October 5, 2025 • 33 mins
On this Sunday Ask Suze & KT Anything episode, KT asks Suze your questions about the best way to start saving money (at any age), handling your financial advisor, leaving real-estate to your children, and so much more.
Watch Suze’s YouTube Channel
Jumpstart financial wellness for your employees: https://bit.ly/SecureSave
Protect your financial future with the Must Have Docs: https://bit.ly/3Vq1V3G
Get your savings going with Alliant Credit Union: https://bit.ly/3rg0Yio
Get Suze’s special offers for podcast listeners at suzeorman.com/offer
Join Suze’s Women & Money Community for FREE and ASK SUZE your questions which may just end up on the podcast. Download the app by following one of these links:
CLICK HERE FOR APPLE: https://apple.co/2KcAHbH
CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE PLAY: https://bit.ly/3curfMI
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
KT (00:07):
Hey, surprise everybody, it's KT in the house on Sunday.
You thought Sunday School was gonna be Suze, but no,
she took my space on Thursday, so I'm here on
Sunday and I'm gonna do the whole show. We don't
even know if we want to ask her any questions.
Suze (00:26):
Well, how about if I ask you a question like
what's the date?
KT (00:30):
October 5th.
Suze (00:31):
And where are we? What what is this? the women
and what KT?
KT (00:37):
They all know. They know this is the Women and
Money podcast and everyone's smart enough to listen.
Suze (00:42):
And this is now not Suze School because I took her...
KT (00:45):
It's Ask KT and Suze Anything...
Suze (00:48):
And if you have a question, all you have to
do is send in an email to ask Suze S-U-Z-E asksuzepodcast at gmail.com
And if KT picks it, oh, we will answer it
on this podcast. Are you ready, Miss Travis?
KT (01:04):
I'm ready. Go get a cup of coffee, everyone, here
we go on Sunday.
Suze (01:08):
All right, ask me your first question.
KT (01:09):
Sundaaay!!
OK, first question is from Susan. It's a long one, everybody,
so get cozy. Hi, Suze and KT.
Suze (01:20):
Is it a question or a statement...
KT (01:21):
It's, it's both, but it's good. I want to read
what you how you changed her life.
You guys have become part of my weekly life for
the past 4 years.
Suze (01:31):
Poor baby. I get how you feel.
KT (01:33):
As I think of it, I became a regular Women
and Money podcast junkie ready shortly after 30 years of
marriage ended.
Suze (01:43):
Oh, don't tell me another one. I caused another divorce.
KT (01:46):
She does all the time, but you know what, these
are happy endings after all.
We lived a middle class life, but at age 57
we were still having to borrow money from my future inheritance,
and each month not making ends meet. Through you, divorcing
a financial sabotaging husband,
(02:08):
finding a great business coach and getting a $900,000 inheritance,
I am now on my feet again, day by day
and step by step.
Suze (02:20):
I love that.
KT (02:22):
Wait, I got to finish. This is long.
I doubled my net income from my geriatric care management business,
and I have been able to keep my home. It
is a home that brings me joy and allows me
my out of state adult children to have beds and
a reason to come home. No one in my family
thought I would be able to do it. I felt
(02:43):
I had no support except for my weekly episodes of
Suze and KT.
She said...
Suze (02:51):
What is this person's name?
KT (02:51):
It's Susan.
Suze (02:52):
Oh, of course, Susan.
KT (02:54):
She said, I'm not exaggerating to say that because of
you I grew financial self-esteem. Don't you love that? Then
she goes on and keeps giving us all this praise,
but I'm going to cut to her question. But here
is where I...
Suze (03:08):
Oh no, I like the praise.
Keep going.
KT (03:11):
She said, Here is where I'm stuck. I get scared
when I spend my money. Don't get me wrong, I
do it, but wonder if or when I am being irresponsible.
How does one balance out living for the future, enjoying
your money for things that bring you joy? I am
61
years old, I don't have plans to retire because I
(03:33):
love what I do. But since I'm not married and
a business owner, if I am unable to work, my
salary stops. Another confusing life lesson is that I had
one parent who died at age 50, the other who
died at 92.
So I have seen two different endings, one for someone
(03:54):
who didn't get all she wanted in life, and the
other who was able to get gold standard care at
the end because he worked and saved. Life can be
long and life can be short.
Suze (04:07):
Tell me about it, all right, so you know, here's
what's funny, Susan.
Is that my father died at 71.
My mother lived until 97 and really would have lived
a whole lot longer if she had wanted to, but
she didn't, so she stopped eating for an entire month
(04:27):
and stopped drinking and that was it. And so she
took her own power as my mother would be known
to do, anyway.
But I lived my life in total fear that I
was going to be exactly like my father, that I
was going to have one failure after another failure. I
(04:51):
was never going to make money. I was going to
always be sick or whatever because he was with emphysema,
and I thought that's how I was going to end up.
And for some reason I modeled myself after that versus
my mom. Don't know why, but that was my greatest
fear in life.
And then as time went on, 'cause I was only
(05:14):
30 something like 31 when he died.
What was fascinating.
Is that my life wasn't like his at all.
And that's when I really started to learn just because
something happened to a parent, a grandparent, anybody else that
(05:34):
you're related to, you are not destined to live that outcome.
You have the power to create your own outcome. Now
I'm not talking necessarily about health, because there are some
health things that are genetically passed down. But normally,
that's not what scares us. What scares us is, oh...
(05:57):
They died poor. They died rich. They died this. They
had money. They didn't have money. They fought. They didn't
fight for you. What's really important is for all of
us that are listening right now. Good relationship, bad relationship
doesn't matter.
That you need to make decisions where you stand in
(06:19):
your truth. You don't live another person's truth. You have
to live your own truth, and you have to make
decisions based on what you think, not what anybody else thinks.
