Suze: May 4th, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast,
Suze: and everybody smart enough to listen. Suze O here, and today
Suze: is Suze School. Now I know, I know on Thursday
Suze: I told you what I thought I was going to
Suze: be doing today. And then I realized I'm never going
Suze: to do that again. Why should any of you ever
Suze: believe me? Because the truth of the matter is I
Suze: sit down
Suze: and I don't know what I'm going to say. You
Suze: all do know that I have never planned a talk
Suze: in my life. It can be 100,000 people, 50,000 people.
Suze: It does not matter. I walk on stage
Suze: and then whatever comes out of my mouth is what
Suze: comes out of my mouth, and the same is true
Suze: on these podcasts, even all the TV shows that I've
Suze: ever done, the almost 9 or 10 I've lost count
Suze: now of the PBS specials I did.
Suze: Two of which I won Emmy Awards for. I walked
Suze: on that stage and I just spoke. And when you
Suze: do that, it's almost as if the truth of what
Suze: you really want to say comes out, you know, I'll
Suze: never forget on this one really big talk, huge audience,
Suze: so many great speakers, and there was Leslie Stahl.
Suze: And Leslie has always been an idol of mine. She's
Suze: on 60 Minutes. What a fabulous woman! And I'm like, OK,
Suze: here is my chance. I can say hi to her
Suze: and how much I love her. And she was sitting
Suze: on a chair with this piece of paper in her hands,
Suze: and it was almost like she was shaking.
Suze: And she was reading it and reading it. I said,
Suze: Excuse me, Miss Stahl, I just wanted to say hi
Suze: to you. I love you so much. And she said,
Suze: Thank you, but I'm studying my talk. I, I, I, I,
Suze: I have to do this, so I'm studying it, and
Suze: I just went, OK, and I left.
Suze: But when your words have already been written and you
Suze: then are reiterating them in most cases not all.
Suze: It's just so boring.
Suze: They are just words, and when I sit down in
Suze: a mic or I walk on stage or I do
Suze: anything on television.
Suze: I speak in truths. I don't speak in words, which
Suze: is why, in my opinion, I think all of you.
Suze: Really can understand what I'm saying because the truth is
Suze: the truth for everybody. Sometimes words are just words for some.
Suze: So with that said, I do want you to get
Suze: out paper and pencil cause you never know what I
Suze: will say. And today I'm kind of excited to see
Suze: what I am going to say.
Suze: Since I don't know, so we'll find out together, but
Suze: I do know one thing before I begin. Today, like
Suze: I said, is May 4th, and for me, May 4th
Suze: is a very, very special day.
Suze: Because May 4th happens to be the birthday of one
Suze: of my most dearest, special, precious, and cherished friends, and
Suze: her name is Lisa Halliday, and Lisa used to run
Suze: all of the PR and everything for Oprah.
Suze: And over the years when I was doing the Oprah
Suze: Winfrey show, Lisa and I got very, very close, especially
Suze: after the show ended, you know, sometimes when you're doing
Suze: a show and there are producers and everything, you don't
Suze: get too close to them.
Suze: Because their job is to produce and make sure that
Suze: the people on there are the best people for that show,
Suze: but when a show ends, then you can kind of go,
Suze: oh well, now we can be real friends. So what
Suze: was interesting is obviously that was a long time ago
Suze: and I just love this woman.
Suze: So Lisa, from my heart to yours, I wish you
Suze: a happy birthday. I know that this is a day
Suze: that you should be given gifts, but for me you
Suze: have been one of the greatest gifts that I've ever received.
Suze: All right, there's that.
Suze: Lately I've been more aggravated than I know what to do.
Suze: And why is that? Because every single night.
Suze: Starting at 6 o'clock, sometimes even earlier, just depending, I
Suze: make sure that I am watching every single news show.
Suze: And
Suze: most of the news shows have financial pundits on theories
Suze: as to why what's happening is happening, and I've noticed
Suze: that every single night now for over a month.
Suze: The same thing is being repeated and repeated and repeated again.
Suze: And what's being repeated is why this is happening, why
Suze: the markets, why the tariffs are going to do what
Suze: they're going to do, and over and over and over
Suze: again the exact same thing.
Suze: So it's getting to me because why doesn't even matter
Suze: any more. We kind of know why I want them
Suze: to be talking about what you should all be doing.
