The more I’ve settled into my 30s, the more I realise that lifestyle traps exist in the most sneakiest of ways. They really are disguised and embedded into our daily lives so much so that it takes proactive effort to side-step them. They limit your future without you realising it’s happening. Some are unavoidable, but most are hard to reverse. Nobody around us pushes us to think critically about these, because a lot of people have been entrapped themselves.

𝜗ৎ 16 lifestyle traps to avoid

1. The 35-year mortgage

A 35 or 40-year mortgage taken at the absolute top of what a bank will lend you is a decades-long commitment to a specific income or job market (not to mention a specific relationship if it’s joint). The affordability calculation the bank does is designed to work for the bank, and unfortunately not for you.

My opinion: even if you can afford to do so, buy smaller, and take a shorter term if you realistically can. Every extra year on the mortgage adds a lot in interest and locks you into more career risk. Honestly, we don’t need to commit to our forever homes or get on the property ladder in our 20s. Not in this economy.

The exit route:

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As you know, I’ve been travelling Latin America for the last 7-ish months. It’s been one a hell of a ride, and our flight home to Edinburgh is slowly creeping up on us. That also means I’ve been getting myself in order, because the last 7 months have been far from Financially Hot.

Pre-trip Dev had a few nonsensical (in hindsight) assumptions. I thought it would be easy to stay consistent with movement and strength. I did not realise just how much travel would be involved in our travelling — I’ve spent countless hours (straight) on busses, haven’t had consistent access to quality food, and to be honest, too exhausted to even think about steps sometimes.

But for every 4-5 weeks of travel, we’ve found ourselves in a city with at least a week to reset our sleep, movement and eating habits. Personally I found these weeks great for catching up on work and content too, which for me, really feeds my zest for life. (Call me crazy, but that’s the beauty of loving what you do)

In these weeks, I’ve found myself doing a pretty specific group of activities that make me feel my hottest self. If you’re a longtime reader of Financial Hot Girl you’ll know that here, hot is not what you see in the mirror, it’s a feeling before that. So here are a few ways I’ve been recreating that feeling every time we’ve had a few days to slow down and reset.

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1. Moving consistently

As of writing this I’m in Rio, and we have a couple of weeks to slow down, sightsee, learn Portuguese and catch up on work. Being in a city, I signed myself up to a gym and got myself straight onto a protocol of cardio, weights, and stretching.

I didn’t overthink what I’d do because I have a routine back home that I relied on—a minimum of two zone 2 cardio sessions a week, 10,000 steps and 3-4 full body strength days. I just scaled this up or down depending on how much time we had in each city.

Every single time I do this, I feel much more like myself. All it takes is one day of snapping back to my routine to make me feel hot. I forget all the inflammation and exhaustion of the weeks prior that are still on my body.

My previous routines, and how disciplined I’ve been with them, has given me that familiar sense of ‘I know what happens when I do this’ and that has feelings attached, too. I’m reminded of the fact that no matter what, I’ll do what it takes to rebuild the habit.

How to copy me: it doesn’t matter if your choices in life take you away from your routines, but find the routines you like and stay disciplined with them when you can, as best you can. The structure of a routine itself frees you from decision fatigue in the more chaotic moments of life, and keeps you grounded. Not to mention, emotionally, reminds you of the person who is strong, disciplined and trusts herself.

2. Taking the brain bins out

For me, journalling is that one habit that almost got away. It was the one I could never make stick, but I always felt good after doing it. I became a consistent at journalling once I allowed myself to be consistent in different ways.

Before, I thought that if I didn’t put pen to paper in my aesthetic journal, it didn’t count as journalling. But slowly over time, I let myself brain dump thoughts in a blank Notion page. Another time in the Notes app on my phone. Another time in that aesthetic journal. One day I realised that I am a consistent writer, just not in a way that looks neat and squared up on the outside.

