Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Rebuilding after Bankruptcy with Perez Hilton

Episode Date: July 8, 2023

Originally aired 3.2.22 When you think of Perez Hilton, you probably think of his famous and sometimes infamous blog. Whether you live for the drama or have some hesitations about the business of personal business, you can’t argue the fact that Perez has been successful in building an online empire. But despite Perez’ success, he’s struggled financially. Today, Nicole talks to Perez about how he got into, and out of, his bankruptcy— plus, what he’s up to now. 

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that

I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details.

Hey guys, are you ready for some money rehab? Wall Street has been completely upended by an unlikely player game stop and should i have a 401k because you don't do it no i know you think the whole world revolves around you and your money well it doesn't charge for wasting our time i will take a check. I got old school check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lappin. When you think of Perez Hilton, you probably think of his famous and sometimes infamous blog.

Whether you live for the drama or you have some hesitations about the business of personal business, you can't argue that Perez has been successful as heck in building his online empire. But despite Perez's success, he has also struggled financially. He's still working through some of the financial trauma from his childhood, and he's even filed for bankruptcy. He is the perfect example of a point I've always made to you. Successful or not, rich or not, we could all use money rehab. Today, I want to talk to Perez about how he got into and out of bankruptcy. Perez, I'm so excited to have you on Money Rehab. And I want to start off by diving right into some of the money mistakes that you mentioned in your memoir. What's the biggest one?

The biggest one? Well, you know, I think that for many to most of us, we repeat a lot of the same mistakes that our parents made. And many decades ago, my mother filed for bankruptcy. She was not a financially literate person. I also, in the mid-2000s, the beginning of 2006 or so, I think it was, I also filed for bankruptcy because I was being dumb. This was me in college. I wasn't making any money. And the worst mistake, I just should not have done it. This was the worst mistake. I was a junior in college. For my senior year, I didn't want to live in a dorm anymore.

So I wanted to get an apartment. I was in Manhattan. I was going to NYU. And I thought it was a good deal. I found a rent-stabilized three-bedroom apartment in the West Village. But even though it was affordable, you still had to put down a lot of money for it. And I didn't have that money. So what did I do? My mother didn't have the money. that money. So what did I do? My mother didn't have the money. She had filed for bankruptcy. She was poor. I took a cash advance out on one of my credit cards. And that is the most ginormous interest ever. You can use credit cards and hopefully you have a normal interest rate on them. But if you take a cash advance on your credit cards, it will haunt you. And then what did I do? Okay, well, let me get another credit card and I'll do

a balance transfer so that I don't have such a high interest rate. But then I wasn't making enough as much as I was spending. So then I got another credit card and then I got another credit card. And I think technically I learned afterwards that may have been illegal. I think it's called hang gliding or something like that. I'm not sure. But yeah, I think you're over the statute of limitations. Something like that. I kept getting all these credit cards and doing balance transfers to the point where eventually I couldn't get any more credit cards. And I had all of these credit cards maxed out and I could not pay them. And I was in like the deepest hole ever. So, you know, going back to something that I said earlier about, you know, we grew up hearing about this concept of balance and you should have balance in your life, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you want to be very successful, you need to reprogram your brain and not think about

balance. But a lot of people want balance. And another thing that we grew up hearing was this saying, right? It's so common. And most people adhere to this one saying, saying, this one saying, live within your means. You have to live within your means. No, no, you have to live below your means. Do not live within them. You must live below your means. Yes, I can afford a brand new car. Do I need it? Should I really get that? Yes, I can afford that trip to get to Europe. Do I really need that trip to Europe? Should I really get it? No. And, you know, thankfully, the pandemic, while awful, has taught a lot of people or reminded them the extra importance of saving and investing because the future is so uncertain. And also like, you know, with regards to influencers, or maybe like even being a

young professional that advances very quickly in their career, when you're an it girl, which I was an it girl, when you're hot, you think you're always going to be hot. When you're making crazy amounts of money, you think you're always going to be hot. When you're making crazy amounts of money, you think you're always going to be making crazy amounts of money. And that's not always true. I mean, I know so many actors that used to make so much more money acting on television. And now because there's all of these networks and streamers and there's so much, because there's all of these networks and streamers and there's so much, there's an overabundance of content.

