And the Financial Program I'm Building to Change That Statistic

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Latinas Lose $1.2 Million Over a Lifetime

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Let that sink in.

There’s a day dedicated to Latina Equal Pay Day. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. This year, Latina Equal Pay Day landed on October 8, 2025, and naturally, reading the stats around this sent me on an irate frenzy. This is the day when Latinas finally earn what white, non-Hispanic men earned by December 31st of last year.

We have to work nearly 11 extra months to earn what white, non-Hispanic men make in 12 months.

The wage gap is steep. We’re talking 54 cents for every dollar. For those of us working full-time year-round? It’s 58 cents. And if you’re in California, like me? Try 49 cents. The worst gap in the entire country.

You can see why I’m angry. It’s justified. After being fed the idea that working hard, playing hard, and doing everything you’re told will somehow help you make it out safe and sound. But this ongoing wage gap isn’t about individual choices or “working harder.” This is what sociologists call structural inequality—when the system itself is set up to produce unequal outcomes. It’s intentional, not accidental.

Sin querer queriendo—accidentally on purpose—the universe keeps dropping these reminders in my path. Synchronicities. Divine nudges. Like when this date showed up and I couldn’t look away from what it means for me, for us, for all the Latina women out here navigating systems that were never built with us in mind. And I am affirmed, yet again, of why what I’m doing with Thriving Human matters, for more than just me.

Some Background

Latina Equal Pay Day has been observed since around 2015, growing out of a broader Equal Pay Day movement that started in 1996. But here’s what should alarm us:

The numbers tell a story about what our society values—and who it doesn’t. Over a 40-year career, a typical Latina stands to lose $1.2 million in earnings because of this wage gap. But these aren’t just statistics. This is:

• Housing stability or one rent increase away from crisis

• Healthcare access or delaying that doctor’s appointment

• The ability to leave exploitative situations or staying because you need the paycheck

• Generational wealth or starting from zero, again

• Freedom to make choices aligned with your values or just surviving

• I won't even get started with the family-rearing implications…

  
  

When sociologists talk about social stratification (how society sorts people into hierarchies) and economic inequality, they mean this. These patterns aren’t random. They’re the result of things like occupational segregation (Latinas being funneled into lower-paying jobs), discrimination in hiring and promotion, immigration status vulnerabilities, and the systematic devaluation of care work and service labor—sectors where we’re overrepresented.

And let me tell you why this hits different for me.

Latina Equal Pay Day: My Story

I’m a first-gen Latina. A solopreneur. At 35, I’m starting over—again.

Last year, I walked away from a 10-year career in nonprofit leadership because I was severely unhappy and burned out. I had climbed the ladder, proved myself in rooms where I was often the only one who looked like me, shattered glass ceilings in spaces that weren’t built for someone with my background. And still, it wasn’t enough. The systems took more than they gave. They always do when they’re designed around extraction (taking without giving back) rather than sustainability.

So I chose liberation over a paycheck. I chose to build Thriving Human—a space rooted in the belief that we don’t have to internalize capitalist metrics of success. That we can create careers, businesses, and lives that honor our humanity, our cultural values, and our need for rest and wholeness.

But starting over? It’s been humbling in ways I didn’t anticipate:

• Learning to walk in a completely new way

• Unlearning everything I was socialized to believe about productivity, worth, and what “making it” looks like

• Being on my own without the institutional safety net

• The money struggles that come with entrepreneurship when you don’t have generational wealth to fall back on

• The isolation when your network is slim and imposter syndrome is screaming that you’re not qualified (even though you absolutely are)

  
  

Going broke while trying to build something meaningful hits different when you understand the wage gap data. When you can see how structural inequality shapes individual outcomes. When you’re living proof that “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is propaganda designed to make systemic failure look like personal responsibility.

And yet—sin querer queriendo—this is exactly what I’m meant to do. This work keeps showing up in my daily life, affirming that I’m on the right path even when it’s terrifying. Even when it hasn’t made me rich. Even when I’m rebuilding at 35 and questioning everything.

