1
00:00:01,050 --> 00:00:01,520
Speaker 1: Here we go again with another Ask Suze Anything. All right, so if you want me to answer a question for you, write in to AskSuzePodcast@gmail.com. I read them. If it's chosen, then I will read it and answer it on the air. I am just saying this now, remember a while ago I told you that if you wrote in, I was answering your emails. Each one of them, personally. However, I told you one day that would come to an end, and that day has now come. It's impossible for me to answer all the emails, all the questions, that are coming in. So please, just stick with me though, in terms of send in your questions. You never know, I answer one here and there, but it's not like it used to be. See, you should have taken advantage of it when it was there for you. All right, let's get to the questions.The first one is from Lin. Is it true that, if you are divorced and then get married after age 60, you can still collect on your first ex-husband’s social security? Or, do you lose that opportunity because you've remarried? What if the second marriage dissolves too? Many thanks for the wonderful work you do, getting financial information out to all of us. Thank you, my dear, Lin. Listen to me, here's the great thing. If you are married, you're with that person at least 10 years, or whatever may happen, if you then end up getting divorced after 10 years of marriage, and you do not get remarried prior to the age of 60, you betcha, you can collect on your husband's social security after that. Even if you get remarried after the age of 60, and now you're with that husband for 10 years and now you're 70 or 71, and you get divorced, you actually get to choose which husband or ex-spouse do you want to collect their Social Security on? So, yeah, it's a great thing to know, so don't blow it. Don't blow it by getting remarried before the age of 60, if that is your goal. And, make sure that you are married for at least 10 years. This next one is from Lonnie, and Lonnie says, I saw you on some television program talking about some dental plan that can save me 60% on my dental procedures. What was that that you were talking about? Well, Lonnie, I was talking about something known as a dental savings plan. And this is something that I can honestly say that just three or four years ago, I had never heard about. Listen up, because it's probably one of the best kept secrets out there, and one of the best savings techniques for dental procedures I've ever come across. So, every insurance company that offers dental insurance also offers something known as a dental savings plan. Dental insurance doesn't work the way that most of you really think it works. It doesn't, number one, pay for things like braces for your kids, or certain things that you may need. Usually there's a 60-day waiting period. So, if all of a sudden you break a tooth and something happens, you can't get it fixed right away. It also usually has a $1500 a year maximum that they're going to pay for you, and it costs you about $100 or $150  a month. OK? They also offer a dental savings plan, and a dental savings plan is simply where for about $100 to $150 a year, you will get a 10-60% discount on procedures that are done with the dentist that may happen to accept dental savings plans. Why did dentists accept dental savings plans? Because they’d rather get some money rather than nothing. And most people don't have dental insurance. So, then most people won't get dental work done. So, when a dentist offers it, a lot of times people then do get the work done because now they can afford it. So, when I first heard about this, I went to www.dentalplans.com, that is the website. And I looked up and I saw, oh my God, my dentist accepts these and I needed a root canal. So, when I went to the dentist, I had purchased one of these. I think it was for $100, it was with Cigna, and it saved me $1200 on that one procedure. I am telling you, it is one of the best things out there. It can save you $1000 on your kid's braces. All kinds of things. After that, I got in touch with the company. So, if you go to www.dentalplans.com and you go there, oh, you will absolutely see my picture there. Am I being paid to talk about this now? No, because Lonnie asked me the question, otherwise I wouldn't have brought it up. But I did choose the question. I was paid to make some videos for them, but because it was true and I did it with my own dentist, and I wanted to save all of you, money. I went on HSN and I gave them away, without me making one penny from my appearance on HSN, for a seriously discounted price, if you purchased it that day on HSN. It was like $85 a year or something like that. So, this is something that every single one of you seriously should look into. Go to www.dentalplans.com, and look up your dentist to see, do they accept it? If they accept it, you should purchase that program. Again, it's $100-150 a year, or whatever that is. For the whole family, maybe $200 a year for the whole family. It will save you 10-60% on your dental procedures. I think it's far better than dental insurance and far cheaper, but the best kept secret out there.This next one is from Vicky. Hi, Suze, I've just subscribed to your podcast. Thank you, Vicki. So, if this question has already been addressed, I apologize.I read that first line of Vicki's email because you don't have to apologize for anything, women. Stop saying the words, “I'm sorry.” There is nothing that you should be sorry for. It drives me crazy when I'm at a talk, and all of a sudden, I'm taking questions and people are saying, Suze, I'm sorry, I know this question is just so stupid, but... That drives me nuts. There's no question that is too stupid, there's no question that you need to be sorry for. So just ask, got it? Strong, smart and secure women aren't apologizing for asking anything.She asks, what are your thoughts on annuities as an income instrument in retirement? Thank you so much for sharing your financial knowledge with the world.I have to tell you, I've been changing my mind on income annuities, immediate annuities. Years ago, I would tell you I hated them, they make no sense. Blah, blah, blah, blah. But as I myself am getting older, and my friends are getting older, and people who are writing me are getting older, there are circumstances where it's just making, especially women, feel seriously secure. One of my friends, Judy, was 77 years old now, I think, right around there, all by herself. No kids, no dependents, has money, but needs an income from