Just a little side story here. My little niece Sophia,
who I love more than life itself, just turned 26.
(06:41):
And every single year I write her an email and
she waits for the email from Aunt Suze with a
life lesson, and for this email that I sent her,
I said, I don't know what other advice I can
give you except to know your own thoughts, to stop
asking what do you think, what do you think, and
(07:02):
know what Sophia thinks.
And that's true for all of us regardless of any age.
So therefore, my first thing that I would say to
you is that you have to not be afraid. You
made it this far. You made decisions on your own,
(07:22):
whatever it is. You don't need to be scared. You
don't need to be stuck.
You can just do what you think is right. If
you know it's right, then spend the money. If you
know it's wrong, then don't spend the money. We all
know when we should be buying something and when we
should not at any level. And the thing again about
(07:45):
you being afraid cause you had one parent do this
and one parent do that, Susan, that is not your future.
You have created your future that you've done one of
the hardest thing anybody can do that after 30 years, girlfriend.
You left somebody,
because it wasn't right for you, so stop it. Just
(08:09):
stop it already. Stop coming up with all these things
about help me spend, help me do this, da da
da da. You know what's right. You know what's wrong,
and you have to have faith in who you are.
And value your own self-worth over anything else and to
always stand in your truth and nobody else's. All right, KT, next.
KT (08:33):
Next one is from Sam. Hi, Suze and KT. I
took your advice from Thursday's Ask Suze and KT podcast
and reviewed my 401k rollover returns, adviser managed and compared
it to the S&P returns over the same period of time.
(08:54):
That's great.
Suze (08:55):
That was my advice.
KT (08:56):
I know it was, it was your idea. You told
everyone to do that. My returns were about half of
that of the S&P, and I'm paying my Fidelity advisor 1.22%.
Is this my wake up call to get rid of
my advisor and put it all in the S&P? It's
about half a million dollars and I'm 57 years old.
Suze (09:20):
Listen to me, everybody. When I said that the other
week on the podcast, did you not hear me say
that if 100% of your portfolio is in equities, then
you can compare that return to the Standard and Poor's
500 index, and you'll know how your advisor is doing
(09:42):
for you.
Sam, I don't know how your adviser has invested your money.
Was half in stocks, half in bonds, was three quarters
in treasuries, and quarter in stocks. So all of you,
when you're going to compare how your adviser is doing.
(10:03):
Take the portion of your money that happens to be
invested in just stocks and compare that to the Standard
and Poor's 500 index. Because the truth of the matter
is you can keep your money safe and sound by
yourself in money market accounts or treasuries or bonds, but
what you really are paying a financial adviser for, in
(10:25):
my opinion,
is how much are they making your money grow and
what are they charging you for it? All right, KT.
KT (10:35):
Next question is for Marisol. Hi, Suze and KT. Suze,
I hope you can clarify something for me. My house
is paid off and me and my brother own it.
I'm 61 years old. My brother is 51.
I would like to purchase the must have documents, and
if I do the trust, how do I change the
(10:57):
deed if it's in both of our names? I want
to leave my half to my son when I pass.
Your help is much appreciated.
Suze (11:06):
So Marisol, this is what you really need to understand.
Most likely what's going on in your life right now
is you and your brother probably own that home,
in what's called joint tenancy with right of survivorship because
that's just how people do it, all right. Which means
if one of you dies, it goes to the other
(11:27):
one immediately without probate. The only problem with that is
if that happens, and let's say you die first, it
goes to your brother. He then dies. That whole house
is governed by his trust or his will.
And it goes to maybe his children and now you
(11:49):
have disinherited your own son. So if that were to happen,
then your son might not get anything. Therefore, first of all,
you should own it in tenants in common.
Which means you both own it, but when one of
you dies, it's governed by your will or your trust.
(12:14):
It doesn't pass to your brother. It's just that simple.
And then your son would own it with your brother.
If you have the must-have docs, and for everybody who
doesn't know, the must-have docs are a will, a trust,
an advanced directive, a durable power of attorney for health care.
(12:35):
Go to musthavedocs.com. They are legal documents good in all
50 states. You can get them right there, and they're $99.
$2,500 worth of state of the art documents, $99. However...
You can own it in trust when it's tenants in
common because it's just your half. So therefore your half
(12:59):
would be owned as Marisol trustee for the Marisol Living
revocable trust data da da da da, but it would
be held tenants in common within the trust, just that simple.
KT (13:11):
Next question is from Sheila. This is another one about
a house in probate.
Can I just add my house to the trust and
leave my Roth IRA and 401k and bank accounts under beneficiaries?
Is it true that the house will only go to
probate and the other accounts do not?
(13:33):
I feel very overwhelmed. This is from Shelia.
Suze (13:36):
Oh my goodness, Shelia...
KT (13:38):
She said thank you for making me financially literate,
Suze (13:41):
Sheila. You don't
have to feel overwhelmed. This is really so easy for
you to understand, my love. Whenever an asset has a
designated beneficiary.
An IRA you can leave a beneficiary, and if you
name the person as a beneficiary, of course it avoids
(14:03):
probate because you've named somebody.
Obviously if you have an insurance policy, has a beneficiary,
goes right to them, avoids probate, a bank account you
could do a pay on death account, you name a beneficiary,
goes right to them. Now that beneficiary could also be
(14:23):
the trust, just so you know, but what you say
is true. A house on the other hand,
usually will go through probate because it's held in your
individual name. So you want a house that's held in
the living revocable trust. Sheila, trustee for the Sheila Revocable
(14:47):
Trust dated whenever you happen to do it, and then
you leave it to whoever you want and therefore it
bypasses probate just that simple. All right.
KT (14:57):
Next question's from Tina.
