In this episode, Catalina Del Carmen sits down with Anna N’Jie-Konte for a real conversation about money, survival, and building wealth from scratch. Anna shares what it was like growing up with financial instability, how that shaped her relationship with money, and what it actually takes to become a first-generation wealth builder.

They talk about risk (the kind nobody prepares you for), lifestyle creep, why “making more money” doesn’t automatically fix your money problems, and what it really means to have financial support — emotionally and strategically. This isn’t fluffy finance talk. It’s honest, practical, and rooted in self-awareness.

If you’re trying to be the one who changes the money story in your family, this episode will hit.

Follow Anna on Instagram: @annanjiekonte
Learn more at: https://www.poderwealth.com/

Join us by subscribing & following me on IG @catdelcarmen 

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Hello, hello, hello. Anna, I am so excited to have you on the podcast. I’m sorry you haven’t been on here earlier, because you should have. I have wanted you on the podcast for so long, but my ADHD brain has always just like, do, do, do, do. Anyways, you’re here. And today, today we’re going to talk about your story. I was just telling you before this that the world needs more of your stories. So this is going to be.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (00:12.931)
Anna N’Jie-Konte (00:22.222)
I am.

Catalina Del Carmen (00:32.566)
the podcast where here’s the thing, I know how brilliant you are. mean, know how much you’ve already like the way you help your clients, the way you think about many, I know so much of that, but I don’t know how you know that besides the education piece, right? Like clearly you have done a lot of literal work on it, but I want to talk about your story because I really do want to understand.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (00:48.192)
Yeah. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (00:57.924)
how one, how you grew up with money, like what was that relationship looking like and how you became this woman who not only is so passionate about helping other people and women specifically manage their money and grow their wealth, but also for you. And I also have a lot of questions as it pertains to like marriage and managing money with your partner and like your kids, right? Like there’s.

lots of things I want to cover with you. But I want to start with your story. First, welcome. How you doing?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (01:30.284)
Yeah. Thank you. Yay. I’m so excited to be here. It’s the highlight of my day.

Catalina Del Carmen (01:36.524)
I’m so excited. Okay, let’s get into the nitty gritty. Tell us a little bit about, yeah, tell us how it started. How did, how did.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (01:39.596)
Yeah. So, yeah, so I was born and raised in New York. You know, my parents are immigrants. So my dad’s from Gambia in West Africa and my mom’s from Puerto Rico. And, you know, for me, I grew up watching my parents like work really hard. Like my parents are both super smart. My mom in particular is just like the

the biggest badass ever when we think about, like she was a team mom, survivor of domestic violence, had a special needs kid, had one kid and then a special needs kid and found grants and stuff to go to college for like first gen way back in like the 1960s. So like my mom is just like a badass, right? And she’s a hustler and just worked super hard. And my parents,

Catalina Del Carmen (02:25.786)
Wow.

Catalina Del Carmen (02:29.7)
Hustler.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (02:37.634)
For all of that hard work, I think they fell into a trap that a lot of, I see a lot of people fall into where you’re like, okay, I got the education, I got the job, and now I want the American dream, but you’re not necessarily balancing what your economic reality is with all of these other things, right? And so from a pretty young age, I remember having to watch my parents like,

struggle to make ends meet and also for this like bigger life that they aspired for and also dig themselves out of like financial messes that they got themselves in over time. And it was really chaotic. It was super stressful. I remember just seeing like the big pendulum swings with my mom in particular of, you know, sometime when she had money, it was like, la vida es una sola.

El dinero se hizo para gastar. Like money was made to spend and I’m not gonna take it with me. So let’s go to like the amusement park this weekend or let’s go to the arcade or let’s go to the movie theater, like whatever thing that we were gonna do. And then a couple of weeks later, it was like, we’re scrounging change in the cup of the car, like the cup holder in the car.

And that was super stressful. So me, like as an adult, I was very determined. Like as a young adult coming out of college, I was like, I’m going to do better. Like this is not going to be what my future is going to be like because I don’t want my kids to have to, you know, give up extracurricular activities to get a job or to have to worry about me financially or contributing to the household financially. Like I did not want that.

And so, you I was just not really sure about that path, but ended up working in wealth management. And that just opened my eyes so much. And I felt so much insecurity and inadequacy because, you know, here I was this little like Puerto Rican chick who was not exposed to all of this stuff and who grew up like very humbly, didn’t come from the best neighborhoods, like all of that. And here I am in this place talking to people with

Anna N’Jie-Konte (04:51.778)
two commas in a portfolio and a whole lot of zeros. And I felt like I had to catch up. And so I went through this process for about five years, six years of being super frugal and like kind of Dave Ramsey-esque of like, I’m gonna deprive the hell out of myself to pay off debt, to invest really aggressively so that I can someday in the future do the fun things.

