Suze: June 1st, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast,
Suze: as well as everybody smart enough to listen. Of course,
Suze: another birthday, a special birthday, and today is Savannah Buffett,
Suze: Jimmy's daughter's birthday, and we're so excited cause we're going
Suze: to be celebrating with her and her husband Josh and
Suze: their extraordinary dog Kingston.
Suze: So Savannah, lots of love to you, can't wait to
Suze: see you in just a few hours. All right, everybody,
Suze: are you ready for this Suze School today?
Suze: Now listen,
Suze: over the past few weeks all over the United States,
Suze: students are graduating and they're listening to all these esteemed
Suze: speakers give the commencement address that hopefully will inspire them
Suze: to make the most of their lives.
Suze: Now what's so wonderful in my own life is I've
Suze: had the incredible pleasure and honor of doing that 3 times,
Suze: and it's really something to stand up there and look
Suze: out at the future of America. But then I was
Suze: thinking if I was to give a commencement speech
Suze: honoring my Suze students, those of you who have been
Suze: with me for all these years, what would I say?
Suze: What would the message be? What would I want you
Suze: to take away from it?
Suze: So therefore please take your seat because today's Suze School
Suze: is about celebrating the milestones you've already achieved and charting
Suze: the next exciting chapter of your financial life.
Suze: You know, so many of you have navigated careers. You've
Suze: raised families, weathered a real estate and stock market crash,
Suze: and you've made it through a pandemic, illness, deaths, layoffs,
Suze: and divorce.
Suze: No matter what you have encountered, it is these real
Suze: life experiences that have made up your life's story of
Suze: who you are. Now this is important because your story
Suze: is powerful because it's lived, it's not imagined.
Suze: No matter what situation you are dealing with, your path
Suze: has to be one where you respect yourself, like yourself,
Suze: and honor yourself, and it is from that inner platform
Suze: of honor and respect that integrity and self-worth emerges and
Suze: the ability for you to be able to accomplish anything
Suze: and everything your heart desires.
Suze: You must never forget what you have learned and what
Suze: you have already been through in your life, your future,
Suze: regardless of your age, doesn't slow down.
Suze: Listen, you may face job shifts, health issues, or caregiving responsibilities,
Suze: and you are going to have to adapt and conquer
Suze: each and every challenge.
Suze: The most important thing is that you must never forget
Suze: that no matter what situation you are in, no matter
Suze: how painful, how seemingly hopeless, I want you to always remember.
Suze: God does not know how to take. He only knows
Suze: how to give.
Suze: For those of you who have been with me over
Suze: all these years, I want you to know that when
Suze: I read your emails, my heart and eyes fill with
Suze: tears of joy and pride. One story after another, and
Suze: I just want you all to know that I'm in
Suze: total awe of your journeys and determination from overcoming living
Suze: in a car with your family for years.
Suze: Surviving seriously abusive relationships where you endured physical, sexual, mental,
Suze: and most of all financial abuse, surviving life threatening accidents
Suze: and illnesses, and on and on. And today you are
Suze: all thriving emotionally and financially. It's a true miracle if
Suze: you think about it.
Suze: And what were those key lessons that helped carry you
Suze: during your hard times? Well, you believed that you are
Suze: a warrior and you will not turn your back on
Suze: the battlefield. You understood that when you undervalue what you do,
Suze: the world undervalues who you are.
Suze: And even more importantly when you undervalue who you are,
Suze: the world undervalues what you do.
Suze: So you took your power and you now trust yourself
Suze: more than you trust others, and you embrace the fact
Suze: that what happens to your money directly affects the quality
Suze: of your life, no one else's.
Suze: And really when I think about it, the most important
Suze: one of all is you stood in your truth and
Suze: took all the actions necessary so that you now own
Suze: the power to control your destiny. So, in closing,
Suze: as you all know, we live in very disturbing times,
Suze: times that many of us have a hard time understanding,
Suze: and you are not alone.
Suze: But I want all of you to know you are
Suze: far stronger than you have any idea.
Suze: No matter what happens, you must always come from a
Suze: place of integrity, love, honesty, and strength, and through your
Suze: actions and intentions you will make this world a better place.
Suze: Do you hear me?
Suze: This is your moment. Step into it with confidence, intention,
Suze: and heart. Build a life and a financial foundation that
Suze: reflects your highest values. Remember that success is not a destination,
Suze: but a journey defined by purpose, balance, and generosity.
Suze: I believe in you. I know you have what it
Suze: takes to create a future that's not just successful but
Suze: deeply meaningful.
Suze: Thank you for letting me be part of your journey
Suze: and to the millions of you who have and are
Suze: a part of mine.
