Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin

Bill Ackman built one of the most closely watched hedge funds on Wall Street; when he speaks, markets move. Literally. Today, he joins Nicole to break down the opportunities he’s seeing in the market, which companies are in his portfolio, and what could trigger the next 2008.

Bill walks Nicole through his investing playbook, the biggest mistake new investors make, and whether we’re in an AI bubble. Then, Nicole and Bill play a rapid-fire round of Bullish or Bearish where Bill gives his takes on gold, Bitcoin, Chipotle, Starbucks, T-bills, Trump, and Mamdani. Bill also gets personal about his inheritance plans for his four daughters, what he actually thinks makes someone successful in business, and whether he would run for office.

Check out Nicole's financial literacy course⁠ ⁠The Money School⁠⁠

Find a Financial Advisor or Financial Coach from Nicole's company⁠ ⁠Private Wealth Collective⁠⁠

Watch video clips from the pod on⁠ ⁠Money Rehab's Instagram⁠⁠ and⁠ ⁠Nicole Lapin's Instagram⁠⁠

⁠Follow Bill Ackman⁠ on X

Learn about ⁠Pershing Square⁠

Here's what Nicole covers with Bill:

00:00 Are You Ready for Some Money Rehab?

01:14 Bill Ackman on the State of the Economy Right Now

03:00 Who Wins the AI Race: OpenAI vs. Anthropic vs. SpaceX

04:31 Why a Great Business Is Like a Bond

05:56 Is the Stock Market Too Expensive Right Now?

07:01 Where to Put Your First $1,0000

7:39 Inside Pershing Square's 12-15 Stock Portfolio

09:22 Democratizing Hedge Funds with PSUS

10:39 Buying Stocks at a Discount

11:18 Apple's Innovation Problem and Life After the iPhone

12:33 The Best Advice for New Investors

14:06 Are We in an AI Bubble?

16:46 Predicting the Future and the Next Financial Crisis

17:52 Why You Should Never Borrow Against Your Stocks

19:20 Carl Icahn's Billion-Dollar Leverage Cautionary Tale

20:16 The Worst Investing Advice He's Ever Heard

23:00 Fixing the Retirement Crisis

25:48 Bullish or Bearish: Gold, Bitcoin, Chipotle, Starbucks, Trump and Mamdani

33:30 What It's Like When Your Tweets Move Markets

35:15 Would Ackman Ever Run for Mayor of NYC?

38:01 The World He Wants for His Four Daughters (and His Inheritance Plan)

42:25 The Real Formula for Success in Business

44:21 Bill Ackman's Tip You Can Take Straight to the Bank

All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any financial decisions or investments.

Comedian and creator Laura Clery built a media empire of 26 million followers, and then watched her marriage and her bank account collapse at the same time.

Laura opens up about the financial wreckage of her divorce: how her ex-husband's relapse and addiction affected their financial lives, how she ended up paying two mortgages at once without fully understanding why, and the surreal moment she realized her water had been shut off. She walks Nicole through the costly mistake of choosing mediation over hiring a lawyer, why she couldn't afford the retainer when she finally needed one, and the moment her ex hacked her YouTube and Facebook accounts, deleting years of content and her entire livelihood in the process.

Nicole and Laura also get into the bigger financial lessons: why Laura now insists every woman keep her own separate bank account, how watching her mother stay in a difficult marriage without financial independence shaped her own choices, and how she rebuilt. But first, Laura shares about the freak accident that almost killed her.

Check out Nicole's financial literacy course ⁠The Money School⁠

Find a Financial Advisor or Financial Coach from Nicole's company ⁠Private Wealth Collective⁠

Watch video clips from the pod on ⁠Money Rehab's Instagram⁠ and ⁠Nicole Lapin's Instagram⁠

Get What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Hotter

If you or someone you know is struggling with the same issues Laura speaks of today, here are resources for addiction and domestic abuse

Here's what Nicole covers with Laura:

00:00 Are You Ready for Some Money Rehab?

