Robert: January 2nd, 2025. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Robert, the
Robert: producer here. So with New Year's Day yesterday, right? Falling
Robert: in the middle of the week, Suze and KT are
Robert: gonna take an extra day to enjoy the break.
Robert: Now Suze will be back on Sunday with Suze's school,
Robert: and today we all get to enjoy an Ask KT
Robert: and Suze episode from last year. And I picked this
Robert: one because I spent the holidays with my family just
Robert: up the road from where KT grew up. See, we're
Robert: both from New Jersey, and on this episode, we get
Robert: a little bit of KT's origin story, so make sure
Robert: you stay all the way to the end to the quizzy. Enjoy.
Suze: All right, Miss Travis, let's get to it cause I'm
Suze: looking over there and has a big stack, but let
Suze: me just say for any of you who would like
Suze: to send in a question you need to keep them short.
Suze: They should be like no more than 100 words. You
Suze: go on beyond that, it's almost impossible for us to
Suze: answer it, but if you would like to write in
Suze: a question.
Suze: And send it into ask Suze SUZE podcast at gmail.com.
Suze: If KT chooses it, then we will answer it on
Suze: the one and only KT and Suze podcast. All right, girly!
KT: My first question I love, it's from an 11 year
KT: old girl who wants to start investing for her future.
KT: She said, Suze, I really want to open a brokerage
KT: account so I can make money and use it for
KT: my future. I make $24 a month by doing chores,
KT: and I plan to start babysitting soon. In my savings account.
KT: I have $4000 but my parents want me to open
KT: a custodial Roth IRA.
KT: I don't want to open a custodial Roth IRA because
KT: I want to be able to use the money when
KT: I'm younger and invest in a house. What do you think?
KT: She's 11. I love this question. It's from Hazel, Suze.
KT: What should she do?
Suze: Hazel, Hazel, Hazel. All right, listen to me. You're making
Suze: $24 a month. That's $288 a year. Yeah, you could
Suze: put that into a Roth IRA like your parents want
Suze: you to. However, I like your idea. I have to
Suze: tell you, I would open up a uniform gift to
Suze: Minors Act account. Your parents are going to have to
Suze: do that for you as well because you're only 11.
Suze: And invest that $24 a month. Open it up at
Suze: a discount brokerage firm like Fidelity or Schwab and buy
Suze: slices of great quality stocks. You can do that or
Suze: great quality exchange traded funds and let that money grow.
Suze: Then when you get older and you can take it
Suze: all out if you want to buy a house, go
Suze: for it. It's all right. I happen to agree with you.
KT: There we go, Hazel. My next question's from Maria. I
KT: love this one too.
KT: Is it financially beneficial to get married when both parties
KT: are in the mid to late 50s? One person makes
KT: 90,000 a year while the other makes 200,000. I just
KT: want us to receive all of our Social Security benefits
KT: that we are allotted. So I guess I'm asking, will
KT: we receive less or more if married?
Suze: Has nothing to do with it.
KT: I was going to say get Suze and I
KT: Got married in our mid-50s.
Suze: It has absolutely nothing to do at all with how
Suze: much you get to get for Social Security if you
Suze: are married or not. The only way it becomes beneficial
Suze: is if your spouse's Social Security happens to be greater
Suze: than your own and your spouse dies and you're able
Suze: to take over your spouse's Social Security.
Suze: As if it were yours and vice versa, so there's
Suze: absolutely some benefits in getting married, but what you really
Suze: have to think about is all the other things that
Suze: it means to get married. There's no estate tax for
Suze: you to inherit any kind of money. There's all kinds
Suze: of benefits.
KT: You get to have an anniversary every year.
Suze: And it's like it's called love.
KT: Invest in love.
Suze: So I won't be worried about your Social Security. I
Suze: would want you to know that you liked and loved
Suze: whoever this person was and wanted to spend the rest
Suze: of your life with them. OK, otherwise, ah, don't get married.
Suze: Go on.
Suze: Well you pick some interesting ones here.
KT: Next questions from Tania. Can I catch up with my
KT: Roth IRA? Hi, Susie and KT Love listening to both
KT: of you on the podcast. Here's my question.
