The Power of the Ask

The Road to Becoming Financially Powerful: Take One Step Forward Today with Jully- Alma Taveras

July 26, 2024 • Season 1 • Episode 8

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This Power of the Ask podcast episode features Jully Alma Taveras, also known as Investing Latina, a Plutus Award-winning bilingual personal finance expert. 

In this powerful episode, Jully shares her journey of starting Investing Latina to help others avoid the financial struggles she faced herself, such as credit card debt, and emphasizes the importance of building good credit and establishing sound financial habits. 

As an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, she connects deeply with her audience, many of whom share similar backgrounds. Her platform focuses on creating a supportive community where people can share their financial stories and learn from one another.

Despite facing cultural barriers and financial challenges throughout her life, Jully highlights the importance of small, consistent investments and savings. She encourages people to look at their financial goals as separate but related endeavors—savings for security and investing for future growth. Jully's story of overcoming debt and building wealth is a testament to the power of intentional financial planning and resilience.

Her efforts have significantly contributed to increasing financial literacy and wealth-building in the Latina community. By promoting open conversations about money and providing practical steps to achieve financial stability, Jully continues to inspire and empower others to take control of their financial futures.

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About Jully-Alma Taveras:

Jully-Alma Taveras, also known online as Investing Latina, is a Plutus Award-winning bilingual (Spanish) personal finance expert. She writes for publications like CNBC, Time's Next Advisor, HuffPost, and others on money topics ranging from saving to investing. On her YouTube channel, she tells money stories from the lens of a Dominican Republic-born immigrant living in New York who went from being a shopaholic to a smart spender and diligent investor. Her money philosophies have inspired thousands of women to live minimally & spend intentionally, so that they can invest more.

Jully is a sought-after Fortune 20 speaker and facilitator that has led workshops at Nasdaq, Google, Verizon and at The White House Economic Council (2021) among others. She has taught over 10,000 people how to invest through her program The Investing Workshop. Although she has a social following of 39k+ on Instagram and collective social impressions of over 23 million, she is extremely approachable and is an educator to the core. She is the eldest of 3 in her own family, so her audience sees her as the older sister who will force you to do better while also being your cheerleader along the way.

Important Links:


Lisa Zeiderman  (00:03):

Welcome everyone to the Savvy Ladies, the Power of the Ask Podcast. This is the podcast that is going to help you get what you want financially and personally. And I'm going to give it now to my co-host, precious Williams, the killer pitch master.

Precious L. Williams (00:22):

Love it. Well, as y'all know, every episode we have a treat in store for you. So today's treat is Julie Alma Veris, also known online as Investing. Latina is a Plutus award-winning bilingual Spanish personal finance expert, short republications like CNBC. Y'all already know we always bring you the best times. Next advisor, Huffington Post and others on money topics ranging from saving to investing. She is a highly sought after Fortune 20 speaker and facilitator that has LED workshops at nasdaq, Google, Verizon, and the White House Economic Council 2021 among others. She has taught over 10,000 people how to invest through her platform, the investing workshop, and this queen is now going to bring it to the stage. Julie, introduce yourself to our peeps.

Jully Allma- Taveras (01:16):

Let's talk money. Hi everyone. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so honored to be speaking to both of you today. Thank you for having me on.


Lisa Zeiderman (01:25):

We're so thrilled to have you on Julie. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what you haven't told us yet.


Precious L. Williams (01:32):

Yeah, I mean, thank you first of all for that intro, but yeah, my name is Julie and I started investing Latina literally five years ago, and I started it by just sharing a little bit about my own personal experiences with money, which as we all know can vary. Everybody has their own money history, the money story, and a little bit of money trauma comes along with that. And so I talked about my trauma of credit card debt at the beginning and I wanted to help others not experience that trauma and those struggles. And really that's how my platform kind of took off talking about the importance of building good credit, of establishing good habits with your money and with the name investing Latina, which is what I considered myself when I thought about a name for my platform, I asked myself, who am I and who do I want to be? And I realized that even though I've made so many money mistakes in my life, I did something good at one point and that was I started investing. And so I really just wanted to show people that we can make money mistakes, but we can recover from 'em. And that's really what my platform is really based on. And it's just such an honor to be able to help people, especially women, Latinas, women of color, just build through to be able to establish the kind of wealth that they want to establish to hopefully become financially free.