On this trip, journalling was the thing that stopped me spiralling when things felt uncertain and out of my control. It didn't fix anything. It just allowed my emotions to be guests in the home that was my brain—it created space between me and my feelings. If you’re Type A or an over thinker, this is incredibly necessary space that you need so you can focus on feeling hot.

How to copy me: do not make this practice precious. Five minutes, any method, no rules (except the five minutes). Just get your thoughts out of your head. You'll be surprised how much lighter you feel, and how much clearer your decisions become when your brain isn't trying to hold everything at once.

3. My worldwide payday ritual

At least once a month, no matter where we were or how chaotic things felt, I sat down and went through my transactions. Checked how I was tracking against my financial goals for the trip. I just looked at it, and sometimes I didn’t action anything after.

And every single time, I felt relieved, clear-headed and proud. 99% of the time I also felt inspired to take action on something else I was procrastinating, like planning the next portion of our itinerary or booking some accomodation.

The relief and pride I felt wasn’t because everything was perfect, because it was far from it—seven months of travel to a budget, is what a rainy day is to a beautiful suede bag. I felt proud because I’m not the girl who ignores it anymore. That version of me used to avoid her finances because she was scared of her reality. Now I look because I respect myself enough to know and take action.

The act of checking in, even when things aren’t exactly where you want them, is what separates a Financially Hot girl from someone who is just letting life happen to them and hoping for the best. Hope is not a financial strategy, even in the chaos of the road.

How to copy me: once a month, sit down with your transactions and your goals. No spreadsheet necessarily required — just look. The habit of looking is the foundation everything else is built on.

4. Face and body massage

For years, after trips, I’d roll the heck out of my feet with massage balls. I never knew that what I was doing was self-myofascial release, which is having a hell of a moment on social media right now.

When I read books on how your body holds onto stress and trauma (not from physical pain but from emotional and spiritual pain) a lot of my instinctive habits made sense. As well as rolling my feet, I also loved massaging my face—particularly my brows and around my mouth. The muscles there are so tense that sometimes, they’re painful just to touch.

Knowing that I’m actually massaging stress and pain away takes a literal weight off of my body. And you know what I can do when I feel light as a feather? Many things:

• Think clearly

• Make better decisions

• Concentrate and focus

• Sleep better

• Converse more thoughfully

• Maintain more joyful moods

Need I list more benefits out to massaging your face more? I’ve gone on to invest into small tools to help me do this more methodically, and it’s slowly but surely becoming an incredibly soothing part of my day during a time I’ve needed to self-soothe and feel my hottest, lightest self while backpacking Latin America!

How to copy me: take a moment to yourself right now and close your eyes, to try and notice where your face or neck is holding tension. Maybe a clamped jaw or a furrowed brow. Gently, and very softly, start to massage those areas in a way that feels right to you. Then start to research proper techniques. Feel comfortable building the awareness in your face and body first.

I want you to really think about the times you’ve been busy or stressed and imagined that more perfect, sensible conditions were needed for the habits that make you feel financially hot.

Take a look at my habits—these are the ones I do with 100% consistency in my controlled home environment, but I didn’t give up on them while travelling, and that’s the common thread between them that makes me feel hot. I do them even when it doesn’t look perfect, feel perfect, and when no one is watching.

Until next week,

— Dev xo

Happy Sunday, financial hotties. Have you ever felt the pressure of needing to optimise everything? Workouts. Sleep. Skincare. Routines. EVERYTHING.

I certainly have. Between ages 26-28, if I wasted time on something, it felt like I was breaking the law.

Call it a short-lived obsession with Huberman content, but I have since realised that being obsessed with efficiency and ‘newness’ is a confidence issue.

It’s a fear of not being interesting. A desperate cling to efficiency as an answer to being happy and stress-free, when really, we all need more confidence to just have beige habits and routines.

So today we’re talking about the unexpected profit of being boring. Because yes, it’s profitable, and yes, being boring is the new chic.