it and just wants to know she can't outlive her income. So, we put $200k into one of these immediate annuities, and she's getting $2k a month from that, or $24k a year. A lot of it which is tax free. And that will go on for Judy for as long as she lives. And that made her feel so happy and so secure. And what is the goal of money? The goal of money is for you to feel secure. So, after I saw Judy and how happy she was after that, and that she knew she was going to get that income no matter what, I started to think, Suze, why are you so hard on these? Maybe they're not so bad after all, for certain people. It's hard right now because interest rates are so low, and one would never want to lock in these kind of interest rates for the rest of your life. However, you don't have another choice. And here's the other thing, I'm not exactly sure that I think these interest rates are going to be anything other than low for a long time to come. And the lower they are, the more you're either forced into the stock market to get a dividend, or do something like a reverse mortgage, which I like really less than an immediate annuity, or you do an immediate annuity. So, I do think that there is a place for them in many circumstances. Another friend of mine, Laurie, who I went to college with, and Laurie and I are now still in touch. She also is 68 years of age, but now she's having little strokes, she's not well. She has some money, but not a lot. But she needs income, and she's afraid of the stock market, she's afraid of risking any money. So, what does she do? So, you see an immediate annuity, an investment vehicle that gives her a lifetime check, is something that gives her security. All she wants is that security, and as long as you have additional funds besides the money that's in the immediate annuity, then you're OK, because you can access that money and things like that. Remember, when you put money into most immediate annuities, on your death the money goes away. So, it's really perfect for those who are single, they don't have dependents or they don't care, or whatever it is, and they just want to know that they are OK. Now, I'm sure every insurance agent has just plotzed that I've said, yeah, there is a place for immediate annuities within certain people's retirement portfolios.Next one is from S.G. All right, S.G. I am 40 years old, a single woman with a regular nine to five job. I would like to start to invest, to save for retirement now. I have only $30k in a 401k and $30k cash. I am not a homeowner and I have no debt. How much should I save and invest in my 401k retirement contributions now, to retire at age 50, or 65? Any assets, things I can buy and to plan for my retirement? I am already 40 years old and I have no home and not a lot of money saved. Can you please help me? Listen, S.G., here’s the problem. You are telling me that you have absolutely no money. Well, you say you have only $30k in your 401k and $30k cash. Therefore, you're not considering that a lot of money, although some people would look at you and go, hmm, that's a lot of money, I wish I had that much money. But then in your next line, you are 40. You are asking me how much should I save and invest in my 401k retirement to retire at age 50? That's ten years from now. Ten years from now. Where were you for the past 40? Seriously? Or the past 20 at least? And now you're even thinking about possibly retiring in 10 years or at the age of 65, which is really 25 years from now. So, the very first thing is, forget about thinking that you are going to be retiring at the age of 50, because it's not going to happen in 10 years. Good luck for it to even happen in 25 years, and that is because you started late. So, since you started late, which isn't bad, I don't have a problem with that, can you just start thinking differently?Start thinking about, who cares if you own a home? You don't need to own a home to be able to retire. You just never really want to have debt on any level when you retire. The reason that I can't answer how much do you need, is that I don't know how much your monthly expenses are. So, if you are listening to me and you want to retire, you start by your expenses more than your money. How much is it going to cost you to live when you retire? What kind of lifestyle do you want to live? Do you have long term care insurance? Who is going to take care of you when you get sick? How is it all going to work? Do you have a will? Do you have a trust? Do you have all of those things? But you're asking how much should I save? You should be saving the maximum you can possibly save, as much as possible.You know, I was talking to my niece the other day and she was telling me about how her husband wants to save every single penny. When he gets a bonus, he wants to put it immediately into their retirement account. And how strict he is, and how it's really getting to her because she feels like everything is just, you know, under such financial pressure. And did I think that they could loosen it up just a little bit? And I said to her, no, you cannot. You cannot. And the reason that I say that, is that times are changing. The economy is changing, interest rates are changing, the world economic powers that be are changing. Do not be shocked in 10 years from now, maybe even five years from now, if China isn't the number one economic power of the world. So, because things are changing, we don't know what's going to happen in the future. And I'm not saying this to scare you, but then maybe again, maybe I am, because you need to save everything you can possibly save.You can't continue to think that everything's going to go on exactly the way that it's been going on for all these years, because I personally think that we are now entering a new age, a new economic age, that none of us really know how it's going to work in the future. So, you just have to keep diversified. You have to make sure that you're out of debt. You have to have money, you have to have cash, you have to have whatever you have. But you have to keep investing, and investing, and investing and know what you're investing in. Again, my number one investment, I always tell you, is I love the Standard and Poor's 500 index funds, especially for those who need diversification. But if you're getting older and you have larger sums of money, I love dividend paying stocks. And especially as the stock market goes down, and I've said this before, recently on a previous podcast, as the markets go down, those dividends in safe companies will pay