She said yesterday I was on a chat with a
Fidelity representative, discussing opening a contributory Roth IRA. At one
point I asked them to confirm that the 5-year waiting
period would start as of the beginning of this financial year.
(15:18):
I was told that the clock would start ticking the
date the account was open.
Has the rule changed or was I misinformed by the representative?
Suze (15:30):
What, what, what...
KT (15:31):
It says quizzy on that.
Suze (15:33):
You took my quizzy that I was going to give
you that was in a pile of paper and you
happen to take it.
KT (15:39):
I can answer. Was it want to wait till the
end for me to answer that?
Suze (15:42):
No,
but this was going to be my quizzy for all
of you, which is when does the 5 year clock start,
when you first open a Roth IRA? quizzy, do you
all know the answer to it, Tina was told,
(16:04):
that the clock would start ticking the date the account
was opened.
But she thought it was at the beginning of the
financial year, so she wants to know, has the rule
changed or was I misinformed by the representative? KT?
KT (16:20):
When the account is opened.
Suze (16:24):
Without a shadow of a doubt?
KT (16:25):
Pretty much.
Suze (16:26):
Yep. So she opens it in June 5th, my birthday.
The clock starts June 5th?
KT (16:32):
I believe so.
Suze (16:32):
(Suze makes the wrong answer noise)
KT (16:35):
It does start in the beginning?
Suze (16:36):
Listen, everybody, you can open up a Roth IRA for
the first time, December 31, 2025.
The clock will have been deemed to have started January 1st, 2025.
(16:57):
So the truth of the matter is you only have
four more years really, in actual time, to qualify.
KT (17:07):
So everyone should open it up at the end of the year.
Suze (17:09):
Not necessarily, but it's just because you also want to
take advantage of tax-free growth. However, something very important about
this email.
A representative at a major brokerage firm gave this woman 100%
incorrect information and if she hadn't been listening to the
(17:33):
Women and Money podcast, if she hadn't already had direct
knowledge and had been told other than that.
She would be operating on the wrong assumption.
So be very careful just because somebody has the designation
of financial adviser. Just because somebody works for a major
(17:56):
brokerage firm, does not mean they know what they are
talking about, because chances are, and they may not.
KT (18:05):
I didn't know.
Suze (18:07):
You don't work for me.
KT (18:11):
Next question is from Sue.
Suze (18:13):
But that's an example, KT. People might think you know because
we're together.
KT (18:19):
Oh no, I don't... I tell them I don't know... ask Suze.
Suze (18:21):
But if they had asked you and you had said no,
da da da da, just like you did with such certainty,
they might believe you.
KT (18:29):
So that means you gotta double check for yourself, everybody.
All right, this is from Sue. Hello, Suze and KT.
I hope you're having a great day. Are we having
a great day?
Suze (18:40):
Actually, I have to tell you we are.
KT (18:41):
It is pretty great.
I am new to buying individual stocks, and I am
not quite sure about the order type when buying, I
have to choose. And she gave me two examples. She
said market and limit. Suze, could you explain what these
mean and which one would you recommend? Thank you so
much for sharing all of your knowledge. I don't know
(19:04):
what that means market and limit.
Suze (19:06):
When you go to buy a stock on your own.
You're online. You've gone to the brokerage firm, and now
you want to enter an order. When you go to
the place that you do so, the very first thing
they're going to ask you to enter is the symbol
of the stock that is in question here. The next
(19:29):
question is, are you going to buy it or are
you going to sell it?
You will put buy if you want to buy it.
You will put sell if you already own it and
you want to sell it. Then they will ask you, well,
the number of shares that you want to buy or
you want to sell, and you will enter that number
of shares.
(19:50):
And then they will tell you if you have enough
money in your account if you want to buy it
to buy that number of shares. Now stocks trade all
the time when the markets are open and even sometimes
when the markets are closed in aftermarket hours. Since the
price goes up and down and up and down, if
(20:13):
you enter a market order...
Either to buy or sell, what that means is that
no matter what it is trading at, you are definitely
going to buy it at that price. You have no
control about the price, whatever the market
bears the second they get that order, that is the
(20:35):
price you are going to get. So you know 100%
for sure you're going to buy or sell that stock.
You just have to wait a few seconds to see
what was the price that you got.
However, maybe you only want to buy or sell it
at a specific price. You do not want to just
(20:55):
enter and say buy it at any price. You only
want to buy it at a specific price, and that's
known as a limit order. You have limited the price
that you are willing to buy or sell at. You
enter that price.
It goes to the trading desk and then maybe it's
(21:18):
filled and maybe it's not. Because if it doesn't trade
at that price then your limit is not filled, just
that simple.
They also might ask you, by the way, is this
a day order? Is this only good for the day
and then it cancels, or is it a good till
cancel order, which means that order stays in effect until
(21:43):
you physically cancel it. That's what some of the terms mean, OK.
KT (21:50):
Little confusing, but...
Suze (21:52):
There was...
That was the clearest explanation you would find anywhere. What
are you talking about?
KT (21:58):
Buy sell buy sell. OK, next question is from Diana. Hey, Suze,
what's a K-1 conversion? Is this the best way to
not pay taxes on my pre-tax 401?
How do they work? Do you? I never heard of it.
First of all, I don't think there's a best way
(22:18):
not to pay taxes on anything.
Suze (22:20):
That's my girl. So Deanna, you're confused. There's a Roth conversion.
There's no such thing as a K-1 conversion. And the
best way to not pay taxes on your pre-tax 401k.
Never have had opened one to begin with because you
would have opened a Roth 401k and then you never
(22:41):
would have paid taxes on it just so you know
a K-1 form when you make an investment that happens
to be a limited partnership or a subchapter, whatever it
may be, some partnership with you.
