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Life Kit

How to get 'financially naked' with your partner

Life Kit

NPR

Business, Health & Fitness, Education, Kids & Family, Self-improvement

4.54.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How much money do you make? What assets and debts do you have? What are your spending habits? These are all questions you should ask your partner, says Vivian Tu, founder of Your Rich BFF, a financial education company, and the author of Well Endowed. In this episode, host Marielle Segarra talks with Tu about how to get “financially naked” with your partner, whether you just started dating or have been together for years.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, before we start the show, real quick, what's your favorite thing about Life Kit?

0:04.6

Does our show help you save a little money or make better decisions about your health?

0:08.8

Does it just make life a little easier?

0:11.1

If you love Life Kit, why not take a moment to rate and review us in your podcast app?

0:16.1

That helps other people find us.

0:18.5

Thanks for listening.

0:19.9

You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

0:27.6

Hey, it's Mariel. When Vivian II first got financially naked in front of her partner,

0:33.4

it was out of desperation. She and her roommate had moved into a roach-infested apartment in New York City.

0:39.4

These roaches were getting into everything.

0:41.8

They were in our clothes.

0:43.4

They were crawling all over our food.

0:45.9

One of them died in our ice tray.

0:47.8

Ultimately, we had to pay $8,000 in total, so for her, for me, to break our lease.

0:53.1

And that was all the money that I had saved

0:55.7

after a year of working. And I had nothing left. So she temporarily moved into her then-boyfriend,

1:02.4

now husband's apartment. And I had to sit him down and I had to be like, I have no money. I am broke.

1:10.2

I don't have any debt. This is how much I spend every money. I am broke. I don't have any debt.

1:11.6

This is how much I spend every month. I have nothing. I cannot afford to pay you rent. I don't know what to do. I have to get out of this apartment. How long have y'all been seeing each other? Oh, 30 days. Oh, my God. 30 days. Like, terrible timing. At the time Vivian was working on Wall Street, now she's a financial educator.

1:30.3

And she says, well, this was terrible timing.

1:33.4

It did lead to a very open conversation around our finances.

1:38.8

And I think that's something that I really encourage couples to do is to ensure that you're

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