February 15, 2024 • 34 mins
For this episode of Ask KT and Suze Anything, Suze answers questions about feeling secure in financial decisions, homes in trusts, leasing a car and so much more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Suze (00:45):
February 15th, 2024. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast.
As well as everybody smart enough to listen. This is
the Ask KT and Suze Anything podcast.
KT (01:00):
Suze, how are you doing? Are you ok?
Suze (01:03):
What do you mean KT?
Oh, yeah, I'm actually not
KT (01:07):
She's sad. We're all sad, everybody. America's sad again.
Suze (01:12):
It's so, so she's asking that because...
KT (01:16):
We had a whole, we were so excited for today's podcast
and sadly, what happened yesterday on Valentine's Day while we're
celebrating madly in love. So excited from Sunday's Super Bowl
to Valentine's Day to talking to all of you this morning.
And it's like, what? Again?
Suze (01:37):
So what, what KT is talking about is that obviously,
you know, by now there was a mass shooting at
the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration.
And for me, I was actually watching it on my
little iPhone
because there weren't any major channels on TV that were
(01:58):
covering the parade and everything. So I went, I know
I'm gonna watch it on a Kansas City channel, right?
And so I did and I was watching it and
I was watching Mahomes walk down and say hi to
everybody got off the bus and everybody was so happy
to see him and he went from one side to
the other. And then you saw Chris Jones talking to
(02:21):
people and there were all these reporters
that were talking to all the players that were walking
down the street, then they all took their position on
the platform and it was so great, so great, so joyous.
They were so happy, so happy
and then you could sense something had happened. You didn't
(02:42):
know what it was. All the reporters that had been
interviewing the players as they were walking down the streets
were saying, wait, something has happened. We don't know what's happened.
All the police are running somewhere because you couldn't really
hear the gunshots. They kind of, they kind of sounded
like firecrackers. It was way in, it was in the
distance and then all of a sudden you knew something
(03:05):
had happened and it was at the very end of
it
and everybody leaves and everything and then the announcement comes
out that there was a mass shooting
And what it reminds me of KT which is also
why I'm sad is it isn't just that that happened.
(03:27):
It's that a few minutes before that happened, you had
maybe up to a million people that were celebrating that
were so happy that they were there with their young kids.
They had the day off of school. Everything was as
perfect it could possibly be.
And then many, many people now
(03:48):
are injured
and you know, whatever it may end up being. And
so that makes me think about life
and how instantaneously life can change in a second because
of somebody else's actions. And then that brings me back to,
(04:10):
do you all have a will? Do you have a trust?
Have you taken all of that really seriously?
And I don't know really what it would take to
get you all to take it seriously when you see
the things that happened that day and that day wasn't
just the shooting. KT was it at, at Kansas City?
(04:33):
It was also also...
KT (04:35):
February 14th Valentine's Day. It's the anniversary of the Marjorie
Stoneman Douglas High school here in Florida where...
Suze (04:42):
17 kids were killed six years ago, a few days ago.
You know, there was, there was a shooting at Joel
Olsteen's church and, and we can go on and on
and on.
KT (04:57):
We need to just get rid of the guns.
Suze (04:59):
So the real question is,
isn't it time everybody, isn't it really time
that the gun laws have changed?
And it's really important that every single one of us,
whether you're listening to this now, whether it's me, KT Mahomes, Kelsey,
(05:23):
every single one of us needs to start to get
behind
the laws that change gun laws forever so that these
mass shootings stop and it's just that simple. So, I
am sad and the truth is all of us should
(05:45):
be sad, but from sadness, hopefully change, true change
will happen not only with the gun laws but in
your own lives to make sure that you have the
paperwork in place today to protect your tomorrow's. KT, are you ready?
KT (06:05):
I'm ready, Suze.
Suze (06:06):
Let's get on with it. Ask me
your first question, girlfriend.
KT (06:11):
So, Suz e, I picked this one from Joseph to start
with because he needs a little TLC in, in my opinion.
Suze (06:18):
Why did I give him a
KT (06:18):
slap down? No, but listen to this, it's really short
everybody but I, I just felt like he needs a hug.
Hi, Suze. Why do I not feel empowered with my money?
I'm 39 years old. I have $122,000 in assets including
a nine month emergency fund. I have no credit card debt.
(06:42):
I own my car outright. I own a condo and
I put a down payment on it of $40,000 in 2021.
But my issue is I'm scared of taking risks.
So, do you have any tips? He's asking if you
have tips? Why do you think he's so, you know,
(07:02):
down and out about his money?
Suze (07:04):
We usually are afraid to take risks with our money
because we know how much money means to us, we've
worked hard for it. We're willing to invest it. We're
willing to buy a home. We're willing to do that,
which we know about when it comes to money. When
(07:27):
it's simple, we know to save it, we know to
do those things and we don't get afraid to do
those things. Even
like in our 401k plan, we're saving it, but we
are investing it in mutual funds and that's what everybody
else does. So there's not a lot of fear in that.
But when we come out of that wheelhouse, the wheelhouse
(07:48):
of buying a home, the wheelhouse of investing in a
retirement account at work and we have to invest our
money on our own.
We feel like that's too risky.
Like we're not part of a big group. We're just
doing it all on our own and what type of
an account should we have? And if we do open
(08:10):
a Roth IRA, what should we invest it in? And
there's just so many things
and really the truth about it, everybody is that when
you don't know what to do, you get afraid and
when you get afraid you just don't do it.
And so if you like to save, if you like
(08:31):
to play it safe, I totally get Joseph, why you
would be afraid to take a risk because everything else
financially has worked so well for you. You see it growing,
but yet you just can't take that one last step
of just going for it because you're afraid you may lose.
(08:53):
So, here's what I suggest to everybody that feels like that.
And Joseph, you are not alone here.