A K-1 is simply a tax form that reports your income,
your deductions and credits from a partnership. That's it. That's
(23:03):
all a K-1 happens to be. All right.
KT (23:06):
This is from Michelle. Hi KT and Suze. It's almost
open enrollment time for benefits with my employer.
They are offering a new benefit this year called... ready
for this... voluntary critical illness insurance. Never heard of that.
It provides a lump sum payment of 10,20 or 30,000
(23:32):
with increase in premium for each tier if me or
my spouse are diagnosed with one of the covered illnesses.
Have you heard of this? And if so, what do
you think of it? Now Michelle's 55, the husband's 61.
All right, you like this?
Suze (23:49):
Do you?
KT (23:50):
I don't even know. I mean, what kind of illness
would I get? Like what happens if I get COVID?
Suze (23:55):
No, so here's...
KT (23:56):
It said voluntary critical illness insurance.
Suze (23:58):
Normally a critical illness insurance isn't necessarily COVID, KT. It's
really more like,
a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, something that really is
gonna do you in, it's critical. It's that, OK? And
what you do is you get this lump sum of money.
(24:21):
And in fact you can use it for anything that
you want. It's not like health insurance or whatever that
you have to use it for this and that. You
can use it to pay your bills. In many cases
you could take a trip with it. You could do
whatever you want, and the premium for it is more
expensive if you get 20,000 versus 10, 30,000 versus 20,
(24:43):
and if they give it to you in one lump
sum and
it's tax free.
KT (24:49):
I like that part.
Suze (24:50):
So at their age it's not a bad idea because
not only can she insure herself, usually the spouse is
insured as well.
KT (25:00):
So what's the catch on something like this? It almost
sounds too good to be true.
Suze (25:03):
Everything is. Now here's the thing, everybody.
After the age of 61 KT, your premiums tend to
go higher and higher because the more of a chance
that you have to come down with something, the more
they charge you. Also,
not all cancers, not all heart conditions qualify, so you
(25:28):
have to ask before you buy this, well, what kind
of cancer? What are they? Also, is there a waiting period?
Because sometimes they have a 30 to 90 day waiting
period before coverage will kick in and
if you have a preexisting condition, some policies will exclude them.
(25:53):
So you got to ask questions about this before you
just go ahead and sign up, get the details. The
devil is in the details.
KT (26:04):
Yeah, I think for me when I read it, a
critical illness sounds like you're not going to recover.
Suze (26:11):
I don't know. You have to you have just ask.
KT (26:12):
That's the first question I want to know. OK.
Next question I have here is from Adrian, and Adrian asks,
Hi Suze, I've made the mistake of not saving throughout
my lifetime. And even though I'm married, my husband was
never my financial provider. I'm 51 years old. I plan...
Suze (26:34):
Don't tell me I caused another divorce.
KT (26:35):
No, no, no, I don't think so.
With that being said, how do I start to save
in a way that is beneficial to me at my
age when in all honesty I am just realizing I
have to start to take care of me.
Suze (26:52):
Maybe a divorce is on the horizon.
KT (26:55):
Maybe soon. Yes, I have a student loan. The mortgage
is another topic, and I know my issues in debt,
but I want to buckle down before I look up,
and I cannot. I am reading your book Women and Money,
so is that enough to get me started?
Suze (27:09):
Listen, it's a start. I'll tell you the book Women
and Money is an absolute start. Listening to the Women
and Money podcast, however, twice a week is even a
better start.
But you have to start making smart decisions with your money.
I just heard KT say you have student loan debt
(27:31):
at the age of 51. You have credit card debt
at the age of 51.
Whatever those reasons are, you first have to tackle your debt.
Don't think about saving for your future until you have
taken care of your mistakes of the past. Now I'm
not saying to you that a
(27:52):
student loan is a mistake, but an unpaid student loan
is a serious mistake because they aren't dischargeable currently in bankruptcy.
So you take care of yourself one step at a time.
Don't plan for the future until you have cleaned up
your past. Contribute obviously to only Roth retirement accounts, especially
(28:16):
if they match your contribution.
And little by little you can do this. It's not
that hard. All right, KT.
KT (28:25):
So Suze, my last question is short but sweet. What's
the difference between titling your financial asset in your trust
and naming your trust as a beneficiary?
Suze (28:37):
Well, that's actually
a good question.
KT (28:39):
Here we go.
Suze (28:40):
Listen to me, everybody.
Your only concern should not be, do my beneficiaries get
this asset without probate, because so many of you think
that the only reason for a trust is so that
the asset will bypass probate, wrong, wrong, wrong if your
(29:06):
asset is in a trust.
And a trust that has an incapacity clause like the
trust of the must have documents happens to have.
You have a stroke. Something happens. You get hit by
a car, whatever it is. Then the house or your
asset is already in trust. You have named a successor trustee,
(29:31):
the person that you designated to make decisions if you
yourself couldn't make them, and then that person can take
care of everything.
If the house is not in trust or your assets
are not in trust, but the trust is the beneficiary,
something happens to you, they can't write checks for you.
(29:53):
They can't help you. They can't do anything. They only
benefit when you have died.
A trust can serve more than just the purpose of
bypassing probate. It can serve for you to take care
of yourself when you can't do it for yourself. All right, everybody,
(30:16):
and again, every single one of you, you know, I
was talking to KT this morning.
About we... and if you have any good ideas let
me know because we're redoing our website and so KT
is featuring the Women and Money podcast and she's looking
for a...
KT (30:35):
A description, no, no, no, a description.
Suze (30:38):
Like how do you...
KT (30:39):
How would you describe in two sentences the Women and
Money podcast without it being boring and typical we want
something that that really sets this apart so if you
have a good descriptor...
Suze (30:53):
Let us know go to the Women and Money community
app or even send it in on ask Suze podcast@gmail.com.
