Our community, grounded in family, celebrates achievements and successes around our children’s milestones, most notably – baptisms, Quinceaneras, graduations, and marriages. Often, the propensity for these celebrations to go beyond a family’s means can be high and families drown themselves in debt to secure an illusion of financial security.

However, these celebrations can be used as opportunities to ensure families break the instability and set up family members for success beyond the moment. Rather than continue the pressure of “keeping up con la cuñada (sister-in-law),” families can use celebrations to introduce financial planning tools to their families. Rather than spend more money on spectacle and gifts, parents and padrinos (god-parents) can divert some of their contributions to help set up the honoree for future success, via a 529 gift card for future college expenses or setting up an IRA if the person has already started working their first job. 

While retirement may seem far away, these conversations are critical and unavoidable, as 70 percent of Latinos have no assets in retirement accounts. The economic challenges of today’s seniors have caused them to rely more on their children, who are already faced with the expenses of raising their own families. Indirectly, fueling an ongoing cycle and causing long term effects that impact the retirement security of future generations.

When our community focuses on day-to-day finances, it is difficult to engage in the political discussions and civics that are currently overwhelmingly targeting the Latinx community. 

Join our Saving, Planning, and Celebrating Life’s Important Events cafecito on Wednesday, August 12th at 3 p.m. EST, part of our Cafecito y Dinero series.  Together, we will talk about what these events genuinely represent for our community and how we can adapt to celebrating these moments amidst the pandemic and for the ongoing journey in creating generational wealth.

We’ll be joined by Jennifer Hemphill, host of Her Dinero Matters Podcast, Veronica Fuentes, Certified Financial Planner at Northwestern Mutual, and Carmen Ayala, Culture and Events Manager at Jolt.