Right, so I spent most of my 20s doing that. And that really changed for me when my aunt died in 2015. So at that point, my aunt was one of the key figures in my life. My mom, my aunt and uncle, and my grandmother, they were my core group of people. And…

when she died, it was super sudden. She was like early 70s and wasn’t sick or anything like that. She just had a massive heart attack and passed away. And I remember I rushed, I was living in DC at the time, I rushed home to New York and I was sitting with my mom in my aunt’s house, like going through papers, trying to figure out stuff so we can make funeral arrangements. And I remember distinctly, like looking through all these papers and finding so many like bond.

bond coupons, like that’s what they did way back in the 90s, right? And prior bonds coupons that she had bought, investment account statements. And I was like, that’s a lot of money. Like where did this woman get that money from? Like super uncertain about it. And…

Catalina Del Carmen (06:17.122)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (06:32.716)
At the end of the day, this woman who was an immigrant, never went past high school, also got married and had kids super young. I think my aunt was 18 or 19 when she got married and had kids. Just not educated people whatsoever and super disadvantaged. And she had almost half a million dollars of net worth after we put everything together. And I was like, wow, Titi, you did that. But the thing that made me so sad was,

She had all this money, but my aunt, because I spent so much time with her as a young person, my aunt would always tell me, like, one day I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna hit the lotto, every week she paid the lotto. And she’d be like, when I win the lotto, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna take a trip up to New England and like watch the fall foliage. I’m going to put a sunroom in the house. I’m gonna finally build a house in Puerto Rico and like spend summers there or whatever.

I’m going to get, she wanted a facelift. She was a baddie, but she was vain. So she was like, I’ma get a facelift. And she didn’t do any of it. She was the best. She was such a vibe. You have no idea. But she didn’t do any of it. And I sat with myself and I was like, man, like Ana, you’re headed on that path because all of your friends are traveling and eating out and doing all of this stuff. And you are just like,

Catalina Del Carmen (07:39.288)
hurt.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (07:59.68)
scrimping and counting every penny and being super frugal and ridiculous and depriving yourself even when you can give yourself those luxuries, you don’t. And it was a super wake up call. So since then I’ve had a much healthier relationship with money, but that’s kind of my growing up money story and that was really a pivotal change moment for me.

Catalina Del Carmen (08:16.782)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (08:21.536)
Yeah, I could imagine how much you would have to reflect on that, especially for like seeing these money statements and like, wait, hold on, she could have, like she could have done this or could have done that. OK, let’s go to the beginning because I have a question around, did you learn, like, did you grow up knowing how to manage your money? Like, did how did you originally learn? So obviously you you.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (08:30.199)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (08:34.851)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (08:45.581)
No.

Catalina Del Carmen (08:51.14)
I know if I imagine it was around the time you went to college or whatever, you were like, okay, my money situation is not gonna be like how I grew up, right? What are like, and what I’m really asking are like, what are the basic fundamentals that every like adult person should, you know, in terms of managing their money, what should they be thinking about?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (08:57.698)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (09:15.171)
Yeah.

Okay, so I will just answer a little bit and say I had no idea how to do any of this. It wasn’t until I actually had to do it for work that I learned about any of this. Like absolutely no clue. Nobody invested in my family. Like nobody, it’s just, that’s just not the frame of mind that we have or that I had. So from my vantage point, I think there’s a couple of things. First and foremost, I think it’s super important.

Catalina Del Carmen (09:28.794)
Mmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (09:47.274)
to think about what the end result you want for your life is like. And I know that’s hard when you’re young and you’re in the grind of like building a career, or building a business, building a family, like it’s really hard to do that. But I think it’s important for us to sit and think, what do I wanna look back on and have as experiences, as a lifestyle? Like, what do I want that to be? And back into what that takes to you to do today, right?

If I think, you know, I’ll talk about my own situation. For me, I want to very much have like a split lifestyle. I love city living. I love that. But I also love tropical weather and I love beach. So I want to have a home where I can be half the year. And that’s a lifestyle that I have. Right? So I need to think about like, that’s one thing I need to do. I knew it was super important to me because I struggled with student loan debt to have

college paid for for my kids. Like I wanted to do that. That was something that was super important to me. And because I value flexibility from the outset, I was like, I want to be able to stop working at like 50. Like I don’t have any plans to stop working, but I want to be able to say, you know what, if I want to, I don’t have to, I want to have the choice and the options and the agency to be able to say, I don’t actually have to continue doing this if I don’t want to.

Catalina Del Carmen (11:00.888)
you want to have the choice.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (11:11.756)
So those are all the things that I’m thinking about. And so I’m backing into the numbers of what do I need to be investing and saving and how do need to structure my financial life now that’s gonna help get me there. And that can feel really far away, but I think if you even start with one goal at a time and you back into that and say, okay, as an example, I wanna go, I wanna buy a house, a vacation house like this beach house. I wanna buy it in 10 years, let’s say.

Catalina Del Carmen (11:23.993)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (11:42.414)
How much does that cost now? I need 20 % down payment. I’m gonna back into it and say, okay, for the next 10 years, maybe I need to invest this amount every month, or I need to put this money in a savings account every month and put it towards that so that I’m thinking really long-term and I’m prepared for that. So those are some of the things that I think are really important. It’s that proactive thinking. Like one of the biggest mindset shifts I’d say or perspective shifts is,

Catalina Del Carmen (12:00.238)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (12:07.14)
Okay.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (12:10.936)
going from being reactive, which I think a lot of us are incredibly reactive and spontaneous, which there’s nothing wrong with spontaneity, but like, you can’t just be beep bopping around and thinking that that’s a financial plan long-term. Like you have to actually know what you’re shooting for in some form or fashion, or have some boundaries around things, right? So I think that’s one of the biggest things. The other I would say is just get comfortable with risk. think, you know, knowing your audience,

Catalina Del Carmen (12:24.302)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (12:27.938)
Yeah. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (12:38.318)
and

Anna N’Jie-Konte (12:40.024)
Kat, I think a lot of women are really risk averse or they psych themselves up and say, I don’t know how this stuff works. Like the investing and the finance stuff works and therefore they don’t take action. Like they get really stuck in inaction. They get really stuck in not taking that next step. And I would say if you can do those two things, get comfortable with.