02:03 The Freak Refrigerator Accident

12:24 The Inside Job Conspiracy

14:35 Writing What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Hotter

16:12 Early Money Dynamics With Her Ex

18:31 Booking TV Commercials

21:52 Becoming Facebook's Biggest Comedy Star

23:45 Who Really Controlled the Money

25:01 The First Relapse and Years in Recovery

27:00 Catching the Infidelity

29:53 When It All Went Public

32:00 "You're Not a Victim, You're a Volunteer"

37:08 No Prenup and Two Mortgages

39:53 The Day Her Water Got Shut Off

42:27 Choosing Mediation Over a Lawyer

47:00 The Hack51:14 Post-Separation Abuse

54:47 Why She'll Never Live With a Man Again

58:37 Her Parents' Marriage and the Cost of Staying

1:01:01 Why Every Woman Needs Her Own Bank Account

1:01:51 "Mommy Has Money Again"

1:02:39 Money Fixes Money Problems, Not Everything Else

1:05:54 Reframing the Mental Block

1:09:41 Laura Clery's Tip You Can Take Straight to the Bank

All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any financial decisions or investments.

As Chief Investment Strategist at Hightower Advisors, Stephanie Link spends her days researching the market’s winners. Today, she's breaking it all down for us. Stephanie explains why the economy keeps defying the doom-and-gloom headlines, which stocks she thinks will champion the next decade, and why she believes we're only in the third inning of the AI revolution.

Nicole and Stephanie get tactical fast: the difference between the Mag 7 and the "S&P 493," which stocks are not worth the hype, and Stephanie's thesis that cybersecurity stocks will end up being bigger than AI. She names her favorite tickers across cybersecurity, data centers, robotics, and quantum computing, and explains whether it’s too late to buy NVIDIA. Stephanie also gets real about the so-called "AI bubble," the circular spending debate freaking out investors, and why she bought SpaceX but capped it at just 2% of her portfolio.

Plus: what her 19-year-old daughter is investing in, why "FAANG" just got a 2026 update, and the one boring, unsexy ETF Stephanie says every new investor should consider.

Check out Nicole's financial literacy course ⁠The Money School⁠

Find a Financial Advisor or Financial Coach from Nicole's company ⁠Private Wealth Collective⁠

Watch video clips from the pod on ⁠Money Rehab's Instagram⁠ and ⁠Nicole Lapin's Instagram⁠ 

Read more about Stephanie’s work

Here's what Nicole covers with Stephanie:

00:00 Are You Ready for Some Money Rehab?

01:12 Stephanie Link Joins Money Rehab

01:41 Why the Market Keeps Defying the Doom and Gloom

04:07 CapEx, Decoded

06:58 The K-Shaped Economy: Why the Vibes Don't Match the Numbers

09:49 Inflation, Oil Prices, and the War's Ripple Effect

11:41 Mag 7 vs. the S&P 493: Which ETF Should You Buy?

16:16 Why Stephanie Says No to Leveraged ETFs

17:32 Cybersecurity Will Be Bigger Than AI

20:16 The Best Cybersecurity Stocks on Stephanie's List

23:15 How to Vet a CEO Before You Buy the Stock

25:16 Investing Lessons from Stephanie's 19-Year-Old Daughter

28:23 What Stephanie Won't Buy: Crypto, Staples, and Energy

32:20 Inside the AI "Food Chain": Powering the Data Center Boom

35:43 Robotics and Quantum Computing: The Next Big Themes

41:00 MicroStrategy vs. Palo Alto: What "On Sale" Really Means

43:07 FAANG Is Dead, Long Live MANGOES

43:47 Why Stephanie Bought SpaceX (and Kept It to 2%)

55:40 Is It Too Late to Buy NVIDIA?

59:06 Grading the Innings: AI, Cybersecurity, and Robotics

59:50 Hot Stocks: Micron, SanDisk, and the Chips Everyone's Chasing

1:02:27 Is There an AI Bubble?

1:03:16 The Circular Spending Debate

1:08:08 Stephanie Link's Tip You Can Take Straight to the Bank

All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making any financial decisions or investments.

