Money Rules Everyone Should Know

So, darling, today we're continuing our career goals guide, a series that is focused on giving

you guys practical tools to navigate every stage of your career.

Now, we've talked about how to get the job, we've talked about how to advocate for yourself,

and now we're going to talk about what happens after the paycheck hits your account,

because managing money isn't just about budgeting, it's about making decisions that give you

more freedom, more confidence, and more options in your career. Financial literacy shapes how long

you stay, when you leave, and how boldly you bet on yourself. Now, to help us break this down,

I'm joined by the incredible Vivian 2, business woman, New York Times best-selling author,

and founder of your rich BFF.

To start with yourself, tour kicks off on April 15 in New York City, tickets are on sound now at

emigree.com. Hi, my darling Vivian. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. So happy to have

you. I cannot tell you. I have to say, I mentioned this to you briefly earlier, but before you came,

I did a little like, you know, what do you guys want to know about, you know, finances and

savings and taxes and investment, I have never had more people come back to me in a short amount

than ever. So I'm just going to let the viewers decide what we're talking about today.

That's right. It's so wild how many questions people have about money?

100%. It's nuts. It just really kind of got me going. So listen, before we talk about money

systems, before we talk about the strategies, I've been so fascinated as I've been doing my research

on you with all that you've accomplished and all that you've done. But your start was really

interesting because I realized you actually got like familiar with money because of your parents

and their inability to be able to do that for themselves. Well, you talk about that a little bit

because I think that people find it entirely fascinating that this young age, you know so much,

but it started early, right? Yeah. So my parents are immigrants. I was first generation born here.

I am the only child, only daughter, no pressure. And it really felt like my parents

felt like being an America was such a gift that they were just content to survive. They were

going to work hard, put their heads down, and hopefully the universe would give them what they

deserve. But we all know that's not really how that works. We had to deal with the American financial

system that included speaking to claims adjusters, the insurance people on the phone. It meant calling

medical practices to be like, what is this on my bill? It meant trying to negotiate for raises

and promotions. And the problem was English wasn't my parents native language. And so all of a sudden,

I'm eight years old on the phone. It's like, yeah, my mom definitely doesn't want to pay this

on the medical bill. And I'm like, I mean, Amy, like me, like pretending to be my mom. And I feel like

I learned very quickly what it really took to be a good negotiator, what it took to actually

understand money. And I'll never forget this. When I was, I believe it was end of middle school,

early high school. I went to the mall with a girlfriend. And we both went to a very popular hot

teen store. And we got these completely distressed genes. They were more whole than gene. And I came

home and I was so excited to have these. And my mom found the receipt of how much they cost in the

bag. And it turned into World War Three. My mom was so angry with me. She said, you don't understand

the value of a dollar. You have no idea how hard your father and I have to work to even like make

ends meet to make sure that you have a future that we're saving for your college education that we

can put, you know, put food on the table. And all I could think as a young person to say was,

well, you know, my friend got a pair too. And my mom looked me dead in the eye. And she said, well,

her dad's a lawyer and her family, like, you know, their millionaires were not.

And it was a stark reminder that we all have different stations in life. And because we didn't have

certain amounts of money, I couldn't have certain things. And I wasn't deserving of those beautiful

ripped genes. And I wasn't deserving of certain things. And it was painful. I ran upstairs. I slammed

the door, you know, angsty teen stuff. But I made a decision that day. I was like, I'm going to be

so good with money. I'm going to be rich. And no one is ever going to tell me that I can't have

ripped genes again. Wow. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty powerful stuff. Yeah. And so what happened

from there? Because I kind of tracked your career, which is so interesting. And I think there's such

a big difference between knowing about money and feeling confident with money. And it's interesting

that that exposure, because for some people that can leave to such kind of like an inability to

process money, you're like, you've got all of these relationships that your parents hold of money

and you take those on as your own. But you kind of did something very different. Like you decided to

learn about it. And I'm like, I'm just very curious as to where that part of you comes from.

I think it just came because of being in the right place at the right time. If I'm honest,

my parents instilled in me very early that in this country, education was really our biggest

shot at socio-economic mobility. If I wanted to have a great life, I was going to have to be a

really good student. And I was. I was the valedictorian of my high school. I end up going to the

University of Chicago. It's an incredibly competitive institution. And junior year olds around.

And I'm like, Oh, no, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? I look around and a lot of

my peers were recruiting for Wall Street jobs. I want to sit here and tell you it was this amazing

vision that came to me. I know. I literally was just like, well, it's good enough for them.

It's good enough for me. And so I start doing the exact same things because I'm not a leader. I'm a

follower. And I start interviewing. I end up having the good fortune of getting an internship at

JP Morgan on the equity desk as a trader. And after that summer, it was crazy. It's an incredibly

competitive program. You get hired with a number of other interns, but you all know there's only one

full-time seat. So me and two other boys were sitting there were basically trying to elbow each other

out for this seat. It became clear halfway through the summer that they weren't really going to work

on the desk. They bring in two more interns. So I'm now competing with two different people

at the end of the summer. Five interns rotated through that desk. And I was the only one who got

that final offer. And that's that's what we talk about Wall Street. Like you eat what you kill.

It's a doggy dog world. I got that job. And it felt like all of the puzzle pieces clicked into

place. Not only was I going to get that sexy job where I got to live in New York City and

make good money, really good money, but I also ended up getting a mentor. And I think that is

truly the greatest thing that working on Wall Street ever gave me. My first manager, she was an

Asian American woman. I worked with 30 plus other white men and her. And she was the first rich

Asian woman I had ever seen in my entire life. Oh, it's amazing. And she would walk in to the office

with a new designer bag every day. She had these Gucci stilettos that would click on the marble.

And she owned her apartment. She had a dog. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to have a

dog in New York City? I knew she had money. And for the first time, I saw a lived reality

where I got to be a winner. And that only furthered my desire. And she took me under her wing,

taught me so many things that I know now. But I feel so grateful because without her, I don't know

if I would have the story. Do you remember how much money you were making in that first job?

First job, I believe my base salary was 80 or 85,000 dollars. And the first bonus I got was 10,000.

So it's a little under six figures. But to me, it felt like a lifetimes worth of money. I'd

never seen that kind of. Of course, though. Never ever. All right. So you're at JPMorgan. At some point,

you move and you end up at Buzzfeed in some kind of sales role. And you massively are able to

like up your salary, but the stakes get like kind of high. You know, when I left JPMorgan,

I got into a huge fight with my parents because they could no longer brag to the aunties on WeChat

about me working at JPMorgan. And they were so against it. They were like, we got you this amazing

education. And now you're going to go what? Like, right quizzes for a living because I didn't even know

where Buzzfeed was. But my quizzes, what kind of keys are you? And it was so silly. But ultimately,

it ended up being the right move. And when I left Buzzfeed, I had made $625,000 that year.

Wow. And that's a ton of money. Ton of money. Because we're going back what? 10, 10 years.

So this was six years after graduation, probably 20, 22. I was making killer money. I'm feeling

really confident now in my finances because not only did I get the education. You were 22.

Sorry, just a big 20, 22. This is 20, 22. 20, 22. I was 27.

Yes, 26, 27. Doing the quick math there. But, you know, I just felt like when I got into this role

and it became a sales role, it really was like, if I can write one more email, if I can outhustle

the person sitting next to me, if I can stay just an hour later, I will make more money.

There was a direct correlation with how hard I worked with what I got paid. And I loved that.

Because I felt like I had this confidence to be able to take a bet on myself and it ended up

being the right move. I made all of that money, especially it came in chunky commission payments.

