Financial Independence: Tres Leches Edition

While you’re gorging on your favorite BBQ spread and enjoying the outdoors after being cooped up for so long, don’t forget to acknowledge and appreciate how your favorite delicacies are prepared, especially if your mamá made them! 😍💪🏽

Anyone who’s made or witnessed tres leches being created, you know that after the cake is baked it is soaked in three different milks-evaporated, condensed and heavy cream. Ayayay, ok before you devour this triple threat divinity, let’s think about soaking your finances in three delicious independence building habits! 🇺🇸 

Spend less than you make

It’s easy to fall into a trap of spending more, especially if you start to earn more—but there are ways to curb your spending! Prioritize your needs into a budget and delay larger purchases to see if the need is actually an urge that passes. Join your neighborhood’s Buy Nothing Facebook Group or your neighborhood apps like Next Door and you’ll find people gifting instead of discarding items they no longer need. They avoid filling landfills and you score one of those larger purchases without spending any money. One person’s garbage truly can be another person’s treasure. You may acquire things you needed as well as things you just wanted, meanwhile distracting you from spending on another pair of chanclas to match your new bathing suit. 🩴👙

Invest more than you spend

Take things one step further and invest more generously than you spend to secure a brighter financial future. If you’ve already found the discipline to spend less than you make, investing more than you spend could be the next level-up to curb yet more spending! Having a diverse portfolio of stocks as well as interest bearing savings will provide a much nicer return when you’re ready to retire or need to spend in emergency situations. Not being caught by surprise and having enough to cover the inevitable is sweet dessert to my ears. 🏦 📈

Make money while you sleep

From side hustles to start-ups, there are endless ways to earn passive income and with the advent of the internet, there is a growing stream of opportunity to learn from others who have succeeded in making passive income, or what some of us like to call “mailbox money”. If you’ve always wanted to launch a company or try your hand at a new career that pays residuals or royalties, there are communities of people available at your fingertips. A simple google search or a Facebook Group search could lead you down a rabbit hole of information. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Everyone was a newbie at one point in their lives and many of these folks will gladly answer to help you along your way. 💸

Now go devour that tres leches. And the BBQ. You’ve earned it. 🍰 🍖