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Charm is making money talk—and everyone's invited to the conversation.
This sit-down with Charm de Leon was nothing short of a full circle moment.
"I'm a big collector of Total Girl, K-Zone, and Candy. I grew up in the world of magazines, and then my classmates kept borrowing [them]. They would tear them; they wouldn't return them. So what I did was I charged them one peso a day to rent [them] out," she fondly shares a core memory to Cosmopolitan Philippines. "My classmates, being young, would leave [the magazines] at home. I was like, cha-ching, that's one more peso for me. They would forget it for a week? That's five pesos. I have this whole log book system."
Years after running her own Summit Media lending library (fun fact: she even made it into Candy's Style Files once!), she's now inside the publishing headquarters in 2025. But this time, the founder of Ready2Adult PH, Finance Director of Sugbo Mercado and Dual Story, and CEO of District Events is wrapping up her shoot as one of Cosmopolitan Philippines' Women of Influence awardees.
Charm de Leon For Cosmopolitan Philippines Women Of Influence 2025
Photographed by Miggy Broño
Even back then, her innocent—but smoothly strategic—approach to money was basically a script reading for the bigger role she'd play in adulthood. "I've always been entrepreneurial," she stresses. "I had my first business when I was in grade one. It's nothing fancy—I was just selling candies and bubble gums to my teachers and classmates."
Contrary to what people typically expect of kids, elementary student Charm would keep weekends productive by making pastillas from scratch: powdered milk, condensed milk, then rolled into "just sugar, sugar, sugar," she quips. "I was supplying them to sari-sari stores outside schools or our canteen." Monday was delivery day.
And today, these stories back up what anyone who's followed her online already knows: the now 31-year-old Charm is goal-oriented to the core. And you don't even need to meet her IRL to see it. With almost 250,000 YouTube subscribers—plus a separate audience on TikTok and Instagram—she's constantly dropping wisdom for those trying to get their life together.
"We won't let our finances bully us; dapat tayo 'yung in control!" Charm declares in a video about budgeting, a popular topic among Gen Zs and millennials. She's also discussed choosing investments, the basics of taxes, and retirement—you name it—all while making personal finance actually digestible. But some of her most relatable content sits in more vulnerable territory, like being a breadwinner—a lonely reality for many Filipinos that somehow feels like a collective experience.
Charm may juggle multiple roles, but there's a common thread: "I'm not a straight-A student at all. I [didn't] really excel academically, but I think it helps that there's common ground between everything that I'm doing, and that's finance."
"I'm looking for a man in finance," goes Megan Boni's viral TikTok song. It may be satire, but it speaks to how money-related industries are often seen as a man's world. But Charm? She's just happy to be here, sharing a love for personal finance that's been there all along. When digital banks started booming in 2019, her DMs turned into a financial helpdesk.
"One of my friends [told me], 'No you should just make a video, so that next time if someone asks you, just send a link and we can just watch a video of you talking about it, as if I was talking to you in person.'" Charm thought it was genius. "Literally, even before I started making content, [finance was all] I talked about. In dinners, inuman," she laughs. "That's really my personality, translated lang into an online persona."
As Cosmopolitan Philippines' Wealth Insider awardee for Women of Influence 2025, Charm gets real about being a woman in finance, her own relationship with money, and embracing adulthood. Move over, finance bros—this millennial entrepreneur-content creator is making money talk actually fun.
Charm: I studied architecture, so I didn't go [into] the business or finance field. I think a lot of people's personal relationship with money really stems from childhood.
I grew up in a broken family. When my parents split, we moved to a smaller house, and for a kid, you don't necessarily understand why, and I feel like that's when my frugality started. It's weird, because we were both taught a scarcity mindset and an abundance mindset. Magastos kami for a middle-class family, so obviously it's not good.
But at the same time, for example, new clothes—we were not allowed to wear new clothes unless there was an occasion. If we buy new clothes, we have to wait for our birthday or Christmas. We can't just wear it on a random Saturday, so we cherish these material things and really take care of them as well.
I feel like that mentality lang talaga [was a] big shift—from living in a modest house to an apartment na kami lahat. It [made me realize,] "Oh, I have to pull my own weight. I can't be a burden because we're struggling financially."
That's also what I tell people. If you're struggling with your relationship with money, try to think, why? Try to go back to your childhood [and] your elementary, high school, college days. Bakit ka magastos or bakit sobrang kuripot mo, and find a balance. That's what I'm also trying to do myself; I was super kuripot before, now I'm trying to find a balance [by] enjoying myself but also saving and investing. Finances [have] a lot of trauma and baggage.
Charm: One of the main reasons I started creating content, specifically my YouTube channel five or six years ago, was because the majority of the people I was watching were either in the U.S., or older men in suits, if they're Filipinos, right? It's hard for me to keep watching American content, because, of course, their banking system is so different from ours. Their legal system and tax system and all of that. So I was like, "Why isn't there a representation for younger millennials, working, yuppies, or, like, 20s, 30s na coming from a girl naman talking about money?"
