philly, $178, and that includes for that's four tri four tickets. So us, Javi's dad, his brother, because one of the games was in Philly, and then round trip flights to to Mexico, that was three ninety-six for two people, so that was $793. Yep, and then playoff game. So we ended up getting tickets. This is another, these are another two tickets, fifteen hundred dollars that we bought for the last Mexico game that we went to, Mexico, Ecuador. And then we also bought opener tickets for the Mexico game that I bought from like a follower that just had them. That was the most expensive. That was four thousand five hundred and ninety-four dollars for the two tickets, yeah. For the two tickets, yep.

SPEAKER_01

And you're saving up for them now for next time. So it sounds like it was worth it.

SPEAKER_00

You know, it's it's crazy. Like, I'm then I have a bunch of like other expenses like Uber, all these things.

SPEAKER_01

So were you in the 10,000 all in, do you think?

SPEAKER_00

I think j I think we're gonna come up just under 10,000 or around 10,000. Like maybe like, yeah, okay. Right now I'm seeing like 99,911, but after we add up the rest of the Mexico stuff, it's probably gonna be closer to like 11, 11, 12. Got it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And you'll budget for similar for next year or next time in four years. Next time in four years.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think we're gonna budget more. I would love to take my family, like take my parents. They've never been to Europe. My siblings have never been to Europe. I've been a couple times. And yeah, I just want them to experience like more travel, more new experiences. And I feel like we're at a point, Javi and I, where our investments are gonna grow regardless if with if we continue to invest aggressively or not. I mean, we're still gonna continue to invest aggressively. I think my goal for this year is to invest $100,000. He's just trying to max out all his accounts, but I feel like it's definitely possible. Like, I think that there's so many ways to make money, and there's there's a lot of ways to save too, you know, to cut expenses. You just have to figure out like what's important to you. Like, I don't spend any money on clothes anymore. I don't spend any money on nails. Like, there's a lot of things that I've kind of like left in the past, you know, that old me would be doing religiously, you know, go shopping every week. I don't do that anymore because that's not that's not what's gonna bring me happiness at the end of the day. At the end of the day, I think like what truly brings me happiness is being able to gift experiences to my family and like have new experiences with Javi. So that's where my money is going.

SPEAKER_01

I truly could talk to you about this stuff all day, but I know we have to go soon. I have a couple questions about your business. So I know it's so inspiring when someone can go out on their own in the your their business. How did you know you were ready or that it was time to go full-time?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I I think I overprepared a little bit because I saved all of the money that I made last year. I saved all of it. So I think I ended the year with like $40,000 or $50,000. I made a post about this. I can't remember the exact number, but basically last year, I all the money that I made from content, I didn't touch it until the end of the year. I used some of that money to max out my 401k, my solo 401k, because I had like left my job in October. So I didn't get to max out my, you know, my 401k at work. So I opened up the solo 401k, and that's the only money that I took from all the money that I made from last year. I think it was like 7K that I invested, that I've ended up investing um to complete the 23.5. So that at that point I was like, okay, you know, seeing how I had so much money to fall back on just for the business alone, I was like, okay, I can take a career break. And I've been wanting to do that for the past two years because I've just been super burnt out. So my husband was like pushing at the beginning of the year. He was like, this was last year at the beginning of the year. He was like, just quit your job. You're not happy, take a career break, just do content, you know, do what makes you happy. We can afford to do that. We have savings, you're saving up all the business money. Like, you'll be okay. We'll be okay. And so I was like, no, I want to wait until you know, I feel like I have enough in the business account to be able to like fall back on in case something happens. So I got to the point where I think I reached like 50,000 or 40,000 in that account, and I was like, okay, I think I can like finally take this career break. So I did that in October. I left my job, and yeah, it's been amazing ever since. You know, I launched a couple products, I launched this budget template, a debt tracker, an investment guide. And now I'm working on this like events community network. And so it's been amazing. It's been really just very thankful that I get to do this.

SPEAKER_01

So it sounds like having the buff, like a number in the account. How do you feel ready? And then also just seeing these different ways that you earn money. What are the different ways that you earn money in your life?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. I forgot to break that down. So brand deals, affiliates, right? So anytime somebody signs up through my link, I get paid speaking events. I've done a couple, the products that I have. So I saw, you know, the budget template, all this debt tracker investment guide. And then that's it. I think the podcast isn't monetized. You know, podcasting is like a long-term thing. And then yeah, I think I think that's it. I have like I have it all. There's a lot of ways. But yeah, yeah. There's definitely more. I feel like I'm missing some, but I guess you said also you do get you uh do freelance writing. Yeah, yeah. I do freelance writing. And then hopefully now with this like, like I said, community thing that I'm launching, it'll be yeah. It'll be that'll be a different, a different source of income. But yeah, I I feel like there's there's a lot of ways, there's a lot of untapped, you know, revenue streams that I haven't like even done yet. So I'm excited to like continue to explore entrepreneurship. It's so exciting.