It's the same way when I was younger and I
would go to the beach in Chicago and go into
Lake Michigan, which was always freezing. You first go up
to your ankles and then you go up to your
knees and then you go to your thighs and before
(09:15):
you know what you're in and you're used to it.
The same is true with investing when you're not exactly
sure what to invest in.
Let's say you have $10,000 to invest, you don't have
to invest all 10,000 at once. Pick an amount of money,
(09:36):
whether it's $1000 100 dollars, $50 it doesn't matter anymore.
Given the fact that you can now buy slices of
stocks at discount brokerage firm. So if a stock is
$1000 a share, you can buy $10 worth of it.
So maybe pick five different stocks by $10 each in
(09:59):
each one.
And just see how that feels. See if it grows,
see if it all of a sudden goes down, see
how you feel. If it goes down and all of
a sudden you'll find, oh, they're going up,
I'm making good money. Oh, maybe I need to put
a little bit more in
(10:20):
and then if they are good picks and everything it
goes right. You'll get used to it. You'll get used
to the ups and the downs. Just like what happened
this week when the market went down on Tuesday. Then
essentially it kind of came back on Wednesday. It didn't
roar back, but it absolutely kind of came back. So
that all of a sudden then you're like, oh,
(10:42):
it goes down and then it comes up and you
get used to the waves of the financial ocean and
then you happen to feel comfortable in it, the more
you learn about it, the more you listen to this podcast,
the more that you watch shows like CNBC and you
(11:02):
just get used to the verbiage and how it works.
You're gonna find sooner than later. You're not gonna be
afraid to take a risk. It's really just that simple.
I just have to remind everybody again and again and again,
I was still a waitress till the age of 30
(11:24):
making $400 a month and look at me now,
nobody taught me about money. You know, I didn't inherit money.
Money wasn't supposed to be part of this equation.
But I learned the language of wealth
and the language of wealth
(11:44):
is the language of you have what it takes to learn,
you have, what it takes to own the power to
control your destiny. You can learn everything that you need
to know about
investing your money,
learning about the stock market, how it works, how you
(12:05):
take the risk out of it by dollar cost, averaging,
just learn the language of wealth
and then you'll also learn the language of self.
KT (12:16):
Wow, Suze!
Suze (12:19):
Did I just impress you?
KT (12:20):
You did. That has got to go in my book of
Suzeisms because that was a great one.
Suze (12:26):
So that's a ding, ding, ding for me right KT. Next question.
KT (12:31):
So this next one is from Lynn.
And she said, dear...
Suze (12:34):
You picked it because that's your sister.
KT (12:36):
No, because of this, I picked it
and Suze. I'm looking forward to another year of listening
to you two. I have recently updated my husband's and
my living revocable trust. Although I'm unsure of how to
proceeded about a house we just bought in October.
(12:57):
We have just started this 30 year mortgage and need
to ask, should this house be listed on the trust
now for my daughter who is only two years old
to eventually inherit be the beneficiary of or should this
house be paid off first then be
listed on the trust to the benefit of my daughter.
(13:20):
Two years old, Suze. Tell Lynn how to do it.
Suze (13:23):
Yeah, this two year old would be able to invest
this money and know what to do with this house
and be able to make decisions about it. Should she
pay it off sooner than later? My dear Lynn, what
you need to understand is one of the main reasons
that you created a living, revocable trust
is for the benefit of your daughter. If something happened
(13:44):
to you and your husband, why? Because minors cannot inherit money.
Think about it. You could leave your daughter all the
money in the world,
but she's two years old, she doesn't even know what
to do with a pacifier unless you tell her what
to do with it. So what really has to happen
(14:05):
here is you do absolutely need to put this house
in trust because you absolutely want to bypass probate. But
you also need to obviously set up a guardian,
a guardian for your daughter as to who's going to
take care of her. If both you and your husband
(14:26):
are killed, for instance, in a car crash.
So you have to think like that, KT and I
always think about all right, we're on an airplane, we
both go down together. Who gets what? Who does, what,
how does it work? You just have to think that way,
especially if you have a minor child. So the first
(14:47):
question is who is going to be the guardian? Because
if you do not appoint a guardian and a guardian
is actually appointed via your will,
then probate court will absolutely appoint a guardian for you.
It will be called probate guardianship. You don't want that,
you want somebody who really cares about your daughter and
(15:10):
takes care of her within the trust. It would probably
be the same person
as to who you want to be successor trustee, which
means who succeeds you. If both you and your husband
were to die and it's in there that you would
(15:30):
actually leave directions as to how you want that money
invested when the daughter is to get that money and
all of those things. So, no, do not wait, do
it now.
KT (15:44):
Good. Now, next question is from Erin
Taking your advice. I've been dollar cost averaging a monthly
amount into my 2023 Roth. I have cash available for
a full 2024 payment and I'm considering making a lump
sum payment into one of the magnificent seven stocks since
(16:05):
they've been doing so well.
Why do you go "Huh?"
Suze (16:08):
I'll you in a second.
KT (16:10):
I have a few of these seven tech stocks already
and I'm weighing in whether waiting to do a monthly
payment is better or to contribute the entire 8000 now
that they continue to climb. Suze, don't you want to
ask me if I remember what the Magnificent seven stocks are?
Suze (16:29):
I guess you want me to everybody. The mere fact
that she wants me to ask her something means she
wants to hear a ding, ding, ding because she already
knows the answer. So let me play along with you, KT. KT,
do you want this to be your quizzy? Do you
happen to? Yeah, you do, KT, what are the seven magnificent stocks?
KT (16:55):
Ready? Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Microsoft Amazon? Meta and alphabet.
Suze (17:02):
She's doing this on her fingers. Everybody. And how do you
happen to remember that?
KT (17:06):
Because when we first learned about them, you told me
I can give you a clue of how to remember.
Ant Mama.
