I’ll be honest with you—when I first met Jannese Torres about a year ago at her book launch in Chicago, I had a feeling something was different. My mami senses were tingling, but she was keeping it close to the chest. Turns out, she was secretly pregnant while doing a 15-city book tour. Wild, right?
But that’s just one example of how Jannese does things differently. And in our recent conversation on the Viva la Mami podcast, she opened up about something so many of us struggle with: the fear that motherhood means sacrificing our financial freedom, our dreams, and ourselves.
The Trauma We Inherit
Jannese grew up watching her mom sacrifice everything. Her mother couldn’t work full-time until Jannese got her driver’s license in high school and could drive her sister to school. Decades of lost income. Decades of being financially dependent on a man. Decades of what motherhood looked like in our culture: putting yourself last, always.
“I really saw motherhood as like the biggest barrier to my financial freedom,” Jannese told me. “I literally did not see any examples of that growing up.”
For years, she was hardcore childfree. Not because she didn’t like kids, but because she equated having children with losing herself—and her money.
Can you relate? I know I can. How many of us grew up seeing our mothers depleted, resentful, running on empty? How many of us watched the women in our families give up their dreams because “that’s what moms do”?
The Healing Process
It took therapy and deep shadow work for Jannese to unpack this trauma. But here’s what she realized: all those years of paying off debt, building income streams, investing, and pursuing entrepreneurship? She was subconsciously preparing to have the kind of motherhood experience her own mother never got to have.
“Now I’ve created this life that really affords me the ability to be a fully present mom,” she shared. “I didn’t have to worry about going back to work after six weeks because my maternity leave expires.”
The shift happened when she met her now-husband and felt something she’d never experienced before: “I don’t want to be a mom. I want to have his child.” And then, faced with a health scare that could have made her infertile, she had to make a choice. At 39, she decided to try—and got pregnant two weeks before her book tour.
The Real Reason Motherhood Feels Impossible
Here’s what hit me hard in our conversation: Jannese said the reason motherhood is so stressful and all-consuming for most women is because they’re not properly resourced.
“The key to actually enjoying this journey, I’m sorry to say, but in our capitalist society is having money because money gives you access to support, to resources, to time, to space.”
She’s not saying this to make anyone feel bad. She’s saying it because it’s true. In America, we love pregnant people, but the moment that baby is born? There’s no support. No paid maternity leave. Nothing.
Jannese has been able to hire a nanny and a night nurse. She has in-home help. And yes, she pays for it. But because she spent years building her financial foundation, she gets to be fully present with her daughter instead of drowning.
Building Generational Wealth Starts Now
This is where things get practical. Jannese’s five-month-old daughter already has a five-figure net worth. Let that sink in.
Before her daughter even set foot on this planet, Jannese opened:
- A 529 college savings plan
- A Roth IRA (her daughter is technically an employee in her business)
- An investment brokerage account
- A high-yield savings account
“My daughter is part of our budget,” she explained. “Building wealth for her is part of our budget. We set aside money every time we get paid and it’s automatically being transferred into her accounts.”
She calculated that if she invested $7,000 now in a diversified portfolio and just let it sit, it would grow into hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time her daughter turns 18. Enough to pay for a four-year university at Harvard if she wanted.
That’s the power of starting early. That’s generational wealth.
The Permission to Set Boundaries
One of the most powerful parts of our conversation was when Jannese talked about boundaries. Motherhood has given her permission to be “unrelenting” about them in a way she never had before.
“If it’s not bringing peace to these four walls and what goes on inside of here, I’m just not entertaining it,” she said.
She’s gotten into it with family members about her daughter’s last name, who was at the hospital, vaccination schedules—all of it. And her response? “This is literally none of your damn business.”
As Latinas, this is so anti-cultural. We’re taught to respect our elders, to never talk back, to let family have a say in everything. But Jannese is clear: “I didn’t ask you permission to have a child, so I will not be asking you permission on how to raise my child.”