SPEAKER_01

I'm really excited for you. What's something about your finances that people would never guess?

SPEAKER_00

I feel like I am organized, but I'm like I go through periods where I'm a little bit of a hot mess. So sometimes I have to catch up on my finances. So and I think that's normal.

SPEAKER_01

It's very relatable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, like traveling for like the past couple weeks, I haven't done my payday routine for July yet. Like my husband and I haven't sat down to actually fill out the numbers. We like in Mexico City, we sat down and we like filmed the like us pretending to to look at my budget template and stuff. Um so so I have the the footage, but I don't, but I don't have the numbers yet. And so that's what's holding me up from posting the video. So he works from home tomorrow. So tomorrow we're going to sit down and like actually go through all the numbers. But I think that's one thing that maybe people on social media think like, oh, you know, it takes like five minutes for them to, you know, it's a 30-second video. They think like, oh, 30 seconds, they're they they have their finances in order. But no, it's actually, you know, like an hour long, 30-minute long process where we're actually sitting and discussing, like, oh, what was this from? Or like, what did we spend here? Like, you know, that's but yeah, I think there's it's normal to have periods of like, what did I, what did my last month look like? I have no idea. Let me go back. Um I think as long as you're like, you know, not letting so much time pass and checking in, it it'll work out.

SPEAKER_01

It gets harder too to remember what things were. If it gets I have the same where I'll have a period where I get behind and I also notice that I I spend a little differently, like the fur the further I get from checking in with it. But yeah, yeah, I definitely have those those time periods as well. Other than World Cup in four years, what are you working toward affording next?

SPEAKER_00

My dream would be to like have a house one day, but not I love living in the city. And so I think that my husband and I we're at that stage where we're not sure if we want to have kids. We're like we've always been like 99% no, 1% yes. But now that all of our friends and our families are like they're starting families, it's really hard. Like I feel like the pressure is really like we're really feeling it. So we might start saving, you know, if we decide in the next year or two to start a family, like we might start a baby fund just in case. But it's very, yeah. I I think right now I'm kind of just like, I don't know. I don't know what I'm saving for next. I think just like I love that we got to enjoy life. I love that we're getting to enjoy life. I love that we live in the city. So, you know, just enjoying this stage of our life and having more conversations with Javi about like, okay, what what do we really want next? I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Enjoying and then it sounds like building funds for potential decisions that you might decide you want, but that you haven't decided yet.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I'm re I I will say, like, I'm really happy right now. I'm just like so thankful for everything that this year has brought to us. And I never ever ever thought that I would be able to say that I went to a World Cup. So it still feels really, I don't know, it feels really unreal. I'm just just so grateful. So I'm like just staying here in this, in this like stage where I'm just happy and grateful and yeah, relishing in what you were able to do.

SPEAKER_01

That's incredible. Thank you so much for sharing so openly, transparently about your own money journey. It's just such an inspiration and gives us like really tangible things we can do as we think about our own journeys. And congratulations on the business, the wedding, the podcast, all the things. Where can everyone find you and support your work?

SPEAKER_00

Thank you so much. I had such a great time, as always, talking to you. People can find me on my biggest channel, it's Instagram, Over Gem Poverty, but I'm also on TikTok, I'm on Facebook, and I'm on Substack as well.

SPEAKER_01

Everyone, go follow Viviana.

SPEAKER_00

Yay! Thank you so much, Ashley.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for listening to How Do You Afford This? If you love this inside look into how people are actually affording their lives, follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We have new episodes dropping every week, and trust me, you do not want to miss them. And if you're enjoying the show, it would mean the world to me if you left a review. It takes just a minute and helps more people find us. One more thing before you go, if this got you fired up to taste your own money goals, come hang out with us in the Money Club. It's a community of ambitious women building wealth together. And on average, members put an extra $10,000 toward their money goals in the first year. Come see what it's all about at thefiscalfund.com slash money dash club. All of it, the show of the club, everything I do is part of my mission to make crafting a wealthy life more accessible, more transparent, and a whole lot more fun. See you next week.