Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cat Oliva-Pedraza. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Cat, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
In summer 2020 I decided to start learning about investing. I opened my first Roth IRA and for the first time, at the age of 32, I made it my mission to understand my retirement plan. Not only did I realize, after three years of working at my 9-5, that I could retire a millionaire at age 56 with my pension, I realized that my Roth IRA could make retirement even sooner. With that also came the realization that if i had started investing earlier or had I not made financial mistakes in the past, I could be retiring in my 30’s. I started asking around my friends and family to find out of others knew their retirement goals and a lot of women I spoke to were as clueless as I used to be. I grew up thinking that only famous people, white men, and lottery winners could be millionaires. But here I was going to be the first millionaure in my family, I knew more people needed to hear about this and there needed to be more women of color and latina financial educators. I genuinely believe that women and Latines can become millionaires if we come together and learn as a collective because in doing so we will change the world.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Cat Oliva-Pedraza and I am a money coach and the founder of Latina Millionaires Club. I teach Latinas and women of color how to overcome their limiting beliefs and scarcity mindset so they can step into abundance and live a more healthy, wealthy, and happy life. I show women how to manifest more money into their lives because I believe that when there is more money in the hands of women the world will be a more beautiful place.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Growing up as a Latina in a family of immigrants who was the first generation in my family to graduate from college, there were a few lessons I had to unlearn. I was always told that all that mattered for me was to do well in school so I could get into college, get a good job that pays at least $50k/year, then get married and start a family. Those were the steps I was supposed to take to live a happy life. I struggled to graduate college and because of that I was scared to work in the field of my major, accounting. I got married shortly after graduating college then ended up getting divorced before our 1 year anniversary. 1 year after I got married I got pregnant by somebody else when the ink wasn’t even dry on my divorce. I had checked every box my family wanted me to check but I was living with so much shame for doing things backwards and I felt like a huge disappointment to my family. I was taught to find my happiness outside of myself and that was a really hard lesson to unlearn. Fast forward to now, 11 years since I graduated from college, I found my happiness within myself and have discovered my creativity. I get to walk away from my 9-5 because I am taking a chance on myself and my business. I could lose my business and all my money tomorrow and I would know how to start over and create a business from scratch. It was a very long way to unlearn that happiness comes from doing, and to now know without a doubt that happiness comes from being.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
“We Should all be Millionaires” by Rachel Rodgers and, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill changed the trajectory of my life. I read “Think and Grow Rich” first and it inspired me to change my thoughts and beliefs. I used to sit back and wait for things to come to me so reading that book helped me to realize that I need to take aligned action towards the things I want in order to have the life or the career or the business I have always dreamed of. Then I read “We should all be Millionaires” and that book taught me how to manifest money and it eventually set me on the path to become a money coach.
Contact Info:
- Website: Latinamillionairesclub.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/latinamillionairesclub
- Facebook: Latina Millionaires Club
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-oliva-91452bb3
- Twitter: @latinamilliclub
Image Credits
Lizette Linares