The Malecon of Havana smells like salt … but also to distant dreams, breached, forgotten. One of them, the most recurring: to leave the country, invest in the future and obtain the so longed for financial freedom. Thousands of Cubans dream this a day, and among all of them, one succeeded: his name is Yoel Sardiñas and is the CEO of Invest Academy, the Investment Academy in Wall Street that in just three years and 5 months has reached more than 14,000 students in 54 countries of the world.
He succeeded, yes. But it was not a linear path. Before teaching thousands to invest in the New York Stock Exchange, Yoel had to make his most challenging investment: he will rebuild himself to break with the scarcity mentality with which he had to grow.
“The financial revolution does not begin in your bank account, but in your mind,” he often repeats in his classes. And he knows it well: after living in his own flesh, what he calls “the most abject misery” and emigrate from Cuba, became obsessed with understanding how financial markets, money, and above all, the mentality of those who manage to multiply it.
After going through more than 9 investment academies, bringing several thousands to zero accounts, and investing for long years, discovered a teaching methodology in the stock market that nobody was applying: a way of making understandable and accessible the abstract.
Thus he reached his financial freedom and connected with his purpose: bring financial education to every corner where there is a Spanish speaker determined to transform his future, to eliminate the gap between those who work for money, and those who make money work for them.
Thus was born Investep Academy, which today generates employment for more than 100 people with a single objective: to become the first academy of the world that helps more than 10,000 Spanish speakers to achieve its first million dollars, as he got it at 33 years.
The differential: “Plasticine accompaniment”
Investep Academy started from a fact: all people learn differently. Therefore, so that the democratization of the bag was a fact, everyone should have an accompaniment adapted to their needs.
That is why they quickly decided that their differential would be what they call “The plasticine accompaniment”: an educational methodology online in which each student has a specialized investment advisor, who adapts to their context and accompanies him hand in hand, regardless of his educational level, age, profession or nationality. The objective: that no one feels alone or lagging behind.
Thus, what began as a digital course is today a robust ecosystem, based on three pillars: financial education, mental transformation and specialized mentoring.
Thanks to this, students not only learn to invest, but to think like big investors. Because the differential is not only in what is taught, but in how.
For sardiñas, his mantra is “Keep It simple”, referring to the further simplifying what has historically been explained as a complex, better decisions can be made. And better decisions, generate better results.
“You do not need to be an expert in finance to invest well. What you need is an investment plan leveraged in the compound effect, which focuses on maximum three companies on the market, and that allows you to make consistent decisions with your vision in the long term,” says Sardiñas.
The fever of investing without education: the new financial risk
In the last decade, investing became “cool.” Investment applications from home democratized access to financial markets, allowing buying shares from the cell phone and with minimal amounts. Social networks, on the other hand, were filled with financial influencers, criptomoned gurus and express traders that offer wealth in a click … but omit the risks, foundations and, above all, education.
Latin America was no exception. With an increasingly digitized youth, but without financial education in schools, the cocktail was served. Thousands began to invest without understanding the assets, without managing their emotions and without a clear strategy. The result: losses, frustration and a growing distrust of the stock market.
In that panorama, Invest Academy has shown that there is another way. One that forms investors with criteria, method and accompaniment.
Invest as professionals: financial options for all
One of the great contributions of the Academy is to democratize access to financial options or option contracts, a stock market instrument that was historically reserved for institutional traders or experts in Wall Street.
Unlike the purchase of traditional shares – which only generate benefits if the price goes up – the options allow to earn money even when the market goes down. Well used, they allow to generate constant income in short periods of time and take advantage of trends of all kinds with high potential.
Of course: they also imply greater approach and speed. And there is the challenge that Yoel and his team have assumed: to translate the sophistication of the market into a clear, applicable and realistic language, so that anyone, regardless of their training, can understand them and use them in their favor.
T demading myths: investing is not just for bankers or millionaires
For decades, the bag was a distant universe associated with runners from Wall Street, economists with MBA and fortunes that multiply between cocktails and figures. Today, that belief collapses.
For Yoel, there are three main myths about the bag, which constantly seeks to deny:
- 1. Investing is only for economists or bankers
Nothing farther from reality. This myth moves thousands of people who believe that a title is needed in finance to operate in the markets. Actually, anyone can learn to invest if it has a clear methodology and an accompaniment environment.
- 2. Thousands of dollars are needed to start:
Fake. With just 10 dollars – the cost of a single financial option – can start. Many research students started with $ 100 or 200 and today they manage robust portfolios.
- 3. Investing is like betting:
Mistake. Betting is trusting chance; Investing is making informed decisions, based on analysis, risk control and emotional discipline. Conscious investment is a patrimonial construction tool, not game.
From Cuba to the world: a vision of financial impact
Today, Yoel Sardiñas not only directs an academy that continues to expand through Latin America, the United States and Europe. It has also become an influential voice in financial education issues, collaborating with experts, participating in international events and developing new training routes for increasingly diverse profiles.
From the Malecon of Havana to a stage in Mexico City or Miami, the story of Yoel is not only of personal improvement, but of collective construction: of thousands of people who are learning that money, when understood, ceases to be an obstacle … and becomes a tool of freedom.
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