Aunt spelled a nt. Not a UN T aunt mama
because you..
Suze (17:19):
Are you
ready? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
KT (17:24):
Now, you better answer this question.
Suze (17:27):
All right, Erin, the reason I keep sighing as KT
was reading that question is that I want all of
you and I'm gonna respond to all of you here
as if you all ask this question because I'm sure
you all thought it at one time or another.
What would have happened if on Monday of this week,
(17:49):
just a few days ago, you had decided to go
in 100% into one or two or three or all
of the magnificent seven.
Monday was an OK day. Everything was great on Monday.
Then go back and look at what happened on Tuesday
and let's say you bought on Monday, you would have
(18:13):
been obliterated on Tuesday.
So you have to know that you don't know that
everything's gonna continue to go straight up or straight down.
You have no idea what's really gonna happen because this
is the stock market made up of people and people
are unpredictable. Therefore,
(18:35):
you have to continue to dollar cost average. Now, if
you had been smart and let's say Tuesday had happened.
You would have gone in on Tuesday and dollar cost
averaged into whatever it was that you wanted to buy.
Let's say you had $10,000 that you wanted to invest.
(18:56):
So maybe you would have gone in and invested $2000
on Tuesday. I can tell you on Tuesday in Colo's account,
I absolutely went in and I bought more of the
stocks that I love for him
and I was actually so happy that the market was
down so much on Tuesday because it allowed me to
(19:19):
buy more.
So, regardless of where it went on Wednesday and today,
wherever it goes doesn't matter. I bought more of what
I wanted and if these markets crash, I'll continue to
buy more. If these markets had continued to go up,
I also would have bought a little more of what
I really wanted to own. So you have to dollar
(19:43):
cost average. It's really as simple as that.
KT (19:49):
Next question is from Elba. Dear Suze.
Suze (19:54):
I like you just picked one with just my name.
KT (19:58):
Yes, it's
Suze (19:59):
Oh, you're so sweet.
KT (20:02):
It says dear Suze. I love your app's Dos and
don't cards. Tell people what that is on the app.
Suze (20:09):
I wonder they might even still be on the women
and money community app or maybe I took them off.
But with one of my programs, I had the dos
and don't of money when it came to buying a home,
buying a car, retirement plans, investing
things like that because I found out that a long
time ago that was more important to tell you what
(20:30):
not to do than to tell you what to do.
And as long as you didn't do certain things, you
wouldn't make mistakes with your money and you'd be ok.
KT (20:39):
All right. And this one has to do with cars.
I wonder if you might consider, Suze, an exception on
the no lease rule.
Well, wait a minute, listen to this, listen to the full, wait,
listen to it. I have my financial house in exceptional
order to carry me through age 99. Thanks to listening
(21:01):
to you for decades. And I can afford a very
expensive car, but it's an electric car. Therefore, Suze, I
wanna lease for three years and then buy one
by which time it will likely come down in price
and increase in technology quality. I believe I will lose
(21:23):
less by leasing since I can afford it. Is it
ok to lease in this case?
There you go. And then she says she answers . You
are amazing.
Suze (21:34):
And she's trying to butter me up.
KT (21:36):
What do you think about that? I mean, it kind
of makes sense, right? Can you bend the rules?
Suze (21:43):
Sure. With somebody who has money that will last till
99
KT (21:46):
She's in great financial shape.
Suze (21:49):
Thing I just want to say when it comes to,
especially a woman today.
And especially maybe if the woman happens to be older,
there's something about having a brand new car that makes
them feel secure. KT, they don't want to break down
on the highway, they want to make sure that they
(22:09):
have the latest safety mechanisms and sometimes purchasing a car
for just three years and then trading it in
isn't worth it either. The concept being, especially if you
don't have a lot of money, buy a car, finance
it for 34 years at most now and then keep
(22:32):
it for 10 or 12 years. So you don't have
any more payments. But if you are somebody who feels
safer
and they want a new car every three years, you
are a woman and you are older and you want
that security and you have more than enough money to
last you till your dying days. Most likely. But then
(22:56):
you never know when you might live past 99 and
it makes you feel secure, which is the goal of
money to lease a car.
Oh my God, you are AAAAA-prooved!
KT (23:10):
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Suze (23:12):
There are exceptions to the rule but not many, but
that's only because you have more money than you need. Ok.
KT (23:23):
Ok. Next is from Rose. I love that name. I
always liked that name.
Suze (23:30):
Rose is a rose... Is a rose. How did that go?
KT (23:32):
No, here's why I like the name Rose.
Wasn't that the name of her in the Titanic?
Suze (23:40):
Oh that I don't remember KT.
KT (23:42):
I like the name Rose. So, hello, Suze and KT
I am a 55 year old, single female. I work
hard and I do it all on my own.
I currently contribute 10% of my income to my 401k
Roth with a 6% match from my employer. I used
to contribute 12% but just lowered my contribution in 2024
(24:08):
to help pay off credit card debt. I currently have
about $7000 in credit card debt for which I pay
an average of 18%.
Is it a good idea to borrow from my employers
401k to pay off all or some of my credit card debt?
Suze (24:29):
Now, KT was a lot like last week's question. But
you know, the main difference, the main difference was last week,
the person wanted
to pay off their credit card debt for money outside
of a retirement account. But in the investments, should they
sell the investments? They have. This one wants to take
money out of her 401k to pay off $7000 of debt. Now,
(24:53):
you heard how I answered it last week. Here's the
next pop quizzy. What would you tell this person? Yes
or no?
KT (25:01):
No.
Suze (25:02):
Why?
KT (25:03):
If she has a good FICO score,
she should look into consolidating this credit card debt and
Suze (25:09):
Doing a balance transfer. And by else not?
KT (25:12):
You don't want to mess up your employer's 401k. You're Roth.
