Suze: May 1st, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast,
Suze: as well as everybody smart enough to listen. Today is
Suze: what KT?
KT: Ask KT and Suze Anything Thursday.
Suze: And she is so happy to be back in the studio.
KT: No, I missed it. I missed I missed my microphone,
Suze: Right? And all of you are just gonna have to
Suze: be patient because my voice, as you can hear, it's
Suze: been giving me trouble recently. So KT actually likes how
Suze: low it is. Do you like it?
KT: I do. It's sexy.
Suze: It's sexy. But anyway, so get used to it until
Suze: it changes again. All right, go on, KT.
KT: OK, so we've got some great questions here.
KT: And the first one is from Betsy. She said, You
KT: rock KT and Suze. Love you and listen all the time.
KT: I'm 76 years old and my hubby's 79. We both
KT: have everything in place, including the must-have documents.
Suze: Yeah, baby.
KT: You want to tell them if they don't have a
KT: must-have document what to do?
Suze: No.
KT: OK.
KT: So I understand, I understand my spouse should be my
KT: beneficiary of my retirement accounts. She has a Roth and
KT: rollover IRA and vice versa. But if I want some
KT: of that to go to other members in my family,
KT: wouldn't my niece and nephew get taxed on it when
KT: my husband gives it to them?
KT: She goes on to say, I love you, your efforts
KT: are working for all of us, and this is the
KT: best part of the email, everyone.
KT: She said, I took over my hubby's 401k when he retired,
KT: and I have doubled it. So that's incredible, she said,
KT: Thank you for giving me an education along with
KT: confidence.
Suze: Yeah, that's actually the goal of the Women and Money podcast,
Suze: and everybody smart enough to listen is so that you
Suze: can be your own best financial advisor. But Betsy, so
Suze: I don't understand your question.
Suze: I just don't, but I'm going to assume what you're
Suze: asking me, which is obviously the reason that I want
Suze: your husband
Suze: to be the primary beneficiary of your retirement accounts more
Suze: than the trust, because many of you, when you have
Suze: the must-have docs, which happens to be a living revocable trust,
Suze: a will, an advanced directive and durable power of attorney
Suze: for health care, as well as a financial power, many
Suze: of you have tended to make the primary beneficiary your trust.
Suze: It's so much easier on your beneficiaries, especially if you
Suze: are married, to make your spouse the primary beneficiary. Why?
Suze: Because your spouse has all kinds of benefits that nobody
Suze: else has, the main one being that he can take
Suze: over your retirement account as if it was his own
Suze: and on and on, however...
Suze: You can have contingent beneficiaries cause what if something happens
Suze: to you and your husband together and that's where you
Suze: leave maybe your other family members there and that's how
Suze: they get it but...
Suze: If everything is left to your husband, you die, and
Suze: now he's taking out some of that money. He's the
Suze: one who's going to have to pay income taxes on it.
Suze: And he can turn around and just give it if
Suze: he wants to your other family members. Remember, with the
Suze: new increase in the amount you can give, you now
Suze: this year, 2025, can give $19,000 a year to as
Suze: many people as you want. They do not have to
Suze: be relatives anything, and they don't pay taxes on it.
Suze: So therefore, that's probably what should happen.
KT: 19,000 total?
Suze: No, 19,000 per person total per person, but I could
Suze: give Sophia 19,000, Travis 19,000. I could go down the street.
Suze: In fact, I had the weirdest thing this morning, KT.
KT: A dream?
Suze: Not a dream, but I was looking at something, these
Suze: things that I have, right, and I had this hit
Suze: of I'm just going to walk down the street and
Suze: hand people these things that are worth a lot of money.
KT: Oh,
KT: you mean objects.
Suze: Objects
Suze: like a watch...
KT: A watch. Oh, I see things...
Suze: Do I know my joke growing up?
KT: No.
Suze: Yes, you do.
KT: What is it?
Suze: The millionaire.
KT: Oh.
Suze: I had this dream.
Suze: Uh, not dream fantasy dream, but this desire when I
Suze: got older.
