← Networth and Chill with Your Rich BFF
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When I graduated college, I was about to start a job on Wall street and I couldn't have been more excited. But despite working in finance, I knew next to nothing about how to manage my own money. There wasn't a class on credit scores. Nobody walked you through what a 401k was, or how compound interest works, or why the salary you accept at your first job literally follows you for the next decade. We kind of just got handed a diploma and sent off into the world, but I'm ending that today. Support for the show comes from Walmart. If you're ready for summer vibes but don't want to spend a lot, Walmart's got your back. Right now, Walmart's dropping prices with thousands of rollbacks and more on summer party essentials, from grills to coolers and even slushy machines. So whether you're firing up, cooling down, or just getting ready for a weekend in the sun, now's your time to save, shop and save in the Walmart app, online and in stores today. Foreign. What's up everyone? I'm your host Vivian Tu, AKA Urich, bff and your favorite Wall street girly. We're gonna go over the financial basics you need to know whether you know your post graduation plans yet or not. For anyone looking to level up their financial foundation, whether you're a student or not, start here. So here's the financial roadmap I wish I had had when I graduated college. All right, so first step, congrats, you graduated. Now what? Everyone has to start their financial journey somewhere. So let's figure out how you're actually doing financially first. It's like going to the doctor before they treat you. They need to know your vitals. Your financial vitals are a few things. Your credit score, your debts, and your income. For all of my recent grads, this very literally translates to knowing your credit score and having a copy of your credit report. Your student loan situation, any other non student debt, and then your employment status. Let's go through each one. So knowing your credit score, a score above 700 is solid. Under 650 and you're already paying a bad credit tax in the form of higher interest rates on pretty much anything that you are taking a loan out for. Your credit score is going to follow you everywhere. Apartment applications, car loans, eventually maybe even a mortgage if you've never checked it. Do so today. You can do a quick check for free through your bank, credit card company or or for a more thorough and legit option. You can see all of your Credit Reports for free via annualcreditreport.com One thing to call out is that we call it a credit score, but we should really say credit scores. There are three different credit bureaus that largely make up all of the credit checks that you will have done, and so you want to make sure that your score with TransUnion, Equifax and Experian are are all in solid shape. The two biggest factors that impact your credit score are paying on time and keeping your credit utilization low, specifically under 30%, but ideally 10% or less credit utilization. If you want a gold star, here's what that actually means in English. If your credit limit is $1,000, try not to have the balance get over $300 on it at any given time to keep it below a 30% utilization. Want that gold star we mentioned? This translates to keeping a $100 balance or less to keep your utilization under 10%. And as for paying on time, well, that is, simply put, paying on time. These two habits alone can increase or decrease your score significantly over time. And if you don't have a credit score at all, maybe you've never had a credit card. That's something you need to fix immediately. You need a credit history to rent an apartment, finance a car. Heck, some jobs even check your credit union. You want a good credit score to basically do anything as an adult. So if you have no credit score whatsoever, get a secured credit card. You put a deposit down that serves as your credit limit. You'll use it responsibly for small purchases. Pay it off every month and you'll start to build your credit history. In roughly six months or so, you should be able to graduate to something a bit more advanced, AKA a credit card with better perks. Now, as for knowing your student loan situation, make sure you have a good understanding of what kind of student loans you have, public or private. What's the interest rate? When does the interest start accruing? Have a good handle on this to make sure you know when you really need to start paying back these loans and what your balance is. Federal student loans first dispersed on or after July 1, 2025 and before July 1, 2026 ranged in interest rate from 6.39% to 8.94% for undergrads, and private loans can be much higher. It's also important to know that as of March 10, 2026, the Save Plan has ended. If you were on the Save Plan, the Department of Education should be contacting impacted borrowers to let you know this program is being replaced by the repayment assistance plan RAP and here are some key features and differences versus the save plan there's now a $10 minimum payment versus the potential $0 minimum payment for save in terms of payments or 1 to 10% of your adjusted gross income. Your AGI, depending on your income bracket versus save, which was just a percentage of your income above the poverty line. In regards to payments, you now have to pay 1 to 10% of your adjusted gross income. Your AGI depending on your income bracket versus the SAVE plan, which is just a percentage of your income above the poverty line. With the WRAP plan, There is a $50 per month discount per dependent child whereas SAVE counted all family members. For the RAP plan, unpaid interest is waived plus up to a $50 per month principal reduction. With the RAT plan, forgiveness is offered after 30 years. 