Your Rich BFF’s $25m secret wealth plan (Vivian Tu)

Single Grain - Ad Agency focused on innovation

—

Vivian Tu, also known as "your rich BFF," shares her insights on personal finance and wealth-building. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on increasing your earning power rather than just saving money.

Vivian discusses her own journey from working on Wall Street to becoming a successful salesperson in tech and media. She also shares tips on legally avoiding taxes, the value of investing in index-tracking ETFs, and the power of creators in today's digital landscape. Vivian's goal is to help people achieve financial independence and create a better future for themselves and their families.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Vivian Tu shares her goal of being rich and desired wealth.
06:00 - Focus on increasing earning power rather than saving.
07:16 - Importance of learning and being selfish in job choices.
09:50 - Vivian's mom's reaction to her leaving JPMorgan.
11:53 - Tax-saving strategies: retirement accounts, mortgage interest, tax credits.
14:28 - Why rich people buy high-end fake bags.
16:04 - Women providing for themselves and investing.
20:16 - Being flexible in partnership roles.
21:10 - Vivian's portfolio consists of index-tracking ETFs and target-date retirement funds.
21:51 - Slow and steady investing is recommended for most people.
22:13 - Chinese culture associates investing with luck and gambling.
23:41 - Vivian wrote a book to provide a comprehensive guide to personal finance.
25:09 - Vivian's business made $3.2 million.
27:20 - Vivian feels more fulfilled making $300k from her business.
30:26 - Instagram is a powerful platform for Vivian's content.
33:01 - Vivian Tu mentions the shift in attention spans and content delivery.
34:00 - Vivian Tu shares her content creation process and time allocation.
37:31 - Vivian Tu breaks down her revenue streams, with brand partnerships being the largest.
41:40 - Pricing yourself as a creator.
42:30 - Vivian Tu plans to expand into different mediums in the next five years.
43:49 - Vivian Tu talks about the structure of her core team.
50:47 - Vivian Tu talks about her best friend David Suh and how they empower each other in their businesses.
53:01 - Vivian values her friends who understand her experience.
54:43 - Vivian believes friendships should be a cost-benefit analysis.
58:09 - Some biases hinder certain minorities' success.
1:00:35 - Vivian empowers diverse talent in her hiring decisions.
01:01:30 - Vivian Tu talks about her family and work ethic.
01:04:17 - Vivian Tu shares her experience as an Asian American business creator.
01:06:51 - Vivian Tu shares where to find her book and online.

[CliveBirse]

I like Vivian's perspective. Success depends on the actions or steps you take to achieve it. Building wealth involves developing good habits like regularly putting money away in intervals for solid investments. Financial management is a crucial topic that most tend to shy away from, and ends up haunting them in the near future.., I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life!!

[theofficialblackdirectory]

She is right. I stayed at a job for 12 years with a bachelor's and master's degree without a promotion. Eventually, I made the salary of a manager, the job was secure so I stayed, but I now realize I could have made $100k to $200k a year more if I would not have been afraid to move on & this is not an exaggeration.

[Investorcarl]

Became a millionaire at 48, now 53 and still learning new things such as info from this channel, proving that one should never stop learning.

[marcvac]

My favorite thing about Vivian is while she’s incredibly smart, driven, and hardworking, she’s also acutely aware of her privileges. She accepts while understanding that’s not everyone’s reality.

[julietliu]

That confidence and self-awareness is badass! Root for her!

[dianaecheverry]

She’s in her 20’s 😮 her awareness and intelligence…… 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[PotBellyPete]

In my 50s, I'm focused on investments for retirement. I've heard of people generating substantial passive income, like someone who earned $650K in under a year on a podcast. What's the strategy for such returns?

[aliciaash]

Vivian is such a breath of fresh air. She’s so in touch with many issues (biases, racism, classism, sexism). And, she’s selfless and doesn’t have to be! Thank you for all that you do. I hope to one day impact others the way that you have 🥂

[angelagonzalezfernandez]

Wow she’s so smart and sharp. She was able to come up with the perfect answers for every question in like 0.2 seconds. Very inspiring woman and such a killer outfit! Loved the interview

[rrandd]

I am fortunate to have $100k saved by the age of 26 without venturing into stocks. Now, I want to invest safely for growth in the next 3-4 years to buy a home. What's the best strategy?

[htr]

10-yr working here. I did the 2-year up or out. One factor you need to consider besides the 10-20% pay bump each job change is that your $/ hours of work. Working 40 hour workweek on a $100k salary is significantly better than 60-70 hour workweek on a $120k... A $48/ hour versus a $38/ hour.

Get a 40 hours workweek, and start your side hustle that can potentially become a profitable business is well worth it

[sassymisscc]

Gosh - I love her!! Her transparency is everything. Her mindset, thought process, her openness to reality and how to approach it, reality to relationship challenges and how easy it’s supposed to be in order to compliment one another. Love this, thank you to both of you!

[Hiddenu]

I appreciate Vivan’s pushing back on the concept that meritocracy is the sole determining factor for achievement and success. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[JG-lbld]

It took me about 8 years to smarten up with the salary thing. Once I figured that out, I jumped just about every two years and 3.5x my salary over 10 years. I am very aggressive with my career moves now.

[TwigsCraftStudio]

I had doubts about her content (something to figure out why) but watching this, I am an instant fan. Her mindset, confidence, and realistic take on making money, DEMANDING her own space in the content creation world AND finding fulfilment is so inspiring. Congratulations on your success and cheers to $25M!

[benitabussell]

I'm 49 and earn about £2M ($2.5M) per year and save about 30% in HYSA's. I've been reading a lot of articles mentioning how w0rthless 'cash savings' are in this current unstable economy. D0 you suggest I invst in real estate, stocks or Gold?

[thecassandrahenderson]

This interview got better and better each minute! This is an all the way through listen, no doubt! Love the dialog and her responses! Thanks for this episode and being a great host, allowing her to speak and not filling in her blanks. You made space for her narrative and the chemistry of this overall discussion is top tier! Will definitely be following both! #cheers and #thanks

[ThePoshTrainer]

Thank you for your response to “being a minority and the lack of success—skin color”Viv. You couldn’t have made more of a point and I really hope the question was just for the interview because it’s truly disappointing that Eric may not acknowledge these differences in SKIN color. Thank you BFF 💕

[JMICTHEBRAND.]

Oh my God when she busted out the conversation about how an all traditional husband wants an all traditional wifey material to do everything around the house when he isn’t the traditional husband that provides and both wife and husband have to get up at the crack of dawn to work and on top of that I’m sure she makes much more than she does that is Super relatable. Can’t expect the wife to do it all, and have, and be the traditional wife when she gets up at the crack of dawn to work as well.

[janjaylangelo]

I am an Asian immigrant, moved age 31 with 4 kids. We don't say i love you as frequent as Americans of hugs every time I see them. But you are right, we will die for our kids, we would starve for our so they can eat, we make it they have better lives than us growing up. This is our culture.