Suze: To be able to go down the street and just
Suze: give somebody a check for a million dollars and walk away.
Suze: I wanted to do those things.
Suze: I kind of still do and I do. But there
Suze: is one story, KT that I just, it reminds me
Suze: of is that I did give a $10,000 check to
Suze: a little boy who was supporting his mom.
Suze: And he went and he wanted to put it into
Suze: his bank account and the bank literally thought that he
Suze: had stolen my checks. There's no way Suze Orman would
Suze: have given him $10,000 and it was just so very,
Suze: very sad. So sometimes it's interesting when you give somebody
Suze: money what can happen from it. All right, next question, girlfriend.
KT: OK, this is from Will. I really like this one.
KT: Will said, um, he misses us. He said, I'm 35.
KT: I work full time as the director of nursing at
KT: a nursing home. I'm about to start back to college
KT: to get my master's in nursing, which I think will
KT: increase my future earning potential. Will said, I currently have
KT: about 100,000 in retirement, another 130,000 in Fidelity IRAs, home equity, cash, etc.
KT: He, he's only anticipating one purchase in the next 1
KT: to 3 years, which is a new car, but he
KT: said the program he's looking into, Suze, will cost about
KT: $30,000 over the next 3 years. I could afford to
KT: pay the tuition out of pocket, but I'm wondering if
KT: I might end up with more money in the long
KT: run by taking out student loans. Now here's the catch, Suze.
KT: He's 35. He already has $30,000 in student loans, and
KT: Will says, I hate to add to that, as it
KT: is my only debt outside of my home loan. So
KT: he just gave you a key word. I hate to
KT: add to that.
Suze: All right, so you give him the advice. What would
Suze: you do?
Suze: Quzzy pop quizzy.
KT: I wouldn't go back for my master's Will.
Suze: Oh God,
Suze: I wasn't expecting that.
KT: No, seriously, you're 35. You're doing a great job. I'm
KT: telling you something, boyfriend, I think.
KT: The nursing industry so needs people like you that are
KT: good at what you do, you love what you do,
KT: and who cares about earning potential? You're great. Don't go
KT: back for the masters.
Suze: All right, but Will, before you go back for the masters,
Suze: if you decide to go back and get a master's,
Suze: you really need to check and see what would that
Suze: do for you financially speaking if you had a masters.
Suze: You need to find that out, especially if you have
Suze: to take out a student loan or take money out
Suze: of something else to finance it. What would that money
Suze: have grown to versus how much really of an increase
Suze: in your salary will you get? Just something to think
Suze: about if, however, you decide that it's worth it and
Suze: you have the money now
Suze: to be able to pay 10,000 a year towards it,
Suze: I would do that rather than going into debt to
Suze: get it, cause why you hate that you have debt. Yes,
Suze: you hate it. So therefore don't hate things in life. Will.
Suze: When you hate something, it makes you negative and all
Suze: these other things, and you'll never get a job or
Suze: things in a raise that you want if you have
Suze: anger in you because you're doing something you hate. so.
Suze: I kind of would probably stick by KT suggested my dear,
Suze: you know, KT, I have to say.
Suze: Over the years now, if you go back and you
Suze: listen everybody to podcasts, I've even been questioning, does it
Suze: make sense to go to a university at all that
Suze: costs you $40,000 or $60,000 a year? Why not at
Suze: community college? Why not getting, you know, all kinds of things?
Suze: Be careful, everybody. That's all I can say. All right, go on.
KT: OK, so next question. This isn't actually a question. This
KT: is a great.
KT: Email.
Suze: I'm so surprised you didn't start with a great email.
KT: No...Hi KT and Suze. I recently visited a friend and
KT: her husband. Somehow we got on the thrilling topic of taxes.
KT: She mentioned that they decided to file separately this year
KT: because it would supposedly save them money right away. My
KT: gut said something was off,
Suze: especially
Suze: So, married filling and separately.
KT: Yeah,
Suze: wait,
KT: especially since she told me before that she contributes to
KT: a Roth IRA.
