Aurora Culpo
Appearances
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah. I think if you're going through a divorce right now, it's important to zoom out your perspective and see what is actually most important. And I don't think it's trying to find that exact dollar amount that would make everything fair. The goal is to move on in your most empowered version of you. And you can't do that if you have lost sleep for a year trying to
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
make everything as fair as possible. And that's the place that I was in with just, I got obsessed with the deal and what was going to be signed and the numbers. And it just made me miserable.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
So eventually when all was said and done and whether I didn't feel like everything was as equitable as it could have been, but it left me at least with enough sanity left to move forward and just focus on the future.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I should have a plan. What's my plan?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Now the powers are with you. Yeah. Which is exciting. It's exciting. I play it safe. I don't overspend, but I also don't invest. So I start investing. I probably should. Right.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Because I think a lot of women don't realize that, I think this is more common than not. So he paid for the mortgage and he paid for everything that was on the books and And all my money went towards things that we didn't really keep track of, like groceries and kids stuff. So all my money, like I had no record pretty much of where all my money had gone.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And then he had this record of, oh, look, I paid for everything for our life for the last however many years. So that made it difficult when trying to convince a court that I had any right to equitable division.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah, that was kind of a joke. Definitely, I won't be going back anytime soon. But my dating life is just, I don't know if it's the pool of men that is just in LA, but there's some hopefuls. I think there's a nice guy out there somewhere for me. I just have not met him yet.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And the people that I have met are these like Peter Pan syndrome type guys who have never been married, never been in a relationship, really, and are like in their 40s. There's a lot of them, at least in the west side of LA. They're the surfer boys. Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Um, but I think it's also that I'm on Raya and in order to be on Raya, you have to be considered an artist and I need, they need to be like a finance guy app. Do you have one?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
There was one that was really weird. There was one and he wouldn't let me see his apartment. He wouldn't let me... He left me in a parking garage because he didn't want me to go into his apartment because he was embarrassed that it was so small. That one was bizarre. He was also younger than me.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I think it's more intimidating for people that I have two kids and a big girl life rather than that I make money.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah. I don't think that's usually a problem. But I... think it's intimidating to people that I take care of two children and they're alive and well. It's amazing. Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Never. Should I?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I don't either. I didn't. You know, sometimes I will if I don't like the guy and I just, that's actually probably such a rude thing of me to do. But sometimes in order just to give him the hint that like, I'm not really into it in that way, I'll offer to pay.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah, exactly.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
My sister Olivia thinks she does, and it's so annoying because her finances have... So when she won Miss Universe in 2012, she had a business manager. And she's always had a business manager ever since then. And so she thinks that she is the most financially literate because she's the richest. But no, that's not how it works. She's so annoying. She was like, you shouldn't be renting.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yes. I guess I don't fully believe that that's possible. Why not? I don't know. I feel like it's always a risk to do something with your money. And I guess I'm afraid because I don't feel like I know enough about how to do it right.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
You need to buy something. You're just throwing away money every month. Like, yeah, I know that's what you think, but it's actually more complicated than that. When you think about like property tax and all of the other money that you're just throwing in interest, my interest alone would probably be what my rent is right now.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah. So I'm not really, not really dying to do that. Unless there's some really great deal, but you're also not getting an amazing value in Southern California for your money. I don't think so. Do you?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I always call my dad. That's it. But maybe I do need to go to somebody else because he has that old school mentality. I think the way we make money, that was one thing that I really had to get over in my head. He was always like, you build like brick by brick and you show up every day. And then like you put the money in here and in 10 years, it's going to look like.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And the way I started making money was in no way like that at all. It was like when I felt safe in my marriage financially and I could just take risks. And like the most money I ever made on a deal was something that just can't Came easily. Wasn't something that I like built brick by brick. So I don't like that mentality.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I'm an independent. I know, but I'm cheap and I'm like, I don't want to pay you to tell me what to do with my money because maybe it's that I don't trust them.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I don't know how much time you got. This is a whole other episode. Probably the divorce situation, all that. Now I just... So where should I find a financial advisor who's going to tell me where to invest?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's a win-win. Why not? Or just take a consultation. Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I think my one piece of advice would be definitely to have a prenup and it's not personal. It is empowering and it's your financial safety. And then in the marriage, I also think you should be keeping track of who's spending what. Not in a tit-for-tat way, but just have a record of it.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah. I don't know why I don't do that. Let's do it. Yeah. Today's the day. Today's the day. I thought you were going to be like, invest in crypto.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Absolutely not. There's one of the sweatshirts there that says, told you so, crypto bro. Oh my God. I need to wear that. We're going to get when I see my ex-husband tomorrow and be like, told you so, crypto bro. Is he a crypto guy? He's definitely one of those Feels like he's on the leading edge of something, but it really scares me. But it always ends up working out okay for him.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I don't know what happened with his crypto stuff. That's the other thing, like when you go through a divorce with the finances. The crypto is just, you can't really do much for it. I don't even think a court can order somebody to show their crypto.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
So when you were going through it, what did... I just didn't ask and we didn't touch it. And that was it. That was that. So you didn't get any of it? No, I didn't get any cryptos. But do I want them? I don't think that they're there anymore anyway. Some kinds of crypto, maybe. Maybe. Do you know what kind? Bitcoin? It was Bitcoin and Ethereum. Yeah, you might want some. Yeah, maybe. I don't know.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
That's done with. He can have his fake money.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
The transition's been such a learning experience. I think you get better the more you do something. I did have a co-host in the beginning of my podcast, so that was nice for somebody to be there to help. kind of help the conversation along. And then just with my divorce, I mean, I guess it's kind of two separate subjects, but it paralleled that.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Like when I started, my podcast was actually when I also first moved into a place by myself. So it was kind of like just the season of becoming very independent and I think that's scary, but also it builds a certain self-esteem that I think you can't do when you have a partner, whether it's a co-host or a husband. So I think I've become a little bit stronger along the way.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah, for sure. Not really an option.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yes. You always lived with somebody? Yes. I never didn't have a roommate. I was never afraid to live alone. It was just, first of all, why would you live alone when you're a young girl and you can split rent with somebody else? So I just always had a roommate. And then I met my ex and I lived with him. We And after, so we bought a house together and we were married. He bought me out of that.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And then now I'm renting. And next year, I think I want to buy. But it just feels like such a weird time to buy. Like, I feel, especially in Southern California, it's like what you can get, I don't know, because mortgage interest rates are so high and... It just feels like a scary time to buy. So I've been renting.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And also because when you move out of a house for the first time, I needed to move somewhere. And so I didn't want to pull the trigger and buy something. And then maybe it was going to work. Maybe it wasn't.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Well, I just hate the idea of the money kind of being thrown away every month. But it's true. It seems like it's been the best option for me right now. Do you feel like renting is good for some people?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
That's true.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah, I don't know. I think I have this old school idea of property being the only way to invest. Probably my dad. He was one of those people who bought up a bunch in 2008, bought a bunch of property and made a lot.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah, I know. That's the only way that I've learned is like a safe way to invest your money.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I do feel like it's overpriced because when I like what I pay for rent and what, for instance, my sister pays the same amount in a mortgage and her house is five times the size of mine. Rent is just and we live in comparable neighborhoods in Southern California. But she bought her house a couple of years ago. I just started renting last year.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I think I got screwed with the rental market a little bit. It's just really high for what you get.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Right. Well, it's also where I work most of the time, too, because a lot of the content that I shoot is at my house. I record at my house sometimes, my podcast. So I spend a lot of time there.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I'll be happy when I buy a house. I'm a control freak about like my space. I love home decor. I've flipped houses before and I love designing. I've done that a few times with my ex. And so I, it kind of drives me crazy that I can't like, that I don't own my space. I think that's the psychological part that drives me a little crazy.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
It's so true. And I think I realized that when I was married, too, because we bought, like, my dream house, and I renovated it exactly how I wanted it, and I got my perfect sink that I loved from Italy and all that. And then I still was like, mm... thought I'd feel different. And I don't, you know, you have your kids, you get the babies.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I don't want to spoil alert anything for you, but they really don't complete you. If anything, they are a mirror to everything that you really still need to work on in yourself. And I think that's another thing I thought with kids too, that it was going to be like, my heart will be whole and complete.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