KT: My husband lost his job last December. If it takes
KT: too long for him to find a job and we
KT: end up running out of our emergency fund, would we
KT: be able to take out from our Roth IRA, which
KT: we fully funded for several years now? My employer offers
KT: a voluntary Roth 403B. Once we're back on our feet,
KT: can we replace what we took out of the Roth
KT: IRA into my Roth 403B?
KT: So that's the question.
Suze: All right, and there's the answer. Tania, listen. You can
Suze: take out any money that you originally put into your
Suze: Roth IRA. Those are known as your original contributions. You
Suze: can take those out without any taxes or penalties whatsoever,
Suze: regardless how long it has been in there, all right.
Suze: It's just the earnings on those original contributions that you
Suze: can't take out until you're 59 and a half and
Suze: the account's been open for 5 years. All right, so
Suze: you take out $10,000. Chances are, however, if you take
Suze: out $10,000 it's because you need to spend that $10,000.
Suze: You need to live on that $10,000. Later on in life.
Suze: Forget that $10,000 now cause it's gone.
Suze: If you now have other money and you want to
Suze: contribute to the Roth 403B at your employer's, OK, but
Suze: I got news for you. Ain't gonna be with that $10,000.
Suze: 1 has nothing to do with the other.
KT: OK, next question, Suze is from Maria. Hi, Suze and KT.
Suze: Wait, what does that make, what does that make you
Suze: think of Maria?
Suze: (KT and Suze start singing "Maria" from The Sound of Music) Yeah,
Suze: I knew it. I want, I, I knew it to
Suze: see how well we are in synch?
KT: We can both sing together too.
Suze: Hopefully, nobody can hear it when we do.
KT: Oh, I was telling some I, I have to go
KT: off track. I was telling someone the other day, um,
KT: about you and that you have won pretty much every
KT: possible award out there except we can never call you
KT: an ECOT. Is that what it's called ECOT? And they said, why?
KT: And I said, she's never gonna get the Grammy.
KT: She can't sing.
Suze: It's EGOT.
KT: EGOT. She can't sing. All right, ready. This is from Maria. Hi,
KT: Suze and KT help, she said, Help. I'm so confused
KT: about my trust.
Suze: Does that mean you think one day I could get
Suze: an Oscar?
KT: Possibly.
Suze: A Tony?
KT: For sure.
Suze: All I have is an Emmy.
KT: And you have, you have an Emmy. You have two Emmys.
KT: Yeah, well, that's it. So you can get up there.
Suze: Well that's one out of 3.
KT: You could do an Oscar, do a cameo role...
Suze: And win an Oscar?
KT: Absolutely.
Suze: All right now. Go on KT.
KT: Maria says help. I'm so confused about trust.
KT: How to find a trust, where to go to set
KT: up a trust, and what exactly I can put into
KT: a trust. Will you please ready for this? Will you
KT: please consider doing a Suze school on this topic.
KT: So she said, since listening to you, I have saved
KT: over $15,000 in my Alliant savings over the past year
KT: and a half. Hear that, everybody, year and a half.
KT: And then she said, I look forward to every Thursday
KT: and Sunday. Thank you, ladies. Can you enlighten Maria about
KT: a trust and why everyone needs one.
Suze: Maria, go to the Women and Money community app.
Suze: And you'll see on one of the little squares that
Suze: comes up, you can search the podcast for past content,
Suze: put in living revocable trust and hopefully.
Suze: Um, articles or blogs or podcasts will come up on
Suze: that topic. I have done many, many, many. If you
Suze: happen to have my Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+, I
Suze: do an extraordinary job explaining them in that book as well,
Suze: as far as almost every book I've ever
Suze: written, I have delved in to how a living revocable
Suze: trust works, how you fund it, and all of those things.
Suze: All right go on.
KT: Suze, next question is from Cherry. Hi, Suze and KT.
KT: I love your podcast. My question is in regards to
KT: leaving your 401k employer's plan after you retire.
