Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - “I Want To Be a Millionaire in Two Years… What’s the Roadmap?”

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

Everybody wants to be a millionaire… but how do you actually get there? That’s what today’s listener, award-winning journalist and entrepreneur Suzanne Kianpour, wants to know. Today, Nicole shares a candid conversation she had with Suzanne at the end of 2024, where they unpacked how to set meaningful money goals—and, more importantly, how to build a realistic roadmap to reach them. Plus, at the time, Suzanne was also in full-on wedding planning mode, so naturally, she wanted all the tips on how to (legally) deduct wedding expenses. And Nicole delivered. Find Suzanne's work here 00:00 Why Nicole DIYs Financial Reviews 02:06 Suzanne's Financial Story and Future Goals 05:00 The Cost of Wedding Planning 07:35 How to Set Actionable Financial Goals 15:56 Strategies and Tips for Investing 22:45 Legit Tax Deductions for Weddings 27:39 Millionaire Game Plan

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little help hosting while you're away, you can hire a co-host to do the work for you. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. You know you're getting older when you start to say, I can't believe it's fill-in-the-blank month at the start of every month, but honestly, I cannot believe it is already June, which means we're almost halfway through the year, which means my daughter is almost six months old. What the heck. 2025 has been going by so, so quickly and also so, so slowly all at once. But because the end of the year can sneak up on you, around this midpoint, I do try

to give myself a little performance review. With my money. Yes, I really do do this, or I try to anyway. The whole newborn thing and rebuilding thing is very time consuming. But I do try to put time on my calendar to sit down and think about what money moves I've made so far this year that I'm proud of, and also what I want to do differently for the rest of the year. I've found that the best way to do that is to make sure I stick to the financial resolutions

that I made at the top of the year. So today you're going to hear a conversation that I had with a money rehabber at the end of last year where we basically did the same thing. We took stock of her 2024 and we set goals for her 2025. And I love this conversation because it's a really great model of how you can track your own financial goals and progress. Suzanne Kienpour, welcome to Money Rehab. Thank you for having me. I love Money Rehab. I'm so excited. I feel like I've won a game show. You have in some ways. You also are a lady after my own heart being a journalist and a passport stamp collector extraordinaire.

Yes. I also, I don't know about, I don't know if you did this, but I got into collecting currency and now I get like way too attached and get really annoyed if I leave the country and I forgot to keep a quarter or something. How many do you have? So I'm on a journey to 100 countries and I just passed 90. Wow. You're almost there sister. I'm almost there. I mean, I was like, okay, I need to get this done in two years because I just keep adding competition for myself. Well you have some interesting financial deadlines that I want to get to but first you were such a boss. Can you tell many rehabbers a little bit about yourself and also your mission with Helmet to Heels? Yeah. So I, like you, was a TV journalist, started out at NBC News, was there for a couple of years and kind of climbed the corporate ladder,

spent over a decade at the BBC. When I started out at the BBC, I was told I would never get on air with an American accent. That was 2011. And by 2023, end of 2023, I had been shortlisted for presenter of the year for my women building peace series, and which is a series about women in war, I connected globally influential women with women on the ground living the story. So like our award-winning episode was we had Hillary Clinton speaking directly to an Afghan girl hiding from the Taliban. So I started really thinking and I had been thinking about women in war zones a lot because I was shuttling Washington and war zones for my job. That's my beat was foreign affairs and global security. And I posted a picture back when Instagram was still new and we used to over filter everything

and thought we were all Andy Warhol. So I was hacking everything. And I just got back from a really difficult deployment to Iraq. I was based in Lebanon for the BBC then. And it was my first foreign hosting. And I had asked to do it because I told my boss, I used to be on the foreign affairs beat. So I had to run around Capitol Hill, State Department, White House and grill the most powerful people in the world

about US policy towards the world except I hadn't lived on the receiving end so I really wanted to be able to tell the story from all sides. So anyway long story short I was packing to come back to Washington and I put my flak jacket and my helmet and my boots and my outfit that I was packing to come back to Washington and I put my flak jacket and my helmet and my boots and my outfit that I was going to wear to Capitol Hill because I'd go like lane to politics and I looked over and I'm like helmet to heels. For the ears this kind of was behind the back of my head and I would kind of use it more as like a phrase or like an endorsement because it was this idea of women especially we are expected to be either or, and I'm about and both. And so I left the BBC on a high, retired as the NBA players do when you're at the

