Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - The Investment No One Is Talking About (But Everyone Should Be!)

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

Nicole is joined by Tiffany James (financial expert, CEO of Modernblkgirl) for a stock talk. Tiffany tells Nicole her best-performing investments, the opportunity she sees in the market and (this is the best part!) the actual stocks she has her eyes on... and let's just say, they're investments that weren't on our radar, but now, totally are! For more Tiffany, check out Modernblkgirl: https://www.modernblkgirl.com/ Want to start investing, but don't know where to begin? Go to moneyassistant.com and meet Magnifi, your AI money assistant, designed to help you make a plan for your financial goals. Want one-on-one money coaching from Nicole? Book a meeting with her here: intro.co/moneynewsnetwork 

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.

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your

reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. We all have friends that we compare notes with, right? Like during wedding season, you and your squad will get together and compare how many bachelor or bachelorette parties you have

on your calendar right now and how to get the cheapest deals on hotels for all those awful destination weddings. I, and man, I know I'm going to sound like a complete nerd right now, like to compare notes with my friends on our investing portfolios. I know this is not a topic typically we cover with our friends over drinks, but I think we should. Because in everyone's portfolio, they have that one hero investment, the one that's doing better than all the others. And if you compare notes with your friends, you can put your hero in their portfolio and their hero in your portfolio. And everyone wins. I recently did this with Tiffany James, the CEO of Modern Black Girl and a financial expert I have long loved. Today, Tiffany tells

me her favorite investments. Yes, the literal companies that she's made bank on. So get ready to take some notes. Here's our conversation. Tiffany James, welcome to Money Rehab. Thank you. So happy to be here. I am so happy to finally have you. I feel like I've just had a lady crush on you from afar, like a financial lady crush,

of course. a lady crush on you from afar, like a financial lady crush, of course. I mean, honestly, likewise, it takes a lot to do what we do just being in the financial space. But there's production. There's a show. There's multiple shows you have going on. Like, I just look and I'm like, oh, this is what we got to do, team. We have to. This is the goal. This is the bar. OK, you set the standard for us. So I just want to let you know and give you all your flowers. I love that. So I'd love to dig into your story, Tiffany. A big part of your origin story is so cool because you turned 10 grand into 2 million. Is that right? Let's get this straight. And how the heck did that happen? Oh my gosh. It started off very rocky. I think anyone starting off investing, it starts off a little just like, I don't know what to do,

how to do it. And then you're kind of just making your way through depending on how you started. But for me, I had a really good mentor named Juan Davis, and he was such a Tesla bull. He told me one day, hey Tiff, you should take half of your check and just invest in this stock. So I remember my mom bringing me to a seminar in 2016 about stocks and just buying little stocks and not really knowing a lot about money or stocks and how this even works. And the basic concepts didn't really get it. And he's like, you know, you should do this. And I said, you know what? Why not? It was a good month for me. I made a lot of money. And I was like, you know what? Let's put this here. And in my head, I think it was like a savings account where I was like, you know,

I'll just put this here. So literally come back six or seven months later, I now have almost five figures. And initially I put maybe like three or four grand in it. And I more than doubled my money. And that is when I was like, oh my gosh, I should take this a little bit more seriously. You know, I just look more into this. And little by little, I started meeting so much people in the industry. And first it was $5,000. And I started doing a lot of heavy trading and money just fluctuated 5,000 to 10,000 to 17,000 to 6,000 to 4,000. And then eventually I got back down to about 7 to 8K. And I was like, you know what? I need a little bit more money. So I was like, you know what? We put another 5K on top of that and really locked in as a trader and

investor. And it was a really good time for me to start building my portfolio of things that I already had. I had Tesla, so that's great. Around the time, Tesla was like 40 or 50 bucks. So like really, really cheap. Next thing you know, I made 250,000. I was just like, I'm not going back to work. I'm not coming back. And then from the 250,000 that had cash, she's like, you know what? Let's continue to do this. And next thing you know, with starting Modern Black Girl

and working within the community and just being heavily invested in the stock market world, I found my niche, creative strategies. And next thing you know, we made $2 million. And now it's up somewhere close to $6 million right now. And this is just your own account?