P.S. if any of you follow me personally (@devamsha on IG) you might know that I’ve actually embarked on a new journey: long-term travel through Latin America with my boyfriend.

It’s a big chapter, something we’re both doing as we’ve entered a new decade, and financially… a big investment.

I’d love to know if you want to hear more about what I get up to - both from a financial perspective and otherwise?

1. You spend less without trying

When your life runs on a reliable, perhaps boring, routine — there’s less room for unplanned spending. By default.

• You’re not buying last-minute dinners because you didn’t meal prep.

• You’re not doing another ASOS next day delivery haul because you “have nothing to wear.”

• You’re not filling emotional gaps with online shopping.

Being boring means you already know what dinner is for the week ahead, or you have a predictable personal uniform.

Less decision fatigue = fewer emotional transactions = you have more willpower in reserve for the things that matter to you.

Try this: Create three default meals for the week ahead and keep the ingredients stocked. I hate committing to a specific meal schedule, but I love committing to three meals for the week — it keeps things varied enough to stay disciplined without feeling stuck.

2. Your energy becomes predictable

When you sleep and eat at the same time every day, your body stops playing games with you. Trust me, I’ve learned this through countless trial and error.

When you keep your sleeping and eating routines on the same daily timeline, your mornings feel steady. You’re not constantly recovering from burnout or caffeine crashes. Not to mention as a woman, this helps with hormone and emotional regulation with our cycles.

When your energy is consistent, your output becomes consistent. That means showing up for work, workouts, and your finances regularly, without feeling like you’re fighting yourself just to stay consistent.

Try this: Keep your wake-up time the same every day, even weekends. Practice it for one week and see if it makes a difference.

3. You get paid more because you’re reliable

The market rewards consistency. It’s human psychology. When you deliver good work every time, people trust you. When people trust you, they pay you more.

Don’t mistake reliability for overworking though — it’s about being the person who does what they said they would, every time. For yourself and for your network. That’s how “boring girls” get promoted, recommended, and remembered.

Try this: Pick one area where you’re most often last-minute (content, emails, workouts). Create a weekly slot for it and protect it like a meeting. Be anal about it.

4. You build self-trust faster

When you do small things on autopilot, your brain starts believing you. Scientifically, this tracks:

While neuro-plasticity makes the physical effort of doing small, boring things easy — this actually also builds self-trust. This belief compounds into bigger things: saving, negotiating, investing. And once you do things on autopilot, the habits just become part of who you are instead of you forcing discipline.

It happened with me with my exercise habit. Working out is a part of my identity, and isn’t a conscious decision I am making every day.

Boring routines remove the “should I?” conversation. You stop negotiating with yourself and start following through.

Try this: Choose one a ritual you’ve previously procrastinated (a Sunday finance check, a daily walk, morning journal) and repeat it for 21 days straight. Track it, make it easy, and be very disciplined only for these 21 days.

5. Your peace becomes what you brag about

I actually used to think peace meant slowing down and risking my ‘edge’. As a Type A Virgo, this felt like a threat to my personality. But being boring means fewer highs and lows — you have to think about it like being very intentional with your time and your choices.

You’re essentially not chasing the dopamine from new purchases or projects because you have less shiny-object-syndrome — and you’re okay with it! You’re content with your day because it’s already designed around what makes you feel good, not anyone else.

Peace is what gives you bandwidth to grow; mentally, financially, and emotionally. It’s like turning down the sound when you’re trying to drive to a new location. It’s a feeling of knowing the silence of boring routines is okay.

Try this: Delete one app that drains your focus for a week. Use that time to plan something that compounds, like your savings, next trip, or business idea.

Being boring is the most underrated form of self-care. So if you feel like you’re in a slow season right now, try not to fight it.

But I get it it. It’s hard when society makes you feel like you’re behind, or something’s wrong with you for being boring. Instead, I want you to track it, protect it, and learn from it.

