Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. Our guest today is Rebecca Irey. Rebecca is the founder and CEO of Blue Sky Financial, a national firm on a mission to change the financial trajectory of American families from dependence on broken systems like debt and Social Security to building true legacy wealth and financial independence. With over 25 years of experience, Rebecca brings a unique mix of straight talk, heart-centered strategy, and values-based planning that resonates with individuals, families, and business owners alike. 

She specializes in tax-free retirement, Social Security and Medicare optimization, estate planning, and small-business tax strategies. What sets Rebecca apart is a belief that wealth isn’t about just numbers. It’s about dignity, agency, and living a life you’re proud to pass on. Rebecca also leads one of the most mentorship-driven financial sales teams in the country. She has partnered with organizations like Save the Children to align every client with greater social impact.

She’s an extraordinary American, and I’m glad and honored to have her on the show. Rebecca, thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

Rebecca

Thank you for having me. I’m excited.

Cosmos

So, Rebecca, can you tell me, the audience, a little bit more about yourself, your background, your story, and what got you into this?

Rebecca

Sure. I think, you know, I always tell my students that those who can’t do, teach. Right. So many of us are, I’m a cautionary tale. Why am I passionate about what I do? Because I know all the places that you can step in it, so to speak. Right. 

So, when I grew up, I didn’t grow up in Texas, although I’m very fortunate to reside here now. I grew up on a 3,000-acre ranch in South Dakota. Four generations of my family lived there. My grandma raised nine kids there. She didn’t have indoor plumbing until, like, 1955. It’s been a long time. But I was raised in the 80s. That was farm aid, right? Willie Nelson was selling and singing for the farmers. Didn’t work for us. We lost it. We lost; we lost the farm. Right. So that was my introduction to financial education in America. Sucks. It’s terrible, right? My dad knew crops; he knew cattle. He didn’t know. He knew he had to take out a big loan and, hopefully, pay it off. And when that didn’t happen, we lost, we lost everything. 

So by the time I got to college, I was like, there’s got to be rules. There’s got to be rules. And so I started in finance right out of college and started putting the right things into play. You know, you do the Emergency fund, and you do the Dave Ramsey thing, and you do the no debt thing. And here’s what happens: life punches you in the face, right? Mike Tyson says, ” Everybody’s got a plan to get punched in the face, right? 

And so I had the emergency fund, and life punched me in the face. And I tapped everything because that’s what you do. But then I started having kids, and I’m a slow learner, so I ended up with seven. And I. I didn’t rebuild it. I didn’t. And the problem with entrepreneurs, right, and you probably feel this is that we suck at saving because we’re rain makers, right? We make money, so why save? I’ll just make more money. It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s all fine. Fast forward. I have six kids at home. I’m homeschooling them. My husband is one of those guys, no offense to you, who doesn’t want to go to the doctor, right? Are you a doctor guy?

Cosmos

He’s not, no.

Rebecca

He’s like, “What are they going to tell me, babe? I need to lose a few pounds.” I know that. I don’t need somebody with an MD to tell me I need to lose a little weight. 

So, he hadn’t been feeling well. I took him to the emergency room, and the doctor pulled me out after an hour and said, ” He’s never checking out. You’re done. Figure out your life. 45-year-old, six kids, homeschooling. And I’m like, that’s not the story I wrote. Now, he did check out 18 months later, with a different liver and no legs. But I’m blessed to have him still. 

So, I know all the mistakes. I’ve seen it with my parents, my aunts and uncles, my clients, and me. So, I know where that is. I know the system is broken, and it’s my mission to fix it for other people.

Cosmos

Well, Rebecca, like, if I may ask, how did you go from such a hard time and, like, rebound a rebound back? Because I know you had six children. Like, your husband is going through this health crisis. 

Could you walk me through the mindset that you took to, like, overcome this adversity?

Rebecca

Well, there are a lot of tears. I mean, it was a shock. I was shocked. I had no idea. He spent 18 months in the hospital in San Antonio, which is two months, two hours from my home. So, I would get up in the morning, drive two hours, spend the morning with him, drive two hours back, educate the kids, work a little, but I had to figure out how to handle this now. In this case, financial services really did save me in several ways. My husband did have a life insurance policy with a terminal illness benefit. 

