February 27, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast, as well as everybody smart enough to listen. Today is what KT?
February 27th.
Don't be smart. Don't be...
February 27th...
this is the Ask KT and Suze, Anything
I'll do anything for you, dear. OK, let's go.
No wait. If you want, write into ask Suze SUZE podcast at gmail.com. And if you have a question, that is, it comes to us right here. KT looks through them, and if you're lucky, she chooses it, and we answer it here on the podcast. Now you have to listen to the podcast to know if we've answered your question. Somebody wrote the other day and said, Suze, I've been waiting. I wanted to hear back from you. My question was never answered. I went...
Wait, I got another one today that said. Please give me a heads up when you're answering my questions so I can listen. I'm thinking I'm not gonna do that. Now you have to listen to everyone. I'm not gonna give you, give you a heads up warning, you know, emergency ding ding bell.
Early this morning I was looking at KT. I said, What are you doing? She goes, I'm looking through to just make sure I have the most interesting ones. So let's see, let's see if you do, little one.
All right, so here we go. This is from Irene. Hello, Suze and KT. I was listening to your podcast and decided to review my retirement portfolio, which I inherited from my husband 10 years ago. At that time, I was led to an investor by my husband's cousin a few months ago,
danger, danger. I can already tell you...
wait a few months after my husband passed, as I review my portfolio, there was a $240,000 in an IRA today,
So 10 years ago, she deposited $240,000 and how much is it worth today?
Ready? The same account balance has grown to $266,283 in 10 years. So this is the question she's asking. Is this a normal growth rate? It seems so low for 10 years. I was told my account is set up as a moderate growth, more on the preservation side. So that's her question. Is it normal?
What do you think, KT?
Sounds pretty low to me for 10 years?
So you'd be upset at that? Very upset considering what the stock market's been doing in the past 10 years. All right, so my dear Irene,
what do you think?
If you put 240 in 10 years ago and today it's worth 266 or essentially 26,000. Over 10 years, it's about a 1% annual average rate of return.
It's pretty low.
Pretty low? That's horrific. Truthfully, number one, even if you are in a preservation mode just to preserve it. I'm telling you that makes no sense whatsoever. Even if this person had taken your money and put $120,000 in and half of it and locked it up for 3% for all those years and the other and invested it, right, to kind of preserve it and protect against inflation and over all those years you only made 7%, let's just say you'd have $397,000 today.
So no matter how you look at it, you know, because the truth is everybody over the past 10 years, the Standard and Poor's 500 index has averaged 12%. So when I say an annual average rate of return, one year it might go up 10%, the other year it might go down 20%, but over all those 10 years, the average annual rate of return comes out to be about 12%.
So if he had just put it in a Standard and Poor's 500 index, I hate to tell you, you'd have $745,000 at just a straight 6%, which is pretty moderate, you'd have $429,000. So any way you want to look at it. At 1% is all he's made for you. It's not somebody that you want to stick with. Now, at least you made a little money. It's not like you lost any money. However, if I were you, I would think about taking this money away from him. Obviously
it's in an IRA because you inherited it. I'm now looking at your email and it says it was in an IRA. I would do an IRA transfer to another firm. Cause you could just very easily take all of this money and put it in a certificate of deposit or a treasury and average 4.5 or so for probably the rest of your life, so. That's what I would be doing if I were you. I'm so, so sorry. Oh, look at her thing. It
says my retirement portfolio. This is the subject area. My retirement portfolio seems suspiciously wrong.
That's why I picked it, the word suspiciously.
You know, I would go back and I would ask this person what kind of fee was he taking for all those 10 years on this money. I will bet you any amount of money. He made as much money as you did in fees. All right, just saying, cause even if he made 1% a year, KT, he made the exact same amount of money as she did.
Beware of cousin's recommendations.
It's kind of true, everybody.
Yeah, sometimes it's better not to work with family.
And what have I told you all? You are not to do anything other than keep your money safe and sound for 1 or 2 years, possibly 3, after suffering the loss of a loved one. All right.
