The Daily Interview: A Different Kind of Model Portfolio

Would you listen to a stock tip from a former model? Maybe you should.

Vanessa Summers Personal Finance Author

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Vanessa Summers, a former Ford model, worked as a stockbroker for Jardine Fleming(JFC Quote) in Hong Kong for five years after she quit modeling, and is now a registered investment adviser in California. In order to stress the importance of saving and investing for women, Summers recently wrote a book called Get in the Game! The Girls' Guide to Money & Investing.

Here Summers describes how she went from living paycheck to paycheck even as a highly paid model, to saving and investing with the best of them.

TSC: What's Get in the Game! all about?

Summers: I got it together at age 27, after I'd had two careers -- the first as a fashion model and the second as a stockbroker in Asia. Once I took control of my personal finances, I realized others could do the same. I've tried to spell it out in my book as basic, easy, fun and engaging information. It changed my life and how I felt about myself and what I felt I was capable of.

TSC: What on earth prompted you to become a broker with Jardine Fleming in Hong Kong? How did that opportunity come your way when you were a model at age 23?

Summers: It sounds like a stretch, but I did grow up with a family that was in banking and finance. My stepfather was president of a bank, Bank Espirito Santo in Miami, and my mother became a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch(MER Quote) when I was in my early 20s. Even though they didn't talk to me about money, I had wanted to exit the modeling world, which I joined at age 16, when I was 19 or 20. ...