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Vivian 2 is the host of the VOX media
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podcast Networth and chill she's also
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known as your Rich BFF on social media
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where she's become a financial Guru of
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sorts dispensing advice and tips to
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millions of followers viviant welcome
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thank you so much for having me so I
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love I love there's been iterations of
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what you're doing for many years and
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lots of newspapers I used to work for
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all kinds of stuff and I just love this
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kind of thing but what you're doing is
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really particularly um you know
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important for young people so if for
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people not familiar with your Rich BFF
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can you explain what it's about um and
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you have find a way as many writers in
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this are do to make it understandable
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and accessible especially to young
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people I'd love to know what you think
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traditional media gets wrong when it
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comes to financial literacy so explain
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what Rich BFF is and then how how is it
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different from previous iterations of
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this yeah I think for a really long time
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a lot of us have just wanted to be heard
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or even seen um and traditional
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Financial media has very much catered to
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folks who look like Scott and probably
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have as much money as he does um I joke
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but transparently like it really hasn't
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offered much to women to people of color
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to young people people who grew up low
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income immigrants anything of that
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nature and it's really hard to find good
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reputable information in this space
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because when you Google the words Roth
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IRA you get 3 million hits
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and if you don't know what you don't
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know you really don't know which of
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these links to even click so it's really
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hard to begin that Journey because
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jargon is so um rampant in the financial
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news media that we're seeing in writing
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on TV everywhere um but what y Rich BFF
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does essentially is it is a financial
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Equity platform that's breaking down
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this information for the Next Generation
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so that everybody can have access to it
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and then implement it into their daily
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lives it's actual usable actionable tips
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versus oh in theory this could happen
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it's you know this is how you actually
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make your life
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better okay and and talk about what who
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are you aiming at what does Rich BFF
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mean is it just you know because it's
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fun on social media or what's the what's
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the concept behind it yeah the big
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concept behind it is you know my friends
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had come to me for this kind of
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information for these tips for this
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advice and the whole premise everybody
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focuses so much on rich but the real
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word that we should be FOC focusing on
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is BFF I'm not lecturing you like a
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college professor I am not talking to
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you like I'm a parent I'm not talking to
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you like I'm better than you smarter
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than you richer than you I'm talking to
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you as a friend what advice would a rich
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friend give you in this Arena if they
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wanted to see you succeed if they wanted
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to see you do
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well excellent Scott so I I'm just full
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disclosure I love viven too I I I I
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don't know if you've noticed this I'm
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not quite stalker level yet but I'm
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constantly retweeting your stuff I think
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you are a gift stalker I you are a gift
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to young people I love your content I
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love the optimistic tone you bring
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you're like the first person under the
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age of I don't know how old you are 30
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that talks about
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1202 and there's this myth that you're
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not supposed to talk about money which I
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think is nothing but an attempt by the
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rich to keep poured down to create a
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sort of taboo and I love how you're
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breaking that taboo what I want do is
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repurpose a question we just had because
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I got insecure that I didn't answer it
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correctly so I want to I want to give
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you a shot at it but a gentleman in his
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50s said him and his partner have saved
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some money not a lot but they're really
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risk averse so they have it all probably
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in money market and they've missed out
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on a lot of returns so what would you
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suggest someone in their F or someone
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with a little bit of money that wants to
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start
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investing what would be your asset
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allocation recommendation kind of
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loosely
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yeah I think with terms of like asset
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allocations um what I typically
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recommend is you take your age and you
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round to the nearest tens so tens 20s
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30s 40s 50s um and then you actually
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subtract by 10 again so this person is
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in their 50s we are minusing that number
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by 10 again so 40 and that is what
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percentage of your portfolio roughly
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should be in fixed income assets whereas
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the rest of it should actually still be
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in um the public Equity market so stocks
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uh in particular I recommend Brader
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index funds through ETFs with the lowest
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possible expense ratios um the reason I
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say this is just because now that
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they're in their 50s even if they are
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feeling a little behind they don't have
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to feel like the world is ending yes
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they want to do some sort of
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preservation of their existing wealth so
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that they're going to have money to draw
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from in their later years but also still
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having more than 50% of your portfolio
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in the P public Equity markets allows
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you to participate in that continued
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growth odds are good the second they