So, we were able to cash in on that. And it kept us going. And it meant I could keep educating the kids and keep living while my husband was recuperating. And then I had to turn my, I had to turn my face to say, and you’re going to go to work, and you’re going to work harder than you worked in, you know, since you were 20s. Because look, I was an entrepreneur. I, I, we always said we’d work 40 years in 10 years, so we don’t have to work anymore, right? We’re the laziest entrepreneurs ever. You just work and work and work so that you don’t have to work later. That was the idea. And it worked for us. I had come to a point in my 40s where I worked because I wanted to, not because I had to. And then I lost my business partner. 

And here’s what happens, right? Maybe three, the three, the big Ds. This is what’s going to happen to all of us, one way or another, right? Divorce. Divorce is on the rise. Actually, ages 65 to 74, divorce is up almost 40% in that age group alone, which is not a crazy percent up. So, we have divorce, we have death, right? My husband lived. But losing a partner means that your income goes down on average by about 30%. And guess what else happens? Your taxes go up by about 60% because you’re not married anymore. 

Right now, you’re single. And the government doesn’t give a crap if you just lost your partner. They’re like, next April 15th, you’re single, head of household. Here’s your new tax bill. We’re not prepared for that, right? 

So we have divorce, we have death, and then we have desperation. And that’s what happened to me, right? All of a sudden, he’s still here, but he can’t work anymore. He can’t, I’ll be lucky to have him home. And now you have all the expenses of extended care, and the system is broken. 

So I have spent since, since my husband got ill all of those years trying to figure out how to use traditional tools in untraditional ways to fix it. Because for our kids, and for us, my kids’ system is broken, and it will never work for them. They will never have wealth unless they figure out how to break the dang system and make it work for them again. That’s. That’s what needs to happen.

Cosmos

So, Rebecca, so you’re now with six children, and then you have to figure out, like, your finances and everything. 

So, could you walk me through the audience to, like, your strategy, about how? How to secure yourself financially, and how did you view inflation rising groceries, as well as debt, during this transition to where you’re now?

Rebecca

Cautionary tale, right? I received the payout from the life insurance policy. And, you know, my first thought was, I got to get rid of all the debt. I can’t have any payments. That was not a great choice, quite honestly, because here’s what happens when you. When you pay off debt. The money’s gone. The money’s gone. Now the money’s gone. And what are you going to do? Because something else is going to happen. And then we had a snow apocalypse in Texas, right? And. And all the pipes broke, and the roof was broken.

Cosmos

And I remember that. I was there.

Rebecca Irey:

Oh, my goodness. It was terrible. Like, what happened? Texas, this is. I walked out my front door with snow on my knees. I’m, like, this is inappropriate. This is inappropriate. Texas. No. So, I made a mistake. I paid off all the debt, and then I kind of. I set up strategies to make the remaining money last as long as possible. But what I learned from that is wealthy families don’t spend their money. They spend other people’s money. They leverage their money, and they spend other people’s money. And I didn’t do that. And now I know. 

So now, when I work with business owners and especially families 50 and under, right? And they’re like, I got to get out of debt. I got to pay. Dave Ramsey says, no debt. And I’m like, fine, I agree, no debt. But let’s do it in a way where you’re leveraging your savings, and you’re not on the hamster wheel of putting your. Your emergency fund is back together every freaking three months because something’s going to happen, right? 

So one of the ways you can use. And I. I couldn’t do this because. But my kids can. And I’ve set this up for all of them. One of the ways you can use an. A traditional tool, used in an untraditional way, is to use an index universal life insurance policy as your emergency fund. And this is why, right? 

You put the money in there. It’s growing. And let me tell you, this isn’t grandpa’s Life insurance. Right. We’re getting double digits. Rates of return on some of these that you can lock in. Can you imagine locking in 12 this year? I locked in 18% for somebody in a life insurance policy. That’s wild. Does it happen every year? No, it doesn’t. 

So, so you do that, and then when you have an emergency, you use that savings as collateral, you borrow against it, you handle your expense, but all that money’s still in the account earning that interest. So now we’re leveraging like wealthy families, because when I took all the money and paid all my debt, it was all gone, and I couldn’t use it. 

I’m a woman. I want my cake, and I want to eat it, too. I want to spend the money and spend it again and spend it again. And that’s what we teach people how to do.

Cosmos

Well, Rebecca, there’s so much to get in here, because most people, like, at least in people with low incomes, in the middle class, when they see debt, they just want to get rid of debt, in your own words. Like, they will listen to Dave Ramsey. They want to get out of debt. 

But what you’re just saying over here is so critically important. And we need to talk about this more, because I think the audience needs to know how to leverage your money, use other people’s money, and, like a new concept, a life insurance policy to do that. Can you elaborate more on how to utilize a strategy?

