Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi

Mariangelica Alvarado grew up between two very different worlds, rural Nicaragua and city life in Miami. In her household, money was not openly discussed, but it was always present through daily decisions and observation. With a mother who was intentional about saving and a father who worked hard to provide, she learned early lessons about discipline, resourcefulness, and making thoughtful choices with what was available.

In today’s episode, Maria and Jodi talk with Mariangelica about how those early experiences shaped her relationship with money as she moved through marriage, divorce, and major life transitions. She reflects on how her financial mindset shifted after divorce, including a period of reset, travel, and learning from both intentional decisions and costly missteps. Over time, she began building a more structured approach to her finances, centered on planning, stability, and long-term goals.

We also explore how she eventually stepped into entrepreneurship, using her financial discipline and lived experience to support her next chapter. Her journey reflects rebuilding, clarity, and learning to trust herself through each stage of change.

 About the Podcast 

Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi is a podcast about the stories behind the money. Through honest conversations with inspiring women, we explore how life experiences, family, career, challenges, and opportunities shape our relationship with money and wealth. 

🎙️ Follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.
⭐ If you enjoy the show, please leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners.
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @yourmoneystorywithmariaandjodi

Interested in sharing your own money story? We would love to hear from you. Send us a message to learn about becoming a guest. 

Kristin’s story is one many women can relate to. Raised in a home where money was kept behind adult conversations, she entered adulthood without much financial guidance. That gap became especially clear in her mid-20s when she faced the loss of her mother, early marriage, and major financial responsibilities all at once.

What followed was a season of learning through experience as she navigated grief, inheritance, debt, and early career changes while trying to find her footing. Over time, she moved into financial services and eventually built her own business, seeking both flexibility for her family and greater control over her financial life.

In this episode, we explore her journey from feeling overwhelmed and uncertain to building confidence as both a business owner and mother, and the intentional way she is now shaping her family’s relationship with money.

 About the Podcast 

Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi is a podcast about the stories behind the money. Through honest conversations with inspiring women, we explore how life experiences, family, career, challenges, and opportunities shape our relationship with money and wealth. 

🎙️ Follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.
⭐ If you enjoy the show, please leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners.
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @yourmoneystorywithmariaandjodi

Interested in sharing your own money story? We would love to hear from you. Send us a message to learn about becoming a guest. 

In this episode, Maria and Jodi sit down with financial therapist Erika Wasserman to explore the emotional side of money and why so many financial decisions are driven more by emotion than logic.

Erika shares her perspective that money mistakes are like a bad haircut. They feel uncomfortable in the moment, but they grow out, can be corrected, and are rarely as permanent as they seem. She opens up about her own financial experiences, including a divorce decision that helped strengthen her long-term retirement savings and a personal loan that went unpaid until she later recovered it with outside support.

Together, they discuss how emotions can quietly shape financial choices and why talking openly about money is often difficult but important. Erika also highlights the value of tools and support systems that help people start and sustain those conversations.

This conversation is a reminder that our relationship with money is ongoing, shaped by emotion, and constantly evolving as we learn from both our successes and our mistakes.

 About the Podcast 

Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi is a podcast about the stories behind the money. Through honest conversations with inspiring women, we explore how life experiences, family, career, challenges, and opportunities shape our relationship with money and wealth. 

🎙️ Follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.
⭐ If you enjoy the show, please leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners.
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @yourmoneystorywithmariaandjodi

Interested in sharing your own money story? We would love to hear from you. Send us a message to learn about becoming a guest. 

What happens when early trauma and financial hardship shape your relationship with money and purpose?

Maria and Jodi speak with Tania Andre about her journey from childhood instability in Puerto Rico and the Bronx to building a successful career in marketing and ultimately stepping into advocacy work.

Tania shares how early experiences with poverty and trauma influenced her decisions around education, relationships, and financial independence. She reflects on achieving outward financial success while still feeling an internal void, which eventually led her to make a major life shift.

Through unexpected experiences, she discovered her purpose in helping raise awareness around human trafficking and supporting prevention efforts through education.

This episode is a reflection on resilience, healing, and how purpose can emerge through life’s most difficult experiences.

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 About the Podcast 

Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi is a podcast about the stories behind the money. Through honest conversations with inspiring women, we explore how life experiences, family, career, challenges, and opportunities shape our relationship with money and wealth. 

🎙️ Follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.
⭐ If you enjoy the show, please leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners.
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @yourmoneystorywithmariaandjodi

Interested in sharing your own money story? We would love to hear from you. Send us a message to learn about becoming a guest. 

What shapes our money mindset, and how much of it comes from what we experience early in life?

In this episode, Maria and Jodi talk with Marcella Clark about her journey from growing up in Brazil with financial instability to becoming a CPA and business owner in the United States.

Marcella shares how early experiences with money shaped her focus on planning, control, and long-term financial security. She also reflects on how her mindset has shifted over time, from scarcity and stress to more intentional and values-based financial decisions.

The conversation explores spending habits, cultural influences, and the importance of staying involved in financial decisions within relationships and family life.

This episode highlights how money mindset evolves with experience, awareness, and purpose.

 About the Podcast 

Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi is a podcast about the stories behind the money. Through honest conversations with inspiring women, we explore how life experiences, family, career, challenges, and opportunities shape our relationship with money and wealth. 

🎙️ Follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.
⭐ If you enjoy the show, please leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners.
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @yourmoneystorywithmariaandjodi

Interested in sharing your own money story? We would love to hear from you. Send us a message to learn about becoming a guest. 

In this first episode of Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi, Maria Castillo Dominguez and Jodi Selleck introduce themselves and share the personal money stories that shaped not only their individual perspectives but also the foundation of this podcast.

Jodi shares how growing up in a household where money was rarely discussed shaped her early understanding of finances, and how her path through career growth, ambition, and unexpected life events, including infertility, adoption, and caregiving for her mother, eventually led her to build a more flexible and intentional way of working and living.

Maria shares her experience growing up in a humble household in Spain, where financial limitations were part of daily life, and how that environment shaped both her discipline and her drive to create a different future. She reflects on her journey through education, moving to the United States, and navigating major life transitions, ultimately building stability through entrepreneurship, family, and homeownership.

Together, Maria and Jodi reflect on how early money experiences continue to shape adult beliefs and behaviors in ways that are often unspoken. They explore why these conversations matter, especially for women who are rarely given space to talk openly about money, even though it influences so many parts of life.

They close by grounding the podcast in a shared belief that money is meant to be understood, not avoided, and that sharing these stories can create clarity, connection, and perspective for women navigating their own financial journeys.

 About the Podcast 

Tell Us About It: Your Money Story with Maria and Jodi is a podcast about the stories behind the money. Through honest conversations with inspiring women, we explore how life experiences, family, career, challenges, and opportunities shape our relationship with money and wealth. 

🎙️ Follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.
⭐ If you enjoy the show, please leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners.
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @yourmoneystorywithmariaandjodi

Interested in sharing your own money story? We would love to hear from you. Send us a message to learn about becoming a guest.