What Every Woman Should Know About Money: Vivian Tu on Debt, Saving, and Investing

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm not gonna lie I am the worst with finances.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
No, no, no, you are on your money journey. Finance
is just a different language. There's a level of jargon
that is used, one to make the experts sound really smart,
but to kind of to keep outsiders on the out.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Today's guest is Vivian two aka You're Rich BFF. She's
a former Wall Street Trader ten personal finance educator, content creator,
and now the author of the New York Times best
selling book of Rich af So, whether you're trying to
take out, build well, negotiate like a boss, or just
finally understand how to do money right, Vivian is the
person to us.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
So many of us are like, I want to be rich.
I'm like why, you need to know your why. Terriffs
are going to impact everybody. When we initially acknowledged that
we were potentially going to implement them, everyone was like, Ah, yeah,
screw you, China, we pay the doors. Not that it's
not going to be a problem for the mega corporations
because they're still going to be able to.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Keep running, you know who. That's going to be a
problem for.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm Razzie Wuka and on my podcast, A really good cry.
We embrace the real, the men see, and the beautiful,
providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations that celebrate vulnerability
and allow you to tune in to learn, connect and
find comfort together. Vivian, thank you so much for being
here today. I am honestly so excited to have you
here because I'm not gonna lie I am the worst

(01:18):
with finances.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
No, no, no, you are on your money journey. We're gonna
get there together.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yes, okay, I'm on my money journey. But I feel
like you know, I'm thirty four, and I think it's
about time that I learned the basic things that I
need to about finances. It's just not something that I
grew up learning, and I relied on my dad and
then I relied on all the people around me to
just figure it out for me. So I need to
know everything, and I hope that this podcast we can
make it through all my insane questions that I have

(01:45):
for you.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
We will.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Let's say, asking for a friend for myself if I
knew pretty much nothing, I know the basics of finance.
Give me some key buzzwords that I would need to
know to take part in a finance conversation that I
should know at this age.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, so that's actually the scariest part, and I'm shocked
you want to tackle this part first, right, Finance is
just a different language.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
There's a level of jargon that is.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Used one to make the experts sound really smart, but
too kind of to keep outsiders on the out, and
for a long time, unfortunately that has made regular people
feel like they can't be financially with it.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Financially savvy.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
But as a young person, I think you do need
to understand a couple different words, So things like budget
essentially how you control what's coming in and what's going out, saving,
what you are setting aside for future you investing, how
you can put your money to work so that you

(02:46):
don't have to work forever. And then, frankly, I would
say the next most important word is to have a
financial plan. So many of us are like, I want
to be rich, and so many people have told me that,
and when I follow up and I'm like why, and
they're like, well, what do you mean like I want
to be rich? I'm like, why do you want to

(03:06):
be rich because you want to retire at thirty? Do
you want to be rich because you want to take
care of your parents in their older age. Do you
want to be rich because you're pregnant and you want
to have a baby and make sure that baby has
a better life than the one.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
You grew up with.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
You need to know your why, and that's what a
financial plan can help you do.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Okay, amazing, Okay, I'm going to use these use these
words when I'm expalking to people about this. What would
you say? One money myth is that people still believe
that you really want to bust.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
That debt's bad, that all debt's bad.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
When we say the word debt, it sounds like a
four letter word. Technically it is, but more so I
meant a swear word.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
And unfortunately, the perception that debt gets is very different
depending on who you are. If you are someone who
does not have a lot of money, when you take
out a loan, we call it debt. I wag my
finger at you, I make you feel bad, and then
I say you're irresponsible. But if you have a lot
of money and you take out a loan, I say,

(04:05):
look at that astute business person using leverage, and then
I put you on the cover of a magazine for
being a big, smart person who knows how to use
other people's money to make money. And I understand the
argument that like people who don't have money are just
using that money to make ends meet, while these rich

(04:25):
people are using it to build something great, good and well.
But I think there is a deep problem with the
fact that we treat different people with different incomes in
a completely different way when it comes to the same
exact word.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
That's so true. And if someone has debt right now,
would you to have Do you know the percentage of
people that have debt in the US at all?

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I mean credit card debt is nearly half, and that's
the scariest and most quickly compounding debt, So that's certainly
one to call out.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
I mean, there's tens of millions of people who have
student loan debt. I mean, debt's just ever present.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Do you know what the average debt that most people
have in their life is when they get to let's
say their thirties or forties.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Average is tough because it really will depend on maybe
did you buy a car, did you buy a home,
did you pay for school? Did your parents pay for school?
I don't think average even gives a good representation of
how much debt we as a collective whole struggle with.
But I think a bigger stat and a more important
thing is they've done a lot of research in recent

(05:35):
years on people's perceptions of their financial situations of like,
do you think your financial situation holds you back?

Speaker 3 (05:44):
I'll give you one guess if that went well or not?
Probably not right.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
A lot of people are saying, no matter what the
amount is, the amount of debt I have is preventing
me from taking the next life milestone or preventing me
from taking that risk at work, and maybe it's going
for that bigger, scarier job, Like, it's not about the number,
it's about how do you feel that number plays into
your lifestyle?

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Right?

Speaker 1 (06:07):
And what advice do you give to people when they
come to that they say, I've got ten thousand dollars
of debt, I've got twenty thousand dollars of debt, got
fifty thousand dollars of debt? What should they be doing well?
The first steps they should be taking to help themselves
in that situation.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
I think first and foremost it's taking a long, hard
look in the mirror. One thing that happens naturally to
us as humans is we are very comfortable with the
status quo. So if you have ten thousand dollars worth
of debt and you've had it for quite some time,
that is your reality, and you can live with that reality.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
You can continue to wake.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Up every single day, go to work, do your job,
maybe go buy something, have dinner or whatever. You are
comfortable with that status quo. Anytime we have to change
that status quo, you will likely struggle with something called
paralysis by analysis. When you have too many options, you
don't know what to do. Right at the grocery store,
They've actually shown marketing surveys that show this. If you've

