Mauricio Cardenas, from sports presenter to financial educator

After Mauricio Cárdenas lost almost half a million dollars in his business deals, he decided to learn everything he could about finances. Far from imagining that he would become a financial educator focused on the Latino community.

“I was a reporter and sportscaster for Univisión and Fox for 25 years, but since I've always been very restless with business, I had a Mexican ice cream shop and a television production company."

Then he started in real estate, but when things didn't work out for him as expected and had serious losses, he dedicated himself to educating himself in financial and money matters.

“I started taking courses, going to conferences, and reading books and I became addicted to the subject especially in terms of what you can do with life insurance, how to buy a house and pay off debts.”

In 2014 he resigned from television. By then he was working at Fox sports , but continued to send news to his native Colombia. Until 2018, his life changed when his wife developed ovarian cancer.

“I sold my paleteria, and decided not to work that year to be with my wife.”

And when her partner got better, even though she had offers to return to television, she definitely resolved not to return to the world of small-screen news.

“I wanted to do something else; and I thought that Latinos need to educate ourselves in finances because I myself had lost all my businesses for not knowing.”

That was when a pastor called him to offer him a 5-minute radio slot to talk about sports.

“I said yes, but that my segment would be called Financial Education with Mauricio Cárdenas on Radio Inspiración; and the pastor accepted.”

It was such a success that three or four months later, he was told that instead of a 5-minute segment, he would have a half-hour show at 5 pm.

“I got to talking about my experience, God and financial health.”

Today, the radio program Financial Education Counts With Me with Mauricio Cardenas is broadcast on 16 stations in the United States for one hour from Monday to Friday.

“We have been with the program for three and a half years, and we receive calls from all over the country.”

In 2019 Mauricio also created the company Mauricio Cárdenas Financial specialized in life insurance, savings and investment systems, university planning, scholarships, fast payment of debts, aid for small businesses, among other financial tools.

“We help buy a house, save for college, pay off debt, plan for retirement, and buy life insurance. We have supported many people; and I have become the number one life insurance agent in the country.”

What's more, Mauricio employs 23 people in his company.

During these years, the main need he has detected in the Latino community is the lack of financial education.< /p>

“We are good at saving, but we don't know where to put the money so that it pays us compound interest (interest on interest). A bank only pays you simple interest”

So his best advice is to put your money where you earn the most.

He said that another very felt need in the Latino community is that we don't plan for retirement.

“We don't think about what I'm going to live on when the years fall upon us and we can no longer work. So the earlier we plan to retire, the better.”

She said that we should also consider buying a property. It is not as difficult, he said, as is believed because the downpayment can be up to 3.5% of the value of the property.

“For that we need financial education, knowing how to advise ourselves and looking for the best retirement plan ”.

A key tip from the reporter-turned-financial educator is to budget.

“We can start cutting down on street tacos and save $300. The budget is very important to see how much comes in and goes out. If we do not control the management of money, we will never do anything. We have to take care of what we earn.”

His experience led him to write a book, now on sale, entitled “The health in your pocket, financial lessons from the pandemic ”.

And his best recommendation for investing money is life insurance. “I had $100,000 and I put it into life insurance that gives me a bonus at the end of the year, and it gave me leverage to buy two houses in Florida, and I didn't run out of money.”

To learn more about Mauricio Cardenas, visit his page: MauricioCardenas.com On social media you can find him as @mauriciocardenasofficial.

It also offers financial education platforms and workshops which it has called “Little Financial Coffee”.