Say idea idea we'll see it. But anyway, I was
telling her when she was asking me this, I said,
you know, KT can't we do something like...
The biggest mistake you will ever make is the mistake
(31:14):
you don't even know that you are making. Because I
really believe from my heart, everybody, that one of the
things the Women and Money podcast does, it keeps you
from making mistakes, mistakes that your financial advisor and a
major brokerage firm told you, which would have been a mistake,
a mistake of many things.
(31:38):
I don't want you to make mistakes, so, write in
what you think.
KT (31:44):
It just, it's called a description.
Suze (31:46):
So what should
KT (31:46):
the descriptor, the descriptor for
Suze (31:49):
the Women and Money podcast be. And if we happen to choose...
KT (31:53):
I'll send you a prize.
Suze (31:55):
We'll send you something seriously,
KT (31:57):
something great,
Suze (31:58):
Something really great because I just want to say one
other thing. The book I wrote, the Young, Fabulous and
Broke book that title came from.
Somebody who is listening to the TV show or my
radio show something...
KT (32:12):
We made a contest, I think.
Suze (32:13):
We chose it and we sent them a gift as well.
So let us know and maybe we'll send you a
little gift. There's really only one thing we want you
to remember when it comes to your money, and it
is this:
KT (32:26):
P eople first, then money, then things.
Suze (32:29):
Are you stay safe, stay healthy.
And make sure you make your money, make more money.
All right, everybody, till then, now we love you.
KT (32:40):
Bye bye.
Hey, surprise everybody, it's KT in the house on Sunday.
You thought Sunday School was gonna be Suze, but no,
she took my space on Thursday, so I'm here on
Sunday and I'm gonna do the whole show. We don't
even know if we want to ask her any questions.
Suze (00:26):
Well, how about if I ask you a question like
what's the date?
KT (00:30):
October 5th.
Suze (00:31):
And where are we? What what is this? the women
and what KT?
KT (00:37):
They all know. They know this is the Women and
Money podcast and everyone's smart enough to listen.
Suze (00:42):
And this is now not Suze School because I took her...
KT (00:45):
It's Ask KT and Suze Anything...
Suze (00:48):
And if you have a question, all you have to
do is send in an email to ask Suze S-U-Z-E asksuzepodcast at gmail.com
And if KT picks it, oh, we will answer it
on this podcast. Are you ready, Miss Travis?
KT (01:04):
I'm ready. Go get a cup of coffee, everyone, here
we go on Sunday.
Suze (01:08):
All right, ask me your first question.
KT (01:09):
Sundaaay!!
OK, first question is from Susan. It's a long one, everybody,
so get cozy. Hi, Suze and KT.
Suze (01:20):
Is it a question or a statement...
KT (01:21):
It's, it's both, but it's good. I want to read
what you how you changed her life.
You guys have become part of my weekly life for
the past 4 years.
Suze (01:31):
Poor baby. I get how you feel.
KT (01:33):
As I think of it, I became a regular Women
and Money podcast junkie ready shortly after 30 years of
marriage ended.
Suze (01:43):
Oh, don't tell me another one. I caused another divorce.
KT (01:46):
She does all the time, but you know what, these
are happy endings after all.
We lived a middle class life, but at age 57
we were still having to borrow money from my future inheritance,
and each month not making ends meet. Through you, divorcing
a financial sabotaging husband,
(02:08):
finding a great business coach and getting a $900,000 inheritance,
I am now on my feet again, day by day
and step by step.
Suze (02:20):
I love that.
KT (02:22):
Wait, I got to finish. This is long.
I doubled my net income from my geriatric care management business,
and I have been able to keep my home. It
is a home that brings me joy and allows me
my out of state adult children to have beds and
a reason to come home. No one in my family
thought I would be able to do it. I felt
(02:43):
I had no support except for my weekly episodes of
Suze and KT.
She said...
Suze (02:51):
What is this person's name?
KT (02:51):
It's Susan.
Suze (02:52):
Oh, of course, Susan.
KT (02:54):
She said, I'm not exaggerating to say that because of
you I grew financial self-esteem. Don't you love that? Then
she goes on and keeps giving us all this praise,
but I'm going to cut to her question. But here
is where I...
Suze (03:08):
Oh no, I like the praise.
Keep going.
KT (03:11):
She said, Here is where I'm stuck. I get scared
when I spend my money. Don't get me wrong, I
do it, but wonder if or when I am being irresponsible.
How does one balance out living for the future, enjoying
your money for things that bring you joy? I am
61
years old, I don't have plans to retire because I
(03:33):
love what I do. But since I'm not married and
a business owner, if I am unable to work, my
salary stops. Another confusing life lesson is that I had
one parent who died at age 50, the other who
died at 92.
So I have seen two different endings, one for someone
(03:54):
who didn't get all she wanted in life, and the
other who was able to get gold standard care at
the end because he worked and saved. Life can be
long and life can be short.
Suze (04:07):
Tell me about it, all right, so you know, here's
what's funny, Susan.
Is that my father died at 71.
My mother lived until 97 and really would have lived
a whole lot longer if she had wanted to, but
she didn't, so she stopped eating for an entire month
(04:27):
and stopped drinking and that was it. And so she
took her own power as my mother would be known
to do, anyway.
But I lived my life in total fear that I
was going to be exactly like my father, that I
was going to have one failure after another failure. I
(04:51):
was never going to make money. I was going to
always be sick or whatever because he was with emphysema,
and I thought that's how I was going to end up.
And for some reason I modeled myself after that versus
my mom. Don't know why, but that was my greatest
fear in life.
And then as time went on, 'cause I was only
(05:14):
30 something like 31 when he died.
What was fascinating.
Is that my life wasn't like his at all.