10 with public student loan forgiveness versus the 10 to 25 years for save net net the new wrap plan has reduced benefits compared to save, lower income protection, higher payment percentages and longer timelines to forgiveness. For many borrowers, that means higher monthly payments and more paid over the life of the loan and even if they qualify for forgiveness in the end. To learn more about your loan specifics, go into your loan services portal and log in to studentaid.gov for federal loans and get familiar with your numbers. You want to know your total balance, your monthly minimum payment and your payoff timeline. You can't make smart decisions about your loans if you don't know what you actually owe. Now let's know your debt. Maybe you have some other types of debt. Maybe some credit card debt. Make sure you know how much and the interest rate on any additional high interest rate debt. A card 22% APR is not just expensive, it's mathematically almost impossible or at the very least will take you a very long time to dig out of if you're only making minimum payments. We'll talk exactly about how to tackle this later, but for now just make a list of anything you owe and the interest rate. Also, you're going to want to know your employment status. If you have a job. Congratulations. Especially in this market, landing anything is genuinely hard right now and you should be proud of yourself. Now that you have a job, it's time to talk about money. You have to negotiate your salary. Yes, even for your first job. Yes, even if you feel grateful just to have gotten an offer. A $5,000 salary negotiation at 22 compounds into tens of thousands of dollars over the course of your career. Your future raises will be calculated as a percentage of of your base pay. Think about that. Your future raises will be based on that initial paycheck. Your 401k match is likely calculated from your salary and future employers will anchor their offers to what you are currently making. Your starting number is the foundation everything else is built on. Do not accept the first offer without at least a conversation. Research from CNBC found that between 55 to 71% of job seekers and never negotiate their salary. That's waving the white flag before even trying. Of those who did negotiate their salary, that same study found that 85% of people were successful. Imagine knowing something had an 85% success rate and you didn't do it. Yeah, I'd be pissed too. So don't leave money on the table. Ask for what you believe is slightly above what you actually want. And then when you land in the middle, feel happy. If you now on the flip side, if you don't have a job yet and you're still job hunting, first of all, just know you're not alone. In fact, you're probably in the much greater majority, especially in 2026. This is the reality for many new graduates right now and it doesn't reflect your worth or your potential. ZipRecruiter found that it takes the average new college grad three to six months of searching to find a full time gig. But honestly, I've seen students online talk about how it took them well over a year to find a full time position. This isn't to freak you out, it's just to understand the reality of the 2026 economy. So if you are in the majority and are still looking for that next step, it does mean you need to be extra intentional about your spending. And you should be looking at contracting or part time work to get started. Which I know is not ideal, but it can help you get your foot in the door and get some cash flow coming in. Freelance gigs, part time retail tutoring, Anything. Income is income. I know this is easier said than done. Additionally, take a free or low cost certification course. Google, Coursera, LinkedIn, Learning, HubSpot or Code Academy all have free options. Not only does it fill the resume gap, it signals to employers that you were proactive during a tough market. If you're trying to strategize on how to get a job in 2026. Whether you're a new grad or have 10 years of experience, I did an entire episode dedicated to every step of the job hunting process with my friend and career wizard Jerry Lee. I going to link it in the description for you so now that you know where you're at, let's get into learning some of those financial building blocks. If you've been following me for long enough, none of this should surprise you. These basics are the building blocks to a healthy financial future. First and foremost, build up your emergency fund. Your single most important financial priority before anything else is building that rainy day fund. Before you start investing, before you pay off your student loans, you need to build up this fund and it should be three to six months of living expenses stored in a High Yield Savings account. That can seem like a lot, especially if you're just starting work or maybe don't have a job yet. But this is a goal, not a prescription. Just contribute what you can. Time is on your side. If you can only contribute $10, just start there. Storing this money in a High Yield Savings Account will give you more interest on that money for no extra work. So that part, that's a no brainer. 2. Pay off any high Interest Rate debt the rule of thumb is anything 7% interest or higher is considered high interest rate debt. Now you might have private student loans that are above that number and you might also have credit card debt. But tackling your debt in order of highest to lowest interest rate will help save you money on interest fees and get your debt paid down in the shortest timeline. So in that example, I'd focus on paying off your credit card debt before anything else because that probably has a 20 to 30% APR. Your private student loans might have somewhere between a 12 to 18% interest rate every year and then we can continue to work our way down the ladder. That said, do make sure that you are making the minimum payment across everything to keep your credit score. Yes, she's rearing her old ugly head again in a healthy place. I mentioned this earlier, but a credit card at 22% APR is mathematically almost impossible to pay down with minimum payments and it's nearly impossible to outpace it with investing. You are probably not going to get over a 22% return in the stock market consistently, especially since the average market return on The S&P 500 has been 8 to 10% since its inception. So