It was a sales job. That's essentially what helped me buy my first home. It's really what helped

me invest a ton into the market. And it has changed the trajectory of my life.

Did you enjoy that job? I loved it. You did. I really did. So you were making money, but you also

loving what you did. I think I'm very much someone who loves what I'm good at. So I like that

feedback loop of winning. So there was a TV system all around the office. And every time you close

to deal, you had a deal song that would play. What was your cell? I can't even remember.

Oh, come on. It was probably like money by Carter V. That works. That works. But, you know,

every time you close to deal, your song would play. And I remember there was one season. There was

one quarter where I was basically closing a deal a day. And people were like, dude, you need to

change your song. We're done with this. Yeah, we're done with this. Come on, it's Cardi. We're

going. And I felt so proud. Yeah. Damn right. I could point to a scoreboard and say, I win.

And I love that. I'm competitive. You are super competitive. I mean, I found it so interesting

though, because again, there's, we're here to talk about money. And I often complain on this

podcast that I find it quite difficult to draw people into the conversation of money. How do you

think, especially now that you've been working in this space for so long and going back to kind of

those early days when you were, you know, surrounded mostly by guys at JP Morgan? How much do you

think has changed, especially as we start talking about women and finances? What are the differences

that you see now? You know, I think from then to now, we have really democratized the financial

conversation because social media. You know, you see people talking about loud budgeting or

these trends of like, Oh, I want a provider man. I have decided that I want a soft girl life. Like,

I need to have certain things in my life to feel happy, this type of financial commitment.

We didn't have those conversations even a decade ago when I started my career. I do think that

there are still a lot of taboos around talking about money, but I encourage everyone who feels

awkward about it to think about it this way. Why is it weird that two women like us are having

this conversation and I'm giving you numbers versus imagine you're at a country club, two gentlemen,

both maybe investors, maybe hedge fund managers, whatever. They're teeing off. They've got a cigar

in hand. They're talking about their portfolios. They're talking about what their mortgage rates are

and who did their mortgage at what bank? They're talking about what their kids' private school

tuition costs. Why is it weird for us but not for them? You tell me because I hear these

conversations every day, every day I hear my husband on the phone and he's swapping and swatching

information and he's giving tips and they're giving tips back and they're, you know, trading contacts

and yet I so seldomly have similar conversations with my girlfriends and in fact, I think I've become

the person in my circle that people call when they want to have that conversation when they've

made a bit of money and they need a recommendation or they're thinking about investing because people

know that I speak about it very freely. I have nothing to hide and I'm really happy to have the

conversation and to share my information. But can I tell you where that comes from? Let's talk

about that. Oh yes, yes. I'm right there with you. Because men have been told their entire lives

that like you should grow your power. You are allowed to have these conversations but there are

actually fewer women CEOs in the Fortune 500 than there are guys named John. You don't see

John's being like, oh no, like there's another John CEO. I can't be one. But we as women have been

told that we have to be the only one, the only token woman CEO, the only winner and that there's

not enough white space for all of us to be in the sea suite. You should feel lucky that they picked

you instead of arguing with other women competing with them, trying to outdo them.

We all be better off just trying to grab a larger slice of the pie from the gentleman.

If we can have more seats in the sea suite, if we can have more women founders, more women CEOs,

we don't have to feel that way. We get to do the exact same thing they do, we get to swap notes,

we get to share, we get to have these conversations because it's very much you scratch my back,

I scratch yours. But you can't be scratching other people's backs if we don't all come from

positions of power. So how do you think about opening up these types of conversations? When

you think about how you and your friends talk, what is the big difference and how do you encourage

people to actually get on the same wavelength as you are now? I think it has to be a two-way

street. There are certainly people in your life that you have money conversations with and they

are going to use it as a fact-finding mission to then twist the knife. They are going to ask you

to borrow money. They are going to try to get ahead of you. They want to see you do well,

but not better than them. They are going to use it as a way to hold it against you. You have to be

able to identify who those people are. But then there's the alternative. They see the alternative.

There's the alternative. I'll give you an example. When I was at Buzzfeed, I had a girl that I was

best friends with. She worked on the same team as me, sat right next to me, I called her my work

wife. And it was right before end of year reviews. And I was like, I need to figure out what I can

ask for in a race. So I grab her arm. I drag her to the bathroom. I'm like, tell me how much you

make. And she was like, what? I'm like, okay, I'm going in for my end of year review. I just need

a benchmark to see what I could even be asking for. And she's a couple years older than me. So she

tells me what she makes. I'm like, okay, cool. That's good information. I go. I have my, you know,

end of year review. And I'm like, with the amount of work and success that I brought to the team

this year, I believe a raise of XYZ's commensurate. I would like my all-in compensation to be this.

I stopped talking. I end up basically getting what I want. So then I get back to my dust.

I grab her by the arm. We go to the bathroom. I'm like, okay, they gave me this, but you're older

than me. You have more experience for me. And you close more deals than I did. This is what you

need to be asking for. She goes, hear you, loud and clear. She goes into her mating. We both end

up getting paid more. It's not competitive. No. And we just saw both of us do better because we

shared that information. It's a win-win. And I feel like it's always a win-win. And we have to get

out of the scarcity mindset because it's only hurting us. I speak to so many people that like,

I just have nobody that I can speak to. And I'm like, speak to your friend, speak to your mother,

speak to whoever is in your vicinity because everyone has something that they can share and

something that's going to be like a complete eye opener to you. And maybe even someone not in

your close vicinity, I've actually found that colleagues, most of them, most of the DFFs are

actually more comfortable sharing information. We need a brother than they are with their best friend

because they feel like, okay, well, I live in Denver. You live in Boston. We're never going to be

competing for this new job. We're never competing for the same apartment. I'll tell you what I do.

Easy enough. Easy enough. So let's talk about stability. It kind of feels like such a cornerstone

of the way you speak about financial literacy and understanding. And there's something, you know,

you talk about wealth building, starting with stability. Can you just, like, double down on that

a bit for me? Yeah. You can't buy all the home on sand. You got to build a home on cement, right?

And so for me, thinking about what it's all for, what's the purpose? What's the point?

Financial literacy should all start from a base of stability. This means having an emergency fund,

typically I recommend three to six months of living expenses. If you're single, six to 12, if you

are ahead of a household, it's paying down high interest rate debt. What I'm really talking about

is credit cards. Those can compound super, super fast. But if you've got student loans or maybe even

a mortgage, like those aren't nearly as quickly growing, it's all about setting healthy boundaries.

I know so many people and especially in immigrant communities, the second you make it big,

the second you make six figures. Everybody and your uncle are calling you being like,

Emma, can I have a small business loan of $500,000? And you're like, what do you mean? And I think,

I have no idea what you're talking about, maybe it's never happened. You're like completely

can't relate to that. But it's crazy, right? Because people want to drag onto your co-tails,

but what I encourage people to do is make sure that you are at a place of stability already,

so that you can lower the rope and pull people up, but not that you're being dragged down.

Yeah, I mean, I think this is really important. And I even like to start like one step ahead of this,

because before stability, you have to have a vision for yourself, right? And I feel like so many

people are like, I want to be rich. I want to have this, you know, whatever it might be that's

in your mind's eye. But I feel like having real specificity, like, what does that mean to you?

And I feel like one of the best things that I did when I was very, very young was have like real

specificity. I was like, I need to get out of this situation of living in this place,

and I would really, really like to do that. And I needed a certain baseline salary at the time,

it was 65,000 pounds. I was like, I need to get to 65, because for this rental amount in this type

of area, like, that's just, that's just what you need. That's just what you can have. Do you often

find that when you're talking to people, they haven't, you know, they've got like these ideas

and these things that they say, but it's just not like, it's not there. It's not concrete.