(06:57):
got two choices between two things that do the same
like task, you'll buy one of them.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Right when there's eight choices.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
You might become so overwhelmed you're like, I'm just gonna
leave the grocery store. That's why so many of these
mega conglomerates are actually buying up competitors, not because they
want to consolidate into one brand, but because they want
to own the two brands on the shelf, because they
know if there's only two brands.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
On the shelf, you'll buy one of them anyway.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
So this is all to say, first and foremost, you
have to take a long, hard look at yourself and
come to terms with your reality, and then know that
no matter what your reality is, you are the person
who is still writing the story. You hold the pen,
and no matter how bad it is, there are solutions
that we can take to make it better.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Any solution that you recommend that people try, now, yeah,
absolutely so.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
If you've got a manageable amount of debt, it's not
riding on your back every single day, but you would
like to get it paid down. Something I recommend is
just creating an outline so you rank all of your
debt from highest to lowest interest rate, you make the
minimum payment across everything. Because a lot of people don't
know this. As long as you keep making the minimum payment,

(08:06):
you get to keep your credit score high. When you
miss a minimum payment is when you hit a to
your credit score. So continue to make the minimum payment
across everything, and then any additional funds you have for
debt pay down put towards the debt with the highest
interest rate. Okay, if you're already feeling overwhelmed, then you've
got some other options. If you have high interest rate, debt,

(08:30):
you can consider consolidating it. So what that means is
you can either get a balanced transfer card. I know
a little counterintuitive, but if you have credit card debt,
you can get another credit card and for an introductory
period of time, roughly usually twelve to eighteen months, they
will say, hey, for a small fee, typically a small
percentage of the debt, we will allow you to not

(08:54):
have any interest payments for the first twelve to eighteen months,
zero percent interest. If you are very committed to paying
your credit card debt during that time, you will pay
no interest, which is awesome. Every dollar you put is
actually going towards paying down the money you borrowed versus
just paying the interest.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
If you don't think you can get it.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Done in twelve to eighteen months, you can also get
a personal loan, so you can go to your local
bank and say, hey, I want to pay down some debt,
like can I get a loan for X Y Z.
They'll run your credit make sure you are credit worthy,
but then they'll give you the money.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
You use that money to pay down the debt.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
You cannot continue to use that credit card and rack
it up during that time, but then you can pay
back the bank. And the reason you do this is
they typically charge an interest rate of seven to fifteen percent,
whereas credit cards charged twenty to thirty percent annual apr aprs.
So that interest just compounds so quickly and it makes

(09:48):
it really hard to even make a dent in the
actual money you borrowed versus all of the interests you
owe the credit card company.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Wow, oh my god. Great tips and credit school. How
important is your credit school? And how would someone if
they've got a low credit school start to bring up?

Speaker 3 (10:03):
It is very important.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Some people, for whatever reason on the Internet are like, Oh,
I don't worry, I don't need a credit score. I'm like,
do you want to buy a car?

Speaker 1 (10:12):
Right?

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Do you want to buy a house? Do you even
want to go rent an apartment? Because when you go
do those things, they are going to run your credit.
If you are ultra ultra wealthy, maybe that's not a
concern for you, But for the most of us, we
finance those massive purchases right. Very few people can walk
up and buy a home in cash.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
They have to say, hey.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
I'll put down twenty percent, that'll be my down payment,
and then I'll have a mortgage. Maybe it's thirty years
a fixed mortgage. When you have a very low credit score,
you may not be eligible for a mortgage. They will say,
if you don't have the cash to buy this place
on day one, you don't get this house. If you
have a very high credit score, the opposite happens. You
will get the friendliest, most relaxed, lowest interest rate terms

(11:00):
on the deal.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
It's like, do you want a good deal or bad deal?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Right?

Speaker 3 (11:06):
If you can do something to make sure you get
a good deal, why wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
You do that?

Speaker 2 (11:10):
That is why credit score matters. And then some of
the most important factors as to how to keep your
credit score really healthy is one, do not miss payments.
Like I mentioned, you don't have to make the maximum payment,
but you do at least have to make the minimum,
and you have to be consistent, and you cannot miss payments. Honestly,
if you can even just auto pay so you don't

(11:30):
have to think about it, that is great.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
But you cannot miss them. Two. Total credit usage.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Credit utilization is a big factor in credit scores. Say
you've got three credit cards, each of which gives you
a ten thousand dollars credit limit. You need to keep
your utilization less than thirty percent of that total credit limit.
Oh and you also want to keep it less than

(11:58):
thirty percent of each individual line, just because that is
going to impact reporting. The general gist is, if you
have a credit limit and you're using too much of it,
the folks who are lending you that money are getting antsy.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Right, They're like, why does this girl need so much?
What's going on? Great?

Speaker 2 (12:18):
If you're able to actually keep your utilization less than
ten percent, it's like hitting a Super Mario power up
and will help your credit score. You can either spend
less or A big trick I love to do is
I call the credit card company and I say, hey,
I would like a credit limit increase, because if you
can't make the numerator smaller, you can try to make

(12:41):
the denominator bigger.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
And so I'm like, hey, I make really great money,
I need more credit on this credit card.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
And then I don't use it. I just have more.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Credit available to me, but I continue to use the
regular amount that I'm using and it just becomes a
smaller percentage that helps my credit score. And then the
last you know. There are a lot of factors that
go into credit score. But these are my top three.
The last one credit history length. I made a really,
really big mistake in my early twenties. I had this

(13:12):
rinky dinky old credit card and I had gone it
like mid college, and I was like, Okay, I'm gonna
put like my books on this and like that occasional
pad tie that I order. There were like no rewards,
nothing really fancy about it.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
I was like, great.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I started my first job as a trader on Wall
Street and I looked at all of the folks around
me and they were talking about rewards and credit cards
and the fancy ones, the heavy ones, the metal ones,
and I was like, I can get one of these.
So I got one, and I was using that credit
card wisely and I was getting a ton of benefits,
I mean, travel perks, free upgrades like going to the lounge,

(13:50):
free tsa PreCheck, like I was getting a lot of
value out of this card, while my old rinky dinky
card was just collecting dust in my wallet. And at
the guidance of some random financial guru on the Internet,
it's clear you cannot listen to everybody. They were like,
you don't want to have too much outstanding lines of
credit that you're not using And so I went and

(14:12):
I called that credit card and I said, I'm not
going to use you anymore, go ahead and cancel it.
The problem was that was my longest line of credit
history that I had had for the past eight years.
But the new fancy credit card I'd only had for
a couple months. But when I closed my oldest credit card,

(14:37):
it compressed my credit history. No, and I only had
a credit history of like two years because I had
like the card that I gotten in between. And I
was like, wait, but I have made every single payment
but the past eight years on time in full.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
I've never missed something. What happened?

