Lim was educated at Raffles Institution,[2] before graduating from Girton College at the University of Cambridge in 1981, majoring in mathematics and engineering, under the Overseas Merit Scholarship.

She subsequently went on to complete a Master of Business Administration degree in finance at Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1989.

[2] In 1989, she joined Swiss Bank Corporation as an investment analyst before moving on to Jardine Fleming in 1992, where she served as Head of Research and Director of Business Development.

She was inducted into the Singapore Council of Women's Organisation (SCWO) Hall of Fame on 31 March 2010, and she received the Her World Woman of the Year Award on 23 April 2010.

She subsequently stepped down from the Central Executive Committee of the PAP,[10] and announced that she was retiring from politics and would not be contesting the next general election, saying she was surprised by the depth of resentment felt by citizens towards the government.