Robert: April 24th, 2025. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi everybody. Robert,
Robert: the producer here. I know, I know, I can hear
Robert: you saying, but you and Suze said she'd do a
Robert: new podcast today. Well, given that these markets are crazy, Suze,
Robert: as is her prerogative, has decided to wait until this Sunday,
Robert: to do a brand new Suzie school that will be
Robert: more beneficial to what's happening right now than try and
Robert: do it inside of an Ask KT and Suze Anying episode.
Robert: And for those of you who've been listening for a
Robert: while to this podcast, you know that we still like
Robert: to give you something wonderful to hear on podcast day.
Robert: And of course today is no exception. So we'll hear
Robert: bits of an Ask KT and Suze Anyting show from
Robert: last fall.
Robert: And let's jump in with KT setting up the first question.
KT: OK, my first question, Suze, is from Scott. he said,
KT: Suze and KT, when my dad passed away, my mom
KT: put their home into a TOD to my two sisters
KT: and I. So that's...
Suze: What's a TOD KT?
KT: I'll tell everyone it's transfer on death account.
Suze: Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.
KT: Listen to this, everyone. So Scott's oldest sister said to
KT: him privately, I don't want anything to do with this house.
KT: Pay me my third. The home in question is a
KT: lake home with an assessed value exceeding $750,000 and, and
KT: this is a little bit interesting. He said, Suze, I
KT: feel immoral asking, but can I open a term life
KT: policy for my mom.
KT: So I can cover the cost to buy out my sisters.
KT: I don't think that's immoral. So anyway, that's his question.
Suze: Scott, here's what I would tell you. Now it's not
Suze: an immoral question, but I'm not sure it solves your problem.
Suze: And let me tell you why. A term life insurance
Suze: policy is only good for a specific term.
Suze: So let's say I don't know how old you are
Suze: right now, but let's say your mother is older, let's
Suze: say she's in her 70s, and maybe she's gonna live
Suze: to her 90s, possibly even 100.
Suze: There's no way that a term policy at this point
Suze: in time, if that's how old she is, is going
Suze: to be cost effective. You may find that you pay
Suze: more in premiums over a long period of time
Suze: than you do if you were just to save that
Suze: money possibly to have the money to buy out your
Suze: sister at the time. So I don't think a term
Suze: policy is the way to go. Remember, term life insurance
Suze: is meant to only be there during your
Suze: younger years before you've had time to accumulate assets and
Suze: it allows you to do so at a very cost
Suze: effective rate. It's not meant to be your whole life.
Suze: So if I were you, that isn't how I would
Suze: solve this problem. I mean, I could go on and
Suze: on about ways that you could solve it, but that
Suze: wasn't your question to me. So no, I don't think
Suze: your term and life insurance policy will do it. I
Suze: just don't. All right.
KT: So Suze, the next question is from um a listener
KT: that said I just got my must have documents and
KT: started filling them out. It's a little surreal thinking about passing.
KT: I read that I may want to make my trust
KT: the beneficiary for all of my bank.
KT: and retirement accounts, is this accurate, or would it be
KT: better to make some or all of them POD provided
KT: I have no debt or expenses after death?
Suze: So here's my question, KT, does he say or she say?
Suze: How old they are, do they say if they're married anything?
KT: No, but they're just filling them out for the first time.
Suze: Right, so here's what I want everybody to know about
Suze: the must-have documents and what are the must have documents.
Suze: They are a living revocable trust. It.
Suze: Advanced directive and durable power of attorney for health care,
Suze: a will, and a financial power of attorney. Those are
Suze: 4 documents that you must have. And if you want those,
Suze: by the way, go to musthavedocs.com and take a look
Suze: because that's where you can get them. What you have
Suze: to understand is if you are married.
Suze: You never ever ever want the trust to be the
Suze: beneficiary of any retirement account or any HSA account. Let's
Suze: be clear on that. So when this person says that
Suze: it should be my beneficiary for all my bank and
Suze: retirement accounts, not if you are married.
Suze: Again, I am underlining this you do not want your
Suze: trust account to be the primary beneficiary if you are
Suze: married of any retirement accounts and or an HSA insurance account.
Suze: So here's what you all need to know as well. Sure,
Suze: you can make your accounts and everything pay on death,
Suze: but as I've said many times, what if you don't die?
Suze: What if you become incapacitated?
Suze: Then the pay on death account isn't going to help you.
Suze: Who's going to be able to access that money if
Suze: you need it? A living trust with an incapacity clause
Suze: in it which the must-have documents have, is the way
Suze: to go bar none. Just telling you you want to
Suze: avoid problems, get the must have documents. All right, KT.
KT: OK, this, this is my favorite kind of question, everyone
KT: from Teresa.