So Suze, this next question is from Nanji. She said, I absolutely love you both and only wish I had known you years ago. I'm 72. I a $200,000 traditional IRA.
I wish I had known you years ago.
As well as a tiny $20,000 Roth. So at the end of the day, what Nanji's asking is her Social Security and pensions more than cover all of her living expenses. She also has a five year emergency fund and CDs at Alliant. So she doesn't need these IRAs. In my case, does it make more sense to continue to convert as much as I can afford for the next few years? If I choose to make a qualified charitable contribution with my first and possibly second RMD.
So there will be no taxes associated with them. Could I continue to convert for these few years as well?
OK, now, Nanji, so. First of all, you're old enough, you have to be 70 and a half or older to do qualified charitable distributions, and basically what that is, everybody, is if you have a retirement account like an IRA that you've never paid taxes on or a 401k, whatever it may be, you can contribute up to $108,000 in 2025 anyway, it was a little lower for 2024. But you can do so directly from your IRA to
a charity, and that will count against your RMDs. Now, obviously, Nanji, if you have only $200,000 in your IRA, your RMD, your required minimum distribution is only going to be about $7500. So the most you're going to be able to do in a QCD that counts against your RMD will be $7500. After you have done that. Then if you want you can convert, but remember whether you take RMDs or you give them away through a QCD you have to do that before you can convert.
So if I were you, given that you're only 72 years of age right now. And you don't have to start taking RMDs until 73. I would be converting as much as you possibly can this year right now before you have to take RMDs. I would do so because you're not really in that high of a tax bracket, so you should see a CPA and decide how much money can you convert this year right now into a Roth IRA without really screwing up your taxes,
all right? That's number one. Number two, absolutely next year after you do a QCD. Then absolutely I would be converting. I would continue to convert little by little to a Roth given you do not need it. The more you get to convert, the less your RMDs are going to be as well. All right.
Suze, next question I have is from James. Suze, I saw you on a PBS special and have been listening ever since. I'm 58 and currently have an HSA with $80,000 saved that I do not use. I pay for my current qualified medical expenses out of pocket with the hope of letting the HSA investment grow. My understanding is that at age 65 and beyond I can withdraw money from the HSA tax-free. So long as the money is to be used to reimburse a medical expense, and the question is...
A qualified medical expense. All right, OK, I'm just making sure.
So, well, James's question is this If I save all the receipts from my medical expenses over the next 7 years, could I submit them for reimbursement all at once? Or in other words, do the expenses expire?
So now, KT pop quizzy. Pop quizzy here and the reason I'm giving KT a pop quizzy here is I spent years educating so many people on how HSAs work.
She was the queen of HSAa.
I really was.
Really, the queen was great.
Right? But KT went to seminar after seminar after seminar that I gave on this for the Gulfstream Corporation. Therefore, Pop quizzy if James has saved all his receipts from his medical expenses over, let's say the next 7 years if he saves them, can he submit them for reimbursement all at once at age 65? Can he?
I believe yes, he can.
Ding ding ding ding. Yes. He doesn't have to wait till age 65, just so you know. He can do it any time he wants. So James, you know 65 has absolutely nothing to do with, whether that's tax free or not, any qualified medical expense for an HSA can be paid out tax free from
your account. You don't have to worry about that, but after the age of 65, just so you know, if you withdraw money for a non-qualified medical expense, you're only going to have to pay ordinary income tax on it before the age of 65, it's ordinary income tax and a 20% penalty, but an HSA at any time. Is tax-free for a qualified medical expense. No matter what your age, you can save all of your receipts. They call it the shoebox technique.
I remember that
and you keep all your receipts in a shoebox. You've paid for all of these things. You've let your money grow tax free in an HSA. Then you submit it to the company regardless of age, and they will pay you your expenses never expire. Next.
I loved that program you did.
For Gulfstream...
Wasn't it great? She went all across America...
With the president of Gulfstream. Yeah.
It was great and people learned so much. And, and I think you really liked the HSA program.
I liked their HSA program tremendously.
