Latino Evolution brings to you information and easy to understand articles about Money Management and Personal Development. Although, the main focus of Latino Evolution is Personal Finance and Personal Development for the Evolution of many Hispanics/Latinos in the U.S., this site will post other information related to Latinos.

I personally prefer to use Latino rather than Hispanic hence, Latino Evolution. To me the word Hispanic makes me uneasy, because if you break the word “Hispanic” down, you get His — panic. I just think it has something to do with the word “panic” in there, aside from being the last thing we all hear when we listen or say the word Hispanic.

For the sake of this blog, I will be using the two terms interchangeably, however, you now know what I prefer to use.

About the Author

I am a Mexican young man living in the Silicon Valley in California. I completed my college education at San Jose State University in 2007. I earned a Bachelor of Science in International Business, and minor in Economics Latin America Area.

I enjoy reading about finance technology, business, marketing, and personal development, and when related to Latino people I enjoy it even more…

I am not a financial guru or professional adviser. I have studied and read lots of information on economics and finance and I keep learning and researching the subject everyday because I was in debt myself. When I realized I was into deep in debt I lost my sleep so I research and read books on personal finance to try to find the right path to a healthier financial life. I read books like the automatic millionaire and rich dad poor dad to get information and especially motivation to take charge of my finances and get out of debt. If you have not read this books, you may want to do that, and I guarantee you that it will change your outlook on personal finance.

My Story:

I was $27,000 in credit card debt that I acquired during some 3 1/2 yeas of college. I had the debt spread out in 5 different credit cards, (I know stupid) and the funny thing is that I never realized that I was getting so much into it. I would only make the automatic minimum payments. Granted that I was very busy with college work and a pretty much full time job. I will share with you in this blog the things that I did to eliminate all that stupid! debt.

Stupid Debt:

Clothes. (Half of those clothes I don’t even use, I have give to goodwill so much stuff, and my closet is still packed)

Electronics. (I had three(3) computers, two i pods, a big screen and a pretty fancy sound system in my car)

Bar Tabs. (During 3 years in colleges I used to go out to the bars and clubs to party with friends 2-3 days per week. I spent a lot of money here. Every time I think about it hurts) I had fun. I don’t deny it at all, but I am still slapping myself for that bad financial judgment.

Travels: During those 3 1/2 years, I managed to travel to Mexico twice per year for relaxing and visitar familia. I traveled to Las Vegas and San Diego on numerous occasions with friends spending lots of money.

What I have done Right:

In the last year and a half I have paid off my debt and I have started to save and invest more intelligently. How I did it? I have been working two jobs for the last 1 and 1/2 years to attacked debt and save at the same time. No vacations, not flushing money down the drain in the bars ( I limited myself when I went out to have fun), no more buying stuff (clothes, shoes, and other crap) I don’t even need, and tracking closely my spending with a budget. It’s been hard work, but it feels good. I am in the silicon valley and I make good money that help a lot. However the desire and discipline makes all the difference.

I began by transferring as much debt as possible to a 0% 12 months no interest credit cards and some to a 2.99 and 3.99% interest for until paid off cards. You can find some offers.

Back when I started to get serious about my finances a friend from work told me about saving money automatically with ING Direct an online savings bank account.
This account is great and is free of fees and you can start off with like $25 bucks. I started saving immediately by setting up automatic byweelkly (every paycheck) transfers from my bank of America checking account into my ING account. If you want start saving easily open up an account. For Details and Opening an account go Here.
It works great for me because I’m saving without knowing and it is separate from my bills account.

Go on and read some of my posts.

“The Rich rule over the Poor, and the Borrower is Servant to the Lender.”

Never take financial advise from somebody that is broke or from someone who is deeply in debt and gets more into it. Take from somebody that has money or has been in bad debt and has eliminated it.

You are welcome to leave any comments and suggestions, and share your debt of saving story with everybody that comes through this site….. Good luck.