Robert: April 17, 2025. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hello again, Robert,
Robert: the producer here and while Suze and KT are taking
Robert: some time off, we're presenting parts of episodes that are
Robert: good to be at the top of your feet again.
Robert: Today we'll hear part of an Ask KT and Suze
Robert: anything from last fall, and well, let's just get right
Robert: into it with KT reading a comment.
KT: I have such a great, great selection of short emails
KT: that I think this might be a rapid fire cause
KT: I'd love to get through them, but the first one.
KT: I'm starting with Suze is from Mike, and this isn't
KT: a question. It's a thank you, but let me share
KT: it with all..
Suze: You love to start with these thank you's.
KT: So Mike said, Suze, I'm studying for my series 65 exam.
KT: Tell everyone what that is.
Suze: When you study to be a stockbroker or a financial adviser,
Suze: there are certain exams you have to pass so you
Suze: can do stocks and all of.
Suze: That series 65, I believe, is for mutual funds, so
Suze: you have to do all those
KT: They're
KT: not easy. They're very complicated. So he said, I'm reading
KT: the book and listening to the on-demand classes and getting
KT: so confused. Then Susie, I remembered you covered many of
KT: these topics in Suze School.
KT: So he went back and listened. He said things are
KT: now clear. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
KT: And then Mike said, You know, Suze, you could charge
KT: for your school. It's far better than the online training
KT: I actually paid for. So Mike, we hope you pass
KT: and congrats on your studies.
Suze: You know, I just want to tell everybody, KT about
Suze: series 7 exam. When you first study for it, you
Suze: study for months. It is so hard, I cannot even
Suze: tell you.
Suze: And the very first time I took it I failed.
Suze: I failed, and there were only about 7 people out
Suze: of the entire class. There were a lot of people
Suze: that failed, and I was one of them.
Suze: And that's when I decided I'll never forget saying to myself,
Suze: all right, right, you want to see how much I
Suze: really want to do this if this is a test
Suze: because I always think everything's a test from above, right,
Suze: that if you really want to see how much I
Suze: want to do this and you're testing me, let's see
Suze: what I can do, and I studied because you only
Suze: had one week to study and try to take it again.
Suze: And the second time I obviously passed, but sometimes in
Suze: life when you fail, maybe it's a test to see,
Suze: do you really want to do this or not? And
Suze: if you do, go for it with everything you have.
Suze: All right,
KT: But and Orman never gives up. Yes, I remember that. OK,
KT: my first question is from Karen. I have 3 children
KT: that will inherit my 401k. How is the RMD completed?
KT: Do each contribute a certain amount each year thereafter? How
KT: is this calculated?
Suze: You know, Karen, while that seems like a very simple question.
Suze: It really depends on will the kids be eligible designated beneficiaries,
Suze: or will they be non- eligible designated beneficiaries and it
Suze: will also have to do with have you died on
Suze: or after the RBD date. So all of that has
Suze: to be taken into consideration. What I can tell you
Suze: is this since it's in a 401k.
Suze: You should instruct them that the second this happens, if
Suze: it's still in the 401k to do individual inherited IRAs
Suze: in a brokerage account, that's where you start. And then
Suze: depending on what your situation is, it's really not that hard.
Suze: Just make sure that if the money is still in
Suze: a 401k when you die, that they do inherited IRAs
Suze: at a brokerage firm.
Suze: And by the way, I just want to say one
Suze: other thing to everybody, you really want to save your
Suze: beneficiaries a whole lot of trouble, just do a Roth
Suze: retirement account, Roth Roth Roth, and if everything is in
Suze: a Roth when you die, they're fine. All right, go on.
KT: Zoe, this is long, but I want to read this
KT: because I.
KT: I, we know people in the same situation, so I'm
KT: reading the whole email from Zoe. Hi, Suze, my life
KT: partner and I have been together for 20 years. Remember that, everyone,
KT: 20 years. We're not married, nor do we plan on
KT: getting married. We're buying our first home, a co op
KT: apartment in New York City. We're putting 20% down and
KT: taking out a 30 year fixed mortgage.
KT: While I will be contributing to the down payment, my
KT: partner is putting down most of it and will be
KT: paying the mortgage. He has a great job, and he
KT: can easily handle the payments. We are buying below our
KT: and his means. I recently switched careers and decided to
KT: pursue my dream career as an artist. OK, we all
KT: know what that means, everybody.
Suze: What does it mean KT?
