What seems to have struck a cord is just how transparent she's being. Not only is she talking about her experience with personal finance, but she's also sharing some of the biggest mistakes she's made along the way, and admitting how uninformed she was when it came to spending her own money before she got help.
"I know nothing about money. I have very little financial literacy," Vong recently told Narcity in an interview.
Explaining the thought process behind starting her financial-focused social media content, she said, "I had a lot of debt that I wanted to work towards paying off, [so] why don't I document it?"
Vong added, "I'm not the only person with loads and loads of debt that they're trying to work out of [...] I know I'm not the only person going through this. I can guarantee it."
The online reaction to her content is proof in itself. Vong's videos get often get hundreds of thousands of views, and sometimes upwards of a million. The comment sections of her videos about finance are also filled with people their sharing similar experiences of working to pay off their own debts.
With over five million likes and nearly 90,000 followers on TikTok, some of Vong's newest and most-watched content includes her first-hand accounts of what it's like working multiple jobs in Toronto (she has four jobs), updates on how she is working to pay off her debt, and insights into exactly how much money she spends in a single week.
She has also revealed that she owes $15,000 in credit card debt and opened up about exactly how that happened.
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"I got my first credit card at 18 as I'm sure many people do," Vong told Narcity. "I take full responsibility for how I used it and how I swiped it."
She shared that, from her childhood, the need to "just pay the minimum" was ingrained into her mind by her mother.
"I would just consider the available credit as money I had and I almost never comprehended that it's something that you had to pay back in full," she shared, explaining that this way of thinking led to a snowball effect of a maxed-out credit card that she would throw a few hundred dollars at when she could, but never actually paying down the debt that had accumulated over time.
She even admitted to making matters worse by getting a second credit card and starting to repeat the same process all over again.
"I just would spend crazy on the smallest things. Clothing, Christmas presents, Amazon stuff," she said.
It wasn't until Vong sat down with a financial advisor that she had her "lightbulb moment" and realized how her money was being eaten up by interest rates and that she needed to "aggressively" pay down her debt.
Vong shared her advisor, Ryan Ferguson, offers free consultations which can be booked through his website.
How Vong is paying off her credit card debt
Fast-forward a few months, and now Vong is documenting how she's living out the life lessons she's learned when it comes to her finances and updating her followers on how she's managing her debt.
"While I'm overwhelmed, angry, and I hate this so much, I'm sticking to my budgeting," she said in a video at the beginning of June, where she shared that her credit card debt had been paid down to $11,700.
But how is she making this progress?
"I don't touch my credit cards now at all," Vong told Narcity. "The only time I am looking at them is to put money into paying them off." She admitted that based on her past mistakes, she has "zero interest" in using a credit card again anytime soon because she doesn't trust herself.
On top of only spending the cash she actually has on hand at any given time, Vong said through her new budget, the majority of any extra money she has is going toward the credit card debt.
"From when I started talking about the $15,000 in debt to now, I've got it down to about $6,000. So I'd say in the past three months, I've been able to put the difference into that."
Vong's story tells of the importance of financial literacy and how anyone can get on the right track with their money. But make no mistake, it has also required lots of hard work.
Working multiple jobs
Vong is currently working four jobs, and she shared her thoughts about that and the reality of what it takes to afford to live in Toronto.
"One job in Toronto is a joke," she said. "There's no way anyone making under $80,000 could survive."
Her belief in that reality comes from her own personal situation. Vong lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto, which she says costs her $2,200 per month.
She told Narcity her main income comes from her full-time corporate job as a Partnerships Manager at a marketing agency, but on top of that, she works two freelance jobs in social media marketing, which she said she needs to do to be able afford to live in the city. Some extra help and cash flow have come from being able to make money off of her TikTok content, too.
"Even then, I still find it's a little tight," Vong said.
Vong's advice for anyone with debt or struggling to afford the cost of living in Toronto is to take on some extra work, even temporarily.
"I think having multiple jobs is [a really big one]," she said. "I personally work from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., if not later, and I just know that's what I need to do in order to pull in at least you know, $80,000 to $90,000 a year."
Like she did, Vong also urges anyone in a bad position to seek the help of a professional.
"If you can, get a financial advisor. I think it was the biggest change [I made] and it keeps me accountable."
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Courtesy of Easy Financial Academy