Rebecca

Sure, sure. And it’s quite frank. And here’s the thing. I think I don’t have any problem with Dave Ramsey. I think Dave Ramsey has great advice. He. I put all my kids through Financial Peace University before they graduated high school.

I did. He’s like, elementary school for finance. He really is. Those are great principles. But eventually, if you want to build wealth, you need to move on to high school and college, and maybe even graduate school. You need advanced strategies. 

So Dave Ramsey gives great elementary. Like, you need to know what you’re doing. I don’t have any problem with it, but there comes a point where it’s just money in, money out, and I’m not going to buy Starbucks, and I’m never going to have a new car. And I look, if you talk to somebody 40 and under and say, hey, if you just work really hard and save forever, you could have a new car by the time you’re 55. And they look at you like, excuse me, I’m gonna wait till I’m old and dusty to have anything nice. Nope. Why? I don’t want to do that. I’m over the 50 mark, and I don’t want; I want nice things now. Thank you very much.

Cosmos

Right, yeah.

Rebecca

So we use tools and not just life insurance. There are market-based strategies with protections and buffers you can implement. But just sticking with the life insurance one for a minute. Life insurance has to be appropriately engineered. Life insurance is just a tool, like you can kill somebody with a hammer or build a mansion. How are you going to use the hammer? Right.

Cosmos

For real.

Rebecca

So, so life insurance, engineered appropriately, has what’s called a non-direct recognition loan. Right. Which means you have, let’s just say, $10,000 in the equity side of your policy, and you call me and say, ” Hey Rebecca, I need five grand for, I don’t know, my air conditioner went out. Right. 

Well, I’m going to say, okay, cool. I’m going to use your $10,000 as collateral. Just the way we use a car as collateral. I’m going to give you that $5,000. You’re going to pay interest at a lower rate to the insurance company for the privilege of borrowing the money. When you pay it back, you pay the insurance company. Any additional interest is credited to your account. But the best part is that your $10,000 didn’t drop to $5,000 because you used it only as collateral. You didn’t spend the money. So that entire $10,000 stays in your account, earning interest more than what you’re paying. 

So you’re net positive even on your debt. If you’re net positive on your debt, debt is no longer a problem.

Cosmos

A lot of people consider this literally magic, like you’re utilizing some kind of… It’s interesting because I read this book, “Becoming Your Own Banker ” by Nelson Nash. I’m not, I don’t know if you read that. And actually, right now I have coaches helping me understand life insurance policies. 

But it’s just, like, an it was like a paradigm shift when I read it. It was just like using a life insurance policy to pay off debt while collecting interest. It’s what he talked about this airplane, where you have this headwind, and most people are just going against the wind. Right. 

But you have to learn to create an environment where you’re going with the wind. And it was just really profound.

Rebecca

It’s a great book.

Now, what I will say about the book is, as with any radical concept, right now, you have teachers in my industry, and some of them will say, like in becoming your own bank, Nelson, Nelson Nash will tell you, whole life is the only way to do it, right? And some teachers will say that if you’re going to use that strategy, it has to be a whole-life policy. And then you’ve got other people, right? Other teachers will say it’s got to be an indexed universal life insurance policy. And you know what? They’re both wrong. They’re not cookie-cutter people, and we don’t need cookie-cutter solutions.

So there’s a time when, throughout the whole life, the way that Nelson Nash makes a whole lot of sense. And there are times when an index universal life insurance policy makes more sense.

And so looking at those strategies, you know, blue sky, we always say that we’re big enough to handle all your needs, we’re small enough to know your name. So there, I will tell you: I have many families where I have a whole life insurance policy using Nelson Nash’s strategies for one spouse and an indexed universal life insurance policy for the other spouse. 

So we’re maximizing both because over 40 years, the IUL will win. But if I need to, if I need to leverage money right now, like now, within the next 6m months, your whole life policy is going to win. So, so where’s the balance? What are we creating for your family? And that’s really all that matters. Not what the gurus say, Dave Ramsey, or anybody else who cares. What matters is you. When do you want to retire, and what do you want to have? And how much of that do you want to share with the government? 

And I’ll go one step further because most people don’t know this. And this is what’s going to happen to you when you pass? What happens to all that wealth, the difference between a wealthy parent and a poor one? Three. Three generations. My kids, my grandkids. Somebody’s going to wreck it. 