KT: I've been retired for 4 years, and I've not done
KT: a roll over to an IRA for a couple of reasons. One,
KT: I don't feel comfortable with financial planners. It's a good reason. Two,
KT: low administration fees. I've heard that this is not the
KT: most effective way to maintain my retirement savings. Please advise.
Suze: So here's what I've always said. What is the goal
Suze: of
Suze: money? Dumroll, KT, what is it?
KT: To be secure.
Suze: That's right, girlfriend. So Cherry, listen, if you feel comfortable
Suze: with your 401k employer's plan, stay there. What do you care?
Suze: A lot of people do an IRA rollover to diversify
Suze: their investments. They want more than maybe the few mutual
Suze: funds that your employer's plan happens to offer.
Suze: However, if you're comfortable there and that's where you want
Suze: to keep it, I don't have a problem with that.
Suze: All right, KT.
KT: OK, Suze, I have a question here about divorce. All right,
KT: all right, I'm getting divorced and our retirement assets of 401k,
KT: Roth IRA are getting divided 50/50. I'm going to retire
KT: in 2 years and will use Social Security and my
KT: retirement accounts. How is all of this rollover transfer
KT: conversion different for me. I will get Social Security through
KT: my husband's account. He had a better income and we
KT: were married over 10 years.
Suze: So in answering this, you know, we never use people's
Suze: names who are going through a divorce until it's final
Suze: because you just never know who's listening to this podcast,
Suze: but you have nothing to worry
Suze: about it's transfer conversion roll over that doesn't really matter here.
Suze: What's going to happen is half of his assets are
Suze: going to end up in your retirement account with your
Suze: individual name on it and then it will be yours
Suze: just that simple, so don't worry on any level. All right, KT.
KT: All right, this is from Lisa.
KT: Hi Suze, I'm 55 years old. My home is paid
KT: for and is valued between 400 to 430,000. I have
KT: zero debt except for two vehicle loans that are for
KT: my company vehicles, and my company makes the payments each month.
KT: I am a small business owner. I have a very
KT: small traditional IRA valued at about 25,000.
KT: And I have a savings account for emergencies also valued
KT: at about 25,000. My question is, should I tap into
KT: my home equity to make an investment in another property
KT: or any other kind of investment, or should I sit
KT: on my property
KT: and continue to have no mortgage payments to make? Now
KT: here's something interesting. She said, I know I need to
KT: be contributing more to the IRA each month and I
KT: also need to look into long-term care insurance. So now
KT: remember she's only 55.
Suze: I wish you could see my face right now because
Suze: my face would tell you, oh, you are so denied
Suze: just no way listen when you take out a home
Suze: equity line of credit you have to look at what
Suze: the current interest rates are on home equity lines of credit,
Suze: and they are very, very high. That's number one. You
Suze: have to look at the price of real estate today,
Suze: the price of the interest rate on a mortgage today.
Suze: And the main thing you have to look at is
Suze: your emergency fund. You have $25,000 in an emergency fund,
Suze: and I have a feeling that if you were to
Suze: look at everything that is not 8 months of expenses
Suze: for you to be safe and sound, so no, you
Suze: are not to do this. You are to contribute more
Suze: to your retirement accounts. You are to make sure that
Suze: your cars, there's no debt on it. You are to
Suze: make sure
Suze: that you have long term care insurance. Take care of
Suze: your tomorrows today by investing in yourself, people first, then money,
Suze: then things. Absolutely not under any circumstance.
KT: Denied.
Suze: Yeah, so denied.
KT: This is from Cathy. This is very dear to my heart,
KT: this one. Dear Suze and KT, thank you for sharing
KT: the recent emails related to caring for ill family members.
KT: My twin and I are helping out our out of
KT: state sister serving as her medical and financial power of
KT: attorney respectively. She's taken a turn for the worse and
KT: has really bad cancer, so we're so sorry for your
KT: sister's illness.
KT: My sister suggested adding me to her bank accounts to
KT: assist with paying her bills. My question is, if my
KT: sister dies, am I liable for her unpaid expenses at death?
KT: Her medical and living expenses are greater than her Social
KT: Security income.
