Jen Lu is a holistic wealth coach who is on a mission to end inequality through financial literacy and well-being. She is dedicated to cultivating a more equitable world, empowering those traditionally underrepresented to create and achieve their most fulfilled lives through financial fluency and well-being.

Her integrated coaching approach anchors on value-based financial planning, taking into account each client’s personal context, while aligning client’s holistic resources (money, time and energy) and financial goals with their day-to-day actions and values. Jen empowers clients with the tools they need to take control of their money, build lasting habits, achieve personal goals and elevate their overall potential while living in alignment with their personal values.

Jen graduated magna cum laude from NYU Stern School of Business with a double major in Finance and Accounting. Prior to coaching, Jen worked in both Finance (Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan) and Tech (Product Management, Product Marketing and Strategy + Ops at Google) across global and regional offices in NYC, San Francisco, Singapore and London.

In 2017, Jen transitioned from working full-time corporate at Google to independently freelancing (with a sabbatical year of exploration and travel in between).

When Jen’s not coaching, she is enjoying a good picnic (both indoor and outdoor), planning her next island getaway or on some sort of adventure learning something new.

Disclaimer: I’m not a certified financial advisor, so I will not give you any specific investment or financial advice through my coaching and training. I can however teach you enough to make your own financial decisions (which I personally believe is the best way to go about it anyhow).

MORE ABOUT JEN’S JOURNEY

“1) Don’t go into debt. 2) Max out your 401K.”

That was the sole personal finance advice I was fortunately provided upon initially entering the corporate workforce as a first-generation wealth builder from my mother (which was what she was able to personally glean from her own immigrant experience building a life from the ground up in the States as a Vietnamese refugee). 

With a double major in Finance + Accounting from NYU Stern and a career start at J.P. Morgan as an Investment Banking Analyst, my mother had naturally assumed that I knew what I was doing when it came to my own personal finances -- and by those two metrics, I had also presumed that I was doing “just fine” throughout my corporate career at J.P. Morgan and Google. 

Having been fortunate enough to start off my career in Finance and Tech, I was accustomed to a life of impulsive spending (read: lots of designer handbags) and believing that it was all completely financially acceptable so long as I followed my mom’s two rules (even if I was constantly transferring money savings from ‘light’ spending months to my checking to pay off my credit card balances in full during the ‘fun’ spending months). Yes, I could technically “afford” it — but I also had no idea whatsoever where my money was going and no consistency in any kind of long-term plan for myself.

However, that illusion was shattered in 2017 when I decided to leave Google full-time to pursue passions and ideas that I never had the time and headspace to explore. During this first year of “purpose” exploration, I spent my time traveling, exploring my food interests through a culinary externship, and ultimately working on my own women’s health-related start-up.

Though this time in my life was indeed exciting, it was also incredibly stressful as I had not financially “prepared” prior to quitting whatsoever and was now without a consistent paycheck for the first time in my life.  

Even though I “technically” had the background re: Finance, I realized I actually had no idea about my own personal finances!  During this tumultuous time, I was selling off random tranches of Google stock to stay afloat, with no still no clue of how much money I needed a month and what my financial runway actually was. Needless to say, I was super stressed out (and also embarrassed) from having zero control of my financial situation and vowed never to feel like this again -- and hence, finally having found the motivation, time and energy I needed to jumpstart my own personal finance journey.

However, as I began this journey of personal finance education, I found it difficult to relate to most of the perspectives that were out there. After having left my tech salary, I did not agree that money was the end-all-be-all goal and that being “rich” was worth the minimizing all of your expenses as much as possible or spending all of your time working. In defining what it meant to feel fulfilled in my own life, I found that being “wealthy” was more important to me than just being “rich” and that “wealth” was not just about money, but also about my time, energy and values — which has greatly influenced my unique approach and path to becoming the wealth coach that I am today. 

Inspired by the power and freedom I have discovered through the mistakes (and subsequent learnings) of my own personal money journey, I am passionate about empowering clients to create their most “wealthy” + fulfilled lives -  through the cultivation and optimization of their resources (money, time and energy), all while maintaining alignment with their own personal values. 

Lastly as a woman of color and daughter of immigrants, I am on a mission to ultimately end inequality through financial fluency and well-being.