It was a big benefit. Ok, from Maria. Hi, Suze and KT. I listen to your podcast and I used to watch the TV show back in the day. I value your wisdom and advice. I'm a recent 50-year-old widow who retired very early and moved from the US to a foreign country. I'm receiving some income from the interest on bank CDs, but otherwise am frugally living off my savings till I
can start a business. I realize I may be losing out on the full standard tax deduction of $14,600 because the interest I'm earning may only reach $4000 this year. Would this be a wise time to convert some of my IRA over to the Roth IRA instead?
Actually it would, so I think in 2025, Maria, that the standard deduction may go up to about $15,200. They have not decided yet, but if you were to do that and because you only have $4000 this year of interest coming in and that's really your only income and everything, if I were you, I would so convert whatever money you want. In order to take advantage of the full standard deduction and also if you don't mind paying like 10% or so on the tax, you could actually
convert more. You could probably do another $4000 just so you know, talk to your CPA about that. Yes.
OK, next question.
You're a little smart cookie. Maria's a smart cookie.
She, she retired at 50. I wonder what country she's in. Maria, I just met a girl named Suzi.
All right.
Hi Suze and KT Suze, you like when I sing, don't you?
Truthfully, I do a lot. Yeah.
Hi, Suze,
You know what I like more? I like when we dance in the kitchen.
Oh my goodness. Every now and then when I'm cooking, I put on little music when I'm cooking, and if a song comes on that I love, I turn it up so loud and Suze, wherever she is, comes running because it means KT wants to dance. This next question from Lilian. Hi, Suze and KT. Suze Fan here. I have two questions on POD, which is pay on death accounts, everyone, and life insurance beneficiaries. What happens if the person named as the paid on death also dies, for example.
If I own a CD and the pay on death is my son, if both of us happen to pass away in an accident, what happens then? Wait, let me finish. And then she said, if I have a term life insurance policy for $100,000 and my beneficiaries are my son 50%, my cousin 50%. And a contingent beneficiary, my brother at 100. If my son and I pass in an accident, how is the life insurance payment calculated?
Should that be a quizzy too?
No, I mean, that's pretty straightforward.
Oh, it is, is it? So in the first case, what do you think happens?
Oh wait, let me just remind myself in the first case...
She has a CD that it's a pay on death account to her son.
But if they both die...
What happens?
It goes to the contingent...
There is no contingent beneficiary. That's the life insurance policy she's talking about.
Oh, I don't know.
That's my girl.
I don't know, but that is a really important...
Thing to know. So first of all, you all have to know when you do a pay on death account. There's very seldom will a bank allow you to do an alternate, meaning something happens to your son, then you get to name an alternate. That's not how pay on death accounts normally work, just so you know. So in your case where both you and your son pass away in an accident, the money that is in that CD will be governed by your estate, your will. And if you don't have a will, it will go
into intestate succession. Every one of you has to understand if you have not taken the time to do a will on your own. You don't have a trust. You don't have anything, and you die. Oh, the state that you live in. Oh, they've already written one for you. It's called intestate succession, and every state has decided if you die without a will, your money first goes to maybe your parents, maybe your spouse.
Maybe your children. Maybe it's divided between all three. You better check it out, or better yet, you should get a trust in a will, but that's besides the point. So that's number one. Second, if you have a term life insurance policy where your son is 50% and your cousin is 50% and you both die. Now what's going to happen is you have a contingent beneficiary, your brother, who's to get 100%. The contingent beneficiary will be getting your son's 50%. Your cousin will remain at 50%,
and that is how it is. So that's how it would work. Next question, KT.
All right, this is. Darlene, she said, Suze, can you explain the difference in a trust versus a ladybird deed? I live in North Carolina. My only real asset is my home. We would like to make it easy when we pass for our home to go to our son.
Yeah, so here's the thing, Darlene, you bet a ladybird deed. Will make it absolutely easy for you to transfer your home to your son. The thing is with a ladybird deed, the only thing that you could pass that way is real estate. That's it. Obviously it's simple, doesn't cost a lot. It will obviously, KT, avoid probate. The disadvantages, however, is it only involves real estate. You have no, just like I said a little bit ago, KT, that the bank when it's a pay on death account,
they normally don't have alternatives if something happens. The same is true with a ladybird deed. They offer absolutely no flexibility for alternate beneficiaries. So if her son dies before her, all right, now what are we going to do? Also, they have the ability to complicate title insurance and future transaction, things like that. I will forever tell you.
