February 20th, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast and everybody smart enough to listen. Today is blinking KT.
Stop wait when you say blinking KT that sounds like, you know, um, you're, 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 me.
I'm not bleeping you. I'm blinking you. today, wait, but blinking KT and Suze 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 Suze SUZE podcast at gmail.com. And there you go. All right, what is it that you want to say?
Congratulations, Suze. I want to congratulate you.
On what KT?
On your last New York Times bestseller is now out in paperback, the retirement guide for 50 plus. Plus for everybody, not just women and money for everybody.
It came out on February 18th, right? That was two days ago.
Yeah, good, good, good job, Suze. 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.
Venture into it 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. And if you're over 50, it's never too late.
But it's 50 plus 50, 60, 70. This is gonna be one of those podcasts. Shake your head, shake your head.
I'm blinking and shaking at the same time, everybody. This is from Lydia. Hi, Suze and KT. Up to a few months ago, I was totally oblivious to my financial status. You're not alone. 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, Suze, 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 the 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. I don't... and so it 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, KT.
OK, this is from Joanna. Joanna said, Hi, Suze and KT. I love listening to you both each week, and now that I'm 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? 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, Suze.
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. 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, Suze is from Jackie. I purchased the must have documents some years ago after seeing you, Suze 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. Suze, 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. It was done so that you only needed to buy
it once and you never need to buy it again. Therefore, if you don't have it yet, go to musthadocs.com and you can get a will, a living revocable trust, an advanced directive, and durable power of attorney for health care, as well as a financial power of attorney, all for $99. $2500 worth of state of the art documents. Are you kidding me? All right, KT.
All right, this next question is from Colleen. And Colleen, I first want to say that we, we send our condolences, she said, Suze, my husband passed away very unexpectedly recently. We have 3 young children. My husband had life insurance, and after his passing, I invested the majority of the payout with a financial advisor at Edward Jones. A family referral. As I had little investment knowledge for all of you listening, I'm gonna give you a real
quick summary. $150,000 is in an advisory account, a million dollars 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. Suze, 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, 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 1 to 2 years or longer after suffering the loss of a loved one. You are a little bit over 1 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 a credit card debt or pay off a mortgage or something like that, OK, 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. OK. 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 dollars 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. OK, 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. Suze, do you know of any reputable firms that are offering it yet? I'd like to know that.
So don't ask me why that we're a year and a half almost into when this was passed. And these brokerage firms still don't want to offer them. I can't understand why that is. So there are some firms that are offering them, but they're not big named firms, so I would be hesitant to recommend them to you. But all of you should start complaining to Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, all of them, and say, what the heck is a matter with you. It's legal. You should
be offering them. Why aren't you? I've tried and I can't get an answer from them, so maybe in mass, if you were all to write them, maybe we can change it because there is no reason in the world that they're not offering them. But sorry about that. So aggravating, KT.
I think I know the answer why they're not. They didn't do it yet. It takes they're like slowpokes. It takes a long time for them to change the system, the literature, the computer.
Don't aggravate me. It's almost, it's a year and a half now.
They should have done it.
They have at least IRAs. It is not a big deal to switch it to a RothA IRA. Do not give them excuses.
OK.
They're all just not wanting to do it.
All wise Suze and KT, I'm hoping you can provide some guidance. I love this.. it's from Mister T. Mister T in Virginia. I love this um question.
What did Mr. T... whenever 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. What did he do?
20 years ago I was sold a variable adjusted life insurance product. I know I knew that when it's all wise, it's like I knew Mr. T. Luckily it was a relatively small policy for $300,000. I don't think that's small.
That's a death benefit. That's not a big deal.
Yeah, but still I and cost around $80 a month.
That's a big deal.
That is. I now know this was a bad choice. Wait, Mr. T, put that in bold, all caps. The surrender value is nearly 15,000 and the cost basis is around 19. Is it best to move this to my primary financial institution, which is Fidelity, as a variable annuity until I recover the loss or some alternative? Upon recovering the $4000 loss, what is the next best step? Please show some pity on this fool, sincerely, Mister T.
Oh my dear fool, Mr. T... You're not a fool.
You're not a fool. You're brave. You're brave to, you're brave to give Miss. Orman an insurance question.
