From Journalist to Financial Coach with founder of Queer & Trans Wealth Leo Aquino

From Journalist to Financial Coach with founder of Queer & Trans Wealth Leo Aquino

In this episode, our guest Leo Aquino and I dive into a heartfelt conversation on how money intersects with identity, survival, and joy. Leo is a financial coach, anti-capitalist writer, and the founder of Queer & Trans Wealth. Their work centers people who have often been excluded from traditional financial spaces, and their approach is deeply informed by lived experience, community engagement, and social justice. We explore the unconventional path that led Leo from journalism to personal finance, and how being laid off became the push they needed to launch the work they’d been dreaming about.

Meet Leo Aquino

Leo Aquino is a financial coach and interdisciplinary writer whose work centers anti-capitalist approaches to personal finance. They are the founder of Queer & Trans Wealth and the editor-in-chief of Queerency, a platform dedicated to LGBTQ+ business news. Rather than follow the conventional path to financial expertise, Leo built their approach by listening—interviewing people from economically diverse backgrounds to understand how policies, identity, and lived experience shape our financial realities.

Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Leo's life has been shaped by both economic hardship and powerful moments of protest and resilience. After immigrating to the U.S. in 2003, they witnessed their family rebuild stability in the face of systemic barriers. These early experiences would later inform Leo's nuanced and justice-rooted lens on money. From navigating six figures in student debt, to surviving housing insecurity in New York, and eventually discovering their trans identity during the pandemic, Leo’s personal journey fuels their mission to help others find agency and abundance in their financial lives.

They have studied with organizations like Trauma of Money, Antioch University's Radical Economy course, and Anticapitalism for Artists. Their work not only provides financial coaching to individuals, couples, and groups, but also advocates for systemic change—especially around housing, healthcare, and income for queer and trans communities. Leo’s commitment to economic justice is grounded, intersectional, and deeply human.

Episode Highlights

00:02:10 Meeting Leo and the origin of Queer & Trans Wealth
00:03:50 From journalist to full-time financial coach
00:06:53 Overcoming imposter syndrome
00:08:33 Early financial memories from Manila and the family business
00:10:50 Immigration, poverty, and the struggle for stability
00:14:32 “If I were my own client…” boundaries and saving habits
00:19:38 Survivor’s guilt and joy in the queer/trans community
00:21:30 Grandma Leonila: quiet power and everyday justice
00:25:40 Why social justice is a pressure valve, not a burden
00:36:10 How imagining a future changed Leo’s financial habits
00:42:40 Right-sized accountability and building sustainable change
00:46:10 The Pay It Forward Fund: redistributing access and care

Keywords

#QueerFinance #TransMoneyCoach #EconomicJustice #DecolonizeWealth #MoneyAndIdentity #FinancialHealing #LGBTQFinance #AntiCapitalism #SocialJusticeMoney #RightSizedAccountability

Resources

Queer & Trans Wealth
Substack
Instagram 
Leo Aquino on the podcast Dem Bois with Sean Aron 
Pay It Forward Fund with Queer & Trans Wealth

Watch it on Youtube here

 

Diana Gisel Yañez is an Investment Advisor Representative of Natural Investments PBLLC. Natural Investments is an independent Registered Investment Advisor. All the Colors is not a registered entity and is not an affiliate or subsidiary of Natural Investments. See our Disclosures and Disclaimers and read our Form CRS.