And that's why I say everybody needs to set smart goals. So smart stands for things,

specific, measurable. Oh, yeah. You have to make sure that it's actionable, realistic,

and time bound. To your point of, I need to make 65,000 dollars. That's very specific. That's a

number. So when people are talking about, I have a vision for my life. I'm like, okay,

so what is the specific goal? You want to open an Etsy store in three months. So we have to make

sure that it's measurable. It's like, how do we make sure we can actually assess whether or not

you succeeded or closed? Like, so maybe the Etsy store has to have a revenue number that we have to

hit actionable. This can't be something that happens to you. It has to be something that you control.

We got to do it ourselves. So we have to do something and you have to be able to do an action item.

Realistic. Come on. We're not going to become billionaires tomorrow. But we could perhaps become

millionaires in five years' time. I don't see why that would be so unachievable. And time bound

is the most important one. If you say, this is my goal, this is my goal. And you've said it for

the past 10 years. You say it every single new year. It's not happening. Tell yourself how much

time you have. You have three months to do this one thing. You have six months to do this next

thing. And you have one year to make the whole thing happen. When you write it out, when you

tell a friend, you are that much more likely to actually accomplish it. Yeah, I've really,

truly believed that. What do you say to people that would struggle with even the jumping off point,

like the stability piece? If you're living paycheck to paycheck, how do you even get to a place

where you're stable? Well, I don't want to sound so tone deaf as to say that you can budget your

way out of poverty or invest your way out of a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. But

if you are willing to put yourself in a place of discomfort for a temporary period of time,

I am talking about being exhausted every single night. You are going to be so tired. You are

going to literally be asleep before your head even hits the pillow. But pick up that second job.

Get that side hustle. Maybe you need to just be putting extra hours at your current job. And

that way at the end of the year, you can demand that raise and promotion. And frankly, if they're

not going to give it to you, someone else will. But it's a very simple equation to getting what

you want and making more money. You have to increase the amount coming in. You have to decrease

the amount going out and you have to invest everything in between. And for most people, the

easiest thing to do is to increase what's coming in. Because at a certain point, you can't cut that

much more out before you're like, I'm just not eating or I'm just not, you know, living my life

with any joy, it's simple. But it's the discipline that is required to do it day in and day out.

That is the challenging part. Absolutely. But don't you think that most of us have been through

and this is where I think it's really important to have a level of honesty around this. We all

had those times. I feel like there may be six years in my life. I lived doing kind of, you know,

work that was massively unenjoyable, working way too hard, too many hours with seldom vacations

and not that much great stuff going on. But it was a period of like hustle.

Can I tell you a quote that completely rewired my brain? Please. If you are not willing to make

sacrifices for your dream, the dream is what you have to sacrifice. End of. I actually call them

my peanut butter jelly days because it's so real, by the way, like people think, oh, you had a

wall street job. Everything must have been so amazing. Let me tell you, let me set a scene of what

my life actually looked like. Okay. I was waking up at 5 a.m. I was in the office by 5.45. I probably

didn't leave the office until 6.30 or 7. On many nights, I had client events. So then I had to

be out with them talking, schmoozing until 9 or 10. I lived in a studio apartment with another girl.

Like, there was no flex wall in between our beds. It was just a glorified dorm room.

I love this. I'm working at JP Morgan. You're family around here boasting about you.

I'm in a studio in your peanut butter and jelly. Peanut butter and jelly. I remember

exactly. I remember opening my fridge and being like, what is in here? There was like a bushel

of green grapes, a couple gatorades, and bread and peanut butter and jelly. That was it.

Oh, yeah. And it was because if I wanted to actually get to where I needed to be,

I needed to be making sacrifices. And it's not fair. I wish. I wish. I could have been born

into generational wealth. Can I tell you how easy that would have been? How would it be nice?

Would it be nice for all of us? But sacrifices are really real. And I don't think sacrifices

necessarily stop. I looked at something that you posted the other day that was about you,

like not buying a birkin. Yeah. Oh my gosh. But it's interesting because I think everybody

looks at you now and would never imagine that you're still here making sacrifices

for the life that you ultimately want to live. Like I can sit here and make a joke. Like I want

a birkin. I would love a two-tone AP watch. I would love to be able to drive an Aston Martin.

I want all of those things. I'm not immune to the Instagram ads, okay? But I also want to retire

my parents. I also want to be able to purchase a single family home with my husband. I also want

to be able to be setting money aside into five to nine accounts for future children. I want to be

able to leave a legacy behind. Those don't really translate as well into the in-feed grid.

But not so much. Not so much. Just like the peanut butter and jelly eating doesn't. It ain't sexy.

It's not. I love that you had those years. I had exactly the same. But mine was Jacob's cream

crackers and a block of cheese. That tells you a lot about my savory tendencies or a big get because

you could get so much for it for 99 pence. That was it. That was just the reality of what you did to

get through the day. And it doesn't last forever. But I love this idea of still making sacrifices.

You still have a plan. You have a way that you want to live and a bunch of goals and things

that you want to do. And you make sacrifices for them every single day. I mean, even now,

I see you making sacrifices all the time. All the time. Whether it's, hey, I have to be

away from my family to run my business. I have to be away from my business to run my family.

Like every day, you have to make a choice. I want to talk to you about this idea of discipline,

and intention, and goal setting, and thinking long-term. And just to understand a little bit about

the habits that you have to create to get there. Because this stuff, like you might say it,

and then why can't feeling really differently, like any other habit that you try to put in place,

what actually worked for you? Infrastructure. I am, I have no willpower, like none. I am someone who

will not go to the gym unless the gym bag was packed last night, and I'm already wearing a sports

bra. And so I know that about myself. If you know you have poor willpower, which most of us do,

you're going to have to set up systems that help you out. So I always say this is like the payday

system. When a paycheck hits, don't have all of it go into your checking account. Have some of it

go into a savings account. I also think having money dates with a significant other sets up a

system of who we are working towards the same goal. So even though I would love to go on a really

big night out with the girlfriends, or maybe even do a long weekend trip with them, I need to be

saving this so that we can actually take our summer vacation together. Setting up those systems

allows you to avoid thinking about it because the real liability in your pathway to success

is you. So what do you say to people that have, it's like they've done what they need to do. They've

sat down, they've thought about their vision, they've thought about their goals. They're going to make

sure that they're really writing everything down. What are the keys to financial freedom? What are

the keys to this idea that we're all obsessed with generation and wealth? Yeah. I think a big key is

knowing what you want. It's about planning. I always say it's really fun to calculate your FU

number and you basically just envision your perfect year. You live how you want to live. Maybe

you're supporting family, kids, whatever. You get to travel, you get to do whatever you want.

Then you imagine what that your costs and divide it by 0.04. That represents 4%. 4% is an

incredibly conservative return. You can get 4% from some savings accounts right now. So you can count

on that. Then that number that you've now calculated is how many dollars you would need to have

invested to then be able to provide the money you need to live your life. You never have to work

again. And the beauty of it isn't that I'm encouraging people to try to just race to this number

and then kick back and relax forever. But if you know what the goal is and you get halfway there,

does that mean you get to start prioritizing other things over money? Maybe your time is worth more.

Maybe your family is worth more. Maybe it's just convenience for you. But I want to know where I

am at on the road map to my goal. And if I'm honest with you, I calculate this number all the time.