Catalina Del Carmen (12:48.836)
Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (12:56.301)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (13:04.866)
taking risk and maybe not having 150 % of the information, but like taking little steps to continue to educate yourself and take action along the way, you’re gonna be in a great spot.

Catalina Del Carmen (13:16.174)
What kind of risks? Because I feel like, so it’s so funny because you’re probably right. My audience is more risk adverse. I’m crazy.

Catalina Del Carmen (13:29.85)
I am too risk tolerant. I will go poor because of my belief. Not really. Okay. A little dramatic, but like I will. I’m just like my, know, and you know what’s so funny is I get it from, think, I mean, obviously there’s like the mindset work that I do and all that, but also I, I was thinking about this. my, so I was raised by a single mom, right?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (13:37.294)
Yeah. I know what you mean.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (13:58.136)
Yeah. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (13:58.944)
And you too, right? think, yeah. And so much of our, like what I grew up with money, obviously very scarce, could relate to a lot of what you were saying. It’s like, you know, we would have a lot of money and we would feel it would be exciting. And the next thing you know, we’re like the whole family’s looking for every single penny we could find under couches and like whatever, right? But my mom’s faith was so strong.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (14:20.952)
Yeah. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (14:28.728)
Like literally she taught me how to manifest. Like she literally, her faith was so strong. She gave that to me that like there’s never the problems, never that big because God is with us. Like that was just like what it was. And then I also saw it into fruition every single time, because every time we got so rough with money, we would get out of it.

And then same thing. So in my head, I feel like I just grew up of like, what’s going to come? Like everything’s temporary, right? That being said, as a grown ass adult, I think I’ve always struggled with the risk part. So I want to talk about risk real fast. What’s healthy risk, right? Looking at the, if we look at this like a spectrum, right? There’s like the person like me, and then there’s the person who like won’t even invest a dollar and just, it’s just sitting in the bank or under their.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (15:11.31)
Yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (15:21.486)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (15:23.948)
mattress. Tell us about what healthy risk looks like for you. Obviously, that’s like, you know, a little that’s subjective, right? Like, it just depends who you’re talking to. But what for you, someone who is so has seen a lot of wealth through a lot of people’s, you know, you work with a lot of clients who have a lot of wealth. What for the first gen wealth builder, how should they be

Anna N’Jie-Konte (15:25.198)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (15:29.943)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (15:35.118)
For sure. For sure.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (15:45.986)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (15:53.71)
thinking about risk.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (15:55.01)
Yeah. I love this so much because I think that it really is so personal and so subjective. And so there is like a lot to what is your personal risk tolerance and what helps you sleep at night. I think though, so there is a whole science to that. part of, part of that is people will cling to certain things like having the cash, having a ton of cash or

know, literally keeping cash in their house. we know Latinos love to do that and I hate it. It drives me nuts. Cause I’m like, what if the house burns down? What are you guys doing? Like, what are we doing? You get robbed. Like, whatever. Anyway, it drives me crazy. But, you know, people cling to that as like a form of reassurance or safety. And for different cultures, it’s like buying gold or things like that. Like we all have our things. I…

I think that we do that in the absence of having like a framework for what are we doing to provide protection for ourselves so that any losses that we do incur are not catastrophic, right? And so part of that is, you know, do you have an adequate emergency fund for yourself personally? And if you have a business for your business, do you have the…

Catalina Del Carmen (17:15.502)
Mm-hmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (17:17.334)
like legal documents in place for your business? Do you have an estate plan in place for yourself personally? Do you have adequate insurance, right? And I’m not an insurance hawker, you probably, you if you have a spouse and some kids, you need some life insurance. If anybody I think should have some long-term disability insurance, because if you can’t work, like what’s going to provide for you in the case that you can’t work and provide that income for you if you’re like really ill or really sick?

Catalina Del Carmen (17:45.562)
Mm-hmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (17:46.134)
If you have those pieces in place, then I think it is really, like that helps regulate your nervous system and you’re clear about what you need within that longer list that I just provided. It helps you be a lot more calm and I find that it helps you have a better perspective with risk because you know your bases are covered. And so when we think about the risk portion, right, you have to also know, like,

Catalina Del Carmen (17:54.841)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (18:15.916)
What are your short, medium, and long-term goals and how much risk can you take for each of those? So one of the other mistakes that people do is they think about everything together. Like all of my investments together, all of my money together as like one pot. No, your 401k and your retirement plans and your investment accounts, those are long-term, right? Like those are, you know, I’m in my late 30s, so I’ve got like 20 plus years until I would even need a cent of that.

Catalina Del Carmen (18:22.767)
you

Catalina Del Carmen (18:31.63)
Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (18:37.678)
Bye.

Catalina Del Carmen (18:43.77)
Mm-hmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (18:43.904)
It’s not something that I really need to think about. But on the flip side, kind of medium term, I have kids and my kids are going to college and the next, for my oldest, in six years, which is bananas. But for my youngest, like 12 years. So six to 12 years, that’s more medium term. And so I can take a certain amount of risk with that portfolio that I can’t that, or I cannot afford to take a certain amount of risk with that portfolio that I could with my retirement accounts, right?

