MoneyTalk With Lina Chan Founder of Adia Health

In this Interview series, we want to feature amazing and inspiring women who are willing to talk about money. Our goal is to break the taboo around money, share experiences and learn from the community. Please see examples here.

Hello Lina! Thank you for participating in our MoneyTalk Series. We have known each other for a few years now, after meeting during the Google Campus for mums program (a startup program for entrepreneurs who happen to be parents run by Google). Your mission is inspiring and I am really excited to see Adia Health going from strength to strength. Adia’s mission is to empower women with knowledge, and to change the approach to women’s reproductive health to one that is proactive, personalised and holistic. 

Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself. 

I am Lina, born and raised in Brazil to chinese immigrant parents.  I spent most of my career as an investor before becoming an entrepreneur.  I love travelling, being active and am also a yoga teacher on the side. I have three children all under the age of 4 (yup it’s a busy household).  If I am not working or taking care of the kids, you will find me exercising or drinking coffee. 

What inspired you to launch Adia Health?

My personal struggles starting my family inspired me to build Adia.  Like a growing number of women I didn’t start trying for a baby until I was 35 years of age.  I thought it was going to be easy but instead I rode a roller coaster of miscarriage, still birth and trouble conceiving.  The experience made me realise how current care pathways are very reactive. Most women only get help once they have encountered a set-back, and often rely tremendously on Dr. Google to navigate a journey that is confusing and very emotional.  I set up Adia to enable women to be proactive about their reproductive health through easier access to experts and expert led content. I hope that through Adia I can help more women avoid the set-backs that I faced. 

What are you passionate about?

I am really passionate about empowering women about physical and mental health.  I believe that we all need to learn more about how to manage our own physical and emotional health so we can live our best lives.  I am also really passionate about my children and my family. They are everything to me and the guiding light when things get tough. 

What was the biggest lesson you learnt in your career?

If you want to achieve something you need to work hard.  Nothing comes easy. So be determined, set goals for yourself and work hard to achieve them.  “If there’s a will there’s a way” has been my mantra for many years! 

What’s your relationship like with money and personal finance? 

I have always been very disciplined with money.  I think it’s important to save; I really dislike having debt.  I am risk averse. My investments are quite conservative (much to my husband’s dislike!).  I am definitely the “CFO” of our family. I keep track of everything and try to live a life that we can “afford” rather than living beyond our means. 

What does financial independence mean to you?

Financial independence for me means not living paycheck to paycheck.  Being able to break even with our household costs and save a little every year. It also means being able to pursue a career and lifestyle that brings me happiness.

What’s the one thing you indulge in? 

Exercise, travel and things for my children - all my passions. 

What is the best financial decision you have ever made? And what is the greatest long term investment? 

Saving from when I was really young.  It’s allowed me to start my entrepreneurial career and take a much lower salary for some time to give the business a chance.  The greatest long term investment I have made has to be my pension and my children’s college account. 

Have you ever experienced a financial epiphany? A sort of wake-up call, where you suddenly think - “I must start doing things differently”? 

Yes - not buying a home earlier.  We still rent which is not a good investment in our equity.  I regret not investing in a home as it’s now quite expensive for us to get on the property ladder. 

What is Vestpod for you?

I love Vestpod’s mission.  It is so important to know how to manage your money.  There is a big link between money and mental health. What Vestpod is doing is really empowering to women. 

Own up. Have you made any major financial faux-pas? 

Not invested in buying a house and kept too much of my savings in cash rather than investing.  I lost money by doing both of these things. 

What do you wish you had done earlier in terms of financial planning? 

Bought a house - my fear of debt kept me out of the property market for too long and now it’s hard as we need a much bigger place to buy for our family and it’s difficult to get the financing for that. 

Favourite book & podcast?

All the books that are coming to mind are parenting and baby sleeping technique books! Haha.  You can see where my struggles have primarily been in the past few years. 

Two books I love that come to mind are Shantaram by David Robert and Long Walk to Freedom by Mandela

Where can we find you?

Adia’s Health Website

Adia’s Health Twitter

Adia Instagram 

Adia LinkedIn

Thanks a lot!

-- Emilie & Christina