top of your game. So I decided to launch my brand, Helmet to Heels, and venture on this entrepreneurial journey. And I found that being a female founder is a whole different level of perilous. Like, I thought being a woman in national security and in war zones was difficult. This is next level women in the business world next level. So that's why I follow people like you. Well, thank you. And you have a passport full of stamps and a lot of incredible stories. But it seems like your bank account might not be matching in the same heft. No, in your full of stamps and a lot of incredible stories, but it seems like your bank account might

not be matching in the same heft. In your personal life too, you have a lot going on. You're getting married in a month, right? You're planning less than a month. You're planning what? Three weddings on two continents? Tell me everything. It's insane. Like when I hear it's that back to me, it's like, what? So my soon to be husband is British, my own Mr. Darcy, Diff upper lip stubborn. And, you know, his family is in the UK and my family and friends are here. And we actually were living in Dubai. And so we thought, okay, well, you know, we can't, it is difficult to get everybody to come to Dubai for various reasons, particularly older parents and ailing family members. And so we thought, oh, how hard can it be to kind of split it up across our cultures as I'm Persian Sicilian. So we do the Persian Sicilian bit in Washington, which is my home.

And then we cross the pond to England and have the English Scottish bit. Also, I came across this amazing atelier that is a very helmet to heal story. What we do is we make foreign affairs relatable basically in style. So we blend lifestyle and current events. And so I found this, came across this amazing story of this nonprofit atelier in Paris, run by a designer who used to design for Karl Lagerfeld and it's like proper haute couture. And he takes unwanted materials, upcycles them, and in the process trains and employs refugees

on how to become masters of their craft and gets some jobs in the big fashion houses in Paris. So I suddenly found myself needing to throw multiple weddings and doing a documentary around the dress and all of this in the span of a month. Oh my God. And some change. But you planned a wedding in 44 days. So honestly, you were my inspiration. Thank you. But mine was very small. And there was only one. It was only one city. This sounds like a big to do. And well, you know what, I know Persian families, they're big and

Sicilian families, girl. Yeah, yeah. These are not small events. But you know what the groom is is very involved because he has to be because we've got two countries and one of them is his. It's a good partnership exercise. Agreed. Let's dig into all of it. We're obviously here to talk money, specifically your money.

We have some marriage. We have some well stuff to really dig into. But first, let's talk about your goals. I hear you have one mega goal with a deadline as usual. It's to be a millionaire in two years. Right. Tell me more. Yep.

Yep. Well, I mean, I've just launched my business, right. And I'm making this transition from public service broadcast journalist to entrepreneur in the media and lifestyle space. And so I figured, you know, I set goals in my broadcast career. So it is time to set goals in my new entrepreneur career. And you just came up with the million bucks because it sounded good. Well, I mean, it's not like I don't have any money saved. new entrepreneur career. And you just came up with the million bucks because it sounded good? Well, I mean, it's not like I don't have any money saved.

Great. Well, how much money do you have saved? So I have my own condo in Washington, DC. I have high yield savings. I have a 401k and that total is I'm about 75% there. Okay. Okay. You know, I have a mortgage. If I had my own house that was paid off, it'd be a different story. So like when you say like somebody's network is a million dollars, that net worth including sorry, this is probably a very dumb

question. Is that net worth including so like is my house even though I have a mortgage against it considered the full value of it considered part of my Net worth it's your assets minus your liabilities. So everything you own Minus everything you owe So the mortgage part whatever you owe is subtracted from what you own Yeah, okay. No sense. That makes me more poor Let's get you on the track to becoming a millionaire. I love that we're talking specifically right now because I always like to give

myself an end of year money intervention to set myself up for the new year, which you have a lot to celebrate and a lot to look forward to. Are you ready to do a little money exercise with me? Yeah, let's do it. All right. I'm stoked. So let's start with the good stuff. What money moves from the last year did you make that you were really proud of?

Oh, God. Okay, so like 2023, I made some good moves. 2024 has been rough. I invested. I still haven't seen the returns, but I invested in my business. But two things, I maxed out my Roth IRA. I was like, okay, go me. I felt very proud of myself for that.

