Traditional Money Advice Isn’t Made For Everyone—So SoFi Created A New Role To Fix It

Let’s be honest: most financial advice floating around the internet wasn’t made with “us” in mind. 

It’s usually some finance bro telling you one of three things: to skip your daily coffee, save your spare pennies or move back in with your parents, and somehow that’ll magically close the wealth gap. 

Vivian Tu gets it. 

The financial educator who goes by “YourRichBFF” on social media has made a name for herself by keeping it real about money in ways that actually apply and resonate with everyone (meaning people of all different races, backgrounds and identities). And when we caught up with her about her new role as SoFi’s first Chief of Financial Empowerment, she didn’t hold back about what’s really keeping Black women from building the kind of wealth we deserve.

“Some people are born on third base and some people are born in the parking lot,” she tells me. It’s not the kind of thing you typically hear from someone in finance, but that’s exactly why her platform has resonated with millions. And for me, personally, I love that she doesn’t pretend like we’re all playing the same game with the same rules.

Take the conversations happening in many friend group chats right now about money. Between inflation, layoffs, and the general chaos of trying to keep our heads above water, the last thing we need is someone telling us to penny-pinch our way to generational wealth. “There’s no amount of just saving that will help people of color specifically build generational wealth,” Tu says. And honestly? It’s refreshing to hear someone with a Wall Street background actually say it.

And it’s exactly the reason SoFi snagged her for this new role. She’s not using systemic inequality as a reason to throw our hands up. She quotes Emma Grede, one of her idols, who once asked: “What favors does feeling helpless do me? That doesn’t do me any favors.” Tu takes that same energy when thinking about financial empowerment. “It’s not to say the external factors are fair. It’s not to say that over time we should not be attempting to make legislative change to change those external factors, but it’s to say while we are trying to make greater changes over time, today, what can we individually do to improve ourselves?” Her framework is simple: “No matter where you start, you can end better than where you started.”

So what does that actually look like heading into the holidays? Tu knows this season will look and feel a lot different for people this year (between the limited funds for gifts, traveling to see family and dropping money on once-a-year expenses). Then January comes and you’re dealing with a financial hangover.

Her advice? Use tools that show a full picture of your spending and habits. “You can connect all of your accounts, you can see where all of your money is going. It’ll track what you’re spending, how you’re doing, where you want to be financially, what’s coming in, what’s going out,” she explains. Those insights help you figure out your next move. “Maybe it’s a no spend month. We only buy necessary things, no more discretionary purchases for 30 days. Maybe it’s, ‘Oh, start of the year, let’s pick up a side hustle. Doesn’t have to be forever thing, but maybe just for two months to get ourselves back on financial track.’”

And let’s talk about debt for a second, because the way we discuss it needs to change. Tu breaks down something that’s been bothering her: when we take on debt to feed our kids or keep the lights on, society wags a finger and calls us irresponsible. But when wealthy people leverage debt to build their empires? They’re visionaries. They end up on magazine covers. “Debt is not morally good or bad,” she says. “It’s a tool.”

That distinction matters, especially when it comes to student loans. If you’re drowning in them, ignoring them isn’t the move, no matter what you may have seen on TikTok. “This is going to damage your credit. This is going to make it really hard for you to be able to reach your goals in the future,” Tu warns. Instead, look into refinancing or consolidation strategies that actually help you pay things off faster while spending less on interest.

Beyond giving advice on individual money moves, Tu’s thinking bigger picture now. She’s the latest member of SoFi’s Generational Wealth Fund Initiative, a multi-million dollar effort to close wealth gaps in underrepresented communities. She can’t share all the details yet, but she promises it’s close to her heart. In the meantime, the day-to-day work is on us—looking at our money honestly, making strategic moves, and refusing to let an unfair system keep us from building something better for ourselves and the next generation.

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