The richest version of you is the one sitting in silence, with the confidence that her boring discipline is doing the work behind the scenes, instead of saying yes to everything, or trying to optimise every routine.

Let yourself be uneventful. Please.

This newsletter and everything shared in it is to help you build a well-rounded, aspirational life that includes money. I hope it was able to do that today 🫶

— Dev xo

Because over the last few years, I’ve realised that no change in my life has come from one grand decision. Instead, it’s come from the unspoken rules that I have implemented in life: the micro-philosophies.

I first spoke about micro-philosophies years ago—because as a Type A Virgo, I’ve always been addicted to systems building, rules and frameworks, and so that’s what Financial Hot Girl is built on. You might have even noticed these already as part of what we teach, like the Personal Uniform and Deciding Once.

So here are 7 micro-philosophies that a Financial Hot Girl embodies: to make decisions faster, reduce mental load, and build confidence and self-trust.

1. Build leverage

To determine if I’m under-leveraged, I ask myself this question often: if I stop working, does everything in my life stop too?

Leverage is what keeps the everything moving—be it finances or healthy habits—when I’m unavailable (whether that’s physically or emotionally). It’s anything that compounds on its own. Across money, habits, tools, or relationships.

Every month, ask yourself: what still depends entirely on me showing up? Then find one way to reduce that number.

Examples:

• Building a retainer instead of doing one-off projects: you earn despite your hours

• Pick one “anchor habit” (morning walk, journaling, gym) and attach another to it (listen to a finance podcast while walking): focus on the anchor habit instead of multiple

• Tell a friend your next financial or fitness goal and ask them to check in weekly: don’t rely on yourself to do it

2. Build discipline

Your sense of self-trust grows through how disciplined you are, not how motivated you are, because willpower is a finite resource. It runs out as the day goes on.

For me, discipline is evidence that I can trust myself. It’s my track record of staying true to my word and intention. I know this because my historical lack of discipline was why I had such low self-trust.

And as women, we have a strong emotional current, and I think it doesn’t always fit neatly into rigidity and routines. That’s why building discipline into your actual identity, in how you show up for yourself, is way more important than forcing structure into your life unnaturally.

Use an ‘If–Then’ framework to build discipline into your identity, e.g. “If I feel unmotivated, then I’ll only start with 5 minutes”.

Remember: discipline turns good days into habits and hard days into practice.

3. Decide Once

Decision fatigue is expensive in both time and money.

“Decide Once” means systemising small recurring choices so you can save willpower for big ones. Examples: having the same breakfast, a preset or automated investment, a weekly money check-in, or standard rates for clients.

Deciding once creates consistency, which creates data, which creates improvement.

What are the repeatable elements of your life that you can decide once for? Can you set a personal uniform, have the same morning routine, or even book workout classes or co-working to avoid decision fatigue?

Make a commitment to decide once wherever you can and be OK with that decision. Don’t chase making the perfect decision differently every time.

4. Have a personal uniform

I strongly believe clothes, and style, are information. They tell you who you are before you speak.

I used to spend too much time and money trying to reinvent myself (and sometimes even find myself) through my style. Now, I focus on the few pieces that make me feel like me every single time I wear them.

A personal uniform simplifies your mornings, your spending, and your sense of self. Audit your wardrobe the way you’d audit your finances. Keep what earns its place. Let go of what doesn’t. I’m serious!

When your look feels consistent, so does your energy. Pick a personal uniform for the areas in your life you dress for the most: your job, working out, or working remotely.

5. Maximise ROI

Return on investment exists everywhere, and your time, energy, and relationships are included.

I’ve learned that one hour of deep focus or a walk in the sun gives a higher return than a full day of completely scattered effort. I try to track what makes me feel clear and capable, and I build my life around that data.