I love doing it. I think it's really fun. I don't know if I'll ever retire because I have built a

life that I really enjoy. And that's the whole point. You want to love today while still taking

care of tomorrow, you. But isn't that kind of daunting for you? You've reached the point where

you're like, I don't know that I'll ever retire? No, because when I say that, people are like,

what do you mean you have the money for it? And I'm like, yes, but retirement isn't just

turning in your badge and then just being done with your life and then it's all downhill.

Like retirement can look very different. For me, retirement might be, I work for a non-profit

two days out of the week, two days out of the week. I get to spend with my family. And then one day

out of the week, I have for miscellaneous. Yeah. Retirement doesn't have to be giving up on your life

and just in the decline. Retirement is whatever you want to make it out to be. And I'm probably going

to work in my retirement. Me too. No doubt. I can't imagine you ever letting go of something. I mean,

absolutely no way. So when somebody gets like a raise or a bonus, what should change in their

financial strategy? What do you recommend? I think raises and bonuses are a really dangerous time

because if you're not careful, you make a little bit more, you spend a little bit more and then

all of a sudden you get to the end of the year and you're like, that's weird. I got a $20,000

raise, but I am no better off for it. I feel like so many people say that. So many people. And

that's why you're seeing people who make half a million dollars a year still say they're living

paycheck to paycheck because all of their expenses have gotten bigger. They've gotten a much nicer

apartment. They got that fancy car. They had to have kids and they put them into private school.

And now all the money's gone anyway. And you're still not setting yourself up for success for

tomorrow. So what I say is when you have a bonus, you get to think about where you want it to go,

but it has to take care of different aspects of your life. So as soon as you get a bonus,

I encourage people to put some of it into savings, invest some of it, make sure that you're paying

down your debt. But I always say allocate a little bit just for fun. When I got my first very big

bonus at JP Morgan, I went out and I bought a black leather Prada bag. It was the first designer

thing I ever owned. And that I, when I tell you that bag made me feel invincible. It was the first

time that I wanted something. And I got it for myself because I could afford it because I put in

the, you know, blood sweat and tears. And that was such an accomplishment. But if I'm honest,

every bag I've bought after that, you don't get the same rush. Not quite the same. It's not quite

the same. It's never quite the same. And what do you even think about people actually, like,

even getting pay rises because I feel like there are a lot of people that take charge and they

push that for themselves. But some people are pretty content to wait for the race. Why would you be

content to wait for the race? It's never going to come. I have a lot of women that work for me

across various different businesses. And there is a huge correlation. Like when you look at

who comes in and asks for a race, who comes in and like, just shoots their shot and like goes

for the absolute, you know, sky. It's not usually the women in the office. And, you know, you will

often find that women are missing pay cycles. They're missing increased cycles because they just

are not asking so much. The smartest person in the room is not the person who gets paid the most.

It's the person who's the best advocate for themselves. That is, unfortunately, how it goes.

You need to tell people what you're going to do. Do it really well. And then tell them what you

did. And what really frustrates me to no end is that people think that if they put their head down

and they work really hard, oh, maybe management will finally notice that you're not getting noticed.

I'm telling you that right now. First off, I think that you should always be aiming to be in the top

quartile of performers. If you are not in that top quartile, that is your first step because it is

embarrassing to go in and ask for a raise and then somehow get put on a performance improvement plan.

That sucks. You don't want that. That sucks. And that happens a lot. It does. It does. They're like,

I deserve a raise. And you're like, you've actually showed up late the past four days. Like, no,

you need to make sure you are a top performer because guess what? Top performers always get paid.

Good market, bad market, top performers. Top performers are kept around. They are safe. And they

are always prioritized facts. If you are a top performer, I encourage everybody to go into their

bosses office every year, set time and ask for 10 to 15 percent more than they are currently making.

Am I promising you're getting 10 to 15? No. No, but you got her off. You got to ask. And maybe you get

eight. Eight is great. Eight beats inflation. There you go. It means you make more than you did last year.

And you have to actually have the receipts to back it up. Jan one, I always encourage everyone

start to make a folder, label it, raise receipts, promo, pitch, brag book, whatever you want to call it,

and the year. Anytime something great happens, say, I work for you. You write a nice email,

you're like, wow, that product launch was so amazing because of Vivian. Congratulations to the whole

team. I am saving that email. I put it in my little folder. So then come June or July, mid-year review

or end of year review around November, December, January. I am able to literally have a laundry

list of every time I was congratulated every time a sale went through because of me, every time

a product launch because of me, every time a marketing campaign was perfect because of me.

And then I say, because of the experience and achievements, I have brought to this team

over the past year. A raise of XYZ would be commensurate with what I have accomplished.

And then this is the big key. You stop talking. I did this crazy thing. Shut down. My first year,

when I asked for a raise, I followed up with, but if not, that's okay.

Girl, why did you just do all that? If not, it's okay. It's not okay. Just let them be the one

to tell you know. People psych themselves out. They think it's rude. It's not just wait for the silence.

Silence is okay. Let them tell you know. But more often than not, the answer isn't going to be

yes or no. It's going to be, thank you for sharing this with me. Let me go back, take it, see what

budget we have to work with, and I'll come back to you.

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dash Platinum. I want to talk to you a little bit about this idea of financial literacy and some

of the differences in men and women. You've obviously taught yourself to be incredibly

financially literate and there comes like a comfort level in asking for things when you have the

right words and you've got the right vernacular. How do you talk to people about going about that

and becoming more financially literate? I think it is a process. It's a journey. It's step-by-step,

but as you become more financially literate, it literally is like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You feel more confident talking about money. You have more money and when you have more money,

you can go into negotiations just a lot stronger. What I would say is the first thing you work on

when you are trying to become financially literate though is actual jargon. The problem with learning

finance is it feels like another language. When people are saying things like APY, APR 401K,

403B, like FICO score, you're like, what do all of those words mean? And you don't know. And so

it's getting educated in those spaces, getting a mentor. My mentor changed my life. And she was a

person I asked all my stupid questions too. I was like, what is a FICO score? And she's like,

girl, what is yours? I'm like, I don't know. Can I have this credit card or no? And

having that person who can explain it to you is so helpful. This can be any sort of professor

in a academic setting. This can be an older colleague at work that you respect that you look up to.

This can be someone from your house of worship, from your community center. It can be anybody.

Yeah. And you can learn from everywhere because I feel like the way I grew up, quite frankly,

there was nobody in my proximity that I would even imagine would could be my mentor or that I'd

want as my mentor, frankly. But it's like, I've read everything. I was 14 years old with the financial

times because I was like, surely that's about finance, right? And I would read it. But the way

they spoke, the way articles were written, the certain words that were in there, it became

something that wasn't intimidating to me. It became something that I wanted to lean into

and learn from and back in those days, by the way, before I was even an internet, you were looking

in a dictionary or looking in an encyclopedia and looking up what those terms meant. It is so

easy for us to learn about concepts, but it's on you where you have to go out there and look for it.

I would also say that we need to unbrainwash all of the young women listening and tell them that

it's okay to want to be rich. Because right now, if you hear a woman say, I want to be rich,

I want to be wealthy, she's a gold digger. Lame, it's not. Because when you hear a man say, I want to be

rich, I want to be powerful, I want to be wealthy. We're like CEO, let's go. Let's go. Like strong

personality. But when women are proud and confident and want finances in that way, it seems like such a

negative stereotype. But I also think it comes a lot from how we talk about like money with men

and women. With men, it's about growing your wealth, investing, you know, taking charge. But with

women, you've heard the pop culture, confessions of a shopaholic, oh, you don't have to, you know,

spend all your money, save your avocado toast money and don't get that latte. It's like, why are all

of these like tropes villainized? When in fact, women have less debt across every single category,

except for student loans. We do better. We do better. I mean, we do better when it comes to

investments. When you look at women's portfolios, it's like, it's very very good. Women make incredible

CEOs because we are so viscally responsible. And they own more homes in all 50 states. It's

actually single men. So single women own more homes in all 50 states and single men. Wow. And

you're trying to tell me where the bet one's bad with money? Yeah, I think so. It's a little bit

of a self-fulfilling prophecy because sometimes we feed into this idea that we don't

know enough about money. Yeah. I got so irritated when there was like a meme going around,

like a TikTok trend going around last year that was all of these women telling their husbands,

you know, darling, I can't make my mortgage payments this month. And, you know, the husband

would be like, like, when can you ever make them mortgage? Do you even know our providers?