Especially because you can get the must-have documents, a will, a living revocable trust, an advanced directive and durable power of attorney for healthcare, as well as a financial power of attorney. And you can get it by going to musthadocs.com. You get them through Hay House, who has manufactured these, and
it's providing them for you, everybody. However, you are far better off for the $99 they're going to charge you, which is probably less than a ladybird deed, truthfully, that if you put the house in trust. It's held for your benefit during your lifetime, but upon death it transfers to your son. Or if something happens to you and your son like that other woman was
just asking, then your trust provides for alternate beneficiaries. Also, you can include many other things as well, and you can also make it easier for your son if you have an advanced directive and durable power of attorney for health care and all of those things, so. Either one OK, but given that they don't allow you to have an alternate with a ladybird, I most certainly would be doing a living revocable trust instead, you know, KT, people never think that somebody's going to die before them.
Ever. KT, have I already told the story about the woman?
You did. Yeah, that sadly left her home to her niece
And her niece died before she did.
And then she couldn't even live in her own home.
Well, she's living there, but she doesn't own her home anymore. She can't sell it. I don't know if I've told you that tory or not, but it's horrific. Be careful, everybody. All right, go on.
OK, from Lynn, hello, the very kind KT and the financial sage Suze.
Why does everybody think you're so much kinder?
I am. I'm very kind, not kinder
Tell them about my soft side.
No.
What do you mean no?
I'm not going to tell them
Why?
Because that's like, you know, revealing the Wizard of Oz. Everyone thinks you're Suze Slapdown, but she isn't. She's Suze Softy. The kids call her Aunt Softie instead of Aunt Suze. OK, ready? I love starting my day listening to your podcast twice a week.
Now that I have our must have documents signed, notarized, and funded and placed ready for this and placed in a waterproof and fireproof case, how should the house be titled in order to pass seamlessly to our beneficiary, who is our daughter and she's only 2.5 years old?
Yeah, baby girl.
She's a baby girl.
I'm sure that if you did the must have documents, it's provided that the executor and the successor trustee, everybody will take care of the house and the child until she's of age. However, I'm a little bit confused. You say, cause KT just handed me your email. That you have your must have documents. They're signed, notarized, and funded. If they are funded, what funded means is that you have already changed the title of your house, your bank accounts,
your brokerage accounts into the title of the trust. If you haven't done that, you have what's called an empty trust because a trust, everybody is like a suitcase where you put everything in it. And then upon your death, the suitcase is just handed to your beneficiaries, and they open it up and they get everything that's in it. Simple, but if you don't put anything in it and you give them that suitcase and they open it up,
it's going to be empty. So to fund it or to pack that suitcase, so to speak, you go, you have got to change the title of all of your assets from your individual name into the title of the trust. Now if you go back to do the must have documents, you just go back into them. OK, easy for you to do. You know how to do that. And you go to the review page where you're now reviewing your trust. You'll see right under the
review it also says fund the trust. Click on there and then just follow everything that it says for you to do, and then you take it to your bank. You take it to the title company. You take it to your brokerage firm, and they change it for you. The title of your trust is usually like our trust is Suze Orman, trustee for the Suze Orman Living Revocable Trust dated whatever date it was notarized.
And so it's just that simple. So you say it was funded, but it's not because you would not be asking me how should the house be titled in order to pass seamlessly. So that, my friend, is how you do it. KT, are you ready for your quizzy?
I'm always ready for a quizzy. I love quizzies and everyone listening, it's for you too.
You don't love all quizzies.
I love quizzies. I just don't. I have a little trouble with the Roth. So Roth quizzes are a little challenging.
Yeah, so everybody, I just have to tell you something. Today's podcast, I have prepared questions for KT about 18 of them. About Roth IRAs, you remember a few weeks ago I said I'm going to do this, and she's going to answer everything.
