Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)
Ask KT & Suze Anything: Unleash The Beast
Thu, 20 Feb 2025
For this Ask KT & Suze Anything episode, Suze answers your questions about the must have docs, investing while suffering grief, investing or paying down debt and so much more! Jumpstart financial wellness for your employees: https://bit.ly/SecureSave Protect your financial future with the Must Have Docs: https://bit.ly/3Vq1V3GGet your savings going with Alliant Credit Union: https://bit.ly/3rg0YioGet Suze’s special offers for podcast listeners at suzeorman.com/offerJoin Suze’s Women & Money Community for FREE and ASK SUZE your questions which may just end up on the podcast. Download the app by following one of these links: CLICK HERE FOR APPLE: https://apple.co/2KcAHbH CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE PLAY: https://bit.ly/3curfMISee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What are the current interest rates and CD options?
All right, listen up to me, everybody. Interest rates are not going to last. They're going down, down, down, down, down. So I want you to take advantage of the 12 to 17 month CD at myalliant.com. You have to look at it. So much higher than treasuries. I cannot even tell you. So currently, they are paying for amounts of $1,000 to $74,999, 4.25 APR for $75,000 and up. It is 4.30.
4.25.
4.25.
4.25. We are strong.
We are strong. We are strong.
February 20th, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women in Money podcast and everybody's smart enough to listen. Today is Blinking KT. Stop it.
Wait, when you say Blinking KT, that sounds like, you know, you're beeping or blinking me out as a swear word or something. doesn't it?
No, it means that you're bleeping, bleeping, bleeping. I'm not bleeping you, I'm blinking you. Wait, but Blinking KT and Suzy Anything Show, which means if you have a question and you want to write in and if KT chooses it, it will be on the podcast. Write Ask Suzy, S-U-Z-E podcast at gmail.com. And there you go. All right. What
Wait, congratulations, Susie. I want to congratulate you. On what, Katie? On your last New York Times bestseller is now out in paperback. The Retirement Guide for 50 Plus for everybody, not just women and money.
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Chapter 2: How did Suze Orman update her Retirement Guide book?
For everybody. It came out on February 18th, right? That was two days. Yes.
Yeah. Good, good, good job, Susie. Wait, it's completely updated. I mean, it's a really great, it's a nice size book too. It's easy to carry around. I like it.
It's pretty. Well, if KT likes it, that's a good enough reason why you should all go out and get it. But truthfully, everybody, we did redo the book and we did do all the updates because there were so many. So many. It's like a new book. It's like a new book. Venture into, once again, The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50 plus.
And if you're under 50, get it now so you know everything by the time you're 50.
50, 60, 70.
This is going to be one of those podcasts. All right. Shake your head.
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Chapter 3: How can you become financially savvy?
Shake your head. I'm blinking and shaking at the same time, everybody. This is from Lydia. Hi, Susie and KT. Up to a few months ago, I was totally oblivious to my financial status. Although my husband asked me numerous times to get involved in our finances, my mantra was, as long as our bills are paid, I'm good.
This changed when my husband came across your podcast and suggested I listen to a few episodes. At 61 years old, I was drawn in and I got hooked. See, Susie, they get hooked on you. Or do they get hooked on me? Can you just read? In just a few months, I became so much smarter when it came to our finances. I now ask questions about everything. Why we open certain accounts?
What are the IDs and passwords? How are we funding the accounts? This also included speaking up when I didn't agree with a decision. In addition, I started sharing your wisdom with my daughter-in-law after hearing you say on one of your podcasts, who is teaching our young women to be smart with money?
Thank you both for unleashing the beast within me so that I can be that financially savvy woman I was meant to be. That's from Lydia. Isn't that great? So she doesn't have a question. I just had to share that with everyone.
But Lydia, I just want to say this to you and everybody listening, which is this. What is it when you finally turn that switch on? What happens? Because so many of you seriously are still like, I don't want to go there. I don't want to do it. I don't need to know. And so it'd be so fascinating to be able to harness the answer to that question.
What triggered you to want to be involved with your true financial life support system known as money? Next question, Katie.