Suze: But given that that's not what's happening, you have to
Suze: be asking yourself the question, what should I be doing
Suze: in my personal situation? How many times have I said
Suze: to you, and I'm going to repeat this forever and
Suze: a day.
Suze: That the government cannot save you.
Suze: They can't even save themselves. Who can save you? You.
Suze: How many times have I said to you, if you
Suze: want to find the best financial adviser in the world,
Suze: look in the mirror, cause nobody, nobody is going to
Suze: care about your money more than you do, and what
Suze: happens to your money directly affects the quality of your life,
Suze: not my life, not a financial adviser's life, an insurance
Suze: agent's life, anybody's life but your own.
Suze: How many times have you heard me say that
Suze: So the truth of the matter is the question at
Suze: hand today.
Suze: That I want each and every one of you to
Suze: be asking yourself, so write it down is what should
Suze: I be doing in my situation.
Suze: What actions should I be taking?
Suze: I want you to write that down. Did you write
Suze: it down?
Suze: Maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but OK, you get
Suze: where I'm going here. Now there are 2 or 3
Suze: different categories.
Suze: When it comes to your money.
Suze: That require actions. The first category that we need to
Suze: look at that most likely every one of you needs
Suze: to take action on, and that is the category of debt.
Suze: Now there are two different kinds of debt. There is
Suze: good debt and there is bad debt. Bad debt, listen
Suze: to me closely.
Suze: It is where you are paying for your present day desires,
Suze: but your costs are going to be your future day needs,
Suze: and normally bad debt is credit card debt. Good debt
Suze: happens to be debt such as a mortgage, possibly student loan,
Suze: even possibly a car loan since you may need a
Suze: car to get to work. So just depending on how
Suze: much debt that is, those kinds of debt can be
Suze: good debt.
Suze: When it comes to car loans, I just have to
Suze: say this. Remember, if you buy a new car, the
Suze: second you drive it off the lot, it goes down
Suze: a good 20% or more in value.
Suze: How do you know how much of a car you
Suze: can afford? Simple.
Suze: If you have to finance it.
Suze: If you can't afford the payments in a 3 year
Suze: period of time, in my opinion, you are buying too
Suze: expensive of a car.
Suze: Maybe you need a new car for you.
Suze: But maybe that new car could be a used car.
Suze: But I'm telling you, if you have to finance it
Suze: for 5, 6 or 7 years.
Suze: That is seriously bad debt.
Suze: So let's just say you do have credit card debt.
Suze: How do you deal with this debt? Well, depending on
Suze: your FICO score, as you know, FICO scores run anywhere
Suze: from 300 all the way up to 850. Anything below 500,
Suze: let me just say you are FICO'd. So if you
Suze: have a low FICO score, chances are you're not going
Suze: to be able to do a balance transfer to a
Suze: low interest rate.
Suze: Chances are you're already paying a very high interest rate
Suze: on your credit cards.
Suze: If, however, you have a good FICO score 680 to 720,
Suze: even if you had a FICO score of 760, which
Suze: is a pretty excellent FICO score, all of you should
Suze: be looking into doing a balance transfer if you have
Suze: an interest rate on your current credit card.
Suze: Cards of anywhere of 8, 9, 10% or more. There
Suze: are 0% credit cards out there for like 21 months
Suze: that you could be doing a balance transfer. Take a
Suze: look at it and ask yourself, hmm, is this an
Suze: action that I should be taking? Let's go back though
Suze: to those of you.
Suze: Who have credit card debt, low FICO scores, you can't
Suze: do any balance transfers and you just wanna handle this
Suze: and you wanna get a handle on it right now.
Suze: What I want all of you to do.
Suze: It is to line up your credit cards from the
Suze: highest interest rate all the way down to the lowest.
Suze: Next, I want you to write down next to each
Suze: one of those credit cards the minimum payment due that
Suze: is due this month. Now this minimum payment due is
Suze: extremely important because this is going to be the minimum
Suze: payment that you are always going to make on these
Suze: credit cards, all of them, regardless of what they're asking for.
Suze: Because I can tell you they want to keep lowering
Suze: your minimum payment due so you never get out of
Suze: credit card debt. So whatever it happens to be this month,
Suze: for example, this is the amount that you are going
Suze: to pay as your minimum payment due. It is fixed
Suze: now until all credit cards are paid off.
Suze: You are going to total the minimum payment due.
Suze: And let's just say the minimum payment due on all
Suze: your credit cards happens to be $300. OK? You're going
Suze: to add 20% to that figure, which would be $60.
