Want to learn how to make money, get rich (fast) and fast-track your way to financial success? Talk to Vivian Tu. Sheâs the 29-year-old mastermind behind YourRichBFF. Her mission? âTo make finance into fun-ance.â
The former JP Morgan trader has racked up millions of followers who turn to Tu for smart and simple financial advice. Sheâs also ranked No. 46 on the 2023 Forbes Top Creators List. Tuâs prowess in financial literacy was recently celebrated at the 2023 TPG Awards. This annual event hosted by The Points Guyâthe trusted media platform focused on maximizing travel experiences while minimizing spendingârecognized 22 award recipients for their commitment to innovation across five key industries: credit cards, airlines, hotels, cruises and general travel. The Points Guy also celebrated the impact travel has on the world with its Changemaker Category, honoring individuals who inspire change.
Tu clinched the âNext Gen Influencer of the Yearâ award, an acknowledgment of her efforts in making finance accessible and enjoyable for the next generation.
Caroline English, director of social media and brand at The Points Guy, told me in an interview why the brand decided to applaud Tuâs approach: âAt TPG, we believe that the ability to travel and experience the world is intrinsically tied to financial literacy,â she says. âThat is why weâre honoring Vivian Tu with the Next Gen Influencer Of The Year. She may not be a traditional âtravelâ personality, but she undoubtedly embodies our ethos.â
Summer Hull, director of content at The Points Guy, further emphasized the intrinsic connection between financial literacy and life experiences: âInvestments, credit (and credit card rewards!) and financial literacy can unlock some of the most rewarding parts of life,â she told me in an interview. âVivian Tu makes learning how to take control of your financial life fun and relevant to the next generation.â
Reflecting on the award, Tu noted its significance in breaking the mold: âI think whatâs so powerful about this Next Gen Award is that historically it has felt like finance and financial services have been made by and for old rich white men. And theyâve always had the content and the big voices and the information accessible to their fingertips,â Tu told me in an interview. âBut for so long, people who looked like me, people who were women, people who were young, people who were people of color, the LGBTQ community, people who were immigrants, grew up low incomeâall of these marginalized groups, we never got that fair shake.”
Tuâs journey from a $600,000-a-year Wall Street trader to becoming a social media finance sensation making $3.5 million a year (according to Forbes Top Creators List) was, in her words, âone big happy accident.â She started her career as an equities trader at JP Morgan, then decided to leave finance for a job in the tech and media world. Her background as a financial expert became evident even in her new endeavors. âI was desperate for new friends, and I started to share my personal background with a couple of new colleagues,â she says. âAs soon as anybody found out you came from Wall Street, the immediate follow-up was, âCan you help me rebalance my 401(k), or which health insurance plan did you pick? Or what investments should I be buying?ââ
The move to social media was serendipitous. As a way to share her financial knowledge more broadly (and âstop repeating myself,â she explains), she made her first video on January 1st, 2021. âI donât want to say it was a joke, but it was kind of a joke. I basically just said, âHey, Iâm seeing a lot of bad information going around right now.â It was the middle of the pandemic. You had 15-year-old boys in their momâs basements telling people to put their stimulus checks into Bitcoin and Tesla calls. And I was like, âYou guys, nobody who actually understands finance would ever do this.ââ
That video ended up getting three million views and by the end of the week, Tu had 100,000 followers. Her approach was a hit that continues to draw in millions of followers: simplifying complex financial topics. âIf you can’t explain something to a fifth grader, you canât explain it at all. You donât actually understand it,â she says. âAnd Iâm able to explain pretty complex topics without using major buzzwords. I use examples that anybody whoâs lived a day of life can actually relate toâwhether thatâs shopping at the grocery store or picking out nail polish colors at the salon.â
Tuâs decision to share fun and digestible financial advice on social media has resonated. Through her platforms, including the podcast âNetworth and Chill,â her newsletter âenRichedâ and her viral Instagram and TikTok accounts, Tu offers practical financial advice in a tangible, approachable way.
Tu also has an upcoming book, Rich AF, scheduled for release on December 26, which aims to provide a blueprint for those unsure where to start in their financial journey. âI hope [people are] able to pick up the book, read it from page one to the very last page and feel like they are more confident, more capable and ready to be on their financial journey and take advantage of everything that life has to offer,â she says.
Here, Tu shares seven tips for getting rich fast.