Okay. This is from Joanna. Joanna said, Hi, Susan and Katie. I love listening to you both each week. And now that I am 62 and reorganizing my funds, I need to ask a question. If I invest in a dividend ETF, when the stocks within that ETF issue quarterly dividends, will I get some of that money or will it just go into the ETF itself as a gain?
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Chapter 4: Should you invest in dividend ETFs or individual stocks?
Would I be better off buying individual stocks where I get paid their dividends directly? Please educate me as to how the disbursements work. Great question, Susie.
So, Joanna, here's what you need to know. First of all, when you have an ETF or any dividend-paying stock, even if it's an individual stock... You get to choose, do you want to reinvest the dividend so it buys more shares, or do you want the dividend passed out to you, distributed to you for income? Either way, you're going to pay tax on it, but you get to choose one way or the other.
So it's not like the ETF automatically does that. You get to choose. Now, let's just quickly look at the advantages and disadvantages. For an ETF, the truth of the matter is you're doing it very passively. They're choosing all the stocks, they're doing everything for you, so you have less risk with that. And if one of the companies in the ETF happens to reduce or cut its dividend,
That's not that big of a deal because of how many stocks you probably own. The disadvantage is that you will get a slightly lower yield because all ETFs have an expense ratio. Individual stocks, on the other hand, you get to directly control which companies you want. They pay you directly and
However, there is a higher risk because if one company reduces or eliminates its dividend, you're kind of stuck with that one stock. So if you want passive income and less risk, do the ETF. If you enjoy researching companies and managing stocks, do individual stocks. It's just that simple. Or do a combination of them both. All right, KT.
Next question, Susie, is from Jackie. I purchased the must have documents some years ago after seeing you, Susie, on PBS. Great show. I have yet to use them because I was scared. I am no longer scared. I live in Southern California, and after the fires, I decided I must get my affairs in order. So that's it. I'm doing it. Susie, can I still use the documents and the code? Is it still valid?
As always, thank you for your honest financial guidance.
Yeah. Let me tell you all something about the must-have documents. I don't care if you bought them in the year 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020 or this year. The purpose of those documents is for you to protect yourself. And if you bought them and you haven't used them, of course, it's still valid.
But the good news for you, Jackie, is that truthfully, when you go on, it will say update and it will update it to the current ones that are brand new and out this year. So it's just that simple. And if you lost your code or whatever, just call the helpline and they will help you. So unlike any other program out there that every time there is an update, buy it again, buy it again, buy it again.
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Chapter 5: Can I still use my old must-have documents?
For all of you listening, I'm going to give you a real quick summary. $150,000 is in an advisory account, a million in a money market. She maxes out her 401k contributions every year, and she has a small Fidelity advisory account, less than $10,000 that she's kept to learn how to invest independently.
Susie, I've been dedicating a little time to learning about investments by listening to your podcast, and I want to make informed decisions about my financial future. The question is, should I keep my investments with a financial advisor or invest independently? And then I read on and she said, Colleen said she's still in deep grief about losing her husband.
And she's worried about that if she does this, she'll be doing maybe the wrong thing. Yeah. She's also taking care of three young children.
So very difficult. So Colleen, my love, first of all, as KT said, our love does go out to you. But I've always had a rule of thumb that you are to do nothing with money other than keeping it safe and sound for at least one to two years or longer after suffering the loss of a loved one.
You are a little bit over one year of suffering that loss, but you are still in deep grief about losing your husband. Therefore, you should not do anything with that money. And I mean anything. Maybe if you wanted to get out of credit card debt or pay off a mortgage or something like that, okay. But I would not be investing any of it right now until you no longer feel that you're in deep grief.
So all right, you have a million dollars in a money market account. Okay. You have $150,000 in an advisory account. If the financial advisor happens to call you and say to you, hey, you know what? there's a good thing you should do with money. Let's take some of that million and do it. You are to say no, absolutely not.
You still want to play with the $10,000 that you have in your Fidelity account. Okay, I don't have a problem with that. But the goal of money is for you to be secure. And the mere fact that you wrote me this question, how many times have I said to all of you, you don't ask me a question like this without already knowing the answer.
So there's something about this that makes you feel uncomfortable, maybe with the brokerage firm, maybe whatever, I don't know. but I would not be investing any other money at all until you are no longer in deep grief. You are even no longer in shallow grief, but that you're feeling more in touch with who you will need to become. All right, KT.
