In this episode of Karmic Currency: Unfiltered, I sit down with one of my oldest friends, Rachel Rivera, someone I’ve known for over 30 years. We grew up together in Miami, raised by single mothers, navigating life with limited resources but a whole lot of grit, humor, and self-motivation.

Rachel’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary. From humble beginnings to earning a chemical engineering degree and building a 21-year career at NASA, she shares what it took to break through barriers as a woman of color in a male-dominated STEM field.

We talk honestly about imposter syndrome, student loans, and what it really means to believe in yourself when no one is handing you a roadmap.

This conversation weaves through real life. High school choices, financial mistakes, credit card debt, student loan repayment that lasted nearly two decades, and the lessons Rachel wishes she had learned earlier about money. We also talk about motherhood, balancing a high-pressure career, making trade-offs, and how quality time matters more than quantity.

This episode is about resilience, discipline, curiosity, and the long game. It’s about understanding that success is rarely linear and that financial confidence is built through awareness, ownership, and honest conversations.

If you’ve ever felt behind, underestimated, or unsure if you’re capable of more, this episode is for you.

In this episode of Karmic Currency: Unfiltered, I sit down with Cary Carbonaro, certified financial planner, author of The Money Queen’s Guide and her newest book, Women and Wealth, and one of the leading voices in women’s financial empowerment.

This conversation is deeply personal.

Cary opens up about how a difficult divorce became the catalyst for reclaiming her financial power and ultimately writing her first book. We talk about what it really means to start over financially, why women experience money so differently than men, and how the financial industry has historically failed to meet women where they are.

We also dive into the Great Wealth Transfer and why, despite women being on track to control the majority of wealth in the coming years, many still feel confused, underserved, or disconnected from their financial lives. Cary shares why traditional financial planning does not work for most women, what women actually need from advisors, and how to protect yourself in a world filled with noise, misinformation, and financial manipulation.

This episode is about truth, ownership, and finally having the conversations women were never taught to have about money.