A high ROI doesn’t always have to look productive, either. It can be small and simple decisions that simply avoid draining your energy, like these high ROI examples:

• Walking for twenty minutes before opening your laptop to clear brain fog

• Saying no to obligations that only feed guilt or optics

• Outsourcing repetitive design work so you can focus on storytelling and research

• Buying higher-quality basics that last years instead of chasing trends that fall apart

6. Embrace seasonality

There are periods for growing and periods for resting. Each one requires different expectations, and I’ve learned this the hard way by mistakenly applying the same expectations to different seasons of life.

I don’t try to grow when I’m still in a time that I need stability. I don’t try to rest when I know I’m meant to expand. Scarcity mindset festers when you think that circumstances are permanent, and that life will never change.

Respecting the season I’m in keeps me grounded, and shifts me into a growth mindset. It gives me permission to change priorities without guilt and to understand that progress often looks uneven (and that’s very normal and OK).

What season of life are you in, and how can you loosen the reigns of your own expectations to respect it more?

7. Have hobbies (that aren’t making money)

Hobbies keep your identity wider than your income, and this is so important for a happy life.

Hobbies remind you that your time can be valuable without having to be productive.
Writing, photography, cooking and sports has become that for me, a space that belongs only to me.

When I make time for hobbies, I notice my spending drops, my creativity rises, and my self-esteem balances out. They teach patience, focus, and presence, which are the same traits that make financial wealth sustainable.

Focus on these 7 micro-philosophies daily instead of trying to make one big, massive change in your life and see what happens.

This newsletter and everything shared in it is to help you build a well-rounded, aspirational life that includes money. I hope it was a

But most just feel disconnected from it. I remember feeling this 5 years ago.

After a little research, I knew what I should’ve been doing, but it always just felt forced. The rhythm that makes money management feel natural was missing.

And that’s what these 6 autumn habits are for: to help you build a life where money management feels less like pressure and more like an act of self-respect. Like journalling when you don’t want to because you know it’s good for you.

And I’ll be honest, today’s issue was a result of me reviewing my last 5 Autumns to understand what different things I focussed on each year.

I didn’t necessarily do all of these habits at once, or in order, but each of them has played a huge part in my financial confidence today.

Let’s get into it.

1. The Sunday Reset: for your money, not just your meal prep

You might already have some version of a weekly reset, whether it’s for your home or your mind.

Let’s think about adding a financial hour to that ritual. In that hour, you:

1. Review your week in money: what surprised you? What felt impulsive? What are you proud of?

2. Name your next task: make this just one thing. A transfer, a subscription cancellation, an investment or an automation.

3. Set the vibe! Put on a Gilmore Girls playlist. Light a candle. Make it cosy, inviting, and a full on sensory experience.

Making money management sensory and familiar is the antidote to it feeling sterile and invoking anxiety. It forces you to feel less like you’re ‘getting rid’ of an urgent task and more like a part of your wellbeing routine.

Importantly, it removes the shame and guilt.

2. Your Autumn reading list

If you want to talk about money confidently at brunch with your friends, you need language and context. We need to build this like a muscle.

Think about it, if you were learning a new language and wanted to have a conversation to practice — you might prepare a few sentences you know off by heart. It gives you a little confidence and context for the conversation ahead.

We can do the same thing with money.

So let’s swap one podcast or show a week for something that expands your financial vocabulary. Not necessarily to learn jargon, but to learn about stories and ideas that make you think.

My all-time recommendations for books and podcasts:

• The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

• The Simple Path To Wealth by J.L. Collins

• Girls That Invest by Simran Kaur

• The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

• The Money With Katie podcast (great one for conversations!)

Tip: pick one episode, or one chapter, ahead of time then consume it. Sitting down with a big book or a long list of podcast episodes is daunting and you’re more likely to put it off.

Pro tip? Batch select 4 chapters or podcast episodes for each month in Autumn.

The goal here isn’t to understand everything, we just want the language to start to feel familiar.

