Rich AF

October 16, 2023
Tu, a former J.P. Morgan equities trader, debuts with a spry crash course for how young people can build wealth. Offering shrewd if standard advice on budgeting, investing, saving for retirement, and boosting one’s income, she recommends that novice investors buy into low-risk target-date and index funds, and that readers “work your network” to find better-paying job opportunities. The guidance emphasizes practicality, as when she provides a sample script for negotiating a raise at work. The chatty tone keeps the financial discussions light (“Rich people budget... like hell. I do. All my rich besties do,” she writes on the importance of setting spending limits), and Tu is remarkably candid about the mechanisms undergirding wealth inequality, contending that rich people don’t advertise their financial strategies because “a lack of financial literacy keeps our working class working” and that “women, POC, and the LGBTQ+ community have simply not had the equal opportunities to build wealth.” However, Tu’s realism sometimes comes into tension with her optimistic guidance: if “for most people, it’s no longer possible to save or work your way to rich,” why promise readers “are going to be Rich AF” by following her saving and career advice? Still, it’s a peppy primer on getting one’s finances in order.