This is just me. For those who don't know, what's the difference between trading and long-term investing? Primarily time. When you're trading, you're looking for more smaller moves, more strategic moves, and more catalyst opportunities. Vers versus long-term, you are more of a core fundamental investor. So you're looking at primarily what is the overall outlook of a company, what are they doing with their money, who are their CEOs? So more of a long-term outlook versus when you're trading, it's more opportunities. But what I love so much about you, I mean, so many things, but you are so honest about how you weren't so responsible all the time.

In the past, you ruined your credit, right? Like, didn't you get a used Honda? You crashed after a few months. Like, what changed your mindset around money? You know, quite frankly, I just didn't think I was making enough. And I was just like, but I think as a young age, it's very easy to get caught up in the rabbit hole of working and spending and living a life and just finally being free. Because when I went and bought this Honda, I was like 19, 20. And in that moment, it felt like the right thing to do, right? You go to college, you buy a used car so you can get around and you can

move, especially if you're not fortunate enough to kind of have your parents buy you a car and you just have to do it on your own. But you go to a youth salesman and not understanding how to actually buy a car and next thing you know, you're upsold and now you're $20,000 for a car that's really worth $6,000, $7,000. And that's exactly what happened to me. And I couldn't afford it because I didn't even understand the concept of budgeting at that time. But that was something that I never talked about. My family definitely never took any budgeting classes in college. You and me both. So it was only once you started trading and quit your job that you realized that your base salary is never going to grow real wealth. No, absolutely not. Because I mean,

at that time, I was working two to three jobs where, you know, I had my web development company and I was doing front end designs, but also I was doing fashion and PR events and hospitality. So at this time, I was bringing pretty good money, you know, making like $150,000 roughly with both incomes. But it becomes one of those things where if you don't really have a system in place, even with making six figures, you can really blow through that money and live paycheck to paycheck, especially if you're sacrificing six figures for your time, which is exactly what I was doing. So I was working two jobs and I had pretty much one day off. So I never really had time to really think about, okay, what is it that I really want to do? Do I want to start this business fully? What do I want to do?

And that's something that I preach a lot right now about resting and giving yourself time to really strategize and know what is it that you really want to do for your life. Because a lot of us, we end up being consumers and just working and working and working because we don't invest as much time in ourselves than we do with these employers to make X amount of dollars that it'll just become a cycle. And we end up doing it over and over and over. So yeah, that's what happened to me. And that's what happens to so much Americans, you know? So many. I mean, it happened to me too. And I'm first generation American. And once I figured out investing, I was like, damn, okay, I worked so hard for my money. It's time it returned the favor. Okay. I think that getting your money to work for you is the coolest thing

I had ever seen that the beautiful force of compound interest really sucks when it works against you. Like it worked against me when I had debt, but when it works in your favor, you could use that same cool force and make money. Exactly. I mean, once I figured it out and I saw my money go from here to here with Tesla, I said, I could never go back. And a lot of our ladies have that aha moment where they're like, I can't go back. Which is a good thing. I mean, we had a billboard campaign that said, I'm glad I didn't invest earlier, said no one ever. Because, you know, how old are you? I'm 28. I'm going to turn 29 in two months.

Well, happy almost birthday, my little baby. But yeah, I wish I started earlier. I'm just like, gosh, I want to tell all the 20 year olds out there to be like, just start now. You don't need a lot of money. You need a lot of time. You have so much time. Just go like today.

You're never as young as you are today. Honestly, and that's one of the hardest things. I mean, that's why I love what I do because I don't show up as your average investor and that's designed that way. I want to look like a fun influencer girl living my life, partying, but also spending time and allocating a decent amount of time and investing, but also having a good time and not just working, working, working and really just doing what I love. But, you know, not being too stuffy.