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Why did my credit score drop like eighty points?

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Whoa?

Speaker 2 (14:57):
You know? I spoke to a mentor and she was like, well,
why did you close that oldest card? And I was like, oh,
I wasn't using it, and she was like, that doesn't matter.
You can't close your oldest line of credit.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
I wonder how many people actually know this.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
I don't think a lot.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Do because I was working on Wall Street sitting next
to some of these bright minds, and a lot of
the other junior analysts.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Did not know this either.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Wow, a lot of us made this mistake looking back,
if I could actually give myself a good piece of
advice would be, hey, go back and instead of canceling
that card, upgrade it. You can upgrade it to a
fancy your card at that same financial institution. Or if
someone's tired of paying the annual fee and they're not
getting the value out of an expensive card, you can

(15:40):
downgrade it. You can change the level of your card.
But as long as your relationship with that financial institution
stays open, you're able to keep essentially the report cards.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Okay, so you made that mistake. Now would any of
the mistakes that you see other people make where you're like,
this is I wish these people need this? Like? What
is the top two three mistakes that you feel people
make because of lack of knowledge?

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Just like you did that day one, sticking with your
old high school boyfriend. Like bank account And this is
the example I give because so many of us pick
up our bank accounts the exact same way as we
pick up our first boyfriend.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Oh okay, explain.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
You meet your.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
First boyfriend in homeroom in high school, and you like
them enough. They are from your same town, maybe they
live three blocks away and they seem great. You wouldn't know, though,
because you literally met anybody else. You wouldn't know if
there was anything better out there. But here's the thing.

(16:47):
We get a lot of our banking relationships the exact
same way. Maybe in high school, your mom and dad
took you and you opened up a bank account at
the same bank they banked at. I did that, or
for me it was first day of college. There was
a like a setup. They had like little booths and
there were all the things you could sign up for,
and one of them was the bank that was just
closest to campus. And nearly every single student sign up

(17:10):
for a bank account, just to keep things easy. But
oftentimes the banks that have those relationships and that are
able to get to you at high school are brick
and mortar, meaning they there's a physical location you can
go and like touch there's a wall. Unfortunately, a lot
of brick and mortar banks offer very very low interest
on your savings. The FDIC national average for traditional savings

(17:33):
accounts is zero point four two percent annually. So you
give me one hundred dollars put in my bank account,
and I at the end of the year you have
one hundred dollars and forty two cents at the end
of the year. At the end of the year one year,
what are you doing with forty two cents?

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Nothing, nothing, that's like couch coaching.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Change.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
However, there are a new slew of bank accounts and
banking institutions that are equally FDIC insured, so you are protected.
They are typically online, and what's awesome is they offer
high yield checking and savings accounts. So what does high
yield mean? It just means you earn more interest. So

(18:13):
right now high old savings accounts are paying anywhere between
three to four percent. You give me one hundred dollars
goes in the bank account. At the end of the year,
you have one hundred and three dollars, one hundred and
four dollars. You can see how if you have more
than one hundred dollars that would compound and it would
be a lot more valuable than zero point four two.
It's meaningfully more, oftentimes nine to ten times more.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Wow. Are there any that you recommend specifically.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Or yeah, I mean, listen, I have a partnership with
Sofi Bank. What I love so much about what they
offer is they have both a high yield checking and
a high old saving. So a lot of online banks
offer hi old savings, but I think you're the money
waiting to be spent on your Wi Fi bill should
also be earning you money.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
So I love that they have both.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
There's value to that because one of the scariest things
is if you go and put one thousand dollars into
your savings, thinking that's you know, your little nest egg.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Every year that a thousand.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Dollars is worthless because of inflation. Inflation and a healthy
year is roughly two percent. Zero point four to two
doesn't get you there. So every year your money is
becoming less and less and less. With a high old
savings account, it helps your money keep up with inflation.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
You mentioned all these benefits of all the credit cards
that you can get. I literally realize I don't even
look at my benefits success well when I have points
and I'm like going to transfer these points to here?
Do you think savings is one of the best places
to or one of the main factors of deciding where
to go with or are the other things that people
should be considering when they're deciding what bank account they
should be opening.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
When it comes to bank accounts.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
It's more so about your behavior, as is with credit
cards and credit card awards, So just think about your lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
There are going to be some.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
People that are heads of household that spend all their
money on groceries and gas. That is one archetype. Then
you've got someone like myself. I live in a coastal city.
I spend all of my food, all of my money
on food. I spend a lot of money on transportation,
like the subway, ubers, because I don't have a car

(20:15):
and I don't pay for gas or I like to travel.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
That's the way I like to spend money.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Then there's another type of person who's like, oh, I
am obsessed with retail therapy. I want clothes, I want boots,
I want bags. The three of us should not get
the same right banking institution or the same credit card,
because you need those things to be tailor fit to you.
Personal finance is personal. There's no such thing as best,

(20:42):
only best for you, and what you should do is
go through. And I really I know this sucks because
the print is so small and my eyes they're not great,
But you got to read the actual fine print and
go through and see what do these things offer me?
So something that I love because I have butterfingers. My
credit card actually provides phone protection if you purchase the

(21:07):
phone with that credit card. Have you any idea the
number of times I have shattered my phone? I'm like no,
and I can see the screen just crushing, and I'm like, well,
thank goodness, I have this. I send in a photo
of this smashed phone. I show them the receipt of
me buying the phone with that credit card, and they

(21:28):
will send me a reimbursement for me to go get
it fixed.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
At the Apple store.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
That's useful.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's like such a strange perk, but like one that
I used more often than I probably should be. There's
things like travel insurance, you know how, like when you
go buy a flight and at the end, they're like,
would you like to add thirty.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
Seven ninety five?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Nope?

