To teach people how to spend in alignment with their values and not from their ego
To teach a practical approach to money that respects the spiritual nature of people and money
To end our individual and collective distress, desperation and suffering over money
Back when the recession hit in 2008, we saw that a lot of people who appeared perfectly put together, financially sound, were unraveling. Friends, family, acquaintances, and near-strangers alike would share their dire financial situations with my mom, so curious about how our family and businesses went unfazed by the surrounding chaos.
Many of their stories had a similar theme: Money was stressful before the recession, but they were mostly OK. They managed. But with the downturn wiping many of them out, they faced difficult decisions. They were afraid to lose their homes, dignity, and the lifestyle they worked so hard to build.
When looking more closely at these people’s stories, my mom found something interesting. There wasn’t a single catastrophic bad choice or circumstance that led to their financial downfall. These people had just made seemingly innocent choices, small mistakes, day after day and year after year. They just didn’t really know how to manage their money, and that had devastating effects.
We are committed to showing you how to keep and enjoy the money you have. We want you to feel good about the money you spend. We’ll show you how to save for unexpected expenses, job loss, to change the world or accomplish anything in the realm of possibility – even if that’s just sleeping easier and not worrying about bills.
More than just being able to afford your lifestyle, we believe that getting control of your finances opens channels of creativity, fuels your ability to contribute, and provides peace of mind. Just removing that constant stress of “survival” opens up things you never thought possible.
Now that you know what we do, here’s why we do it.
My mom was born in Mexico to parents who never went to school, and whose first home had a dirt floor and cardboard roof. When she was seven, her mother (my Abuela) became a single mother. When my mom was 12, she came to the U.S., not speaking a word of English.
None of these circumstances stopped her from graduating high school and building a family. She was married, had me and my younger sister, and at 27 she quit her full time job and started working part-time while she went to college.
I was 10 when she graduated with her degree in Business Administration & Accounting. She passed the Certified Public Accountant’s exam, but didn’t become a CPA because she wanted to be self-employed immediately.
Thanks to my parent’s tireless efforts and my mom’s excellent grasp on personal finance, I had everything I could ever need growing up. I’m not even offended if someone calls me “spoiled”. We had the houses, cars, nannies, vacations, and lots of other indulgences which I mention not to brag, but to show how far my mom has come.
The Financially Fit Foundation was born in 2011 out of her desire to avoid seeing people in this scary situation again. She’ll teach anybody willing to learn to manage his or her money.
She developed a system for herself over the last 25 years that has worked at home and in business alike that is easy to use. You may be thinking, But she’s an accountant! Of course she can do this. While that certainly informed her creation of the system, which she developed after years in college, managing our family’s finances, reading books, talking to experts, running a business, and familial knowledge, passed down from my Abuela who had her own amazing financial accomplishments during her lifetime, this system is easy for everyone, even those of you who are allergic to numbers.