At Thriving Human, we stand on three pillars: Leadership, Mentorship, and Money Skills. Here’s how I see it—these aren’t separate domains. They’re symbiotic (mutually supportive), interconnected, and mutually reinforcing.

Think about it: Leadership is a practice that requires authenticity and confidence—which means you need to know yourself at your core. That requires emotional intelligence (understanding and managing your emotions and others’), self-awareness, and all the inner work that comes with it.

But here’s what most leadership programs miss: Who gets access to mentorship? Whose leadership gets recognized? Where does money concentrate? These aren’t random questions—they reveal the systems at play.

Mentorship circles are gatekept. Leadership is defined by people who look nothing like us. Money flows to the already-wealthy while we’re told to budget better.

I haven’t seen these three pillars—Leadership, Mentorship, and Money Skills—connected the way I’m connecting them as the central hubs of Thriving Human. Because they’re not separate issues. They’re symbiotic. They’re what I call the liberation trifecta.

You can’t lead authentically if you haven’t healed your own internalized oppression and understood how society shaped you. You can’t access meaningful mentorship if you don’t know how to navigate power dynamics and build reciprocal relationships. And you can’t be truly free if financial insecurity keeps you trapped in exploitative situations—whether that’s a toxic workplace, an unhealthy partnership, or systemic dependencies that limit your choices.

Decolonization and healing are at the core of all three. Each one needs the others to work.

Are these pillars idealistic for the world we live in today, where we’re actively regressing? Hell yes. For the futurist in me, wanting a better tomorrow? Absolutely not—this is the minimum. Yeah, we have high standards for human thriving. Because settling for less is how we got here in the first place.

That vision is rooted in the sincere acknowledgment that healing is required to thrive. We do the inner work, and we name the systems that harm us. Both truths matter. That’s what an intersectional liberation-focused approach looks like in practice.

Why Money Is Never Just About Money

Here’s what mainstream financial literacy programs won’t tell you: money is never just about money. It’s about power. Access. Freedom. Safety.

When Latinas are systematically paid 54 cents on the dollar, we’re not just experiencing individual disadvantage—we’re experiencing structural violence (harm caused by social structures, not individuals). We lose wages, yes. But more than that:

• We lose the power to make decisions

• We lose choices about where to work and live

• We lose the ability to leave situations that harm us

• We lose the capacity to build wealth that could buffer our families from future shocks

  
  

Financial literacy isn’t politically neutral. It’s a feminist issue because gender shapes our economic outcomes. It’s a racial justice issue because our ethnicity determines how our labor is valued. It’s a liberation issue because economic autonomy is foundational to every other kind of freedom.

That’s why Money Skills is a foundational pillar, and our core program, Money Unlearned, is actively being developed. It’s not just a side project or an afterthought but a crucial part of our work. I believe that in a capitalist society, true thriving is impossible if we remain economically vulnerable. Anyone who says money can’t buy happiness likely hasn’t experienced severe financial trauma or struggled to survive financially in this society. Money buys stable housing, meals, hygiene, safety, and more. After spending eight years working with homelessness in Los Angeles, I have seen firsthand the effects of extreme, systemic poverty. Additionally, I grew up in a low SES environment, so I’ve experienced it firsthand.

I know what it’s like to be underresourced, and feel it in my bones. Even when I’m financially well off, I still feel money anxiety. That’s how you know it’s psychological. My goal is to change that for others. Mastering money means we’re not bound or enslaved to anyone or anything. Financial freedom allows us to be our own masters rather than slaves to the system.

Money, Unlearned

Let me tell you about this financial program. I created a program I wish had existed for me when I was struggling. It doesn’t pathologize financial stress, meaning it doesn't treat it as a personal flaw —often the case— or view money management as a moral failing. This is the narrative it challenges, but when you see that Latinas statistically stand to lose $1.2 million over their lifetime, I mean, that is not a personal thing; it is systemic, created, and designed. We are treated as expendable, but I will not stand for it. It's a program that recognizes financial wellness as both psychological and sociological—rooted in larger systems, shaped by intergenerational trauma and cultural messaging, and requiring embodied practice to transform.

