#58: How Personal Stress Can Disrupt Your Financial Habits (And How to Get Back on Track)

In this deeply personal episode of Wealth Para Todos, host Rita-Soledad Fernandez Paulino (Soledad; they/them) — a queer Mexican-American money and self-care coach — shares a real-life update about navigating grief, health challenges, and political stress while continuing to build wealth.

This episode was originally supposed to focus on financially preparing for a big move, but Soledad pivots to discuss something many people experience but rarely talk about: how life circumstances can disrupt our financial routines and make it harder to stay engaged with our money.

If you’ve ever found yourself avoiding your finances, delaying a financial task, or feeling like you’ve fallen off track, this episode will remind you that you are not alone — and that temporary disruptions don’t mean financial failure.

The Wealth-Building Cycle

Soledad begins by revisiting their Wealth-Building Cycle framework, which includes four core practices that support long-term financial security:

• Auditing your money thoughts — becoming aware of beliefs and emotions around dinero
• Developing financial literacy — learning about credit, investing, taxes, and wealth strategies
• Knowing your numbers — understanding income, spending, savings, investments, and debt
• Increasing your income — building the skill of growing earnings over time

Engaging in these practices helps individuals progress through the 10 Stages of Financial Security and ultimately move toward financial flexibility and early retirement con tiempo.

When Life Makes Financial Habits Hard

Soledad shares the personal challenges that have made it difficult to stay fully engaged in the wealth-building cycle recently, including:

• The one-year anniversary of their grandmother Abue Ana’s death
• Multiple additional family losses
• Anxiety as a parent of a trans child during a political climate targeting trans communities
• Stress related to ICE raids affecting immigrant communities
• Trauma responses following a tio’s unexpected death
• Months of insomnia and anxiety symptoms
• Navigating celiac disease and IBS flare-ups
• Discovering a pre-diabetes diagnosis after overdue annual lab work

These challenges significantly impacted Soledad’s capacity to review finances, study investing, and stay consistent with financial routines.

Returning to Self-Care Before Returning to Wealth Building

Rather than forcing productivity during a difficult season, Soledad explains how they shifted their focus to D.I.V.E.R.S.E. Self-Care, their framework for maintaining both wellness and financial resilience.

During times of high stress, they prioritized:

• Restorative body self-care through Pilates, walking, and sleep support
• Emotional self-care through therapy and embodiment coaching
• Nutrition support to manage IBS and pre-diabetes
• Starting medication for anxiety and insomnia

This approach helped restore stability in their nervous system so they could eventually return to the wealth-building cycle with greater capacity.

The Key Message

Life disruptions — grief, illness, family stress, or political realities — can temporarily pull us out of our financial routines.

But slowing down to care for your mental and physical health is not a failure.

It’s often the exact support your body and mind need so you can re-enter the wealth-building cycle with strength.

As Soledad reminds listeners:

Wealth isn’t built through perfection. It’s built through returning to the cycle again and again.

Episode Timestamps

00:00 — Welcome and Mission
00:21 — Why This Episode Changed Direction
01:09 — Recap of the Wealth-Building Cycle
02:59 — Grief, Politics, and Emotional Stress
04:57 — Trauma Responses and Sleep Changes
08:06 — Anxiety and Considering Medication
09:20 — IBS, Health Issues, and Reduced Capacity
10:14 — Discovering a Pre-Diabetes Diagnosis
12:08 — Rebuilding Health and Support Systems
14:47 — Prioritizing D.I.V.E.R.S.E. Self-Care
16:39 — Closing Encouragement and Podcast Disclaimer