Like you'll never really see me in a suit. It doesn't match my style and I never want to be that girl. Even sometimes when I do like the CNBC, the things of that sort, I try to still have that same essence of girl next door. You know, someone that you can talk to, have a beer with, go to a

party with. But also I could tell you about some stocks that can change your portfolio, right? And we can break down amazing companies and we can still live the life that we want and know that this is something that can help advance your life. Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back. 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 Bank Corp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. Spot me 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 dot com slash disclosures for details. I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start, or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb,

but you live full-time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel

always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly, I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. And now for some more money rehab. Let's talk about stocks. You're really bullish on makeup stocks.

Tell me more. So my makeup stock journey really started in 2020. So 2020 was really when I was like, you know what? People are underestimating the makeup industry. It's because it's male dominated and they don't understand the power of social media and they don't understand the power of Gen Z when it comes to makeup and beauty

and how influential it is when it comes to the market. Because when you think about a lot of the makeup stocks, they're coupled in these big monster houses like Johnson & Johnson, right? Or LVMH. It's very rare that you see standalone companies on the market that have been here for the last maybe 10 or 20 years. Hence, like the Altos of the world or the Elts of the world that

are kind of like newly IPO companies that haven't been here for more than like 10 or 20 years. So they don't really understand the power of these companies, nor are they looking out because, of course, it's male dominated. So for me, it's my world and I understand social media and the power of it and understanding the makeup industry, but also what makeup does to women and how we spend and how we are as consumers. It's a no brainer. So you're bullish on Alta. I'm bullish on Alta. Yes. However, I am really, really bullish on more e.l.f. than I am Ulta. Because Ulta was my 2020 stock that just happened to do really well now. And I still love Ulta and I do see a huge, huge, huge outlook for Ulta for the next five years for sure. But I do like

standalone companies and I wish there were more standalone cosmetic companies that would IPO, honestly. And I love what e.l.f. has been able to do for women in the makeup industry. Not only do they have products that can target their high-end client that use some of their like main products

that like they have like their really concealer that everyone loves and certain brushes that everyone loves. But also, I love that it caters to everyone. And if you think about our current economy, we want to feel beautiful. We want to feel special. We may not have enough money to go buy the Gucci brush or the Gucci foundation. Right? However, does Gucci have foundation? I didn't even know that. Dior. How about that? Listen, you'll forget more than I will ever know about this stuff. But you're not

just going off the trend. You're going off the trend. Plus, you're doing analysis. Absolutely. So for me, my investments that when it comes to long term is looking at first rule principles. However, I do like to look for growth and look for things that are special to me and things that I see outside. So a lot of my investments that I make are primarily based on consumers. I have a lot of consumer discretionary stocks that I love that are little niches that a lot of people probably don't pay attention to, or it's not something that's talked about a lot. And when it comes to just like McDonald's or certain stocks like that, these are things that are based on the

actions of people. And that's how I base a lot of my decisions when it comes to my long-term investments, but also looking at, okay, what have you been doing? How are you handling your money and things of that sort? And that's how I was able to invest in Ulta and make a lot of money. Same thing with Novo Nordisk. Let's talk about it right now. Let's get to it. So Novo Nordisk is a pharmaceutical company known for their Ozempic drug. And Ozempic has took the world by storm in the last year and a half. And it's resulted in highs for Novo Nordisk. They were a good pharmaceutical company before, and this is not their first product. They have many products. But what we were able to see is how one product has caught amazing, impeccable sales for this company. And what it really started off of was social media.

And with my experience and understanding how it worked for Ulta and how that worked for Elf made me start to look at, hey, I should probably look deeper into this. And this is where that short-term trading comes in, where do I think Novo Nordisk is the top pharmaceutical company? No, never say that. But is it a good investment for the next year or two? Absolutely. And I've been able to prove that with what's been happening primarily based on TikTok and also looking at TikTok, but also looking at the fundamentals

of who we are as people, with the number of obesity, the number of people dealing with PCOS, that people that wanna get better when it comes to weight loss. So this is where I mean like looking at consumer, but also understanding fundamentals and putting it together and becoming a really good investor.