Catalina Del Carmen (18:46.298)
Mm-hmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (19:12.65)
And then there’s like the short term stuff that I’m not going to take a ton of risk with because it’s things that I need for the short term. So if you understand what the money’s for and do sort of a bucketing exercise, that can help you have a lot more perspective on like what risk is appropriate.

Catalina Del Carmen (19:34.03)
Yeah, that’s so, so good. I really, really like that. I like what you said around like the thinking about short term, like middle and long term goals and like considering all of them. Obviously you have like the baseline like emergency fund, legal stuff, insurance, know. Yeah, so good. so, I will say maybe it’s been two years or something, but we finally did our

estate stuff and it took so much off of our shoulders like because we got kids like this this is a real problem if something happens to us so if you

Anna N’Jie-Konte (20:06.424)
love it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (20:13.55)
It makes a big difference for your mental health. And I think like one of the things that I believe to my core is that as entrepreneurs, if you do not have these baseline, like protection mechanisms in place, you’re going to live with a level of like nervous system stress and anxiety that you don’t even notice. It’s like white noise in the background. And I will die on the hill that

Catalina Del Carmen (20:40.354)
Yeah, yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (20:43.266)
the more your nervous system is regulated. And like you teach a lot of this stuff like journaling and meditation and like mindfulness and thought work and all of that. That’s important. But then you also like have to deal with the real tangible real life stuff. And so if you address those things, I think it makes you a better CEO and that leads to like better outcomes because you have the mental space. You don’t have this like noise running in the background of what if and what happens, what if something happens to me.

Catalina Del Carmen (20:55.48)
Yeah, yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (21:12.46)
And then you can just focus on the things that you actually need to focus on. I have a client and I’ll just tell this story real quick, who she’s an entrepreneur, single mom, two kids, her first husband died, getting divorced from the second husband, right? And she’s in like her mid thirties. She comes to me at the point where she’s in the process of getting divorced and has a thriving business, like a service-based consulting type business.

Catalina Del Carmen (21:15.46)
front of you. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (21:20.42)
Thanks.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (21:41.582)
and is doing really well, but has no savings, has credit card debt, is just really unsure of the direction she’s heading. And I think we’ve been working together for three years now. Three years, this year, I just got an email from her a couple of weeks ago that her revenue is almost triple in that three year period, right? She’s selling her business for multiple seven figures.

Catalina Del Carmen (22:03.192)
How exciting.

Catalina Del Carmen (22:08.57)
Amazing!

Anna N’Jie-Konte (22:08.642)
So she’s in her 30s and she’s walking away with a multiple seven figure check. And she has no more debt. Her net worth, like her investment portfolio has like doubled over this time. And she said to me, she’s like, and she’s doing things that like bring her joy. And she’s like, my nervous system is so regulated because I have this peace of mind.

Catalina Del Carmen (22:14.348)
Wow.

Catalina Del Carmen (22:23.46)
Mm-hmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (22:36.086)
I’m not going to sit here and take credit for that performance, right? Because she’s the one doing the work in the business. But at the end of the day, it’s that once you know your bases are covered, yeah, like you’ve got it covered. So then you can just soar and you’re not weighed down by all of that stress and anxiety and worry that you don’t even realize you’re carrying around.

Catalina Del Carmen (22:41.806)
course.

Catalina Del Carmen (22:45.774)
The work is important.

Catalina Del Carmen (22:57.21)
How do you, I wanna talk about two kinda different things going into this. And I think that story was a perfect segue. We’ve had tiny conversations about this, about the, you know, new money and being the first in your family to have like a significant, significant amount of wealth, right? And the…

Anna N’Jie-Konte (23:01.838)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (23:24.558)
the newness of it. Like there’s just so much newness and like even really smart people who are good with money, they might not be thinking of everything that they should probably be thinking about. So I wanna go into, actually there was a question that came up right when you were telling your story and I didn’t write it down. What was the question? I think it was around, wait you said she nervous system.

Hold on, I actually don’t wanna move until I, until I, hold on one second.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (23:57.027)
It’s okay.

Catalina Del Carmen (24:03.354)
can’t pause this. Okay, hold on. had such a good question. Nervous system, adequate money. I think it was around.

Catalina Del Carmen (24:31.642)
Okay, new money is what I wanted to talk about next, but this is a perfect segue. What was it?

Catalina Del Carmen (24:42.958)
I’ll remember.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (24:44.91)
Okay.

Catalina Del Carmen (24:53.362)
okay, yes. thank you. Yes. Okay, perfect. I wanted to go, so I want to talk about new money and new wealth, but I want to talk about lifestyle creep in the middle, right? Okay, okay, that was what I was thinking of. All right, let me do a little work. Okay, so I want to talk about lifestyle creep because…

Anna N’Jie-Konte (24:54.924)
Yay! Get back!

Anna N’Jie-Konte (25:04.462)
Ooh. Ooh, I love that.

Okay, love it.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (25:18.542)
you

Catalina Del Carmen (25:20.598)
as, and this is very much just me asking you advice. So here’s the thing, like with, and you know a little bit, but my husband and I are like the first, sure the first in our families to have like any type of like wealth, wealth. And I mean, we’re not like loaded, but we have made some good decisions and we’ve gotten lucky and, and you know, we’ve, we’re good, you know?