She has a nanny even though her husband is a stay-at-home dad and she works from home. Some family members have given her side-eye for this. Her response? They need the support so they can be good parents, good partners, and good individuals.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do things for yourself,” she told me. “It’s almost like there’s this ingrained mentality, especially in our culture, that like once you have kids, you don’t matter anymore. And I think that’s such a terrible example to set, especially for our daughters.”
What Are We Teaching Our Kids?
This brings me to the question that Jannese posed that I can’t stop thinking about: Are you modeling sacrifice, or are you modeling self-worth?
She doesn’t want her daughter to remember her as sad, depleted, and resentful the way she remembers her own mother during her most exhausted moments. She wants her daughter to see a mom who takes care of herself, who pursues her dreams, who builds businesses, who travels, who owns property.
“I want my daughter to know that you actually don’t need a man in this world,” Jannese said. “If you decide to settle down with a man or whoever else, it’s not because he’s providing you with financial security. It’s because he’s a good person that you want to build a life with.”
That’s the shift. That’s breaking the cycle.
The Lesson on Ownership
Toward the end of our conversation, Jannese talked about the most important lesson she wants to teach her daughter: the difference between building someone else’s dream and building your own.
“Oftentimes we are programmed to basically become workers,” she explained. “But the thing that builds real wealth is actual ownership.”
She’s talking about starting businesses, owning real estate, owning investments. In our capitalist system, power comes from money. And if we want our community to have a seat at the table, we need to raise a generation that understands how wealth actually works.
“When you become out of survival mode and you can actually wake up and see what’s going on, you realize there’s a lot of shit that’s wrong,” she said. “But you need the abundance, the space, the time, the energy to actually become aware.”
My Takeaway
This conversation reminded me why I started this podcast. We need these conversations. We need to see examples of Latina mothers who are choosing themselves, building wealth, and breaking cycles.
Jannese’s journey from being hardcore childfree to becoming a mom at 39, from watching her mother sacrifice everything to creating a life of abundance for her own daughter—it’s proof that healing is possible. Change is possible.
And it starts with us doing the inner work, setting the boundaries, and showing the next generation what thriving looks like—not just surviving.
Show Notes
This week, we welcome Jannese Torres, host of the Yo Quiero Dinero Podcast and author of Financially Lit, and we got REAL about motherhood, money, and breaking generational cycles.
For years, Jannese believed that motherhood was incompatible with financial freedom, watching her own mother sacrifice everything. Now, as a new mami, she’s completely rewriting what it means to be a Latina mother while building generational wealth for her daughter.
This conversation is for every mamá who’s tired of giving from an empty cup and ready to model abundance instead of sacrifice.
What You’ll Hear:
- Why Jannese believed for years that having kids meant giving up financial freedom
- How her daughter already has a five-figure net worth
- The truth about why motherhood feels so overwhelming in America
- How to set boundaries as a Latina mom even when it pisses off your family
- The difference between raising hard workers vs. wealth builders, and why ownership is where real power comes from
Resources Mentioned:
- Financially Lit by Jannese Torres (available in English and Spanish as Yo Quiero Dinero)
- Listen to my interview on the Yo Quiero Dinero Podcast!
Connect with Jannese Torres:
- Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X
- Podcast: Yo Quiero Dinero (available on all podcast platforms and YouTube)
- Website: yoquierodineropodcast.com
About Our Guest
Jannese Torres | Host of the Yo Quiero Dinero Podcast
Jannese Torres is the award-winning creator and host of the Yo Quiero Dinero podcast and bestselling author of Financially Lit! As a first-generation Latina who got fired in 2014, she accidentally became an entrepreneur and never looked back. She’s since built over 10 income streams, earning more than $1.8 million, paid off $39,000 in student loans in 17 months, and achieved financial independence by 2021.
Now, as a new mami, she’s on a mission to spark a financial literacy revolution in the Latino community – teaching Latinas how to build generational wealth, set unapologetic boundaries, and create lives of abundance without sacrificing themselves in the process.