Speaker 2 (21:45):
And I'm like no, And it's never occurred to me
to hit yes, but I'm always like nope. But if
something does go wrong, if you purchased that flight with
the right credit card, you can actually call them and
have them bail you out of trouble. If you get sick,
if you have a bereavement, issue, So you can no
longer go on a trip if you you know, if
there happens to be a natural disaster in the neighborhood

(22:07):
in that area where you're supposed to be traveling to,
and you're like, I don't want to go, Like this
is a great way to just protect yourself and make
your life as easy as possible.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Across the board, no matter how much money you're making,
what percentage should people be aiming to save every year
of their income.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
This is again it varies, but a really good jump
off point is using the fifty thirty twenty method. So, okay,
you think about what your take home pay is. This
is not the number you saw on that job contract
you signed. This is what you get after taxes, take
home pay what hits your brank account.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
That's said, that's sadly true.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
And you take half of that, Yeah, and you allocate
to needs. Okay, so that's housing, groceries, basic transportation, things
like that thirty percent you allocate towards wants, So this
is getting my nails done, may be going to go
get dinner with a girlfriend, vacations, entertainment, things like that.

(23:05):
And then the last twenty percent. I always say is
for you today to take care of future you. Yes,
so that covers saving debt, paid down, and investing. And
the powerful part of this third fifty to thirty twenty
method is that the hope is over time, as your
labor earns you more money, that fifty and thirty category

(23:26):
can get smaller and smaller and smaller, while that twenty
category can get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Fifty thirty twenty ye, Okay, see enough fifty thirty twenty.
You spoke about renting. You say you were renting an
apartment right now? Or have you bought your place?

Speaker 2 (23:41):
So I own a place in New York City and
then I rent a place down in Miami Beach.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Okay. And for people who are trying thinking of buying,
but are still on a crunch in terms of their finances, well,
I would love to get your insight into whether you
think people should rent or buy, because for me my parents,
as soon as I started working, the goal was get
on the property ladder, like buy a place, have a property.
My family obviously came to the UK's immigrants, but as

(24:09):
soon as we have seven girls in the family, grandchildren seven.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
It's already you faught in a way.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
I mean, it's my cousin. So there's seven girls. There's
no boys in our My mum has two brothers and
between three of them, they have seven girls. And so
they made a choice that they would as soon as
they could, they put their money together and they bought
a property in the name of all seven of us.
And so their mindset has always been get on the
property ladder, get properties when you can. But now I

(24:35):
feel like there's always there's this debate between actually buying
a property can be really ridiculous, and most people are
renting most of their life. What's your view on that
from your perspective?

Speaker 2 (24:46):
So, I think that is a very immigrant perspective that
you have, because I was given the exact same idea.
My parents immigrated to the US. I was born here,
and when my parents bought their first home, their first
little slice of the earth, it was momentous. Yeah, that

(25:07):
was their American dream. They like had something now, something
that you could reach out and touch, and that was
security and stability for them. When we were able to
move from that smaller town home into a single family
home in a good school district, so that you know,
I could have the life that my parents wanted for me,
Like my parents like that truly was their happiness, that

(25:30):
was their goal. And what I'd like to share with
folks is that if you want to buy a home,
that is a great goal. But if you don't, that's
also okay. And there are still other ways to create
richness that don't require you to also be in the
real estate game. So what people forget is that right now,

(25:54):
in all fifty major metros, there have been studies done
that show right now it is cheaper to rent them
buy in all fifty major metros. If you spend the
money towards rent instead of buying, you have to be
responsible to know that the difference you're saving on that
needs to be put towards investing in another way. If

(26:15):
you're just renting and then letting your money sit, or
using that extra money to go buy stuff that you
probably won't even remember it is in your closet, that's
not great. Why housing has been such a bastion of
wealth generation and the American dream, and truly any sort
of immigrant dream, is because it was literally a forced
mechanism for saving when you were spending more and your

(26:39):
money was tied up in this thing you couldn't go
and buy something dumb you didn't have the money for it.
But that house, that property, likely over the past decade,
over the past whatever, appreciated, so you not only bought
something that prevented you from making stupid decisions, appreciated itself

(27:01):
as an asset. And that's why people love real estate.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
What's so interesting is me and Jay, my husband, when
we got married, we did that. We bought a property
with the help of our family and some of our savings,
and we recently were trying to sell it. And it's
been I guess nine years now, and this is in
the UK, not in the US, but we literally made
like hardly any money out of it in those years.

(27:26):
Like the appreciation of properties, I think. Whereas my parents
who bought their home thirty years.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Ago for four dollars and then sold it for a million,
it's difficult.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yes, they had, Like if I think about how much
they spend when they had pretty much not much to
now what the property is worth, it's completely different than
what it is now. And even some of my other
family members they're trying to sell their house now and
what they're getting for it is like barely barely more
if not less than what they paid for it. And
that's in the UK. So I don't know about how
the climate is here, but it's interesting how you have

(27:57):
that same mindset but the environment is completely different now.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Well. I also think it has a lot to do
with maybe, and I could be completely wrong, the area
that your parents bought in versus the area you and
j bot in versus buying in a place like Los Angeles, right,
so buying a primary residence, one where you and I
would live in together and be our home. These days,

(28:22):
like especially in major metros, the appreciation we're seeing on
those properties is not that vast. It oftentimes does not
justify it as an investment piece. However, you are still
allowed to love and want and buy a beautiful home.
There's nobody saying you shouldn't do that. But my guess
is when your parents bought in the UK when they

(28:45):
were immigrants and they had two nickels to rub together,
they probably bought in an area that wasn't that nice.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
But over the years, but over the years, as the
tailor moved in, and the kebab shop moved in, and
then the theater moved in, and then the restaurant moved in,
and then the gym moved in.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
It had to blow up all of a sudden.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
It looks like a very different neighborhood. Yeah, so whereas
you guys were in a position you got some help
from family. You know, you were young, but likely had
a lot more money than your parents did at the
time and probably bought in an already nice neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah, it hasn't got much better, exactly right, Okay, makes sense.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's why a lot of people now who live in
places like San Francisco and LA and New York and
Miami and Chicago, like in the big cities, they can't
actually afford to buy the primary home they want. So
what they do is they rent the primary home that
they want to live in, the type of you know,
esthetic they want, the size they want, and if they're
planning on buying real estate, they'll actually do it in

(29:46):
less developed areas. So a lot of people in California
will go buy homes in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and
trick them out and then say, if my projections are correct,
this town, one town over from ASU's campus will likely
become a place where a lot of grads end up

(30:08):
living after graduation or right outside of Las Vegas there's
like Henderson, Nevada, or you know, Santa fe like it
becomes a beautiful resort town. Like people are thinking about
will my investment actually appreciate?