But I feel like lifestyle creep is such a thing for so many people, for so many reasons. And I really do feel like that gets in the way for a lot of people in building wealth when you’re making a good amount of money, but you also want the things. And I think for someone, for someone who, I’m a big spender, so I’m very,

Anna N’Jie-Konte (26:04.088)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (26:15.576)
I’m a little loosey goosey with the spending. My husband isn’t so much. But I think what I’ve kind of been reflecting on is how we make decisions together and how the lifestyle creep could be a little sneaky too. it’s not always like, buying all these extra nice things or going on these lavish vacations. I think for us, we.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (26:30.507)
Bye.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (26:36.782)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (26:41.25)
Like I think about things like in our house, right? Like if we want to add something to our house or if we wanna like, there’s so many ways outside of like a brand new car or like whatever that lifestyle creep could come in. What do you think?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (26:53.966)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (26:57.624)
I’m just curious your thoughts on lifestyle creep. Yeah, like just general thoughts. Like what should we be considering thinking about? Kind of aware about.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (26:58.878)
I have so many thoughts. Listen. Okay.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (27:08.6)
So I’ll say my baseline premise of this in my anti-Dave Ramsey era is that there’s nothing wrong with increasing your lifestyle as your income increases because why are you working so hard? What is the point? I think that fundamentally frugality is not the goal. The goal is to be very clear about what you want.

Catalina Del Carmen (27:27.064)
Yeah. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (27:31.994)
Mm-hmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (27:36.87)
to spend your money on and make sure that your money and your time and your energy, like what are your priorities and is your money, your time and your energy going towards that, right? So I’ll give you, and I think that no two people, like one of the things that we have to be really clear on and okay with is to recognize that no two people’s lives are gonna look the same, no two people’s financial situations are gonna look the same, and no two people’s…

Catalina Del Carmen (27:45.87)
Yeah. Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (28:03.284)
investment of time, energy and money is going to look the same and being okay with that, like completely normalizing it. So having said that, I think the problem with the lifestyle creep is when we’re just out here once again, beat bopping and like, that’s fun. that’s cool. I’ll do that. And we’re saying yes to everything in the world. And by saying yes to every invite that we get and every, you know,

Email that we get in our email of like there’s a sale happening here, right? Like what you say yes to all of it and you spend all your time on social media scrolling things and like I’ll buy this all by that and You’re you don’t sit and tune in with yourself about like what your priorities are, right? so one of the exercises I go through with my clients is creating what I call a statement of financial purpose and the whole point of this is you deciding

what role you want money to have in your life. What is it facilitating and what are your priorities and what are the things that money is gonna facilitate and what are the things that you wanna really spend time on and do that maybe don’t have to do with money. And the reason we do that is once again, so that we know what are we supposed to prioritize in terms of our budget and our cashflow and like where we spend our money. So for me personally, I…

care a lot about creating experiences and living joyfully with the people in my life because I’ve had a lot of death in my life. I talked about my aunt earlier, but I’ve had lots of other people in my life that I’ve lost. I just lost my cousin two weeks ago, my first cousin, and she just died super suddenly. And so I’m like, listen, I’m gonna take the trips and I’m gonna spend the time with my people because that matters to me. Now within reason, I have to come up with a plan of what does that look like.

Catalina Del Carmen (29:44.89)
I’m so sorry.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (29:55.384)
How much am I doing it? What types of travel do we like to do? But I have that as a very clear priority. Yes, it’s spending, but it’s also, to me, it’s investing in memories and relationships and all that. Then secondarily, for me, it’s also about health and wellness. So I spend a lot of money on food because I spend a lot of money on whole foods and things like that and the gym because that stuff matters to me.

and I wanna be healthy and well longterm. Those are two big priorities for me. Beyond that, I don’t actually spend much money. I’m not a person that’s spending a ton of money. clothes. You know, I don’t buy a lot of clothes, I will tell you, as much as I be out here looking cute, I don’t spend a ton of money on

Catalina Del Carmen (30:34.355)
cough cough, clothes, fashion.

feel like you, yeah. So interesting. That’s why I said cough, cough.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (30:47.404)
I don’t. I don’t, I know, she’s like, you lying.

Catalina Del Carmen (30:51.47)
I your outfits, girl. I see your outfits.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (30:53.92)
No, really don’t. Listen, I probably like if I had to look at it, I would guess I spend less than $400 a month less than on clothes. I don’t spend a lot. I really don’t. I don’t think I’ve spent a single dollar on clothes this month. Like and we’re.

Catalina Del Carmen (31:09.508)
Okay.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (31:16.078)
on day 17, like not even a dollar. So I’m thinking over average. Yes, I may go out and spend $800 one day, but then I won’t buy anything for two months. Yeah, exactly. Like I’m good. I’m not really on the consumption tip. I’m too busy. I’m too busy drinking my water and at the gym and with these kids. I don’t have time to shop. But those are my two biggest things, right? And so I know those are things that I’m gonna prioritize and the rest of it then.

Catalina Del Carmen (31:19.994)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, then you’re good. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Catalina Del Carmen (31:30.778)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (31:38.925)
Yeah, yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (31:44.832)
When I’m in a point where I have to make a decision about spending, I’m like, mm.

