This week marked the start of Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month, and all month long NGPF is going to be celebrating with dedicated blog posts, Speaker Series, and more featuring Latinx/Hispanic financial leaders! 

We’re kicking things off by highlighting the work of Natalie Torres-Haddad, also known as The Financially Savvy Latina. Natalie is a two time TEDX Speaker, an international award winning author, a bilingual podcast host of Financially Savvy in 20 minutes, and an international keynote speaker and educator. You can learn more about her and watch her popular Tedx Talk, The Foreign Language of Financial Literacy, here!

Featured Resource and Activity Idea: Podcast Episode

Natalie and her co-host Vira’s podcast episode Basic or Baller: Budget Travel Tips is perfect for teens to listen to! In just about 12 minutes, the episode highlights the importance of creating a budget that aligns with your values and making sure that you and your travel buddies are on the same page when it comes to what your budget looks like. 

What we also loved about this power episode is that it covers a LOT of things that people don’t usually think about when planning their next vacation such as travel insurance, ID theft, and more! We’ve provided some discussion questions you can use with your students below. Happy listening! 

In Case You Missed It: Many episodes of Financially Savvy in 20 minutes are also available in Spanish! 

Discussion Questions: 

1. What do you think it means to create a travel budget that aligns with your values? How might this budget look different from that of a travel buddy? 
2. Why is it important to make sure you and any people you’re traveling with are aligned on what your budgets look like? What kinds of issues might this help avoid? How might this benefit your overall travel experience? 
3. Natalie and Vira mentioned that using credit card points you’ve earned to pay for certain aspects of your trip can be a great way to save money. However, they also cautioned that you should know how to use credit cards wisely. What do you think they meant by this? What are some wise ways to use your credit cards? 
4. Below are some factors that many people may overlook when planning their vacations. Provide one tip that Natalie and Vira have for each of these factors: 
1. Emergencies that may arise during travel 
2. Having travel insurance 
3. Identify theft
4. Healthcare expenses 
5. Alicia is planning a trip with her best friend Rosa. Alicia is looking forward to the trip but is feeling nervous about her upcoming conversation where she and Rosa are going to create a budget. She doesn’t want either one of them to feel awkward about discussing any differences in how much they each want to spend and what they would like to spend money on. What would you tell Alicia so that she goes into the conversation feeling more comfortable and confident? 

PS: NGPF will be featuring Latinx/Hispanic financial leaders and educators in many of our weekly Speaker Series and Virtual PDs this month! Sign up for them here!

About the Author

Sonia Dalal

Sonia has always been passionate about instruction and improving students' learning experiences. She's come a long way since her days as a first grader, when she would "teach" music and read to her very attentive stuffed animals after school. Since then, she has taught students as a K-12 tutor, worked in several EdTech startups in the Bay Area, and completed her Ed.M in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about bringing the high quality personal finance content and instruction she wished she'd received in school to the next generation of students and educators. When she isn't crafting lesson guides or working with teachers, Sonia loves to spend her time singing, being outdoors, and adventuring with family and friends!