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turn 59 a half they're not going to need
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every single Dollar in that account um
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so this just gives them a chance to have
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a portion of their money continuing to
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work pretty hard while another portion
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of it is still set aside because they
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are getting closer to retirement and the
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other big hot tip that I would encourage
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them to think about is catchup
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contributions um for everybody who is
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above 50 and starting to get a little
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closer to retirement you can actually
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contribute more to your um individual
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retirement accounts whether they be of
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the traditional or Roth variety or your
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employer sponsored accounts than the
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average person could that's younger than
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that um and it just gives them a chance
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to literally catch up yeah maximize
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things like that on that um especially
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matching stuff do yeah yeah so what when
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there's going to be big obviously the
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stock market's been on a tear people are
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worried about it being on a tear right
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now and most people in the stock market
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are people that look like Scott right
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it's not everyone's not in the talk
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Market it's a small group of people but
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it tends to affect us mentally tall and
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handsome what do you mean looks like
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me what do you mean looks like me yes
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more diverse than you think it's about
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rich people it's not about a specific
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gender race I understand but oddly
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enough they tend to look the same um so
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what do you think the biggest I'm just
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te I tease I tease what do you think the
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biggest change for the economy and
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markets when Trump takes office I mean
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just going off of what he has openly
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said um really istically we're going to
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see corporate tax cuts we're going to
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see roll backs on regulation we are
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already seeing one of the richest most
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money cabinets ever period um and what
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is problematic to me about this is this
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is very much going to see a further
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k-shaped diversion between The Have and
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Have notss um folks that are already
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investing are going to be able to
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participate in these profits right
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because when corporations are given tax
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breaks and are rolled back on regulation
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they're going to prioritize one thing
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and one thing only they're going to make
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money they are going to do right by
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their shareholders which is excellent if
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you are a shareholder but when we
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actually look at the distribution of
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wealth of who is actually investing
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versus who isn't it's much easier when
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you have discretionary funds to invest
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if you are more worried about buying
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apples than Apple like you're not going
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to be participating in that upward
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growth so we're going to see and tariffs
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on TP forgot to mention
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right which he said on this interview
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yesterday he's like yeah it could cost
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more oh well yeah but that kind it could
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cost more oh well like that's really
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unfortunate because when you actually
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think about how rich people and broke
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people spend and I say that like very
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glib tongue and cheek but like we still
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all have to buy some of the same things
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right like regardless of if you're super
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moneyed or not you're buying toilet
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paper but the ultra luxurious organic
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triple ply toilet paper is probably only
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a couple dollars more than the crappy
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generic brand that's one ply we all
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still have to buy it and unfortunately
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these tariffs are going to make toilet
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paper a much larger portion of someone
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who is a lower income individual a
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larger portion of their paycheck than it
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is versus someone who is in the higher
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net worth area so we're going to see
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people you know in the bottom 50% really
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struggle with their cost of living
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they're realistically not always going
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to be able to invest because they don't
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have those discretionary funds
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shit's going to get tough for lack of a
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better phrase but for the top 50% like
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especially people who are high net worth
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this is going to be a golden era of
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moneymaking this election generally
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speaking was both the people who are
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voting for both parties we voted against
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our own best interests only one specific
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set though knew that we were doing that
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right like so you're talking about these
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Coastal Elites voting blue realistically
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having more money the top 10 top 1% of
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folks a lot of them voted for KLA Harris
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well against their own best interest
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knowing that we would be taxed more I
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you know transparently voted that way
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but I have family and relatives who
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voted the opposite side and they're
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trying to tell me that they are going to
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benefit and I said no people like me
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people who a huge portion of my annual
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like monies comes from Investments not
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just my labor I am going to benefit not
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you and I think it's a it's a hard
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conversation to have especially around
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the Thanksgiving dinner table with
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family with friends but like I think we
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all voted against our best interests
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financially speaking uh so One Financial
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tip or habit you'd recommend for people
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going into the you I have two sons just
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understanding money now I spent a lot of
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time them learning about things like
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paying the rent and cost and my one
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son's leaving college and I'm like so
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what are you going to do to make money I
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was like and you know the mom train is
