Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - How to Create an Investing Plan Like a Billionaire— Even If You're Not One Yet

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Have you ever wondered how Warren Buffett came up with his investment strategy? Today, Nicole pulls back the curtain. In this episode, Nicole breaks down how the investing pros create their investing theses, how they stress-test their own ideas, and three famous real-world examples that paid off. Then, Nicole will explain how you can create your own strategy— and how to easily execute on it... today. Paid endorsement. Brokerage services provided by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Investing involves risk. Not investment advice. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and investment values may rise or fall. See terms of match program at https://public.com/disclosures/matchprogram. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.

I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. If you've spent any time in the world of investing, you've probably heard the phrase investment thesis thrown around a lot. It sounds really fancy. But essentially, an investment thesis is simply answering a few key questions. What are you invest in? why? What could go wrong and how will you know if you're right? These questions are essential because they're your gut check. They'll help you decide if you stay the course or if you need

to switch up your strategy to actually hit your goals. Today I'm going to be breaking down how the pros build investment thesis and how you can do it too. I'll talk about what a real thesis looks like, the tools investors use to validate their ideas, how to stress test your own thinking and we'll look at three famous real world examples that have really paid off. And last but certainly not least, I'll tell you how you can easily invest in your own thesis. So be sure to listen till the very end to hear how you can get started today. At its core, an investment thesis is a clear distillation of the opportunities in the market. In my opinion, that is the easy part.

Where it gets tricky is where you also need to understand the risks that could break the thesis. and why you should believe there is room to grow. Let's take a simple idea like AI is the future. Okay, maybe it is. But that's not a thesis. That's a headline. A thesis turns that idea into something actionable, something testable, something testable, something like I believe enterprise AI adoption will accelerate over the next five years.

That growth will drive higher demand for GPUs benefiting chipmakers. I expect revenue to grow faster than the market currently prices in and I'm willing to hold through volatility as long as the company continues to expand margins and maintain technical leadership. That is so specific. It is so clear. It is so measurable. It also sounds very complicated and very formal and wonky. But this is actually a much easier exercise than it sounds. Here's the five-step framework used by hedge funds, venture capitalists, institutional investors, and now you. Step one, start with a big trend or a small inefficiency. This could be a macro trend like aging demographics or renewable energy or something very granular like this company's costs are falling

faster than competitors. Step two, narrow it down to a specific sector or company. Pros identify where in the value chain the upside is. So instead of picking AI, they look at semiconductors or cloud hosting, cybersecurity, or AI powered software. It's like deciding whether you want to invest in a bakery or the sugar factory. Step three, validate with quantitative and qualitative data. Professional investors get really, really nerdy here, and they go data diving. They look at 10Ks, which is like a financial report card for a company. They'll do supply chain checks.

They'll look at all the alphabet soup like P&D and Dibodas and P&Ls and on and on. Retail investors like us can access a lot of this information on sites like Yahoo Finance, which is much less painful, trust me. Step four, identify catalysts. In other words, what needs to happen for this investment to work? Is your thesis already teed up for success? Or does it need regulation to pass, a cost breakthrough, a new product launch? In order to really believe that your thesis has legs, you'll need to identify what needs to happen in order to make the idea a success and the likelihood that that thing will happen.

Step five, build the bear case. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but before they invest a dollar, professionals ask, if I'm wrong, why? And what's the worst case scenario? You might talk yourself out of your own thesis and that is a okay. It is much better to lose a hypothetical dollar than a real one. And it might just mean that the next iteration of your thesis is much, much stronger. So those are the five steps you need to take in order to make your own thesis. But now let's take a look at three legendary investors and how they developed and executed their theses that became case studies for the entire investing world.