Suze: Yeah, no, you will not be responsible for any debt
Suze: that is in her individual name. That debt will essentially
Suze: either die with her or they will come back against
Suze: the state and ask for money and the estate will
Suze: have to pay for it.
Suze: But let's say your sister had absolutely no money at all,
Suze: just enough to pay her monthly bills from her Social Security.
Suze: They wouldn't be able to get anything. But if your
Suze: sister dies, you will not be liable for her unpaid
Suze: expenses at death, but her estate will be. But that
Suze: isn't you personally, so whatever money she has in her
Suze: name or in the account.
Suze: That isn't your liability. It's cash in that account may
Suze: have to go to some of her debt.
KT: So it's OK that she puts her name, the sister
KT: puts her name on the bank account.
Suze: Yes, because then it will make it easy for her
Suze: truthfully to use the money and to access to access
Suze: the money and pay her bills and things like that.
KT: There you go. So Carol is the next question we have,
KT: and it said, Dear Suze and KT, thank you for
KT: all you do for so many. You're welcome, Carol.
KT: And she said, I have a sister-in-law who is $12,000
KT: in debt on 5 credit cards. She's 82 years old
KT: and in very good health. Wait, this gets really better.
KT: She even teaches yoga classes to try to make ends meet,
KT: earning about $600 a month. Her Social Security and small
KT: pension yield is $1900 a month. Her rent is $1000
KT: a month, and her utilities are around $150.
KT: She has some car insurance payments, but the car's paid
KT: off in getting old and needs repairs on occasion. 82
KT: years old. Ready? She's moved her credit cards from one
KT: to the other time and time again to stretch out
KT: the zero interest, but now I'm interested in getting all
KT: of those cards paid off and ensuring she does not
KT: add any more debt to the credit cards.
KT: The question is, am I able to legally prevent her
KT: from opening other credit cards?
Suze: No, you are not.
KT: Do you think I have a chance of negotiating the
KT: balances down with a credit card company, or should both
KT: of us go to consumer credit counseling type of an agency?
KT: Which one would you recommend?
Suze: So let me just tell you about your little sister-in-law.
Suze: She teaches yoga classes at 82, right? I can't even
Suze: take a yoga class, let alone teach a yoga class,
Suze: but for her to move her credit cards from one
Suze: to another at a 0% interest rate, that means your
Suze: sister-in-law has a high FICO score.
Suze: And therefore she's doing OK. She hasn't gotten herself into
Suze: credit card trouble in terms of being late with her payments.
Suze: If you are going to negotiate the balances down with
Suze: the credit card companies, they're only going to do that
Suze: if she's been missing payments and has a poor FICO score.
Suze: Aand she's delinquent, and you don't want that for her,
Suze: so no, you can't do that, as I just said
Suze: a few seconds ago, no, you're not able
Suze: to legally prevent her from opening other credit cards, nor
Suze: should you, because she's doing pretty good transferring them from
Suze: one 0% to another. She's doing great that way. And
Suze: should she go through consumer credit counseling, I don't think
Suze: so because you're gonna have to pay them $10 or
Suze: $15 a month to do what? To get her credit
Suze: card interest rate down to $0 which she's already done.
Suze: So no, that's not going to help. So truthfully, my
Suze: dear Carol.
Suze: You really need to let your sister-in-law continue to do
Suze: exactly what she's doing. She's obviously has a body that's
Suze: very flexible and can stretch, and she's being very flexible
Suze: in stretching the money that she has to make it
Suze: go even further than you have any idea. So for now,
Suze: if it were me.
Suze: I would leave it alone.
KT: Next question, Suze, is from Mary Ellen. My husband wants
KT: to open a second Roth IRA. He's 74 and I
KT: am 65. We already have separate ones, and we both
KT: have earned income besides our Social Security. I'm leaning against
KT: this because we would have to wait 5 years before
KT: we can withdraw.
KT: So basically she's asking what are the pros and cons.
Suze: If there's all kinds of pros. Are you kidding me?
Suze: First of all, you need to understand that any money
Suze: you were originally put into your Roth IRA you can
Suze: take out at any time you
Suze: want to regardless of how old you are or how
Suze: long it has been in there, that's not a problem.