3. The rich girl Autumn calendar

Most people plan their social life, but not their financial one. This season, we can focus on building a habit to make your money as visible as your literal brunch dates:

Every month, we’re going to block out:

• A payday ritual: reflect, reallocate, reset your budgets and automations

• Wealth date: once a month track your net worth, your savings goals and wins, and whatever you’ve learned from reading or listening to podcasts

• Play date: yes — a guilt-free “spend day”. Buy something that aligns with your values, in the name of someone that commits to the rituals and learning habits we’ve outlined above.

Over time, this helps you build a system in your life. That’s what gives you confidence.

Building confidence, especially financial confidence, comes from a rhythm you set for yourself through habits and rituals.

Confidence is not built through restrictive, icky rules you place on your spending or saving.

4. The friendship economy

Make it a habit to practise talking about money in low-stakes ways.

Ask your friends how they invest, save, or budget — not to compare, but to de-shame the topic and normalise it.

As a creator, I find this practice so soothing. As soon as I release a thought, or a feeling out into the world through content, I always feel better about any guilt or shame I associate to that topic.

When you bring money into everyday conversation, it loses its weight. It becomes something you share, not hide.

Also, in this day and age, it’s a radical act to normalise financial conversations with women you love. It turns money from something isolating into something communal, and something that bonds you.

Money is so connected to our sense of self and our confidence, it’s okay that it’s an intimate topic, and we should leverage it to deepen our bonds with friends. You’ll be surprised how many of your friends are craving the same transparency.

5. The Autumn Audit

Awareness is your most profitable habit, and you’ll never hear me shut up about this.

Every quarter, ask yourself three questions:

1. Where did my money go?

2. What did it give me in return (peace, time, confidence, stress, anxiety)?

3. What do I want to feel differently next quarter?

I always used to think that financial confidence was the absence of mistakes. Lucky for you, I was intensely wrong. It’s the presence of awareness. This reflection turns your finances into a feedback loop instead of letting shame build in your body.

6. The wealth aesthetic

Finally, romanticise it. Finances will always feel easier when the process actually feels like you.

Here’s how to make a financial habit feel like your lifestyle:

• A clean digital setup: Notion, trackers, or your FHG templates.

• Thoughtful purchases when you spend: fewer, better, chosen with intention.

• Soft, Autumn jazz laylists and matcha while managing your accounts (duh)

You’re way more likely to stay consistent with something you enjoy looking at (and this certainly isn’t unique to money). You can’t bully yourself into financial wellness, financial hotties. You have to fall in love with it.

The Financially Hot bottom line

Don’t give up on yourself or your finances, just because it’s Autumn.

Try one of these habits to create a financial rhythm that feels good and sustainable.

When you do that, money stops feeling like a secret you don’t understand and starts feeling like a language you speak fluently.

That’s what we build inside Earn, Keep, Grow — a system that turns financial literacy into a lifestyle.

👉 Join the waitlist here →

Remember, you don’t need a new personality or to know everything to be good with money.

Just like learning a new language, you just need a consistent, habitual rhythm. Start to build it, and the confidence will come.

This was simply because I’d never been disciplined enough to build one, and it often felt very performative for me to just do something because all the wellness girls on YouTube did it.

But at some point after turning 25, I slowly noticed that I had a life in front of me that wasn’t engineered for peace. I realised that I needed willpower too much: to work hard, to exercise regularly or even to drink enough water.

I realised that if I would just put a little upfront effort into implementing a few routines in my life, that life wouldn’t have to be hard. It would allow me to be lazy and low-maintenance and less stressed.

And guess what? A few years of routine implementation later, I lost 10kg, put on a buttload of muscle, invested £60k+, and started building a brand. Put simply;

Routine actions might be boring and they might be inconvenient at times. But routines build foundations that uphold the heavier parts of life. They allow you to stay sane, move through chaos and fall back on structure when times get tough.