So here’s a book for you if you haven’t read it. What would the Rockefellers do? Using trust strategies to protect your wealth. People don’t know. If all you have is a will, you’re guaranteed to go through probate. 

And if you’re guaranteed probate, that means judges and attorneys and accountants are going to decide where your assets go. Not you. What the heck? No pass. Hard pass with. With me. I have it all set up in a trust so that I always tell my kids, ” You go play by mama’s rules while you’re alive. And when I’m long dead, your grandkids are going to play by my rules, too, because I made the money. Sorry, Sorry, not sorry. Isn’t that what they say now? 

Sorry, not sorry, my rules. But you need a comprehensive strategy. I had a client a month ago, an older lady, who wanted her husband to do estate planning. And he, he didn’t want to do it. He said, I got it handled. He passed away. And she found a paper on his desk. And on it was written, all to Deb. That was his estate planning, all to Deb. She had to take that to the bank and say, “I am Deb.” I am Deb. He meant “all” to Deb. Can you imagine? What a. What a mess!

Cosmos

Wow.

Rebecca Irey:

Are. Are we going to be remembered for what we provide for the future generations of our family or for the chaos we leave behind? 

So it’s, it’s, you know, they say that some, some people, not me, say the government should take care of us cradle to grave. But financial matters impact us cradle to grave. They impact where we go to school, what we get to eat, where we get to live, and where we get to vacation. Everything, our mental state, our health, everything is money. I’m not saying that’s good or bad. I’m saying having it and the resources is much better than not having them. And we can, we can have it. There’s a way to get there from here, for sure.

Cosmos

Rebecca.

And one thing I wanted to ask regarding death, right? And. Well, like how? Well, like, what I wanted to ask, for the sake of the audience, is: how do wealthy people view debt, and how do they leverage other people’s money to create wealth?

Rebecca

I think there are many ways to do it. I think the first step for most middle- and lower-income people, and even the upper middle class, is to learn to leverage our own money. Like, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, kids. We’re going to leverage our own money. 

So we’re going to set up the accounts and start becoming our own bank. To your point, right, we’re going to start leveraging our own equity, and eventually, there’s going to come an opportunity where we’re like, well, I don’t have enough here. To leverage. So, how can I access private equity money now? How can I do the next thing? Maybe I’m an entrepreneur, and I want to get involved in those things. And those strategies come after we learn to. One step at a time. Let’s learn to leverage our own money. 

And once we have that down, then we’re going to learn to leverage other people’s money. Debt is not. I’m not saying debt is a great thing, but first be in debt to yourself. Like, borrow from yourself first. And then when something comes along, let’s talk about private equity. Let’s talk about private money. Let’s talk about other ways to leverage money so that you’re not in debt to American Express or anybody else, because those things go south really fast when they do.

Cosmos

No, for sure. Rebecca and I had a business mentor who told me that most people, when they think of debt, view it as bad. They think of it negatively. But in reality, the wealthy see it as consumer debt and strategic debt. 

So they use debt to create wealth and appreciate assets. Right? Whereas most people use debt to buy cars or other things that are basically liabilities. 

So if you can use debt properly, it actually becomes really amazing. But he was telling me about the differences, like how the multi-millionaires do that.

Rebecca

It’s all about ROI, right?

So most of us go into debt, and this is a great time to talk about it, right? So I have a business partner, and he’s forever complaining about people who are, like, just there for the shoes. And he’s not talking about women’s shoes. He’s talking about like, Air Jordans or whatever. I don’t know sports. I know Taylor Swift has a football team. I don’t know anything else. I don’t know sports; it’s just that I lack knowledge of them. But he’s forever saying, ” That’s so stupid. You buy Air Jordans when you could be investing in your future.

 But I am a gadget girl. Like, I have a weakness. Any, any new fancy gadget. I love them. I love all the. I love them. I just have to have. That’s not, that’s not the kind of debt that works for you. That’s not strategic debt. That is. That’s not the good kind of debt, which I have to remind myself of, right? There’s a strategic debt. And, here’s the difference, right? When you look at debt, you say, “Okay, what’s my ROI?” And what’s my return on investment?

So here’s an example. An irrevocable trust is a way to mitigate taxes. Engineered appropriately, you can mitigate taxes in a really major way. There are some really brilliant strategies in that field. However, an irrevocable trust is expensive. It’s expensive to set up. You’re looking at 10, $12,000 to do it, right? So, if you’re not going to recoup 10 to $12,000 in tax savings in your first two to three years, it’s not worth doing, right? 