It's a Roth. You have to pay taxes,
Suze (25:19):
Not necessarily but pretty good KT! I'll give you a ding ding ding! So here's the thing
you need to understand.
It is probable that we're really at this point in time,
in a great, great economy and all indications are that
(25:41):
the market could absolutely continue up. So I don't want
you to borrow from your employer 401k plan because remember
any loan that you take from your employer,
if God forbid you lose your job, you have to
quit or whatever usually is due and payable within that month.
(26:02):
Now you have a Roth retirement account. So it really
wouldn't be that bad. But I don't want you to
take money out of a Roth retirement account right now.
Given what is very possible to happen in the markets
over the next year
now, maybe we're wrong and maybe it will go down.
(26:23):
So with only about $7000 of credit card debt, I
would much rather see you do a balance transfer at
a 0% interest rate again if you have a good
FICO score or contact NFCC.org N like in Nancy, F
(26:43):
like in Francine, C like in Crazy, C
like in cool.org and talk to them about possibly consolidating
all of your credit card debt to a 0% interest rate.
Pay them, they pay it off and there you go.
But no, it's not a good idea to ever take
(27:05):
money out of any retirement account to pay off. An
unsecured debt. Got that. Ok.
KT (27:13):
I picked the next one, Suze because this, this is
from Rachel, Rachel, I think may be the perfect match
for Joe, which is our first question of today's podcast.
Suze (27:24):
Now, you're being a matchmaker?
KT (27:25):
Yes, I am. You ready everybody? You tell me if I'm
good with this one.
Hi, Suze. I just finished my Excel spreadsheet that I
used to document my spendings and savings overall. I saved 42%
of my A G I
Suze (27:41):
Adjusted gross income.
KT (27:42):
Right. My problem is though, why doesn't it feel like
I'm doing enough?
Suze (27:47):
So, so you mean a good emotional match with the
same problem because we don't know anybody's sexuality here? Ok.
Go on KT
KT (27:54):
Ready?
My income is hourly and dependent on the number of hours.
I work at the hospital. My goal has always been
to be paid for an 80 hour pay period, but
it isn't always possible largely due to burn out.
I fear I'm developing an unhealthy relationship or view with
(28:14):
my money or feel limited by it. And I don't
like that feeling. I want to be happy knowing I'm
doing what I know and the best that I can
without sacrificing the fun of being young
because getting old isn't always a guarantee.
Suze (28:32):
Because she's a nurse and she sees... how old is she?
KT (28:35):
She's 27. Joe was 39. I thought maybe they could
talk to each other, Seriosuly.
Suze (28:41):
You know, it's not a bad idea, KT. That somewhere
we start a group,
KT (28:47):
Like group therapy.
He has financial fears like him. But what would you tell Rachel?
Suze (28:55):
Well, there is a course, you know, that I have
KT which is overcoming your fears and because fears, my
dear Rachel about money, I'm going to tell you exactly
the same thing I kind of said to Joe, which
is if you feel like you have an unhealthy relationship
with your money
(29:16):
and money is simply a physical manifestation of who you are.
What that says to me is that you have an
unhealthy relationship with yourself. You know, I can relate to
this because if you remember my story growing up, that
the reason I thought my parents were so unhappy is
(29:40):
because they didn't really have any money.
And I really grew up believing, oh, if I just
had money, I would be happy, I would feel great.
Everything would be good. And then 1980 I'm hired by
Merrill Lynch. And before you know it, I'm making $120 - 13000
a year and I'm still miserable.
(30:02):
So then the question was, well, if money isn't the
key to happiness, what is? And that's when I started
on this journey of having to look within to see
why I am doing without happiness, even though I have money.
So just maybe if you have what it takes to
save 42% of your adjusted gross income,
(30:25):
and you still feel that you have an unhealthy relationship
with your money.
I want you to write down the things that you
don't like about yourself, forget about money that you don't
like about yourself.
Do you not like the fact that you're afraid to
go out to eat once a week? Are you afraid
(30:45):
to go on a vacation? What are you afraid about?
And what don't you like about yourself? Then what I
want you to do is just pick one of those things,
one of them and I want you to do it.
I want you to try it. I want you to
see how that feels
(31:06):
and we can then go from there. You know, you
might wanna take a look into my book, The Nine
Steps To Financial Freedom and about Money Memories. Or again,
the course that I just talked about that pretty much
is on the women and Money app on the Suze
shop there and go through those exercises
(31:31):
and I can promise you you will uncover that the
problem isn't with money
isn't about the fear of money isn't about not getting
appreciation about money.
It starts with not having appreciation of how really incredible
(31:53):
you are.
Well, those were two interesting ones that you pick and
to begin, those were like book ends. And, you know,
we also talked about Philomena and her two boys, right?
But as being a nurse and how she really wanted
to help financially all these other nurses.
(32:14):
And then here we have Rachel who's also a nurse
and who wants to work, work, work. So she can
make more money. Or does she really want to work, work,
work to help more people? Who knows? Right. But it's
interesting that when you do work as a nurse and
you see reality, the hard core reality of life every
(32:38):
single day and how fragile it is,
it sometimes shapes you with what you do and you
don't do.
KT (32:45):
She's 27 years old. She gets burned out.
Suze (32:48):
Of course she does, right. But it's just to all of the
nurses out there, we love you,
we need you, we need you both KT and I
can tell you we appreciate you more than you have
any idea. Any idea. You've been my life savers many
times too. And yeah, you did have to save KT
(33:10):
as well for me. Right. Just keep doing your work.
Keep loving who you are.
And I have no doubt that one day you'll always
have more than you need financially to take care of yourself. So,
until Sunday for another Suze School, there's only one thing
that we want you to remember when it comes to
(33:31):
your money.
And that is people first and again, that is on
some level. Exactly what this podcast was about today. Self worth,
self worth, self worth. Then what happens KT?
KT (33:45):
Then money.
