Table of Contents
What a Financial Coach Thinks You Should Know about Vivian Tu’s book, “Rich AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life”
As a financial coach, I love keeping tabs on the different voices in the financial world. Vivian Tu caught my eye. She has catchy reels, she’s not your typical older white male sharing thoughts about how to handle your money. Vivian just turned 30 and her target audience are young adults in their 20’s-30’s.
I’ve seen Your Rich BFF everywhere on Instagram and Facebook. With 6.4 million followers, Vivian Tu is sharing her financial know-how to the masses. She wrote a book called “Rich AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life.” I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into when reading this book, but clearly swearing was part of her delivery.
This book is written for Gen Z and Millenials who want to make bank. Her lighthearted approach makes this book an easy read for the everyday person. She had some interesting ideas and some that I flat out disagree with. This is a fact of pretty much any financial book. You have to eat the meat and spit out the bones, the problem comes when you don’t know what to spit out.
Let’s start with what I enjoyed in this book:
1. Rich people think differently than broke people.
At the beginning of her book she dives into 8 ways rich people think. Some of her points are that they think long-term, they don’t care about impressing you, and have an abundance mindset.
One of the surprising beliefs is that rich people are lazy. She says,
“Rich people do not want to work hard. (I mean, do any of us?) Sure, they say hard work matters. But in reality, they just want you to work hard, especially if you’re dropping off their DoorDash order or babysitting their kids.”
She goes on to say,
“Often rich people are themselves just…lazy. But lazy in a brilliant way. [Since] they know that they can have their money working for them literally all the time, and that they as a human being cannot, they simply understand the pretty logical conclusion that their money is a much better money making tool than their bodies or minds.”
As a financial coach, I see first-hand how much our beliefs about money impact how we use money. We help many of our clients change their view of themselves from “I’m bad with money,” to “I make good financial choices.” If you believe you’re bad with money, you live up to that belief. Your money perspective can either keep you stuck or propel you forward. It makes sense that rich people have a different set of beliefs than broke people.
2. Find a good job.
I enjoyed her questions to filter through if your workplace is a good fit for you. She walks you through questions like…
“Green Flag: The criticism you get is about your work product and your performance. Red Flag: The criticism you get is about you: your personality, your entity, your self.”
As a financial coach, I’m able to help our clients step back and reflect on what’s really going on in their financial life. The amount of time we spend at work takes up a huge portion of our lives. If your work situation isn’t healthy, it may be time to find something new.
No work situation is ever going to be perfect. It’s really easy to think about all the things you may not like about your job, and become discontent. Taking some time to reflect on the positives and negatives of your job is helpful. And if you become your own boss, you won’t solve all your problems. Your job won’t be perfect. Chasing after a perfect position will never end, because a perfect position, job environment, pay, business idea, etc. will never be perfect.
3. How to ask for a raise.
I really enjoyed how thorough Vivian was in this section. She says,
“Negotiating for a raise – including all the prep work, the conversation itself, and the follow-up— can take as little as two hours. If you get, let’s say, a $5,000 salary bump out of it, that’s like making $2,500 an hour.”
Asking for a raise can be really terrifying, but the worst thing your boss could say is no. And even if they do that, you can ask them specifically what you need to do to get a raise. Then you can do what they recommend. Hello clarity, now you know what they want.
I liked that she talks about bringing up the subject outside the typical time to get a raise. It’s easy to put off asking for a raise till an annual review. She says,
“Asking for a raise is like planning a vacation. If you want to go to the Bahamas in December, when everyone else is dying to go to a white-sand beach, you are not going to get a good deal if you wait until November 31 to book your tickets. No, you need to be buying your flights and snapping up a hotel room in June, when no one else is thinking about December travel, because that’s when it’s easier, that’s when it’s cheaper, and that’s when the deals are to be had. In other words, if you ask for money when every single person on your team is asking for money, you can easily get lost on that long, long list. What you want is for your boss to always be thinking about you when it comes to raises, promotions, or really any opportunity. And the easiest way to do that is to ask for them in that ‘off season.’”
We’ve had many clients ask for raises and get them. This is the fastest way to increase your financial offense.
We’ve helped many business owners separate their personal and business expenses. That gives so much clarity to business owners. Then we walk them through an adaptation of the Profit First Model, so they can consistently pay themselves. This helps business owners know what is not making them profitable. They can then cut the waste and focus on making a bigger profit. This is the closest thing to getting a raise for business owners. They can get off the rollercoaster ride of feast or famine.
4. Values-Based Spending.
I love that Vivian brought up this concept. Your Rich BFF says,
“Values-based spending means you weigh the price of a potential purchase against the work you’ve done to earn that amount of money, and then ask yourself, okay, so is it worth it?”
