6 Months After the LA Fires: What Nicole Wishes She Knew Before Her House Burned Down

Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin

Money News Network

Education, Self-improvement, Business

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Six months ago, Nicole Lapin lost her home in the LA fires. Today, she opens up about what the last six months have really looked like: the emotional toll, the bureaucratic maze of FEMA and SBA, the painful process of replacing IDs and legal documents, and the financial strain of waiting on insurance. But this isn’t just a story of loss—it's a roadmap for anyone facing a crisis. Nicole shares hard-won lessons, must-do prep work (digital go-bags are non-negotiable), and why asking for help is not weakness—it’s strategy. Plus, she pulls back the curtain on the systemic cracks in disaster recovery that often go unspoken. 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 Public Investing, Inc., 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. *APY as of 6/30/25, offered by Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Rate subject to change. See terms of IRA Match Program here: public.com/disclosures/ira-match.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you take only one thing away from today's episode, money rehabbers, let it be this.
0:04.0	In my not so humble opinion, Public is the best brokerage for investing in bonds, stocks,
0:09.2	ETFs, options, and even crypto.
0:11.5	You can try it out for yourself and see why I love it so much at public.com slash money rehab.
0:16.5	Public is legit the only platform I use to buy bonds.
0:19.8	Before Public, I used to buy government bonds the hard way. Slow websites, confusing interfaces, website designs straight out of the early 2000s. Just picture where fun goes to die. That was it. And then I found Public. About five years ago, and I have not looked back. I can now finally buy bonds without wanting to rip my hair out.
0:39.1	Public makes it so easy to buy bonds, whether you're into treasuries or corporate bonds, you can
0:43.6	browse thousands of options right from your phone. But like I said, public isn't just all about
0:48.3	bonds. You can also find stocks and ETFs, and they offer a high-yield cash account with a 4.1% APY, which is higher than the
0:56.4	national average. They even have retirement accounts. You can now open a traditional or Roth IRA,
1:02.5	or both right on public. So your future self, covered. And for a limited time, you can earn a 1%
1:09.6	match on all your IRA deposits, IRA transfers, and
1:13.4	401k rollovers. If you want an investing experience that's both smart and simple, head to
1:18.6	public.com slash money rehab. One more time, public.com slash money rehab. This is a paid endorsement
1:24.3	for public investing. Full disclosures and conditions can be found in the podcast description.
1:28.7	Support for today's episode comes from Square,
1:31.0	a.k.a. the system powering pretty much half of the places I go on a daily basis.
1:35.1	If you've ever tapped your phone to pay and thought, well, that was easy.
1:38.7	It was probably Square.
1:40.4	And right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at Square.com slash go slash MNN.
1:48.2	That's SQUA-R-E.com slash G-O-M-N-N, as in Money News Network.
1:55.7	Visit Square to get started because the right tools make all the difference.
	...

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