EP #87 How To Build A Simple Plan For Debt, Savings, And Wealth

Money should feel calm, not confusing. We sat down with family financial coach Juliana Alcantara of Financial Health Solutions to talk about practical ways parents, couples, and newlyweds can create a plan that fits real life—without giving up joy or relying on rigid rules. From her early days as a bank teller to years in public accounting, Juliana brings a grounded view of cash flow, debt, and the human habits that make or break a budget.

We unpack the two most common starting points she sees: households tackling heavy debt and households with little debt but no plan. Juliana walks through how to choose a debt payoff strategy you can actually keep, set guardrails to avoid new balances, and still make smart moves on taxes, insurance, and retirement. If you’ve ever been blindsided by birthdays, holidays, or quarterly renewals, you’ll learn how sinking funds and monthly planning stop those “surprise” expenses from wrecking your momentum.

What sets Juliana apart is her rejection of one-size-fits-all advice. Instead of strict mandates, she offers options and trade-offs so families can pick a sustainable path. We talk openly about common misconceptions—like needing to cut every comfort to get ahead—and why a budget that includes joy is easier to follow. She also shares candid advice for anyone eyeing a leap from corporate life to entrepreneurship: build community, find mentors, and borrow proven systems to move faster with less stress.

If you’re ready to replace money guilt with clarity and progress, this conversation will help you map a simple plan, automate the basics, and align spending with what matters most. Listen, take what fits, and start small today. If you found value, follow the show, share it with a neighbor, and leave a quick review to help more local families find money peace.

Juliana Alcantara

Financial Health Solutions

fhscoach.com

[e-mail]

Loudoun County, VA · Fairfax County, VA · Washington D.C., DC · Winchester, VA · Frederick County, VA

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors
Podcast, the place where localbusinesses and neighbors come
together.
Here's your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker (00:13):
Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors
Podcast, where we share thestories of our favorite local
brands.
I'm excited to introduce you tomy guest today.
We have Juliana Alcantarajoining us, and she is with
Financial Health Solutions.
Juliana, welcome to thepodcast.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hello, thank you for having me.

Speaker (00:35):
Well, I'm excited to dive in and learn all about you
and your business.
So let's start there.
Share with us a little bitabout financial health
solutions.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, so I am a family financial coach and I
help families, moms, parentspretty much just make a plan for
their finances because a lot ofus are just kind of on
autopilot in life and reallyhave sometimes no idea where our
funds are coming from or wherethey're going.

(01:06):
So I help families build thatplan.

Speaker (01:11):
I love this so much and it's so needed.
And I imagine others likemyself hadn't really heard of a
family financial coach before.
So I'd love to learn a littlebit more about that, but also
tell me about your journey andhow you got into that and and
kind of how that came to be.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, so um out of college, my first job was as a
bank teller.
And that was kind of my firstintroduction into seeing people,
you know, in their day-to-daybudgeting with what like their
liquid cash was.
Um from there I went into umaccounting uh in college.

(01:55):
I did my masters, and then fromthere I went into public
accounting.
So I was there for about fiveyears.
And I just once I had my son, Iwas like, I really don't think
I want to be in publicaccounting anymore.
I think I would love to buildsomething and work for myself.

(02:16):
And over the years, I've kindof always been the go-to person
for like friends and family ofjust like budgeting stuff.
So even from like budgetingweddings, budgeting um a
vacation, honeymoons, um, yourday-to-day budget.
So I kind of like a lot offriends and family would come
and ask me those questions.
And then we probably have allheard of Dave Ramsey.

(02:38):
He was the first one that Icame um in contact with of
seeing, like, oh, so this can belike a business.
People can get paid by helpingothers um create a plan for
their finances.
Um, so from there, it kind ofled me to seeking out other
financial people.

(02:58):
And I feel like the past likefive or six years, it's really
blown up, blown up.
And um, there's a lot of reallyawesome resources out there and
a lot of people who are openingup this conversation.

Speaker (03:11):
I love, I love this.
And tell walk me through kindof um who you help, like who is
um who's your ideal uh client?
Who are you, who do youtypically work with, and how do
you help them kind of walk methrough the process?

Speaker 1 (03:28):
So it's kind of like two categories.
So my first would be someone,again, you know, family, moms,
newlyweds, um, couples withyoung kids, um, they might come
to me and they have a largeamount of debt.
So they're gonna come from moreof the debt management route.
This can feel a little bit moreoverwhelming.

(03:49):
So, although I do go into theother um parts of your finances,
like um making sure you have atax account in, if you want to
invest, uh bringing you to theright people.
But um for these families,we're gonna kind of like create
their game plan of how we'regonna pay down that debt first,

(04:11):
what different strategies we canimplement to not continue
building more debt.
And then after that, then wewould get more into the
long-term building wealthplanning.
Then the other side is peoplewho may either have little to no
debt, but they just don't havea plan.

(04:32):
They're just spending, maybethey're putting into savings,
um, but they really they haven'tthought about, you know, should
I get life insurance?
Should I um check if I have thebest health insurance?
Um, do am I maxing out my 401k?
Like the building wealth sideof it.
So those are kind of the twospectrums of um clients that I

(04:55):
help.