You can do this by taking the price of the item and divide it by your hourly pay. This can help you save more. She says,
“You change. And how you value things changes with you.”
What you’re willing to spend and buy will shift throughout your life.
As a financial coach, we take this one step further. We look beyond just the individual purchases people make. Our spending should reflect what matters most to us, but sometimes we’re out of alignment.
When we first start working with a client, we look at their current monthly spending and determine what we think they value. Then we share what we think our clients value based on numbers alone. Many say you’re right and others realize that they’re spending someone else’s values.
Here’s the thing, we don’t coach on our values. If we did, everyone would spend exactly like us. We coach our clients based on their values, not ours.
Next, we walk our clients through an exercise to help them discover what their top three values are. This is a great way for couples to understand each other. Then we go through a series of reflection questions to discover if their spending is in alignment with their values.
We help our clients discover underfunded values. Then we create changes in their spending plan to better align with what matters to them.
It’s amazing how fulfilling it is for our clients to line up their spending with what matters to them. This is why we say that your spending should look crazy to us and our spending should look crazy to you. Our spending should reflect what matters to us.
Our job is not to make you spend like us. Our job is to help you spend according to what matters to you.
There were some things I just didn’t love or 100% agree with inside this book.
6 Things I didn’t love about the book, “Rich AF.”
1. Most people don’t have a goal to be rich AF.
Personally, I don’t see many people who have a goal to be rich AF. And even the term rich AF when taken literally doesn’t really make sense. Yes, most people would love a raise, more options, and freedom, but extreme wealth isn’t for everyone.
We ask our clients what their financial goals are and help them take proactive steps to reach those goals. I’ve never had a client say they want to be rich AF. Maybe deep down that’s a dream, but most of us aren’t shooting for being rich (which is a VERY relative term).
Some of the ideas Vivian Tu shares can be a big turn-off, especially those who don’t like the wealthy.
For example, she talks about how rich people are always trying to “share, swap, and scratch each other’s backs.” Your Rich BFF says rich people think like this,
“Okay, I’m not qualified for this job, but my friend is, and once she gets it, she’ll owe me a solid. Then, as soon as she’s in a position of power, I’m automatically tapped into that whole network, which will definitely come in handy someday.”
This kind of thinking is why many rich people have a bad rap. Helping others just to get ahead yourself really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’ve met wealthy and broke people like this, and either way everyone else feels like they’re being used.
As a Christian, I just really don’t agree with this mindset. It’s so against how Jesus taught and lived. We are to serve others and put others needs above our own without expecting anything in return. Treat people like you want to be treated.
2. Bad budgeting advice.
I appreciate that Vivian encourages a spending plan, because if you don’t have one, you’re planning to fail. But we’re not on the same page with the way she explains budgeting and how to do it.
Vivian says that,
“If you can take three shots at your friend’s place before heading out for the night, you’re not going to have to spend as much at the bar to keep having a crazy-wild, drunk-*** night. This is a scientific fact. That’s really all that budgeting is. Same principle.”
I’ll have to admit that I’ve never thought of budgeting in this way before (probably because it isn’t my lived experience), but I do have a few bones to pick about her budgeting recommendations.
She briefly addresses four budgeting methods in six pages, which isn’t enough depth to execute any of them well. Those methods are 50/30/20 Budget, Zero-Based Budgeting, Reverse Budgeting, and Half-Payment Budgeting. These are the classic Google search budgeting answers. Each of these methods have merit, but when I work with clients we don’t specifically do any of these. We meld some of the positives of several of these methods together and simplify the process.
Most of these methods are just that, a method. But how do you put it into practice and what that actually looks like is a whole other topic that she doesn’t address. There is more than one method to budget and more than one method works. It’s just important to find one that works for you and that is sustainable.
Vivian also describes budgeting like getting a manicure. There are different options but,
“If after a few weeks or months it’s not working, just buff it off and pick out something new.”
Here’s the thing: setting up a budget and implementing it takes time. If it works well and smoothly after a few weeks, I’d be really surprised. Abandoning something that took time and effort just to try a completely different method seems unnecessary to me. It’s often just a few small tweaks that are needed to make a budget work for you. I wrote a blog post all about budgeting called, “How to budget: Six Reasons Why Most People Fail.” Check it out if you’ve struggled in this area.
I truly think if someone took Vivian’s advice on this, they’d be changing their budgeting method over and over again. They’d get frustrated and just not even try to budget. Switching things up all the time is just way more complicated than it needs to be.