Lisa Zeiderman (03:05):

So Julie, you have the most incredible story. You are connecting and encouraging female Latinas to invest and challenge themselves to climb out of consumer spending and debt and learn about investing. And you launched investing Latina and you started changing the conversation for Latinas to build wealth. Can you share with us some of your story and how you got to where you are and tell us what your secret sauce to getting to where you are now?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (03:40):

I love that secret sauce. Well, I would say that when it comes to my overall story, I'm an immigrant here in the United States. I was born in the Dominican Republic and already a lot of my audience connects with that because they're either immigrants themselves or they're first generation here. And it was something that kind of already created a sort of bond for my audience because they, not only were they talking to me about their experiences, immigrating traveling and learning things for the first time of how money functions in this country, but they were also connecting with other people. So on the comments in the blog when I host workshops so people are really able to talk to not just me, but other people. And I think that that's a really important part of the sauce of what investing Latina offers is to just kind of really bring people together and allow everyone a sort of safe space to hear someone else's story and connect with somebody else.


Jully -Alma  Taveras(04:48):

And we may not have the same exact situation. There could be a big range in terms of income or background and even language because even though I go by investing Latina and I myself speak English and Spanish, I have students from all over the world actually that speak other languages as well. So that's been really interesting to me and that's also been something that I've had to kind of learn to include in my secret sauce because I always want to make sure that we're being inclusive because at the end of the day when it comes to money, a lot of it is emotional and that emotional process has no language. It's universal. Everybody feels like they want to do better, they want to grow as a person, they want to grow as a professional. They want to grow their finances with the end goal of helping their family and helping themselves become overall better people.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (05:53):

I think it really has to do with a mix of all those things, being able to really build community and be responsive to others because sometimes, I don't know if you've seen or read about this, but ever since the pandemic, there seems to be this loneliness pandemic, and it's like people have become a little bit more indoors, more sheltered, a little bit more recluse, and that's become a sort of new barrier that we didn't have many years ago. We still had a lot of opportunities to go out and connect, but I think things have changed in recent history that has created this sort of loneliness where people are having a harder time now connecting with others. And like I mentioned, when it comes to money, there's so many emotional things that go with it. Being able to connect with others and not just read books because of course books and literature is very, very important to learn foundational things and the important things, but also we just have to kind of keep in mind that it's about people. We're doing this for ourselves, we're doing this to feel emotionally fulfilled, to feel financially powerful, which is a term that I love. And I always tell people that's what you're after. You want to just feel financially powerful. That can mean so many different things, but today, you can take one single step forward to go to bed at night feeling a little bit more financially powerful.


Precious L. Williams  (07:37):

I have to just say listening to you use very specific terms like money, trauma and the epidemic of loneliness since the pandemic and all the things that are happening for you, when did you realize that it was time to get financially intentional about how you're spending your money and then deciding there are 25 things you're not going to spend money on? What was the catalyst or impetus for that and what did you learn by doing that?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (08:10):

Yes. Well, for me personally, it really had to do with the fact that my father got sick. And at this point, it has been 11 years now, 2013, my father got very sick very suddenly and he was diagnosed with cancer and we were shocked and we just really had no idea that it could even happen or that it would be the type of news that we would receive. And so that for me was a big turning point. I had actually just been out of college a few years. I was at the height of my career doing so many amazing things, very focused on building career and working very hard, and it kind of shocked me. And in the midst of doing all of that, I was also spending a lot because I was so busy and there was so much going on and money was coming in, and it made me very excited to have my first paychecks and have this salary that was so consistent I was contributing to my 401k.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (09:22):

So there were all these amazing things that were happening in my life that gave me the sort of energy or freedom to feel like I could spend, right? I could treat myself. I'm working so hard, I could do these things, but it kind of snowballed in a bad way. It snowballed into me accumulating a lot of debt very quickly. And so by the time my father got diagnosed, I had so much debt, and I laugh about it now, but it's probably a trauma response to laugh about these things because it was astounding how quickly it happened. And I said, oh my God, if my father, if this diagnosis is what they're saying it's going to be, and he passes away in six months, I'm the oldest and my mom has always been working and taking care of by my dad, and I have two younger siblings that are in school.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (10:30):

I'm the one that has to take responsibility for these things. And that was the big wake up call. And I said, okay, that's it. You have to say no to things that really kind of felt like I deserved and that were treats and they were. And it was wonderful and I really enjoyed it, and I honestly still appreciate the process of being able to have those moments in life. But I also was very aware at that moment that I couldn't have all those moments forever. And so it was this concept of potentially a life ending situation and having to take responsibility, being the oldest in the family. And that's when I said, okay, I want to cut off things because I want to prioritize paying off this debt and just staying really focused and just doing what is absolutely necessary for myself so that I can be the best for my family.