Speaker 3 (30:23):
But that's investment real estate.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, there's also nothing wrong with just wanting to buy
a home because you want to feel secure and comfort
and like where you live.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
And you said, okay, so that's one type of investment
is your property. But let's say people are thinking, I've
got this money, where do I invest it? Like where
should I be investing my money? Because I like, if
I didn't have I have people who advise us on
our finances now. But still, if someone wants to ask
me where should where should we invest or where should

(30:52):
I invest? I would have I don't even know one
single answer to that. So I'd love to know, like
your top three places that people should start off with
if they want to stop investing the money in the
right place.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
First and foremost, don't try to be a cherry picker.
I worked on Wall Street on inequities desk. I saw
so many hedge funds blow up because the guys who
thought they were the smartest people in the room were like,
there's no way this stock is gonna go wrong. You
know what happens every single time when you get a
little two cocky, the stock goes wrong exactly, And so

(31:23):
the risk when you buy one thing is very, very high.
I take the Halloween candy approach to investing. So instead
of just buying an entire bag of Snickers, kid has
a peanut butter or a peanut allergy, you're done, but
you get the multi pack Halloween candy. So things like
ets and mutual funds that track broader indices. Instead of

(31:45):
buying one stock you're buying five hundred, you're buying a thousand.
That allows you to weather any sort of specific company
downturns really well, because when one company's not doing that well,
others might be doing really great, and so you just
get to kind of ride the overall benefit of the
general direction upwards. So don't be a cherry picker. Two,

(32:10):
know your time horizon. If you want a low risk
investment for the next two years, because you're putting your
down payment money on that, maybe you're investing in like
a certificate of a certificate of deposit CDs. It's essentially
where I say, yep, you can hold my money for
six months, give it back to me in six months. Yes,

(32:30):
and I earn a little bit of interest on that
I become back. But if you're like, hey, I actually
don't need this money back for forty years, you're going
to do something very different than just put it into
a CD. You are going to be able to take
more risk because your time horizon is longer. So what
I always say to figure out how much money you

(32:51):
should have invested in what you take your age and
you round to the closest five, so either a five
or a zero ending and then minus ten. I can
see you doing it in your head.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, and do I go up or down?

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Round up or down, just to the closest.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Okay, closest, got it.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
So you're thirty four, we round a thirty five? Yeah,
minus ten, yeah, twenty five. Twenty five percent of your
portfolio at this point in your life should be in
fixed income assets, so things like bonds. Okay, more conservative,
but that means seventy five percent of your portfolio should
be in the stock market, should be in something that's

(33:31):
a little bit more risky. Because you're still so young,
you have if you want to have a very traditional retirement,
you still have twenty five years before that traditional retirement comes.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
So bonds are long term and stock market is not.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Potal not bonds or long term, but bonds more often
than not are less volatile and less risky than stocks,
with the ultimate boil down of that being with bonds
you get paid out first in a bankruptcy proceeding. If
you own equity, you're the last to get paid out.

(34:06):
So bonds are just a little bit safer, a little
bit less reward because you're making safer choices, but it's.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Good to have a balance.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
And then my last tip, and this is a little
bit of a sneak peek. I'm actually building out a
resource where people can ask me any of their money questions,
and we are using technology to be able to scrape
for answers. And the best part is you're going to
share your money situation, share what you have saved, what

(34:36):
you need to know, what you need to pay off
in debt, And not only will you get a personalized response,
you can actually chat one on one with a licensed
certified financial planner, not somebody who sells snake oil, but
someone who has a financial license that they have to
keep they have to do right by you, and you
can get on the waitlist at ask Dolly dot com.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Ask Dolly dot com. Oh my god, that's a great
way to dollar. Oh great, that's such a great way
to share your wisdom with people who know in a
in a mass way like yeah, to help people. It's
so difficult. I'm asking questions even being here now with you,
Like before you came on and I was like so nervous.
I didn't know this the terminology or like the conversations

(35:18):
to be having. And so I think having someone online
where you can chat to them and have these conversations
which people aren't going to have you sat on their
podcast every single day, it's so useful for people to have,
you know what.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
The terminology is. The scariest part.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
I have every belief that you are an intelligent person.
If you passed like grade four mathematics, you can do
financial math. You just don't know what the words in
the word problem is. And once you get a handle
on that, you're gonna be after the.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Racist and you mentioned the stock market, obviously we're just
talking about that. I'm still getting to grasp with what
that means. But you know, there's always this term this
Right now, I've been hearing like the stock market is
based on everything that's happening. One is the stock market crashing.
What does that mean to people? And what should people
be doing? And what red flag should they be looking

(36:10):
for if they are investing in it?

Speaker 3 (36:12):
My question is why does it matter?

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yes, because if you are a long term investor, you
are likely going to live through five to seven major
downturns through your lifetime. This is not about to be
your first rodeo, like, we're going to see this again
and again and again. So if you're investing for forty
years and you're on your three, why are.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
You freaking out? Why does it matter?

Speaker 2 (36:36):
What I think bears mentioning is, given some of the
administrative policies that have been implemented, we are very likely
going into a recessionary period. But before that scares everybody off,
Recessions are normal. There are boom bust expansion recession cycles,

(36:58):
and you can't have boom periods without bust. A recession
is not fun, but it isn't something to be so
scared of. It's just a period of contraction, right, And
you have to have this motion to have this and
so it's valuable no that for many people we're gonna

(37:20):
need to tighten the belt. There will likely be a
rise in unemployment. Inflation is probably going to kind of
go off to the races a little bit. Things are
probably going to get more expensive, and that's likely going
to hurt folks at.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
The lower earning and middle earnings.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
End of the spectrum the most. And that sucks, yeah,
because they are the people who can least afford for
it too. That all said, we don't know. In a
crystal ball world, maybe tomorrow we get a headline something
completely changes. I could be wrong again, Yeah, but because
especially I don't know.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
If you've been watching the news the.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Past three weeks, it feels like every three minutes there's
a new headline and I'm like, that's very different than
what I saw three hours ago. And with my news,
I used to think, oh, this is a daily thing. No,
it's an hourly thing. Now it might be a buy
the minute thing. And all of those headlines, all of
those changes.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Are like levers. They will pull.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
That's either you gonna be good for the stock market
or bad for the stock market. But for folks who
are living through this, for the first time. Don't panic,
don't pull all your money out of the stock market
and lock in those losses, because it's not a loss
until you sell if you see some downturn. And frankly,
what I'm doing and what I've encouraged everyone to do,