Catalina Del Carmen (31:49.048)
Yeah, what do you tell yourself? What do you tell yourself about the things that are not your priority? But let’s say you’re in a moment where you want that, right?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (31:54.209)
Yeah!

Yeah, I’m just like, this one of those two things? And then I look at my numbers and I’m like, have I met my financial goals for that month? Like have I invested the things that I need to? Have I saved the things that I need to? Like that’s where I make that decision. I typically will give myself a cooling off period too. And I will say when there’s an impulse,

Catalina Del Carmen (32:02.744)
Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (32:11.574)
Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (32:21.508)
Mm-hmm.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (32:26.294)
I was just in Sweden visiting my cousin over the summer and she and I were walking. We like went to get coffee. We were not going shopping and we were walking by the shop. I was in Sweden hanging out with family, right? I looked to the right and I see this shop and I literally gasped at this purse. I looked at it and I was like, was obsessed with it. So when, when something like that hits me, I give myself permission to say,

Catalina Del Carmen (32:35.172)
Yeah, but you’re in Sweden.

Catalina Del Carmen (32:50.893)
I like I need that.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (32:55.822)
I wasn’t planning on spending $500 on a purse that day, but I knew I loved it so much. It was a designer from Sweden. I’m not going to get it in D.C. You know what saying? So like I gave myself the permission to do that, but that’s also because I don’t go around saying to everything. Do you know what I mean? And so I don’t know if that’s very clear, but that’s just generally speaking how I do it. I think it’s just about being clear about what is it going to take to achieve those long-term financial goals and being clear about what you want to prioritize your money on.

Catalina Del Carmen (32:58.488)
Yeah, yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (33:04.382)
yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Catalina Del Carmen (33:12.854)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (33:21.815)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, that’s so good. I think with me, my problem is, I mean, I have ADHD, like, impulses are so normal, like all kinds, right? Like not just money, like all the impulses are something that I have had to learn how to manage. So that makes sense. that’s so funny you said a person’s sweet. You know, when I, I haven’t been in a long time. I mean, I only went to Amsterdam for a short period of time and.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (33:46.508)
It’s beautiful. I’ll throw you out.

Catalina Del Carmen (33:53.056)
my late 20s. But when I did go, I also had a bag moment. It’s like it was a great chef’s kiss. Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (33:59.276)
Yeah, of course we do!

Anna N’Jie-Konte (34:05.72)
Chef’s Kiss purchase. Listen, Kat, the one thing I will say is I am very much about quality and am I obsessed with something? That’s also my tendency. Like, I’m not a shopper like that. So if I am out somewhere and I see something and I just like have that lightning bolt, my God gasp moment, then I’m gonna look at it and say, all right.

Catalina Del Carmen (34:15.546)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (34:27.898)
Mm-hmm

Anna N’Jie-Konte (34:31.468)
this isn’t worth it to me and like, do I feel like it? But for other things when I’m just out and about, I give myself a 24 hour like cooling off period. So if I see something at Nordstrom and I’m like, that’s cute. I know I could come back tomorrow. I can come back tomorrow if I really want it. And chances are I’m not thinking about it. I totally forget about it.

Catalina Del Carmen (34:31.599)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (34:39.343)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (34:44.204)
Yeah, no, 100%.

Catalina Del Carmen (34:50.81)
Yeah, I’m, I struggle girl. I struggle with, you know why? It’s cause I am like, I go straight and I maybe it’s like the Taurus in me too. I go straight, like when I’m emotionally going through anything, I’m like, yeah, I should absolutely go to TJ Maxx. Like exactly. That’s exactly what I should do.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (35:11.476)
Yeah. Have you seen those reels on Instagram where it’s like you don’t need anything in Home Goods or Marshalls or CDMAX? You need to clean your house. You need to go put away the laundry.

Catalina Del Carmen (35:17.943)
Yes!

Yes. Well, what’s so funny is like.

to teach it to when I was pregnant, because it was a really hard pregnancy. I would it was it was bad. I mean, this is not my norm. Now. Now I think it’s ridiculous. But at the time, I would drop on a Tuesday lunch. I would drop like 800 on skin care on skin care.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (35:36.398)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (35:48.334)
Woo!

Catalina Del Carmen (35:53.816)
this girl, but I’ve learned that, hold on.

Catalina Del Carmen (36:01.558)
I’ve learned. Yeah, I mean, I’ve done. I’ve learned a lot since then, but I think self-awareness is such an important part, too. And I feel like that’s the part where I’m aware, because like even if now, if I have the urge to go to Marshall’s or the urge to go to T.J. Maxx, I’m like, look at you. Huh. I wonder why, especially seeing that you really don’t need anything. Like if I need something, I go get it right.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (36:07.416)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (36:11.022)
huh.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (36:21.774)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (36:28.526)
Yeah. Sure.