KT: If you're an artist, you're never going to have like
KT: a guaranteed income, so it's going to be very unstable
KT: maybe in the beginning and obviously her partner supports this
KT: now until my, but listen to this, I like how
KT: Zoe is very positive. Until my career takes off, I
KT: will not be able to contribute to the mortgage. Our
KT: title will be a joint tenancy with the right of survivorship.
KT: We have separate bank accounts. My concern is if something
KT: happens to him, I will not be able to pay
KT: the mortgage on my own. I also want to make
KT: sure we have the right to the property if something
KT: happens since we're not married, so.
KT: if we do J T W R O S
Suze: Joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
KT: Do we still need to get a living revocable trust?
Suze: So here's the thing, Zoe,
KT: I just want to say one more thing for those
KT: of you listening. He's in his mid-50s, she's in her
KT: late 40s, so
KT: they're not kids.
Suze: Yeah, here's what I don't understand, Zoe. You have been
Suze: with this person now for 20 years. Why do you
Suze: not want to get married, especially given that you're about
Suze: to become an artist in terms of your living?
Suze: You probably already have already been an artist, but now
Suze: your income is going to possibly drop at least for
Suze: a while. He makes a lot more money than you,
Suze: so later on in life, maybe if you were married,
Suze: you would be able to claim either half of his
Suze: Social Security or if he died.
Suze: For you, because he is older than you, you would
Suze: be able to take over his Social Security. There's also
Suze: so many more benefits I can't even tell you. However,
Suze: whatever that reason may be, so be it. Here's the
Suze: thing with joint tenancy, with right of survivorship, yes, if
Suze: he dies
Suze: you automatically get the house and put in your name.
Suze: Problem is you can't afford it. So therefore, if you're
Suze: doing a 30 year mortgage as you say you are,
Suze: maybe what you should do is get a 20 year
Suze: term insurance policy on him. So if he were to die.
Suze: Then you get enough money to pay off the mortgage
Suze: and be able to keep it just that simple. Why
Suze: 20 years instead of 30, cause most likely 20 years
Suze: from now it still may be affordable for you. You
Suze: have to make sure it's a fixed, a level term policy,
Suze: but by then maybe you could put extra money towards
Suze: the mortgage so that maybe in 20 years it would
Suze: be paid off anyway.
Suze: That's number one. Do you need a trust? No, not
Suze: if he dies. You're fine. The question is, Zoe, what
Suze: if he doesn't die? What if all of a sudden
Suze: now he's in an accident, he is incapacitated. He doesn't
Suze: recognize you. He can't work any more. There is no
Suze: more income coming in from him. And now you have
Suze: to sell the property, and the question is can you?
Suze: Joint tenancy with right of survivorship means you both have
Suze: to sign for it. Therefore, if he's incapacitated and he
Suze: can't sign, you can't sell it. If you had a
Suze: revocable trust with an incapacity clause in it.
Suze: You could sign for him. He could sign for you.
Suze: No problem. So that's one of the reasons you want
Suze: to go to Musthavedocs.com and check it out. All right, KT.
KT: Suze, next question from Bridget.
KT: Is it better to leave a 401k to children or cash?
KT: The kids would say cash. Then she said, I know
KT: the new inheritance rules on 401ks are complicated. Should my
KT: husband and I live off our cash in retirement or
KT: spend down our 401k? And then she said with great joy,
KT: all of their daughters opened Roth's at 21. Our youngest
KT: now 20, opened hers at 18.
Suze: So what happened to Bridget? Well, Bridget, why don't you
Suze: have a Roth 401k? Why don't you convert? Why don't
Suze: you do things like that so that when they do inherit,
Suze: it's not that big of a deal? Absolutely not. You
Suze: are to listen to me and listen to me closely.
Suze: You say in here cause KT just gave this to
Suze: me your email that they opened Roth's at 21 and
Suze: your youngest is now 20. So now they're getting older
Suze: and they'll be fine financially speaking. Why don't you care
Suze: about you and your husband and what you're going to
Suze: do when you get older and what is best for you?
Suze: You and your husband, Bridget in terms of what should
Suze: you do to make the most out of your money.
Suze: So I'm not even going to answer this question other
Suze: than Roth 401k, start doing that. Let it grow, let
Suze: it grow, let it grow, and it depends on your
Suze: tax bracket what you live off of at the time.
Suze: Stop worrying about the kids, mama bear and start worrying
Suze: about yourself. Typical mother, right?
KT: Yeah, and 3 girls. All right, this is from Sheila.