KT: I told her my husband and I filed jointly because
KT: I was pretty sure we couldn't contribute to our Roths
KT: if we filed separately.
Suze: And you live together.
KT: She said, no, you can. Even our tax preparer had
KT: suggested married filing separately to reduce...
Suze: Do they live together?
KT: ... to reduce the tax bill. Yeah, now listen, listen
KT: to this.
KT: I felt silly for not remembering why my husband and
KT: I filed jointly and kind of embarrassed that I may
KT: have been wrong, so I followed up on this topic.
KT: I found a podcast from August 15, 2021 where you
KT: went over the rules for married couples. The
KT: income limit is up to 10,000 for married filing separately
KT: and living together. My friend and I definitely earn way
KT: above that and share the same residence with our spouses.
KT: So I was right. And thankfully, I have not changed
KT: my filing status.
KT: I emailed our tax person and sent the IRS rules
KT: to my friend as an FYI. Suze, you rock. Thank
KT: you for taking the time to repeat the information over
KT: and over so that it's drilled into my brain.
Suze: What's interesting about this...
KT: She said she loves you so much.
Suze: Thank you. Thank you. Anyway, what's interesting about this is
Suze: that I want all of you to start to take note.
Suze: Just because a so-called professional, a CPA, a financial adviser says, no,
Suze: you can do that. You better check it, recheck it
Suze: and check it again. And when a friend says to you,
Suze: I've been listening to the Suze Orman show, and I
Suze: think she said that.
Suze: They really should check it again. So it's not that
Suze: I'm never wrong, of course I can be wrong, but
Suze: that's just plain stupid. How we doing, KT?
KT: I think, I think we're doing pretty good. How's your voice? How,
KT: how do you, how do you feel?
Suze: Are you back in the saddle.
KT: I'm in the, I'm in the saddle, but how about
KT: your little throat and voice? Is it in the saddle?
Suze: Back in the saddle again. Go on.
KT: All right. Hi KT and Suze. You both inspire me
KT: and give me hope. I have just two short questions,
KT: but I'm only gonna ask one.
KT: With my new job, they offer a traditional 401k. They
KT: will match 4%. Will I contribute only to the match
KT: or maximize the 15%? I'm 49 turning 50 this May
KT: with only 70,000 in a rollover IRA, 40,000 Roth IRA
KT: and an emergency fund of 36,000, which is good for
KT: about 5 months for me. So there you go.
Suze: She said, so there you go. Are you saying it?
KT: No, no, no, I, I'm saying so there you go.
Suze: So there you go.
KT: So, what's your advice?
Suze: Are you telling me that the company that you work
Suze: for doesn't offer a 401k Roth, that they only offer
Suze: a traditional 401k?
Suze: Is that true?
Suze: Cause if that's true, where they only offer a traditional 401k,
Suze: which is a pre-tax 401k, then yeah, you're only going
Suze: to contribute up to the point of the match that 4%.
Suze: I don't care that you know you can put in
Suze: an extra 11%. doesn't matter to me. What matters to
Suze: me is that you have the most efficient use of
Suze: your retirement money.
Suze: And the most efficient use would be after the 4%
Suze: open up a Roth IRA and given...
Suze: You're turning 50 this month. You can put $8000 in
Suze: your Roth IRA after taxes, which also can be used
Suze: as your emergency fund, period. The other money I don't
Suze: care about now. If they do, why are you laughing?
KT: People don't say I don't care about the other.
Suze: Well, you know what I mean. You, you get it.
Suze: You get it, but here's the scoop. It may be,
Suze: that your company may offer a Roth 401k, but the
Suze: match goes into a traditional 401k, and a lot of
Suze: people think, oh, that means I have to only have
Suze: a traditional 401k for them to match it. If they
Suze: have a Roth 401k, then here's what you are to do.
Suze: You are
Suze: to put up to 15% if you want in your
Suze: Roth 401k, they will put the 4% in your traditional 401k,
Suze: and you can still have an $8000 Roth IRA if
Suze: you want. Now you have hit the serious retirement jackpot.