Catalina Del Carmen (36:30.99)
But if I’m just trying to, then the self-awareness piece is so, important.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (36:36.532)
It is, we all have our like buffering and coping things. And for some people it’s shopping, but it’s like the awareness around that. And then you can make that choice in that moment. Like, okay, I’m feeling the impulse to go eat a bag of Cheetos or I’m feeling the impulse to like go have a drink or I’m feeling the impulse to go shopping, like whatever that is and tuning in of like, what am I trying to stop feeling or what am I trying to avoid? And

Catalina Del Carmen (36:50.38)
Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (36:55.118)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (37:02.905)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (37:05.908)
making a more positive kind of choice. And from a financial standpoint, I think putting in like some kind of rules of operating for yourself can be really helpful to say, okay, when I feel like this, I’m gonna, you know, go take a walk. Yeah, go take a walk and then see if I still feel like that or go get a workout in and see if I still feel like that. And if I still feel like that, then I’ll go, right? And give yourself permission to go.

Catalina Del Carmen (37:16.057)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (37:22.564)
take a walk first. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (37:31.246)
Yeah, for sure. And I think what’s funny is what I’ve noticed about myself is that I don’t want more shit in my house. Like, not the non necessities. As much as my thing is I do like decorating the house. Like I do like to spend money on that. But what I have learned is like exactly what you’re saying actually is like the intentionality. It’s like, what is the most important to you? What do you value the most? And can we redirect?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (37:41.39)
Same.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (37:48.214)
Yeah. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (38:01.411)
Not only the money but like our mind into like okay This is gonna take from somewhere unless I have the extra cash that month whatever But if not, it’s coming from somewhere Okay, I want to get into this before we end I want to touch on

Anna N’Jie-Konte (38:08.213)
Yeah!

Anna N’Jie-Konte (38:15.128)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (38:21.368)
being the first in your family to have some kind of wealth.

I kind of want, like the conversation I want to have is really from the person that’s maybe between like a million dollar net worth to two million, right? Because it seems like that is, it could get, like things change in that level. And it’s like, where is the right place to put your money? What should, like what should you be thinking about at a higher level? Like.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (38:42.294)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (38:47.128)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (38:54.134)
let’s say the emergency fund stuff, the insurance, like that’s all checked mark, right? You’re putting some stuff away for money, whatever, for your kids here, there. For the most part, those things are checked off. What is the right thing to do when you have an influx of money? Or maybe your wealth.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (38:59.214)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (39:11.96)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (39:19.096)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (39:20.91)
grows quickly or maybe you just your business went from you know zero to something really big or like a hundred gay to one million really really quickly just when like when you do grow quickly in wealth

What are the things that you see with your clients, especially at the like, you know, maybe not 1 million, maybe like 2, 3, 4 million, whatever. Like what should people be thinking about in that range? Or telling themselves, maybe not even thinking about financially, maybe just like things to tell themselves, whatever, especially as first-geners.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (39:48.815)
you know, it’s, it’s, yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (39:57.91)
Yeah, so the thing that I would say that immediately comes to mind is it’s going to feel like a ton to you, but it may actually not be a ton, right? Because you can quickly get to $2 million of net worth with living in a high cost of living area and keeping the house long-term and continuing to progress in your career and keeping lifestyle creep to a minimum.

Like if you just do those three and with the way the stock market has been going, like you’re good. Like you’re gonna see rapid appreciation. And so that can happen really quickly. And so when you look at those numbers, sometimes we think, especially if we don’t have, like I said, those clear boundaries or those buckets around our money, a lot of times it feels like it can do everything, right? So I tell folks a lot of times like,

When money is supposed to do everything, it’s not gonna do anything. It’s not gonna do much of anything for you because it’s not going to stretch to be enough to meet all of these different purposes that you may have earmarked it for. And so it’s really important at that level, I think, to be mindful of which way you’re gonna go. And also I would say to up-level your support.

I think that a lot of us, you know, we have this mindset of I don’t come from much. I grew up middle class. I grew up lower income. I’ve made it because my finances are good, right? Like I have hit the lotto. And the challenge with that is that we’re getting complacent and we’re not thinking strategically about how all of these different pieces.

fit together and so that’s a typical place where I’ll say you probably need to make sure that you have a really solid CPA, really solid tax planner, get a financial plan. Like it doesn’t even have to be an ongoing financial advisor, but like have somebody look at your stuff and say, you need to move some things around and give you a sense of where your long-term projections are gonna be because if you’ve made it to that point, then that, you know, the future looks bright for you. But at the same time, I’ve seen people.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (42:12.472)
you know, lose a lot of money to inefficiency, to not being appropriately invested, exposed to undue risk, or like just pay too much money in taxes because I have a new client who went from 400K revenue one year to five million the next year.

Imagine she had her CPA that like, from what I could tell was a guy operating out of the back of his truck, okay? So that guy that was operating out of the back of his truck is not equipped to do tax planning with somebody that has $5 million coming into on her tax, flowing through on her tax return. Like he just doesn’t have that. And so you need to up level and be really clear about that. And I think a lot of times we, you know,

Catalina Del Carmen (42:35.182)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (42:45.262)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (42:49.762)
Yeah, yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (42:57.164)
we get stuck on loyalty and we get stuck in inertia and like status quo. And the one thing I will tell you that I see from wealthy folks is like, yes, they’re very, you know, we’re all human beings. We’re very relationship focused. Like, do we have the right people? But you have to also know what’s happening and increase your knowledge and your skill level and your financial sophistication. And then that will help you see if the person that you have with you is appropriate or not too.

Catalina Del Carmen (43:02.234)
Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (43:19.013)
Mm-hmm.

Catalina Del Carmen (43:25.038)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That makes sense.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (43:27.106)
They don’t give you that discernment and that, the knowledge to go behind maybe the gut check you’re feeling of like, something’s not right here.