(38:34):
is I'm using this as a time to shop on sale.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
I was gonna ask because it's the time to stop
buying stocks and investing in stocks.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
So you know how like when ALTA has their annual
sale or whatever, you run into the Alta and you
buy everything that you're gonna need for the next year,
and you buy the item that you probably were like, oh,
well I can't afford that, Now you can. Yeah, I've
never seen that type of excitement for a stock market sale.
When the stock market's on sale, people are like, ah,
let's go, hie is falling. You didn't say that when
Alta was giving out half priced lip losses. And so

(39:06):
the value here is this is an opportunity if you
are committed to investing for the long haul, you are
a long term investor, downturns are actually the best time
to scoop up assets on the cheap. And I have
every intention of continuing to invest in the stock market.
If anyone should be concerned, it's me. I've got seven
figures in there. But I'm also going to continue to

(39:28):
make sure my portfolio is healthy and diversified, meaning I
have US exposure, I have international exposure. I have large
company exposure, middle company, middle sized company exposure, small company exposure.
I've got exposure to old economy so industrials, energy, more
like builders.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Like construction, but I also have.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Exposure to new economy, tech, consumer, healthcare. I want to
be everywhere to everyone.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
You sprinkling seeds everywhere essentially. So I was just about
to ask if you are thinking, if now someone's like
I want to get into stocks, are there places that
people should start to learn about it before they start
putting money into places? Or are they recommended places that
you say, Okay, I love what you just said all
the different areas, but even within that, how would they
choose what they put their money in?

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, So, for the folks who don't want to do
this and they're like, wow, this actually sounds like it sucks,
this podcast is turning me even more away from doing this.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Great.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
You can do this the same way you do everything
else in your life. Right now, by using technology. There
are some really great robo advisors. So how a robo
advisor works is they are the technological replacement for a
financial advisor. With a human financial advisor, you go, you
give them your money and you say, hey, build me
a portfolio that makes sense for me, and they know

(40:52):
like every single one of your details.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
The problem is with a human financial advisor, they're often
very expensive. They charge anywhere between one to one point
twenty five percent of assets under management, and if you
are a medium earner over the course of your lifetime,
that'll be multiple six figures.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
That's a lot of money. You want to give that
up to somebody?

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Probably not, But human financial advisors do make sense if
you have a very unconventional lifestyle, unconventional income. It's a
very complex situation. They can navigate that type of thing.
But I hate to be the one to tell everybody this.
Most of us are just regular shmegular. If you are
not a rock star touring in fourteen different states and

(41:33):
you know, getting income through merch and sales and all
of this stuff, like, your lifestyle is probably much simpler.
You go to a job, you get paid money, or
even if you're a ten ninety nine freelancer. You do jobs,
you get paid money easy enough. With a rob advisor,
it makes some assumptions that we're all relatively similar in

(41:54):
that way. You take a quick quiz about your money goals.
How much money do.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
You make, what area do you live in.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
That'll help with taxes, what your family looks like when
you'd like to retire, Are there any big expenses coming up,
like a wedding or a car or a home. You
tell them all the things you would have told a
human and then it uses that information to build a
portfolio that makes sense for you. Wow, it's literally taken
the best parts of what a financial advisor can do

(42:21):
for you at anywhere between a fourth to a fifth
of the cost.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
That's pretty epic.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Wow, Okay, so that's so useful. I feel like that's
the easiest way for someone to decide I've got X
amount to spend, and this is how I'm gonna sprinkle
it in without having to study too much.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
You don't have to study at all. You can do
this in forty five minutes. And that's what I always say.
Don't get caught up in trying to learn everything. Just
start and use resources that can help get you there.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Yes, Because if you're.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Gonna say I'm gonna learn everything about investing before I
start investing, you're never gonna start investing.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
What awe, What are three rich af habits that anyone
can start today even with zero? Like people starting off
with nothing and they're like, Okay, I'm not doing property
right now? What are the three habits? One that they
should change and two that they should start doing.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
One habit that you should start doing immediately talk to
your friends about money.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yes, I mean, just start doing that. I don't do.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
It's so uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
I know, it like makes me want to peel my
own skin off, but like it gets easier every time
you do it. Okay, and I'll give you a good
niche example for New York City. I don't know why
this happens every house warming I go to. If you
like someone else's apartment, the easiest money conversation to have is,
oh my.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
God, this place is so cool. Can you can you
tell me how much you pay in rent?

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Because the running gag in New York City is that
no matter what shoebox you live in, the rent is
too high, right, And so people are actually very comfortable
talking about how much they spend on housing.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Yes, very comfortable. And I don't know if that's the
case in LA.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, I didn't know eth always, so that's like a
thing you don't ask, you know, you always think it's
a thing you don't ask, like how much? How much
do you spend on your house?

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Exactly?

Speaker 2 (43:57):
In LA it might be very different because there are
cheaper and more extensive parts. But in New York City,
I find that most people are very comfortable talking about
their rent, and it's always a joke about how expensive
it is and how much they hate their landlord.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, but that is a gateway drug. The rent conversation
is a gateway into your Italian vacation looked amazing. Did
you use any sort of credit card tricks to help
pay for it? Or I'm looking for a promotion. We
do the same thing, but work at different companies. Do

(44:32):
you mind me asking how much do you make or
how much does someone at my level make at your company?
Or what did you ask for in your last negotiation?

Speaker 1 (44:44):
Do you think you have to be close to someone
to us?