Disclosures: Hightower invests in companies including Boeing Company, Dover Corp, General Electric, Quanta Services, Rockwell Automation, Union Pacific Corporation, Broadcom, International Business Machines Corporation, Marvell Technology Inc, ServiceNow Inc, Palo Alto Networks Inc, Snowflake Inc, Synopsys Inc, Bank of America, Capital One, Coinbase, Morgan Stanley, Truist Financial Corp, Amazon.com Inc, Meta, SpaceX, Alcoa Corp, Antofagasta PLC, Natera Inc, UnitedHealth Group Inc, iShares MSCI Brazil ETF, SLB Limited

Employment attorney Ryan Stygar joins Nicole to hand us the playbook our employers hope they never find. He breaks down what "at-will employment" actually means and the exact moves to make the moment you get that dreaded out-of-nowhere email from HR. He also reveals everything that's negotiable in a severance package: the cash amount, COBRA coverage, equity vesting schedules, and non-disparagement clauses, and shares how he turned a $6,000 severance offer into over $60,000 for one client.

Then Nicole and Ryan role-play a firing from both sides of the table — so you know exactly what to say and what never to say. They dig into the issues that disproportionately affect women at work: pregnancy discrimination (the number one form Ryan sees in his practice), his controversial-but-legally-sound advice to disclose your pregnancy early, what rights you have if you miscarry, and how return-to-office mandates are quietly being weaponized as stealth layoffs. 

Plus: AI keystroke monitoring, non-competes in the current legal landscape, and the interview questions that are totally illegal — that you're probably being asked right now.

Check out Nicole's financial literacy course ⁠The Money School⁠ Find a Financial Advisor or Financial Coach from Nicole's company ⁠Private Wealth Collective⁠ Watch video clips from the pod on ⁠Money Rehab's Instagram⁠ and ⁠Nicole Lapin's Instagram⁠ 

Get Ryan's book ⁠Get It in Writing⁠

Here's what Nicole covers with Ryan: 

00:00 Are You Ready for Some Money Rehab? 

02:01 Ryan's Path: From Firefighter to Workers' Rights Lawyer 

02:52 Nicole Gets Let Go From CNN 

03:44 Why HR Is Not Your Friend 

05:34 The Right (and Wrong) Way to Fire Someone 

06:41 It's Illegal to Fire Someone for Discussing Their Pay 

08:44 Building Your Paper Trail From Day One 

20:07 At-Will Employment, Explained 

24:50 What to Do the Moment You Get That HR Email 

26:31 Don't Sign Anything When You're Fired 

29:14 Severance Is Negotiable 

31:54 How Contingency Lawyers Can Help (Even When You're Broke) 

33:38 What Else Is on the Table: COBRA, Equity, and Non-Disparagement Clauses 

37:38 Role Play: Getting Fired (What Not to Do) 

39:23 Role Play: Getting Laid Off (The Right Way to Handle It) 

44:09 How a Good Employer Handles the Conversation 

46:34 Freelancers and the 1099 vs. W-2 Trap 

49:59 The Fear of Getting Blacklisted for Asserting Your Rights 

50:19 Sexual Harassment: Who's Most at Risk and What to Do 

52:44 Maternity Leave and Pregnancy Discrimination 

55:28 Controversial Advice: Disclose Your Pregnancy Early 

59:14 What to Get in Writing When You're Pregnant 

01:02:16 Your Rights If You Miscarry 

01:04:59 Return to Office as a Stealth Layoff Strategy 

01:08:10 AI Tracking and Keystroke Monitoring 

01:12:25 Non-Competes: What You Need to Know in 2026 

01:17:09 Illegal Interview Questions (Role Play) 

01:23:00 Ryan Stygar's Tip You Can Take Straight to the Bank

All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Always do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor or attorney before making any financial or legal decisions.

Nicole used to think insurance was a boring subject.... until she lost her home in the Palisades fire.

Today, she is teaming up with the ⁠Coalition for an Insurable Future⁠ to tell you about what you need to know about the insurance issue that could become the next great American financial crisis, and how to protect yourself.

In this episode, Nicole sits down with Chloe Demrovsky, one of the nation's leading voices on disaster risk and resilience. Nicole and Chloe break down the numbers: homeowners insurance premiums are up 74% since 2008, 40% faster than inflation, and 95% of American homeowners are already feeling it. Then they get tactical: what "uninsurable" actually means, the coverage gaps that catch most people off guard (spoiler: flood is not in your standard homeowners policy), and the exact steps to take before a disaster strikes.

Learn more about ⁠the Coalition for an Insurable Future⁠ and ⁠follow⁠ their work. 

Learn more about ⁠Chloe Demrovsky⁠ and ⁠follow⁠ her work.

#CoalitionForAnInsurableFuturePartner