you handsomely. So, can you just start thinking about that? And I talk about China. So, is there a way that you can figure out how do you buy and start investing in China? Because I do think that certain Chinese stocks, and certain things like that are absolutely going to take off. And by the way, it's just how it is. So, the times are a-changing. And I'm just going to say this, you know, I've never wanted anything that I've done to be political. You ever notice I really don't talk about the president, the things that are going on? But I'm just going to say this. If you don't have a lot of money, if you do live paycheck to paycheck, if you are starting over, if you're a woman, or a minority, or an immigrant or anything other than, seriously, and I mean this now, and I'm so sorry to have to say this, other than an upper-class white man, you really need to think about everything. Because if I was just going to address economics, personal finance, I'm here to tell you, the less money you have, the more you need to be worried. The more you need to make sure that the people that represent you, all the people, your congressmen, your senators and your president, have your best interests at heart. And if you do not have money, I am here to tell you, that this current administration doesn't care about you, and you are the ones that are going to suffer. Somebody like me, I'm going to make out great. I'll pay less taxes, I'll have more benefits, but I'm not just caring about me. I don't care if I had to pay more taxes, I don't care what I would have to do, to make sure that all of you were OK. But you have to want it as much as I do for you. And the only way that you can do that is to make sure that you have somebody in the White House that doesn't continue to cut back on the programs that help you. Medicare, Medicaid and California Medical, Social Security, soon you'll see, one day they're going to have to postpone Social Security to get it at the age of 70, 75. Who knows what? But the programs that are in place today that you rely on, especially as you get older, I don't know, I don't know. You better make sure that you take care of yourselves financially, not only with saving for your future today, but also how you vote. Do you all get what I'm trying to say to you? All right. Next question. My name is Kelli and I'm 26 years old, and I'm a huge fan of your podcast. I remember listening to one of your podcasts about a debt relief program you recommended. I am looking into (and then she names this program), and I'm wondering (not the program I mentioned, by the way, one that she found on her own), and I'm wondering if that's the one you recommend? I am currently $3100 in debt from medical bills that are now in collections, and I could use any help I can get. Thank you for all you do and for merely existing. I love that. Anyway, listen to me, Kelli. The company that you mentioned is not like the debt company that I mentioned. What am I talking about here? There are companies out there that they will tell you simply to do the following: Don't pay your bills, ruin your FICO score or your credit score. If you owe $3100 and I can show this company that you owe money to that you now have a terrible credit score and blah, blah, blah, blah. I can get them to settle for 25 cents or 50 cents on the dollar. So, all you're going to have to do is spend $1500 to settle this. And what am I going to make to do that? You're going to pay me $700 up front and a percent of the difference, and whatever it may be. That is not the type of company that I am talking about. The types of companies that I talk about, are debt management programs where they help you manage your debt. Most of them are non-profits. If you're looking for one, go to www.NFCC.org, and they'll find one for you there. And these are companies that usually, believe it or not, are hired by the credit card companies. Why? Because a credit card company would rather get paid back something than nothing. So, the way these companies work and they do not hurt your FICO score or your credit score, is they look at all of your debt, and they put you on a five-year plan, and you pay them, and they pay all of your debtors for you. For that, maybe they'll charge you $10 a month or something like that, some insignificant amount. However, what they usually do, is they're able to lower the interest rate on your credit cards down to possibly 0%, or really far less than what you are currently paying. Again, why? Because the credit card companies rather get something than nothing. So, stay away from companies that tell you: Stop paying your bills, we’ll ruin your score, I'll get you so that you can get out of this debt for 25 cents or 50 cents on the dollar. Stay away from companies like that, got it, Kelli? All right. That ends the Ask Suze Anything for today. But coming up this Sunday, which is August 18th, you're going to hear another one of the women that I interviewed. Her name is Leslie, who was financially abused. Leslie is such a success story. You might want to hear what it took for Leslie, at the age of 40, who's now been seriously physically abused. Her abuser, by the way, is now in prison. Her abuser did murder somebody else. I'm telling you, these stories are real, these stories can happen to anybody. You probably know somebody. So, if you know somebody, make sure they listen because again, lives can change. Now Leslie is successful, she's making money and she's happy. So, these stories all have a happy ending, but make sure you tune in this coming Sunday to hear this story of Leslie. See you then. In providing answers neither Suze Orman Media nor Suze Orman is acting as a Certified Financial Planner, advisor, a Certified Financial Analyst, an economist, CPA, accountant, or lawyer. Neither Suze Orman Media nor Suze Orman makes any recommendations as to any specific securities or investments. All content is for informational and general purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and financial advisors regarding your particular situation. Neither Suze Orman Media nor Suze Orman accepts any responsibility for any loss, which may arise from accessing or reliance on the information in this podcast and to the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all liability for loss or damages, direct or indirect, arising from use of the information. To find the right Credit Union for you, visit https://www.mycreditunion.gov/. Interested in Suze's Must Have Documents? Go to https://shop.suzeorman.com/checkout/cart/index/.