And that's when I really started to learn just because
something happened to a parent, a grandparent, anybody else that
(05:34):
you're related to, you are not destined to live that outcome.
You have the power to create your own outcome. Now
I'm not talking necessarily about health, because there are some
health things that are genetically passed down. But normally,
that's not what scares us. What scares us is, oh...
(05:57):
They died poor. They died rich. They died this. They
had money. They didn't have money. They fought. They didn't
fight for you. What's really important is for all of
us that are listening right now. Good relationship, bad relationship
doesn't matter.
That you need to make decisions where you stand in
(06:19):
your truth. You don't live another person's truth. You have
to live your own truth, and you have to make
decisions based on what you think, not what anybody else thinks.
Just a little side story here. My little niece Sophia,
who I love more than life itself, just turned 26.
(06:41):
And every single year I write her an email and
she waits for the email from Aunt Suze with a
life lesson, and for this email that I sent her,
I said, I don't know what other advice I can
give you except to know your own thoughts, to stop
asking what do you think, what do you think, and
(07:02):
know what Sophia thinks.
And that's true for all of us regardless of any age.
So therefore, my first thing that I would say to
you is that you have to not be afraid. You
made it this far. You made decisions on your own,
(07:22):
whatever it is. You don't need to be scared. You
don't need to be stuck.
You can just do what you think is right. If
you know it's right, then spend the money. If you
know it's wrong, then don't spend the money. We all
know when we should be buying something and when we
should not at any level. And the thing again about
(07:45):
you being afraid cause you had one parent do this
and one parent do that, Susan, that is not your future.
You have created your future that you've done one of
the hardest thing anybody can do that after 30 years, girlfriend.
You left somebody,
because it wasn't right for you, so stop it. Just
(08:09):
stop it already. Stop coming up with all these things
about help me spend, help me do this, da da
da da. You know what's right. You know what's wrong,
and you have to have faith in who you are.
And value your own self-worth over anything else and to
always stand in your truth and nobody else's. All right, KT, next.
KT (08:33):
Next one is from Sam. Hi, Suze and KT. I
took your advice from Thursday's Ask Suze and KT podcast
and reviewed my 401k rollover returns, adviser managed and compared
it to the S&P returns over the same period of time.
(08:54):
That's great.
Suze (08:55):
That was my advice.
KT (08:56):
I know it was, it was your idea. You told
everyone to do that. My returns were about half of
that of the S&P, and I'm paying my Fidelity advisor 1.22%.
Is this my wake up call to get rid of
my advisor and put it all in the S&P? It's
about half a million dollars and I'm 57 years old.
Suze (09:20):
Listen to me, everybody. When I said that the other
week on the podcast, did you not hear me say
that if 100% of your portfolio is in equities, then
you can compare that return to the Standard and Poor's
500 index, and you'll know how your advisor is doing
(09:42):
for you.
Sam, I don't know how your adviser has invested your money.
Was half in stocks, half in bonds, was three quarters
in treasuries, and quarter in stocks. So all of you,
when you're going to compare how your adviser is doing.
(10:03):
Take the portion of your money that happens to be
invested in just stocks and compare that to the Standard
and Poor's 500 index. Because the truth of the matter
is you can keep your money safe and sound by
yourself in money market accounts or treasuries or bonds, but
what you really are paying a financial adviser for, in
(10:25):
my opinion,
is how much are they making your money grow and
what are they charging you for it? All right, KT.
KT (10:35):
Next question is for Marisol. Hi, Suze and KT. Suze,
I hope you can clarify something for me. My house
is paid off and me and my brother own it.
I'm 61 years old. My brother is 51.
I would like to purchase the must have documents, and
if I do the trust, how do I change the
(10:57):
deed if it's in both of our names? I want
to leave my half to my son when I pass.
Your help is much appreciated.
Suze (11:06):
So Marisol, this is what you really need to understand.
Most likely what's going on in your life right now
is you and your brother probably own that home,
in what's called joint tenancy with right of survivorship because
that's just how people do it, all right. Which means
if one of you dies, it goes to the other
(11:27):
one immediately without probate. The only problem with that is
if that happens, and let's say you die first, it
goes to your brother. He then dies. That whole house
is governed by his trust or his will.
And it goes to maybe his children and now you
(11:49):
have disinherited your own son. So if that were to happen,
then your son might not get anything. Therefore, first of all,
you should own it in tenants in common.
Which means you both own it, but when one of
you dies, it's governed by your will or your trust.
(12:14):
It doesn't pass to your brother. It's just that simple.
And then your son would own it with your brother.
If you have the must-have docs, and for everybody who
doesn't know, the must-have docs are a will, a trust,
an advanced directive, a durable power of attorney for health care.
(12:35):
Go to musthavedocs.com. They are legal documents good in all
50 states. You can get them right there, and they're $99.
$2,500 worth of state of the art documents, $99. However...
You can own it in trust when it's tenants in
common because it's just your half. So therefore your half
(12:59):
would be owned as Marisol trustee for the Marisol Living
revocable trust data da da da da, but it would
be held tenants in common within the trust, just that simple.
KT (13:11):
Next question is from Sheila. This is another one about
a house in probate.
Can I just add my house to the trust and
leave my Roth IRA and 401k and bank accounts under beneficiaries?
Is it true that the house will only go to
probate and the other accounts do not?
(13:33):
I feel very overwhelmed. This is from Shelia.
Suze (13:36):
Oh my goodness, Shelia...
KT (13:38):
She said thank you for making me financially literate,
Suze (13:41):
Sheila. You don't
have to feel overwhelmed. This is really so easy for
you to understand, my love. Whenever an asset has a
designated beneficiary.
An IRA you can leave a beneficiary, and if you
name the person as a beneficiary, of course it avoids
(14:03):
probate because you've named somebody.
