SoFi Blog

When it comes to negotiating and owning your career, Nicole Lapin has been around the block. She was one of the youngest anchors to ever join CNN, and went on to be business and finance correspondent for Morning Joe on MSNBC and The Today Show on NBC and Bloomberg Television. More recently, she’s published two New York Times bestsellers all about how she got to where she is today—Rich Bitch and Boss Bitch.

As part of Raise Week, which was launched to empower career professionals to promote themselves and negotiate for what they’re worth (more on that here), Lapin stepped in to offer her career advice to Twitter users during a Twitter chat hosted earlier this week. Here’s Nicole Lapin’s advice on how to step up and claim your raise as you navigate your career.

U.S. stocks are strong; developed world stocks are rallying, but still uncertain; and despite some investors’ fears, emerging markets are still appealing. Here’s what’s been happening in the market over the past few weeks.

The ability to help people who really need it may be the main reason you’ve decided to become a nurse. But let’s face it—money is usually a factor in job choice. That comes into play in two distinct ways: in terms of the salary you’ll be able to earn as a nurse, and the loans you’ll have to repay.

Becoming an entrepreneur is one of the most rewarding—and terrifying—things you’ll ever do. I started my own business, a business-planning software company initially based in Palo Alto, California, three years after graduating from business school. I’ve succeeded through several decades, but it wasn’t always easy given that I struggled with student loan and mortgage payments, and took care of my family at the same time. But today, I’m financially secure, my business is healthy, and I employ more than 60 people at our new location in Eugene, Oregon. Because I’ve dealt with startups and entrepreneurs for a long time, I’m well equipped to outline what you can expect if you’re planning to start your own business.

B-school has given other entrepreneurs exactly what it gave me: business fundamentals, including basic finance, marketing, and administration. An MBA program also teaches you how to plan and, most importantly, how to understand cash flow. But what school doesn’t teach you is how to wade through the entrepreneur clichés to get to the unvarnished truth.

You have to earn the right to call yourself a New Yorker, and one of the ways you can do that is by suffering through the challenge that is finding housing in New York City. It’s a badge of honor you can wear with pride once you do—I mean, New York is one of the only cities in the world where people willingly pay over $1,000 a month for an apartment that has a shower in the kitchen.

But even as one of the most expensive cities in the world, it may make financial sense to buy sooner rather than later in this city. You only need to stay put for three years to make buying in Queens worth the price, four and a half years for Brooklyn, and seven and a half years for Manhattan, according to a study done by StreetEasy.

The desire for space and affordability sends some first-time homebuyers to New Jersey, Long Island, or quaint towns along the Hudson River (all of which still come with steep price tags). But for those committed to staying within the five boroughs, the question remains: Just how the heck do you navigate being a first-time homebuyer in New York City?