It's like, no, you're just going to be really tired and madly in love with these things that you have no control over. And now a piece of your heart lives outside of you and you can be worried about them for the rest of your life.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah, I was never going to be happy in that situation. We weren't meant to be lifelong partners.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I think in a way I really wanted to be a mom more than anything. And this is my boyfriend that I had been with for a long time who I really loved. I still really love him. He is a super independent kind of person who really told me pretty much from the start in many ways that he was never going to be like a family man. He never really wanted to be married. He still doesn't. And I forced it.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And I was like, I think I thought that Once we have the kids, he's going to change his mind. And once we're married, he's going to change his mind. But he really just never did. And he was never really like the kind of partner that I wanted, like somebody who really wanted to do things together and be real partners. And that showed up in more ways than one.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And then I couldn't really ignore it anymore. It was a hard decision to make. And my parents were not behind it. I still have friends who are like, you guys should just get back together. And honestly, sometimes like in the dating world, I'm like, he wasn't that bad, actually. This was a journey I was meant to be on because I think I really do.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I never would be happy unless I proved to myself that I could do it alone. I think that's kind of part of my journey.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Totally.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Oh, yes. Yeah. In that way, for sure. One of the things that I feel so deeply about is that women should never be stuck in a situation because they can't financially afford to live independently or be divorced. I can't imagine not having had that as an option. My situation wasn't like I wasn't in a domestic abuse situation or anything that was life threatening.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
But there's like really women all the time who can't leave. dangerous situations because they literally can't afford it.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah, it's so empowering having your own money because it's your own freedom. And I worry for women who are putting all their hope in a man, not building a career of their own and staying home with kids. I like that idea, but it makes me worried because you don't have a backup plan and you're really counting on this man just staying with you forever. And statistics just don't support that.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Oh, it was brutal. It was a nightmare. Because now you're at the whim of lawyers also who... I mean, the billing situation, to me, it's criminal. They can charge whatever they want. You don't really know what's going on.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And there's like this discovery process where you need to wait for everybody to like basically show all their cards and then eventually go in front of a judge if you don't figure it out through some. We ended up mediating mostly because I didn't want to pay for lawyers anymore.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
It was like at least all said and done, close to $100,000. Yeah. And his too? No. His wasn't. I don't know why his was so much cheaper. I think maybe because he wasn't really asking questions. I do think I got screwed with my lawyers. Actually, I had one lawyer and then all of a sudden there was just like this automated response that she had left the firm and they gave me somebody new. What? Yeah.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
It was so frustrating.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
It's on the clock. And sometimes they'll try to act like they're your friend, like you're having a conversation and they almost are taking advantage of you during this very vulnerable time. They're billing you for that. Or sometimes when you, it's an emotional time, like you have an emotional response to a lot of these. Of course.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
things that you're questions that you're being asked and they're just so deadpan they don't have they do this every day and they're not a therapist they're they shouldn't be expected to be one but i don't know i had a really bad experience at that point because you're emotional and yeah the whole thing is emotional and you don't think like you're on the clock I had a bad experience with lawyers.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I don't think I've needed like rehab. I think I've played it safe, which is nice because I feel like I've never been in like dangerous debt, but I've also never really known what to do. I feel like my financial situation has gone from like the powers of my father to the powers of my ex-husband. And now I'm a year divorced. So now I'm like, well, I guess nobody's coming to save me.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Oh, yeah, yeah. That is true, actually. If I make over a certain amount of money, then he pays... Because we didn't do a normal child support situation. So basically, if I make over a certain amount, then what he has to give me in child support goes down a little bit. It's not very much anyway, because our earnings are almost equal.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
And I was fine to sign off on that, because I'm like, if you don't need to pay me, then I don't want your money. And... Some of the deal, I'm like, I just want it to be done. And I signed off on something that I'm not thrilled about. So when I got bought out of the house, it's overtime without interest monthly. But it's what he could do. And I want it to be done. That was annoying.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
Yes.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
No, I know. And my dad was like, that's the stupidest thing in the world that you signed that. But I needed to be done. I needed to be out.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
we did not have a prenup.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
No, I don't know. I don't know if it would have changed much. It's changed how I feel about marriage. And because I never in a million years thought that finances would be one of our point of contentions. Like it never was ever. And I was, that was what I liked about him the most actually is that he's very generous and not like stingy or weird.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
about money with all his friends and anybody in his life. But then, I don't know, divorce makes things hard.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Rewriting Your Money Story After a Major Life Shift with Aurora Culpo
I'd want to get married again, but definitely have some kind of agreement. Prenup. Prenup. Yeah. Just not because I'm anticipating divorce, but just...