And I also paid off debt. So I have no debt, which is great. And how much did you invest in your business? I invested about 50,000. Awesome. We're bootstrapping now cause we're new. So we're like getting ready to go into different fundraising rounds. But so I've been bootstrapping now because we're new. So we're like getting ready to go into

different fundraising rounds. So I've been bootstrapping. But I've backed out my Roth IRA and I put $50,000 into my high yield savings account. All right. And how about the flip side? I would like to point out that like, okay, this is maybe controversial, but I feel like it needs to be said. So journalists get paid very poorly. Public service journalists get paid even worse. So like I was at the BBC, which is public service. Like, it was virtually this is the first time in my entire career that I actually have cash saved that I

was capable of having cash saved, which is just crazy. I had a 401k obviously, but like I couldn't afford to save money. How much were you making? The most I ever, this is so embarrassing, I can't believe I'm telling this on a podcast. You're a good journalist. But I feel like it's really important to be real. The most I ever made, and this is me like in, you know, like I had a great job. I was making documentaries, I had my own series, like I had my own segment on Capitol Hill. I was running around the world with presidential candidates and the secretary of the state. And the most I ever made, including my professor job,

was 90,000. So I've never made six figures from a corporate job. And, you know, I'm in my 30s. Well, let's talk about the flip side. Can you talk about some times in 2024 that you felt like you needed money rehab? When I went to Morocco in August, I spent so much money on that trip. It was so unnecessary. That was not like, all right, I need to like, make a plan to make my money, make money for me. And why do you think you splurged in Morocco? Was it just pent up? Like you wanted to treat yourself and you hadn't for a long time? What happened?

Peer pressure. I went with a girlfriend and you know what it's like. You're like, oh, it's so nice. Oh no, you should totally get it. Like, don't make it back. So yeah, that's what happened. All right, so moving to 2025, we want to have more of the good stuff and less of the challenging stuff. Is that fair? We want to max out our Roth IRA again, keep saving more in high yield savings account,

maybe even more than even beyond a high yield savings account, more budgeting on travel, maybe just in general. So I think one mistake we often make when it comes to financial resolutions is we make them way too challenging for ourselves or unrealistic. There's no problem with going after low-hanging fruit because there is low-hanging fruit when it comes to growing your wealth. So for example, let's talk about your savings account right now. You have 50k in a high-yield savings account. savings account right now. You have 50k in a high yield savings account? First of all, that's awesome. I know, I'm super proud of myself. I'm proud of you. Kudos on the high yield savings account and not just using a regular savings account. Did you learn that from money rehab?

You know what? I probably did. Great. I didn't really know what a high yield savings account really was until last year. But also, I will say, I've noticed that the interest rate is going down. Yeah, interest rates are going down in general. Oh, I see. So if my high yield savings account is at 5% and then drops to 4.5%, it's because the Fed dropped the rates.

Yeah, it all sort of trickles down from the Fed funds rate to the prime rate to mortgages. It takes a while, but when interest rates go down, the vehicles that you're investing in like high yield savings accounts or CDs go down too. Does that make sense? Interesting. Yeah, it makes sense. Hold on to your wallets. Money rehab will be right back. And now for some more money rehab.

So reaching your financial goals is all about how you get your money to work harder for you. I think that we can agree that that's a big goal for us. High yield savings account is really a simple way to do that because you're taking what you already have and just making sure that it's in the right place and it's working as hard for you as possible because comparatively to a regular savings account, you're not making nearly as much interest. How much are you contributing to that account per month, approximately? So right now I'm not. I'm not putting anything further in it. However, I have like something

like a kind of chunk coming. And so I'm deciding what to do with that. Can we come up with a way to automate some contributions? To the high yield savings account? Yeah. I mean, setting and forgetting it is one of the best ways to streamline finances. It's easy. You set it up once in the beginning of the year is a really good time to do it. Then you actively are doing something that's helping your financial future every single month. Like having that consistency is key.

Yeah. Okay. So what amount should be going in it monthly? Well, what amount is coming in? Well, exactly. That's the issue, right? It's like as an entrepreneur, it's like the income is not as consistent as when you have a corporate job.

Well, could we just start with something really small just to get that muscle memory going? Like $100. Yeah, $100. Okay. And then you can always boost it. You get a windfall, your business takes off, you get funding, you change it. But start with something so you're creating that habit for yourself. But it's not just savings that is important, Suzanne, it's also investing, which brings us to a

more complicated undertaking. In reality, investing can be made much more smooth, less stressful in general with the right strategy for your situation and support to guide you along the way. But I know you have a 401k. Do you know how much is in there? Well, it definitely went down. I noticed that. So we were at about 70. Really? With the marketer? Well, last time I checked, I didn't check after the election. But before the election, it had gone down. I'm at about 75k now. And is that the only investment account you have?