So here's what I would do really if I were you. There's no reason for you to keep it in this policy anymore because there are fees in this policy. It just doesn't make sense. Never did, never will. Therefore, You cannot take the $4000 loss off your taxes. Fine, no problem, but if I were you, I would surrender it now. Get $15,000 will not be taxable to you because you didn't make money.
And take that $15,000 and then take it to your primary financial institution Fidelity and just start investing it on a value cost averaging basis or dollar cost averaging basis in either ETFs and or individual stocks and just make it up that way. Remember, in an annuity in this life insurance product when you were going to take money out, chances are you'd have to pay ordinary income taxes on it.
So you would have lost the gain possibly if it went above what you put in in taxes anyway when you are going to invest it now and put it in ETFs and stocks while they're in there, you're not going to be paying any taxes, it's tax deferred 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.
OK, next question is from Karen. Hi, Suze and KT. You guys are so wonderful.
Yes, we are so wonderful.
We've learned so much.
Even though she's still blinking.
No, I'm not.
I'm telling you, you are. I'm looking to 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'm I'm sorry, sorry, Karen to hear this. He is 65. I am 66.5. 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.
Mm. Mortgage balance is $80,000.
Not bad.
And there's a whole list of what she's got, but not not so bad.
All right, here's what I would do.
Make it a quizzy.
I'm not making. I have your quizzy.
Oh, all right, because I have the answer. I know the answer...
To here. What's the answer?
Do it. (Suze makes the wrong answer noise) Why it's not $80,000. Pay it off. Own your home outright. (Suze makes the wrong answer noise again) All right, go ahead.
I can't even believe it. You, you're a little thingy today. You're like, what are you, a little twitchy?
A little speedy.
A little speedy. All right, so...
Great coffee.
So Karen, here's what I would do. I would continue to do everything just like you are doing it. Once he loses his job. Then I would go and take the $80,000 out of savings because I see you have $335,000 in savings, but take the $80,000 out of there and pay off the mortgage at that point in time, but not now because we don't know that he's going to definitely lose his job, so you can always pay off the mortgage.
But why not let the 335,000 grow and make a nice interest rate, because your mortgage balance is just gonna continue to go down. So until he loses his job, keep everything a status quo. If he does lose his job, then take the 80,000 out of savings and pay it off.
OK, I was partially right.
KT, You're either right or wrong.
I was partially wrong, partially right.
You were wrong.
Colleen.
You were wrong.
Hello, Suze...
You were wrong. You were wrong, you were wrong. Just say it.
OK, 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's from Colleen. Hello, Suze. I have a term life insurance policy for $150,000. Ready for this? I've had it for 20 years.
That's not unusual, KT.
No, but, 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? That's not normal is it?
KT... What am I going to do, everybody, can you just tell me? What am I gonna 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 byatical 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, that was our 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. It's just... chances are you're going to end up just stopping to make the payments, right, but remember you got that term policy knowing that it was going to end with absolutely no value whatsoever. All right.
OK, next question is from Sam, but I think this is a woman, her name is Samia, and she signed it Sam. In 2021, 2022, and 2023. A 30 year old contributed to a wrath a total of $18,500 in 2024... Ready 30 year old, he cashed out the Roth IRA and got $17,000. He has a loss of $1500. Being the distribution was made before 5 years and he's 30 years old, does he still have to pay a 10% penalty even though he has a loss? Does he have to pay any other things on the loss?
Should that be your quizzy?
I think that you do have to pay a penalty if you're 30 years old and you're...
(Suze makes the wrong answer noise) Sam, the thing you need to know is no. There is no penalty. There is no tax, because with a Roth IRA you can take out your original contributions any time you want without taxes or penalties regardless if it's been in there less than 5 years and if you're less than 59.5 years of age. I've said it over and over and over and over. Again, and KT is looking at me like it's the very first time she's ever heard that. That is besides
the point. So no, there is no tax or penalty owed because he put in 18,500 of his original contributions. He only took out 1700, no taxes or penalties whatsoever. All right, KT.
OK, my next question, Suze is from Natalie. What is more important, pay down debt or invest? Hard to know what my return will be on my investments. How do I know if I have the right balance? Do you want that to be your quizzy? Um, invest or hold on. All right, I can make this my quizzy. What's more...
You've already blown two quizzys.
What's more important, paying down debt or invest? Personally, I would pay down my debt.
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding, right? So, oh God, I'm so glad because she's always so upset after these podcasts are over.
That's a good one, right? I would pay. Suze hates debt. I know that that's always going to be a winning.