Jully -Alma  Taveras(11:35):

And that was really what kind of catapulted everything. And it took me a bit to pay it all off. Okay, nothing happens overnight. It took me almost two and a half years to pay off all the debt, but I stayed very focused during that time and the ways that I did it by, even though it was very hard, I continued to push forward in my career. I worked side jobs, I said yes to everything in order to make a little bit more money because any little bit extra that I could make, I was very happy to put extra payments onto the credit cards and to pay things off. And all throughout that time, I want to tell everyone that I still invested. And I know that it could be really scary to do so many things at once because you're like, well, what is the priority?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (12:32):

And you do have to prioritize, but you just could never get time back. And I was just like, if I don't invest, I'm missing out on growth. And so that's really how it all, what 2013 to 2015 look like for me. And it really was a hard time, I have to say, but it was life-changing because I never went back and I never accumulated credit card debt again. And I continue to invest and I've been able to build a really amazing portfolio just by doing it little by little, not stressing myself out, driving myself crazy because we also have to be cautious and take care of our health. That's one thing also that I've learned in this lesson in life with my father's sickness. So you have to have to take care of yourself, so you have to try to find a balance, try your best to find a balance. That's really how it went and how my story has evolved into someone that was wild and free and spending crazy that was really just kind of focused and had goals, which I didn't necessarily have at the beginning. I was just like, yeah, let's just make money. Spend money. Cool. Now I have goals that I do my very best to stick to and pivot sometimes, but they're still there and I still reach towards them.


Lisa Zeiderman (14:04):

You sound like you really intentionally did all that you did to get yourself out of debt and to build wealth for yourself and to take care of yourself at the same time and to take care of your family as well. I mean, it's an amazing story of how you were able to put all of your energies into so many different areas at the same time dealing with your dad and then dealing with the fact that you were the oldest and you had all this debt, and yet being able to intentionally invest at the same at that same time. It's amazing. Julie, and I'm going to ask you, while you were trying to build your wealth intentionally, were there cultural, do you believe that there were cultural barriers or behaviors in the Latina community that could be seen as barriers to you or to others building and discussing and growing wealth?


Jully -Alma  Taveras(15:09):

Absolutely. I mean, as much as my family was a big part of me changing my financial story, my family was also very hesitant. And when I started investing, I was 19 years old when I started investing simply because I had a access to a 4 0 3 B account through work. My mom was like, don't do that. Oh my gosh, that's way too risky. And mind you, this was right during the time of the 2008 recession, so I don't blame her, right? There's a lot of talk going on, there's a lot of uncertainty, and it was a really severe dip within the economy. And so her first reaction was, don't do it. That's not a good idea. But at that point, I had already signed up and I was just like, I don't know how to undo this. So it was a little bit, it's so funny how ignorance could sometimes lead to good things because I signed up because I figured, Hey, someone told me that you get a match sounds like free money, and that sounds good, right?


Jully -Alma  Taveras(16:24):

A little extra doesn't hurt anybody. It was a small minimal amount that I was investing, but I also didn't really know how to get out of it. And that was the reason why I stayed and I continued to contribute, and it was something that was kind in the back of my mind like, oh my God, my mom said that this is a big risky thing to do, investing in the stock market simply because they didn't do it. They didn't have that education. We all came from the Dominican Republic where that's not something that people do. People literally where we're from, just save to buy a home, to build a home. So they have to just work and grind very hard, save up money, and the goal is just to have a place to live. So there isn't this sort of ambition and isn't this in-depth education on the power of the tools that we have here in the us?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (17:22):

And these are tools that are now very universal as well. Thank God, right? Thank God things have changed. Luckily things have changed, but it was just, that's a very big cultural thing that affects the community, the Latin community, because we are one track minded in terms of how children are raised and what they're taught. And a lot of it stems from the patriarch. You're supposed to have kids, you're supposed to focus on your home. You're supposed to just work very hard and save up so that all your money goes towards a home so that you have a roof over your head. And also the man is the one that provides. So all these little things that we're told, these money scripts that are read to us, they stick. They sometimes hold us back because we start to really think that that is the only way.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (18:24):