Suze: So if you combine that with your other Roth IRAs,
Suze: I'm sure you'll have enough money. It's only the earnings
Suze: that you cannot touch for at least 5 years, but
Suze: because you're already over 59 and a half,
Suze: then there's no 10% penalty, so it doesn't even matter
Suze: if you touch the earnings. You're not going to be
Suze: penalized 10%. You're only going to have to pay ordinary
Suze: income on it anyway, which would be true if you
Suze: took this money, you invested it, let's say, in a CD,
Suze: and now you're getting interest, you'd be paying ordinary income
Suze: tax on that interest. So in my opinion there are
Suze: no cons whatsoever.
Suze: The pros also are if you don't need to access
Suze: this money and now it grows and grows and grows
Suze: and you die and it goes to your beneficiaries, it's
Suze: all tax free. So in this case, listen to your husband. KT,
Suze: do you realize what you did in this podcast?
KT: No. What did I do?
Suze: What did you do?
KT: Did I do something wrong?
Suze: No, ding ding ding ding ding.
KT: What did I do?
Suze: Every single question that you asked
Suze: was what? From a woman.
KT: Oh, that's great.
Suze: Did you do that unconsciously or on purpose?
KT: No, just unconsciously. I didn't think about it.
Suze: You didn't, did you? All right. And I was just
Suze: sitting here, everybody going, another woman, another woman, because there
Suze: are some times when she chooses a lot of men
Suze: and you write me and you go, what about the women?
Suze: This is a Women and Money podcast. everyone's smart enough
Suze: to listen, so don't worry about it.
Suze: KT, are you ready for your quizzy?
KT: OK, I'm always ready for a quizzy. Is everyone else ready?
KT: That's the question you wanna ask, right?
Suze: This is going to be a little bit different of
Suze: a quizzy for you, so I want you to answer it.
Suze: In the best way and actually shortest way you know possible.
Suze: Hi, Suze. I have been an avid listener of your
Suze: podcast for 2 years now, and I just love the
Suze: KT and Suze podcast.
Suze: Could you have a KT interview? We know about you, Suze,
Suze: your rags to riches story, but what about KT? She
Suze: is such a sweetheart, very caring, and will giggle at
Suze: the drop of a hat. She is also so caring
Suze: and will also cry at the drop of a hat.
Suze: All we know is that KT has a twin sister
Suze: named Lynne. I mean, what does KT stand for? What
Suze: is KT's background?
Suze: So that is your quizzy, this one man on this
Suze: podcast by the name of Dennis.
KT: OK, let me give everyone a 32nd commercial of who
KT: I am. I'm not shy about this at all. KT
KT: stands for Kathy Travis. I was born and raised in
KT: New Jersey right on the ocean on the shore with
KT: a fabulous Italian mother and father, and I have 5 siblings.
KT: And with myself is 6 kids and my twin sister
KT: is the eldest. She's 3 minutes older than me.
Suze: How many bathrooms were in your house?
KT: One and a half.
Suze: All right, so there were 8 people in a house
Suze: with one and half bathrooms.
KT: You don't even want to know those stories, but.
KT: But anyway, shortly thereafter I went was fortunate enough to
KT: go to school and then I made my way to
KT: Hong Kong to visit a friend and I fell in
KT: love with the Far East, so much so.
Suze: How old were you?
KT: Um, 27... about 27
Suze: Before you were 27, KT tell everybody what you did.
KT: OK, so I left college, left school, went right to
KT: New York.
Suze: What school did you go to?
KT: Rhode Island School of Design.
Suze: RISD.
Suze: What was your degree in?
KT: It was in illustration at the time, so I graduated
KT: in '74, but I graduated earlier than my class by
KT: a semester, so I got to New York
KT: in January, everyone else got there later in the summer
KT: so I go to New York. I start working and
KT: I eventually opened a really great little hot shop and
KT: had an advertising company that was fabulous and got involved
KT: with fashion and all kinds of things.
KT: How old are you now?
KT: I'm 21, 21.