Suze (33:47):
Then what happens? Then you have what it takes to
buy things and all right. So until then you remain unstoppable.
February 15th, 2024. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast.
As well as everybody smart enough to listen. This is
the Ask KT and Suze Anything podcast.
KT (01:00):
Suze, how are you doing? Are you ok?
Suze (01:03):
What do you mean KT?
Oh, yeah, I'm actually not
KT (01:07):
She's sad. We're all sad, everybody. America's sad again.
Suze (01:12):
It's so, so she's asking that because...
KT (01:16):
We had a whole, we were so excited for today's podcast
and sadly, what happened yesterday on Valentine's Day while we're
celebrating madly in love. So excited from Sunday's Super Bowl
to Valentine's Day to talking to all of you this morning.
And it's like, what? Again?
Suze (01:37):
So what, what KT is talking about is that obviously,
you know, by now there was a mass shooting at
the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration.
And for me, I was actually watching it on my
little iPhone
because there weren't any major channels on TV that were
(01:58):
covering the parade and everything. So I went, I know
I'm gonna watch it on a Kansas City channel, right?
And so I did and I was watching it and
I was watching Mahomes walk down and say hi to
everybody got off the bus and everybody was so happy
to see him and he went from one side to
the other. And then you saw Chris Jones talking to
(02:21):
people and there were all these reporters
that were talking to all the players that were walking
down the street, then they all took their position on
the platform and it was so great, so great, so joyous.
They were so happy, so happy
and then you could sense something had happened. You didn't
(02:42):
know what it was. All the reporters that had been
interviewing the players as they were walking down the streets
were saying, wait, something has happened. We don't know what's happened.
All the police are running somewhere because you couldn't really
hear the gunshots. They kind of, they kind of sounded
like firecrackers. It was way in, it was in the
distance and then all of a sudden you knew something
(03:05):
had happened and it was at the very end of
it
and everybody leaves and everything and then the announcement comes
out that there was a mass shooting
And what it reminds me of KT which is also
why I'm sad is it isn't just that that happened.
(03:27):
It's that a few minutes before that happened, you had
maybe up to a million people that were celebrating that
were so happy that they were there with their young kids.
They had the day off of school. Everything was as
perfect it could possibly be.
And then many, many people now
(03:48):
are injured
and you know, whatever it may end up being. And
so that makes me think about life
and how instantaneously life can change in a second because
of somebody else's actions. And then that brings me back to,
(04:10):
do you all have a will? Do you have a trust?
Have you taken all of that really seriously?
And I don't know really what it would take to
get you all to take it seriously when you see
the things that happened that day and that day wasn't
just the shooting. KT was it at, at Kansas City?
(04:33):
It was also also...
KT (04:35):
February 14th Valentine's Day. It's the anniversary of the Marjorie
Stoneman Douglas High school here in Florida where...
Suze (04:42):
17 kids were killed six years ago, a few days ago.
You know, there was, there was a shooting at Joel
Olsteen's church and, and we can go on and on
and on.
KT (04:57):
We need to just get rid of the guns.
Suze (04:59):
So the real question is,
isn't it time everybody, isn't it really time
that the gun laws have changed?
And it's really important that every single one of us,
whether you're listening to this now, whether it's me, KT Mahomes, Kelsey,
(05:23):
every single one of us needs to start to get
behind
the laws that change gun laws forever so that these
mass shootings stop and it's just that simple. So, I
am sad and the truth is all of us should
(05:45):
be sad, but from sadness, hopefully change, true change
will happen not only with the gun laws but in
your own lives to make sure that you have the
paperwork in place today to protect your tomorrow's. KT, are you ready?
KT (06:05):
I'm ready, Suze.
Suze (06:06):
Let's get on with it. Ask me
your first question, girlfriend.
KT (06:11):
So, Suz e, I picked this one from Joseph to start
with because he needs a little TLC in, in my opinion.
Suze (06:18):
Why did I give him a
KT (06:18):
slap down? No, but listen to this, it's really short
everybody but I, I just felt like he needs a hug.
Hi, Suze. Why do I not feel empowered with my money?
I'm 39 years old. I have $122,000 in assets including
a nine month emergency fund. I have no credit card debt.
(06:42):
I own my car outright. I own a condo and
I put a down payment on it of $40,000 in 2021.
But my issue is I'm scared of taking risks.
So, do you have any tips? He's asking if you
have tips? Why do you think he's so, you know,
(07:02):
down and out about his money?
Suze (07:04):
We usually are afraid to take risks with our money
because we know how much money means to us, we've
worked hard for it. We're willing to invest it. We're
willing to buy a home. We're willing to do that,
which we know about when it comes to money. When
(07:27):
it's simple, we know to save it, we know to
do those things and we don't get afraid to do
those things. Even
like in our 401k plan, we're saving it, but we
are investing it in mutual funds and that's what everybody
else does. So there's not a lot of fear in that.
But when we come out of that wheelhouse, the wheelhouse
(07:48):
of buying a home, the wheelhouse of investing in a
retirement account at work and we have to invest our
money on our own.
We feel like that's too risky.
Like we're not part of a big group. We're just
doing it all on our own and what type of
an account should we have? And if we do open
(08:10):
a Roth IRA, what should we invest it in? And
there's just so many things
and really the truth about it, everybody is that when
you don't know what to do, you get afraid and
when you get afraid you just don't do it.
And so if you like to save, if you like
(08:31):
to play it safe, I totally get Joseph, why you
would be afraid to take a risk because everything else
financially has worked so well for you. You see it growing,
but yet you just can't take that one last step
of just going for it because you're afraid you may lose.
(08:53):
So, here's what I suggest to everybody that feels like that.
And Joseph, you are not alone here.
It's the same way when I was younger and I
would go to the beach in Chicago and go into
Lake Michigan, which was always freezing. You first go up
to your ankles and then you go up to your
knees and then you go to your thighs and before
(09:15):
you know what you're in and you're used to it.