KT: You ladies rock, I heard I can do a one-time
KT: rollover from a traditional IRA to my HSA account tax free.
KT: If so, how?
Suze: You are absolutely right, my dear Teresa. One time.
Suze: And one time only. If you want to use the
Suze: money in an IRA, a traditional IRA, so you've never
Suze: paid taxes on it, or even a pre-tax IRA rollover
Suze: that you may have, you can take that money and
Suze: use it to fund
Suze: up to the max if you want of the HSA
Suze: that you have and it is absolutely tax free. So
Suze: if you want to know how to do it in
Suze: your particular company, I would ask your HR person how
Suze: to do it all right.
KT: OK.
KT: So on the theme of 401ks, this is from Jenny.
KT: My employer is being bought by another company. I have
KT: a 401k with Fidelity. They're switching to a 403B with Empower.
KT: I think that was formerly Prudential. Should I roll over
KT: or start a new retirement account? I don't know much
KT: about 403Bs. Thank you.
Suze: A 403B works essentially the same way as a 401k really.
Suze: That's what you need to know. However, if it were me,
Suze: And I had a 401k with Fidelity, and now they're
Suze: switching it to a 403B with Empower. What I want
Suze: you to think about, however, is if you did an
Suze: IRA rollover with the 401k that you have at Fidelity
Suze: and start a new retirement account there. You also have
Suze: the ability if you want to start converting to a
Suze: Roth IRA, and your investment options will be far grander
Suze: than any 403B with Empower that they'll offer you. But
Suze: if you make a lot of money.
Suze: And you want to do a backdoor Roth IRA one
Suze: day if you have a traditional IRA that you rolled
Suze: over and you're not going to be able to do
Suze: a backdoor Roth. So therefore you might just want to
Suze: leave it with the 403B withinower just depends how much
Suze: money you make a year, how much money you think
Suze: you're gonna make in the future, and if you like
Suze: the investment options and the fees that Empower is going
Suze: to charge you.
Suze: Other than and actually the amount of money that you
Suze: have in there because if there isn't a lot of
Suze: money in there then oh you bet I would do
Suze: an IRA rollover and then convert it to a Roth IRA.
Suze: All right.
KT: All right, next is from Melissa.
KT: Hi Suze, I understand you're a big fan of dollar
KT: cost averaging.
Suze: I am.
KT: I will be receiving about $10,000 for a car accident
KT: settlement within the next few weeks and $30,000 next September.
KT: I'd like to invest all of this money in dividend
KT: ETFs because I have no debt. I'm contributing 12% to
KT: my 401k, and I have a 6 month emergency fund.
KT: Do I put everything in a high yield savings account
KT: and then invest maybe $1000 at a time every week
KT: into a dividend ETF or what's the best way to
KT: go about dollar cost averaging with large sums of money.
Suze: Given that you only have
Suze: A 6 month emergency fund when I have been telling
Suze: you now for years that everybody should have an 8
Suze: to 12 month emergency fund looks to me like girlfriend,
Suze: you're gonna be taking this money and putting it in
Suze: a high yield savings account or money market account.
Suze: And you're gonna add the $30,000 to it again when
Suze: it comes in a year from now and then you're
Suze: gonna see is that an 8 or 12 month emergency fund?
Suze: And if it is and there's anything extra, then we'll
Suze: talk about dollar cost averaging into things at that time.
Suze: All right, KT.
KT: OK, next question is from Pat, and Pat is asking
KT: Suze and KT,
KT: I have a question about IRMA, so I have to
KT: tell you all I didn't know what IRMA was, so
KT: I looked it up. It's an income related monthly adjusted
KT: amount from Medicare. Suze will tell you what that means,
KT: but this is a question about IRMA.
Suze: You pay IRMA.
KT: My husband, my husband...
Suze: You know that you pay Irma.
KT: I do?
Suze: Every single year.
Suze: So do I.
Suze: All right, go on, go on.
KT: IRMA must be rich, man. All right, my husband and
KT: I are selling our rental property as we no longer
KT: want to be landlords, nor do we want to invest
KT: in other options. That said, we are prepared to pay
KT: the taxes. Know we will have to pay Irma for
KT: a year and just want to be totally done.
KT: So then the question is, do I have to wait
KT: for the 2 year look back with Medicare to charge
KT: the IRMA fees? I don't know what that means.
Suze: All right, let's see if I can explain this to you.
Suze: As you know, everybody, when you turn 65, which is
Suze: so fabulous, you qualify for Medicare.
Suze: And I can't tell you how incredible Medicare is when
Suze: it comes to health needs. Do you know that that
Suze: entire operation that I went through and everything, I did
Suze: not pay one penny for it.
