Robert: June 14th, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi everybody, Robert,
Robert: the producer here. Now, I know that on the last
Robert: Ask KT and Suze Anything episode, Suze mentioned that she
Robert: was thinking about going over her faves today.
Robert: But see, I needed to travel this weekend, and I
Robert: asked Suze if we could do a best of today
Robert: as a favor to me, since I'm gonna be in
Robert: a place with kind of dodgy internet and editing might
Robert: be a little tough. And Suze Orman, being the best
Robert: boss and friend ever, said that was OK.
Robert: So what we're gonna do today is revisit an episode
Robert: from late last year, which is also really good to
Robert: have at the top of your feed right now. It's
Robert: called Taking the Courage Challenge. Suze and KT will be
Robert: back with a brand new podcast this coming Thursday.
Robert: Enjoy.
Suze: I did a Suze School about a woman that we
Suze: decided to call Susan.
Suze: And what happened to her in terms of her very
Suze: good friend asking her to take her money from a
Suze: successful financial adviser where she was making money and give
Suze: it to this woman's son who was a brand new
Suze: financial adviser just so he could look like he was
Suze: doing well and attracting big clients and because her son
Suze: was only going to charge her 1% versus this extraordinary
Suze: adviser that was charging her 1.5%.
Suze: Well, I have to tell you that podcast generated more email,
Suze: in a way that I didn't expect.
Suze: So many of you wrote and said, Suze, that happens
Suze: to me all the time, not necessarily about me transferring
Suze: my account, but I just get so afraid. One friend
Suze: tells me to do this, another friend tells me to
Suze: do that. My spouse tells me to do this. I'm
Suze: just so afraid. And what can you tell me about
Suze: being afraid?
Suze: So, what's interesting is that I hear from so many women,
Suze: you would imagine that, the Women and Money podcast, and
Suze: everybody's smart enough to listen. But what I love so
Suze: much about this podcast is that really the majority of
Suze: people that are listening are 50, 60, 70, 80, and
Suze: so on.
Suze: I love that because there's not another podcast out there
Suze: that specializes in getting financially mature, financially older, the decisions
Suze: you have to make and face when you are ill,
Suze: when you are old, you can't work anymore. And I
Suze: remember when I was 45 years of age and my
Suze: first book was You've Earned It, Don't Lose It, Mistakes
Suze: You Can't Afford to Make When You Retire. But what
Suze: did I know about retirement, really? I was 45.
Suze: Now I am 30 years older than that, and I
Suze: know a lot about retirement. I know about getting ill.
Suze: I know about making mistakes. I know certain things. So,
Suze: I love that I have my elderly community, and I
Suze: love the ones that are young enough, 25, 30, that
Suze: are enjoying it as well.
Suze: But what is still true from so many women is this...
Suze: Regardless of your age, regardless of your income level, even
Suze: your background, all of your stories sound the same.
Suze: That you're earning more than ever before, you're saving, you're investing,
Suze: you're doing everything that I've told you to do over
Suze: all these years, but deep down you are all still afraid.
Suze: And I got two or three emails about three weeks ago,
Suze: and these women were so accomplished, and the two of
Suze: you know who you are, because I wrote you back
Suze: significant long emails to help you and raise you up,
Suze: not so much from your finances, but out of your
Suze: fear and out of your self-doubt.
Suze: But all of you, you're still scared, you're scared that
Suze: the market's gonna crash. You're scared that you're gonna make
Suze: just one mistake and you're gonna lose it all. You're
Suze: scared that somehow it's going to all slip away.
Suze: You know, I used to call it that we all
Suze: have this bag lady syndrome that we imagined ourselves, not me,
Suze: by the way, that we imagined ourselves being powerless and
Suze: penniless and living on the streets.
Suze: And the only way that could ever happen.
Suze: It is if you're powerless cause remember you and your
Suze: money are one and when you are powerless you tend
Suze: to make mistakes with your money but when you're powerful
Suze: you always tend to do the right thing and I
Suze: just have to be honest, you know, cause it's starting
Suze: to get to me, for I can teach you what
Suze: to invest in, but I have to tell you, everybody,
Suze: that's just not enough.
Suze: But I also need to teach you about fear because
Suze: you can have money and still not have peace, and that,
Suze: my dear friends is not the way to live life. Remember,
Suze: as I just said a second ago you and your
Suze: money are one. So if you fear your money, you
Suze: in essence are fearing yourself.
Suze: So, here is what I need you to get once again,
Suze: and I have told you this before, but since this
Suze: is Suze School, how about if we take out our
Suze: Suze notebooks and we write this down.
Suze: Money doesn't erase fear. Do you remember me telling you this?
Suze: Courage does.
Suze: Courage, one of the eight qualities of a wealthy woman.
Suze: Actually, the third quality, just so you know, courage is
Suze: what shows up when you finally stop running from your
Suze: finances and start standing in your power, when you stop
Suze: running from self-doubt.
Suze: My second book that I ever wrote was The 9
Suze: Steps to Financial Freedom, and truthfully, in my opinion, the
Suze: best book I ever wrote.
Suze: And I would always say, if you can just take
Suze: one step towards your money, which means taking one step
Suze: towards yourself, since you and your money are one.
Suze: You and your money will take 9 steps back towards you.
Suze: But you know, the truth is I've seen it over
Suze: and over again.
Suze: Women who are brilliant.
Suze: Women who are responsible, hardworking.
Suze: Yet for some reason they carry this quiet anxiety about money.
Suze: And a lot of the women that I've been writing
Suze: back and forth with, not like they're only making 10,000
Suze: a year, they're making 100,000 a year, 150,000, one's making 350,000,
Suze: and she's still scared to death.