You said it in your email. Which is hard to know what my return will be on my investments. I know the markets have been going up, and it makes you go, Oh my God, I'm missing out. I'm so upset I didn't participate. Oh my God, however. It could be the other way as well. I always give the example of 2007, 2008, where you decided, you know what, I'm going to take my money that I should be paying down my debt with and investing it, and then you've lost all of it, almost or 50%
of it, and you still have the debt. The truth is it depends what kind of debt you are talking about. If you are talking about credit card debt at a high interest rate, pay it down. If you are talking about student loan debt that is at a high interest rate, pay it down. If you're talking about mortgage debt that's at 2%, and you can easily pay that, invest.
So it depends what kind of debt, but chances are, since you didn't say mortgage debt, you just said debt pay down your debt, and then you'll have even more money to invest with the payments that you were paying on that debt.
Do you have time for one more?
One more. That's it, right?
This, this is the one that I thought was really scary about butchering. Can I read this butchering? Yeah. This should be the title. This should be our title. Ready, it says. Suze and KT, thank you for being you. Thank you for all the financial help you give ordinary people like me. I love Thursdays and Sundays. Ready? My ex-husband, who has a law degree, fell into an internet crypto scam whereby
he lost everything known as pig butchering. I never heard that over 2 million in dividend producing stocks, another. 1.5 million in retirement accounts and recently sold a fully paid off home and is now living with his 82-year-old mother. He is only 56.
Thank God, it's her ex-husband.
Oh my God. But Suze, I never heard this. Point is, not everyone is aware of pig butchering. You reach so many people, Suze. I thought you would be willing to do a comment on what this is, there's nothing more heartbreaking than losing your life savings because you think you're going to make fast money on crypto.
How much you want to bet me...
Some things are too good to be true, Maria.
How much you want to bet me that Maria actually divorced her husband. Because she was the one making the money and she was the one good with it.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know, but I know that I agree with you. I'm glad she's not married.
No way did he earn this money because if he earned it, he probably wouldn't have lost it,
He was a player. He was a player, and that's what you keep saying about this cryptocurrency. If you're a player and you can afford to lose it.
Right, so let me tell everybody about pig butchering, and it really is a type of online investment fraud that's really very rampant, and this is where people, they manipulate their victims really into investing in all these fake ventures, and usually it's in cryptocurrency and the term comes from KT in that, you know how you fatten up a pig before you slaughter it? Right, I know she's looking at me like, don't say that,
but it's true that's what they do here. So they fatten up, so to speak, their victims by building trust over time, making their money go up and up and up, and then they in essence slaughter them. And that's what happens, and they do that by stealing their money and they all, oh, I can go more and more into it, but it originated KT in China. And it's now all throughout the globe. So when something seems like it's too good to be true, it is.
Reminds me of Bernie Madoff.
I was just going to say...
I know Suze was asked among so many of her friends that were invested with Bernie Madoff that Suze, you got to get on board, and she kept saying, Sorry, too good to be true for me. I remember her in New York saying that over and over again.
You want to know something, everybody. The house that we live in in the Bahamas, the reason that we were able to buy the land that we built this home on is that there was a woman who owned it. This was the premier lots on this island. It had a big house, blue house on it, and she not only owned this but she owned two other lots as well. And so there was like a fire sale on these lots, and so we just bought them because it was like, I'll take those. And it was...
It came on sale on a Sunday, and I'll never forget Suze hearing the price and said to the island manager, buy it, buy it now before Monday before everyone else knows about it.
But it's because she lost all of her money to Bernie Madoff. He had gone to her kids' weddings, everything, so. When it sounds too good to be true, it is, don't go for these huge returns, and a lot of you are gonna say, yes, I know Suze, but Palantir sounds too good to be true, although the difference between something like that and these other things is you have control of the money. You can buy and sell any time you want. Nobody
else is holding that money for you. It's in your name at a brokerage firm, so it's yours, and you can cash it out any time you want. Now I have the hard job of Sunday, following last Sunday's podcast, which everybody loved with Mister Fitz. So anyway, we'll have to see what we come up with, but we will have him as a guest once a month or so, so we can have his energy and discuss things that you need to know.
But until then, there's only one thing that we want you to remember when it comes to your money, and it's what KT?
People first, then money, then things.
Now you stay safe. And healthy cause there's a flu going around. Bye bye.
Bye everybody!