Meet the Strategist
Let’s get real for a minute.
I didn’t grow up dreaming of spreadsheets, financial statements, or book tours. I was a teenage mom, standing in line at a national tax prep chain, clutching my first tax return like it was a lifeline. I’ll never forget the sting: $180 for 35 minutes of work back in 1997. I was making $7.25 an hour. That meant I’d have to work nearly 25 hours just to pay that bill. (In today’s money, that’s almost $360 just to file a basic return.) I left angry enough to promise myself I’d never be that girl in that chair again.
The very next year, I switched seats from client to tax preparer. I got trained, got licensed, and spent the next two decades helping others keep more of what they earned. No more whispering social security numbers across dingy cubicles. I built trust by telling the truth, always.
The second big turn? I moved more than an hour from everyone I knew, determined to build something for myself and my daughters. I landed a job at a national bank feeling like a boss, until I realized I knew nothing about credit, wealth-building, or what it really took to own your future. But I listened. I learned. The lessons from those wealth-building clients are still in my toolkit today, and now they’re in my classrooms, courses, and conversations.
Who am I now?
A financial strategist and founder of Yolanda Soto & Associates, quietly shaping lives behind the scenes.
Founder: Creator of the C.R.E.A.M. Institute™ where real talk meets skill-building, strategy, and legacy.
Owner of Say It Loud Publishing, where stories are loud, raw, and necessary. My debut series, Chaos in the Pews, isn’t just fiction; it’s lived experience, wrapped in suspense and faith.
A financial strategist and founder of Yolanda Soto & Associates, quietly shaping lives behind the scenes.
Writing wasn’t part of my “plan.” Two teachers pushed me, one even slipped my work into a state competition without telling me, then handed me the trophy. My friends still laugh about the stories I’d write and pass around in middle school, wild with drama and heart. Decades later, after a health crisis, a divorce, bankruptcy, and losing it all, writing was the only thing that made sense. I poured my pain, and my hope into the eight characters who populate Devil’s Playground. Through them, I found healing. My readers find themselves.
If you’re looking for another buttoned-up financial expert who plays it safe, keep scrolling. But if you’re ready for truth, raw, redemptive, and sometimes a little bit gritty you’re in the right place.
Welcome to the world of Yolanda Soto.
Let’s build something real, together.