Vivian Tu
- Vivian Tu is a former trader at JP Morgan who also worked in sales and marketing at Buzzfeed.
- She quit her cushy $656K job to start her own company and teach people about financial literacy.
- Tu says leaving Wall Street was one of the best decisions she's ever made.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vivian Tu, a content creator and author of the upcoming book "Rich AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life." Insider has verified her income with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I wanted to go on to Wall Street because that's what everybody else was doing.
I went to the University of Chicago, a school known for feeding students into Wall Street jobs. Most of the students coming out of that school had an expectation of going into a high-paying job, whether it meant pursuing law school to become a lawyer, going to medical school to become a doctor, or even becoming a software engineer at a tech company.
I chose Wall Street because a lot of my friends were interviewing for Wall Street jobs, and I didn't want to be left behind. So I interviewed with a few banks and landed my first job at JP Morgan.
Looking back, I never thought about growing my wealth until I hit the desk on Wall Street
I came from an immigrant Chinese household and grew up with parents who were very frugal and taught me the importance of budgeting.
I had never really thought about investing or growing my wealth until I hit the desk on Wall Street. It was at that job that my mentors and managers started asking questions like, "How much are you contributing to your 401(k)?" and I was left thinking, "My what?"
It was a bit awkward, to be honest. They were like, you have to have a 401(k), you have to be investing, you have to be doing all of these things. It didn't occur to me until then how little I knew about investing.
And my mentors were the ones who ended up teaching me everything. So I feel very lucky to have had people in my life that were able to give me that information.
How much money I made during my career
Chicago Twenty Something: Summer intern
Over $1,000 on commission
It was my first summer internship in 2013. I worked at a marketing company, which focused on nightlife events. I got paid on commission: the more people I was able to bring to certain events, the more I got paid.
It wasn't a ton of money — I made a little over $1,000 on commission that summer, but it was money I could spend during the school year, so I was happy with it.
Fifth Third Bank: Summer intern, commercial banking division
$18 an hour, a little over $6,000
I did my internship at Fifth Third Bank during the summer of 2014. It was a wonderful internship, but it made me realize again that I didn't want to work in banking. Spending the days staring at Excel sheets all day and moving logos around on PowerPoint presentations just wasn't for me.
JP Morgan:
- Sales and Trading summer analyst, $27,000 for 10 weeks of work
- Full-time industrials/energy trader, $85K base salary + $10K signing bonus
- Full-time special situations trader, $90K base salary + $10K first-year stub bonus
I was in the special situation trader job for half of the year in 2018 before I left JP Morgan to go to Buzzfeed. A stub bonus is what you get when you only work for half a year. It's $10,000 for everybody.
I wanted a change because I felt like the desk that I had joined had shifted meaningfully and I wasn't really enjoying my work anymore.
Moreover, I wasn't necessarily getting the type of opportunities that I had hoped for. So I thought it was best for me to leave.
So I got paid half of the year as if I were working on Wall Street, as well as my bonus from working in 2017, which got paid out at the beginning of 2018. And then I was just ramping up at BuzzFeed. So that year, I made $109,000.
Buzzfeed:
- Digital Media Strategy Salesperson, $80K base salary + commissions
- Account Executive, Client Partnerships, $100K base salary + $127K commissions
- Senior Account Executive, Client Partnerships (2020), $110K base salary + $252K commissions
- Senior Account Executive, Client Partnerships (2021), $120K base salary + $536K commissions
I worked on the digital marketing strategy sales team at BuzzFeed, focusing on establishing partnerships with brands. My work involved placing ads on the website, creating custom content launches, organizing real-life pop-ups, and building new joint business ventures.
For me, I love sales. My bonus was not dependent on external factors such as overall desk performance or market behavior — for the first time, my bonus was dependent on my abilities. I felt like sending one more email, having one more meeting, or closing one more deal was actually helping me get paid more.
In 2020, the first three months were normal sales months. And then, the next nine months were obviously impacted by the pandemic, and everything was crazy. I was doing a good job in my role and was continuing to close deals. That year as a senior account executive I made $362,000.
I was really happy at that job — I made a lot of friends, and we did things like make sourdough at home while on Zoom meetings, and it was a lot of fun.
2020 was also an election year, so I ended up selling quite a few large deals. Then in 2021, I ended up getting payouts for those big deals I closed (I covered the entertainment, travel, and political verticals in terms of sales accounts). And in 2021, I ended up making $656,000.
In 2021, I started my YouTube channel, Your Rich BFF, but only took on a couple of brand deals, truly not that much. And it's been really great since then. By the end of March 2022, I quit my full-time job to take Your Rich BFF full-time.
I look back on my time at BuzzFeed and have nothing but positive things to say. I loved my manager and my coworkers — people were so kind to me. If we're being honest, I was really sad to leave. The only reason I left was to do my own thing.
But leaving Wall Street was one of the best decisions I ever made
I consider myself lucky in my career because I have no regrets, which is rare. That said, I hope my story of job hopping can show people that company loyalty is no longer the norm, and frankly — it doesn't pay.
Leaving Wall Street was one of the best decisions I've ever made, it allowed me to figure out that I'm good at (and can get paid to do) so many other things. Leaving also gave me the experience and skills to start Your Rich BFF and become my own boss.
In terms of maximizing pay, I'm a big proponent of the 'up or out' rule. You will need to get a promotion and/or a meaningful raise every 2 years, otherwise, I suggest that you start job hunting externally.
Studies have shown that staying at one company for over two years could potentially lead to 50% less earnings over a lifetime. It's important to be paid for your work.
If you work in tech, finance, sales, or marketing and want to share your salary journey, email Aria Yang at ayang@insider.com.