Former CNN Anchor Shares How She Rebuilt Her Life After the L.A. Fires (Exclusive)

Author and former CNN and CNBC anchor Nicole Lapin gave birth to her daughter in December 2024. Three weeks later, the 41-year-old was forced to evacuate her home with her newborn due to the devastating fires ravaging Los Angeles. Now, eight months later, Lapin opens up to PEOPLE about how she’s rebuilt her life and the things she wishes she knew before the “unimaginable happened.” 

“I had everything really set up for postpartum, tried to think through as much as I could to safeguard from postpartum depression and have a studio within walking distance of our home,” she shares.

However, some things you can’t plan for, as Lapin points out, the fires were “not part of my birth plan at all.”

“I worried about a zillion different things. Losing my entire town was not one of them,” the author shares. 

Lapin and her family were among the more than 150,000 people throughout Los Angeles forced to evacuate their homes because of the blazes, which burned more than 40,000 acres and destroyed over 16,000 structures.

“It cut so deep from our entire home and everything that we had, we left with the clothes on our back, not an ID or our wallet or anything, not much less valuables or sentimental items.”

Lapin lost her Pacific Palisades home as well as the office she built for her financial news network, Money News Network, in the fire. Her pediatrician’s office was also burned down.

The financial journalist has spent the last few months rebuilding her life and taking steps to ensure that if another emergency does happen, she’s prepared for it. 

“We did the best we could. It was out of survival and necessity that we had to find a temporary place, but ultimately, we were homeless,” she says. “We finally found a spot a few months ago and just rebuilt our studio.” 

On top of the devastation of losing her home and belongings, Lapin admits the situation also brought up past trauma.

“I had this irrational fear of being homeless. I saw my house foreclosed on when I was a kid. I always had housing insecurity, but I never thought that could happen to me again,” she shares. “There are these financial irrational fears that you have, no matter what’s in your bank account, that are really deep-rooted.”

“I have realized that as far as I’ve come, there’s always more to learn and there’s always more work to do. I’ve definitely learned even more having to go through it myself,” she continues. “It’s one thing to take financial tests, which I have and study for it. It’s another thing to actually go to the school of hard knocks, which I had to do this year.” 

The former finance correspondent was able to rebuild what she could and now offers advice to others on her podcast, Money Rehab. 

“The unthinkable, unfortunately, does happen regardless. Emergencies will happen,” she says. “It’s not if, but when. It’s not even to this extreme, but to be as financially prepared as possible, that is something you can control.” 

Looking back, there are a few things that Lapin wishes she had done before disaster struck. She recommends people create a “digital go bag,” which includes digital files of essential documents, passports, IDs, insurance cards and policies, marriage and birth certificates and even mail with your address on it. 

She also recommends taking a video of the interior of your home as documentation of all your belongings, as it’s easy to forget some possessions when filing claims. For Lapin, it is just as important to document all the big things as it is to document the little things, spanning from clothes to makeup shades.

“It’s so gut-wrenching to do an inventory of your entire life, but the insurance will ask for it,” Lapin says. “It’s always tricky to learn from these life lessons. It’s a combination of forgiving my former self for what she didn’t know, but also having tough love and taking the right steps moving forward.”

Outside of disaster recovery, the New York Times bestselling author is now focusing on ensuring her daughter is financially secure for the future despite the hardship they’ve faced this past year. For Lapin, who grew up with trauma and internalized fears about money, or the lack thereof, this means understanding financial jargon and modeling healthy mindsets for her daughter. 

“I rethink the way I talk now, and when my daughter does talk, I want to change the language we use, and I won’t say, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees,’ but maybe, ‘Money grows where we save it and invest it.’ ”

“Consciously changing the way we think and talk about money is important,” she adds. “Instead of, ‘We can’t afford that,’ I’ll say, ‘We’re choosing to spend our money on something else right now.’ ”

Lapin’s media presence is built on transparency, as displayed by the honesty she showed during some of the most challenging times in her life. She hopes to inspire others through her stories and set an example for her daughter. 

“I try my best to lead by example. The last eight months have been a challenge, but even at this point in my life, there’s so much to learn,” she says. “I know a lot. I don’t know everything, and I’ve never claimed to know everything. The more you realize there is, the more to know. One of our last taboos in this world is finances.”

“I hope that parents realize money is the tool and not a limitation. When anyone asks me how to make rich kids, ultimately it’s looking in the mirror first because I’m seeing that kids mirror exactly what you do,” the former anchor shares.

“If you have bad habits you’re displaying to your child, they’re gonna watch you. They’re gonna watch if you’re scared to open your credit card bill. It’s important to lead by example, and that is an honest, hard conversation that we all have to have with ourselves. I try to have it first.”