As a financial coach, some of my clients already have a budgeting system in place. I often help them make a few tweaks, so it’s much more effective. Many clients have never had a spending plan or have tried many and have given up on the process, since nothing worked for them. We help them create a spending plan that works for them, that’s sustainable, and is tailored to their needs.
3. Vivian is anti-cash, and she bashes debit cards.
She literally says,
“Generally, I am very anti-cash.”
Very few of my clients use cash to manage their money. But using cash isn’t wrong or a bad plan. Some people love using the cash envelope system to set clear boundaries for their money. If that works for them, more power to them.
Personally, we’ve tried that multiple times and have epicly failed. It just doesn’t work for us. We’ve loved using Qube Money as a tool to get the benefits of a cash envelope system and more, but with a debit card.
Tu says,
“But I seriously don’t recommend it [debit card].”
Bashing debit cards was a bit much. Her main reasoning is that,
“also, as with cash, there’s no protection.”
This is just not true. It’s an easy Google search to find that VISA or Mastercard protects what they put their label on.
Using a credit card feels different from using a debit card or cash. According to Forbes, people are twice as likely to spend more using a credit card versus cash. Author Michele Cagan says,
“unless you pay back the purchase immediately, you won’t feel the pain of the bill for basically a month.”
Pay attention to what it feels like for you when you spend with cash, debit, and a credit card. Do you feel different when using one payment form over another?
Another thing to consider is how credit card interest rates are going up. The average credit card rate we see with our clients is 29%, and some are over 30%. When you do the math, that interest rate is eating people alive. Yes, credit cards have perks, but there are some risks too.
As a financial coach, I see clients who have been in a credit card debt rinse-and-repeat cycle for years and years. They go into credit card debt, they carry a balance, they finally pay it off, and then get right back into it. I love helping our clients break that cycle for good. It is absolutely possible!
There isn’t a quick fix or a single action to fix this problem. Having clarity, a plan, solid goals, savings buckets, an emergency fund, and more all play a huge role in getting unstuck from the credit card debt cycle. For some people, using a credit card is too tempting. It can cause them to revert to old behaviors. It’s important to know your boundaries and what works for you.
4. This book has an overwhelming amount of information without all the practical steps.
This book was full of information and I can 100% believe that most readers would be overwhelmed and wouldn’t take action. Here’s an example: in one chapter she talks about credit score, debt, taxes, hiring a financial professional, and how to determine your FU number. That’s a lot to cover in one chapter.
There’s an overwhelming amount of information, but how do you apply it? Four pages on debt strategies will likely not lead to someone getting out of debt. There just wasn’t enough information or a breakdown of how to put those strategies into practice.
Overall, I could clearly see that Vivian doesn’t work 1-on-1 with people’s finances. If she did, she’d have a different approach and her recommendations would be different. As a financial coach, this is what I do with clients. We help people take abstract concepts and put them into action. There is so much to personal finance, and there are so many emotions that are tied to it. We help people unpack their financial past and up-level their skills, mindset, and tools.
BTW, if you’re curious, your FU number is the amount you need invested to make any life change you want. Then, you can tell your boss FU. Yikes, I’d avoid saying that. This is often called your FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) number, which she’s not a fan of. For her, she said,
“We figured that to be really super on the safe side, we’d need about $1 mil annually, so our FU number is sitting at $25 million.”
Let me just say, her spending and saving is VERY different from the average American. Vivian shared that she really wants to be a social worker, but she needs to get to her FU number before she can pursue that.
Let me just say, I do not agree with this. Vivian Tu does not have to have $25 million invested, before she can start living the life she really wants. It depends on her level of risk, her lifestyle, and her values.
We took the leap of faith to start Rich Living Coaching. We didn’t have our FU number invested, but we did have a strong emergency fund, a plan, and felt like God was calling us to take the leap.
If we waited to take that jump until we had twenty-five times our annual income invested, we’d be stuck doing jobs we didn’t want to do for years. We wouldn’t have the impact we have. Getting 25 X your annual salary invested is great and quite the achievement, but you don’t have to accomplish that before you can start pursuing the life you want.
5. She’s pretty out of touch with what most Americans’ finances are really like.
Vivian shares how her first out of college job was as a Wall Street trader. She then worked at BuzzFeed earning $600k. Now, she’s an educator, public speaker, host, entrepreneur, media powerhouse, and founder and CEO of Your Rich BFF. That’s quite the accomplishment for a 30-year-old.
She’s definitely been a high-income earner. According to USA Today, the average annual income in America is $59,384. She also just got married and has no kids. Clearly, she can’t fully relate to a large portion of Americans.
We’re blessed to work 1-on-1 with our clients all throughout the country. We’ve worked with people who are barely able to pay their bills to high six-figure salaries. Having an inside pulse on what’s really going on with people all throughout the U.S. has given us so much perspective. I truly believe that it’s so important to understand what people are actually going through.