Because essentially it's one product that is bringing this stock. I think North Dakota is up year to date up 40%. And that is primarily based off their main drug that they have, Ozempic. So this is something where women, we can do this. You look outside, you look at things that are happening, you look at things that are trending, and you can invest in these products. So tell me about the fundamentals. If somebody is listening, they're like, okay, Tiff, I get the TikTok trends. I saw Ozempic. I saw this makeup thing. The fundamentals is where you lost me. Okay, so fundamentals is about understanding

what is their core business model. So what are the different products that they're offering? How do they plan on distributing it? Things of that sort. But then also there's the numbers components of it, right? What is their debt ratio? How much are they spending? How much are not spending?

How much are spending on market research? And then also you have your CEOs. How long have they been in the company? Have they had any issues? Depending on different industries, of course, if you're looking at pharmaceuticals will be a different guidelines versus you're looking at technology.

You know, there's different things that you want to look at, but primarily you're just looking at a full map of everything that's happening. It's kind of just looking at a full map of everything that's happening. It's kind of like looking at a full report card of your kid versus looking at a whole transcript, right? You can look at your report card for a quarter and that's primarily that you do as a trader and you can make moves off of that. But you look at the whole transcript that will tell you the full picture of where your student and where your kid is going. That's primarily how I would look at fundamental analysis when you're looking into a company.

If somebody is like, I don't know anything about numbers. I'm not a math person. I hear this all the time. I'm sure you do too. What would you say to that? I would say, honestly, it's just a checklist. Then when we teach our fundamental analysis class, we break it down where it's more like, okay, your baseline when you're just learning is primarily how to research and what to look for. That's a checklist. And then the numbers, that's a checklist, right? And there's guidelines that we create and just follow it.

And eventually it'll become repetition. I think a really good investor, you have to know fundamental analysis and you have to understand technicals. A really good investor, you have to know fundamental analysis and you have to understand technicals. And we really see that show in 2021, where after 2020, a lot of people just bought a lot of stocks at the high with amazing fundamentals, right? Amazing fundamentals. However, not understanding there's a time to buy.

You can't just buy amazing companies whenever because things will hit the ground. I think we saw that a lot in Apple. Apple 2021 stock was pretty high and everyone's like, oh my gosh, it's Apple or Tesla. Oh my gosh, it's Tesla. These companies that are more fundamentally sound, not knowing that these are highs and they're going to come back to lows. And then you're waiting three years or two years to get back to that high. Fundamental analysis won't teach you that, but technical analysis will. Being able to look at a chart will show you in tandem with your fundamental analysis to say, hey, you know what? I want to invest in Apple for the next 10 years. However, I just know we just

went on a run for the last two years. Let me sit and wait for six months. And actually within that six months, how about I invest in Elf or how about I invest in Pepsi and make some more money until Apple is ready for me to invest in something long term. So really quickly, what's the difference between fundamental and technical analysis? Okay. So technical analysis, you're using more day-by-day, more number analysis. So you're looking at more momentum coming into the stock. You're looking at more averages coming into the stock versus fundamental analysis

is more core deep business principles. Like volume in technical analysis, right? Because you and I are retail traders, and then there's institutional traders, which are big institutions, obviously banks, hedge funds that are buying in bulk. And so there are different limits and instruments that happen when big trades go on. And so that's what you're watching. Exactly, right? So like something like momentum or strength, the strength of where price is going, like you have to understand that.

So you've invested, you said in consumer discretionary, you're into snack companies, you mentioned McDonald's, you teased that you invested 5k in a snack company that made 375k in one year. What company was that? I can show you. That would be great. Have the chart pulled up right here. Okay. So how Pepsi started for me was me doing trades. So what I did with Pepsi is I did trades in between. I don't know how heavy analysis we can go into this, but Pepsi is one of those companies that I've made a lot of money in. And primarily it's just trading within channels where we have an

uptrend going here. And what I did was anytime that stock would go down, I would trade the stock up, up and up. So it didn't go up so much year over year. However, we had consistent trades and something that was very easy to track. And I was able to take advantage of all these different moves and make a lot of money off of it. But not only Pepsi that I made a lot of money off of as well.

One of my other favorite companies. Mondelez. Yes. They have all the delicious snacks. All the good things. This is another trading strategy where you're able to kind of see the uptrend. And then this is what we like to call like a falling wedge. And this is on a weekly chart.