Suze: Next question, KT.
KT: Ok, Suze, this last email.
Suze: Why is it the last one?
KT: Because it's really long and I want to have a
KT: conversation about it. I think it's important. I'm gonna read
KT: the whole thing.
Suze: I know why it's the last one. Why, Mama KT,
Suze: she's trying to protect my voice.
KT: I am protecting it, otherwise none of you are gonna
KT: get a Sunday. And if you want a Sunday real
KT: deal authentic Suze Orman, this is my last email.
Suze: Tell everybody I had a Sundae last night.
KT: Oh, she did. I gave her a non-dairy, um, ice cream,
KT: a non it was really good
Suze: Because I can't have dairy.
KT: And that little bit of a cold on her throat
KT: was so nice.
Suze: OK, wait, I just have to laugh, so I asked KT,
Suze: Can you get me a little non-dairy ice cream? So
Suze: she's out.
KT: The one flavor she wanted, they didn't have, so I
KT: brought back 4,
Suze: And I'm like, I asked for just a little.
KT: But then she wanted to taste all.
KT: All of that so that was, that was her plan.
KT: So this this is an interesting one, and I picked
KT: it because I think many of you listening will go
KT: through this or have already either for your family or yourselves.
KT: Dear Suze and KT, first of all, thank you. My
KT: wife and I have learned so much from you. Our
KT: children learned more watching your shows back in the day.
KT: And trying to predict your answer on the Can I
KT: Afford it segment than they ever learned in school about
KT: personal finance.
Suze: So now have them go to my YouTube channel where
Suze: they can actually play the Can I Afford it game.
KT: Go to Suze's official YouTube channel, and there's a lot
KT: of great stuff on that.
KT: So here's my question. My father-in-law is currently in hospice
KT: care and will be passing soon. He has asked us
KT: to take care of his wife, and we fully intend
KT: to do so. In fact, we already own the condo
KT: where they live. As part of that, he has asked
KT: me to take care of the bills which his wife
KT: has never been involved with.
KT: He then handed me a stack of bills that revealed
KT: he has 13 credit cards with about $50,000 in debt.
KT: He is currently paying $200 a month to each of
KT: the cards, a bit over the minimum payments on each.
KT: Now because we have followed your recommendations for 25+ years now,
KT: we could easily write a check to each of the
KT: credit cards, cut them up, and be done with it.
Suze: Over my dead body.
KT: However, I don't want to do that because I am angry.
KT: Not at my in-laws but at the predatory credit card
KT: companies they could have run a credit report. They would
KT: have seen that he lived on a fixed income and
KT: that he already had 6, 7, 8 credit cards he
KT: was not paying off. I am furious that two new
KT: significantly large companies wrote him and said, we see that
KT: you have
KT: 11 credit cards already. We would like to be your
KT: 12th at a 29.99% interest.
Suze: I would love to know the name of those companies.
KT: Yeah, we don't have that.
Suze: You write me and tell me. Go on.
KT: That seems almost criminal to me. I do not judge
KT: my father-in-law at all. They did not live extravagantly, but
KT: I am angry at these credit card companies.
KT: My question is this: should I pay these cards off
KT: and be done with it...
Suze: No.
KT: ... which would not be a burden on us.
Suze: No.
KT: Or should I set up an autopay for the monthly
KT: minimums and ride it out so that these predatory
KT: credit card companies don't get an extra penny.
Suze: No.
KT: If we do pay it off, should we use our
KT: funds or the $100,000 life insurance funds?
Suze: No.
KT: Suze, thank you so much for all that you do. Um...
Suze: That's good because I'll tell you why it's good, KT.
Suze: I wrote this person and here's the advice that I
Suze: gave them. Now...
Suze: Did you hear what I just said? I wrote this
Suze: person back personally. Every once in a while when I'm
Suze: reading these, something touches my heart, especially if something has
Suze: gone wrong when it didn't have to be wrong.
Suze: And I told him what to do. How can you
Suze: possibly be somebody like that? Do you have a question?