This program stands out, and I'll explain why. It's intentionally designed—so intentionally that you might not even notice. We're elevating our skills like true professionals, unlike the limited perspective of cheap recruiters who overlook how skills transfer across industries. My program, created by yours truly, uses adult learning theory, instructional design, and thematic structure. It breaks down theory, concepts, and jargon, integrates practice, unlearning, and habit building, and provides supported and guided integration. Real support. Change is tough, but imagine having a non-judgmental support system through Thriving Human that provides the scaffolding to help you figure things out.

The program moves through five phases, each building on the developmental needs of the last.

Here’s a brief overview of what the learning design has included.

Phase/Level 100: Awareness & Safety

You feel safe checking your accounts. You track your cash flow without shame spirals. You hold a $500 buffer that gives you breathing room. This phase is about creating psychological safety around money—the foundation on which everything else is built. Because if you can’t even look at your bank account without panic, you can’t take the next steps.

Phase/Level 200: Systems & Consistency

You maintain an automated budget and bill flow for 30 days. Not perfectly. Not without hiccups. Just consistently. You build the muscle memory of managing money as a regular practice, not a crisis response. You start to see patterns in your behavior and understand how socialization shows up in your spending.

Phase/Level 300: Growth & Confidence

You open your first investment or retirement account. You start aligning your spending with your actual values, not the ones capitalism sold you or your family inherited. This is where money starts working for you instead of controlling you. This is where you realize you’re capable of building wealth, even if nobody taught you how.

Phase/Level 400: Legacy & Liberation

You craft a wealth vision and a community impact plan. Because financial freedom isn’t just personal—it’s collective. This phase asks: what world do you want to build with your resources? How do you want to redistribute what you accumulate? What does abundance look like when it’s not hoarded but shared?

Phase/Level 500: Stewardship & Regeneration

You mentor others. You maintain a sustainable wealth ecosystem. You become the model you once needed. You pay it forward because that’s how we all get free. This is about legacy work and understanding that liberation is never individual—it’s always relational, always communal.

This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a long-term program that aims to change your life, which I’m actively developing and rolling out in real-time. I haven’t completed all five phases yet—I’m building this with you, sharing content gradually across the levels as they become ready, because this work requires iteration, feedback, and co-creation.

And yes, while it starts with the individual, my vision is for us to use our wealth not just for ourselves, but for our loved ones, community, and to build a better world.

I want to stand against the evil millionaires. In my delulu—yes, I call it delulu—vision, similar to how Edison sounded when he invented the light bulb's commercial system, you have to be delulu to question and change the status quo. I am OVER the evil billionaires. I think some of the good people need more money. And I want to help us get it.

So you know that means I'm gonna be shadowbanned AF.

Financial Literacy in Community

I know from both research and lived experience that doing this work in isolation is nearly impossible. There are many people who do “pull themselves up from their bootstraps” — I bet that was hard and lonely AF. This program offers weekly body doubling budgeting sessions on our Discord server and an asynchronous community group that I call a ‘practice pod’; you join practice pods because you want to practice and connect with others doing the same. This is shared accountability for a task most of us have been conditioned to dread: budgeting.

Here’s what body doubling does: it creates parallel presence (being together while doing separate tasks). You’re not alone with your anxiety. You’re in community with others doing the same hard thing. The social accountability shifts the task from “I should do this” to “We’re doing this together.” It makes what feels shameful and isolating into something shared and manageable.

You can use my budgeting system or bring your own. The tool matters less than the practice. The point is:

• Showing up in your body

• Being present with your money

• Processing the emotions that inevitably come up

• Building new neural pathways around financial wellness

  
  

That’s the psychology and sociology of money working together—individual healing within collective support structures.

My program will, incidentally, enforce embodiment. You can’t dissociate your way through budgeting when you’re in a community. You have to be present. And presence is where transformation happens.