So what you put, what you go into debt for, are you going to be in the black? Are you going to make more than you spend within two to three years? If we put that level playing field there and say, ” This is my barrier to entry. If yes, go. If no, no, go, the amount of debt we would have would be significantly less, right? 

Because most of our debt is not ROI debt, it’s gadget debt or shoes or whatever is your thing, right? It’s just those. I want it. I want it. It’s not ours. It’s not strategic at all. It’s. I want it. That’s what it is. Right.

Cosmos

I think, Rebecca, in our society, right, especially like social media, we have the ” keep up with the Joneses attitude.  We see our neighbors having these nice cars. We’re like, I want this car as well. I got to keep up. , there’s a status kind of thing. And then in the process, we end up like, gathering a lot of consumer debt. And then the credit cards, right now, they’re charging 20 25% interest. 

You don’t necessarily have to have a minimalist mindset, but we have to prioritize how to use the money we have. We’re having, we’re taking in.

Rebecca

I think what I have found with younger folks is that. And young families are my favorite to work with because they don’t have hope. And I hear this from my kids. I hear it a lot, like, “We know we’re screwed, Ma.” We know what worked for you and can work for us as well. We’re never going to be wealthy. We’re never going to own a home. We’re never. And they’re right. And I think people of my generation and the boomer generation should have enough integrity to say the System is broken for you. 

If you’ve never been to usdetclock.org, you should go. It tells you not just the debt, which is scary enough, but that we add a trillion dollars every five months to the debt. That’s stupid. But it also tells you that the average home in the year 2000 was $165,000—a new home.

Cosmos

Yeah.

Rebecca

The average new home is now 500 grand.

Cosmos

 Yeah.

Rebecca

Tripled the average salary in 2000—40 grand. The average salary today is 50 grand.

Cosmos

I wanted to ask you about stagnant wages and inflation after this.

Rebecca Irey:

So why do my kids feel like they’re screwed? Because they are. Because we’ve tripled expenses and increased wages by 25%. You’re screwed. That’s what you are. You are. So we need to. The beautiful thing about being young is that you can say, kick all that to the side. When do I want to retire? 

So I had a great conversation with a 29-year-old couple this weekend, and I said, “Okay, here’s your income.” You have one child, and you own a home. When do you want to retire? And they said, I can’t really imagine working past 45, which I love. I love that. And I said, okay, fair enough. We can, we, I will tell you always, we can get there from here. 

So I reverse-engineered the numbers and said, ” If you want to do that, here’s what we need to do. And it’s pinchy. It’s, it’s a, it’s going to be 10 years of sacrifice, guys. And they’re like 10 years of sacrifice. I’m like, yep, okay, okay, let’s do it. And by the time they’re 45, they will be able to do whatever they want. Here’s a good retirement. Whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it, however I want to do it, that’s retirement. 

And they will be able to do that tax-free. And the government can kick rocks barefoot because they’re not going to tax them on that money. You can do that, but not using what we’ve always done is going to get us what we’ve always got, because it ain’t doing that anymore.

Cosmos

I mean, Rebecca, like what I wanted to ask you is, you know, like our wages are not catching up with inflation. Like grocery, like in your own words, like the price of a home has increased. 

So let’s see, a family is watching this, right? Let’s say it’s a father and mother with two to three children who are in debt, right? And they are paying the mortgage, credit card bills, and all of that. 

And they had to ask you for advice about Linda. The number one most important thing they can do to change their lifestyle and get out of this existing debt is to. What would you advise them to do?

Rebecca

So, first things first. We need to figure out where we are, right? And so everybody wants a plan, but they don’t even know where they want to go or where they are. 

So I had seven children and, with every child, I gained about £20 to the point that I didn’t want to step on the scale anymore. It was terrible. And finally, I had a doctor say to me, ” Girl, it’s not good or bad anymore. It just is what it is. Good or bad is where you go from here. And so, from the fat girl, the first thing you need to do is do a census, right? 

What are your debts? Like, what is the balance? What is the interest rate? What’s the minimum payment? What do you actually pay for it? Right, let’s. Let’s get a picture of where you are. Not good or bad. No shame. This is just where we are. And once we know that, then we can make a plan in the future, right? 

So we need to know clearly where we really are. For real? No messing around. No. We may be able to, or we would. No, for real, this is where we are. It’s not good or bad, it just is where. And then where do we want to get to? 

Are we okay working to 70? I’ll tell you, I’ve tried to retire three times. Here’s what I know. There aren’t enough crafts on Pinterest to keep me busy. There’s. I’m really good at killing plants. I love what I do. 