Suze: You should send it into the Ask Suze S U
Suze: Z E podcast at gmail.com. And KT does look through them,
Suze: but so do I. And depending on the situation, do
Suze: not be surprised if you hear back from me. In fact, recently, KT,
Suze: just yesterday morning.
Suze: There's this woman and her mother had died and her
Suze: father also had died and the adviser was telling all
Suze: these things and blah blah blah and finally I said,
Suze: you know, this deserves a one on one phone call.
KT: Oh, you called her.
Suze: I will, right, so anyway, I just want to say that,
Suze: asked Suze Podcast at gmail.com. But here is the advice
Suze: that I gave this person.
Suze: All right, so now Daddy has died. Now, your job
Suze: is to take care of mom. What's interesting is mom
Suze: doesn't really have any assets in her name.
Suze: Her house that she's living in is in your name.
Suze: The $100,000 life insurance policy. She could absolutely just say,
Suze: you know what, I don't want it or whatever, and
Suze: let it go to you. So that $100,000 could absolutely
Suze: go into your name as well. Now here's Mom. She
Suze: doesn't have any assets at all, and all of a sudden,
Suze: you let the credit card companies know that Dad died
Suze: and let's see what they do. If they come after mom,
Suze: here's the way that you're going to get back at them.
Suze: You are going to claim bankruptcy for your mother because
Suze: your mother doesn't really have any income. She doesn't really
Suze: have any assets. You are not going to give them
Suze: the pleasure of letting this money earn 29%.
Suze: Interest you are going to become a warrior and you
Suze: are not going to turn your back on this battlefield.
Suze: You are going to protect your mother. You are going
Suze: to protect her assets, and you are going to take
Suze: these banks and let them lose the money. They never
Suze: should have lent it. They don't deserve it back, and
Suze: there you go. All right, KT.
KT: So I thought that that would be your decision because
KT: she's
KT: 84 and really healthy and she has a long way
KT: to go. So why have any debt? Just claim bankrupcy...
Suze: She doesn't have debt, she never even knew it. And
Suze: with that $100,000 from the life insurance policy that the
Suze: kids now have...
KT: They'll take care of her.
Suze: They'll take care of her, you know, they own the house, everything,
Suze: so believe it or not, the mere fact,
Suze: that you own the house that she lives in is
Suze: your father's saving grace. So therefore, and that's what I
Suze: would do.
KT: That was great advice. I love that because I was
KT: thinking the same thing.
Suze: You were thinking that...
KT: Claim bankruptcy.
Suze: All right. There we go, two great minds think alike.
Suze: They think alike. All right, everybody, that brings us to
Suze: the end
Suze: of another Ask KT and Suze Anything podcast.
KT: What are you gonna do Sunday?
Suze: So Sunday will be Suze School and I'll be a
Suze: little bit different is I am gonna talk about diversification
Suze: because many of you are confused. I had diversification in
Suze: my portfolio, you write me, but yet my money is down.
Suze: You say you had diversification, but your money was up. Why?
Suze: So I want to tell you about what my definition
Suze: of true diversification is. I also want to address Pfizer's stock,
Suze: you know, I've told many of you how much I
Suze: love it, and it's currently at an 8% dividend.
Suze: You're writing me and you're afraid they're going to cut
Suze: the dividend, I will address that then. Also, I want
Suze: to talk to you about why it's so important for
Suze: you to listen every single week to the Women and
Suze: Money podcast, especially if you follow a stock recommendation.
Suze: Do you remember a while back? Well, in fact, I'm
Suze: not going to tell you you're going to have to
Suze: wait till Sunday, and if there's time, I want us
Suze: to talk about student loans and the changes that have
Suze: just come back in effect. So until Sunday.
Suze: There's only one thing, isn't there, KT, that we want
Suze: you to remember. What is that smile all about?
KT: People
KT: first, baby, then money, then things, and you stay healthy
KT: and
KT: safe.
Suze: And so if you do that, KT, what will you be?
KT: Unstoppable!
Suze: All right, see you Sunday. bye bye.