Suze: October 2, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Woman and Money
Suze: podcast and everybody smart enough to listen. Suze O here
Suze: and today's episode is not business as usual. It's not
Suze: Ask KT and Suze Anything and why is that? It's
Suze: because the government has shut down.
Suze: And when Washington grinds to a halt, millions, and I
Suze: mean millions of people's paychecks stop cold.
Suze: Federal employees, contractors, families, small businesses that depend on that income,
Suze: I have to tell you, not only is it frightening,
Suze: but in my opinion it is totally frustrating and seriously
Suze: it's just unfair, but I'm not going to get into
Suze: the politics of this.
Suze: But it's just not right. None of it is right,
Suze: just so you know. Here's what we're not going to
Suze: let happen, at least not on my watch.
Suze: If this has affected you, you are not going to
Suze: let this fear of what just happened paralyze you, no.
Suze: Because fear makes you hide.
Suze: And you know I've said it over and over again.
Suze: Fear is one of the main internal obstacles to wealth.
Suze: You also know that I have said to you courage
Suze: is one of the eight qualities of a wealthy, wealthy person.
Suze: All right, so you're not going to let fear paralyze
Suze: you right now, 'cause again fear makes you hide, but
Suze: courage makes you act.
Suze: So today I'm going to walk you step by step
Suze: through what you can and must do right now to
Suze: protect yourself, your money, and your future, and I'm going
Suze: to get into the stock market with all of this
Suze: as well, but really I want us to take care
Suze: of those that are going to be affected by this
Suze: because we do not know how long this is going
Suze: to last.
Suze: The very first thing I want you to do is
Suze: just stop.
Suze: And get honest with yourself, and I want you to
Suze: ask yourself the question. By the way, you should get
Suze: out your Suze notebooks. Just do that.
Suze: You have to ask yourself the question, and all of
Suze: you should do this anyway because you never know when
Suze: something like this could happen to you, not where the
Suze: government shuts down, but your corporation shuts down. You get fired,
Suze: whatever it is you have to do what I'm about
Suze: to say. You have to ask yourself what are my
Suze: essential expenses?
Suze: To keep a roof over your head, food on the table,
Suze: utilities and insurance. What is essential for you to live
Suze: and pay? Everything else is a want.
Suze: Those others are a need. Everything else is a want. Subscriptions,
Suze: eating out, extra for the kids. It's all going to
Suze: get cut right now cause you cannot afford to waste
Suze: even one dollar on something that isn't essential. Now, obviously, even
Suze: if you're affected by the federal government, you have a
Suze: lot of money. It doesn't matter. You're going to get
Suze: through this, OK.
Suze: But the majority of you, you know, and I know
Suze: you're all still living essentially paycheck to paycheck on some level,
Suze: so it's really important that you get real with yourselves. Next,
Suze: I need you to communicate before you default. The biggest
Suze: mistake people make in a shutdown like this is you
Suze: just go silent, you hide, you miss payments.
Suze: Right, you let your credit score absolutely just sink, but
Suze: on my watch again, you are not going to do that. Instead,
Suze: I want you to pick up the phone. I want
Suze: you to call your mortgage lender. I want you to
Suze: call your credit card company. I want you to call
Suze: your utility providers. Call your landlord, and I want you
Suze: to tell them the truth.
Suze: I'm a federal employee. I'm impacted by the shutdown. I'm
Suze: not receiving my paycheck. What hardship program do you have?
Suze: Can you waive late fees, defer payments, or reduce my
Suze: bill temporarily? Also, I've given a podcast on this. The
Suze: greatest words you could ever say, and three of the
Suze: greatest words you could ever say is, "could you please."
Suze: So when you're calling these people, if you don't have
Suze: the money to pay them, it's like, could you please
Suze: help me?
Suze: Could you please reduce my bill temporarily? Just use those
Suze: words now. Write that down, everybody, cause I have to
Suze: tell you, you would be absolutely amazed at how many
Suze: companies will work with you if you simply ask.
Suze: Because protecting your credit score really is protecting your future,
Suze: but you have to be proactive. No one is going
Suze: to come and rescue you. You have got to rescue yourself.
Suze: Next, if you're in a situation where you absolutely must borrow.
Suze: All right, but there's a right way and a wrong way.
Suze: What's the wrong way? Payday loans, cash advances, anything with
Suze: sky high interest fees that will bury you in debt.
Suze: What is the better way? It's at this point in
Suze: time I want you. Don't faint now.
Suze: I want you to use your credit cards, but only
Suze: for essentials for those needs. Use the one with the
Suze: lowest interest rate, so I want you to charge food, gas, utilities.
Suze: Never withdraw cash, however, on your credit cards because that's
Suze: going to cost you 21% or so.
Suze: So I want you to save any cash that you
Suze: may have in your emergency fund right now.