Suze: So before you march into your future, can we just
Suze: take a brief look back at the month of May
Suze: and what we should have learned from it? Do you
Suze: remember this a month ago? Do you all remember how
Suze: you were feeling?
Suze: You thought the sky was falling. You thought everything was
Suze: going to come down. You wanted to take all your
Suze: money out of the stock market.
Suze: You wanted to get out of treasuries. You didn't trust treasuries.
Suze: You didn't know what to do with your money. You
Suze: were so paralyzed it wasn't even funny. You only felt
Suze: safe with the cash you had if it was under
Suze: your mattress.
Suze: Many of you absolutely chastised me for talking about bitcoin.
Suze: And you just were totally, totally upset.
Suze: All right, if we take a look at the stock market,
Suze: I just want you to think about what I'm about
Suze: to say.
Suze: Do you know that the stock market just wrapped up
Suze: a really strong month of May. Now, despite a few
Suze: obviously ups and downs, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ
Suze: ended the month in the green.
Suze: In fact, May, listen to me closely now, delivered the
Suze: best returns that we've seen since 2023.
Suze: So can you imagine that if one month ago you
Suze: took all your money out you felt good for those
Suze: few days as the market went down further after you
Suze: sold and then all of a sudden it started to
Suze: go up and started to go up.
Suze: And you were like, why did I sell? What did
Suze: I do? The lesson here is if you are invested
Suze: in the stock market, stay invested in the stock market
Suze: as long as you know what you are invested in
Suze: is good quality. It makes sense, and you have at
Suze: least 5 years or longer till you need the money
Suze: that is in that investment. So your instructions really are,
Suze: just continue to dollar cost average into whatever you have,
Suze: or if you're done dollar cost averaging into it, just
Suze: hold it.
Suze: Cause if you had sold it, most likely you would
Suze: have made a serious mistake. Take Palantair, for example, went
Suze: from 125 all the way down to the 70s and
Suze: now as of Friday it closed at 1:31. I know
Suze: I keep talking about Palantair, but that really is one
Suze: of the favorite stocks that we all own hopefully.
Suze: But if you had freaked out, look at what you
Suze: would have missed, you know, the other day I was
Suze: talking to a friend, and she was in a car
Suze: and her husband was driving.
Suze: And I had told the husband I thought that he
Suze: should buy IONQ, which is a stock that I've been
Suze: telling all of you along with Keith, but I've been
Suze: telling all of you a long time ago you should
Suze: buy it and you should just keep it. Never told
Suze: you that you should sell it. All right. And IONQ
Suze: had a dramatic leap last week. One day it was
Suze: up like 30% or 40%.
Suze: And so, as I'm talking to my friend, her husband
Suze: is listening, and he says, by the way, Suze, I'm
Suze: thinking about selling IONQ.
Suze: And I said, and why would you do that? And
Suze: he said, Because it's up so much and it's starting
Suze: to go down, and that is the typical mistake that
Suze: everybody makes. Yeah, hopefully it will go down. And why
Suze: do I say hopefully? Because it's a great stock. It's
Suze: an area quantum computing that many of you may want
Suze: to be in.
Suze: And if it goes down that simply gives you a
Suze: chance to dollar cost average and get more shares just
Suze: that simple. So you need to look at your investments,
Suze: not as if your strategy should be take your profits
Suze: now in case they go down. Your strategy should be
Suze: hopefully they'll go down so you can buy more.
Suze: Just that simple, everybody. So again, your goal is to
Suze: be an investor and to take a line from Keith Fitzgerald.
Suze: You have to be in it to win it. Let's
Suze: talk about real estate for a second here. Real estate now,
Suze: it's a very interesting thing what's happening in real estate
Suze: because the inventory, the houses that are for sale.
Suze: Are up dramatically seriously.
Suze: So when there is a lot of inventory, what that
Suze: means is that all of a sudden we're kind of
Suze: turning from a seller's market to a buyer's market. So
Suze: what's important about that is if you are a seller,
Suze: don't overprice, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it,
Suze: because chances are you will not sell it.
Suze: If you're a buyer, however, do not stretch your budget
Suze: just to get a home. You don't have to. Mortgage
Suze: rates now are at about 7%, and they may very
Suze: well stay there. And if they do come down, I
Suze: would not expect them to go any lower than 6
Suze: or 5.5%. And if they got to 5.5%, that would
Suze: be very lucky. So this is the area that you're in.
Suze: Don't overstretch your budget. You can demand what you want.
Suze: You can negotiate your price. You can't walk into a
Suze: situation with the mindset of what was going on many,
Suze: many months ago and really for the past few years
Suze: that you have to overbid it. You have to do
Suze: a cash offer. You have to do all these things. No,
Suze: you don't.