Speaker (04:57):
Thank you for sharing that.
That makes a lot of sense.
And there's a lot of confusingand conflicting information out
there.
So it's really nice to havesomeone like you that can kind
of hold your hand and walk youthrough the process and share
with you all the different ways.
Because I mean, there's thingsthat you should be doing that
you don't know that you shouldbe doing, and it's uh it's such

(05:19):
a needed service.
So I love it so much.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Too is that um everything is not one size fit
all.
So, you know, where I startedoff, like I said, with those,
you know, I think it's like the10 baby steps or however many
baby steps Dave Ramsey has.
Um great resource, an amazingplace to start, but it's kind of
makes it seem like, okay, Ineed to do exactly that.

(05:43):
And it can be make thesituation even more overwhelming
for someone.
Whereas, you know, we can allbuild wealth in so many
different ways.
We can pay down debt in so manyways, we can leverage debt in
different ways.
So um, it's really aboutcreating a customized game plan
to each client's needs, wants,and going from there.

(06:07):
And I never will tell a client,like, this is what you need to
do.
I will always like, okay, hereare our options and what would
like which option makes you feelbest if we were to go down this
road or that road.

Speaker (06:22):
I love that.
Are there any common mistakesthat you see people making?

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Common mistakes.
Um I think for all the clientsthat I have first starting on,
the common uh mistake would tonot be planning ahead.
And this is just when I sayplan ahead, sometimes we think
of like really far down.
And when uh what I mean is justmonth to month, like planning,

(06:54):
what are these expected umonce-a-year um expenses that
will come up every now and then,maybe quarterly, um, what's a
birthday?
You know, we have the holidayscoming up.
How many parties do I usuallygo to and kind of like making a
list and putting a game plantogether of just like month to

(07:15):
month, realistically, of whatour expenses are gonna be?

Speaker (07:19):
Yeah, yeah, that's really good advice.
I'm glad that you work withpeople that way.
It makes it um much lessintimidating too that you are
giving them options and it's notjust, you know, one way of
doing things.
I love that.
Do you find that there are anymisconceptions about what you

(07:40):
do?

Speaker 1 (07:41):
I think that would, you know, exactly what you're
speaking to of um giving themoptions.
That's probably the biggestmisconception is that people
think that, okay, if I go andwork with a financial coach,
they're gonna tell me that likeI have to have this really
strict budget and I have tostick to it, and I'm not gonna
be able to get my Starbucks, orI'm not gonna be able to mess

(08:04):
up, but they're gonna make mefeel really guilty about it.
We're it's like we're allhuman.
At the end of the day, what Iwant for my clients is for them
to just have peace and clarityas to where their finances are
and to not feel stressed aboutit and not to not feel guilty,
because at the end of the day,you know, money comes, it goes,
and we just want to use it toour best ability.

Speaker (08:26):
Yeah.
I love that.
So if someone was is in uh wasin your shoes and in a corporate
job, and maybe has started afamily and has been thinking,
maybe I want to do something onmy own and start my own
business, what advice would yougive them?

Speaker 1 (08:47):
I would say to go find a community of people that
you can find for um advice, formentorship, and be a sponge,
listen to podcasts.
That has been something that'sbeen really helpful for me
because sometimes um just likethe simple parts of starting the

(09:07):
business could be like thehardest.
So it's really nice to findother people, get in the right
room, and find um other peoplewho are also doing the same
thing, building a business andget, you know, get advice from
them.

Speaker (09:22):
Yeah, learning from others who are who are doing
what you want to do.
It's really important.
I love that.
So tell me this.
Um, you're clearly you'reworking really hard because you
know, this is something thatyou're starting up and you're
really uh ramping things up.
What are you doing for fun whenyou're not working?

Speaker 1 (09:42):
For fun, I live in like wine country, Virginia.
So fun to my family is going toa vineyard.
They're so like familyfriendly, so they're like just
huge fields and just relaxingand taking in the views.
And I'm also trying to startreading again.
So nothing fun.
They're like a bunch offinancial books, but I'm

(10:05):
starting to read again.

Speaker (10:07):
So well, the wineries sound lovely.
Yes, yes.
Sounds like a wonderful way tospend a fall afternoon, and the
leaves are perfect right now.
So it's beautiful out there.
So, what is something that youwish the listeners knew about
financial health solutions?

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Um I hope that everyone knows that no matter
where they are in theirfinancial journey, that there is
someone right here that wouldlove to hop on the call and just
talk about the things that arekeeping you up at night and
helping you to create a plan sothat you're feeling better about
it all.

Speaker (10:49):
Love that.
You'll meet them where they'reat.
Yeah.
If the listeners want toconnect with you or learn from
you, where can they find you?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
So you can uh go on my website.
It's fhscoach.com or find me onInstagram at your financial
health coach.
And I uh I'm pretty active onthere.

Speaker (11:09):
So amazing.
Juliana, thank you so much forjoining me on the podcast today
and sharing your business withus.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Thank you so much for having me.
It was a great time.
Thank you for listening to theFredericksburg Neighbors
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.