Did you know that Latinos and Latines tend to have lower financial literacy than any other adult in the United States? According to the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, younger Hispanics tend to have lower financial literacy. Approximately 80% are more likely to struggle with making ends meet. This seemed all too familiar to me a few years ago.

I began my journey toward financial independence in 2021. Initially, I thought that it would involve figuring out the amount of debt I had, creating a plan to pay it off, and working my butt off until the debt was at zero. Little did I know how wrong I was.

What I did not account for was dealing with financial trauma and my money wounds. Here’s the thing: Growing up, I was privileged to have two hardworking parents who, although they didn’t finish college, were able to find decent jobs to support their families and start their own. 

Having a comfortable childhood doesn’t mean you don’t absorb your own sense of money scarcity 

My childhood was comfortable, and I do not remember hearing a lot about money, neither positively nor negatively. All was calm until my mom, the primary breadwinner, lost her job in the Great Recession without a backup plan. 

You see, my mom was never taught about budgets and saving, so she had no plan when she lost her job. She had a challenging time finding a new job and fell into a depression. We were struggling on my dad’s income alone. This is what changed my view on money altogether. 

Since I was a teenager, I also knew nothing about money, and the message I received was that money could be easily taken away from you, and that we would never have enough to make ends meet. At 16, I got my first job to help my family, and that was the first time that I can recall my anxiety being at full force.  

Fast-forward to 2021, and I was five years out of grad school, living paycheck to paycheck. I was still living at home and helping my parents with the bills. I had a looming debt of almost $100,000, comprising credit card debt, my car loan, and student loans. 

Before the pandemic, I did not think much about my finances because I was constantly in go, go, go mode. The pandemic forced me to reflect on my thoughts about money, and I didn’t like what I found. It almost felt like I was drowning. I could feel this tight sensation on my chest as if I could not breathe, and the room was constantly spinning.

I knew that in order to progress, I needed to make serious changes

That anxiety was still looming, only now, it was worse. I had concluded that enough was enough. I needed a change. My first step was reading Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover.”

Now, I want to put a disclaimer out there that I do not recommend Dave Ramsey’s teachings. Although it did help to kick off my financial independence journey, his restrictive and, quite frankly, racist and sexist teachings do not sit well with me. So instead, here is what I did and what I recommend to you all. 

I started reading books and listening to podcasts created by people who looked like me and understood what it was like for a Latina to face financial challenges. I ignored what others told me that I should or should not do, if they had not done the work already. 

This research and education taught me that it is crucial to support community members who were doing the work and wanted people like us to succeed. 

Once I educated myself and felt comfortable with my financial literacy, I quickly realized one more important thing. I was not going to be able to pay off my debt or start saving if I did not address the money trauma that began almost 13 years prior. 

It’s time to break that cycle, prioritize our worth, and build up our community 

Seeing my family struggle and my mom having a hard time finding another job left me with some financial PTSD that no financial education would be able to help me with. My next step, which I recommend to everyone, was to process my money story with my therapist. 

She was able to give me the tools to recognize that my money wounds are not my fault, remind me that I have the power to choose abundance, and that I can help others once I have done my healing. 

So, what have I learned from all of this? Our behavioral and emotional responses significantly influence the way we interact with money. If we haven’t addressed our scarcity or survival mindset about money, can we truly thrive? Probably not. 

Financial literacy is the powerful tool we never knew we needed. It does more than help us manage money; it helps us reclaim our peace of mind. When we understand how to budget, save, and make informed financial decisions, we move beyond a state of survival and start making choices from a place of confidence.