𝜗ৎ In this issue:

• A weekly reset routine

• A financial routine

• A movement practice

• An annual life review

  • Financially Hot™ Intel

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A weekly reset routine

Whenever I think of a ‘reset’ routine, I think about perfectly organised meal prep or colour-coding your calendar. But over the years I’ve realise that while you can do those things, a real reset it about taking a little pause. And I think pausing your life on a weekly cadence vs a monthly one is a great way to stay aligned and present.

Whether you do it on a Sunday, Monday or a Friday (my personal favourite reset times) - this routine is about giving yourself 20-30 minutes every week to get your head on straight for the week ahead.

What it looks like:

• Review what actually happened last week vs what you planned to happen

• Pick three priorities for this week (plus, notice what priorities you kept forcing and just couldn’t get done)

• Clear your physical and digital spaces

• Check in with yourself about how you're feeling

I started doing this after realising I was constantly in reactive mode, just bouncing from one goal to the next. Now, I actively give myself compassion, stop and smell the roses, and feel more in control of my life. Really important things for me as a Type A Virgo 🥲

The magic isn't in the specific tasks you do weekly, it's in creating that pause between weeks where you can course-correct before you blink and wonder where the year went.

A financial routine

This is the one that's going to change everything for you financially, and it takes about 15 minutes every time you get paid.

I’ll briefly be the mean older sister here: if you don’t have a money routine, you cannot expect to get anywhere with your financial goals. Discipline isn’t just something reserved for physical fitness and athletes. You have to take action and show up for yourself, and that means spending a very small amount of time every month checking in on your finances.

Here's what you do:

1. Track your transactions from the last month (yes, even if it's scary - use the tracker I gave you here)

2. Pay yourself first: move payday money to savings/investments before you can spend it

3. Cover your essentials: rent, bills, food shops, care

4. Look ahead in your life: social commitments, events - what spending will you expect to do

5. Give every penny a purpose

6. Set, adjust and reflect on the story your transactions tell you

The amazing thing about this routine is it stops you from living payday to payday. You start each month knowing exactly where your money's going instead of hoping for the best.

I used to avoid my bank account like it was literally going to bite me. Now payday feels like a mini board meeting with myself where I'm making financial decisions and knowing where I’ll be in 6 months instead of closing my eyes and hoping for the best.

I’m creating a full workshop to:

→ teach you exactly what to do

→ do your payday routine with me every month

→ learn tried and tested strategies to managing money (reducing overspending and saving for specific goals) 

I’m making it fun, practical and EXCITING to work through. Final touches are being applied as we speak. It’s releasing next week.

If you want to know as soon as it’s out, click here! (this link is a confirmation page with more details on what it is)

A movement practice

This isn't about becoming a fitness influencer or doing hour-long workouts every day. It's about moving your body for 10-15 minutes daily, no matter what. And honestly this matters more than you think, and serves as a strong Financial Hot Girl wealth-building principle.

I used to think exercise was just about looking good, but once I lost my first 10 kilos I realised something more mental: the confidence I built in the gym literally transferred to every other area of my life. When I could see myself getting more disciplined physically, I started believing I could get stronger financially, professionally, everything.

What a movement practice looks like:

• Pick one thing you can do for 10 minutes every single day

• Focus on consistency, not intensity (see below for the energy matrix to stay consistent no matter your energy levels)

• Track it visually (even just ticking a box)

• Celebrate the habit, not the results

How to stay consistent: flex your movement practice based on your energy. This is the true definition of consistency, in that you are showing up in whatever capacity you can, not just white-knuckling 100% effort and building resentment.

Energy Level

Activity

Low (e.g. luteal phase)

Lunchtime stretch/Yin Yoga

Medium

At-home Pilates/Outdoor Walk

High

Gym/Lifting/Run

The point isn't what you do, it's that you keep a promise to yourself every single day to do it.

The real magic: People who exercise three times weekly are 24% more likely to regularly invest and 31% more likely to feel in control of their finances. Building a movement practice builds physical confidence which literally builds financial confidence.

