Esther Kim
educate. empower. elevate.
Financial Advisor, Educator, Community Advocate, & Entrepreneur
In today's world of information overload, it's easy to get overwhelmed by analysis-paralysis and end up doing, well.. nothing! The same is true when it comes to taking control of our own personal finance - and it's no secret that our money matters have a direct link to our overall health and well-being. What's needed more than ever is financial wisdom in making sound decisions, a reflection of our relationship to money, and discipline when taking action.
What is Financial Wellness?
Financial Wellness is assessing our relationship to money and redefining it to align with our personal values and life goals. It involves taking control of our money (rather than it controlling us), having the ability to make financial decisions freely, and feeling financially stable/secure enough to live out our daily lives to the fullest.
What is Financial Education?
Financial Education is acquiring the skills and knowledge to make informed financial decisions and understand the products and services that impact your financial well-being. We can improve our financial health by learning basic financial concepts and understanding what financial products exist in the marketplace to help apply these concepts to our lives. In the end, applied knowledge is power.
What is Money Mindfulness?
Money Mindfulness is the practice of being present with your money. This includes being self-aware about your attitudes, beliefs and habits around money and money-making decisions. Simply notice what you do and how you feel about the choices you make.
About
Financial Advisor.
Educator.
Community Advocate.
Entrepreneur.
Her Story..
Esther Kim is a Financial Advisor, Educator, Community Advocate, and Entrepreneur. She has 10 plus years of experience working as an educator with the local public school board and leading various community initiatives.
After 5 years of teaching, Esther had an early mid-life crisis. Even though she was finally making a decent salary with a "great pension and amazing benefits", she realized she was becoming increasingly disempowered and dissatisfied with the fact that she knew nothing about how to manage and grow her money. The more she was making, the less she seemed to be able to keep!
Looking for answers, Esther walked into a local bank hoping to gain some financial education. What a humiliating experience that was! She left the bank feeling completely flustered and even more disempowered. Esther quickly realized that financial education and resources were not being distributed to the majority of Canadians and only to the few minority. What was more disturbing was the fact that as a public school teacher, she knew first hand that financial education was not being taught enough in schools, if at all, and that this feeling of disempowerment was most likely not an isolated experience.
Call it fate or serendipity, around that same time, Esther bumped into her former teacher colleague who was a Financial Advisor. Through this encounter, she was taught all the rules of the money game and learned how she could apply them to her own life. When she realized how much value she could provide to others with what she learned, Esther re-evaluated her entrepreneurial venture of being a Wedding & Events DJ. She decided to pivot and shift gears to learning how to build a business being in service to others in the Financial Services industry.
Since 2015, Esther has been on a mission to make a positive impact by helping underserved Canadian families reach their financial goals and build generational wealth using the solid financial strategies and products that are reserved for the wealthy few. As a result, she has also been advocating for financial wellness across various types of organizations (schools, churches, community organizations) as it relates to overall mental health, employee engagement, and civic action.
Currently a licensed Financial Advisor under Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), Esther believes in a respectful, non-judgmental, and educational approach when meeting with clients. It is of utmost importance for her to hold herself to the highest professional standard.