before you do anything else with extra money after building your emergency fund, we are eliminating that high interest rate debt first. A method that I really like is called the Avalanche method. You make the minimum payment across every single debt you have. This is non negotiable because missing payments destroys your credit and then every extra dollar you can find goes directly to the debt with the highest interest rate. Not the highest amount of debt but the highest interest rate. This approach will save you the most amount of money spent on interest over time and get your debt paid down the fastest. On the topic of student loans, look into income Driven Repayment plans if you have federal loans, things like the WRAP program I mentioned earlier. These can lower your monthly payments based on your income and family size, which might free up cash to attack higher interest debt or other necessary financial stepping stones. You can also look into refinancing your loans. If you've been out of school for a minute, you might be able to get a lower interest rate on your loans than what you currently have now. Number three Create a Budget Creating a super detailed and great budget can feel really overwhelming. So we are going to use the 503020 method to finger to the wind a super simple budget. 50% goes towards necessities, food, rent, et cetera 30% goes towards wants. So going out shopping, getting your nails done and 20% towards future you aka investing, debt, pay down and saving. You can adjust these categories as you see fit and define what works for you, but it's a great starting point. Over time, the hope is that the 50 and 30 category will become smaller portions of your monthly budget while the 20 gets bigger and bigger as you're able to make more in your career and via your investments. Step 4 Start saving for Retirement Now I'm going to introduce you to the eighth wonder of the world, compound interest. If you invest $300 a month starting at 22, you'll end up with dramatically more money at 65 than someone who invests $600 a month starting at 35, even though they invested more total dollars. Assuming an 8% return annually, I'm talking almost $300,000 more. So the earlier you start investing, the more money you'll have. Even if you invest fewer actual dollars over the course of your lifetime than someone who has to start later. For for all of my young people and recent graduates, I don't care if it's $5 a month or 500 as long as you start. If you have a job with a 401k, find out if your employer offers a match. If they do contribute at least enough to get the full match, that could be up to a 100% instant return on your money and there is nothing else in personal finance that can compete with that. Do not leave that money on the table. If you don't have access to a 401k or other employer sponsored retirement plan, consider opening a traditional or Roth ira. Try your best to contribute the maximum allowable amount. Automatic transfers are your friend here and make sure those dollars are invested, not just contributed. And rest easy knowing today you is taking care of future you. Alternatively, if you're self employed, accounts like a Solo 401K or SEP IRA may also be a great option. They allow you to contribute more than your standard IRA or Roth IRA and take into account some more of the nuances of owning your own business. Step 5 Focus on increasing your salary it's hard to cut $5,000 from your budget, but getting a $5,000 raise? Not quite unheard of. It's pretty common. There is no ceiling on how much you can earn, but there is definitely a floor to how much you can give up before life just kind of sucks. So if I had to choose between spending an hour cutting things from my budget or spending an hour figuring out how to make more money, I'm choosing more money every single time. Especially in your 20s, the upside is enormous and you have the most leverage you will ever have to reshape your entire financial trajectory. So here comes the question, well, how do I even negotiate? Here are some quick pointers. Do your research first. Before you say a single number, know what the market pays for your role in your city at your level of experience. You can use something like levels dot, FYI for tech, Glassdoor and LinkedIn salary for most other fields, and look at your state's Labor Department data. If you want something really concrete, aim for a range where your target number is the bottom, not the middle. If you want $65,000, say 65 to 72,000 people almost always land in the lower half of a range, so build that in from the start. Also, never give a number first if you can avoid it. When a recruiter asks what are your salary expectations? Early in a process you can redirect. I'd love to learn more about the full scope of the role before we get into compensation. What's the budgeted range for this position? A lot of companies are now required by law to share this information anyway, so make them tell you first. Additionally, get your offer in writing, then negotiate. Once you have a written offer, you have leverage. They've already decided that they want you. The cost of replacing you in the hiring process is incredibly high and they do not want to start over. So respond. Thank you so much for the offer. I'm really excited about this opportunity. Based on my research and experience. I was hoping we could get to X. Is there any flexibility here? And then this is really important. Silence is your friend after you state your number, stop talking. Seriously, don't say anything else. In one of my earliest negotiations, I prepared the best pitch. I had all of the receipts to back up what I was saying. And then I made my ask and I said, but if not, that's okay. Why did I say that it's not okay? I want a raise. Ask for what you want, don't backtrack, and don't be the one to tell yourself no. Also, if your company can't move on base salary, negotiate everything else. Salary isn't the only number on the table. If a company tells you the base is firm, ask about the signing bonus, extra vacation days and earlier performance review, or even remote