That's nice. So this next question is from Michelle. I know that under the Secure Act 2.0, SEP Roth IRAs are allowed. However, none of the major brokerage firms, Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, offer SEP Roth IRA accounts. Susie, do you know of any reputable firms that are offering it yet? I'd like to know that.
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Chapter 6: What should you do with money after losing a loved one?
So aggravating, Katie.
I think I know the answer why they're not, they didn't do it yet. It takes, they're like slow pokes. It takes a long time for them to change. The system, the literature, the computer.
Don't aggravate me. KT, it's a year and a half now.
They should have done it at least online.
They have SEP IRAs. It is not a big deal to switch it to a Roth SEP IRA. Do not give them excuses.
Okay.
They're all just not wanting to do it.
All wise, Susie and Katie, I'm hoping you can provide some guidance. I love this is from Mr. T. Mr. T in Virginia says, I love this question. What did Mr. T do that was wrong?
All wise, all wise, Suzy and Kate T. Whenever a man starts with a kind of a wise thing, it's because he's done something that he knows I'm going to yell at him about.
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Chapter 7: Where can you find SEP Roth IRA accounts?
And if you eventually sell them and you've had your money in there for longer than a year, you'll pay capital gains. So that's what I would do if I were you. I would get out, out, out, young Mr. T. Yeah.
Okay. Next question is from Karen. Hi, Susie and KT. You guys are so wonderful. Yes, we are. So wonderful. We've learned so much. She's still blinking. No, I'm not.
I'm telling you, you are. I'm looking. Stop it, KT.
We have a very important decision to make. My husband has a good chance of losing his job due to the government cutbacks. You and like 20,000 other people.
I know. I'm so sorry.
Sorry, Karen, to hear this. He is 65. I am 66 and a half. We are considering pulling out of our savings to pay the house off. My question is, is this the right thing to do? So, does it say how much she still owes on her house? Mortgage balance is $80,000. All right, not bad.
And there's a whole financial list of what she's got. But not bad. Not so bad. All right, here's what I would do, Karen. Make it a quizzy. I'm not making, I have your quizzy. Oh, all right, because I know the answer. I know the answer. To here? Yeah. What's the answer? Do it. Ah.
Why? It's not $80,000. Pay it off. Own your home outright. All right, go ahead.
I can't even believe it. You're a little thingy today. You're like, what are you, a little twitchy?
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Chapter 8: What should you do with a variable adjusted life insurance policy?
I was partially right.
Katie, you're either right or wrong. I was partially wrong. Partially right. You were wrong. Colleen. You were wrong. Hello, Susie. You were wrong. You were wrong. All right.
You were wrong.
Stop. Just say it. Okay. I was wrong. I was almost right. I was wrong, but close to being. Well, you, oh God, she's getting to me today. Everybody go on. Next question is from Colleen. Hello, Susie. I have a term life insurance policy for $150,000. Ready for this? I've had it for 20 years. That's not unusual, Katie. No, but that's a long time.
But here's the big question. No, it's not a long time. For term? Most people buy term policies for 20 or 30 years. They don't buy it for a short period of time because they want their premiums to stay stable for the entire term. So that's normal.
So this is the question. Is this normal? What can I do to keep it or at least get some of my money back? Well, that's not normal, is it?
KT. Yes. am I going to do, everybody? Can you just tell me? What am I going to do? Anyway, so, Colleen, what can you do to keep it? Just keep paying your premiums. There was a reason why you originally got a $150,000 term policy. Chances are you got it 20 years ago when somebody was financially dependent on you.
And now there's nobody financially dependent upon you if something, God forbid, were to have happened to you. So if you don't need it anymore. then just stop paying for it. Or there are companies that will buy a term life insurance, viatical companies is what they're called, right? That will buy them from you, even if they are term policies. Haven't you been watching TV?
And when you watch it, there's these people that are like in a mine and people above them are like hearing noises and they're saying they don't even know they're living in a gold mine. But anyway, those are advertisements for people like you who want to sell those policies. But I have to tell you the truth. I don't know the name of any companies because it's not really something that I believe in.
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