Suze: And instead, I want you to put everything on a
Suze: credit card at this point in time. Why do I
Suze: want you to do that? Because I don't know how
Suze: long this is going to last, nor do you.
Suze: And I don't want you to use up all your
Suze: cash and now go to credit cards. I'd rather you
Suze: use up your credit limit first and then you still
Suze: have cash just so you know. Also, if you have
Suze: a Roth IRA and all of you better have a
Suze: Roth IRA at this point in time.
Suze: You can withdraw remember any other contributions that you've made.
Suze: As long as you don't touch the earnings of just
Suze: the contributions without penalty regardless of age and how long
Suze: the account has been opened now, that's your last resort.
Suze: But if it's the difference really between keeping the lights
Suze: on or not, you need to know that that option
Suze: exists now for all of you seriously that are listening,
Suze: and I know you're thinking to yourself this doesn't affect me.
Suze: I don't work for the federal government. You're not directly
Suze: impacted by this shutdown.
Suze: I am begging you not to tune this out.
Suze: Because this is your financial wake up call.
Suze: Shutdowns prove one thing. You cannot rely on anyone else.
Suze: Remember me all these years I've said you have to
Suze: save yourself. The government can't save you. The economy can't
Suze: save you. Your family probably can't even save you.
Suze: But you have to save yourself.
Suze: So the question is, do you have an emergency fund?
Suze: Could you survive 12 months without a paycheck? I want
Suze: you to be honest to yourself.
Suze: And if you can't, I want you to start doing
Suze: that and building an eight to 12 months of must
Suze: pay expenses and savings right now because that is what
Suze: will give you true freedom and peace of mind. I
Suze: want you to think about it. You work for the
Suze: federal government.
Suze: And now they've shut down.
Suze: You're not gonna get a paycheck. Maybe you're an air
Suze: traffic controller and you're gonna have to work even though
Suze: you're not getting a paycheck. You don't have a choice.
Suze: If you had a 12 month must pay account or
Suze: emergency account that I call it.
Suze: You would be all right.
Suze: I can still pay my bills. This qualifies as an emergency,
Suze: and you would still be relatively calm. Those of you
Suze: out there that are freaking out, it's because you don't
Suze: have
Suze: an emergency fund, you don't have any money saved and
Suze: you don't know what you are going to do.
Suze: So therefore, you have to do certain things. If you
Suze: don't have that emergency fund of eight to 12 months,
Suze: I want you to go through your subscriptions, cancel what
Suze: you don't need.
Suze: Look at your spending habits. Ask yourself the question. If
Suze: my paycheck stopped tomorrow, how long could I last? And
Suze: if the answer is two weeks, one or two months,
Suze: I'm telling you you have work to do because shutdowns
Suze: or when you are fired or whenever it may be,
Suze: they are painful.
Suze: But they are also teachers. They teach us what happens
Suze: when we don't plan, and they remind us of the
Suze: power of planning ahead. Got that everybody? Again just like
Suze: with the hurricane,
Suze: you plan for the worst, but you hope for the best,
Suze: and then when something happens, you are prepared. That's why
Suze: I want you all to have a will and a
Suze: trust in the must have documents so that you can
Suze: protect your tomorrows today. But if you just keep putting
Suze: things off and not deal with reality and something happens
Suze: now we're in trouble. Let's talk about something
Suze: that I'm sure a lot of you are worried about. Suze,
Suze: the markets, what are the markets going to do? The
Suze: government has shut down. Should I sell? Should I sell everything?
Suze: Are you out of your mind?
Suze: Every time that there has been a shutdown, Wall Street
Suze: has reacted, absolutely.
Suze: But stocks may swing not just down. They may swing
Suze: up as well. So when you say, should I sell
Suze: before it gets worse, I'm telling you do not panic
Suze: here and let me just give you some facts. Let's
Suze: go back to the recent shutdown, 2019. Remember that one?
Suze: That one was bad, or so we thought, right?
Suze: Because it was the longest one in US history, lasting
Suze: 35 days. The headlines, I'm telling you, they were terrifying.
Suze: You were all freaked. I even did a podcast on
Suze: it way back then. If you go back that far.
Suze: But here's the truth. Do you know that during that shutdown,
Suze: the Standard and Poor's 500 index actually went up about 10%.
Suze: Do you know that?
Suze: And about 12 months later, the S&P had gained about 26%.
Suze: Think about that. You would have thought during those 35
Suze: days the markets would have been destroyed and everything. They
Suze: actually went up about 10%.
Suze: I can tell you,
Suze: the other day I was looking at Colo's portfolio.
Suze: And I was going, oh God, here we go.
Suze: And we were down to a certain amount of money.
Suze: It had gone down about $2,000 or whatever. When I
Suze: looked Wednesday morning, it was higher. His portfolio was higher
Suze: than it was the day before they announced the shutdown.
Suze: It was the fear of it's going to shut down,
Suze: we better sell.