work flexibility. Some of these are easier for companies to give than base salary because they don't affect their payroll headcount models and remember, negotiating will not cost you the offer. If it does, there might have been something shady going on at that company anyway, so you'll be glad that you dodged a bullet. Support for the show comes from Walmart. We know Walmart has low prices, but did you know they do price rollbacks too? Right now Walmart is dropping prices with thousands of rollbacks and more on the items you've been eyeing to upgrade your summer vibes. Imagine yourself lounging in the sun, enjoying some nice grill time, an ice cold slushy, and hanging out with all your favorite people. Some summer parties are the best and we could all use one like right now. So check out Walmart and save on that big cooler that always comes in clutch for group hangs or a sleek new grill so you can finally become the grilling master. Not to mention saving on that fun slushy machine that instantly turns any hangout into an epic party for all your summer activities, whether you're outdoor biking or poolside lounging, Walmart's got it for way less. Do your future self a favor and save on your summer faves. Now you can start saving and shop these amazing summer rollbacks and more right now in the Walmart app, online and in stores. Hi friends, Quick pause in our show to take a question from my besties in phone a friend presented by Walmart. Helen asks, what are the best ways to take advantage of 4th of July sales without overspending? Holiday savings events are some of the best times to stock up on necessities or get that big ticket item you've been dreaming about. But it can be tempting to overspend just because everything's on sale. Here's how you should think Create your game plan before the sales hit Make a list of what you actually need. Think summer essentials, home items or gifts for upcoming occasions or something you've been really wanting. Then make a list of those items to check in on what's actually on sale. This prevents you from getting swept up in 50% off signs when you don't even know if that's a real deal. Set a specific dollar limit for for your 4th of July shopping and stick to it. Use the sinking fund strategy. If you know these sales are coming, start setting aside money now. Even 20 to $30 a week leading up to July 4th gives you a dedicated shopping fund so you're not scrambling or putting purchases on credit cards that you don't know if you can confidently pay off. You can also leverage technology to maximize savings. Set up price drop alerts on items you've been wanting through technology. Many retailers also send extra discount codes if you abandon your cart. So if you're online shopping, add items and wait a day to see they sweeten the deal. Don't forget to stack store rewards cards Cashback apps With any credit card rewards you might earn, focus on value based spending as well. Before buying anything, think about how many hours you need to work to afford it. That $200 patio set might seem like a steal at 40% off, but if it takes you four hours of work to earn that money, make sure it's really worth it to you. Now back to our show. Now onto our Q and A. First question how do you create multiple streams of income and not rely solely on salaried employment? So we talked about one way, very simply is just starting to invest. That way you're working hard for your money and your money's also working hard on your behalf. But additionally, these days many people are finding that they want to have a little bit more money coming in than what they're making at their W2 job. So it's really easy to pick up a side hustle or a part time job or something else just to supplement your income. My recommendation here is that if you have a job that relies on your physicality, have your side hustle be something that relies on your mental. If it's the opposite, if you have a day job that is very very brain heavy, all you're doing is thinking or writing or doing a white collar job. Maybe a good side hustle relies on your physicality. Something like walking a dog or pet sitting or even supporting one of the elder members of your community one on one. In person. This just allows you to flex different muscles very literally, but also Metaphorically, so that you don't burn out. Next question. How do you plan for inflation? This is such a good question. Unfortunately, the only part that you can really control at this point is how much is coming in the door. I know many companies offer 2 to 3% raises, and I really do say that with huge air quotes, raises every single year. But if anything, that just keeps you up with the cost of living rising. In some cases, it doesn't even keep up with the cost of living rising. That is why my recommendation to every single person listening to this is to actually ask for a 10 to 15% raise every single year. Am I saying you're getting 10 to 15%? Certainly not. But if you can ask for 10 to 15 and then land at 6 to 8, now you know for a fact you are beating inflation. So you are making more money next year than you did this year, meaning you'll be able to afford more. You'll likely have more money to set aside for savings and investing. You'll likely have more money to be able to put towards other things. We can't, unfortunately, control inflation without major legislative change or big macroeconomic adjustments. What we can do is make sure that we have more money coming in the door. Up next, how do you grow your wealth when there isn't much money to begin with? Well, I think there's a couple things, and it's a very simple equation. You say there isn't a lot of money to begin with. What can you do to increase the amount of money coming in the door? Is it asking for a meaningful raise and having the receipts to back up? Why you deserve one, is it picking up a side hustle so that you can have a temporary period of discomfort where you're working a lot, but you now have more dollars coming in? That is, the first part is having more money coming in the door. Two, it's reducing your expenses. Obviously you can