Vivian Tu passionately advocates for the transformative potential of high-yield savings accounts. âThereâs no reason why anybody should have a standard savings account when you can literally earn more having a high-yield savings account out,â she says. Drawing an analogy to choosing airport lounges, she likens the decision to opting for the better optionâin this case, a high-yield savings account with significantly higher APY. âImagine youâre in an airport and youâre choosing between two lounges. One lounge has sad slightly damp sandwiches and the other one is serving a hot buffet. Which of the two would you choose? Youâre going to the lounge with the better food option. The hot buffet probably has better seating and probably has faster WiFi, right? Because both of these lounges are equal, it doesnât cost you anything to go into either you would pick the better option. This is exactly how high yield savings accounts work.â
Tuâs financial philosophy challenges the misconception that cutting costs is the sole solution. âI think we are often pet this myth that the avocado toast or the daily Starbucks latte or the Netflix subscription are why we canât afford a house. Itâs not. Decreasing your costs is only one half of the equation,â she says. According to Tu, the other halfâand often the more impactful oneâinvolves increasing income. Her advice is clear: âMy big piece of advice is always ask for a 10 to 15% raise every single year. Itâs not unheard of to get a $5,000 to $10,000 raise. Do you know how hard it is to cut out $5,000 to $10,000 of extra expenditures that bring you joy in your life?â
Tu dispels the myth that only the wealthy can invest and emphasizes the transformative power of investments. âThereâs a myth that only rich people invest. Thatâs not true. How do you think those rich people got rich? Investing is truly a world wonder because it allows you to be one single human being with a two income household,â she says. Tuâs philosophy centers around the idea that time, coupled with compound interest, forms the bedrock of financial growth. âNot only can you work hard for your money, but your money can work hard for youâand it is critically important to invest early and often. Thereâs no such thing as picking the perfect investment time in the market, timing the market and picking the perfect investment every single time. Itâs more about having a diversified portfolio that is invested over a long period of time because time is what allows compound interest to work. Meaningâyour money can grow your money and that is how you are going to end up with a really comfortable future and a really comfortable retirement.â
Breaking away from the traditional view that discussing money is taboo, Tu champions open conversations about finances among friends. She believes that these discussions foster better understanding, leading to more effective negotiation strategies. âFor so long itâs been considered taboo or rude or tacky to talk to your friends about money, but itâs notâyou have a better understanding of what you deserve and so youâre able to be a more effective negotiator when asking for a raise. Youâre able to work with your landlord more effectively to get the rent that you want to pay. You are just able to pay and spend less and earn and get more for your money and youâre just getting more value out of life and having those conversations helps to make pay transparency and financial transparency so much more common. The only thing it hurts is corporations. So obviously they donât want us to do it, but I think we should be doing it,â she says.
Tu is a staunch advocate of side hustles, viewing them as a means to generate additional income. âI am very pro side hustle. I would say that you should use your 9-5 to fund your 5-9 until it looks like it can be the other way around,â says Tu. She encourages using a nine-to-five job to fund passion projects during non-working hours. âPicking up the side hustle can put you in a period of temporary discomfort to save for a temporary goal, and that really allows you to do more with your money and get more out of life. Also, if your side hustle starts to become really lucrative, I would say try doing your side hustle and your full-time job for as long as possible until itâs become abundantly clear that your side hustle still is going to help be able to support your lifestyle as it currently stands before you make the decision of taking it,â Tu says.
Tu approaches the concept of debt with a pragmatic mindset. âMy big rule is that debt is not a four letter word. Debt is not morally good or bad; itâs neutral. Itâs a tool,â she explains. Tu introduces the 7% rule, urging individuals to prioritize debts with interest rates above 7%. âWhen it comes to debt, what I like to say is use the 7% ruleârank your debt from highest to lowest interest rate and prioritize paying off any debt above 7% first because this debt is going to compound faster than any sort of investment gains that you’re likely going to be able to make. So it makes more sense to pay that debt off as fast as humanly possible. After that, you can continue to pay your debt off slow and steady while starting to invest.â
But hereâs the next part of paying off debtâyou donât want to pay off too much. âWhen the cost of borrowing is low, youâre better off taking the additional funds you would have used to pay that debt off faster and putting that money into investments because historically, over the past 40 to 60 years, if you are investing in a diversified portfolio of index funds that track the broader market, the S&P 500 has returned somewhere between 8 to 10% every single year. And thatâs not to say every single year thatâs been the case, but as an average thatâs what itâs been. Some years itâs returning 25%. Some years itâs returning 5%, but over the long term you will be better off investing those additional funds than paying off that debt faster.â
Tu expresses her enthusiasm for maximizing credit card rewards and points by doing actions youâd already do. âI am a huge fan because youâre essentially getting something for doing an action that you were otherwise going to do anyway and what werenât going to receive rewards for it,â she explains. This strategy, as she describes, allows you to keep more money in your pocket by using points for travel, experiences, hotel roomsâor even cash back.
But in a cautionary note, Tu advises against closing your oldest credit cards. Drawing from personal experience, she shares the impact of closing her oldest credit card, which led to a significant drop in her credit score. âWhen I started making some real money, I started qualifying for these fancier credit cards with better rewards points, better miles, better things like that. And I thought because I had heard through popular wisdom that it was better and smarter for me to cancel my oldest credit card that was like rinky dinky and barely offered me anything,â she says. âBut when I closed that oldest credit card, it shortened my credit history and my credit score dropped 60 points because your credit score is based on a number of factors, including the length of your credit history.â
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