And I must have been said that 50 times. All my friends were like, we know this is driving

you crazy. We know you've had the conversation with us in the past about our mortgages and our

lack of understanding around it. And so it's high time that we got involved in those conversations

and made sure that it is on us because women are making money. They're creating incredible

businesses. We're creating unbelievable value. And yet there is still some, you know,

something in the ether that makes it to be that, you know, and the minute a woman admits that

she cares about money, we're like, what a bitch. Yeah. But imagine if I told you every single day,

you are not pretty. You are not pretty. You're not pretty. I would be like,

I'm being ridiculous. But at a certain point, you start to believe it. At some point,

you start to believe it. If you say, I'm bad with money. I'm bad with money. I'm bad with money.

You start to believe it. Our words have so much power. And I cannot stress this enough.

Every single woman, one, needs to have their own money because you need to have a, you know,

runaway fund. But two, if you are in a relationship, if you are not the person who is managing the money

on the day to day, you better know every single detail about your finances. You have to be an active

participant in your life. You need to know what you make, both of you, what you have in terms of

assets, what you owe in terms of debts, and also what you're spending in terms of expenses.

Because I cannot tell you the number of DMs that I have gone of the horror story is really,

I just found out my husband was cheating on me. And I don't have any money. And now I'm about

to be left destitute. But a more realistic DM that I get pretty frequently is I had a wonderful

loving relationship of 45 years. My husband just passed away. And I don't even know the password

to my bank account. Whether it's malicious or not, you have to know what your own money is because

most women, we die alone. We outlive our partners. And at some point, you will have to manage

your own money. You better start now. There's something that I, that I've read about you when you

actually and just thinking about money and being in partnership. You said that your husband was

the single best financial decision you'd ever made. Best. How so? Listen, I don't think that you

need to find a partner that is totally debt free or the richest man on earth or richest partner

me neither by the way. But you do need to find someone who values the dollar the same way you do

who is your biggest cheerleader and cannot be your competitor. Life is hard. Life is super hard.

I'm not about to go home and live with a shader at home. I want someone when I go home,

they tell me the sun shines out of my butt. Like they think I can do no wrong. They are

my fiercest advocate because when you have a conscientious partner, you want average actually make

4% more each year. And I can't tell you how many moments throughout my life and my career,

if my husband had not been there. And at that time, he was like some random, strange boyfriend

that I had, you know, barely met. There are so many moments that he encouraged me to do the scary

thing. And that scary thing was go from JP Morgan to Buzzfeed. That scary thing was to quit my

really good job, my $625,000 a year job to take care of which BFF all time. The scary thing was to

hire agents, hire lawyers, get a publicist. The scary thing was to start my own venture. And every

time he always says something silly, but he goes, do you think that we're going to starve on my

salary and he makes great money? So I'm like, well, no. And he's like, and what are you so worried

about? Take a swing. And I get to play big ball because I'm not afraid that if I fall, he's going

to catch me. Oh, I love that so much. I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about investing

because once people, it's such a difficult thing to even start to think about because people

imagine that you need a lot more than just, you know, a great job and a good salary and a little

bit of savings to start investing. And so for somebody that's just really starting out and just

about to, you know, dip their fingers into investing. Where do you recommend people should start?

Get a robot advisor. So simple. What people do is they're like, uh, I have to pick my own

investments. I have to pick the right account. You don't. It takes them years and years and years

to finally get the guts to do it. And now you're 15 years behind. Get a robot advisor today.

Literally just Google best robot advisor, 2026. You will find multiple lists that have a bunch of

them. Go into them, compare the fees, compare the platforms, see what you like the best. I'm not

going to sit here and even name any names. You pick what's right for you. Then you're going

to take a quick quiz. But then again, this is about learning, right? Familiarizing yourself with

the concept, understanding what a robot advisor is going on, doing the work, doing some research.

You have to research. You have to like do it. Yeah. And nothing to it, but to do it. Sometimes you

just got to like get past them. Like go because you know what? Doing it 80% good is better than not

doing it at all. Totally. 80% and you get better at it. Like every time you are doing,

if you are asking for pay rises one way in the 20s, damn sure when you get to your 30s,

you've got a slightly better system for it and a better way of negotiating. So it's like you're

going to get better. Okay, so you get a robot advisor. So you get a robot advisor. You're going to

take this quick quiz. It's going to ask you things like what texture,

sticks, and you live in AK where do you live? Do you have a family when you plan on retiring?

How much do you make? How much do you have? Do you have debt? You answer all these questions.

It goes and then it spits out a portfolio that is tailored to your risk tolerance.

Your risk tolerance is higher when you're younger, like lower when you're older.

Your risk tolerance is higher if you make more money and lower if you make last. All of these

levers will change. But you will get a portfolio that makes sense for you and you get to be invested

in 45 minutes, 45 minutes time. And the best thing, they will send you that quiz every year,

every two years to then re up because things might change. You might find a partner. You might

have children. You might move and your investment should change with your life too.

What do you recommend that people get started with? What do you think as a percentage of

somebody salary? How are you looking at that? Yeah, I would say that if you follow the 50, 30,

20 budgeting strategy, 50% of your after tax take home pay is on needs. So that's housing,

groceries, basic transportation. 30% is once. See? I allocated a lot of money for once.

You get to have fun. You get to go get your nails done. You get to go see your friends. You get

to go on vacation. You get to go to the concert. 20% is focusing on taking care of future use.

So that includes saving, debt paydown and investing. The reason why I don't earmark a certain number

for investing is because if you have high interest rate debt, like credit card debt,

you go to get rid of that. That needs to go first. You already said that. That was in the foundations.

That was in the foundation. So not everyone should be investing. If you don't have that paid down,

you can't invest. If you don't have money that you can lock up for at least a decade, don't invest.

But once you do have those things, it should be a portion of that. And then over time,

as you make more money, my hope is that the 50 and 30 parts of your budget actually become

smaller and smaller percentages while that 20 gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

And how do you think about property? Because I feel like so many of us grew up with this idea that

every penny that we're going to make has to just get down and go for a down payment on a house.

Okay. So this is such a contentious topic. She's like, exhale.

Render versus buy. Everyone's like, so if you're renting, are you a loser? No.

No, definitely not. No, no. No, definitely not. But also it's the facts.

Right now, it is cheaper to rent them by in all American major cities.

Yes. And in many other places around the world, by the way.

But buying a home for many still feels like the American dream.

But I encourage people to get really creative. So maybe it's, we don't buy our primary

residents, but we buy an investment property. And then we rent in our major city that we live in.

That's a way to get into the real estate game. Maybe instead of buying a singular property that

only gives you access to one geography, you buy a REIT, a real estate investment trust.

It kind of works the same way as a stock does or an ETF does, but you get to just buy it on a very

liquid market and now you have real estate exposure. Or even for the folks who are like, okay,

but I still really want to buy a property for me. Have you thought about an FHA loan? Have you

thought about a conventional 97? If you're in a rural area, a USDA loan, there are so many

different creative ways that if homeownership is important to you, you can still be a homeowner.