Suze: And now a day later it was even higher. OK,
Suze: let's go back to 2013, which was a six day shutdown.
Suze: Guess what?
Suze: The market rose about 3% while the government was closed
Suze: and in the year after,
Suze: it was up nearly 20%. So you must hear me
Suze: loud and clear, that while shutdowns may rattle your nerves,
Suze: it's only in the moment. But history has shown us
Suze: that they have been nothing more than a blip, just
Suze: a blip, everybody, and what really drives the market long
Suze: term is the Federal Reserve interest rate earnings, the strength
Suze: in the economy, and how much money is on the
Suze: sidelines waiting to be invested, not Washington's dysfunction.
Suze: So the truth is the only people hurt by market
Suze: swings are the ones who make emotional decisions. So if
Suze: you sold in the panic or if you tend to
Suze: sell in a panic, you lock in your losses, and
Suze: if you simply stay invested, you give your money time
Suze: to recover and grow. Now that happened with the tariffs.
Suze: Aren't you glad you didn't sell? It happened
Suze: when the pandemic happened, the markets went down. I was
Suze: telling you, don't sell, buy, do certain things, aren't you
Suze: glad you did.
Suze: So what should you do now? You need to stay
Suze: the course. If you're investing for retirement, keep contributing to
Suze: your Roth 401k, your Roth IRA. Do not stop, do
Suze: not pull money out. You need to be focused on quality,
Suze: these broad-based index funds if you want.
Suze: Diversified portfolios but also the individual stocks that we have
Suze: been talking about that just are fabulous, fabulous, everybody. So
Suze: if you combine those individual stocks that we've been talking
Suze: about with a percent of your portfolio in VOO, you're
Suze: going to be just fine. You need to look at
Suze: what's happening here.
Suze: And use this as a test of your courage.
Suze: And that volatility seriously is the price of admission for
Suze: long term growth like I was literally hoping that these
Suze: markets would go down big time.
Suze: So that I could buy more of the things that
Suze: had been going straight up.
Suze: So if a shutdown, for instance, makes you lose sleep,
Suze: it's not the shutdown that's the problem, it's that your
Suze: portfolio may be too risky or you are somebody who
Suze: just maybe doesn't belong in the stock market at all.
Suze: And listen to me if you have cash on the sidelines.
Suze: Any volatility that you're actually seeing here now.
Suze: It is in my opinion, an opportunity for you to
Suze: invest that money.
Suze: Remember strong companies, the ones that we have been talking
Suze: to you about for the past year or so, they
Suze: don't become weak just because Congress can't pass a budget.
Suze: So sometimes temporary dips are your chance to buy at
Suze: a discount. But, and you know me by now, don't you?
Suze: Tell me you know me by now. I only want
Suze: you to invest money
Suze: that you are not going to need for at least
Suze: five or 10 years, preferably longer. I only want you
Suze: to invest money when your emergency or, like I say,
Suze: the must pay account is in place.
Suze: And you have to get that the stock market is
Suze: for long term goals. It is not for you to
Suze: invest money that you may need in the next few years,
Suze: and it's not for you to invest, oh, something's gone
Suze: up 10% or 20%. I should sell. No, it is
Suze: for years from now, long term investing, so the shutdown's
Suze: going to come and it's going to go. Markets are
Suze: going to rise and they're going to fall.
Suze: But financial independence really everybody belongs to those who don't
Suze: get shaken by headlines. You want to build wealth? Do
Suze: you want to build wealth? I want you to build wealth.
Suze: I want you to make your money, make more money.
Suze: Then repeat after me and write down this new truth
Suze: that I want you to say over and over again.
Suze: I do not sell out of fear.
Suze: I do not buy out of greed.
Suze: And I invest with courage and discipline.
Suze: So what is it that I want you to take
Suze: from this podcast? I want you to remember that courage
Suze: is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing what
Suze: you must do even when you are afraid.
Suze: And I get it, everybody. I get that it's scary
Suze: when your paycheck stops. I get that it's exhausting to
Suze: fight through all the red tape.
Suze: But you are stronger than this shutdown. You are stronger
Suze: than any market decline.
Suze: You have the power to cut back. You have the
Suze: power to negotiate. You have the power to protect yourself
Suze: and your family.
Suze: And when it comes to your investments, courage, as I
Suze: said earlier, one of the qualities of wealth is staying
Suze: the course when everyone else is panicking.
Suze: That's how wealth is built, so repeat after me.
Suze: I am my own greatest rescuer.
Suze: You're gonna rescue yourself.
Suze: And that, my friends, is how you get through a
Suze: government shutdown with clarity, with courage, and with conviction that
Suze: no matter what happens in Washington you have the power
Suze: to secure your own financial life.
Suze: So until next time there's only one thing I want
Suze: you to remember when it comes to your money, and
Suze: it's this people first, then money, then things. Now you
Suze: stay safe and strong. See you soon. Bye bye.