They're not paying as much to create the content as they used to. So spend less than you make, invest, save, all of the things that we should be doing, but we don't. So for the influencer being hot, actor being hot, athlete being hot, thinking it's going to last forever. We've seen this time and again. You know, I think Kobe, may he rest in peace, was really smart and got into a lot of business endeavors while he was still playing and not after, which I think a lot of actors or athletes do. Take me back to the

financial hole for a second. How did you get out of that dark moment of balance transfer upon balance transfer and debt upon debt? I assume you don't have debt now. No, I don't have any debt now. Hallelujah. Not everybody has expert help. You know, after I filed for bankruptcy, I started blogging and things took off for me. And then I had a business manager who really helped clean everything. And it required a lot of work. You don't think, okay, I'll file for bankruptcy and everything will be great. No, filing for bankruptcy should really be a last resort because then things like getting a loan for a car or buying a house or whatever it might be are incredibly difficult.

So thankfully, I had my business manager do a lot of work and help to get my score up and fix my past. Now I've got a great relationship with the bank that I do business with and they love me. And I have a lot of money there and yada, yada, yada. Not a lot of money, but like, you know, my money is there. Hold on to your wallets, boys and girls. Money rehab will be right back. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future

and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime.

Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bank Corp. Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in Spot Me and are subject to monthly limits.

Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. Now for some more money rehab. What did that bankruptcy, and I know sometimes the way you grow up influences your money story in particular. Did you after bankruptcy, did that instill like the fear of God, some trauma to never go back to that situation again? How have you looked at your money differently since then? It's it's both served me and also hindered me as well, because like you mentioned, I do have this rational slash irrational fear of being broke again. many years ago. Billionaires, these women are, but they both also grew up very poor and they both still have that fear of ending up broke again. And also, I don't know so much about

J.K. Rowling's story, but I know a lot about Oprah and, you know, she chose not to have children because she has that unhealthy work ethic because she did not think that she could do both. So that fear has fueled me and pushed me to work as crazily as I do and get such little sleep for decades. But some of the decisions that I make, you know, like, okay, when I don't really have boundaries, like when do I cut back? When do I say, well, maybe you should get a little more sleep or maybe you should take a vacation or whatever it might be. It gets really hard for me to unplug, to detach, to not work. The only times I don't work are when I'm hired to work. We did an episode talking to a bankruptcy lawyer and trying to debunk some of those

misconceptions that it's just going to save the day and clear up all the things. And according to you, that's not the case. No, I would say all of life requires thought and effort. I work really hard, not just professionally, but also personally at being present and trying to be as happy as possible. You know, here's a great analogy for you. And the same can be said of financial health, physical health, or anything in life is a lot like your body. We all know what it takes to be healthy. It's not rocket science. You want to be healthy,

you have to eat healthily regularly, and you have to be active regularly. That's it. If you do those two things, you will be healthy. However, while it's not complicated, it's also not easy. Right. It's simple, but not easy. Exactly. So, you know, you have to constantly be present, observing, evaluating and re-evaluating. And hopefully also maybe even have some people in your life that really look out for your best interests. Because sometimes you might... We all are human. We all make mistakes. For example, in 2019, my mother's boyfriend of a decade had cancer. And he actually in 2018, his cancer journey began. And then he ended up dying in 2019. My mother also had cancer that year and thankfully was okay.

And now is cancer free. And that was a lot to deal with. So in 2019 and in 2020, both of those years, I like yo-yoed like Oprah and I gained a lot of weight. But I also in 2019 said, you know, because it was my mother and I was dealing with her mortality, I went back to my other unhealthy habit of spending. So I was like, I'm going to go on all these trips and I'm going to take my mother on trips. And we're going to go on a lot of vacations because life is not guaranteed and all of these things. And then thankfully my sister sat me down and she said, you are spending more

than you're making. Wake up. How could you do this again? So then what I ended up doing was I had to not only stop the new bad behavior I had developed, but I had to also course correct and fix the mistakes that I had just made the last few months. So that meant, you know, cutting back my spending. And people can find, you can always find ways to save more. You know, I used to buy bottled water. I don't anymore. I have my water in a bottle, but I reuse this water, this bottle.

I bought a filter for my tap. And instead of buying bottled water now, I just use my tap. Something as simple as that saves money or changing gyms. You know, I used to get a personal trainer, which was expensive, but I told myself, well, I'm making an investment in my health. So the personal trainer is worth it, but it's expensive.