I’m not going to retire because I love it and that’s it. I can say I’m effectively retired because all I do is what I want, and I want to work. 

We have a destination, and we have. This is actually a state of affairs right now. Then we can reverse engineer that. I can’t tell you what to change in your lifestyle until I actually know how it’s impacting you. And that’s what people don’t want to look at. They come to me and say, I need a roadmap. Okay. To get where, where are you starting from? First things first. Like, once we know, then. Then we could start with something as small as going back to Dave Ramsey.

We’ll do a little debt snowball action. But not inside an emergency fund. Probably inside an infinite banking policy. Right? Just start small, and then we build from there, and before you know it, you know, giant oaks from mighty acorns grow and all that stuff. We’re going to get there. We are.

Cosmos

No, for sure.

And Rebecca, I wanted to know your opinion. This. Right. On a national level. Like, our national identity as Americans, like, is based on freedom and opportunity for a better life. But on the financial front right now, with stagnant wages, inflation, and debt, people are losing hope in the American dream. So what’s your opinion on, on, like, what’s going on between the ideals of American freedom versus the reality we see financially for most families?

Rebecca Irey:

Oh, that’s a hard question. I’m an idealist. I. I really am. I. I will tell you, I’ve lived through a lot of presidents, a lot, and only one has ever impacted my life. For real. For real. And it was totally unintentional. Right. Obama impacted my life because he made changes to health care that impacted my husband’s company. Right. 

And he didn’t mean to, but. But that is the. Really, the only president who ever impacted me personally. 

So I still believe we can chart our own course. I really do. I really do. And I know that they’re like, my kids are like, ma, it doesn’t work. Capitalism is an abuse. And no, I’m still a capitalist. I really am. I am a. I am a capitalist to my core. And this is why: when I started, outside of finance, I met my husband in finance, and then he started a medical company, and we grew that. 

And the whole point of our medical company was to allow women to stay home with their kids and raise them. It wasn’t about us getting rich. We all did it together, but we can still all win together. I really believe in that. We can still get there from here. Not with the government. Government is damned. I mean, I would stand with Ronald Reagan when he said, there’s nothing scarier than somebody knocking on the door saying, I’m from the government and I’m here to help. The government never helps and never does anything good with our money. Sorry, they don’t. You will always do better with your money than they will. 

chart your course, and if you don’t have anybody helping you, call me, and I will. And I’m not the only one you don’t have to call if you don’t like me. Like, she’s crazy. There are lots of people like me. Find somebody to help you chart. You can get there from here. It’s not going to be easy, but here’s the other thing y’ all have that I didn’t have. I say this all the time. I would have. I would have eaten my socks before I asked my dad for help after I moved out. I would not have done that. No, no, no, no. The younger generations don’t have a problem with that. They’re like, hey, Ma, can I move back home?

I would have never. And what do we say? My generation, we’re like, I mean, yeah, sure. Why do we say it? I don’t know. I guess we like. I like my kids. I love them. They’re so fun. So if you need to move back home, do so. So what? Who gives a damn about the Joneses? 

The Joneses are going to be in debt, and you’re going to be in Tahiti because you had the foresight to say, I’m going to take six months, and you’re going to. I’m going to put these strategies into place, save it all. I’m going to do my 10 years of sacrifice, and the Joneses can kick it. It’s fine.

Cosmos

I mean, yeah. I mean, that’s a big issue, right? 

Most of the time, debt is accrued because we see what our friends and neighbors are doing and either want to keep up or don’t want to seem like we’re going down. So, you’re right about that.

Rebecca

Find friends with cool shit and use theirs. That’s what I would do. Let me just tell you from. From. From my perspective, as a homeowner. Don’t ever own a home. You have to replace the air conditioner, the roof, and everything else that breaks. That’s on you. Or you could just call the super and say, ” Fix the crap, man. I don’t pay rent here. Fix it

Cosmos

for sure.

Rebecca

Find friends with cool things and use theirs. It’s cheaper and still just as much fun.

Cosmos

So, Rebecca, what does the American dream mean to you personally? Because, you know, different people have different versions of what the American dream is to them. But what does it personally mean to you?

Rebecca

I only have one child who’s traveled, and he says Europe is much cheaper to live in. And in my very stressful moments, I confess that I do shop condos in Rio because they’re really cheap and they’re furnished. And you know, I love that we can chart our own course. And I really still think we can. I really do. 