But you don't need to be a homeowner to be financially literate or to be financially successful.

And how do you figure out what one of those is right for you? What do you recommend?

Girl, we talked about this already. You have to do the research. So FHA loans are better for

people who have lower credit scores and really need a little leg up for their first place.

Conventional 97 reward you for having an incredibly high credit score. USDA loans only apply to

certain rural areas. But you just have to think about what makes sense for you. And if you live in an

area where there are other people that you know who are homeowners, ask them what they did.

Something that we did when we were actually buying our home was we hit up all of our mentors.

So my husband hit up his, I hit up mine. And we said, who did your mortgage? Who actually

originated yours? And we were discussing with four different banks. And we picked them against

each other. And we said, we are ready to sign as soon as you are ready to bend to our will.

When one team gave us a really great offer, but if I'm honest, I was a little nervous about

their ability to close on time. I turned right back around and I threw it in another, you know,

mortgage loan officer's face. And I said, well, this place is offering me this. And I'm

literally about to go do this. You want my business? Yes or no? And he said, tell me what you need.

I will match the terms and we will get it done. I want to go back into this investment conversation

because I feel like so many people that I know are dying to start investing and to, you know,

put their best foot forward. And it feels like an intimidating thing for those that feel that,

you know, the stock market really isn't for them. What are some other ways that women can get

into investing? If you're just like, this feels uncomfortable and it's not for me and I'm never

going to understand it, what do you suggest? While I do want to answer that question, I would also

challenge that person and ask them, why? Because the stock market more often than not is one of the

easiest ways to build your wealth. It allows your money to stay really liquid. You can get that

cash back whenever you need it really. Like, why are you so afraid? Is it because you feel like you

like to be able to see your money or hold your money? Well, guess what? Not investing is actually

scarier than investing. I'm so glad you've answered it this way, by the way. Because if you aren't

investing the cost of living inflation, it's eating away at your dollars. You put $100 under your

mattress. That $100 is worth less next year than it is now. So much less. But if you invest,

it actually might be worth more. And so I would just say, one, please do invest in the stock market.

But two, you can look at a bunch of other things. People love to invest in art, in collectibles,

in wine. But for more alternative investments, my big line is this. It is only worth what someone

else is willing to pay. And so if the market tanks and all the rich people are starting to hold

under their dollars, you're a rare Pokemon card, your beanie baby, your special bottle of wine. It's

just not going to be worth as much. And you're going to have a harder time selling it. And you'll pay

higher fees to sell it. So for me, stock markets the winner. So how do you balance the kind of

flexibility and the discipline when it comes to long term investing? You know, I would say it's

all about delayed gratification. It's kind of like when you paint your nails and then you're like,

I have to go to the bathroom. You're going to have to hold it, baby. You're going to have to wait.

Because you want to have a really good time today. And it is so fun to see your investments make

you a gazillion dollars overnight. But that's realistically not going to happen. And if it does,

there's a really big chance that it might make you negative gazillion dollars tomorrow. I think

it's all about waiting. Having a lot of money doesn't help you make more money. Having a lot of

time helps you make a ton of money. Because of how the math works, compound interest is most

effective. The longer you have something in play. So if you start investing a teeny tiny sum of

money in your early 20s, you're probably going to be better off than if you invest a chunky amount

of money in your 40s or 50s. I'm not saying if you're starting late, you can't make it happen.

But it will be harder. So start early and often. Invest as much as you can.

So one of the things I want to talk to you about is like manage this idea of managing wealth

in the workplace. Why do benefits in the workplace pay such an outsized role when you start to think

about how much money people are leaving on the table without even realizing it? Yeah.

So benefits are so important because many of them are now replacing something called a pension.

So back in the day, the onus of retirement, like saving for your retirement was your boss's shop,

was your company's shop. And the longer you work somewhere, the bigger your pension would be,

and they would pay you more and more money in your retirement. So if you work somewhere for 40 years,

maybe you didn't make a lot of money, maybe you didn't get a lot of raises or promotions. But

that fat pension check every single year of your retirement was worth it. Because who you were

taking care of, Scott free problem was pensions were really, really terrible because they were really

bad for the employer. The employer was on the hook for a certain amount of money, no matter whether

they made the right investment choices, no matter if they remembered to set aside the right amount

of money for you. Now they were like, you know what? We have a genius idea. We are going to replace

this with something much, much worse, but kind of still the same call the 401k. And the 401k now

puts the responsibility of saving for your retirement on you, the employee. Now you have to take your

own money out of your own paycheck, put it into the market, you have to invest it. Maybe some

employers do offer a match. So they'll match you dollar for dollar up to a certain point. And that's

great. That's free money, only case in finance, that's free money and not a scam. But it's now your

responsibility. And people never know what to do when it comes to actually thinking about their

retirement, their health benefits, their stock option plans, maybe their company even offers like

mental wellness checks, things like that. There is something at your company called a prospectus.

You are going to go to HR and you're going to ask for, hey, can I see the prospectus is on the

investments available in my 401k? Can I see the benefits outlined? There's probably like a handbook,

a manual. It's going to be dense. It's going to be kind of annoying to read. But if you read it and

you actually digest it, you will have so much more visibility into all of the things that your

company does for you. I know a girlfriend who didn't even realize her company offered fertility

benefits. She saved $30,000 because her company covered her egg freezing and an IVF journey for

her and her husband. And can you imagine if your boss said, hey, I'm going to give you a $30,000

rate. So you want that? Of course you'd say yes. That's $30,000. That's $30,000 that you just left

on the table. What should people understand before they even touch their 401k? That when you put cash

in, it doesn't mean you're invested. This is the biggest mistake I see. People will open up these

investment accounts, their 401k, their IRA, their Roth IRA. They put a bunch of money in. They're like,

I'm good, baby. No, you're not. You're not even close to good, okay? That money is sitting in cash.

All you have done is taking cash and put it in an envelope. You now have to take the cash in

that envelope and go buy stuff. So that's that target date retirement funds, index funds,

sector funds, whatever you want. But you have to actually deploy that capital. And if you don't,

it'll sit in cash. And it's the exact same as leaving it in a checking account. Which is just

a disaster. Eat in a way by inflation. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. Yes. We came

directly from the audience. Let me see if I can find these. Yeah. I like this first one. Yeah.

When do you hire a financial planner? Oh, okay. So a financial planner, I would say, as soon as it

makes sense, and you can afford it. But I want to make a really clear distinction. A financial advisor

and a financial planner are two very different people. Please make that distinction for us.

So a financial planner is literally someone who more often than not is either available to you for

free or for a flat rate fee through your financial institution. They will walk through with you,

your current finances, things that need to change for you to hit your goals. I think everybody

should talk to a financial planner. Right. In particular, everyone, especially if you do want for

yes, absolutely. Yeah. But a financial advisor, they're a money manager. They charge you a percentage

of the assets under their management. So that's anywhere between a percent to 1.25%. Over the course

of your lifetime, that could be six to seven figures. Are you cool giving someone else six to seven

figures over the course of your lifetime? The only people that I think really need financial advisors

are people whose financial situations are very complex. So there's two different scenarios.

If you are a high-powered attorney, you make $650,000 a year. You actually have a really simple

financial picture because you get paid one way. It's a W2 job and you just make a lot of money.

You can probably manage your own money. But say you are a touring musician. You sell merch,

you sell albums, you get money from streaming, you tour. So you have to actually make money from ticket

sales. You're getting money every which way. You're probably making that money in a bunch of different

cities and maybe even different countries. That is a very complicated financial situation.