Do you have a brokerage account? I'm scared to kind of... I feel like I don't really know what the best trades to make and I'll kind of have gut instincts or I'll be reading and kind of seeing the trends, especially as a global affairs journalist. But then I don't pull the trigger. Well investing is not trading, by the way. Trading is something totally different. I think it's really important to index funds and chill, which is basically buying the entire

market. An S&P 500 index fund basically gives you a little piece of the entire S&P 500, so you're not actively trading. You just set it and forget it, and as the market goes up, so does your investment. It's really hard to beat the market. You've heard this before, right? So let's not try to beat it. I agree.

And I was thinking like, oh, I need to, I need to invest before the stock market. I mean, before election day. And I just completely forgot. I want to start like, for my goal for 2025 is I want an investment plan, particularly because we're getting married. And so, you know, I want to invest our money properly. Okay. Yeah, historically, the stock market gets 8% year over year, which is more than, sounds like your high yield savings account is getting you less than 5%. So if you're going to

you're going to put your money to work, we want it to work as hard as possible. It doesn't make more sense. So you kind of have like what ratio should you have in high yield savings account, stocks, and index funds? That's a great question. I think ideally you want your emergency fund that's more accessible to you, that's more liquid. You don't want to go if, God forbid, something happens and you need to get your hands on that money. You don't want to sell your stocks or any more intricate investments that you might have, especially not your retirement funds.

So what would be three months of expenses? Bare bones expenses? Yeah, bare bones. I mean, ideally you'd have like six months or a little bit more as an entrepreneur that you think is less consistent. I'd say about probably about 5,000 would be bare bones. What you have right now in your high yield savings account gets you 10 months of an emergency fund.

So can we think of that as your emergency fund? Yeah. Of an emergency fund. So can we think of that as your emergency fund? Yeah. Cool. I mean, I think it's important to layer on all of the accounts that you have and look at it holistically against your goal of becoming a millionaire in two years and reverse engineer some of those set it and forget it habits because it's just about creating a system for yourself so that you don't have to think about it. You have so many other things going on.

You have a business that you're running. You're going to be a newlywed. So I think it's about coming up with this system that you do once and the machine is moving and working in your favor. So between your savings, your 401k, your condo, it sounds like you were at 750 K. So in order to become a millionaire in two years, you can either make a million dollars or you can have what you already have saved or in your brokerage account grow for you. So if you have your money invested and the stock market returns that 8% historical year over year return, you could be worth

a million dollars in two years by investing 875 grand and that would be without earning any other income or getting any bonuses or windfalls along the way. How does that sound? Oh that sounds good. So if I were you I would look into how much money I really need waiting in the wings in that high-yield savings account. How much is a bare-bones expense plan if, God forbid something happens, somebody gets sick, somebody can't work? Is it $5,000? Do you feel comfortable with six months of that in the bank and the rest of it you can put into a brokerage account and start investing? Or do you want to have more saved? Does that make you feel more confident in your business plans?

Is this a really personal thing and that's a little soul searching that you have to do? I mean, to be honest, I think like, so are you're basically asking what I feel comfortable taking 25,000 out of my high yield savings and investing it? Is that what you're asking? I mean, I would think of that as your emergency fund and just keep your North Star in mind that you want to make a million dollars in two years. And that has to come from somewhere. Okay, if I were to take $25,000 out, how would I invest it now for that to then happen? So you would go back to the index funds and chill plan where you invest in a low cost S&P 500 index fund. That would be the best way to get 8% year over year.

That's an easy way to start investing in the market. Again, it's not trading, it's long term investing. So like how do I choose which one? Because I looked, I actually remember going and looking recently because I've been kind of thinking about maybe I should take some money out and invest it. And then truthfully, the ones that had the highest yields like 15% were all pharmaceuticals. And I just, okay. I don't know what you're looking at. Were you looking at corporate bonds? Maybe, maybe, maybe I was like that a lot. So it won't tell you the yield for an index fund.