An annual life review

This is the big one that most people avoid because it forces you to be brutally honest about where you actually are versus where you thought you'd be. But it's also the most powerful thing you can do for yourself.

Once a year (I do mine in early December when everything's winding down), I properly step back and assess my whole life. I pretend I’m a CEO reviewing their business, even though these days I kinda…. am.

What I review:

Area

Questions to Ask

Money

Am I earning what I'm worth? Where did my money actually go this year? What financial goals did I hit vs completely ignore or forget about?

Career/Business

Am I growing or just coasting? What skills do I need to develop? Is my work still serving me?

Relationships

Who adds energy to my life vs drains it? Am I showing up as the person I want to be? Have I nurtured my relationships this year?

Health

Where am I just going through the motions? Have I maintained any fitness/mental habits?

Personal Growth

What did I learn about myself this year? What patterns keep showing up? How do I feel different to last year?

Most of us go through life on autopilot. We think we're making progress, but we're actually just staying busy, whether you realise this is intentional or not. This annual audit forces you to look at the actual data of your life.

It doesn’t have to be a big process, it could be a journalling session, voice-noting yourself or done with a few friends or loved ones. But the important thing is to earmark the time and actually do it.

Last year's audit made me realise I was spending too much time on things that looked productive but weren't actually moving me forward. It was uncomfortable to admit to myself, but it led to some of the best decisions I've made, like launching and going full send with Financial Hot Girl 🫶

Money & business news dispelled to help you build wealth and have better conversations.

🗞️ In the UK, the Government relaunched The Pensions Commission (last seen in 2006). People aren’t saving enough for retirement, and the government is worried that they won’t have enough money to pay for retirements (via the state pension) given everyone’s living longer and may rely on their state pension because people are saving for their retirements less. This is a sign that our pensions system might not be reliable, and that we need to take retirements savings more seriously. (via MoneyWeek)

🔮 Phlur, a perfume brand co-owned by Chriselle Lim, sold to TSG Consumer Partners. This is such a strong example of how you can go from being an influencer and increasing your income to owning a brand and building something investable. It’s a story of how creative storytelling, community-focussed marketing and product quality can help you stand out in a seemingly saturated market, and allow you to build some serious equity. (via BoF)

🏖️ Affluent people in the UK’s ‘Palm Springs’ (Sandbanks) are nervous because Rachel Reeves (UK Labour Chancellor) is considering new wealth taxes. Some are considering leaving the UK entirely. What does this mean for wealthy or entrepreneurial people in the UK? This TikTok also had me pondering this question, albeit for slightly different reasons… but if entrepreneurship is stifled, then so is wealth creation… right? (via Business Mag)

🤖 The UK government just agreed to grant OpenAI (ChatGPT’s dad) access to government data, to test tools within education and other state services (think NHS, schools, police etc). This could mean an entrepreneurial opportunity: more demand for resources, content, training materials to help people use and understand AI here. It also means key concerns with data privacy, bias (if AI is used everywhere, and AI is already biased against underrepresented communities, that bias will grow), and digital exclusion. Either way, the UK is moving fast, and there is a strong gap both in opportunity and responsibility. (via BBC)

💄 L’Oréal announced a strategic partnership with… NVIDIA. L’Oréal is effectively trying to combine brand storytelling with tech, in going after hyper-personalised online experiences for consumers, using AI to spot trends ultrafast, and transform marketing (maybe especially for creator led campaigns) with AI-generated visuals. This is a glimpse into where future opportunities might be hiding in the fusion of storytelling with scalable AI. Creators building tools, beauty-startups that are tech-first: keep an eye out. (via Cosmetics Business)

Did you enjoy this weeks content?

I was too excited about these business moves not to talk about them, but I wanna know if you find it useful or not.

Yes, I love the business and culture commentary

No, please stick to creator and finance tips

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See you in the comments,

— Dev xo

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