Absolutely. And listen, I feel like so many people have that type of setup now. We think about

all of the creators, influencers, they're getting endorsement money. I mean, exactly. It's like nobody

is getting their money in the most straightforward ways. And you probably need somebody to come and

help you with that. You can be really astute and you can be really smart. But you're not going to

understand the implications from like a million different territories. It's like you need somebody

else to come and have that culture from you. This question I absolutely love. How to start building

wealth in your 40s when everyone's talking about starting early. We've spoken a lot about starting

early today. But of course, there's no time is too late. Please tell us that. No time is too late.

It's going to be harder though. So I want us to play catch up both literally but also mentally.

You're going to need to put a bigger percentage of your paycheck away into your retirement savings.

So you're saying that we should get rid of that at 50 30 20 roll. You got to do more.

I'd switch it out a bit more. I'm asking you to cut down on the wants because I don't want to ask

people to cut down on needs. You need those, right? But cut down on those wants will maybe reevaluate

the needs reevaluate because by 40 you might have switched some things into needs that aren't really

late. Yeah. Getting Botox, not a need even though I think it is. It's just a one actually. But

things like that like make sure that you are doing more than what you would have had to do in your

20s. But also the tax code allows you to literally catch up. People who are over 50 and between

their retirement age and 50 actually can put more dollars into their retirement accounts than

everybody else. So you can literally catch up with your dollars. How can you work hard for

juice more and not give it all the way to taxes? Yeah. Okay. So you know, there's there's the

really simple stuff of contributing to your retirement that is always going to help give you a

tax advantage of some sort. It's also by playing by the government's rules. So maybe it's, you know,

you move into a city in a state that has no state income tax. Think about that. There are

different things that you can do, especially if you are a business owner that makes it really easy

to write off parts of your expenses. Absolutely. I think that is a real win for people who are

1099 who are their own business owners versus W2 employees talking to a really good accountant

and making sure that they are being creative. Yes. I want you to have a creative account. Yeah.

And that is how you're going to be able to get this down. There's a question here saying when

how much does what I think they might be English? How much to pay oneself as an entrepreneur? Yeah.

I think there's like a bunch of different schools of thought of this, but here's mine. You need

to pay yourself a healthy salary, one where you can comfortably live your personal life. Because

if I see a CEO who pays themselves so little that they are driving a car that can barely get them

from point A to point B that they are eating the peanut butter jelly and not taking care of their

body, it makes me worried about the health of their company as well. I couldn't agree more. You have

to take care of you first before you can, you know, your own oxygen mask first and then the business

is oxygen mask. Yeah. But I encourage people to pay themselves as much as possible without

hurting the business, but also as little as possible to get them the life that they want.

All right. One more of these because I think they're so helpful. How do you plan and run your own

business and your own income when your income is inconsistent? Financial forecasting when you

are feast or famine is 10 times even more important than if you're a traditional W2 employee.

When you are a W2 employee, you can typically budget month to month. But when you are a freelancer and

you have these high and low periods of income, I need you to budget quarter by quarter or year by

year. And that means when you have those really, really big feast moments, you need to be setting

more aside to act as buffer when you have those famine and trough moments. Once you actually start

to have your business run for a number of years, you will start to notice patterns. As a small

business owner myself, I've noticed that the spend in Q4 is unlike anything else. Anything else.

But Q1, where did all the money go? Help me. Like, that is very literally what it looks like,

but it happens every year and every single year after Q4, I'm like, I rich. And after Q1, I'm like,

wait, are we doing okay? But now I know that. So I save more of those Q4 dollars,

and I make sure that I have enough to make payroll, I have enough to continue to run my business,

I make sure that I can pay all my vendors, all of my team. And so it's all about planning,

but for a longer time horizon. Yeah. I mean, listen, you are an incredibly successful entrepreneur

yourself. What is it that you wish you knew that you'd love to pass on to other women or to other

founders that is just the one piece of information you wish you'd have had way more early on?

I would say to probably just take risks sooner and move faster. I pride myself now on being fast.

I think I'm faster than most people. I don't think I'm smarter. And frankly, I work really hard,

but I don't know if I work harder than everybody, but I'm fast. So when I don't know what to do,

and I have a slew of decisions one through five, by the time someone else has now gone through the

analysis and belabor the decision, I've already gone through the first three and realized they don't

work. So now I'm on to four, and if four doesn't work, five is going to be it. I think that we could

all learn to be a little faster, be a little bit more decisive, move with speed and precision,

but then don't be afraid to cut bait if it's not working. If you move fast, you can just do more

things and you'll find out if something doesn't work sooner versus having this whole plan,

this launch plan, and then it doesn't work, then it's a real failure because you wasted all that time.

If you don't waste too much time, you can always pivot to something else.

How do you think about risk at this point in your career? Because I guess there's so much,

you know, you're out here, you're giving people financial advice, you're building your own

business, you're recently married and going on that journey. How are you thinking about risk at

this point in your life? I think right now I am very risk loving. So there's people who are

risk averse and risk loving. I'm very risk loving because I don't have any kids. I own a home,

but you know, I can comfortably make those payments. I think I will become more and more risk averse

as my life becomes more rooted. When I have the kids and the pet and maybe more people, frankly,

on my payroll, if I have to have a nanny to help with the kids, if I have to have a personal

assistant right now, I hire for my business, but I handle all of my own miscellaneous life activities

by myself. Yes. As there are more people who depend on you, you have to move a little bit more

carefully. But right now, I'll take every risk. I'll try, if something's crazy, I'll try anything

once and twice if I like it. And so I just think right now is a really freeing time because I don't have

too many responsibilities. And I'm lucky I have a partner who also makes a great living, makes a great

income. So we take care of ourselves for each other. We don't have to take care of the other person.

I think that's fantastic advice. As you start to step into, you know, potentially looking at

children and building a family, how are you equating that with the Vivian that has been, you know,

leaning into risk and moving really fast? How is that changing or shaping your thinking now?

If I'm honest, I really do look up to you. I look up to a lot of women that are doing, you know,

something tangential to what I'm doing. But it all seems like an impossible balancing act.

The last time we sat down together was when I was actually interviewing you. Yes. And you said

something that was crazy to me that you were like, I never get to be in two places at once.

And it's not fair to somebody at all times. Like either I am, you know, being selfish and thinking

about my business or being selfish and thinking about my kids. And there's no right answer,

but you do have to pick and choose your battles. And it's always a sacrifice. And so I think

I will have to unfortunately make harder decisions. Something I'm working on is saying no to stuff.

Yeah. Leaving the corporate world and becoming my own boss, I was very afraid to ever say no.

Because it felt like I had this lightning in a bottle moment, my 15 minutes of fame.

And if I ever said no to any press opportunity or interview or brand partnership,

it would never come back. And I would say, well, I guess I just lost out on that opportunity.

But what I've come to find is that there's power in saying no. And when I say no to the little thing

that I didn't really want to do, it actually frees at that time for me to do something bigger and

better. And frankly, sometimes that bigger and better thing is just sit on my couch.

But it really is looking up to other people, seeing how you manage both your life and your work.

Because I do love both things. And I don't want to have to give up anything. But I will.

I'm interested to think like because you're so long-term and you've been thinking and in this world

for a long time, in the financial world for a long time, do you sit here and go like I am planned

through my 60s and my 70s and my 80s? I know we've spoken a little bit about retirement today.

But how far do you go with that? You know, I think I tried to go really far out,

but it is ever changing. You know, five years ago, your HPF didn't exist. Isn't that crazy?

