Today's guest is Elaine. She is a blogger and podcaster from Nicaragua.

Unfortunately, the government of Nicaragua is corrupt and the people are protesting against the government. We talked to Elaine about the current environment, how the people are handling the changes, what the government is trying to do and what normal life looks like in the middle of protests.

Most of you are US Centric which means we only know what's happening in the US. The mainstream media isn't great about covering news outside the US so we were astonished to hear what all has been happening the last few months.

Elaine has a very important story and we think this might be one of the most useful episodes we release this year.
She was an absolute delight to speak with! Enjoy this chat with Elaine, and please subscribe to us in iTunes if you enjoyed it!

Show notes and links from today's episode

Elaine's blog
FinCon conference
Elaine's podcast
Twitter: @ElaMVela

Key takeaways from our chat with Elaine
1 - She became the blog she wanted to find
Elaine looked for a Nicaraguan personal finance blog but couldn't find anything online. The financial system looks completely different from the US, so much of the personal finance advice isn't applicable to Nicaragua.

She was trying to find resources but came up empty, so she became the blog she wanted to find. If you can't find anything that fits your situation, start what you want to find!
2 - Nicaraguan's are wholly dependent on their governmental pension
It takes 750 weeks to qualify for pension/social security in Nicaragua. There isn't anything else available for saving for retirement, so you can understand why they'd be upset when the amount they pay in went up, and the amount they got out of it went down.

To put it in perspective, minimum wage is $200/month. Basic living expenses are about $400 per month, so there's a gap that needs to be addressed.

There's also no transparency into national security system.... which means they can't even guarantee the extra money will go towards it's intended use. There's a lot of corruption in the current government and funds have mysteriously disappeared.
3 -  Take everything day by day
Elaine's advice is to take everything day by day. It's next to impossible to plan for the future so take in as much as you can each day.

Don't be afraid to give yourself a day off now and then too. Toppling a revolution doesn't happen overnight - it takes sustained effort over a period of time. Make sure you can last longer than the government!!
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