Nicole Lapin
speaker
12,527 appearances
64 recordings
1 series
first heard Sep 2025
last heard yesterday
Nicole Lapin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 61 in all, peaking in Oct 2025 with 11.
Appearances
Okay, so what about the bonds that you already own, probably without even knowing it?
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If you have a 401k or an IRA and a target date fund, you know, the kind that's named after the year you plan to retire, congratulations, you definitely own bonds because inside that fund is a recipe, mostly stocks when you're younger and more bonds as you get closer to that retirement year.
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that's on purpose bonds don't grow your money over time the way stocks do but they don't swing as wildly so they're basically the seat belt when stocks slam on the brakes bonds are what keep you from going through the windshield and a stretch like this one where bonds fall is the price of wearing that seat belt it does not mean the strategy is broken so before you panic do one thing just
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Just log in, find that pie chart, see what slice is actually in bonds and check the year to date number, not this week's.
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And if you pay somebody to manage your money and they've been buying individual bonds on your behalf, you're allowed to ask two questions.
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What exactly do I own and why?
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And if they can't answer both in plain English, that tells you something too.
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Here's my hot take.
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Stop outsourcing your home buying decisions to a forecast.
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At the start of this year, Fannie Mae predicted mortgage rates would hover near 6% through 2027.
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The Mortgage Bankers Association predicted 6.1% by the end of the year.
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Neither of those predictions accounted for a war in the Middle East and a bond market meltdown because nobody can predict those kinds of things.
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Every single housing forecast you read is a guess dressed up in a beautiful chart.
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If you wait for that forecast to be right, you're probably going to be waiting forever because the forecast is wrong constantly.
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It's just wrong in a different direction each time.
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So how do you actually choose when is the right time to buy a home?
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I mean, maybe ever, as you know, I'm a huge fan of renting and then investing your down payment instead of sinking it all into a home.
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But if you really do wanna buy, I wrote a three-part test in Rich Bitch years ago, and it holds up better than any rate prediction I've ever seen.
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You'll need to say hell yes to all three of these things.
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One, you're gonna live in it for a while, ideally five years or more.
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Showing 461–480 of 12,527 · page 24 of 627
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