Courtesy of Vivian Tu
- Wall Streeters work with money, but they’re not always perfect at managing their own.
- Ex-Wall Streeter Vivian Tu says they can make three common money mistakes, just like anyone else.
- Lifestyle creep is Wall Streeters’ biggest money mistake, as well as undervaluing their time.
- Read more stories from Personal Finance Insider.
Vivian Tu started her career in Wall Street, but quickly realized that what she calls the “male and pale” trading floor didn’t offer the same growth opportunities as it might have in the 80s and 90s. When she pivoted to a career in tech, her colleagues immediately flocked to her for personal finance advice.
Tu tells Insider, “All of my new colleagues were like, *gasp* ‘You came from Wall Street!? You’re going to help me balance my 401(k)! What health insurance plans did you pick? I’m just gonna copy everything that you’re selecting!'” She quickly realized that people were looking for basic personal finance education, which is how she got the idea to start creating easy-to-understand financial literacy content on TikTok as @yourrichbff.
Now serving 1 million TikTok followers, Tu says, “When I was on Wall Street, people didn’t have this kind of financial education, either.”
She recalls going on dates with fellow brokers, who tried to impress her by wearing designer clothes and shoes. She tells Insider, “I realized on these dates, ‘You and I make the same amount of money, and I share a studio with another girl. Like, there’s no wall between our beds! It’s a glorified NYU dorm room! How can you afford all this stuff?”
Here are a three bad money habits many Wall Streeters have, just like everybody else.
1. Lifestyle creep
Lifestyle creep is the pattern of spending more money as you make more money, and it’s the biggest money mistake that Tu sees on Wall Street. No matter how much you earn, anyone can be short on cash if they’re spending it all.
“I have seen people on Wall Street order $75 steaks for lunch every single day from a steakhouse,” Tu says. “Yes, you make a lot of money, but did you really need that?”
2. Staying at the same company forever
“I know traders who have been at one firm for over a decade, and it does not pay to be loyal,” says Tu. She explains that nowadays people are negotiating higher salaries and better benefits thanks to The Great Resignation.
The Great Resignation is a movement that has empowered workers to leave their jobs to ask for better pay, conditions, benefits, and treatment from a different employer. Staying at the same company for too long can hurt your chances of earning more because “they know you’re never going to leave,” she adds.
3. Not valuing their time
“People who work on Wall Street oftentimes don’t see the value of an hour,” Tu says. She explains that many Wall Streeters work 60 to 80-hour weeks, letting lifestyle creep subsidize fancy lunches and other frivolous expenses, without realizing how much they actually make per hour.
“Are people getting paid a lot of money? Yes,” she says. “But especially if you look at junior Wall Streeters, if you break down the number of hours they’re working every week, it actually comes down to minimum wage.”
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