The same is true with investing when you're not exactly
sure what to invest in.
Let's say you have $10,000 to invest, you don't have
to invest all 10,000 at once. Pick an amount of money,
(09:36):
whether it's $1000 100 dollars, $50 it doesn't matter anymore.
Given the fact that you can now buy slices of
stocks at discount brokerage firm. So if a stock is
$1000 a share, you can buy $10 worth of it.
So maybe pick five different stocks by $10 each in
(09:59):
each one.
And just see how that feels. See if it grows,
see if it all of a sudden goes down, see
how you feel. If it goes down and all of
a sudden you'll find, oh, they're going up,
I'm making good money. Oh, maybe I need to put
a little bit more in
(10:20):
and then if they are good picks and everything it
goes right. You'll get used to it. You'll get used
to the ups and the downs. Just like what happened
this week when the market went down on Tuesday. Then
essentially it kind of came back on Wednesday. It didn't
roar back, but it absolutely kind of came back. So
that all of a sudden then you're like, oh,
(10:42):
it goes down and then it comes up and you
get used to the waves of the financial ocean and
then you happen to feel comfortable in it, the more
you learn about it, the more you listen to this podcast,
the more that you watch shows like CNBC and you
(11:02):
just get used to the verbiage and how it works.
You're gonna find sooner than later. You're not gonna be
afraid to take a risk. It's really just that simple.
I just have to remind everybody again and again and again,
I was still a waitress till the age of 30
(11:24):
making $400 a month and look at me now,
nobody taught me about money. You know, I didn't inherit money.
Money wasn't supposed to be part of this equation.
But I learned the language of wealth
and the language of wealth
(11:44):
is the language of you have what it takes to learn,
you have, what it takes to own the power to
control your destiny. You can learn everything that you need
to know about
investing your money,
learning about the stock market, how it works, how you
(12:05):
take the risk out of it by dollar cost, averaging,
just learn the language of wealth
and then you'll also learn the language of self.
KT (12:16):
Wow, Suze!
Suze (12:19):
Did I just impress you?
KT (12:20):
You did. That has got to go in my book of
Suzeisms because that was a great one.
Suze (12:26):
So that's a ding, ding, ding for me right KT. Next question.
KT (12:31):
So this next one is from Lynn.
And she said, dear...
Suze (12:34):
You picked it because that's your sister.
KT (12:36):
No, because of this, I picked it
and Suze. I'm looking forward to another year of listening
to you two. I have recently updated my husband's and
my living revocable trust. Although I'm unsure of how to
proceeded about a house we just bought in October.
(12:57):
We have just started this 30 year mortgage and need
to ask, should this house be listed on the trust
now for my daughter who is only two years old
to eventually inherit be the beneficiary of or should this
house be paid off first then be
listed on the trust to the benefit of my daughter.
(13:20):
Two years old, Suze. Tell Lynn how to do it.
Suze (13:23):
Yeah, this two year old would be able to invest
this money and know what to do with this house
and be able to make decisions about it. Should she
pay it off sooner than later? My dear Lynn, what
you need to understand is one of the main reasons
that you created a living, revocable trust
is for the benefit of your daughter. If something happened
(13:44):
to you and your husband, why? Because minors cannot inherit money.
Think about it. You could leave your daughter all the
money in the world,
but she's two years old, she doesn't even know what
to do with a pacifier unless you tell her what
to do with it. So what really has to happen
(14:05):
here is you do absolutely need to put this house
in trust because you absolutely want to bypass probate. But
you also need to obviously set up a guardian,
a guardian for your daughter as to who's going to
take care of her. If both you and your husband
(14:26):
are killed, for instance, in a car crash.
So you have to think like that, KT and I
always think about all right, we're on an airplane, we
both go down together. Who gets what? Who does, what,
how does it work? You just have to think that way,
especially if you have a minor child. So the first
(14:47):
question is who is going to be the guardian? Because
if you do not appoint a guardian and a guardian
is actually appointed via your will,
then probate court will absolutely appoint a guardian for you.
It will be called probate guardianship. You don't want that,
you want somebody who really cares about your daughter and
(15:10):
takes care of her within the trust. It would probably
be the same person
as to who you want to be successor trustee, which
means who succeeds you. If both you and your husband
were to die and it's in there that you would
(15:30):
actually leave directions as to how you want that money
invested when the daughter is to get that money and
all of those things. So, no, do not wait, do
it now.
KT (15:44):
Good. Now, next question is from Erin
Taking your advice. I've been dollar cost averaging a monthly
amount into my 2023 Roth. I have cash available for
a full 2024 payment and I'm considering making a lump
sum payment into one of the magnificent seven stocks since
(16:05):
they've been doing so well.
Why do you go "Huh?"
Suze (16:08):
I'll you in a second.
KT (16:10):
I have a few of these seven tech stocks already
and I'm weighing in whether waiting to do a monthly
payment is better or to contribute the entire 8000 now
that they continue to climb. Suze, don't you want to
ask me if I remember what the Magnificent seven stocks are?
Suze (16:29):
I guess you want me to everybody. The mere fact
that she wants me to ask her something means she
wants to hear a ding, ding, ding because she already
knows the answer. So let me play along with you, KT. KT,
do you want this to be your quizzy? Do you
happen to? Yeah, you do, KT, what are the seven magnificent stocks?
KT (16:55):
Ready? Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla, Microsoft Amazon? Meta and alphabet.
Suze (17:02):
She's doing this on her fingers. Everybody. And how do you
happen to remember that?
KT (17:06):
Because when we first learned about them, you told me
I can give you a clue of how to remember.
Ant Mama.
Aunt spelled a nt. Not a UN T aunt mama
because you..
Suze (17:19):
Are you
ready? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
KT (17:24):
Now, you better answer this question.