And I got to start with my work crush, Warren Buffett. In the 80s, Buffett believed Coca-Cola was a winner. He saw a brand with global staying power, strong pricing power, a distribution network that competitors couldn't easily replicate, and a product that people buy even in recessions. He invested more than $1 billion in 1980s. that was about 7% of Berkshire Hathaway's assets at the time. Over the next six years, Buffett invested an additional $300 million, making a total

investment of $1.3 billion between 1988 and 1994. And where are they now? Well, Coca-Cola became one of Berkshire's best performing investments ever, returning over 1700% including dividends. That $1.3 billion investment is now worth $2,000. $7 billion. It's a textbook example of a moat, or in other words, a business advantage that compounds over decades. My next example is from someone you haven't heard me talk about much, but he is a legend. Peter Lynch, manager of the legendary Fidelity Magellan Fund. Lynch built

his approach around a simple but powerful thesis. Individual investors can spot growth earlier than Wall Street by paying attention to the real world. In other words, buy what you know. Lynch believed that great growth companies often start as small overlooked names. These were companies like Dunkin' Donuts and Hanover Insurance. Lynch combined real-world observations with the deep fundamental research. He'd interview managers, he'd visit stores, he read trade journals, and obsessively studied financials. With his thesis, Lynch delivered an average annual return of 29% from 1977 to 1990, one of the best

records in mutual fund history. That means a $10,000 investment became more than $280,000. Lynch's thesis wasn't about a specific company. It was about a repeatable framework that investors could use again and again. I love this thesis because it really emphasizes how anyone can be a good investor. You don't need to have an MBA. You just need to be really observant to the world around you. And last but certainly not least, Ray Dalio,

billionaire investor and founder of the investment firm Bridgewater. Dallio has had a lot of big picture theses. But let's zoom in on one of his most famous, the debt cycle thesis. He talked about this a bit when he came on Money Rehab. If you haven't heard that episode yet, I'll link it in the show notes. Behind this thesis is Dahlio's observation that markets aren't just random, they move in long-term cycles driven by debt, interest rates, and central bank policy. In the early 2000s, he warned that rising debt levels and low interest rates were setting us up for a financial crisis.

When the 2008 crisis hit, his flagship fund, Purefell. Alpha gained over 9% while most of Wall Street was collapsing. And where are they now? Well, Dalia's hedge fund Bridgewater Associates became the largest in the world and his principles-based approach to macro investing has been adopted by institutions across the globe. I know these examples are from billionaire investors, but you can do the exact same thing, even with a simple idea like robotics are going to shape the next decade. Start with the five steps I outlined earlier. and as you develop your own strategy and your own thesis, ask yourself these questions. Do I see the whole industry winning or a small part of the whole?

Do I want to invest in the whole shebang or try to pick winners? If you are evaluating individual companies, ask yourself, why them? Do they have unique products or IP? Buffett, Lynch, and Dallio all had firms, but you don't need to have one in order to do this and you no longer need to handpick 20 stocks in order to build your own thesis-driven portfolio. Public, a brokerage I've been using and working with for years now, lets you turn your thesis into a generated asset, a custom AI built index. Now, generated assets allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI,

and it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor, suppliers, growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type in any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds you a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities,

completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. This is the kind of tooling hedge funds wished they had 20 years ago, not to mention me. I would have loved this when I was starting out investing. But the main point is, is we have it now, so let's make the most of it. Every great investor from Buffett to Lynch to Dallio started with a thesis, a belief backed by research tested against reality.

You can build your own too. You don't need Wall Street. You just need curiosity, a framework, and the discipline to track your work. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. Open an account at public at public.com slash money rehab. Not only can you create generated assets, but you can also earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. Paid for by Public Investing.

Brogridge services by Open to the Public Investing Inc., member FINRA and SIPIC. Advisory services by public advisors LLC. Generated assets is an interactive tool, not investment advice. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan LaVoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab?

let's be honest. We all do. So email us your money questions, money rehab at money newsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me and follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make. For the holidays, my family and I are headed to Florida to visit my in-laws. It is super important to me that my daughter knows her extended family and has the opportunity to spend time with them. While we're leaving one warm zip code for another, I know we'll still

be getting that cozy holiday feeling of being with loved ones. The not-so-cozy part is the cost of flying three people across the country. I know a lot of us are feeling that this time of year. the costs add up fast. That's why I love hosting my home on Airbnb. It's an easy way to bring in some extra income while we're away, and that extra cash can help fund our next trip. Let's say you have a big trip planned or are escaping to a warmer part of the world to work from the beach. Why leave your home sitting empty and dark when it could be making money for you? This year, it's easier than ever to host your home thanks to Airbnb's co-host network. With the co-host network, you can hire a local co-host to take care of your home and your guests while you're away. A co-host can

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