Suze: What you're going to do next is you are going
Suze: to pay the minimum payment due on every credit card,
Suze: but you're going to add $60 to the credit card
Suze: that has the highest interest rate.
Suze: When that credit card and you're gonna do this every
Suze: month when that credit card is paid off, you are
Suze: going to roll the total amount that you were paying
Suze: on the highest interest rate credit card to the next
Suze: highest interest rate credit card.
Suze: Plus the minimum payment due that you are already paying
Suze: on that card, and you're going to continue to roll
Suze: it down until you are totally out of credit card debt.
Suze: Once you're out of credit card debt, be very careful
Suze: about closing down your credit cards, cause when you close
Suze: down your credit cards, you're also closing down your credit limit.
Suze: And therefore that could absolutely keep your FICO score lower.
Suze: Now I've done podcasts on this before, so you might
Suze: want to look that up, but that is your action.
Suze: The second category is income and expenses. The question is
Suze: what actions, if any, should you be taking when it
Suze: comes to your income and expenses.
Suze: Now for me, I will always tell you that I
Suze: think it's a great idea to spend less and save more.
Suze: People, I hate this when this happens. Suze Orman, how
Suze: much money do you really think you need, or Oprah
Suze: or whatever? That's not the point.
Suze: The point isn't about you get to a specific amount
Suze: of money and then you stop. The point is how
Suze: you feel about money.
Suze: And how you value money.
Suze: Because when you value money, you are also valuing yourself.
Suze: Because what you and your money are one, that is
Suze: what we have learned on the Women and Money podcast,
Suze: on the Suzie Orman Show, on every PBS special I did.
Suze: That is the truth.
Suze: Now, obviously it's always a good idea in my opinion
Suze: to spend less and save more. You already know that,
Suze: so it's important that the first action you take in
Suze: terms of the income and expenses category
Suze: is, can you just do me this one favor?
Suze: Go back 12 months from now.
Suze: And what did you spend the entire year?
Suze: Whatever that figure is divide it by 12, and that
Suze: in essence is how much you need per month after
Suze: taxes to live on.
Suze: Then I want you to look at your after-tax income.
Suze: And does your after-tax income after tax and actually after
Suze: retirement account contributions, does it equal
Suze: what your monthly expenses average to be, is it more
Suze: than what your average monthly expenses happen to be, or
Suze: is it less if it is equal to or if
Suze: it is less, you have actions to take.
Suze: And those actions are
Suze: You either have to earn more.
Suze: Or you have to spend less, or you can do both.
Suze: So that's the first thing that you have to get
Suze: under control to answer the question what should you be doing?
Suze: And the truth of the matter is, everybody, it does
Suze: not matter what's happening in the economy.
Suze: What matters is what's happening in your financial household.
Suze: Don't you want to see everything go up? Don't you
Suze: want to know as time goes on you have more?
Suze: You don't want to live a life where you just
Suze: are status quo, and what you have coming in is
Suze: what you have going out. You want to build and
Suze: build for the day that you can't work anymore or
Suze: you don't want to work anymore.
Suze: Or you're one of those federal workers who thought they
Suze: were going to be working for a long time and
Suze: now they don't have any income at all.
Suze: So it is essential that that category you have control over,
Suze: you've now been given your instructions of what you should do,
Suze: I want you to do it.
Suze: Next category investments, whether they are inside or outside of
Suze: a retirement account.
Suze: Let's deal with money that is invested in the stock market,
Suze: so to speak, in a retirement account.
Suze: As long as you have 5, 10, or 15 years
Suze: or longer till you need the money that's within a
Suze: retirement account and especially if it's coming from a 401K,
Suze: 403B TSP, whatever it may be, and hopefully it's in
Suze: a rough retirement account if you don't want to make
Suze: the biggest mistake of your life, but that's just besides
Suze: the point.
Suze: Because the money that's being invested is coming from a paycheck.
Suze: It's automatically coming out of your money.
Suze: Then you can continue to dollar cost average, which is
Suze: what that is, every single month for the rest of
Suze: your life does not matter. You just keep doing it
Suze: and doing it and doing it.
Suze: Just that simple.
Suze: And this includes Roth IRAs as well or traditionals if
Suze: you want to make a mistake, where you know every
Suze: single year there is a defined amount of money that
Suze: you can put into that account, $7000 this year if
Suze: you're under 50 $8000 if you're 50 or older, because
Suze: the amounts in retirement accounts every single year are defined
Suze: for you.