Suze (17:27):
All right, Erin, the reason I keep sighing as KT
was reading that question is that I want all of
you and I'm gonna respond to all of you here
as if you all ask this question because I'm sure
you all thought it at one time or another.
What would have happened if on Monday of this week,
(17:49):
just a few days ago, you had decided to go
in 100% into one or two or three or all
of the magnificent seven.
Monday was an OK day. Everything was great on Monday.
Then go back and look at what happened on Tuesday
and let's say you bought on Monday, you would have
(18:13):
been obliterated on Tuesday.
So you have to know that you don't know that
everything's gonna continue to go straight up or straight down.
You have no idea what's really gonna happen because this
is the stock market made up of people and people
are unpredictable. Therefore,
(18:35):
you have to continue to dollar cost average. Now, if
you had been smart and let's say Tuesday had happened.
You would have gone in on Tuesday and dollar cost
averaged into whatever it was that you wanted to buy.
Let's say you had $10,000 that you wanted to invest.
(18:56):
So maybe you would have gone in and invested $2000
on Tuesday. I can tell you on Tuesday in Colo's account,
I absolutely went in and I bought more of the
stocks that I love for him
and I was actually so happy that the market was
down so much on Tuesday because it allowed me to
(19:19):
buy more.
So, regardless of where it went on Wednesday and today,
wherever it goes doesn't matter. I bought more of what
I wanted and if these markets crash, I'll continue to
buy more. If these markets had continued to go up,
I also would have bought a little more of what
I really wanted to own. So you have to dollar
(19:43):
cost average. It's really as simple as that.
KT (19:49):
Next question is from Elba. Dear Suze.
Suze (19:54):
I like you just picked one with just my name.
KT (19:58):
Yes, it's
Suze (19:59):
Oh, you're so sweet.
KT (20:02):
It says dear Suze. I love your app's Dos and
don't cards. Tell people what that is on the app.
Suze (20:09):
I wonder they might even still be on the women
and money community app or maybe I took them off.
But with one of my programs, I had the dos
and don't of money when it came to buying a home,
buying a car, retirement plans, investing
things like that because I found out that a long
time ago that was more important to tell you what
(20:30):
not to do than to tell you what to do.
And as long as you didn't do certain things, you
wouldn't make mistakes with your money and you'd be ok.
KT (20:39):
All right. And this one has to do with cars.
I wonder if you might consider, Suze, an exception on
the no lease rule.
Well, wait a minute, listen to this, listen to the full, wait,
listen to it. I have my financial house in exceptional
order to carry me through age 99. Thanks to listening
(21:01):
to you for decades. And I can afford a very
expensive car, but it's an electric car. Therefore, Suze, I
wanna lease for three years and then buy one
by which time it will likely come down in price
and increase in technology quality. I believe I will lose
(21:23):
less by leasing since I can afford it. Is it
ok to lease in this case?
There you go. And then she says she answers . You
are amazing.
Suze (21:34):
And she's trying to butter me up.
KT (21:36):
What do you think about that? I mean, it kind
of makes sense, right? Can you bend the rules?
Suze (21:43):
Sure. With somebody who has money that will last till
99
KT (21:46):
She's in great financial shape.
Suze (21:49):
Thing I just want to say when it comes to,
especially a woman today.
And especially maybe if the woman happens to be older,
there's something about having a brand new car that makes
them feel secure. KT, they don't want to break down
on the highway, they want to make sure that they
(22:09):
have the latest safety mechanisms and sometimes purchasing a car
for just three years and then trading it in
isn't worth it either. The concept being, especially if you
don't have a lot of money, buy a car, finance
it for 34 years at most now and then keep
(22:32):
it for 10 or 12 years. So you don't have
any more payments. But if you are somebody who feels
safer
and they want a new car every three years, you
are a woman and you are older and you want
that security and you have more than enough money to
last you till your dying days. Most likely. But then
(22:56):
you never know when you might live past 99 and
it makes you feel secure, which is the goal of
money to lease a car.
Oh my God, you are AAAAA-prooved!
KT (23:10):
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Suze (23:12):
There are exceptions to the rule but not many, but
that's only because you have more money than you need. Ok.
KT (23:23):
Ok. Next is from Rose. I love that name. I
always liked that name.
Suze (23:30):
Rose is a rose... Is a rose. How did that go?
KT (23:32):
No, here's why I like the name Rose.
Wasn't that the name of her in the Titanic?
Suze (23:40):
Oh that I don't remember KT.
KT (23:42):
I like the name Rose. So, hello, Suze and KT
I am a 55 year old, single female. I work
hard and I do it all on my own.
I currently contribute 10% of my income to my 401k
Roth with a 6% match from my employer. I used
to contribute 12% but just lowered my contribution in 2024
(24:08):
to help pay off credit card debt. I currently have
about $7000 in credit card debt for which I pay
an average of 18%.
Is it a good idea to borrow from my employers
401k to pay off all or some of my credit card debt?
Suze (24:29):
Now, KT was a lot like last week's question. But
you know, the main difference, the main difference was last week,
the person wanted
to pay off their credit card debt for money outside
of a retirement account. But in the investments, should they
sell the investments? They have. This one wants to take
money out of her 401k to pay off $7000 of debt. Now,
(24:53):
you heard how I answered it last week. Here's the
next pop quizzy. What would you tell this person? Yes
or no?
KT (25:01):
No.
Suze (25:02):
Why?
KT (25:03):
If she has a good FICO score,
she should look into consolidating this credit card debt and
Suze (25:09):
Doing a balance transfer. And by else not?
KT (25:12):
You don't want to mess up your employer's 401k. You're Roth.
It's a Roth. You have to pay taxes,
Suze (25:19):
Not necessarily but pretty good KT! I'll give you a ding ding ding! So here's the thing
you need to understand.
