Hey, i'm Cindy

I am a money mindset mentor supporting open minded, spiritual women, who are not where they want to be financially, find clarity and learn how to manifest financial freedom.

I am a lover of all things Geek and have a healthy obsession with crystals, traveling, plants, personal finance, manifestation, and books. You can find me cosplaying with my husband at a nearby comic con or Renaissance Faire. You can also find me traveling and tending to my indoor jungle.

Just like you, I have been on a financial freedom journey and have been faced with a variety of blocks that kept me from reaching my financial goals. Over the years, I’ve come to the realization that to become financially free, there has to be a healthy balance of practical money habits and mindset work.

My Story

My family and I immigrated from the beautiful island of the Dominican Republic when I was 5 years old and moved to one of the most underprivileged cities that New Jersey had to offer (aka the hood). Like all immigrants, we were promised the American Dream and the reality at that time was everything but a dream.

I remember going food shopping with my mother and she would have to prioritize the groceries. Leaving things behind because there was not enough money to buy the complete grocery list beyond what food stamps offered us. We were on welfare and those food stamps were everything to us.

I remember money being the main reason for fights between my parents.

I remember going “shopping” for trash in more privileged neighborhoods.

I remember living in cockroach-infested apartments because that was what we could afford.

I remember being bullied because my second-hand clothes looked cheap.

The only financial education we got was from watching our parents get into debt and fighting about it. Resenting money because money is the root of all evil but complaining when it is not around. There was so much confusion about this taboo topic that no wonder many people have resistance towards it.

I was painfully shy , so much that I was afraid to look people in the eyes. This later progressed to general anxiety disorder which was temporarily “treated” with anti anxiety pills. This was my reality and I chose to settle. Like many of my fellow community members, we choose to settle and accept generational poverty.

Money was a beautiful thing that brought shiny new items into our household, but as soon as it arrived, it was gone. Family members only showed up to ask for money for questionable ventures. There was never enough money and the only way to get it is by being dishonest and working a ridiculous amount of hours a week. This is the mindset I grew up with. Confusing right? Is money good or bad? As a result, I adopted a negative money mindset. I consciously choose to be a victim because of my lack of money and thought of money as something others are worthy of, not me.

I made the conscious choice to do something about my current reality.

I made the decision to learn as much as I could about this taboo topic that has caused such conflicting feelings in my childhood: Money.

My good intentions were there: I would learn ways to make a lot of money and prove to others that no matter what their background is, they have options to make their money goals a reality. I became a first generation college student, paying my own way through college while working full time. I even paid off my school loans in less than three years! I felt like I had made it. However, somewhere along the way, I fell back into my old money story filled with limiting beliefs that held my parents back and were now holding me back from my full money-saving potential.

Enter the Season of Spending

I went from being on welfare to overspending and living paycheck to paycheck. I fell into the very cycle that I tried to avoid.

I studied money, and I understood and even utilized fancy finance terms, however, I was still making the same mistakes that keep me in financial despair. Even though I followed the practical path to wealth, I felt something blocking me from achieving any sense of financial control, let alone freedom. I had a spending problem because in my mind if I don’t spend this hard-earned cash now, it can be taken away from me in the future.

I disguised this thought as “Now that I have no debt, I shall live life to the fullest and the only way to do that is to hoard and binge on everything.” At this part of my life, I was suffering from major anxiety that stemmed from fear of failure and I hid it behind constant mindless spending. I had no money goals and quickly moved on from the latest shiny toy or vacation to another. Despite having all the things I could possibly want, I did not feel satisfied. I was haunted by imposter syndrome and the fear that my success will be taken away from me.

My weaknesses were thrift stores and TJ Maxx. I was living paycheck to paycheck, adopting the limiting beliefs of my parents.

The breakthroughs that lead me to take charge of my future

It wasn’t until 2016 that I found a community called FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) that introduced me to the concept of financial freedom. At the same time, I started learning about the law of attraction and manifesting your dream life. I was already a very spiritual person and I realized that I’d been doing manifestation techniques for some time now. Even though the concept of living extremely frugally to retire early did not appeal to me, the concept of financial freedom did – having options now and in the future.

I started incorporating more law of attraction techniques into my day: visualizing, meditating on clarity, journaling or scripting my goals. I thought about my future and what I wanted from it. Then I made a list of things I had to do to change my current reality and most importantly, why did I want these things. The mindfulness activities helped me reevaluate my priorities and habits so that they were better aligned with my sparkly new goals.

These lessons lead to my financial freedom

The radical changes in my life resulted in finding my dream job and financial abundance. My incredibly supportive husband and I have created a money plan (aka budget) that allows us to live life to the fullest now and plan for the future. I found balance and happiness in meaningful ways with mindful spending. I continued to invest in myself and I am finally free.

Now that you know a little about me, I cannot wait to see what incredible transformation you make in your money journey. If there is anything I learned in my years is that you are worthy and capable of creating the life that you want.