Suze: You just keep doing it till you have reached the
Suze: max in most cases, so that's simple. That's not a
Suze: big deal. It's outside of retirement accounts where the money
Suze: happens to be coming from.
Suze: Your excess cash, savings wherever it's coming from, which is
Suze: where you have to make a decision.
Suze: And the action that you have to take is how
Suze: much money do you want to have in a particular
Suze: stock in a particular investment.
Suze: Because that is not money that's automatically always going to
Suze: be there, so you have to make a decision and
Suze: decide how much am I going to buy of X
Suze: Y Z. When is enough there? Now what's interesting is
Suze: that April 2nd, when all of a sudden everything changed
Suze: and the market started to go down and down and down.
Suze: Especially with money outside of a retirement account, a lot
Suze: of you froze. You stopped dollar cost averaging. Many of
Suze: you sold. Many of you felt so great that you
Suze: sold because you saw it go down and down and down.
Suze: And again last week I gave you an example of Palantir,
Suze: our favorite stock, was at 125, and many of you
Suze: sold at 125, and you watched it go all the
Suze: way down.
Suze: To like 65 or 70 and you know as of Friday,
Suze: the close, it was at 1:24 again.
Suze: And I keep repeating this because do you see what
Suze: a mistake it is? Do you know, as of Friday
Suze: close of business, Palantir was up 61% from a month ago.
Suze: Apple was up 13% from a month ago. Microsoft 21%.
Suze: Walmart 17%, even if all you did was by VOO.
Suze: VTI or SPY, the spiders, they were each up about 12%
Suze: from a month ago. If you had done nothing, if
Suze: the action was nothing, even if you didn't dollar cost
Suze: average into it.
Suze: Do you see how much money you would have made?
Suze: The mistake would have been if you sold cause you
Suze: didn't need to sell good quality stocks, good quality ETFs,
Suze: even if you had purchased dividend paying stocks like Care Trust.
Suze: It's up 7% since a month ago, and it paid
Suze: you a 4.7% dividend. Pfizer, where so many of you
Suze: are so freaked about.
Suze: Right? Paying a 7 or 8% dividend is up 11%
Suze: from a month ago, and I know a lot of
Suze: you are like, oh, but Susie, what if they cut
Suze: the dividend? So what if they cut the dividend from 8%
Suze: to 6%, just 5%.
Suze: Don't you still think that's a great dividend? I told
Suze: you I personally still like Pfizer, and I would just
Suze: be keeping Pfizer. You could dollar cost average into it
Suze: up to you, but I don't have a problem with
Suze: that same with Verizon.
Suze: But it's up to you. Remember, when you make an
Suze: investment in anything, you have to feel good about it.
Suze: You have to do it not because I told you
Suze: to do it. You have to do it because when
Suze: you hear the idea you go, I like that idea.
Suze: All right, that makes sense to me. I'm going to
Suze: buy it.
Suze: So you have to be an active participant in your
Suze: investment decisions, otherwise you're just a bystander and you're going
Suze: to see lots of money just pass you by, because
Suze: you are not owning the power to control your destiny.
Suze: So what is the action that I want you to
Suze: take with your investments? I just want you to look
Suze: at them.
Suze: I want you to make decisions about them. I do
Suze: not want you to be selling out, no matter what
Suze: if you have a lot of time on your side,
Suze: and again they're good quality investments. What is very important
Suze: though for all of you to be doing is when
Suze: you take a recommendation from me on this podcast and
Suze: I say, oh, let's buy Whirlpool, which I did a
Suze: while ago.
Suze: And then I came back and I said let's sell Whirlpool.
Suze: Something is wrong. I'm not liking it. As soon as
Suze: I heard there were gonna be tariffs, I came on
Suze: this podcast and I said sell, and it was up
Suze: in the hundreds at that time.
Suze: I don't know. I don't even want to look at
Suze: where it's at now. I'm sure in the 70s, but
Suze: you have to, if you're gonna take a recommendation.
Suze: Then you have to listen every single podcast to make
Suze: sure when am I going to say sell Whirlpool, when
Suze: am I going to say sell Devon, which I did.
Suze: And the reason that I'm talking about this is somebody
Suze: recently wrote and said, Should I still be keeping Devon?
Suze: And I'm like, Didn't you hear me on the podcast
Suze: many months ago saying I would be getting out of
Suze: Devon and I would probably be putting that money into
Suze: Pfizer or something like that.
