Nicole Lapin: Financial Fitness

Financial journalist Nicole Lapin hopes her books can serve as “the Rosetta Stone for the language of money.”

Nicole Lapin ’05, who got her start as a business reporter and anchor for CNN, has made it her mission to help young women understand — and join in on — money conversations. After reporting on the financial crisis, she joined CNBC and later Bloomberg as an anchor but then realized that she needed to reach people beyond the typical network news audience, “and that financially independent women needed the most guidance,” she says. Lapin’s solution came in the form of her New York Times best-selling book, Rich Bitch (Harper Collins, 2015), which provides a 12-step plan for getting your financial life together. The second in the series, Boss Bitch, comes out next March. She hopes her books can serve as “the Rosetta Stone for the language of money.” Lapin’s advice breaks some of the accepted financial truisms, because, she says, depriving yourself for financial health doesn’t stick long term. Instead, rethink conventional wisdom to start thinking for yourself. “You hear all the time, ‘Don’t buy that latte!’ Well, why not buy that latte?” asks Lapin. Just make it a part of your budget first. “Knowing the rules and asking if something can be done in a different way is something that I have done throughout my life.”