KT: So I had a, a very, very um interesting and
KT: very exciting beginning in New York City and was friends
KT: with people of the likes of Andy Warhol and, you know,
KT: quite a few very famous fashion designers. I worked for
KT: Liz Claiborne in the very early days and lots of,
KT: you know, Ralph Lauren people that I knew.
Suze: And did you do Studio 54?
KT: Yeah, I was hot. I had a real hot.
KT: No, I had a very, very exciting New York life.
KT: So one thing leads to another. I then go to
KT: Hong Kong to visit a friend and end up making
KT: 6 trips in 1980 back and forth to Hong Kong
KT: and eventually I was in love and eventually I got
KT: a job with Ogilvy. Ogilvy and Mather advertising, but my
KT: job was a startup. It was a startup and I
KT: was hired.
KT: And given a very small amount of money, 1200 square feet,
KT: and a secretary by the name of Kelly Chua, and
KT: I started that business and grew it to be a
KT: rather large multi-million dollar agency for Ogilvy, but it was
KT: a special agency. We did brand development, brand management. We
KT: were the first computerized design firm in the Far East.
KT: I then.
Suze: What was your position there?
KT: I was the president.
Suze: Uh-huh. So did you hear that, everybody, I one of
Suze: the 5th 5 divisions at that time.
KT: Only woman, only woman. 5 companies under Ogilvy's umbrella, and
KT: I was the only woman, the youngest president of them
KT: all and the most profitable. They called me the cash cow.
KT: I didn't know what that meant, but everyone was, you know, British.
KT: All my other bosses were British. Oh, she's a cash cow,
KT: and I was
KT: always wondering what did that mean? And it meant that
KT: I was the most profitable for the investment or for
KT: the size of the company than all of the other four.
KT: In any event, what I really love about my story
KT: and my 20 years in the Far East is that
KT: I opened 7 more offices in 7 countries and had
KT: the most incredible portfolio of clients in the world.
KT: I worked with very, very high fashion. I worked, when
KT: I say high fashion, all of the couture designers from Europe, Japan,
KT: even America, Donna Karan, we opened her first store.
KT: I worked with Joyce Ma, Joyce Boutiques, which was unbelievable.
Suze: Who brought every designer to the Far East Far East.
KT: I worked with all of the five star hotels and properties.
KT: I was able to open for Eric Hilton, the first
KT: Conrad in the world in Hong Kong. I opened for
KT: Bill Marriott, the first, uh, Marriott Hotel that was a
KT: 5 star in the Ritz-Carlton and everything else that he bought.
KT: And I had the time of my life and I
KT: opened for the Sheraton Group, the first hotel in Kathmandu.
KT: So we had an extremely
KT: Um, you know, very, very exciting, and for Isy Sharp,
KT: the Four Seasons, we don't want to forget him and
KT: the Almond Resorts. Those were the real lux properties. So
KT: here I am, this relatively young president traveling all over Asia,
KT: living the high life, working with unbelievable creme de la
KT: creme brands, and then I meet Suze.
KT: 20 years after a very illustrious life in the Far
KT: East and I still and I brought Suze to Hong
KT: Kong in China and
KT: Malaysia and Thailand, you name it, we went everywhere, so
KT: my background is in advertising. I was always behind the camera.
KT: Suze was always in front of the camera and when
KT: we met each other, which was in San Francisco where
KT: I had purchased property, I remember I was very successful
KT: in making quite a lot of money in my late
KT: 30s and 40s, a lot of money, and I needed
KT: to invest it, so I bought fabulous property and.
KT: And I didn't even live in it. And then I
KT: met Suze in San Francisco when I finally moved into
KT: one of my homes, and there that...
Suze: KT was still going back and forth all the time,
Suze: always commuting would go back and forth like every weekend,
Suze: like it was the craziest thing I'd ever seen, but
Suze: that is a small glimpse, really a small glimpse of
Suze: the extra...
KT: to the life of KT and Suze.
Suze: And so now Dennis, you know.
Suze: And there's only one thing we want all of you
Suze: to know and to remember when it comes to your money,
Suze: and it is this - people first, then money, then things.
Suze: Now you stay safe and you absolutely do you hear us?
Suze: Stay unstoppable.