Five years ago, when my husband and I were planning our wedding and setting our shared financial goals, I noticed there were a lot of “good” wedding planners and life coaches out there but I realised there weren’t any personal finance professionals who catered to women going through transitions in life. Even though I was a professional mutual fund manager and “good” with investing and money, I felt a bit anxious and alone in this process, so I started creating my own financial plan and framework. While doing so, I started helping other girlfriends who were going through a similar transition and experiencing a “SOS” moment in their personal finances.
After this experience, I left my career as a mutual fund manager to create Heels & Yield, a financial education company for women. It’s designed to be fun and inspiring; dedicated to providing an empowering experience for women. It’s the service that my girlfriends and I wished we’d had when we were in the midst of life transitions and freaking out.
I love building my company because I get to be innovative while focusing on design and our clients. I also love catering to different styles of learners (visual, audio, big picture vs. numbers focused) so that we provide a transformational experience for our clients. Because we focus on education and don’t sell clients financial products, our clients trust us because our interests are completely aligned with theirs and we aren’t making commission off of our advice. I feel like I'm making an impact when I'm working with our clients.
My morning beauty regime is super fast. I wash my face with Eve Lom morning cleanser. I apply Swiss Perfection’s toner, eye serum, face serum, and then eye cream and face cream. I always use an organic sunscreen if I’m going outside: SPF 30 for normal days and SPF 50 for days under the bright sun. If I’m out being active, I reapply my SPF 50 sunscreen during the day.
When heading to the office, I wear minimal makeup. Concealing foundation (which also has SPF 22) and eyeshadow and eye brow liner is all I apply before I walk out my door. This all takes about 5 minutes.
On days where I have business meetings, I’ll add blush. I always carry my travel makeup pouch with me so that I have all the essentials to look my best for important occasions. On days when I am speaking at events, I’ll spend 30 minutes on my makeup and hair to make sure I look sharp.
For my nighttime beauty regime, I enjoy unwinding by taking care of my skin, body and mind. This is the time to treat myself and wrap up the busy days with a bit of Zen. I indulge in scented showers every day. Once a week, I exfoliate my face and body. Before I dry off, I apply body oil, towel dry my skin and put on body lotion. For my face, I spray on toner, apply serum, eye cream and a thin layer of face cream.
I don’t have a fixed weekly beauty regime but I alternate some home treatments once in a while depending on the need. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Dermagram’s face mask. In the winter time I use hot footbaths with lavender or tea tree powder at home for its health benefits and to boost my circulation.
As for a monthly routine, I used to go get facials after work before I was married but now that I’m married, I try to go home early to spend more time with my husband. I get facials at home on weekends whenever I have time.
With the benefit of time and reflection, I have come to realise that I feel empowered when I can empower others. This led me to create my company Heels & Yield which gives women the skills and tools they need to master their personal finances. As someone who enjoys (and is good at) investing, it gives me a genuine sense of accomplishment when my clients - smart, capable women - start taking control over this aspect of their lives.
For me, feeling beautiful is about having peace of mind. This includes financial peace of mind. Women seldomly talk about their financial worries and by keeping it inside we create more anxiety for ourselves. I believe strongly that by giving ourselves the skills we need to deal with the things that worry us, we can solve them. This helps us sleep at night which to me is the best way to restore my energy; thus, looking and feeling beautiful.
Beautiful people are ones who radiate a sense of balance, inner peace and compassion for themselves and others. Beauty isn’t any one thing when it comes to looks, it’s more about a sense of alignment and health. That’s also what I focus on in my work to help women achieve holistic wealth — it’s not just about how much is in your bank account or how many goodies you’re able to buy for yourself. Instead, it’s about creating sustainable wealth that is aligned with your values and allows you to live a life of abundance, not one where you’re chained to your source of income or feel “trapped” because you have to maintain a certain standard of living.
Health: I pack a self-care kit that includes essential oils, vitamins and probiotics so I can use them during my travels. My biggest health care concern when traveling is eating foods that my tummy isn't used to. I don’t like to take medicine so I take probiotics regularly and increase the dosage before I travel to increase the good bacteria levels so my tummy is strong enough to handle new types of food.
Skin: I don’t put on makeup if I travel for leisure so that my skin has time to rest and rejuvenate itself. I just put on my regular skin care products + lots of sunscreen. I adjust my skin care products based on how dry or how humid the destination is. For example, when I travel back to Silicon Valley, the weather there is very dry so I use oils on my face instead of the lotion that I use when I'm in Hong Kong during the summer. One important step that I do add to my trips is this: Since the plane is like a refrigerator and it makes my skin very thick, I use a skin peeling product to remove the layer of frozen skin before I apply any skin care products so my pores don’t get clogged.