And then that's where it becomes an issue. When we think that there's only one way to do something, it doesn't help the majority of the people. It really creates just more anxiety for some people, if they can't match that expectation, then they're not doing anything at all. They're like, oh, there's no imagine. Now, especially the times that we're in right now, home expenses are through the roof, pun intended. It's kind of like housing is so expensive, renting, owning everything right now is so high. So there are a lot of people in this country right now that feel they can't achieve that dream. So imagine if you are feeling like you can't achieve a dream that your family has always told you is the only dream to go after, it's very discouraging. And I think that that has held a lot of the community back because they haven't really explored or thought outside of that real estate owning a home type of dream. And I think that that was the big thing. That also was an important element of investing, making sure that we share the different perspectives, the different routes that you could take to build wealth and truly understand that there's multiple ways to go about it. You don't have to build wealth in just one way. You can definitely explore your own wants and go after it in that way.



Precious L. Williams (20:05):

I just got to say, this is why I love the Savvy Ladies power of the ass podcast. I know growing up whenever there were news about stocks investing the anchors or the people talking about it, look, nothing like me, look nothing like you, Juliana. And if we ever heard anything, I'll say in the black community, African-American community was you need to save. You need to save. So when we talk about wealth building, I don't think could even imagine having wealth. I go to work, provide for my family, and that's it. So I'm listening to you, I just see how powerful you're drop is straight gems right now. And so coming from a community where I heard about saving, not that people necessarily did it, how are you approaching in the investing in Latina community and coming at it so they know, yes, saving is great, but building wealth and investing is so much more important too. How do you talk about that in different terms to the investing Latina community so they know that both are necessary?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (21:23):

Yeah, it's really tricky at times because are, when I talk about feeling financially powerful, a little bit of you want to feel security, that's kind of the first step. And people when they don't have savings, don't feel secure. They feel very anxious. They are kind of waiting for the other shoes to drop sometimes, right? Oh my God, if my car breaks down, if I get sick and I can't work for a week or two, oh my, I won't have the money that I need. So it becomes really kind of a tricky thing to discuss and talk about. But that's also why I always tell people that you have to really pace yourself and do it in a small way. Don't feel like you're going to automatically and overnight have a three month emergency fund. It's something that takes time to build, and that's totally okay.


Jully -Alma  Taveras(22:31):

For example, when I actually left corporate America after I paid off my debt and I had money saved, I challenged myself to save a full year of salary. So I said, okay, I want to be able to do this, and I want to feel this safety and security. But like I mentioned earlier, I never stopped investing throughout that time. So I look at it in separate buckets. They're separate needs, they're separate emotional categories. When you're saving, you're really putting money aside little by little, just so that you can feel that sort of, okay, I can breathe a little bit. Like, okay, I can sort of relax a little bit. When you are intentionally putting money away for investing, it's a different emotion. You're putting that money into an investment account saying in 20 years, I want to really be able to feel a sense of calm.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (23:33):

I want to really be able to have more flexibility to do things that right now I might not need. I still work. I'm doing great, very active in the future, things are going to be different, and I want to have that sort of flexibility. So I think looking at them from two emotional standpoints is what reminds people to do both at the same time and to have different goals, have them be separate, but of course, having that overarching element to it where it's like this is just overall building wealth. They're in different pockets, they're in different categories, but this is all just for improvement of my life. So yeah, I always get the question, I don't know if I should start investing. I don't even have a thousand dollars saved up. And I said, well, that's okay that you don't have a thousand dollars saved up. You can still put $25 into an investment account.

Precious L. Williams (24:35):

See, that's practical and baby steps because I hear a lot of people be like, I ain't got it.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (24:40):

You can. And I always like to also tell people, give it a shot. If things change, you can adjust, but give it a shot. See what you can do. I have a lot of cousins, obviously a very Caribbean Latin thing to have so many much family. I'm like one of 48 cousins. I think it's wow, so many. And so a lot of them are teens and younger too. And so I love talking money with them and they're like, I don't have any money. I need money for my prom or whatever. How can I possibly invest? Because I pushed them to do IRAs and they all come back to me a year later and they're just like, could you believe that I actually have $600 in my investment account? I'm like, yes, that's right. You did it. You should be proud of yourself. You thought you couldn't do it. You thought it was going to be too much. But it just, like Precious said, it's these little goals that really, these little actions that they snowball and they add up and they always come back and they're super excited about it.