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ending soon um or relatively soon so
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what Financial tip or habit would you
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recommend besides getting a job
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obviously going into the new year oh man
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this is a good one I would say find your
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eeky guy but in part I really encourage
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people to prioritize the can I make
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money of this so ekiga is a Japanese
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term essentially saying that you are
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able to find your purpose once your
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thing uh fits four categories one of
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which is do I like doing this am I good
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at it does the world need it and can I
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make money so once you found something
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that F fits into all four of these
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circles it's like the center of the V
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diagram and we give this advice
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especially to students going into higher
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education of Follow Your Passion you
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know whatever you want to do like
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whatever your hobbies are no I'm so
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sorry the world doesn't need another DJ
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and no one's going to pay you for it
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exactly like we need plumbers we need
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electricians we need people who have
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real skills and I laugh
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because I come from a Chinese immigrant
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family so that was never on the table
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for me like I was never going to be
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allowed to major in certain majors
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because there was no opportunity to make
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money and my parents weren't going to be
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able to help me after school or anything
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like that um if you come from
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generational wealth you have the luxury
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of following your passion but if you are
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a regular shular person with a regular
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shmegular family and not to mention
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lower income pick a job that is going to
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create the lifestyle that you want
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prioritize your lifestyle because you
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are not defined by your job but if you
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do not have the life that you want
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you're going to be sorely unhappy I find
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when you make a ton of money at
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something you start really liking it you
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start really loving it you know I deal
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with this really difficult woman I I
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deal with this really difficult woman on
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this podcast and I don't love it but
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we're making bank I like
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podcasting so Vivian
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um I love what the answer you gave is
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largely the same answer I gave to this
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gentleman in his 50s except your domain
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expertise is deeper in mind I love this
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idea of of catch up this regulation
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letting you catch up faster in your 50s
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that's fantastic information anyway the
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thing about lowcost index funds is
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you're still stock picking you're just
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stock picking at a macro level cuz
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there's different index funds there's QQ
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there's NASDAQ which is more aggressive
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there's still some quote unquote
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selection around which indices you
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invest in do you believe and this is a
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loaded question because obviously I'm
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putting forward a bias here that the
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American Market has gotten so expensive
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relatively speaking to emerging or
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non-american markets based on
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traditional pees that people should be
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thinking about index funds outside of
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the US and maybe maybe rebalancing their
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portfolio and putting more money I mean
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you're
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basically your whole rap and it's the
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most powerful rap is around
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diversification that you don't need def
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find the needle by the whole Hy stack
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but do you think given how expensive the
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American Market is and quite frankly how
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cheap some of the emerging or
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non-american markets that people should
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be thinking about allocating a greater
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percentage of their portfolio to index
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funds outside of the
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US yes absolutely um it's so funny I
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feel like you uh teed me up for this one
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but you don't want to again be
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Overexposed in any one specific Arena
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and I think to your point like even with
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General us index funds like what is it
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like 85% of the returns came from six
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companies like you are to to a degree
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like very very exposed um I
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love looking at I I believe the ticker
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is vxus so that's like a Vanguard fund
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um every single different us
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so if as long as you are it makes sense
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right like vxus um every single
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brokerage has their own version of this
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so make sure you're getting the one
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that's at The Brokerage you are
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investing with so you aren't paying
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additional fees but you cannot only just
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invest in index funds domestically
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speaking but having something like that
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who is that is going to give you broader
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band exposure across the globe is very
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very smart I think the tricky piece is
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what because people don't want to sit
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there and be like okay well which of
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these countries has like a strong
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economic you know situation right now
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South Korea right yeah exactly like they
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don't want to sit there and be like okay
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like should I invest in like a bricks
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country like they want to just have it
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done for them and if you want that I
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think there are again index funds out
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there that are going to be able to help
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you do that in a very easy way where you
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can buy one thing and get exposure to
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the rest of the globe great okay perfect
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then we'll have you back and talk to us
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about Bitcoin we're not going to go into
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it time but we'll talk about that next
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all right cuz a lot of young people are
00:15:02
trading in it people can find you on
00:15:04
social media at your Rich BFF and your
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podcast is net worth and chill what a
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good name thank you so much Vivian
