Today, Nicole makes a special announcement — and along the way, teaches you why interest rates can help you keep your finger on the pulse of the best investments available in any economic climate. Pre-order Nicole's upcoming book The Money School HERE! All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Open to the Public Investing, member FINRA & SIPC. Public Investing offers a High-Yield Cash Account where funds from this account are automatically deposited into partner banks where they earn interest and are eligible for FDIC insurance; Public Investing is not a bank. Cryptocurrency trading services are offered by Bakkt Crypto Solutions, LLC (NMLS ID 1890144), which is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the NYSDFS. Cryptocurrency is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and has the potential for loss of the entire amount of an investment. Cryptocurrency holdings are not protected by the FDIC or SIPC. Treasury accounts offering 6 months T-Bills are offered by Jiko Securities, Inc.,member FINRA & SIPC. Securities in your account are protected up to $500,000. For details: www.sipc.org. Banking services and the Bank Accounts are provided by Jiko Bank, a division of Mid- Central National Bank. For U.S. Investments in T-bills: Not FDIC Insured; No Bank Guarantee; May Lose Value. Treasuries risk disclosures, see https://jiko.io/docs/treasuries_risk_disclosure.pdf. See public.com/#disclosures-main.
Chapter 1: Why does Nicole Lappin hate fees?
You have probably heard me call myself the fee police because I hate, hate, hate fees. It makes it really hard to stay on budget, which then can delay our financial progress. When we're trying to make progress, life's curve balls often feel like taking one step forward and two steps back.
Chapter 2: What are the benefits of using Chime for financial progress?
A time checking account makes financial progress easier with features like no maintenance fees and fee free overdraft up to 200 bucks or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you go to Chime.com slash MNN, you'll see all the reasons I love Chime. Like, did you hear me say that Chime allows you to overdraft up to $200 with no fees?
Chime also has no monthly fees or maintenance fees. And Chime has over 50,000 fee-free ATMs. So as the fee police myself, I approve. Make progress toward a better financial future with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN as in Money News Network. Chime feels like progress. It's me talking about public again, obviously. Are you surprised?
It is my favorite brokerage after all. By now you know Public is the only place I personally buy bonds. If you haven't heard my spiel, in the olden days, I would buy treasuries through the government website and it would always take forever. And also the branding was horrible. It kind of looked like the Toys R Us website back in the day. But with Public,
Chapter 3: How can you invest in bonds and other assets with Public?
it's simple and easy to invest in treasuries right from your phone. There are literally thousands of bonds to choose from on public, not just government bonds, corporate bonds too. You can use public for more than just your bond investments, of course. On public, you can invest in stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, and they even have a high yield cash account where you can earn 4.1% APY on your cash.
And there's an exciting new offering on public that I cannot wait to tell you about. Now you can invest toward your future self through retirement accounts. On public, you can open a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA or both. I mean, why not? If you're looking for a simple yet sophisticated investing experience, head over to public.com slash money rehab.
One more time because trust you will thank me later. Public.com slash money rehab. This is a paid endorsement for public investing. Full disclosures and conditions can be found in the podcast description. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. So tomorrow, my fifth book, The Money School, comes out. How crazy is that?
Chapter 4: What is Nicole's special announcement about her new book?
And I don't write books just to write them, I promise. I keep writing them because the rules of the financial game keep changing. And I want you to not only be able to play, but to win. So this week, I'm going to share some financial strategies that I break down in the book. But first, let's talk about why I have to write all of these dang books in the first place.
Like I said, it is the financial game that keeps changing, and it's all because of one key player. interest rates. When I wrote Rich Bitch and then Miss Independent, two of my previous books that talk about financial markets, interest rates were super low, like unnaturally low.
Chapter 5: How do changing interest rates affect investments?
Changing interest rates by small percentages or fractions of a percent might not feel like a big deal, but it is the biggest of big deals in the financial world. To give you some context on this, interest rates were set to nearly zero after the housing crisis of 2008. This was done to try and prop up the economy because it was completely in the dumps.
And then during the pandemic, when the dump caught fire, interest rates plummeted again. Once things stabilized, as we all remember, the Fed then started picking interest rates up off the floor and interest rates got, quote, high. I put that in air quotes right now. I know you can't see that, but that's what people were saying. Interest rates are so high.
And while they were high relative to COVID doomsday times of zero, I mean, the Fed got up to around 5.3 percent. It was nowhere near all time highs. In the 1990s, interest rates were hovering around 5 percent, too, but got as high as 10 percent. Then a decade before that, in the 80s, interest rates flirted with 20 percent. I mean, I'll say it again, 20 freaking percent.
So if you got used to a world of rock bottom interest rates, it's time to snap out of it. It was a decision made by the Federal Reserve to keep us from financial Armageddon. Lowering interest rates is an emergency move, not the norm. The narrative generally is that higher interest rates are bad. But that's an oversimplification.
Sure, if you're a borrower looking to buy a home or to get a business loan, higher rates are not ideal because you'll be paying more on your loan in interest over time. But if you're an investor in high interest bearing vehicles or a savvy saver, this is excellent news for you because you will be earning more over time.
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Chapter 6: Are higher interest rates good or bad for investors?
Interest rates are the heartbeat of the financial world and help us put our finger on the pulse of the best place for us to put our money. When rates are low, traditional savings accounts and fixed income investments offer modest returns, nudging us toward finding our higher yields in the stock market.
This shift has led to a surge in stock market investments over the last 10 years, with average returns hovering around 9% after adjusting for inflation. But when interest rates rise, the allure of investments like bonds and CDs increases. So higher interest rates aren't better than lower interest rates. They're just different. I know that sounds simple because it is.
What's a little more complex is understanding that in different interest rate environments, you should be making different investing decisions. Or if that sounds too overwhelming, you should implement a strategy that can hold steady in different economic climates. That is what I'll teach you how to do in my new book.
In The Money School, I'll help you understand how the changing interest rates will change the game because rates will shift again. The only constant in life and on Wall Street is exactly that, change. So when, not if, it happens again, you'll be ready. While the economy has and will evolve, solid investing principles haven't and won't.
And no matter who you are or where you are in your investment journey, you'll Success starts with mastering those fundamentals. As you know, I didn't learn this stuff at home. I didn't learn it at school. And I don't say this to brag because this and five dollars will get me an oat milk latte. But I did really well in actual school, like really, really well.
Like I was the valedictorian of my high school and my college well. But throughout my schooling and all of the excelling that I did in it, I never, ever learned any basic financial lessons, anything. I mean, I got a freaking college diploma with all the bells and whistles without ever learning what a stock or a bond is. That should be illegal.
The schools I went to didn't teach me anything like what you'll find in this book, and I doubt the schools you went to did either. I had to learn this stuff in the illustrious School of Hard Knocks. And during my deepest, darkest days when I was elbow-deep in credit card debt or depressed in eating brown rice and beans because it felt a little fancier than ramen but was the same price,
I desperately wanted to find a crash course to learn the practical money lessons to help me, but there wasn't one in plain English sans jargon. So I vowed that if I ever figured out how to get to the other side of my own financial fire, I would do everything I could to bring back buckets of water for those still caught in the flames. The money school is just that.
It is packed with all of the information I wish someone had taught me when I was taking my first steps toward long-lasting financial freedom by investing in the financial markets. In this book, I will be the professor that you never had, and honestly, I never expected to be, but always needed.
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