KT: Hi KT and Suze. Love your advice and I'm wondering
KT: about capital gains from ETF dividends in a rollover IRA.
KT: Should I set them to automatically reinvest the dividends into
KT: the corresponding security or have them deposited to the core
KT: account to pay the taxes later? It's hard to answer
KT: this one, huh?
Suze: This one couldn't be easier to answer if I tried.
Suze: What are you talking about?
KT: Well I'm just giving you the best questions I like.
Suze: So Sheila, make it so you reinvest the dividends and
Suze: you get the most growth out of your money. Obviously
Suze: you're going to have to pay taxes on it later.
Suze: The other thing you can start to do is start
Suze: converting to a Roth. There you go. All right.
KT: We better do another Roth podcast.
Suze: Oh my God, are you crazy?
KT: No, just to remind people how great it is. So...
Suze: You hate those podcasts.
KT: But I think it's just a good reminder, refresher, a
KT: Roth refresher. That's a good. I wish you all could
KT: see my face a Roth refresher. We should do that.
KT: All right, everybody, from Susan. I enjoyed the Sunday podcast
KT: about managing money successfully in marriage like you and KT...
KT: I just added that part. My husband and I have
KT: been married for 14 years. I manage all of our finances.
KT: I'd like to get my husband more involved so he
KT: understands what's going on, but he's not interested. He's never
KT: been good about saving money, but I insure that we do.
KT: We are debt free. We have an 8 month emergency fund,
KT: and we're on track for retirement. We have about a
KT: million dollars to date.
KT: We are both 46. Good for them with kids 8
KT: and 11 years old. Short of chasing him around with
KT: a laptop, how do I get him more involved so
KT: he can be part of our financial decisions.
KT: Want me to tell you, Suze?
Suze: We're gonna make this the Ask KT Anything today.
KT: This is what I would do, Susan. Call your husband in,
KT: pour a glass of wine, say, honey, I need to
KT: tell you something really serious. He'll say, what? And then
KT: give him that glass of wine.
KT: We're broke
KT: We're just broke. Then you'll get more involved in your money.
Suze: All right, right, so here's what I would tell you
Suze: to do.
Suze: I would get very serious with him and I would play, ready?
Suze: I would play incapacitated or
Suze: death, I'm serious.
KT: Yeah, they're 46.
Suze: Right, and I would sit down and say, all right,
Suze: we're gonna play a game right now.
Suze: I've either been struck by a car and I'm totally incapacitated.
Suze: I can't do anything or I've been killed in a
Suze: car crash. Just play it.
Suze: What would you do first, sweetheart, and then give him
Suze: a quiz and write down questions. Where are our accounts?
Suze: What are we invested in? Where would you get the
Suze: money to pay the bills? Every question that you could
Suze: possibly have. Is there enough money for you to continue
Suze: to live without me bringing in any money, whatever it
Suze: may be, and ask him.
Suze: He's by himself now.
Suze: Where would he go? What accounts are the bills paid from?
Suze: How much is everything? Where is the emergency fund? What
Suze: do you do for the kids? How do we hold
Suze: title to the house? Everything is there an insurance policy,
Suze: every possible question that you could think of? And when
Suze: he's not able to answer one of them, and now
Suze: you give him an F, you can then say to him,
Suze: I am no longer joking with you.
Suze: This isn't funny. If something happens to me, you have
Suze: a responsibility to take care of our kids, to make
Suze: sure that everything is OK, and you cannot be now
Suze: more irresponsible if you tried. If you, something happens to you,
Suze: we're fine. If something happens to me, oh, you are screwed.
Suze: So what I want you to do right now is
Suze: make a commitment to me that we're going to figure
Suze: this out together as one and don't joke with him.
Suze: It's not funny.
Suze: It's not funny. Everybody, if you're in this situation with somebody,
Suze: it's just plain stupid if they refuse to partake in
Suze: something that is their lifeline if something happened to you.
Suze: All right, go on, KT.
KT: So I picked this because I want all of you
KT: listening to know one thing. There's never a wrong question
KT: when it comes to money ever. So this is from Carolyn. Suze,
KT: you ready?
KT: Carolyn said, Is it OK to purchase a home at
KT: the age of 65 or 66?
Suze: Of course, if you can afford it, girlfriend, so I
Suze: want you to do something which is called Play house.
Suze: So today's podcast is about playing all kinds of things
Suze: to know what it's like when you really do the
Suze: real thing, all right, or the real thing happens, you know,
Suze: you want to purchase a home.