6. My biggest disagreement with Your Rich BFF are her thoughts on Financial Coaches.
She says,
“People who call themselves things like financial coaches, budgeting consultants, money mindset experts, or whatever are basically just making up titles. … So I’m begging you: before you slap down a fee for a consultation, look up if your fave has any actual credentials.”
As a financial coach myself, I have a few words to say.
First, there are some people calling themselves financial coaches who are selling insurance products. They’re essentially coaching people to purchase products that they get commissions for. This feels very icky to me. These people are giving financial coaching a bad rap. I cannot vouch for these insurance salesmen who label themselves as financial coaches.
When I’m talking about financial coaches, I’m talking about people who get paid for their services, not products like insurance and annuities.
It’s true, there isn’t a college degree for a financial coach. It really is a relatively new profession that didn’t even have a real title just a decade ago. Yes, there are training and certifications out there (and yes, we have them).
If Vivian follows her own standards, she wouldn’t be qualified to write this book. She doesn’t have a degree or certification to help people with their finances. Yet, her book had some great financial content inside.
I do think her strong stance on having the right certifications is hypocritical, since she wrote an entire book about how to handle your finances, and she doesn’t have any degree or certifications to qualify her to do so. Her bio inside of her book say that she has 6 million followers, she’s honored on the Forbes “30 Under 30– Social Media” and inaugural “Top Creators” list. Her college degree is a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Environmental Studies and Public Policy, concentrating in Finance. I wouldn’t say that gives her the qualifications to write a book on personal finance based on everything else she’s said.
My guess is that she doesn’t really know what financial coaches do. I wrote a blog post about “What is a Financial Coach and Why you Need One.” We help people put into practice what she talks about. We have a different role than a CPA, Financial Planner, bookkeeper, and attorney.
Vivian recommends hiring a certified financial planner instead of a financial coach. Most financial planners focus on the big picture. Financial coaches help their clients with their day-to-day finances and behaviors. Here’s a blog post I wrote all about what it’s like to get financial coaching.
Many people feel like they can’t hire a financial planner if they don’t have a retirement (or feel behind) or they don’t have their financial ducks in a row. Financial coaches help people wherever they’re at to get to the next level.
Most Certified Financial Planners focus on investing, retirement planning, tax strategy, and estate planning. Financial coaches don’t do any of these things. We help our clients get intentional with their finances and strategically reach their financial goals. For many clients, we help them free up money to invest. We help them ask the right questions, so they can hire a financial planner with confidence.
Financial planners typically don’t walk their clients through creating a spending plan, debt payoff strategies, how to put those strategies into practice, unpack their financial past, and keep them accountable. This is not in most financial planners’ wheelhouse. It’s not what they want to do. We do all these things and so much more.
We’ve spoken with many financial planners, and they flat out say they don’t do what we do, but they see so much value in it. We’ve had many financial planners send us clients, and we send many of our clients to financial planners. Financial coaches and financial planners are both valuable and work hand-in-hand together.
Comparing certified financial planners to financial coaches is just not a good comparison. Both are beneficial for a strong financial team.
Sidenote, I wouldn’t be surprised if Vivian starts having 1-on-1 clients, and then she would essentially be a financial coach.
Beyond Viral Advice:
Overall, Vivian Tu has a lot of great financial advice. She’s fun, funny, entertaining, and has great reels. Vivian’s accomplishments are down-right impressive. She shares honestly how to get your money working for you in a really approachable way. There are a few things to look out for when reading her book or watching her reels. Not all advise you read in books, reels, blogs, etc. are accurate or true.
I read a lot of financial books, and this is not a book I’d recommend as a must-read to clients or friends, but it does have merit. “Rich AF” touches a lot of different financial topics, but it doesn’t dive deep enough into any of them to make much traction. Honesty, I think many readers could read the book and feel more overwhelmed and behind.
More financial information doesn’t make us better with our money; taking action on what you learn is where transformation happens. It’s easy to read financial books and get new insights, yet do nothing with that new knowledge. This is why we firmly believe in the power of coaching. Coaching helps you take the quickest, most effective customized steps in reaching your goals.
If you want to take action and get intentional with your finances, the fastest way to do this is with financial coaching. We’d love to help you navigate your financial life 1-on-1 or with group coaching.
Steward Lab is for you if you want a more DIY approach with group coaching. If you want 1-on-1 support and personalized help from us, our 1-on-1 money coaching program is the best fit for you.
Schedule a no-pressure, free 20-minute call with James or Amberlee to see if money coaching would be a good fit. We’d love to help you take action and get intentional with your money!
