Meet Your Rich BFF
If somebody had told me that I would be a content creator 5 years ago, I would have never believed them. I grew up in a modest family of immigrants who worked to earn every dollar they had. Following their example, I worked super hard through school and budgeted every dollar. I still do.
I graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Environmental Studies and Public Policy with an emphasis in Finance. I began my Wall Street career as a Trader with JP Morgan. At the time, the only other woman on the team was my boss, who is now my mentor. We came from similar backgrounds so she pushed me to get my finances in order. She taught me how to manage my 401k, how much to spend on rent, and other crucial lessons. I credit a huge portion of my knowledge and success to her.
This all came to a head when the pandemic hit, and I started seeing SUPER sketchy financial advice going around during a time when people were desperate to make ends meet. It really disgusted me that people were preying on those who were vulnerable and in duress, so I took it upon myself to start providing financial literacy for free in bite-sized pieces on TikTok.
Fast forward a few years later, Your Rich BFF has blossomed into an amazing community of over 6 million besties across the world and counting. I quit the comfort of my $600K annual salary job to pursue Your Rich BFF full-time. It’s one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made but it has also led me to places I never envisioned that I’d get to be.
Buckle up, besties, we’re making FINANCE into FUN-ANCE.
Eventually, my time on Wall Street came to a close. I joined BuzzFeed as a Strategy Sales Partner where I worked on media and client partnerships. I noticed a bunch of my new co-workers and friends would all turn to me to help them with basic finance things - stuff like 401(k)s, HSAs, and whether or not they should buy our company’s stock options. They’d always say things like “Wow - you’re so lucky you spent time on Wall Street and know how to do these things.” and I got a HUGE kick out of that comment. Why?
Because when I first moved to New York, I hit the dating scene and went on multiple dates with different “Brads and Chads”, many of whom were making WELL over $200k a year - and were buying Ferragamo loafers & Hermes ties like they were going out of style, but a lot of them had CREDIT CARD DEBT. Eventually - it hit me - if people IN finance don’t know this stuff, and people NOT IN finance don’t know this stuff… HOW COME NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT PERSONAL FINANCE? Why aren’t we teaching it in schools?