So this is three year, one week chart. And I was able to identify this pattern. And this move produced a lot of money for me within the snack companies. And the thing is, when it comes to snack companies, they all trade alike within certain periods. So there's seasonalities where every sector, I should say, has their time and their place where they're going to shine, money's rotating in and out of the company. And right around this time, not only did the stock go up, a lot of other snack companies went up. And then what people don't realize with snack is that they're kind of inflation proof.

If you really think about it and how they kind of maneuver where how I broke it down to people was as things are going down, people are going to start eating like shit. Because it's a small indulgence, like you're trying to make yourself feel happy. Exactly. You want to feel good. And also people somewhat can't afford to go to Whole Foods 24-7 or go to the Trader Joe's of the world. A lot of times, unfortunately,

people will turn to junk food or as stress levels are high, people will turn to junk food. So in moments of high inflation and people are trying to figure out which direction they should go, people went to McDonald's. And looking outside, the lines for McDonald's last year, this time, it's insane. And you kind of periodically see these rallies happening at McDonald's. And McDonald's is something that people eat

consistently, probably not you and I, but to millions and millions of people around the world, they depend on McDonald's. What are you watching now? Are there any opportunities? Yes. So here at Modern Black Girl, what we say is if you're a trader and you know how to trade, you can trade the stock down, some of your favorite companies down to key levels that will help you identify, and then you can take it back up. So what we see this summer is that we saw, well, it was like literally late spring into summer, a lot of buying activity happening in tech. Nvidia is up, Apple is up, Amazon's up, all these things are up. However, it's time to do some rebalancing.

And you can look at seasonality charts that can really help summarize what I'm talking about, where there's a time and place. I would love Nvidia to come down a bit. So I'm looking for Nvidia to come down a bit so I can get some more. Is there still an opportunity? Absolutely, Yeah,

of course. I mean, there's so much growth that needs to happen when it comes to technology, especially in the AI space. And believe it or not, when it comes to our world being digital, there's still so much more to go. And you need a company that understands structure, but also has the bandwidth and the product and the cash to make things go. And NVIDIA has that. I think getting down to 350 to 400 range would be really nice. Because that's like essentially when it's on sale and we know the ad is buy low, sell high, but it's hard to do it when like psychologically, how do you stay disciplined? Oh my gosh. I would say maybe have amazing people around you to keep you disciplined, right? Like have an amazing team and also just not putting all your eggs in one basket, especially when it comes to investing. Your short-term portfolio shouldn't be with your

long-term portfolio. Like your day trade portfolio shouldn't even be with your short-term portfolio. Like you should be able to just allocate, you know, your funds appropriately in separate accounts just so it can keep you organized. And also it's easier for you to measure your growth. And proper risk management, important. What does that mean?

So risk management is understanding how much you're going to allocate in certain positions and things that you're doing and understanding the risk involved in it. So when it comes to trading, right, there's short-term opportunities based on short-term analysis. So you don't want to put all your money in something that is short-term, but you want to understand your risk levels and being able to measure based on how much money you have, what you want to do, your goals you want to accomplish and the risks within the trade,

how much do you want to put into this trade? And we have so much different calculators that we've created here at Modern Black Girl just to kind of help women understand, okay, you know what? How much can I invest? What should I do first? Because a lot of times,

that's how a lot of investors and traders really lose is that they come in and they have $10,000. And because you heard that Tesla's going up tomorrow and the next week and it's top stock, you're dropping all $10,000 in Tesla. And that's just not how that goes. We end our episodes with a tip listeners can take straight to the bank. I know you have so many, but if they could take away just one thing from today's conversation, what would that be? Bet on yourself. Okay. Bet on yourself and you know more than you think, you know, and I think for investors and traders, that's the biggest thing that I want

people to know. And don't be afraid of the short term. It's just about being disciplined because essentially a lot of times you'll be surprised how short term moves can help fund your long term moves. But it's just also having proper risk management. It doesn't have to be a forever relationship with all your stocks and all your boys, too. OK, imagine. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host,icole lappen money rehab's executive producer is morgan lavoie 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 money rehab at money news network.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me and follow 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. Thank you.