Suze: So you're going to hopefully put at least 20% down.
Suze: Besides the amount of money you're going to put down,
Suze: you need to have an 8 to 12 month emergency fund. So.
Suze: You put 20% down. Let's check that box off. Now.
Suze: Let's decide at your age, truthfully, you should be doing
Suze: a 15 year fixed rate mortgage because you don't still
Suze: want to have a mortgage at the age of 95.
Suze: You want to have it paid off, you know, by
Suze: the time essentially that you're 80. So therefore look at
Suze: what the mortgage payments would be.
Suze: With a 15 year fixed rate mortgage just that simple,
Suze: write that amount down.
Suze: Then you also have to do what? Find out what
Suze: would it cost you in insurance per month on that house.
Suze: Write that amount down. What would it cost you in
Suze: property taxes per month? Write that amount down. What would
Suze: it need in maintenance? Probably another 200 or $300 a
Suze: month in case something were to go wrong, write that
Suze: amount down. Add up all of those amounts.
Suze: And let's say they come to $4000 a month. Let's
Suze: just say that's true. And let's say you're currently renting
Suze: right now and your rent is $2000 a month. Subtract
Suze: your rent from the $4000 that would leave you $2000
Suze: that you're going to have to come up with. So
Suze: at the beginning of every month for the next 6 months.
Suze: Take that $2000 and put it in a money market
Suze: account or some account paying you interest and see what
Suze: that feels like. Are you late? Can you do it
Suze: at the 1st of every month? And if you can,
Suze: and it's easy, then I got news for you, and
Suze: you know that your job is stable. You know that
Suze: your income will remain for a long time. Then yeah,
Suze: you can afford to buy a home.
Suze: And guess what, at the end of those 6 months
Suze: you'll have a whole lot of money. In this case,
Suze: an additional 12,000 plus interest to put towards the down payment.
Suze: If you find that you can't, it's too difficult. You
Suze: still have money that you saved. All right, OK, next.
KT: OK, next is from Penny. Penny said, my spouse and
KT: I are 75 years old. We need to know more
KT: information on different types of insurance policies.
KT: Which is the best type of life insurance coverage? Is
KT: it whole life or term? What are the pros and cons?
Suze: So you know, Penny, that your email is Pennywise, right?
Suze: That's how, that's what you're calling yourself for this email.
Suze: Now I don't know if that's your real name.
Suze: Or you know if that's just a name you made up, however,
Suze: at the age of 75, actuarly speaking, you are closer
Suze: to death when the insurance companies look at your age
Suze: and probably health, so whole life
Suze: insurance is going to be so expensive I can't tell you.
Suze: I don't know why you actually need insurance. Hopefully at
Suze: this point in your life nobody is financially dependent on
Suze: either of you if you're dependent on your spouse or
Suze: vice versa.
Suze: Now maybe we're going to have a little bit of problems,
Suze: but term insurance at this point would be the only
Suze: way to go.
KT: All right, Suze, next question is from Jennifer. Hi, Suze,
KT: what do you think of paper trading so I can practice?
KT: What's your opinion on this, Suze?
Suze: I don't think it's a bad idea at all where
Suze: what is she talking about everybody you pretend on paper
Suze: that you bought stock or ETFs. You also should all
Suze: pretend that you start with a certain amount of money.
Suze: Let's just say $25,000 and
Suze: What are the 5 or 10 or 12 stocks or
Suze: ETFs that you're going to invest in? How much of
Suze: that $25,000 did you invest the first month at what price?
Suze: And then when do you dollar cost average again and
Suze: just on paper track it. All right.
KT: This is my last one from Hari.
KT: Hello KT and Suze. Thank you for the very informative
KT: podcast every week. You suggested adding kids as authorized users
KT: to help their credit score. We both have excellent credit
KT: scores above 800. Do both parents need to add the
KT: kids in each of their credit card or one of
KT: the parents' accounts is good enough?
Suze: Probably 1 is good enough, but hey, KT and I
Suze: would always tell you 2 is better than 1. And
Suze: why do we say that KT?
KT: I'm a twin.
Suze: So we had little caps made. 2 are better than one.
Suze: So truthfully, Hari, you could both do it if you want,
Suze: but the truth of the matter is do it on
Suze: all your credit cards, not just one.
Suze: There's only really one thing that we want you to
Suze: remember when it comes to your money, and that is
Suze: what KT?
KT: People first,
Suze: Then money.
KT: Then things
Suze: You stay safe and healthy, and you will be what unstoppable.