KT: What do you think that would have cost?
Suze: Well over a million bucks.
Suze: Well over a million dollars over a million dollars for
Suze: what they had to do and how long they had
Suze: to do it. I mean, I'm sure it was over
Suze: a million dollars anyway. So what is IRMA?
KT: Wait, so she paid 0 $0.
Suze: You know that.
KT: I know. I'm telling everyone listening that's what Medicare's incredibly
KT: so incredibly important. I hope it never goes away.
Suze: So you turn 65.
Suze: And Medicare has a Part A and a Part B.
Suze: And when it comes to Part B, you pay a
Suze: monthly premium for it based on your income.
Suze: And your income, depending on what it is, you could
Suze: pay like up to $500 a month. I think we
Suze: pay $526 a month, KT out of our Social Security
Suze: check for Medicare Part B.
Suze: But IRMA is really it's a monthly adjusted amount for Medicare,
Suze: but IRMA is based on your modified adjusted gross income
Suze: from 2 years prior, so they're always looking back 2 years.
Suze: And so therefore, uh, you know, if you had an
Suze: income sale from a piece of property in 2024, the
Suze: income from that sale in this case would generally affect
Suze: her 2026 Medicare premium.
KT: I get it now I understand I got it, the question.
Suze: Now here's the thing, however.
Suze: With Social Security, if you have what's called a life
Suze: changing event, and I think it's form, oh God, are
Suze: you gonna quote me on this? Social Security at SSA-44. OK,
Suze: I think that's it, right?
KT: You're probably right because you memorize numbers.
Suze: Anyway, you can request that Social Security adjust your IRA
Suze: based on your current income.
Suze: Usually if there's a significant reduction to a qualifying event,
Suze: so and I have to tell you the sale of
Suze: a property qualifies for that. So Patricia, if I were you,
Suze: if you want the IRMA increase to start in 2025
Suze: and be done after that one year, just...
Suze: You need to contact them and see if in fact
Suze: it qualifies or what happens with 2024, 2022, whatever it
Suze: is you need to contact them and see if it
Suze: will help you all right,
KT: OK, this is my final question from...
Suze: Wanna know something here where I wouldn't necessarily want to
Suze: get it done. Oh, I, you just handed me her email.
Suze: Did you see on the bottom it says she wants
Suze: to do it now because she thinks tax brackets are
Suze: gonna go up over the next few years? That's why
Suze: she wants to do it now. I got it. All right,
Suze: see what you can do life changing event form
Suze: SSA 4444 I hope. OK.
KT: So from Danette, hello, Suze and KT. Happy travels. Suze,
KT: I purchased the must-have documents online in 2009.
Suze: Smart.
KT: Yes, yes, she is smart.
KT: Opened my revocable trust, changed my house title. You mentioned
KT: the incapacity clause. Is it available with my docs automatically,
KT: or do I need to fill it in, you know,
KT: all over again and have them co-signed and notarized again?
KT: Then she says, do I have to buy the newest docs?
KT: This is from Danette.
Suze: So Danette, here's the great thing about the must-have docs.
Suze: It's a one and done.
Suze: That's it meaning what? Once you have purchased them, no
Suze: matter what updates are made, you qualify for the updates
Suze: and without any extra cost at all.
Suze: You know, I would never talk to you about something
Suze: that I want you to buy that you have to
Suze: continue to buy and buy as it changes. So unlike
Suze: many of the other companies, when something changes, you have
Suze: to buy it again. That's not true with the must
Suze: have docs. Your 2009 ones that you did buy has
Suze: the incapacity clause in it. However,
Suze: given that that was so long ago, I think it's
Suze: a really great idea if you redid them so that
Suze: you see where is everything, how did you do it?
Suze: Is there any changes that you want to make? And
Suze: therefore on your documents when you go back and you
Suze: go to the program, there's a little help tab or
Suze: whatever just contact the company.
Suze: And you'll automatically be updated to the program as it
Suze: is today, and it's just been totally updated, by the way.
Suze: So if I were you, I would do that. Another
Suze: thing I love about the must have docs, KT, besides that.
KT: What's that?
Suze: You can share it with as many people in your
Suze: family as you want.
KT: Or friends.
Suze: Or friends or whatever, so it's like it just takes
Suze: one of you to do it. Quizzy time, KT.
KT: OK, what do you got for me?
Suze: This is from MS. All right.
Suze: And she says the following, and I know it's a she,
Suze: by the way. Anyway, I'm 40, which means that I've
Suze: gone by people first, then money, then things for half
Suze: of my life. Thank you. I currently own my home outright.