And look, I think despite the political division in our country, all of us agree on what the problems are. In. In all seriousness, we all know the problems. We do. And where we differ is what the solution is, right? And. And there’s a healthy part of our country that says the government should fix it. And I say the government will only make it worse. We need to fix it. 

Half of us see the solution as macro to micro, right? 

The government fixes it, it comes down, and they fix it for us. And I say the American dream is micro m to macro. And that’s what it always has been. It’s us. We fix it. We fix our own lives, and then our friends see that we’re fixing it and they fix it. And then our communities change, our cities change, our states change, and our country changes. Micro to macro. That’s the answer to me.

Cosmos

I mean, amen, Rebecca. Like, it’s the ripple. Like, we are. Everybody wants to change the world; they want to change the country. But ultimately, we have to change ourselves, our circumstances, and our mindset about everything. 

And then our world changes. Because I kind of do yoga meditation, so there’s this philosophy, like, where your outside world is ultimately a reflection of your inner self. And if you transform your inner self, everything else around you will change as well.

Rebecca Irey:

I love the phrase the feeling leads the healing, right? The feeling here, the feeling here, I lead the healing. And maybe that’s financial healing. Maybe that’s physical healing. Maybe it’s your relationships. Maybe it’s. But we have come to a place where we. 

We outsource our responsibility. And that is not, like, I talked to a gentleman a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve never met a person like this, but he was, he was a person that, he was one of those that if you voted a certain way, like, we’re not friends. I won’t speak to you. We’re not friends. I’ve never met anyone like that. And I said, but that. That’s your blood. Those are blood people to you, right? 

And he’s like, but, yeah, but if they did that, then I’m like, but don’t you want to know why? Don’t you want to know why? Like, it’s not about the monster. It’s about the monster maker, right? Because every monster had a monster Maker. Let’s figure that out together. We can get there from here. We can together, but not if we’re like. And it’s their fault, and the government should. And there should be a law, and it’s your fault. And I’m not speaking to you. That’s not going to get us anywhere.

Cosmos

That’s deep, Rebecca. it’s. It’s kind of like, don’t.

Don’t blame Frankenstein’s monster. Like, find out Frankenstein and see what’s there. Yeah.

Rebecca

Ah, it’s not about Frankens. Who made Frankenstein? Who’s the monster maker? And the hard part about the. So this isn’t finance talk, but the hard part about the monster maker is that every monster maker had a maker. So where does the compassion end? I mean, I would tell you my religion as being a kind human. 

Here’s a story I’ve never told. I. I had it. I had a group of people who worked with me not so long ago, and they left. It ended badly. And they left me with a crushing amount of debt, like one of those. Have you ever had a debt that made you go? It was like that, Right? 

And soon after they left, I got this tattoo on my wrist. It’s Aramaic, and it means thou art that. And. And it means everything that pisses you off in the world, everything that makes you mad, you’re that. And everything beautiful and divine and lovely and awesome, you’re that, too. 

I had to look at those people and go, “If I thought what you thought and believed what you believe, I would have acted the way you acted.” I would have. And probably worse, honestly, if I’m really honest. 

And so if we can start looking at our neighbors, our kids, and our spouses and say, if I thought what you thought and I believed what you believed, I would act the way you act. And it’s not about me.

It’s about understanding each other. Then our finances, our lives, and our country will improve, too.

Cosmos

I think what’s lacking in our society now is understanding the other side, a certain type of empathy where you try to understand the origins of why people come from where they do. Because I don’t think you can hate what you understand. 

There’s, like, a saying like that: Once you understand something, you might not like it, but you do like it. You’re not going to hate it anymore. And I think that’s why they say that God does not hate anybody, because he understands everybody.

Rebecca

Yeah. I. I think that we’re all. And this is something I know not everybody agrees with, but I truly believe it. I think we’re all doing the best we can with what we know and what we’ve lived. Right. And so. And that’s hard for people, right? Because that means our president is doing his best. It means he’s really doing what he really believes is right. 

And he might be wrong, and there might be miles of unintended consequences that might be true. But. But really, he’s doing the best he can. 

I always tell people I have two kids. If I had just had two kids who have been the perfect mother, and everybody else would be stupid. And then I had two more that made me question whether God was real. And I knew that if he was real, he probably hated me. Right. 

So I had three more just to, like, balance the scales, right. Because. But I. Now I know I’m just a woman, right? I’m just a human doing the best I can. And I did the best. I tried. I tried, and we all do. And when you look at the person across from you, even somebody you disagree with, like, how can you think? And you think. 

