Nicole Lapin demystifies the art of investing in the stock market and in yourself.
How to Make More Money According to a Pro
Theresa Gonzalez is a content creator based in San Francisco and the author of Sunday Sews. She's a lover of all things design and spends most of her days raising her daughter Matilda.
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Making more money than you do now requires thinking outside the paycheck: investing, getting out of debt, not being a slave to impulse buys, and working that side hustle. In this week's Teach Me Something New podcast, financial expert and bestselling author Nicole Lapin returns (by popular demand) to school Brit and Angelika on her money-making secrets. Here are some highlights:
Use your age as an investment strategy. "The rule of thumb is to take your age and then take that percentage and buy bonds," says Lapin. "So I'm 36. The rule of thumb is to put 36 percent of your whole portfolio into bonds, because that's going to reflect your general time horizon."
Get out of debt before you save. Before you invest or start a high-yield savings account, get out of debt so that those returns can actually compound for you. "When you get your debt situation under control, you'll ultimately make more because if you're starting to invest in your earning interest, it's just going to be canceled out by the interest that you're paying on debt," says Lapin.
Think about what you can teach. "I think investing in yourself will pay most dividends later on," says Lapin. That means going for that side hustle, or better, turning your passion into your own business. "Everybody has something to teach, whether it's history or basket weaving or whatever. There is somebody who will pay for that knowledge. So instead of focusing on how do I make more money, focus on 'what can I do to be of service?'," adds Lapin.
Hold back on the impulse buys. "Back in the day, I would have suggested 70 percent going to your essential expenses (your food, your housing, your transportation, all that stuff); 15 percent go toward the extras (the latte, the mani-pedi, the rainbow track suit that I'm currently wearing…) and then 15 percent for retirement, investing and savings," says Lapin. Now in the new normal, I would try to squirrel that back to 65 percent to essentials, 30 percent to the end game and then 5 percent to the extras because, you know, Amazon is like kryptonite and it's really nice to buy stupid crap. But I think we're all seeing that that doesn't make us happy."
Find out what Lapin thinks about robo-advisors, cryptocurrency, buying a home right now, and more in the latest Teach Me Something New!