Charm: I really made time for extracurricular activities. [Looking back], those are the things that really gave me a lot of experience and [improved me] to be a leader which is really essential if you're an entrepreneur. Leadership skills are very hard to teach in a classroom, and I feel like exposing myself to so many different people with so many different worldviews and different ways of handling things made me a better leader.
Charm: Hearing from the community. Ready2Adult PH has become a community much bigger than myself. I love hearing people help each other, tell each other their struggles about adulting, and people empathizing, "Oh, ako rin, this is happening to me."
Charm: When I started paying my own bills. Majority of the people, I think, feel [the same way]. They're responsible for their gastusin, even utility bills and all of that. But I kind of started being an "adult" early because I'm the breadwinner. I had full tuition, and one of my parents could not afford my tuition anymore, and, of course, I've always been entrepreneurial. In college, at that point that was just me and my mom, so I was dealt with the card na, "Oh, I have to support our household or I have to start helping." Then, I let go of some of my extracurricular activities, and I focused more time on my online shop.
Charm: When I turned 30, I had a little quarter-life crisis. There are things expected of you by society to achieve, and at that point, I didn't achieve them yet. I beat myself up for it to the point that I refused to celebrate my 30th birthday, which I really regret. But I got through it. I realized that it was dumb for me to [do that]. It's just a number, not a deadline. I can do so much more now in my 30s, because, when you're in your 20s, 'di ba, they say, you have a lot of time and energy, but you don't have the money? Right now in my 30s, I have a little bit of everything.
[Now] I think we're not as obsessed with having a picture-perfect family by the age of 28, 29. [My husband and I are] a DINK couple (double income, no kids) with dogs. We've been criticized about it by my followers and people in general: "Oh, you're choosing to have an [overconsumption kind of] lifestyle."
People are having kids much later now, compared to our parents. Honestly, I'm not against having them. I might have kids in the future, but at least I know that it's my choice and not what society wants me to do. I'm very glad that I have a partner who supports that; [he's] like, "I'm ready to have kids when you are. It's up to you, because it's going to be your body, so you'll go through that."
Charm: In my 20s, I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I had zero hobbies, because I was honestly working a lot—which I was happy about naman. I knew I needed to do that to set myself up for success in my 30s, 40s, etc. [Now in my 30s,] I love doing DIYs, home improvements, or renovations. I think it comes from my being an architect.
Charm: [When] I want to talk about those types of content to my audience, I put it in a [financial] angle pa rin. When I talk about fashion, I tell them that I love renting clothes, borrowing from friends, thrifting; [they're] more sustainable. I love shopping sales, marked down items.
I invest a lot in my skincare because I have sensitive skin, so medyo mahal . But I made a video where I broke down how much it would cost per day that it [would make] sense. [For example,] this skincare [product], it will last me six months, eight months, nine months, or one year. So even though it's expensive, it's going to last you long, and you won't have to keep on having facials, and it boosts my self-confidence.
Charm: Influence means that you have an impact in people's lives, and ideally that impact is a good one. So being a content creator, being an "influencer," I'm very careful to make sure I try not to alienate anyone.
I would always use the median or the average. I would not always use what works for me, unless I tell the audience, "Okay, this is what I do, you don't have to follow." May disclaimer siya dapat. We have our responsibility to make sure our content doesn't hurt anyone and ideally impacts their life in a good way. I put a lot of emphasis on that, because, especially in my line of content, it's very dangerous if I steer people in the wrong direction; it could be detrimental to their finances.
Charm: Oh my god, ang hirap! I keep saying kuripot but I don't want to brand myself with kuripot. [laughs] Mindfully kuripot, pwede bang two words?
Charm: It's something I thought would be a hindrance, because a lot of the positions in the industries that I'm involved in are heavily men. Businessmen and finance men, etc. But I'm so thankful that it has become an asset [or an] edge, so it's very empowering.
Charm: Elevating standards, because women are so good with the little details, and I feel like that coupled with our ability to have big ideas, be creative, and be hardworking, it's so powerful for us to be the "girl bosses" that we want to be.
Charm: Don't hate, educate. We see a lot of drama online, or entrepreneurs, business women, women fighting other women. Girls, let's support each other constructively, privately, and then come out the other side na kayong dalawa [na] better, [instead of] destroying each other's reputation.
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PHOTOGRAPHER: Miggy Broño
ART DIRECTOR: Ica Del Mundo, assisted by Bea Bognot and Bea Malonzo
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ida Aldana
PRODUCER: Alyana Olivar
MAKEUP: Jazthine Manaloto
HAIR: Nikko Bruel
STORY: Jelou Galang
VIDEO: Cherrie Julian, Jino Del Mundo, and Greeko Junio
SOCIAL MEDIA: Aina Lizarondo, assisted by Elsa Macalinao