We're just crazy. We actually met with a financial planner. I want to say like eight years ago,

my now husband and I, we sat down and we were like, okay, this is great. Like if Vivian can continue

to make, you know, a salary like this. And I can continue in my career. Like this is what it'll

look like. What a joke. Like, can I look back on those documents and be like, wow, none of this

actually makes any sense. Two years after that, I started your HPF. I started making really great

money. That was supplemental to my Buzzfeed career, which also really took off at that time. So I

was like, oh, my gosh, like, haha, look at that financial plan. How crazy. Three years later,

I'm in the midst of your HPF. Everything is growing. It's my full-time job. I look back at that

financial plan. I'm like, oh, what a joke. Last year, I spoke with the New York Times. I made

$7 million in my business as an individual person. Thank you for telling me the number. Yeah.

Of course, I have to. No, you don't actually don't have to. Most people don't, but I love,

but I love that you do because if you didn't, it'd be really freaking. But like, that's crazy.

And for me to say, my business made $7 million last year. And two years before that,

I didn't have any idea that it was going to ever be able to do that. Like,

I think it is not a wasted exercise, but it is one that doesn't necessarily take into account the

fact that I'm currently on a rocket ship. So I tried to do a financial planning meeting every

single year. I try to extrapolate for the next 40 years of my life. But right now, everything is

up in the air. And that's why I get to do all of these cool things. But maybe at some point,

my life will stabilize. And then I'll have a better picture of what my 60s and 70s and 80s

looks like. But for now, I'm right in the wave. What would you say to any woman that is listening

right now that is in a comfortable situation like you were at Buzzfeed, but is thinking that there's

more somehow that has that, you know, itch and that thought and that dream and their aspiring.

What do you want to say to those people that are looking at you and thinking, I'd love to have

a year in my future, where I make $7 million. Yeah, I think mediocrity is a drug that really

clouds your judgment. I spoke with a NYU professor. She's a slotted author, Suzy Welch. And

Oh, I love Suzy Welch. She's like the best. So Suzy says that a B plus life is the most

dangerous thing. Because if you have a C minus life and your life sucks, like you're really

incentivized to change it. If you have an A plus life, your life is amazing. And you're really

incentivized to keep it. But B plus, you can tread forever. And you can have a mediocre life

for a really long time. And then you'll look back and be like, this isn't what we promised ourselves.

And so for someone who has a decent life, a really stable setup, I just say don't be afraid to take

the risk. When I was thinking about taking your HBFF full time, I asked myself a question. And it was

when I'm 50 years old, you know, at the time I was 25-ish, I was like 25 years from now.

I've lived another entire lifetime. Am I going to regret not giving this a try? And I had something.

And I was like, yeah, I will regret it. I don't want to ask myself, what if do not give up on the

best opportunities of your life because of fear? Don't be afraid to take the risk.

That is really, really great advice. What's next for your rich beer?

Yeah, thank you so much. Whatever you're happy to share. I'd love to share with all of the folks

who are watching your new book. New book. Well in doubt, cheeky title. Always have to.

I mean, you have to have a shit. You're called the rich beer theft. I mean, I feel like you have to

and oh, it looks like you've got some really amazing stuff. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Oh, you know, talking about your book. Yeah. It's so funny because Emma actually

blurred my book so she's on the back cover. And you know, literally building your own endowment.

If we take away the craft joke, what being well endowed is talking about an endowment.

An endowment is a pile of money that helps you invest and grow and so that your mission can be

continued into the future. And that is what I want for every single person. I want you to be able to

talk to money with the people in your life, make those big decisions like homes and cars.

I want you to have the retirement you deserve and still be able to leave something behind

through a state planning and smart trust and will set up so that the people you care about most

are taking care of. I mean, end of. Isn't that what we all want? Yeah. You have, I mean,

this book is fantastic. I blurred it because I read it and I loved it and I've read it massively,

massively valuable. Thank you. I'm really proud of you. You don't have another, another best

standing book just, you know, just they're all coming out of everywhere. Thank you.

Thank you. My last question for you went up. What are you currently aspiring to?

I am trying to take a page out of your book and go from just being a creator to being a founder.

I recently built a app. It's called Ask Dolly. You can check it out at Ask Dolly.com. And

essentially what it does is it is going to be your financial companion in your pocket.

People have sent me thousands of DMs and my greatest sadness is that I can't answer every single one.

I literally wouldn't be able to get my job done. But with this, you can ask Dolly any question

you want and get that financial knowledge on demand. So we can answer all those questions.

You can learn that jar again. This is not chat GPT. We are a registered investment advisor

with the SEC. So this is good. And then if you ask a really personalized question,

we actually do connect you with a certified financial planner. So you can get legitimate financial

advice that is tailored to you. We also break down headlines. There's, you know, proprietary content

that I'm only putting on Ask Dolly. And there is a wealth breakdown. So we do a health check.

The same way you go and get your physical. This app is going to go through all of your accounts

and say, hey, Emma, you're doing a really, really great job with that paydown. But we need to beef up

that emergency fund. And it'll give you advice on how to improve your finances until you are

holistically well. I love it. I mean, honestly, I'm so happy for you. Every time I speak to you,

I get something. And I feel like you're just one of those people that I constantly recommend.

I'm like, listen to this call because it's going to open certain parts of your brain and make

you think about things that you're perhaps not. And so much of this is about access. I talk all

the time. And I say, you know, it isn't small at the top. It's miniscule. And what I mean by that

is there's so much incredible information that goes around. And all we need is access to it. And I

think that with what you're doing every day, you are giving us access to information. You're making

us question the most important things. And I really give you like huge kudos, huge credit for

the app, for the book, for everything that you do. And I mean, you're a business. Thank you.

And thank you for your friendship. I feel like, you know, it's amazing to feel like throughout my

entire lifetime, the greatest things that have ever happened to me have been because my mentors

cared about me and people in my life were willing to take a swing and believe in me. And I'm

so grateful that you've been a part of that. Oh, I love me for that. What happened? So good to speak

to my darling. Thank you so much. Thank you. So before we wrap, but I want to leave you with this,

when you understand your money, you move with more confidence. You make clearer decisions and

you're able to choose opportunities from a place of intention instead of from a place of fear.

Building wealth is a skill and like negotiation or leadership, it compounds over time.

The earlier you start, the more optionality you create for yourself. In the next episode about

Career Girls Guide, we're going to continue to build on this foundation with another practical

conversation that's designed to help you move through your career with clarity and with confidence.

If you're loving this podcast, be sure to click follow on your favorite listening platform.

While you're there, give us a review and a five-star rating and share an episode you love

your friend will be so grateful. Aspire with Emigread is presented by Odyssey. I'm your host

Emigread. Executive producer Ashley McShen, Derek Brown and me are executive producers from Odyssey,

Leary Stennis, Asha Saluja, Lauren Lagrasso, producer KK Sublime. Steven Key is our senior producer,

sound design and engineering by Bill Schultz. Angela Paluso is our booker, original music by

Charles Black, video production by Evan Cox, Kurt Courtney, Andrew Steele and Carlos Delgado,

social media by Olivia Homan, Catherine Baal. Special thanks to Britney Smith, Sydney Ford,

my teams at the lead company and WME. Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Hillary Schuff,

Eric Donnelly, Kate Hutchinson Rose, Tim Meakall, Sean Cherry and Lauren Vieira. If you have

questions for me, you can DM me at Aspire with Emigread. Greed is spelled G-R-E-D-E. That's Aspire,

A-S-P-I-R-E with Emigread. Or you can submit a question to me on my website emigread.me.