Lisa Zeiderman(25:53):

Well, it's not a surprise that you are an influential money voice. This is no surprise after having heard you speak with us and that Savvy Ladies was so thrilled and delighted to honor you with its Finn Influencer Award of the Year. You are amazing and you are amazing and you are talking money, and that is a great conversation to be having. What changes are you seeing from when you started talking on social media to today?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (26:34):

Well, the best thing about the change is that things are improving. There is so much more financial literacy programs. There's so many more financial literacy initiatives out there. It's becoming less and less taboo to talk about money, especially within our community because like I said, we, we've always been taught these money scripts that have always repeated themselves and now that it's gone away because now there's more variety in what you're hearing and people are starting to question, what is it that I really do want and how is it that I can build my own way forward? So I think that that's one thing that things have really, there's more resources, there's more conversations about money. There are more positive conversations about money because I think also the reason why previous generations we're always so hesitant to take risk is because money was always seen as a fearful thing, something that you have to be afraid of and something that you almost didn't talk about, something you didn't touch.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (27:54):

And I think that that has changed. So that's really exciting. And I still think that I mentioned a little bit earlier, there are new challenges because with a lot of information also comes confusion. So now people are coming to me and they're like, okay, I've read a million things. I've seen a thousand TikTok videos and now I'm just confused. So there's that element to it. The pendulum sort of swings in the opposite direction where we go from not having much information because things were gate kept. I didn't even know how to disenroll for my 401k. The information just wasn't available if you didn't find someone that can talk to you about it. There was no blogs, there were no forums, there were none of these things existed 10, 15 years ago when I started. And so now they exist, but it also creates an environment where there can be some confusion in terms of what route should I take? So now it's kind of just tailoring information and helping people sort of understand some of it, sift through things and apply it to themselves. So I think that's really the next challenge that financial literacy creators and experts will have to navigate, being able to navigate those waters and help people in ways that are relevant.


Precious L. Williams (29:37):

Queen, I feel like you just answered my question. That was my head. For the investing Latina community, what are the biggest problems that you're solving? You said confusion, overwhelm, and strategic tailoring to your audience. You answered that. I'm over here just like I'm Clement clutching my imaginary pearls. Thank you.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (29:59):

Yeah, it really, I think truly is kind of the next step now, because when I started, again, when I started investing in Latina, and it's going to be five years this summer, there was still not a lot of information online, which is so weird to think about because you Google something online and tons of things come up now, which is amazing. But now it's kind of like, okay, people kind of do need more One-on-one help, which is why Savvy Ladies is an amazing platform. So I got to give you guys a shout out right now for all

Precious L. Williams  (30:35):

Like a truth influencer.

Lisa Zeiderman (30:37):

Exactly, exactly. I got


Jully -Alma  Taveras (30:39):

To give you guys a shout out for that because people want to be able to ask questions, feel comfortable asking questions, and get answers, and just be able to make decisions based on an answer from somebody that they can trust. So yeah, that's the goal, and I think that collectively let's make it happen. Right.


Lisa Zeiderman (31:04):

I love that, love that. What do you think is the biggest obstacle, the biggest financial obstacle for women to overcome to make this all happen for us?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (31:17):

Wow, that's such a tough question because I think it can vary so much, honestly, especially depending on where you are in life right now. I'm very pregnant, so now

Lisa Zeiderman (31:34):

Congratulations.


Jully- Alma Taveras(31:35):

Thank You. So exciting!


Jully -Alma  Taveras(31:38):


My obstacles and sort of challenges are very different from someone who is fresh out of college and getting started, and they're also very different from someone that might be in their forties, fifties and sort of approaching retirement without perhaps not having a plan yet. So I think it can definitely vary, and this is why it's so important to have a lot of different voices and a lot of diversity within our community of financial educators and people that as we offer this advice to others and when we sit down to talk to women about money. But all that aside, aside from all the differences that we can all experience, and like I said, different stages of life will have different obstacles and different challenges. I still think that there's one thing that we all need and that truly is a sense of support and having someone that you can perhaps repeatedly go back to have certain conversations, especially as your life changes.


