Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Ray Dalio (Part 2): Principles of Happiness, Grief, and What Money Can’t Buy
23 May 2025
In part two of Nicole’s conversation with Ray Dalio (founder of Bridgewater Associates and architect of the All Weather Portfolio), they move beyond the markets and into the personal. While part one tackled the economy, inflation, and portfolio strategy, this episode is all about legacy, happiness, and the limits of what money can buy. Ray opens up about the worst moment of his life, how he defines success, and what he hopes the next generation takes from his journey. It’s a rare side of one of the world’s most influential investors—and a conversation that will stick with you long after the episode ends. Pre-order Ray's latest book How Countries Go Broke here. Find all of Ray's books here.
Full Episode
I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. If you caught the first part of my conversation with the one, the only Ray Dalio, you know we went deep into the economy, inflation, debt cycles, and how to brace your portfolio for whatever comes next. It was classic Dalio.
Big ideas, tons of data, all grounded in decades of market experience. But in part two, we get versatile. Ray may have built the world's biggest hedge fund and coined concepts like the all-weather portfolio, but today we go beyond the balance sheet. We talk about life, about happiness, about what money can and can't buy.
He shares what he calls the worst moment of his life, and it has nothing to do with money. For the first time in an interview, he opens up about the death of his oldest son in 2020. Ray also opens up about what he wants his legacy to be, how he hopes the next generation thinks about success, failure, and meaning.
These are the kinds of conversations that don't show up in earnings reports, but they matter just as much, if not more. And I have to say, this is one of those rare interviews, and I even have chills as I'm saying this, that has stayed with me and will stay with me long after we stopped recording. Let's get into it.
And you have all the money in the world or access to all of the money in the world. We can agree on that. But you haven't been immune from pain. You and your family haven't been immune.
That's right. Every painful experience is a learning lesson. Yes.
And so that brings us to the age-old question, does money bring you happiness?
There's an amount of money that is good. What's that amount? Look, why money? Why money has to do with, is money something that brings your family security? It's freedom, freedom of choice. It's power to do the things you want to. You can have a dream and you can build it out. Money brings you all of that. It can bring you health. It can bring you many, many wonderful things, okay?
As it starts to be status or showing things off, insecurity, feeding it, that's not healthy. I believe that's not healthy. And I think people can get hung up on that. In my view, I think people really have to make sure it's not a reflection of an unhealthy state of mind or an unhealthy pursuit as much as it is the security, the freedom, and then the ability to savor things.
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