Speaker 2 (44:46):
He's very very This is not a question you asked
an acquaintance.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
You met three hours ago. But like we all have.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Close friends, we all have good friends, like these are
the friends who aren't going to judge you, These are
not the friends who are going to hold it against you.
You want to do this with a very safe circle.
But I promise you, when you talk about money and
just get comfortable talking about money, it's going to make
you so much more knowledgeable and in that same main,
so much more powerful.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
That's so true. If you don't ask, you don't get,
you know, if you don't ask the questions, you don't
get the knowledge. So I feel like that's it's always
for some reason. I know my money ends up being
that taboo to talk about all that thing that they
feel ikey about bringing up. But I think the more
you do it, just like when everyone was scared to
talk about periods, the more you know, the more that
you end up actually having that conversation, the easier it

(45:33):
is to tell someone that actually, I'm having a bad
day because I'm on my period, not because I feel sick.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
You know, But do you remember how terrifying it was
when you were twelve or thirteen you wouldn't talk to
your girlfriends about having a period.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
You were too afraid. But now I'm thirty one.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Now I'll show up somewhere and I'll be to a
random table of women that I've never met before, and
I will be like, ladies, I'm so sorry to you know, interrupt,
this is an emergency.

Speaker 3 (45:59):
Does anybody have a tampa?

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Exactly, without a doubt, every single woman will reach into
her person and offer me one, because we've all been there.
And I'd like to think that right now, especially during
times when economic uncertainty is very prevalent, you're going to
actually have an easier time talking about that stuff because
everybody's worried about it, everybody's stressed about it. It's not

(46:21):
like you have one friend who is just a gazillionaire
and everyone else sucks. It's like you're likely all relatively
in the same situation.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
You know, you mentioned obviously that it's these changes are
going to affect people in the lower income bracket. Do
all of these rules still apply to them in terms
of the stock market and getting in and sprinkling their money?
And like, do you think there has to be a
significant amount that you save up before you put your
money in or how does that work for people who
are really struggling to just make ends meet. Right now,

(46:49):
I think.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
The rules are the same, the rules of what the
right thing to do are the same. However, there are
lived realities that may need to take press. So I'm
not going to say you should invest over putting.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
Food on your table. Of course, that's completely tone deaf.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
I'm not saying that it's going to be easy, but
there are new technological advancements that do make it easy.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
Yer.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
So back in the day, you need to have at
least enough money to purchase one share of an ETF
of that tracks an index that could be three hundred dollars.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
But now you can buy something called fractional shares.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Which is a slice of one share of a stock,
and that allows you to be able to start investing
with five dollars, ten dollars, twenty.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Dollars, whatever you have, you can get started.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
And that's actually a really popular question among college students
because there's nobody broker than a college student. You've got
debt and you've got no money. You likely have a
part time job. If anything, you're always trying to make
ends meet. And I think it's still powerful to do
because it's not investing a lot that makes you a

(47:59):
lot of money. It's investing for a long time. Let
time and compounding do the hard work for you. The
sooner you start investing, the better you can put in five, ten,
twenty dollars.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
But if you do that sooner, it's going to benefit you.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
That said, I really do worry about the closing of
the middle class gap because every healthy economy requires a
middle class, and I think we've lost touch with what
that word means. I think these days middle class is
like looked down upon. People look down their noses at

(48:37):
that concept. Middle class means all of your needs are met.
You have a stable employment, You likely have discretionary income
to spend on things like vacations and dining out and entertainment,
and at some point you will likely get to retire.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
That sounds like a pretty good life.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Credible.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
And here's the thing. If we do not have a
middle class anymore, if we only have the ultra wealthy
and the working class, that's a problem because the working
class does not have discretionary budgets to spend on entertainment
and dining out and vacations. So what do you think
happens to those industries when we have completely nixed their

(49:19):
target audience. We can't make it so bad for everybody exactly,
otherwise it doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
And you know, obviously we're talking about the news cycles
and tariffs obviously something everyone's talking about.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
How would's get into tariffs?

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Yeah, I would love to hear, you know, I would
love to hear your perspective on who is it really
going to affect and what should people be looking out for.
If they are people who can barely make ends meet,
how are they going to survive this and what should
they be looking out for.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
Tariffs are going to impact everybody.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
The big misunderstanding about tariffs was when we initially acknowledged
that we were potentially going to implement them, everyone.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Was like, ah, yeah, screw you, China. We pay the terraffs.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
We pay the terras not them, We pay the terraffs,
you know who. That's going to be a problem for.
It's not going to be a problem for the mega
corporations because they're still going to be able to keep running.
The small businesses, the medium sized businesses, the tariffs are
probably going to make their business unprofitable. If it is unprofitable,

(50:27):
they canno keep running. So now you've eliminated the small
and medium businesses that would have been competition for those
mega corporations. And what happens when there's no competition. You
can do whatever you want. You set your prices however
you want. I think we also are forgetting the fact
that just because tariffs are being implemented on certain countries

(50:49):
and you're buying American maid, it does not mean the
entire process of that American made product was American. So
the best example I've heard was Florida oranges grown by
Americans for Americans.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Actually no, okay.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
The hose that was used to water the oranges that
was made in China. The truck that drove the oranges
from the farm to the processing factory not American. The
fluorescent light bulbs in the grocery store that shine down
on the food not American. The little sprinkler thing in
the produce area that makes the fruit wet not American.

(51:29):
The little plastics like the netting around the oranges not American.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
The oranges are American, they were grown in Florida.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
But if that entire supply chain now becomes more expensive
for the orange company, you know who pays that, right,
those of.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
Us who eat oranges.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yes, and so even if you are not literally calling
your supplier in China to buy Chinese goods or calling
your distributor in India to buy certain things, the problem
is we are such a global economy and everything will

(52:06):
become more expensive for everybody, and that's a regressive tax.
Regressive tax means it hurts people who make less more.
Imagine this, you're richie, rich unbroke Becky. Okay, you love
a two ply thick toilet paper and you have a

(52:28):
the day. Okay, I don't have any of that money,
but I still need to go to the bathroom. So
I am buying the crappy one ply that feels like
paper like crinkled newspaper and rips in half. The cost
difference between my crappy toilet paper and your fancy toilet
paper is actually not that different. It's actually only five

(52:52):
ten bucks, but the cost of fifteen dollars toilet paper
is a much smaller percentage of your overall in versus
the seven dollars toilet paper is on mine. And when
costs go up, it's the people who don't have as
much that hurt the most.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Yeah, it really is. If you were advising the President
or the White House right now, what would you be
advising them to do to actually help build the economy.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
I understand the desire from them to want to renegotiate
our trade agreements. I think that actually makes a lot
of sense for our future. But one I wouldn't roll
them out on a four by four cardboard poster. I

(53:44):
wouldn't then change the rulings and say, actually, just kidding,
all these go down, but China goes up. I wouldn't
then say, oh, I'm going to put a ninety day
pause on everybody, but China now doubles. I wouldn't then
go and say, actually, me and China are negotiating now.
The problem isn't any specific one piece of policy or order.