Jully -Alma  Taveras(32:59):

So I think that that's something that can be a big obstacle for people, because sometimes you can talk to one person and feel like, okay, that was great, and that kind of applies to me, and I can actually make some changes based on my current situation. But I think the relationship building part of feeling supported as you grow in life is still an obstacle for a lot of people. So yeah, I would say that that's something that I'm not sure what the solution really is yet, but I think that us asking, and we talk about this even in the award ceremony, thank you guys so much about the importance of being able to ask because you just kind of have to go back to things and you can't be afraid to ask someone that knows a little bit more than you. I love asking questions.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (33:56):

I love talking too, but I really do love asking questions and I love talking to much older people. My time with my grandparents, I'm obsessed with it because I feel like it's so cool to just hear different perspectives, and at the end of the day, nothing really beats experience and that sort of wisdom you have to of course take with a grain of salt because you don't want to be jaded. Sometimes they're like, ah, forget about this, forget about that. But I think it's always important to ask questions. Look around if you see somebody that inspires you, if you feel like you're in a rut, reach out to that person and say, I see this. You spoke about this online and I really connected to it. That's why social media is so powerful. Can I get some advice? And I guarantee you, nine out of 10 times you're going to get a positive response. You're going to get someone that will be happy to share because that's a natural thing for us. We're naturally designed to help. So don't ever be afraid to ask and just take it as you're struggling with something. If you're facing a challenge, take it as an opportunity to meet someone new, to reconnect with someone that you've spoken to in the past and find answers so that you can get yourself to the next step a better place.


Precious L. Williams  (35:32):

Plot twist, flip the script now that we're talking a lot about building wealth and all of that, but I'm sure you get asked certain questions all the time. What is one question you would love to be asked that no one ever does?


Jully -Alma  Taveras(35:52):

Wow.

Precious L. Williams  (35:53):

Yeah, it's trying to plot twist.

Jully -Alma  Taveras (35:56):
That's a tough one.

Precious L. Williams  (35:59):

I know. Yeah. I don't want you to feel like it's just got to be


Jully -Alma  Taveras (36:04):

Something that no one ever ask that I would like for people to ask.


Precious L. Williams (36:12):

And it doesn't have to be financial. We are women and we have so many different dimensions to us, and sometimes people only peg us for what we do, not who we are. So I don't mean it has to be in building wealth or saving, but maybe you want to share more of your personality or something that you really like to do because you become financially powerful.


Jully -Alma  Taveras (36:37):

Okay, I thought of a good one. We can't wait to hear this. My background in history, I study fashion, so I love fashion, right? So did I. You did. Oh my God, that's

Precious L. Williams (36:52):

So awesome. Yes, both. Yeah.

Jully -Alma  Taveras36:55):

And precious with the fashion, like hello, you might as well have, right? So that's a big passion of mine, aside from being passionate about personal finances. And I think that in my lifetime time, I do this work where I teach women how to become financially powerful and how to invest and save. And I really do it because I want them to enjoy life. And I would love to talk more about that. What comes after that financial empowerment. What do you do with that, right? And what do you do with that wiggle room, with that excess space? How do you spend your extra money and doing it very intentionally so that you can maximize what gets you really excited and what makes you super giggly and happy? And I don't get that question a lot. I don't get the question of how should I actually spend my money? I get the question.


Precious L. Williams (38:08):

Well, I mean, that's why we got it. Listen, we're not in the business of saying the very things everybody else is. You're a multidimensional women woman. And Lisa knows, I always call her quiet luxury. That's so loud. I love to watch what I love that. And I tell you, quiet luxury, that's so loud because she knows who her audience is. She is grounded. She knows what they're looking for, and I personally look to her all the time, what's she going to be wearing? Because I'm going to love it all. I've never not loved anything she's ever worn. But I also think it's part of her brand. But it's in her too. It's in her. So thank you for letting me plot twist, Sonia.


Jully -Alma  Taveras(38:47):

Yeah, that was a great question. Thank you so much. But yeah, I want definitely people to ask me how do I spend my money and how can I put my money? I love these things in a smart, logical, and luxurious way. Why not, right?