Suze: The tide has turned there, so take your power if
Suze: you are a buyer. And again, if you are a seller,
Suze: don't feel that you're the almighty right now, cause really
Suze: don't overprice or you are not going to sell your house.
Suze: I want to talk about treasuries just for a few
Suze: seconds here. Treasuries are not going to go under. They're
Suze: just not. They can't and they won't.
Suze: So don't feel like everything is going down the drain.
Suze: Interest rates are up on treasuries. Why? Because of what's
Suze: happening with the tariffs. It's just that simple. And once
Suze: again we saw a flip flop from we're lowering tariffs
Suze: to now we're raising them even more.
Suze: And you have to understand that as long as there
Suze: are chaotic, in my opinion, nonsensible moves with tariffs, the
Suze: markets are going to respond accordingly.
Suze: They're gonna go down when in fact tariffs are raised
Suze: when tariffs then are supposedly going to come down, the
Suze: markets will go up, but
Suze: there could come a time where all of you just
Suze: stop listening to what tariffs are doing and you just
Suze: go ahead and keep buying the stocks that you want
Suze: and the markets just get used to the chaotic moves
Suze: that are being made.
Suze: So therefore just tune everybody out at this moment in time.
Suze: Know that the market, as I told you a few
Suze: weeks ago, might go down a week or two, and
Suze: it did, and then I thought it would go up
Suze: and up, and I still do. That doesn't mean that
Suze: it's not going to be a roller coaster. But just
Suze: like you were when you were a kid, you enjoyed
Suze: the ups and downs of the roller coaster. Start to
Suze: enjoy the ups and downs of the stock market.
Suze: So that you can take advantage of stocks that you want,
Suze: ETFs that you want, investments that you want.
Suze: I just want to talk briefly about Bitcoin.
Suze: So Bitcoin passed $111,000 of Bitcoin. That is a big deal.
Suze: Bitcoin right now is at about $104,000 so who knows
Suze: where it will be when this podcast actually drops or
Suze: you're listening to it.
Suze: I still like if you're going to buy into the
Suze: Bitcoin investment arena.
Suze: That you do it through either IBIT, an ETF or
Suze: possibly a surrogate of Bitcoin, the stock MSTR - Strategies.
Suze: Either way, why is that?
Suze: Let's just look at Coinbase for a second because many
Suze: of you own your Bitcoin at Coinbase, and what was
Suze: interesting is that this last month Coinbase told all of
Suze: us that they had been the target of a cyber
Suze: attack in which rogue overseas support agents were bribed to
Suze: steal sensitive customer data.
Suze: So what does that mean? That means through insiders at Coinbase.
Suze: They were able to steal customer names, Social Security numbers,
Suze: bank account details, and transaction histories, but no passwords or
Suze: private keys or custodial funds were compromised. Now they wanted
Suze: a $20 million ransom. Coinbase still has not settled for that.
Suze: They're holding strong.
Suze: But there's just something. Even though only 1% of the
Suze: customers were affected, there's just something that I don't like
Suze: about it.
Suze: So therefore I feel safer in IBIT. I feel safer
Suze: with Strategies. I just feel safer where these crazy people
Suze: aren't going to attack something where they know Bitcoin happens
Suze: to be.
Suze: I mean, you got to think it's a little bit
Suze: crazy that this guy in New York City who owns
Suze: all this bitcoin or crypto all of a sudden is
Suze: hold hostage for 17 days in order to get his
Suze: password so that his Bitcoin can be stolen. Thank God
Suze: he escaped and hopefully they have that under consideration.
Suze: But I just want you to think about that where
Suze: you hold your bitcoin and how you invest in it
Suze: and still know only invest in Bitcoin with money that
Suze: you can afford to lose or be very volatile with
Suze: or that you can stomach 20 or 30% drops overnight
Suze: just same.
Suze: But overall, the main message here as you walk forward
Suze: is to be an investor, not a trader, to know
Suze: what in fact you are investing in and to be
Suze: consistent with it if you have money to dollar cost
Suze: average into it.
Suze: At these levels, this is not a market in my
Suze: opinion that if you had, you know, $24,000 to invest
Suze: you would invest it all at once. No, you would
Suze: dollar cost average or value cost average into it at
Suze: maybe $2000 a month or even $1000 a month and
Suze: just go with the market as the markets go themselves.
Suze: So overall stop panicking.
Suze: Learn from what happened last month when you all wanted out,
Suze: and now many of you who got out are all
Suze: wishing you could get back in. And now you're getting
Suze: in if you do at a lot higher price. So
Suze: that is your update. That was your Suze School and
Suze: until Thursday when Miss Travis joins us again, there's really
Suze: only one thing that I want you to remember when
Suze: it comes to money.
Suze: People first, then money, then things. Now you stay safe
Suze: and for the graduates of 2025, congratulations.