I'm not ready.
And I, I said this is what we're doing today. And she said, Oh no, I've already picked the questions for today. I said, but KT, we can do that next week. Let's do this this week. Absolutely refused. I said, Will you be ready next week? And what did you say?
No.
No. Will you be ready in a month from now?
Maybe.
But probably not.
Probably not.
All right, so what am I gonna do? I'm going to take those questions and on March 6th, I'm going to read them and ask all of you the questions that I was going to ask KT and let's see if you can answer all of them, and I will explain the correct answer of each one. So don't miss it. All right. Therefore,
I'm gonna put that in my calendar, March 6th.
I chose a little bit of a tricky one. For your quizzy today,
OK.
All right.
Is it a Roth?
It's a Roth, but it's tricky.
OK.
Listen closely.
I'll listen very carefully.
All right, now before I begin, all right, I just want to remind you that last year, the phase out range for because this is about last year, you can no longer contribute to a Roth IRA if you made over $161,000. I just want you to remember that you cannot. This year it went up to 165. As the max, after that you can no longer contribute. All right, so you ready? You remember what I just said?
Max 160, more or less $160,000.
$161,000. You have to know that figure.
All right, 161.
After that you can no longer contribute to a Roth. All right, as an individual, OK OK. This is from William. Very simple. Ready. My income last year was just below the max income for the Roth IRA of $160,480. How much can I contribute to my Roth? He is 35 years of age.
I think $7000 the max.
You're positive.
Although, if this is tricky, I'm never positive, but... he, his income, his total income, right, was 160. The Roth is 161. So I would say, why can't he put in 7000.
The income ranges last year: 146,000 anything under that you could contribute the max of 7000. Once you get to 161,000, you no longer can contribute at all. Between the 146 and the 161, it decreases. You can only put in the $7000, if you're under 50, $8000 if you're 50 or older. If you make under the 146, so how much can he put in if he's making only a few $100. Under the max till he no longer qualifies?
I'd have it it has to be calculated, Suze, because if he Yeah, it has to be calculated. I need a calculator to figure that out.
And how would you figure it out? What is the formula? You don't know.
I'd ask you, but, but here's the thing. No, he can't put in $7000. Let's put it that way.
But you said your answer was 7000.
I didn't know about the tricky part, which was the 140.
Do you see how she does it, everybody did I?
Why didn't you say anything about that?
Because I said, uh, for because for years now I've been telling you there's a range between this and that anyway, everybody...
And how old is he? 35.
so take a guess. How much do you think he could put in? Just take a guess. Don't try to figure it out.
3000.
The answer to that question is $243.
That's it.
That's it. Do you want to know how I got it?
Yea, what's the formula?
Alright everybody,
It's not worth it.
Here's what you have to do if you make more than the max limit, last year 146, this year 150. If you make more than that, now what you have to do is... and this is what you would have to do, William, in your case. Last year it was $146 to $161. It's a $15,000 difference. You would have to subtract your $160,480 from the $161,000. Number one, that's $520 difference. That's how much you are under the max. You then have to divide that by $15,000.
Why is that? Because it's a $15,000 range KT, from the 146 to the $161 and that would give you 0.0347. Now you have to times $7000 which is the maximum that anybody under the age of 50 can put into a Roth that's the maximum contribution. You have to times that by 0.0347 to give you the amount of money in this example that you can put into a Roth this year anyway, which would equal $243.
So everybody listening. What she just explained to you, all right, is a little tricky.
Not tricky.
It is tricky.
But everybody needs to know how do you figure out if you make more than the minimum. To put in the maximum, how do you know how much you are allowed to put in?
Call Suze.
Call Suze. But that is the formula. You should I listen to it all over again just so you know. All right, KT, until this Sunday for another Suze School. There's only one thing that we want you to remember when it comes to your money, and what is it, KT?
People first, then money, then things.
Now you
stay, stay great,
stay safe, stay safe,
stay healthy,
stay happy, stay healthy and stay listening to the Women and Money podcast. Bye bye now.