Obviously if you have an insurance policy, has a beneficiary,
goes right to them, avoids probate, a bank account you
could do a pay on death account, you name a beneficiary,
goes right to them. Now that beneficiary could also be
(14:23):
the trust, just so you know, but what you say
is true. A house on the other hand,
usually will go through probate because it's held in your
individual name. So you want a house that's held in
the living revocable trust. Sheila, trustee for the Sheila Revocable
(14:47):
Trust dated whenever you happen to do it, and then
you leave it to whoever you want and therefore it
bypasses probate just that simple. All right.
KT (14:57):
Next question's from Tina.
She said yesterday I was on a chat with a
Fidelity representative, discussing opening a contributory Roth IRA. At one
point I asked them to confirm that the 5-year waiting
period would start as of the beginning of this financial year.
(15:18):
I was told that the clock would start ticking the
date the account was open.
Has the rule changed or was I misinformed by the representative?
Suze (15:30):
What, what, what...
KT (15:31):
It says quizzy on that.
Suze (15:33):
You took my quizzy that I was going to give
you that was in a pile of paper and you
happen to take it.
KT (15:39):
I can answer. Was it want to wait till the
end for me to answer that?
Suze (15:42):
No,
but this was going to be my quizzy for all
of you, which is when does the 5 year clock start,
when you first open a Roth IRA? quizzy, do you
all know the answer to it, Tina was told,
(16:04):
that the clock would start ticking the date the account
was opened.
But she thought it was at the beginning of the
financial year, so she wants to know, has the rule
changed or was I misinformed by the representative? KT?
KT (16:20):
When the account is opened.
Suze (16:24):
Without a shadow of a doubt?
KT (16:25):
Pretty much.
Suze (16:26):
Yep. So she opens it in June 5th, my birthday.
The clock starts June 5th?
KT (16:32):
I believe so.
Suze (16:32):
(Suze makes the wrong answer noise)
KT (16:35):
It does start in the beginning?
Suze (16:36):
Listen, everybody, you can open up a Roth IRA for
the first time, December 31, 2025.
The clock will have been deemed to have started January 1st, 2025.
(16:57):
So the truth of the matter is you only have
four more years really, in actual time, to qualify.
KT (17:07):
So everyone should open it up at the end of the year.
Suze (17:09):
Not necessarily, but it's just because you also want to
take advantage of tax-free growth. However, something very important about
this email.
A representative at a major brokerage firm gave this woman 100%
incorrect information and if she hadn't been listening to the
(17:33):
Women and Money podcast, if she hadn't already had direct
knowledge and had been told other than that.
She would be operating on the wrong assumption.
So be very careful just because somebody has the designation
of financial adviser. Just because somebody works for a major
(17:56):
brokerage firm, does not mean they know what they are
talking about, because chances are, and they may not.
KT (18:05):
I didn't know.
Suze (18:07):
You don't work for me.
KT (18:11):
Next question is from Sue.
Suze (18:13):
But that's an example, KT. People might think you know because
we're together.
KT (18:19):
Oh no, I don't... I tell them I don't know... ask Suze.
Suze (18:21):
But if they had asked you and you had said no,
da da da da, just like you did with such certainty,
they might believe you.
KT (18:29):
So that means you gotta double check for yourself, everybody.
All right, this is from Sue. Hello, Suze and KT.
I hope you're having a great day. Are we having
a great day?
Suze (18:40):
Actually, I have to tell you we are.
KT (18:41):
It is pretty great.
I am new to buying individual stocks, and I am
not quite sure about the order type when buying, I
have to choose. And she gave me two examples. She
said market and limit. Suze, could you explain what these
mean and which one would you recommend? Thank you so
much for sharing all of your knowledge. I don't know
(19:04):
what that means market and limit.
Suze (19:06):
When you go to buy a stock on your own.
You're online. You've gone to the brokerage firm, and now
you want to enter an order. When you go to
the place that you do so, the very first thing
they're going to ask you to enter is the symbol
of the stock that is in question here. The next
(19:29):
question is, are you going to buy it or are
you going to sell it?
You will put buy if you want to buy it.
You will put sell if you already own it and
you want to sell it. Then they will ask you, well,
the number of shares that you want to buy or
you want to sell, and you will enter that number
of shares.
(19:50):
And then they will tell you if you have enough
money in your account if you want to buy it
to buy that number of shares. Now stocks trade all
the time when the markets are open and even sometimes
when the markets are closed in aftermarket hours. Since the
price goes up and down and up and down, if
(20:13):
you enter a market order...
Either to buy or sell, what that means is that
no matter what it is trading at, you are definitely
going to buy it at that price. You have no
control about the price, whatever the market
bears the second they get that order, that is the
(20:35):
price you are going to get. So you know 100%
for sure you're going to buy or sell that stock.
You just have to wait a few seconds to see
what was the price that you got.
However, maybe you only want to buy or sell it
at a specific price. You do not want to just
(20:55):
enter and say buy it at any price. You only
want to buy it at a specific price, and that's
known as a limit order. You have limited the price
that you are willing to buy or sell at. You
enter that price.
It goes to the trading desk and then maybe it's
(21:18):
filled and maybe it's not. Because if it doesn't trade
at that price then your limit is not filled, just
that simple.
They also might ask you, by the way, is this
a day order? Is this only good for the day
and then it cancels, or is it a good till
cancel order, which means that order stays in effect until
(21:43):
you physically cancel it. That's what some of the terms mean, OK.
KT (21:50):
Little confusing, but...
Suze (21:52):
There was...
That was the clearest explanation you would find anywhere. What
are you talking about?
KT (21:58):
Buy sell buy sell. OK, next question is from Diana. Hey, Suze,
what's a K-1 conversion? Is this the best way to
not pay taxes on my pre-tax 401?