So I got rid of my personal trainer. And even though it was really scary for me, because I have weight issues, I did it and I figured it out on my own, how to be healthy on my own. And I was really proud. I was like, wow. Yeah. The trainer is helpful. And yeah, you can have abs with a trainer. But as I got older, my priorities are different. It's not about getting abs or having abs or maintaining them. It's about being healthy. And I know how to do that. So you could always find ways to save more or be smarter, even you know like the the things i'm sure you talk about in your book like if somebody tells you the price is this reach out to them yeah it's not set in exactly yes the worst thing they can say is no exactly always try to

renegotiate things renegotiating is my favorite sport and maybe the only cardio that I've been getting. I love it. I will. I have the chutzpah to ask for whatever. I think it's awesome. And I love, you know, I think that more people absolutely should negotiate. You work so hard for your money. You might as well fight for it.

And it sounds like that's what you're doing. It dawned on you that you work so hard for this money that every little bit along the way can really help. And I applaud you for being so honest about the stories that we all tell ourselves to justify these purchases. Yeah. If I all of a sudden got blessed and won the lottery, I now know what I would, how to spend that money, how not to spend that money, what to do with it. What would you do?

I'm old school. I would buy a ton of real estate. I would buy a ton of real estate. Would you put money in the market? No. Index funds and chill? I mean, I would put a ton of money in my children's education funds as well. I would buy a lot of real estate and I would maybe like upgrade my

house a little bit, but I don't need to like upgrade from this to like well above what my means, you know? I think it's such an important lesson to not live within but below your means and budgeting sucks, but so does being broke. Another thing that might surprise people, and I think I've already told my children this, I do not believe in generational wealth. I mean, maybe because I don't have like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Getty money.

If I did, then maybe, but you know, like, I don't, you know, I don't have, I don't have a few money in the bank. Right. But let's say I had $30 million in the bank. I will pay my children to go to college. I'm paying for them to go to private school now. But if I'm lucky enough to live a long life, I want to spend those $30 million and not leave them anything. I have life insurance and I'll leave them my life insurance, but I'm going to be taking trips over the world. I'll give myself a budget. I've got $30 million in the bank. taking trips over the world. I'll give myself a budget. You know, I've got 30 million in the bank. I can have this much annually to spend. I'll project my life to live to a hundred or whatever and enjoy all that money that I worked hard for. And do they, are they old enough to understand

what that means? They understand that I've told them the number two most important thing in life is to work very hard. And what's the number one? Family. Where do you make most of your money now? Everywhere. I mean, I still make most of my money from my website, but it's thankfully I've diversified over the years. So it's my website.

It's my podcast, which if you guys like podcasts, check mine out. You can listen to the Perez Hilton podcast with Chris Booker on Apple podcast, the I heart radio app, or you can watch wherever you get your podcast, or you can even watch us on YouTube on my app Perez Hilton, YouTube channel. My YouTube makes me money. Uh, you know, my cameo videos, I I've made thousands of cameo videos and people really like them. I've got thousands of positive reviews. So that's another, you know, it's not my primary source of income, but all of these things help. You know, I get paid to tweet about TV shows.

I'm doing that tonight. I'm tweeting about Joe Millionaire on Fox, which is actually a really good show. You all should be watching. I do television that pays. Some of it pays more than others. If I do talking head stuff, that might pay a little bit or might pay a lot depending on if it's a foreign show, whatever it might be. If I do reality television, that pays even more. So I thankfully have multiple income streams. If you know anything about me, you know that I always am honest. I like making money. I'm excited to make money. But just as excited to make money is making money by helping people. That's really

exciting to me. So a few months ago, I launched MyTrue10. It's a very different CBD gummy than you've ever had before. Ours really work. And they're water-soluble. It's not an oil-based gummy like a lot of them out there. What it means being water-soluble means it's absorbed into your bloodstream quicker. Even before it gets to the liver, you'll start feeling this work. That's why we call it My True 10. It'll work in as soon as 10 minutes. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank.

One thing that has been super important to Perez's financial journey is his ability to be self-aware around how he uses spending as a coping mechanism. If you recognize that behavior in yourself, consider giving yourself a hard spending limit by taking out the exact amount of cash you need each week and doing all of your spending with said cash. Once you're out of cash, that's it. No second trip to the ATM. As we know, and Perez definitely knows, credit cards do have a limit, but sometimes feel limitless. But using this cash-only system can create a physical stopgap that makes it easy to pump the brakes on excessive spending. Budgeting is hard enough, so why not make it a little easier on yourself? spending. Budgeting is hard enough, so why not make it a little easier on yourself?

Money Rehab is a production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Our producers are Morgan Lavoie and Mike Coscarelli. Executive producers are Nikki Etor and Will Pearson. Our mascots are Penny and Mimsy. Huge thanks to OG Money Rehab team, Michelle Lanz for her development work, Catherine Law for her production and writing magic, and Brandon Dickert for his editing, engineering, and sound design. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all.