Let’s Build This Thing Together

Here’s where I’m being real with you: I’m building it in real-time and I’m releasing content across the levels as they’re developed, adjusting based on what’s actually needed, not what some marketing guru said would sell.

This is action research (studying a problem while actively working to solve it) happening live. I’m not sitting in an ivory tower theorizing about Latina financial wellness—I’m living it, building it, and learning alongside you.

That means you’re not just joining a program—you’re helping shape it. You’re founding members. Early adopters in the truest sense. In exchange for your participation and candid feedback, I’m offering this at a never-again price. Not because I’m undervaluing the work, but because I genuinely want to co-create something that meets real needs, and that requires real input from the people it’s designed to serve.

How “Pay-As-We-Build” Pricing Works

My pricing model is intentionally different—it’s anti-capitalist by design, built with community and collective growth in mind. Here’s how it works:

Here’s a hypothetical example so you get the idea:

Level 1, for $5.

When I add Level 2, the price goes to $10 for NEW members.

Level 3? $30. And so on as the program builds out.

But if you joined for $5? That’s all you ever pay, AND still get the new add-ons.

This is a hypothetical scenario with easy-to-understand numbers; the course will be in the hundreds ($$$) when it is complete.

If you join now, you get every single level, every lesson, every update as they roll out—at no additional cost. Your price for the program is locked forever at the cost when you join.

Translation: The earlier you get in, the less you pay for the complete program. This rewards the people who believe in this work early and helps me build it. No upsells. No “unlock the next level” schemes. Just honest pricing that values early supporters.

I’m doing this because I believe in us. Because I understand what it means to be a Latina navigating money in a system that was designed to keep us economically precarious, I can offer valuable insights. Because I want us to master our finances, build sustainable wealth, and live with the freedom to make choices that align with our values instead of just our survival needs.

The goal? We master money so we’re not shackled to exploitative systems, and we have the ultimate freedom to rest, to choose, to thrive on our own terms.

Want to be the first to know when it drops? My subscribers get the exclusive heads-up before anyone else—email list hears it first, then the rest of the world. Pick your preference and subscribe now. The first lesson drops soon.

📬 Subscribe at thrivinghuman.life to be at the front of the line.

So... Are You In?

The data tells us what the systems won’t say out loud: our labor is systematically undervalued. Our contributions are structurally minimized. Our economic vulnerability is by design, not by accident.

But here’s what the data can’t capture:

• Our resilience

• Our brilliance

• Our capacity to build new systems when the old ones fail us

• Our commitment to collective care, even when we’re told to compete

  
  

Latina Equal Pay Day isn’t a celebration—it’s a reckoning. It’s a reminder that economic justice won’t be handed to us. We have to build it ourselves, together, through intentional practice and mutual support.

So yeah, if you’re a Latine femme struggling with money, or anyone who knows this system is broken and wants to build something better—I’m asking: will you join me?

Because this journey—the one toward liberation, toward financial sovereignty, toward lives where we’re compensated fairly and free to exist on our own terms—it’s not one any of us can walk alone. It never has been.

Let’s do this work together. Let’s build the synergistic, thriving, badass community we deserve.

Sources:

• UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. (2025). Latinas remain the lowest-paid group in the U.S. workforce. Retrieved from https://luskin.ucla.edu/latinas-remain-the-lowest-paid-group-in-the-u-s-workforce

• Institute for Women’s Policy Research. (2025). Latinas stand to lose $1.2 million over the course of a career. Retrieved from https://iwpr.org/latina-equal-pay-day-press-release-2025/

• Equal Pay Today. (2024). Latina Equal Pay Day. Retrieved from https://www.equalpaytoday.org/latina-equal-pay/

• AAUW. (2025). Equal Pay Day Calendar. Retrieved from https://www.aauw.org/resources/article/equal-pay-day-calendar/

• Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs. (2025). Latina Equal Pay Day 2025. Retrieved from https://www.cha.wa.gov/newsblog/2025/9/29/latina-equal-pay-day-2025