Suze: So you have to take responsibility and what is the
Suze: action that I want you to take when it comes
Suze: to investing? It is the responsibility of at least if
Suze: you're gonna take a recommendation listening to the podcast to
Suze: know if that recommendation changes or not.
Suze: That's all
Suze: But I need you to think a little bit differently.
Suze: About your investments because this can be such a very,
Suze: very lucrative time for you.
Suze: Let's talk about retirement accounts right now.
Suze: I get that a lot of you are afraid and
Suze: a lot of you are older.
Suze: And what are you doing?
Suze: You are taking money out of your retirement accounts before
Suze: you need to take money out of your retirement accounts,
Suze: and you simply want the money safe and sound.
Suze: One of the biggest mistakes you will make is if
Suze: you withdraw money from a traditional retirement account that's pre-tax
Suze: just to get it out of there so that you
Suze: could put it in a certificate of deposit or money
Suze: market account or whatever that may be. Why would you
Suze: do that?
Suze: You're going to pay tax on that money. Therefore, if
Suze: you're freaked out, just take the money within your retirement
Suze: accounts and put it in a place that's safe and
Suze: sound that doesn't fluctuate, OK.
Suze: If you have money at a place of employment like
Suze: a 401k or whatever it is, and they allow you
Suze: or you no longer work there and you just want
Suze: your money being safe, OK, transfer it to an IRA
Suze: rollover at Schwab or wherever you want to, up to you.
Suze: I don't care, and buy treasuries, short term treasuries or
Suze: certificates of deposit and just keep it safe and sound.
Suze: But don't withdraw it, pay taxes on it, and then
Suze: feel like the money's safer because you have access to
Suze: the actual cash.
Suze: Many of you, and I get many of you are
Suze: afraid and insecure, and I understand very well that the
Suze: goal of money is for you to be secure. But
Suze: when you make a financial decision based in fear,
Suze: then it's an internal obstacle to wealth.
Suze: So don't let your fear guide you if you are
Suze: afraid and whatever before you take action, just think about
Suze: it rationally why you are doing this.
Suze: Next category really is Social Security.
Suze: Now, I couldn't be more upset about this if I tried.
Suze: Obviously, half the Social Security offices have been shut down.
Suze: It's gonna be more difficult for you to get Social Security,
Suze: make corrections on Social Security. OK.
Suze: But that doesn't mean Social Security is going to collapse.
Suze: And so what many of you are starting to do
Suze: right now is the wrong action.
Suze: And what action is that? It's you are taking your
Suze: Social Security payments at 62.
Suze: Which for most of you is 5 years before your
Suze: full retirement age you are taking a serious hit on it,
Suze: but that makes you feel secure.
Suze: And do you all understand that is exactly what they
Suze: want you all to be doing.
Suze: The more of you that take it at 62, the
Suze: less they have to pay you later on, and the
Suze: less they have to pay you, the more they get
Suze: to save, and you think you've just done the smartest thing. Now,
Suze: obviously there are situations where taking it at 62 may
Suze: make sense.
Suze: You're ill. You have a terminal illness, and whatever it
Suze: may be, there are situations, but most of the time
Suze: it absolutely makes no sense at all taking Social Security
Suze: before your full retirement age, and I will still say
Suze: in most cases if you can wait till you are
Suze: 70 and it makes sense to do so.
Suze: And you have figured it out, especially if you are married.
Suze: Is that the best thing to do? Should you wait
Suze: till you're 70? Should one of you take it earlier?
Suze: All kinds of things you need to figure out, but
Suze: you need to take action with your Social Security. And
Suze: what is that action? It's really figuring out when is
Suze: the best time for you to take Social Security, when
Suze: is the worst time for you to take Social Security
Suze: financially speaking.
Suze: Not from a fear-based decision. All right, everybody, these are
Suze: all very, very important actions that I want you to
Suze: be taking with your money.
Suze: All right, that's your Suze School for today, I think
Suze: that's enough, don't you?
Suze: But there are actions that you need to take in
Suze: these main financial categories of your life, and if you
Suze: just did that right now.
Suze: You would feel a whole lot more secure.
Suze: So until Thursday when Miss Travis joins us again, there's
Suze: really only one thing that I want you all to
Suze: remember when it comes to your money, and it is
Suze: this people first, then money, then things. Now you stay
Suze: safe. Bye bye now.