It is probable that we're really at this point in time,
in a great, great economy and all indications are that
(25:41):
the market could absolutely continue up. So I don't want
you to borrow from your employer 401k plan because remember
any loan that you take from your employer,
if God forbid you lose your job, you have to
quit or whatever usually is due and payable within that month.
(26:02):
Now you have a Roth retirement account. So it really
wouldn't be that bad. But I don't want you to
take money out of a Roth retirement account right now.
Given what is very possible to happen in the markets
over the next year
now, maybe we're wrong and maybe it will go down.
(26:23):
So with only about $7000 of credit card debt, I
would much rather see you do a balance transfer at
a 0% interest rate again if you have a good
FICO score or contact NFCC.org N like in Nancy, F
(26:43):
like in Francine, C like in Crazy, C
like in cool.org and talk to them about possibly consolidating
all of your credit card debt to a 0% interest rate.
Pay them, they pay it off and there you go.
But no, it's not a good idea to ever take
(27:05):
money out of any retirement account to pay off. An
unsecured debt. Got that. Ok.
KT (27:13):
I picked the next one, Suze because this, this is
from Rachel, Rachel, I think may be the perfect match
for Joe, which is our first question of today's podcast.
Suze (27:24):
Now, you're being a matchmaker?
KT (27:25):
Yes, I am. You ready everybody? You tell me if I'm
good with this one.
Hi, Suze. I just finished my Excel spreadsheet that I
used to document my spendings and savings overall. I saved 42%
of my A G I
Suze (27:41):
Adjusted gross income.
KT (27:42):
Right. My problem is though, why doesn't it feel like
I'm doing enough?
Suze (27:47):
So, so you mean a good emotional match with the
same problem because we don't know anybody's sexuality here? Ok.
Go on KT
KT (27:54):
Ready?
My income is hourly and dependent on the number of hours.
I work at the hospital. My goal has always been
to be paid for an 80 hour pay period, but
it isn't always possible largely due to burn out.
I fear I'm developing an unhealthy relationship or view with
(28:14):
my money or feel limited by it. And I don't
like that feeling. I want to be happy knowing I'm
doing what I know and the best that I can
without sacrificing the fun of being young
because getting old isn't always a guarantee.
Suze (28:32):
Because she's a nurse and she sees... how old is she?
KT (28:35):
She's 27. Joe was 39. I thought maybe they could
talk to each other, Seriosuly.
Suze (28:41):
You know, it's not a bad idea, KT. That somewhere
we start a group,
KT (28:47):
Like group therapy.
He has financial fears like him. But what would you tell Rachel?
Suze (28:55):
Well, there is a course, you know, that I have
KT which is overcoming your fears and because fears, my
dear Rachel about money, I'm going to tell you exactly
the same thing I kind of said to Joe, which
is if you feel like you have an unhealthy relationship
with your money
(29:16):
and money is simply a physical manifestation of who you are.
What that says to me is that you have an
unhealthy relationship with yourself. You know, I can relate to
this because if you remember my story growing up, that
the reason I thought my parents were so unhappy is
(29:40):
because they didn't really have any money.
And I really grew up believing, oh, if I just
had money, I would be happy, I would feel great.
Everything would be good. And then 1980 I'm hired by
Merrill Lynch. And before you know it, I'm making $120 - 13000
a year and I'm still miserable.
(30:02):
So then the question was, well, if money isn't the
key to happiness, what is? And that's when I started
on this journey of having to look within to see
why I am doing without happiness, even though I have money.
So just maybe if you have what it takes to
save 42% of your adjusted gross income,
(30:25):
and you still feel that you have an unhealthy relationship
with your money.
I want you to write down the things that you
don't like about yourself, forget about money that you don't
like about yourself.
Do you not like the fact that you're afraid to
go out to eat once a week? Are you afraid
(30:45):
to go on a vacation? What are you afraid about?
And what don't you like about yourself? Then what I
want you to do is just pick one of those things,
one of them and I want you to do it.
I want you to try it. I want you to
see how that feels
(31:06):
and we can then go from there. You know, you
might wanna take a look into my book, The Nine
Steps To Financial Freedom and about Money Memories. Or again,
the course that I just talked about that pretty much
is on the women and Money app on the Suze
shop there and go through those exercises
(31:31):
and I can promise you you will uncover that the
problem isn't with money
isn't about the fear of money isn't about not getting
appreciation about money.
It starts with not having appreciation of how really incredible
(31:53):
you are.
Well, those were two interesting ones that you pick and
to begin, those were like book ends. And, you know,
we also talked about Philomena and her two boys, right?
But as being a nurse and how she really wanted
to help financially all these other nurses.
(32:14):
And then here we have Rachel who's also a nurse
and who wants to work, work, work. So she can
make more money. Or does she really want to work, work,
work to help more people? Who knows? Right. But it's
interesting that when you do work as a nurse and
you see reality, the hard core reality of life every
(32:38):
single day and how fragile it is,
it sometimes shapes you with what you do and you
don't do.
KT (32:45):
She's 27 years old. She gets burned out.
Suze (32:48):
Of course she does, right. But it's just to all of the
nurses out there, we love you,
we need you, we need you both KT and I
can tell you we appreciate you more than you have
any idea. Any idea. You've been my life savers many
times too. And yeah, you did have to save KT
(33:10):
as well for me. Right. Just keep doing your work.
Keep loving who you are.
And I have no doubt that one day you'll always
have more than you need financially to take care of yourself. So,
until Sunday for another Suze School, there's only one thing
that we want you to remember when it comes to
(33:31):
your money.
And that is people first and again, that is on
some level. Exactly what this podcast was about today. Self worth,
self worth, self worth. Then what happens KT?
KT (33:45):
Then money.
Suze (33:47):
Then what happens? Then you have what it takes to
buy things and all right. So until then you remain unstoppable.
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