Lisa Zeiderman (39:04):

I love the luxurious for sure. Yes. So women, I think, and I see this all the time in what I do, women do not like to talk about money. For the most part, they avoid it. Now, that's not me. I love talking about money as everybody knows. But I guess my question to you is how do you suggest that women and particularly Latina women actually have these money conversations? Is there some inward ask to get it started? Is there something, an outward ask to get it started? How do they come to the table and start to have these money conversations with their family, with their spouses, with their employers, with their employees? I think basically it runs the gamut. I think for women, they don't like to talk about money for the most part. So for Latino women, how do they do that? How do they come to that table and have that conversation?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (40:12):

It is very hard to get to that money table, especially with parents, siblings, the family. I think that's always the hardest, the most challenging, definitely with a partner, forget it, because you're just two people that are probably from very different upbringings coming together to build a family. You have to figure things out. So it's kind of like, okay, how can we brainstorm through this? But it is very hard. But I always like to start with what is the goal? And I asking that question to people as kind of an icebreaker, what would you like to accomplish? And it doesn't have to be a long-term goal because that's kind of intimidating, but it could be a short-term goal. What would you like to accomplish this year? That's something that I ask my parents often because my parents are aging now, and they definitely have their money stresses, I would say. And they're adjusting how they spend and what they spent on because they used to always focus on us, the kids, and taking care of us. And now it's kind of, oh, well, what do we do now? So I try to ask that question, what would you like to accomplish this year?


Jully -Alma  Taveras (41:45):

What would make you feel good to do? How would you like to change something? And aside from that, that always gets the conversations going. I always ask, are you investing? I always ask that question. I ask it to my 10-year-old cousins. I ask it to my 45-year-old aunts. I ask it to even old people in my parents' demographics, 60-year-old. I'm just curious, like, Hey, so are you investing? Because that kind of just feels like a conversation that I can speak a lot to, because remember, when you ask a question, you have to be willing to share a lot of your own so that people feel comfortable sharing as well. And so it's something that I can speak to day and night. And so I ask them that, and depending on what they think about it, and if they're doing it, then other topics come up, well, but I'm paying off debt. Well, I'm investing, but I'm saving. I'm not investing because I actually have to pay off the house or whatever. And then it leads to more conversation. So I think that those are two questions that I like to ask to really kind of break the ice a little bit. And it could be intimidating for people, but I try to find the right moment. It's kind of quiet. It's just me and you. I'm like, Hey, so are you investing? What things are you into right now? What do you want to accomplish this year?

Precious L. Williams (43:17):

Not putting him on the spot in front of the whole fam,


Jully -Alma  Taveras(43:19):

Right? Yes. Making sure that it's the right moment. It's always about the right moment. Ask the question when they're in the middle of pumping gas and it's like $5 a gallon in the middle of them calling the cell phone company to complain about something. So yeah, it's always about timing.


Precious L. Williams (43:42):

Well, what can you share as the biggest takeaway for the Savvy Ladies community, for the investing Latina community and for all women when it comes to being intentional about investing?


Jully -Alma  Taveras(43:55):

Oh, man, you all are so powerful. Listen, we are taking over the world. Times are so different from the way things used to be. It's so funny to read articles of history, of financial history, like women couldn't open their own bank accounts. Like what? It sounds so crazy, but the speed at which women have totally changed the financial is really exciting. And I know Precious, you mentioned you didn't really see people like you talking about money on TV, online, anywhere. And so I think that that's something that's super exciting, and I want to encourage people that are listening right now, that's you. If you love talking about money and if you feel like you can talk about it for hours, we all could help others make it happen. Volunteer. Ask those little questions to the person next to you. Anywhere randomly. I'm notorious for that. I'll be waiting for a cup of coffee, and I'm like, so, hey, these days. So I would say that to our audience, the people that are listening right now, making sure that you're giving back, helping others. And if it's something that you want to really do and if you want to help others, there's almost no more powerful way then to help another woman feel empowered, feel educated, feel financially free, just by a simple conversation. And that will lead to just amazing things for them. So that's what I would say. 


Lisa Zeiderman (46:05):

Juliana, you are phenomenal. You said to us, don't even ever be afraid to ask. Don't ever be afraid to ask. It's so important to ask questions. So now I get to ask you the question that we ask all our guests, which is, why is the power of the ask so important, so critical for women, especially financially?


Jully -Alma  Taveras(46:34):

The power of the ask is so wonderful because it just might make you rich.


Lisa Zeiderman (46:43):

Love that


Precious L. Williams  (46:44):

Beyonce might drop. Period.


Lisa Zeiderman (46:49):

Love that. Thank you so much for having this discussion with us. It was a great hour to spend together, and we hope to have you back again and to delve even further into who you are and how you're growing and how you're intentionally becoming more wealthy.


Jully-Alma Taveras  (47:11):

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. And thank you for the wonderful award and evening that we spent together. I can't wait to do it again. Take good care, guys. Take care. Shout out to everybody listening. Keep going. Financially powerful. Keep investing and make your dreams come true.