(54:06):
It's the on off, on off, on off, on off off,
because the on off, on off is what's going to
completely blow up the supply chain.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
If I so much panic, it creates it unnecessarily for
people who also are not Like for me, I'm not
educated in this and I don't know too much about it.
So all you're hearing and seeing are these rash decisions,
in my eyes, being made. And if you don't have
the context, then you don't have the education behind it,
and you don't have foresight into stocks or anything like that.

(54:35):
I feel like it just creates so much fear in people.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
I would invest more into local communities and education.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
I would provide the infrastructure.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
This is the key one infrastructure for bringing back manufacturing
jobs to the US, because you can't just care if
us to hell and be like, yeah, we're going to
start bringing manufacturing.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Back and then not in like how, yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Companies are not going to spend millions of their own
dollars to build their own factories if you can just
turn the tariffs off with a tweet, they're not doing that.
I would actually build infrastructure at home. I would provide subsidies.
I would make sure that people are incentivized to bring
manufacturing back to the States, and ultimately I would look

(55:24):
at many governmental agencies think about how they're run. I
hate using this word now, but seeing how they could
be more efficient, because I promise you efficiency is not
gained by shutting down an organization overnight and putting.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
A padlock on the door.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
All of the decisions that have been made have felt rushed,
They have felt poorly thought through. They are not based
in mathematics, or science or research, and I think that's
the part that frustrates me the.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Most, of course, especially as someone is as educated as
you are in this field.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
I think that's a big issue we struggle with.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Now you said it, as someone who knows as much
as I do in this field, I don't then go
and pretend I'm an astronaut and I know about science.
I don't go and say I know everything I know
about dolphins. I'm not a marine biologist, but with the
rise of social media, everybody's an expert. And when people
come into my content and my comments and attempt to

(56:23):
argue with me about basic level economics, it's honestly insulting
because you didn't wake up every day at five am
and drag year butt to the trading desk to then
have the market beat you down. And you have all
of that hard earned knowledge. I got it all the

(56:45):
hard way. For people who don't actually have that background
to be making some of this policy, who don't have
the necessary knowledge and the foresight to see what the
after effects, the knock on after effects are, it's dangerous.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
What do you think you know? For me, as a
woman and having been surrounded by you know, I asked
my team earlier. I was like, do you know what
a bonde? And one of them said no. I was like,
do you know what a bond is? She was like no,
another girl said no. And what it made me realize?
And at first I thought it was an old school
mindset I had. I was like, oh, you know, women
don't know about finances as much. But then being in

(57:20):
an average room of women who all were kind of
a little bit scared of the topic, I still think
that there seems to be this underlying fear and lack
of knowledge, especially for women. And I don't know whether
you can you agree with that or not, or whether
that's what you've seen, But one, why do you think
that is? And two what do you think women specifically

(57:41):
is there's certain knowledge that women specifically need to know
as they are from their teenagers onwards about finances before
they get into marriage. And you know all the above,
what do you think the reason is? And what knowledge
do you think women should know from a really young age.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Now to absolve all of us from any bland but marketing, Yeah,
we as women think we're bad with money because of marketing.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
Think about this, when you tell.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Little boys own your power, grow your wealth, become a CEO.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
That's what they do.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
When you tell a little girl you're so pretty, you
are beautiful, make sure that you are, you know, pushing
your little shopping cart. That's what they learn to do.
We have told women time and time again, you are
bad with money. You've got Confessions of a Shopaholic. That
was a movie that did well. We've got Sex in

(58:38):
the City where Carrie was deciding should I buy shoes
or pay rent? Girly, what are you talking about?

Speaker 3 (58:42):
Pay that rent?

Speaker 4 (58:44):
Like?

Speaker 2 (58:44):
There's literally a show called two Broke Girls. You don't
see shows like called two Broke men.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Oh you don't.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
You're so right, And.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
What's even more frustrating for me is that they're wrong.
Say otherwise, more women than men single own homes in
all fifty states. Women have less debt in every single category,
with the exception of student loan debt, because we're getting
more educated, and in fact, Fidelity did a survey and

(59:16):
found that women's portfolios outperform men's because for the long term,
we are buy and hold investors, and a lot of
our male counterparts are trying to day trade, swing trade,
try to make a quick.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
Buck, and it does not work.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
WHOA. So imagine the perception being you're an overspender, but
in fact we're not.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Yeah, you literally have less debt.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Imagine the perception being you are stupid and can't figure
this out. How are we better investors?

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Though?

Speaker 2 (59:46):
Right, you're powerless. You need a man to help. Really,
because more single women own those homes, do what? So
the perception and the reality are very, very different. But
it does suck because once you are told something enough times,
you start to believe it. And I think that is

(01:00:07):
terrifying because not understanding your own money and not understanding
finances is one of the easiest ways to get in
a situation where you don't have options and there is
risk for financial abuse. You don't have the money to leave.
You cannot make choices that take money out of the

(01:00:31):
equation because you don't have it. And that is why
every single woman needs to be good with money.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
That was brilliant. That's made me. That hypes me up.
I'm ready, I'm going to go into it. I'm going
to start learning about all of this. Thank you so much.
I wish I could ask you so many more questions,
but it just realized where it like over an hour,
and I know you have plenty.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Of it's literally zoomed by.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
I really did thank you so much. Honestly, I think
you're going to help. You already are helping so many people.
But I feel so inspired after hearing this conversation and
just the basics that you went into, but even the details.
I'm like, why don't I know about this?

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Like this is?

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
And what you just told me right now? I was like,
I need to stop self sabotaging because there's so much
more that we have the capability of learning and doing,
and why put a wall up before you've even tried?
And so thank you so much. Everyone go out and
get rich Af if you haven't already. She's absolutely brilliant. Vivian,
thank you so much. And I can't wait to play

(01:01:27):
around with us, Dolly, It's gonna be so fun.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
Thank you so much for having me. It's been an
absolute pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Things

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Radhi Devlukia

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}What Every Woman Should Know About Money: Vivian Tu on Debt, Saving, and Investing