Vivian Tu began her career on Wall Street as a Trader with JP Morgan. She later joined BuzzFeed as a Strategy Sales Partner, working on media and client partnerships. It was while working in the tech industry that she began noticing coworkers and friends looking to her for advice on finance basics: 401k’s, HSAs, and whether or not they should buy the company’s stock options.
Vivian is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, now known for the viral financial advice she gives across her social media platforms. She said she grew up in a frugal home and has made it her mission to help others understand how money works, and how to build wealth.
“We should all feel really, really Proud to be Asian. It is a blanket term. And obviously, it’s not easy to be like, “Ah, I’m Asian,” because it covers so many ethnicities and cultures and communities. But, I’m very proud to be Asian. And I think that common thread does tie a lot of us together, and in the famous words of Ronnie Chang: I hope you get rich.” —Vivian Tu, @YourRichBFF
Watch it here.
Crystal Bui:
How did this get started? Generally, when I’m looking at financial advice, I see it from older, white men. So you’re in a way, you’re very unexpected.
Vivian Tu:
I wish I could tell you I had this evil mastermind plan. But genuinely, it was because when I had left Wall Street, I had started my job in the tech space, and all of my new colleagues were like, “You came from Wall Street! You’re going to rebalance my 401k. You’re going to tell me which health insurance to pick. You’re going to tell me what you’re investing in, so I can do the exact same thing.”
And it made me laugh so much. Because all of these people were so different. There were people who had two kids and lived in the suburbs, people who were younger than me, and people who were older than me. And they all ask the same questions.
I realized that there was nobody who was speaking to this topic, like a friend, the same way that you would ask your best friend, “Hey, where do you get your haircut?” Or, “Hey, where should I go for lunch this weekend? My parents were in town.”
It was all old white guys in suits. It was a little too male, pale, and stale for my liking. Because when I saw these people on the news, I didn’t look like them. And I wasn’t going to listen to them. Because they seemed like they were lecturing. And I wanted to create content for people that looked like me. And for people where I looked like their best friend.
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Crystal:
What was it like sitting in these college classes, working on Wall Street, and not seeing a lot of people look like you?
Vivian:
It certainly wasn’t easy. Wall Street has a history of hiring a lot of cisgender, white men. And that was certainly the case. I, however, was very, very fortunate in that my very first boss and very first mentor ended up being the only other woman, and the only other Asian person, on my desk: two Asian women, and then everybody else was a white guy.
She took me under her wing, and she asked me things like, “Hey, are you contributing to your 401k?”
I wasn’t.
“Are you using the corporate catalog to save on hotels?”
I didn’t know how to do that.
And she was like, “Hey, are you even saving money?”
And I wasn’t, because I wasn’t educated in that way. So for her to help me do that, I always call her the “original rich BFF.” And she taught me a lot of what I know.
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Crystal:
So there’s a concept that I love. I don’t know if you’ve heard it called, “She-splaining.” Instead of “mansplaining,” where someone is talking down to you, a woman “she-splaining” is a woman lifting up other women.
And what I’ve heard is that you’re one of the best “she-splainers” around.
What do you think about that? You are helping so many women with financial advice. And it’s so important because when we talk about equity and agency and financial freedom, it’s hard to have that if you don’t know how to manage your money. What is your overall message for women out there?
Vivian:
It’s exactly that: talk to each other about money. It’s really important to me to be able to explain any concepts like you’re a fifth grader. Because if I can’t explain it to you, I don’t really understand what I’m talking about. You should be able to explain things in really simple concepts and help people understand.
The more women who have a mastery of their own personal finances and their financial wellness, the more uplifted those communities will be. It’s hard to separate gender and race from money because money is racial money is sexist.
We hear that in the ways that we talk to people about how girls need to not be such “splurge spenders,” but men need to “grasp their power and grow their wealth.” Just the way that we speak to people is very different.
Especially knowing that so much of my audience is Asian and has the same immigrant background I do, being able to speak to that as it pertains to being financially savvy, I think is really, really important.
Crystal:
Can you tell me a little bit more about your background and how do you connect with the audience?
Vivian:
I am the only daughter only child of two Chinese immigrants. I grew up in a really loving home; I was very lucky.
But my parents certainly were not wealthy.
They were very frugal. My mom washes Ziplock bags. We have a bag full of other bags that we collect and use as trash bags. It’s truly very, very immigrant. And I learned a lot about saving money from them about being really responsible and mindful. But I had never learned about truly building and growing and making myself “rich” until I met my mentor.
I joke about how to have the most formative women in my life are my biological Chinese mom, and my half-Chinese half-Taiwanese mentor.
These are people who saw something in me and wanted me to have skills and opportunities that they may not necessarily have gotten.
Crystal:
What do you want women out there to know, Asian people out there to know, who maybe don’t feel like they would fit in in a place like Wall Street? They don’t feel like they should be majoring in finance or trying to understand. They don’t feel like they have a chance to even grow wealth, that maybe your mentor said to you that you want The Proud Asian readers to hear.
Vivian:
She was really honest with me. She said, “You know, Vivian, as an Asian woman, you are going to have to work twice as hard and oftentimes for half as much.”
But, she also made it very clear to me that she said, “If this is something that you want, you are smart enough, you are brave enough, you are capable enough to have everything.”
It’s so important to find advocates and mentors and people who are going to be in your corner to remind you that you’re enough. That you should not be the one telling yourself “No.” And you should not have to feel like you need to make yourself small to fit into any sort of box.
You do not have to be the person they tell you you are. You can be whoever you want to be.
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