But if I had lived your life and I had seen what you’ve seen and I’ve lived what you’ve lived, I would think the same. Well, now you have to have compassion, because you’re looking in the mirror, and that’s what we’re all really doing, even with politicians, and I don’t like them either, but there you go.

Cosmos

No, for sure. For sure. Rebecca.

And, Rebecca, on another note, I wanted to ask you about Blue Sky Financial. Can you tell me a little more about that in the audience? What does that do, and what was the premise of how you got it started?

Rebecca

Yeah, but after my husband got sick and I decided to go independent, I have my own. I. So I have four daughters, and one of them is who? She’s different. She’s not quite the middle child, but she’s close, and she’s always been feisty. She’s been in trouble since, like, she was a month old. Like, she’s always been in trouble. She moved out early, and it was about that time that my husband got sick. 

And I sat down with her, and I said, Julia, what color’s the sky? And she was 17, and she’s like, Blue. And I’m like, okay, but, but in a thunderstorm, what color is it? She’s like, black. I’m like, yeah, but behind the thunderstorm blue. I’m like, okay, but just play with me for a second. What about in a hurricane? Blue, Ma, it’s always blue. Stop. 

And I’m like, you’re right, it is. And that’s me for you. I’m your blue sky. And I will always be here for you, and I will always believe in you, and I will always find a way with you. Always. And when I went independent in finance, I knew that that’s what I wanted to be for clients. I wanted to say, wealthy people have teams of people to help them. Not just one person, not just a Jack-of-all-trades, Edward Jones guy, Fidelity guy, or insurance agent. They have a team of people, so they can always find the blue sky. And that’s what I wanted. So at Blue Sky, we’ve put together teams, so if you need. 

For a girl who doesn’t know sports, there’s one thing I know. I know what a quarterback is, kind of basically the guy that calls the plays, right? That’s what I know. That’s what I think I know. I’m the quarterback, right? 

So I’m going to meet with you, make the play, and then we’re going to call in the experts, because you don’t want a jack-of-all-trades, master of none when it comes to finances. You want a team. And so that’s. We’re big enough to do all the things, and we’re small enough to know your name. We’ll handle your estate planning, your Medicare, your infinite banking, your Roth IRA, and your assets—all the things. And I know your name, and I know your kids, and I know how long you’ve been married. And you matter to me. You matter to me. That’s Blue Sky.

Cosmos

That is amazing, Rebecca. And I’ll definitely recommend my audience take a look at Blue Sky. If they’re looking to do their taxes or, like, just understand finances, I would love that.

And Rebecca, do you have any revelations about, like, life, or just like, anything else that you’d want to share with the audience?

Rebecca

What? This has been a unique podcast for me. Just. Because we went so deep philosophically, not just about. Usually, I just talk about money. You know what? I think that kindness starts with kindness to ourselves. And sometimes kindness to ourselves means well, this is for me, right? Saying no to the gadget and yes to my future. Saying no to keeping up with the Joneses and yes to My legacy. 

And then that kindness extends to how I see my husband. And we’ve been married 30 years, so let me just tell you, there’s a little spice there. Like, and sometimes it’s like, he’s my best friend in the world, all of that. And then my neighbors, who also piss me off, but also they’re my neighbors. So, kindness starts with yourself. And then it will. It will spread from micro to macro. That’s a beautiful thing.

Cosmos

That is amazing, Rebecca. And Rebecca, if the audience wants to connect with you and get to know more about you and your work and everything you do, and if they want to reach out to you, how they go about doing so, I would love that.

Rebecca

You can reach me best through the website blueskyfinancial.com, and it’s blue sky with an E. Who knew it was a common name? It is, but blueskyfinancial.com is me. I’m also on all the socials: Instagram and Facebook. Rebecca Iri is my name. It’s I R, E, Y, because that’s Jamaican. I’m clearly Jamaican. Yeah, I would. I would love to chat with you. With anyone there. There’s a path for us. There really is. And let’s figure it out together. That’s what’s fun.

Cosmos

That is amazing, Rebecca. And Rebecca, I’m so glad and grateful that you took the time to come to this podcast and talk about death and. And how. And basically, how the wealthy think and how we should handle our finances. And I definitely hope that you come back to the show at a later time.

Rebecca

I am glad and grateful to have been here, and I would love to,

Cosmos

For sure, Rebecca. And I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, there’s an extraordinary within each of us. It’s our duty to awaken it and unleash it. Until next time, bye for now.