Robert: April 20th, 2025. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast
Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi there, Robert,
Robert: the producer here again.
Robert: So before I set up what we're going to hear today, Suze,
Robert: as she posted on the Women and Money community app,
Robert: which you can all get for free, by the way,
Robert: by going to Apple Apps or Google Play. Anyway, Suze
Robert: posted there that she thanks you for your patience and love,
Robert: and she'll be back with a brand new episode this
Robert: coming Thursday. But today, we're gonna play the main part
Robert: of an episode from last fall called Make a Date
Robert: with Your Money.
Robert: Which, as we're closing in on the midway part of
Robert: the year,
Robert: is a good thing to hear again. Oh, and one
Robert: more thing for those of you who celebrate, Suze and KT,
Robert: as well as Colo and myself, wish you a happy Easter.
Robert: And now, Suze.
Suze: Make a date with your money.
Suze: Make a date. Get out your calendars, everybody, and make
Suze: a date when you or your spouse or your life
Suze: partner or your children. I don't care who your parents,
Suze: you sit down and you make a date.
Suze: And that date is the entire day is devoted to
Suze: dealing with every aspect of your money, not so much
Suze: what you're invested in.
Suze: But is everything in place?
Suze: Are you protected in case something happens? Number one, check
Suze: all your home or rental insurance policies as to what
Suze: they cover and what they don't cover, and also have
Suze: you increased the coverage, really, everybody since you bought the home,
Suze: given that maybe it's worth a whole lot more than
Suze: it was 10 years ago when you originally got that insurance.
Suze: And the fact of the matter is, it costs a
Suze: lot more to replace that home today because of inflation.
Suze: As it did a long time ago, next, what's really
Suze: important about what I just said is this When you
Suze: have as many homes that have been destroyed by hurricanes,
Suze: by the 100 and some odd tornadoes that happened in
Suze: the Florida area, by all the things that are happening
Suze: around the United States.
Suze: That makes lumber materials, the cost of building because all
Suze: the workers, what do they do? They go to those
Suze: areas because they know they're going to get jobs, which
Suze: leaves these workers who are in your area possibly charging more,
Suze: so it's gonna cost more to replace your home than
Suze: it did 10 years ago than it did 5 years ago,
Suze: and I want you on this date with your money.
Suze: To make sure as you're looking at your insurance policy,
Suze: what are you covered for?
Suze: Are they going to allow you to rebuild your house
Suze: and pay for all of it, so is it replacement costs,
Suze: or do you just get the insurance value? Does it
Suze: pay for trees and does it pay for your garage
Suze: and the tools in your garage and all of those
Suze: things you need to check that out.
Suze: Are you
Suze: insured for hurricane, for flood, for any of that. Now
Suze: your normal insurance policy is not going to cover you
Suze: for flood.
Suze: And unless you've added hurricane insurance on, or earthquake insurance on,
Suze: it's not gonna be there either, but you have to know.
Suze: So you have to look at your insurance policies.
Suze: And answer all of those questions. Am I insured for X, Y,
Suze: and Z? Is everything in my house insured and how
Suze: much is it insured for? Are my structures on my
Suze: property insured? My garage, is everything in my garage insured?
Suze: Are my trees insured? You have to ask every possible question.
Suze: And what is the answer to that question? Only you
Suze: will know.
Suze: So that's the first thing you're going to do when
Suze: you have a date with your money.
Suze: Also, what I want you to do is I really
Suze: want you to look at every retirement plan and insurance policy,
Suze: life insurance policy that you have. I also want you
Suze: to look at the beneficiaries of your health savings accounts.
Suze: Because you have got to make sure.
Suze: That all the beneficiaries are the beneficiaries that you want
Suze: to get the money. You don't want to have had
Suze: a retirement account where you left an ex-spouse or whoever
Suze: it may be that money.
Suze: And now you're not even talking to that person.
Suze: And doesn't even matter if you're not remarried, but you
Suze: don't want that person to get it, and so you
Suze: have to look at the beneficiaries and make sure that
Suze: they are absolutely up to date.
Suze: If you happen to be married.
Suze: I want you to double check that a trust is
Suze: not the primary beneficiary of any of your retirement accounts
Suze: or your HSA account. I want you to make sure
Suze: that your spouse's name is the primary beneficiary of those
Suze: retirement accounts. If it's not your spouse because you're not married,
Suze: I don't care then.
Suze: Whatever you want to do, but it is not to
Suze: be anything other than your spouse as the primary beneficiary
Suze: if in fact you are married. Next, I want you
Suze: to check.
Suze: All the interest rates that you are paying on the
Suze: unpaid balances on your credit cards, yep...
Suze: A lot of you have credit card debt. You just do.
Suze: It's been very difficult possibly because of inflation. Maybe you've
Suze: been ill, maybe you lost a job, who knows what,
Suze: but you've been putting your everyday living or vacations or
Suze: gifts on your credit cards. You've been paying the minimum
Suze: payment due.
Suze: And maybe if you look at the interest rates on
Suze: there you'll find that they're at 13%, 20%, 28%, and
Suze: you're only paying the minimum payment due. You are never
Suze: going to get ahead. And how many times have I
Suze: said debt is bondage, you will never have financial freedom
Suze: if you're in bondage. So therefore I want you to
Suze: sit down on this date.