So the ones that are of the ETF variety, there are two different kinds of index funds. There's the ETF, exchange traded fund variety, or the mutual fund variety. The exchange traded fund variety is not going to give you a guaranteed return, but it will give you an expense ratio. And some of the lowest expense ratios are VOO as a ticker symbol, for example, or SPY as a ticker symbol, or IVV. These are all low cost index funds that you can buy in at any time. Just go into your brokerage account and search for the ticker symbol.

I'm not suggesting one over the other necessarily, but take a look and you'll see it has really low expense ratios and historically it will yield 8% year over year, but that's not a guaranteed return. Got it. Okay. Okay. Do we like this plan? Yeah.

Okay. I know you want to talk about writing off wedding expenses from your taxes. Woman after my own heart. Instagram keeps pushing this stuff to me and I'm like, is this true? Is this going to come after me? I thought I would ask the expert. Great. So there are certain expenses that you can write off. I know you have 400 wedding ceremonies. Do you know what kind of venue your ceremonies are going to be in? Yeah. So we're doing a sustainable wedding

in line with the dress. And so we're being really intentional about what decor we use and flowers and food and like trying to keep things locally sourced, trying to not use plastic, single use, et cetera. And so we're being very mindful. We have the ceremony is at a church in Washington. And then we have a friend of ours is hosting our reception at her house, Juliana Glover.

It's so nice of her to offer this. And so that that cuts down on costs just right there. Yeah. Well, if you were having your reception or getting married at a historical garden or a museum or even a state or national park, then the fee you pay there may be tax deductible as a donation, but it becomes a little tricky because any fee paid in exchange for a service is not going to be deductible. So you have to talk to the venue about what you can do about that. If you're still thinking about venues, keep those types of venues in mind. Have you been fed

the flowers deduction video? No. Well, actually, hold on, maybe. Is this where if you donate them to a certain, you have to donate them to somewhere specific, right? Yeah. So if you donate your flowers to a a nonprofit like a homeless shelter or women's center, you can potentially deduct the value of the flowers on your taxes, but you can only deduct what the condition is at the time you donate. So what you can deduct might actually be less than what you paid depending on when you donate those flowers, if they're droopy and, you know, browning or whatever. You can't write all of that off, but you could potentially

write off some. Yeah. But this is a big year for you, Suzanne. I am so excited. And I want to recap what our plan is. You're going to think about whether or not you want your 50K in your high yield savings account as your emergency fund, or if you want to relocate some of that to your brokerage and start investing with it, and if so, how much? And then we're gonna automate some savings contributions. We can also automate investing contributions while we're at it too.

So we're coming up with this plan and this well-oiled machine. We have this big goal for your net worth. So the secret there is reverse engineering your spending plan based on hitting that goal and keeping that in mind as your North worth. So the secret there is reverse engineering your spending plan based on hitting that goal and keeping that in mind as your North Star. How do you feel about making your money work this hard for you? Good. I mean, I think also, you know, finances are can be tricky in a marriage. So I think

it's good to kind of be prepared about your own finances independent of your spouse. Do you own the condo? Is it in your name? Yes. Yes. And it's interesting because one of my family members lent me the down payment. I still had some leftover that I needed and they were like, just pay me back when you can.

And I spent $1,000 a month until I could pay it like automatic and in a separate account. And I was shocked at how quickly I actually paid it off. And I just thinking to myself, I wish I'd done this sooner. You know, like I know I talked about how like, oh, I, I didn't, you know, I didn't, I didn't have very good, I wasn't paid, I had like a prestigious job, but the pay didn't really match it. And it was difficult to save. But it you can say you just have I hadn't truthfully I hadn't prioritized I didn't do a good job prioritizing it. I didn't do a good job. I had like this mentality of lack that like, Oh, I, I

couldn't afford to save like life was too expensive. I needed to just like, you know, spend what I had, right? But when I had somebody else who relied on me to pay my debt, right? It happened quickly. Funny how that happened by automating the payments and thinking about paying somebody else. In this plan, I wonder if it will keep you more motivated and keep you more on track if you start thinking of that other person that you're paying back as

your future self. Yeah, exactly. My future millionaire self. That's right. She'll be so proud. I'm so excited for Suzanne, the future millionaire. Thank you. Will you keep us posted on how it goes? Yeah, definitely. I'll owe you a steak dinner. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan LeVoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes.

Do you need some Money Rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.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 moneynews and TikTok at moneynewsnetwork 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.