Suze: So what do they do?
Suze: They check their accounts constantly. They second guess every decision.
Suze: They feel guilty for spending and worried about not saving enough.
Suze: And here's the truth, the fear isn't about numbers. It's
Suze: about trust.
Suze: Trusting yourself, trusting that you know what's right for you,
Suze: trusting that you can handle everything and whatever comes next.
Suze: And when you build everybody that kind of trust with yourself,
Suze: that's when your relationship with money and who you are transforms,
Suze: because fear can't survive where confidence lives. You know, I
Suze: just want to say this a little, and then I'll
Suze: go on with this.
Suze: I have a sister-in-law, KT's twin sister, and Lynn, I
Suze: know you're going to hear this, and I'm so proud
Suze: of her.
Suze: And I may have told you this again a little
Suze: bit ago because I never know what I say or
Suze: I don't cause I just kind of speak in the
Suze: microphone and I never remember what I've said after I
Suze: said it, so excuse me if I already told you this,
Suze: but I'm so proud of her and her husband Tom,
Suze: by the way, and Lynn is starting to really learn
Suze: about stocks and feeling confident enough about deciding what stocks
Suze: she wants to buy with their money.
Suze: I love that. I love that. I love that.
Suze: But here's the truth. What I find fascinating is that,
Suze: do you know that women today, women, women control nearly
Suze: a third of all the wealth in this country? Can you
Suze: just imagine that? And that number is growing every single year.
Suze: But still, most women say they don't feel confident making
Suze: financial decisions, really, everybody.
Suze: Really.
Suze: But, you know what's so funny, when women do invest,
Suze: studies show that they all outperform men, because women are steady,
Suze: they're thoughtful, and they think long term.
Suze: So maybe we need to stop calling this and where
Suze: everybody says, Suze, I want to be risk averse. Please,
Suze: I don't want to invest my money. I want to
Suze: be risk averse.
Suze: And I keep telling them that's not what you want
Suze: to be. You want to be what I call risk aware.
Suze: Write it down. Where you are aware of the risk
Suze: that you are taking. Is it a big risk? Is
Suze: it a small risk? It is a risk to do
Suze: absolutely nothing. I want you to be risk aware, and
Suze: that's exactly what will build wealth that lasts you forever.
Suze: Awareness, preparation, and courage, that's the real power trio, everybody.
Suze: Those are the three things I want you to be now.
Suze: I want you to be aware. I want you to prepare,
Suze: and I want you to have courage.
Suze: But let's be honest, and let me go back a
Suze: second here.
Suze: Because fear has been following women and money for generations,
Suze: which is why I wrote the book Women and Money,
Suze: maybe the second greatest book I ever wrote.
Suze: 'Cause, you know, women, it's true, and if you think
Suze: that we're not socialized to think this, you are wrong,
Suze: because I know when I'm in a room with people
Suze: and I just freely talk about money, I know, how
Suze: much was that? How much do you make? How much
Suze: did you spend? What's your real estate commission, all of that,
Suze: they look at me like I am nuts, and that's
Suze: because women.
Suze: We were taught that talking about money was impolite, that
Suze: asking questions made us difficult, that wanting independence made us selfish.
Suze: But I got news for you, everybody. Starting with this podcast,
Suze: those days are over. Financial fear is not your inheritance,
Suze: do you hear me? It's a habit, and habits can
Suze: be broken.
Suze: And the way you break it is with knowledge. You
Suze: learn to plan. You take small actions, and before you
Suze: know it, you have built confidence. And when confidence shows up,
Suze: I'm here to tell you, everybody, fear packs up and leaves.
Suze: So, here's your courage challenge for the week, and I
Suze: may have given this to you before.
Suze: But if I have, you need to still do it.
Suze: Step one, I want you to name the fear. What
Suze: are you afraid of? And I want you to write
Suze: it down, and I don't want you to sugarcoat it.
Suze: Then, I want you to just face the facts. I
Suze: want you to look at your numbers. You can't change
Suze: what you won't confront. And the reason that I want
Suze: you to do that is, given the women that I've
Suze: been doing plans with who have written me that touched
Suze: my heart, so I answered them personally, once they saw
Suze: the numbers really.
Suze: They weren't afraid any more. They weren't afraid cause they
Suze: saw the truth, the truth that they weren't willing to
Suze: look at.
Suze: And step three, can you just make one small move,
Suze: just one.
Suze: Whether it's increase your automatic savings, or maybe you're adjusting
Suze: your investment allocation up to you.
Suze: Or maybe you're asking one financial question you've been afraid
Suze: to ask.
Suze: But just take one small move and step four, rinse
Suze: and repeat.
Suze: Because courage isn't built in a moment, it's not. It's
Suze: built in motion.
Suze: And here again is what I want you to remember
Suze: from this podcast. Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's
Suze: the decision to move forward despite it. Did you hear me?
Suze: Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's the decision to
Suze: move forward despite it.
Suze: Remember, you don't need permission to be powerful cause you
Suze: already are. You know, I've said this before that in China,
Suze: they say women hold up half the sky.
Suze: And I've always said, but in the United States of America,
Suze: women hold up the entire sky. I believe from the
Suze: bottom of my heart that you have more power in
Suze: your little finger women than everybody else, and I'll let
Suze: you decide who that is, have in both of their hands.
Suze: So don't wait for the right time. I don't want
Suze: you to wait for the right market. I don't want
Suze: you to wait for someone to come and rescue you.
Suze: You've got the money now. It's time to get the courage.
Suze: All right, there's only one thing that I want you
Suze: to remember when it comes to your money, and it
Suze: is this people first, then money, then things. Now you
Suze: stay safe. Bye-bye.