THE RICH HERMANA
Hi, I am Ixamar, your rich big sis.
I am a personal finance advocate, the author of The Rich Hermana, and an independent author who publishes her own book. I built this place for the first-gen woman who was handed the responsibility and none of the instructions.
The Rich Hermana: A First-Gen Guide to Money, Mindset, and Wealth (No Matter Where You Started)
The short version
I learned money the way a lot of us did: by being the one who had to.
I am the eldest daughter of a single mom. Growing up I was the family's English speaker, the one who translated the bank statements and sat in on phone calls I was too young for. Nobody in our house talked about 401(k)s at the dinner table. The only money advice I heard on repeat was to save everything and maybe buy real estate one day before it was too late.
That discipline is real, and it is why I was able to save my first $100,000 by 30 and pay off big loans fast. It also left me with a relationship to money built on fear. The Rich Hermana is the place where I heal that in public and hand you the playbook as I go.
The longer version
The people who shaped this, and the moments that stuck.
Six stories from the book, in the order they happened.
A printer, a stack of Pikachus, and a quarter
I was nine when the whole class had Pokémon cards and I did not. Real cards cost money we did not have. That Christmas my mom invested in a family office printer, and I found the loophole: I printed the stencils, traced them, colored them by hand, and sold full-page drawings to my classmates for a quarter each. When business was good I expanded into supplies, crayons quietly collected from the kids' menu at family dinners out, resold as premium Pokémon coloring supplies. Also a quarter. My mom bought the printer for the house. She had no idea she was funding my first company.
“I'll give you this quarter if you give me a full-page Pikachu.”
From the book, Chapters 4 and 6
My abuelita, in dichos
My grandmother taught by repetition. She sang the same lines over and over until they lived in you. “Soldado advertido no muere en guerra,” the warned soldier does not die in battle, which is the whole case for an emergency fund in one sentence. “El miedo no anda en burro,” fear does not travel by donkey, it moves fast, which is why I break scary things like taxes into pieces small enough to hold. Half of what I teach is her, translated.
“La vida es para ser feliz.” Abuelita, from the dedication page.
The camera I could not afford at nineteen
At nineteen I was in school, working part-time, and starting a photography business to make ends meet. I needed a camera body, a lens, memory cards and a hard drive, more than a thousand dollars I did not have. I took the store's twelve months no interest financing, then booked every extra shoot I could and put a chunk of each payment toward the balance. I cleared it before the twelve months were up, and my credit score jumped almost right away. That first line of credit taught me the rule I still live by: if I cannot pay for it in cash or in full this month, I am not swiping.
“That first line of credit was a lesson in financial responsibility.”
The 401(k) nobody in my family had ever had
I did not know what a 401(k) was until my first corporate job at twenty-two. Nobody in my family had ever had access to one. When I found out my employer would match my contribution for free, I maxed the match immediately, then opened my first investment account and checked it every single day like a day trader, until I learned the real power was in leaving it alone. That is the first-gen gap in one story: the tools were always there. Nobody had told us they existed.
“I learned that the real power is in leaving it alone.”
Corporate by day, everything else by night
In my twenties, unmarried and without kids, I went full force on every side hustle I could find. Weddings on Friday nights after an underpaying corporate job. Social media freelancing. Family sessions in the park on weekends. Templates on Etsy while I slept. By day I was a corporate baddie in marketing, by night I was building a personal brand, and I burned out more than once. Every dollar had a job: some to help my mom with groceries, some to pay down loans faster, and the rest for the life I wanted to have on the weekends I still protected.
“During the day, I was a corporate baddie in marketing. At night, I was busy building a personal brand.”
Plan A through Z
Through all of it, my mom kept saying the same two things. Have a plan A through Z. And el sol sale para todos, the sun comes up for everyone; there is enough success to go around if you are willing to adapt and take the opportunity in front of you. She fought for her place in this country with no safety net and no instructions. The Rich Hermana is me writing the instructions down, for her, and for every daughter who grew up translating documents at the kitchen table.
“El sol sale para todos.”
Everything I learned in those years, the systems and the mistakes, went into the book. Today The Rich Hermana is a book, a Tuesday letter, a shelf of free tools, and a community of first-gen women who are done being the only ones at the table who did not get the instructions. I write it from Miami, in the voice of the big sister who figured it out first and came back to explain it.
What I believe
Money is a system you can learn.
Budgets, credit, debt payoff, investing. Every one of them is a set of rules, and rules can be taught. Nobody is born knowing this.
What I believe
Education without shame.
Your past decisions are never the cautionary tale here. We look at the numbers together, then we make the next move.
What I believe
Systems over hustle.
Wealth comes from structure, automation and consistency. Nobody has to work themselves into the ground or give up their coffee to build it.
What is here for you
Pick your door.
- The book: 17 chapters, from your first real paycheck to breaking the scarcity mindset.
- Start here: four paths, each with a free tool, a chapter and one thing to do this week.
- Free resources: trackers, scripts and plans I made for my own money first.
- The shop: the signed book, the Money Date Care Package and the Money Starter Guide.
- The blog: every Tuesday letter, republished so you can find it again.
- Work with me: brand partnerships, press and podcasts, and 1:1 Money Date sessions.
EVERY TUESDAY
The letter is where the full advice lives
Short, personal, and typed to one person. Real numbers from my own money, one move to make each week, and a reply button I actually answer.
Get the Tuesday letterEverything here is education from your rich big sis. Nothing on this site is personalized financial advice. Come say hi on Instagram.