Catalina Del Carmen (43:36.59)
Yeah, yeah, that makes so, so much sense. OK, last question. What are the best financial decisions you’ve ever made?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (43:46.408)
my God. Investing for my kids’ college, from the outset, I always told people, don’t buy my kids a bunch of junk. Either take them to go do something, like have an experience with them, or put money in this 529 plan. That has been one of the best decisions because now they’re in, you know, they’re all in a really good spot. Like if they were going to college now, I could pay for at least two years of college right now, and they’re still young.

I would say second is choosing a partner who wants to do better financially. Like that’s a major one because my husband and I both came with nothing, first gen, no financial help. In fact, it’s often going the opposite direction, but we’re both very focused on the future and focused on improving our financial situation and a lot in life. so, you know, even if we have different approaches, I’m definitely more of a spender than he is.

We have different kind of perspectives on things, but we agree on what that end goal looks like. The direction, right? And we may, yeah, yeah, we’re going over there. You may wanna take route A and I may wanna take route B, but we’ll figure out a way to get there. But at the end of the day, we’re both trying to go in the right direction. And then lastly, I would just say investing and leaving that, leaving it alone.

Catalina Del Carmen (44:48.942)
direction. We’re going that way. We’re going up.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (45:10.68)
Like I just invest and leave it alone. Like I’m not messing with it. I’m not touching it.

Catalina Del Carmen (45:10.958)
The basics, the basics. Yeah.

So good. So what do do when you need money?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (45:22.094)
Sometimes you sell investments like listen, okay, first of all, we’re business owners So we live in this like crazy world where I can say I need some money. I’m gonna go sell some stuff Like I’m a I’m a hit it. I’m gonna be outside making some money, right? So so there that’s my default of like, alright, how if I need an extra 5,000? I’m like, okay, how am I gonna do this? If it’s not that

Catalina Del Carmen (45:23.354)
Well, obviously, emergency fund.

Catalina Del Carmen (45:29.018)
Yeah, it’s a little wilder for us.

Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (45:37.667)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (45:46.722)
Then I’m like, all right, I have resources. So, you know, this is one of the reasons why I advocate for financial flexibility and that having money in different pods. So, you know, we are in a position, this summer was very expensive. We had like rentals in some of our rental properties and stuff. So we had to sell some stock out of our investment account. Was it ideal? No. Is it the end of the world? Absolutely not. It’s not the end of the world. It’ll be fine. We’ll get the money back. It’ll have a return.

Catalina Del Carmen (46:10.338)
Yeah. Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (46:16.558)
that the money is there to also be used, right? Like I think one of the traps people fall into is they get in love with like seeing the balances go up. And then if they’re not in the habit of spending and enjoying along the way and being intentional about it, then it’s very hard for them to flip that switch and start drawing on their portfolio.

Catalina Del Carmen (46:35.77)
So good. I have like another round of questions now. think I’ll just maybe I’ll have to have you back on and answer the rest of those because now I’m like, hold on. Wait, hold on. I want these questions. So good.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (46:41.902)
Maybe I’ll have to have you back on There you go.

Hehehehehe

Anna N’Jie-Konte (46:51.436)
I can’t hear you, my dear. I don’t hear you. Just now. I heard you before. I think when you touched the mic, something happened.

No, I don’t hear you. now I hear you. Yes, now I hear you. no, yeah. Yes.

Catalina Del Carmen (47:05.774)
Hello, can you hear me? I think I pulled this, bottom.

Wait, can you me now? Okay. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your wisdom with us. I appreciate you so, so much. You’re such a bad ass. And I, I just would listen to anything you say when it comes to finances and all of it. So I appreciate you. Okay. Where can the people find you? And also give us a little bit of perspective of who you support. What’s like literally.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (47:18.658)
Thank you.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (47:26.926)
thank you, Sam.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (47:32.91)
Thank you. Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (47:40.514)
And then also, where can people just learn from you and be in your world?

Anna N’Jie-Konte (47:45.676)
Yeah, so I work mainly with entrepreneur, female entrepreneurs or folks who work at venture backed startups. So they have some kind of stock and equity compensation to their financial situation, their income situation that are, let’s call it between the ages of 30 and 50 and really just want to be intentional about where they’re spending and investing their money. I work with clients nationwide, I’m based in DC, but my clients are all over the country.

Catalina Del Carmen (48:07.353)
Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (48:14.05)
And I just really care that they’re good humans who want to do better with finances and want someone to help them think about and be intentional about their money. That’s really my criteria. I mainly hang out on Instagram. So you can find me at a and an and well, I can’t even sit down my own handle. Okay, perfect. So Kat, well, I didn’t show no, but it’s on and gigantic name altogether.

Catalina Del Carmen (48:18.618)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (48:22.382)
Yeah.

Catalina Del Carmen (48:35.928)
I’ll also add it to the tone up. Yeah.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (48:41.774)
I mostly hang out there. I am a bit on LinkedIn too. And I have a podcast called the Financial Powerhouse Podcast, which I release episodes every week and we talk about different money things from, you know, a women’s and first gen lens.

Catalina Del Carmen (48:59.2)
Love it. Appreciate you. Go follow her. She’s amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Anna N’Jie-Konte (49:05.73)
Thank you, Kat. Appreciate you.