Suze: Make sure you have pencil and paper for all this.
Suze: Get out all your credit card receipts, and I want
Suze: you to write down in order.
Suze: Your credit card, the interest rate that you are currently paying,
Suze: the balance due, and the minimum payment due, and I
Suze: want you to do that on every single one of
Suze: your cards. And then I want you to arrange them
Suze: from the highest interest rate to the lowest.
Suze: Now if you in fact have a good FICO score,
Suze: maybe 720 or above, sometimes even 680 or above, credit
Suze: cards will take it, but you might want to consider
Suze: if you have a really high interest rate on these cards.
Suze: To do a balance transfer
Suze: to a credit card that will lock in a 0%
Suze: interest rate for about 21 months.
Suze: On a credit card that won't charge you an annual
Suze: fee and a credit card that will not charge more
Suze: than 3% of a balance transfer fee. If you could
Suze: do that, then pay as much as you possibly can
Suze: during those 20 or 21 months at 0% interest. Hopefully
Suze: your card will be paid off or many of your
Suze: cards will be paid off.
Suze: By the time that interest rate is up, beware, once
Suze: the 21 months is up, your interest rate's gonna go
Suze: back up probably to 28%.
Suze: So currently,
Suze: if you look at your credit cards, you total up
Suze: the minimum payments that you are paying right now, and
Suze: whatever those minimum payments are, I want you to add 20%
Suze: to that amount. So let's say you have 5 credit
Suze: cards and the minimum that you're paying every single month
Suze: on all 5 is, let's just say $500 100 dollars
Suze: on each.
Suze: If you're paying $500 a month, I want you to
Suze: pay 20% more or another $100 and I want you
Suze: to pay at least $600 or more on the ones
Suze: with the 0% if you're able to do a balance
Suze: transfer if you are not.
Suze: Then what you are to do is put those credit
Suze: cards in the freezer, just get rid of them for now.
Suze: You are to continue to pay the minimum payment due
Suze: that you are paying now. You are not going to
Suze: pay the minimum payment due that they're going to say
Suze: is due next month or the month after that. If
Suze: you can afford to pay that this month, you can
Suze: afford to pay it every month.
Suze: And you're going to pay the minimum payment due on
Suze: every credit card and add that extra $100 that I
Suze: was just saying to the one with the highest interest rate.
Suze: When that credit card is totally paid off.
Suze: You're going to take that amount plus that $100 that
Suze: you were paying, roll it down to the next highest.
Suze: When that's paid off, you're going to take the $100
Suze: the first credit card payment, the second credit card payment,
Suze: and roll it down to the third, and you're going
Suze: to keep doing that till you are out of credit
Suze: card debt.
Suze: Once you pay off a credit card, please do not
Suze: close down your credit cards because if you do, you
Suze: are closing down your credit limit, and that will affect
Suze: your FICO score. So talking about FICO scores and your
Suze: date with money, I want you to check all of
Suze: your credit reports and FICO scores to make sure all
Suze: is as it should be.
Suze: And it's important because now with so many people being
Suze: able to steal your identity to do all kinds of things,
Suze: the only way that you're going to catch it before
Suze: it becomes a really big problem is to be checking
Suze: your FICO scores as well as your credit reports. You
Suze: can get your credit reports for free by going to annualcreditreport.com.
Suze: But just check and see what's on there. If anything
Suze: looks suspicious, contact the credit bureau and by the way,
Suze: while you're at it, if you really want to make
Suze: sure that you stay safe and sound, then freeze your
Suze: credit reports. Last but not least, it's really important that
Suze: you make sure that you have created and signed and
Suze: notarized and funded.
Suze: Obviously what I talk about all the time, the must
Suze: have documents a living trust, a will, an advanced directive,
Suze: and a durable power of attorney for health care and
Suze: a financial power and funding, by the way, simply means
Suze: changing the titles on your accounts and real estate from
Suze: your individual name to the name of the trust.
Suze: When something goes wrong, when you are injured, when all
Suze: of a sudden you have unexpectedly lost your life, think
Suze: about all the people who have unexpectedly lost their lives.
Suze: And now what's happening, their beneficiaries, their people.
Suze: You know, they probably don't even have paperwork. Who knows?
Suze: So it's really important that you have all of these
Suze: things together. You know about your insurance. You know about
Suze: your FICO score, you know about your beneficiaries. You know
Suze: about what your insurance covers, doesn't cover you know that
Suze: you have the must have documents in order. You know
Suze: all of those things.
Suze: And when you know all of those things, and there's
Suze: so many more, but I won't overwhelm you today.
Suze: Then really you start to own the power to control
Suze: your own destiny versus lack of knowledge, lack of wanting
Suze: to have a date with your money, and then something
Suze: happens and then you lack that power to control your destiny.
Suze: And that's not what I want for you.
Suze: So if you can do all that and remember that
Suze: there's only one thing that matters when it comes to
Suze: your money, and it is this people first, then money,
Suze: then things, and if you stay healthy, you stay knowledgeable,
Suze: you stay involved with every aspect of your money.
Suze: Well then I have to tell you, in my opinion,
Suze: you will be unstoppable.