only reduce to a certain point, but making sure that you're not being frivolous with any of your dollars and then investing the difference. The bigger you can make the difference between what you get in the door versus what's going out the door, the more money you will have to put towards investing. Ooh, this is a great question. What are automated systems of stewardship around debt and investment? I love this question because guess what? I too am that person. I don't have a lot of discipline. I need to set up infrastructure in my life, otherwise it's not going to happen. So what I actually really like to do is many of us who have W2 jobs have portals where you can log in and actually tell them, like, what checking account you want your dollars deposited in. And most people will just pick one checking account and call it a day, and all of their money goes into one account. No, what I actually really like to do is split up a paycheck in multiple different ways. So maybe 80% of your paycheck goes into that checking account. It's for all of your costs, all of your expenses, all of your living. Maybe then we can put 10% towards your debt. This goes into a special account, and every single month, the money that is used to pay your debt comes out of that account. Now you can see all the dollars that you have for debt pay down. Maybe you put another 10% into investment accounts. That way all of those dollars are naturally being siphoned into those accounts already. So you aren't having to make the active decision of, I'm going to take 20% out of my checking account from each paycheck to then do these things. They're naturally being done for you. Ooh, good question. Is it possible to use investing as a source of income? Yes. That is the hope at the beginning of your career. Think about it like a pie graph, right? So most of your income at the beginning of your career comes from labor. You have to either go do your job, you have to sit at your desk, you have to walk around and see clients, talk to patients, do whatever you do. That is very, very important because you are working hard for your money. But over time, that pie graph, a tiny sliver, is money that you are earning through investing. Because you have taken money that you have made from labor and deployed it into investments. As you get older and older and older, the hope is that more and more of your pie chart is money you are earning through investing versus money you are earning via labor. So maybe the investing does not provide you a source of income tomorrow, but the hope is that that investing will provide you a source of income in your retirement. Ooh, this is a very broad question, but what can you do to stay disciplined with your finances? Something that I love to do is just having an accountability buddy. When you say your goals out loud or write them down and tell them to a friend, you are more likely to actually achieve them. And sometimes moving towards a really big goal is a great way to motivate. So, for example, when I wanted to save up my first $10,000, I actually told a friend that that's what I was going to be doing. And we did it together. And Then it became a thing of oh well, hey, remember we discussed the thing that we wanted to save money, so don't buy that. And we would actually keep each other in check. This is a great way to one, not only make a friendship a little bit closer, but also just have a check and balance when it comes to your spending and your investing and your growth for the future. Talk to a friend and find an accountability buddy. And last but not least, investing or saving, which is better? Better is subjective. I think you should be doing both. Saving is really important because you want to do that step first. Having an emergency fund is so critically important. Having money that you can use to then go on vacation or save for a down payment on a home or do all those things that is important. That is different than investing. I would not invest anything that you need tomorrow. I would not invest any money that you would need access to in a short period of time. And if I were to need that money and say two years, I would choose an incredibly low risk, low reward investment product like a certificate of deposit versus dollars that I need in 10 years. Plus I'm putting straight into the equities market, aka the stock market. Your investment should fit your time horizon. So I would say make sure you have your savings in a good spot and then start investing. But a healthy financial foundation, a healthy financial picture requires both. Okay, thank you all so much for sticking with me through all of that. I know it can feel like a lot, but I'm just here as your bestie to provide information. So if you're feeling kind of overwhelmed, pick one helpful action item to tackle and you'll still be moving yourself closer to financial success. You can do them slowly, over weeks, over months, and do them one at a time so it doesn't feel nearly as scary or big. And share this with a student or a fresh grad in your life to help them out. I'll catch you next week. See you soon. Bye. Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Net Worth and Chill, part of the Vox Media Podcast network. If you liked the episode, make sure to leave a rating and review and subscribe so you never miss miss an episode. Got a burning financial question that you want covered in a future episode? Write to us via podcastorrichbff.com follow net worth and Chill Pod on Instagram to stay up to date on all podcast related news and you can follow me at yourrichbff for even more financial know how. See you next week. Bye. Thanks to Walmart for their support. Take it from me Yorich bff There's always smarter ways to save. Walmart's got thousands of rollbacks and more to help you save on summer faves with low prices that make saving feel like it's part of the plan. From essentials like sunscreen to that new grill you've been eyeing, Walmart has the savings you want to help you stay on track with those financial goals. So shop now in the Walmart app, online and in stores to save big time.