Suze: But only have about 35% of total net worth invested
Suze: in the markets. The rest are in cash. I have
Suze: relatively low expenses for myself. Now, are all of you
Suze: listening to these facts, because this quizzy isn't just for
Suze: KT to be able to answer. I give quizzes for
Suze: all of you to be able to answer, to know
Suze: if these things ever happened in your situation.
Suze: What you should do all right now again, this person
Suze: is single, no kids, she says, however, my job is
Suze: quite unstable. Hence I must be prepared to be retired
Suze: at any time.
Suze: I am a citizen of a low cost of living country. Hence,
Suze: plan on retiring there should the need arise. She's 40.
Suze: She plans to retire there if the need arises. All right.
Suze: I am able to live at my parents' home indefinitely.
Suze: From my estimates. If I were to liquidate my assets
Suze: and put the money in the bank with 3% interest,
Suze: I should have 2 times the monthly expenses that my
Suze: parents currently use.
Suze: Has anybody ever heard of inflation? But anyway, all right,
Suze: my question...
KT: Sounds like a great place to go.
Suze: My question is I have been thinking of upgrading my
Suze: apartment
Suze: to a swankier one in the city center downtown vibes,
Suze: better air. I plan to use all or most of
Suze: the cash I have on hand for the upgrade or
Suze: take a minimal loan. Now I am assuming here
Suze: that she has a home that she owns outright, she
Suze: may be thinking about selling her home, moving to a
Suze: bigger swankier apartment in the city.
Suze: But she'd have to use all the cash from her home.
Suze: And to make an upgrade or make or have a
Suze: minimal loan, do I approve? Think about it.
Suze: Oh, you're looking at me like there's nothing to think about.
KT: This is a no brainer here, Suze.
Suze: What is that?
KT: No. Why would you do that? I would never do
KT: that if I had an unstable job and I'm 40
KT: years old, I'd want to accumulate as much cash as possible,
KT: so then I'd feel free.
Suze: So you've denied her.
KT: Yes, totally.
Suze: Say it KT.
KT: You are denied. That's the way you say it.
Suze: So what's funny about this quizzy is I wrote her back. Oh,
Suze: what'd you say? I sent her a little picture of
Suze: myself with a stamp that said Denied there
KT: Ding ding ding ding ding.
Suze: So you're right, but here's why MS that you're thinking,
Suze: in my opinion is not logical. You currently own your
Suze: home outright. You don't have any bills whatever.
Suze: And what you're saying is that you want to move
Suze: to a swankier place, which means more expenses, more taxes,
Suze: more everything, and you don't have a stable job.
Suze: So you have to be prepared to retire at any time. No,
Suze: at the age of 40, if you lose your job,
Suze: you get another job. You stay where you want. Obviously
Suze: you're liking wherever you live and you just want a
Suze: little more life around you. So go to that place,
Suze: the swankier place, and be entertained and then go home
Suze: to a place that you own outright.
Suze: So at 40 years of age this is still your
Suze: compounding years. These are not the years for you to
Suze: be spending money and you need to be saving it
Suze: and investing it and being wise with money. And then
Suze: when you're old like us, you can live on a
Suze: private island. You could do whatever you want at that
Suze: point in time.
KT: Why isn't she just rent something in the city and
KT: see if she likes?
Suze: No, that's... (Suze makes the wrong answer noise).
Suze: She doesn't need to be paying more money. I don't
Suze: know why she wants to do that. That's not our problem.
Suze: Here's the other thing you say that if you liquidate
Suze: your assets and you put the money in the bank
Suze: with a 3% interest, how do you know what interest
Suze: rates are going to be? How do you know what
Suze: your assets are going to be if you had done
Suze: this plan years ago?
Suze: And you were thinking, oh, it's 2007. You've now lost
Suze: your job. You're going to sell your home, you're gonna
Suze: sell your assets. You wouldn't get anywhere close to what
Suze: anything is currently worth today. And you say that you
Suze: would have two times the monthly expenses that your parents
Suze: currently use. Do you really want to live the lifestyle
Suze: that maybe your parents are living?
Suze: So your thinking is wrong on this. You are to
Suze: think that you are going to make the most out
Suze: of your life here, where you're obviously enjoying yourself, or
Suze: you would be back home already. You're going to save it.
Suze: You're going to invest it. If you want to swank
Suze: your lifestyle, go there for the weekend and come back.
Suze: Do whatever. But no, you are denied. All right, KT.
KT: That's it. That's a wrap.
Suze: That's a wrap. So until Sunday, there's only one thing
Suze: that we really want you to remember when it comes
Suze: to your money. And what is that, KT?
KT: People first.
Suze: Then money.
KT: Then things.
Suze: And if you do that, stay safe, don't want to
Suze: live in a swankier place and stay healthy. You will
Suze: be unstoppable.