How do they work? Do you? I never heard of it.
First of all, I don't think there's a best way
(22:18):
not to pay taxes on anything.
Suze (22:20):
That's my girl. So Deanna, you're confused. There's a Roth conversion.
There's no such thing as a K-1 conversion. And the
best way to not pay taxes on your pre-tax 401k.
Never have had opened one to begin with because you
would have opened a Roth 401k and then you never
(22:41):
would have paid taxes on it just so you know
a K-1 form when you make an investment that happens
to be a limited partnership or a subchapter, whatever it
may be, some partnership with you.
A K-1 is simply a tax form that reports your income,
your deductions and credits from a partnership. That's it. That's
(23:03):
all a K-1 happens to be. All right.
KT (23:06):
This is from Michelle. Hi KT and Suze. It's almost
open enrollment time for benefits with my employer.
They are offering a new benefit this year called... ready
for this... voluntary critical illness insurance. Never heard of that.
It provides a lump sum payment of 10,20 or 30,000
(23:32):
with increase in premium for each tier if me or
my spouse are diagnosed with one of the covered illnesses.
Have you heard of this? And if so, what do
you think of it? Now Michelle's 55, the husband's 61.
All right, you like this?
Suze (23:49):
Do you?
KT (23:50):
I don't even know. I mean, what kind of illness
would I get? Like what happens if I get COVID?
Suze (23:55):
No, so here's...
KT (23:56):
It said voluntary critical illness insurance.
Suze (23:58):
Normally a critical illness insurance isn't necessarily COVID, KT. It's
really more like,
a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, something that really is
gonna do you in, it's critical. It's that, OK? And
what you do is you get this lump sum of money.
(24:21):
And in fact you can use it for anything that
you want. It's not like health insurance or whatever that
you have to use it for this and that. You
can use it to pay your bills. In many cases
you could take a trip with it. You could do
whatever you want, and the premium for it is more
expensive if you get 20,000 versus 10, 30,000 versus 20,
(24:43):
and if they give it to you in one lump
sum and
it's tax free.
KT (24:49):
I like that part.
Suze (24:50):
So at their age it's not a bad idea because
not only can she insure herself, usually the spouse is
insured as well.
KT (25:00):
So what's the catch on something like this? It almost
sounds too good to be true.
Suze (25:03):
Everything is. Now here's the thing, everybody.
After the age of 61 KT, your premiums tend to
go higher and higher because the more of a chance
that you have to come down with something, the more
they charge you. Also,
not all cancers, not all heart conditions qualify, so you
(25:28):
have to ask before you buy this, well, what kind
of cancer? What are they? Also, is there a waiting period?
Because sometimes they have a 30 to 90 day waiting
period before coverage will kick in and
if you have a preexisting condition, some policies will exclude them.
(25:53):
So you got to ask questions about this before you
just go ahead and sign up, get the details. The
devil is in the details.
KT (26:04):
Yeah, I think for me when I read it, a
critical illness sounds like you're not going to recover.
Suze (26:11):
I don't know. You have to you have just ask.
KT (26:12):
That's the first question I want to know. OK.
Next question I have here is from Adrian, and Adrian asks,
Hi Suze, I've made the mistake of not saving throughout
my lifetime. And even though I'm married, my husband was
never my financial provider. I'm 51 years old. I plan...
Suze (26:34):
Don't tell me I caused another divorce.
KT (26:35):
No, no, no, I don't think so.
With that being said, how do I start to save
in a way that is beneficial to me at my
age when in all honesty I am just realizing I
have to start to take care of me.
Suze (26:52):
Maybe a divorce is on the horizon.
KT (26:55):
Maybe soon. Yes, I have a student loan. The mortgage
is another topic, and I know my issues in debt,
but I want to buckle down before I look up,
and I cannot. I am reading your book Women and Money,
so is that enough to get me started?
Suze (27:09):
Listen, it's a start. I'll tell you the book Women
and Money is an absolute start. Listening to the Women
and Money podcast, however, twice a week is even a
better start.
But you have to start making smart decisions with your money.
I just heard KT say you have student loan debt
(27:31):
at the age of 51. You have credit card debt
at the age of 51.
Whatever those reasons are, you first have to tackle your debt.
Don't think about saving for your future until you have
taken care of your mistakes of the past. Now I'm
not saying to you that a
(27:52):
student loan is a mistake, but an unpaid student loan
is a serious mistake because they aren't dischargeable currently in bankruptcy.
So you take care of yourself one step at a time.
Don't plan for the future until you have cleaned up
your past. Contribute obviously to only Roth retirement accounts, especially
(28:16):
if they match your contribution.
And little by little you can do this. It's not
that hard. All right, KT.
KT (28:25):
So Suze, my last question is short but sweet. What's
the difference between titling your financial asset in your trust
and naming your trust as a beneficiary?
Suze (28:37):
Well, that's actually
a good question.
KT (28:39):
Here we go.
Suze (28:40):
Listen to me, everybody.
Your only concern should not be, do my beneficiaries get
this asset without probate, because so many of you think
that the only reason for a trust is so that
the asset will bypass probate, wrong, wrong, wrong if your
(29:06):
asset is in a trust.
And a trust that has an incapacity clause like the
trust of the must have documents happens to have.
You have a stroke. Something happens. You get hit by
a car, whatever it is. Then the house or your
asset is already in trust. You have named a successor trustee,
(29:31):
the person that you designated to make decisions if you
yourself couldn't make them, and then that person can take
care of everything.
If the house is not in trust or your assets
are not in trust, but the trust is the beneficiary,
something happens to you, they can't write checks for you.
(29:53):
They can't help you. They can't do anything. They only
benefit when you have died.
A trust can serve more than just the purpose of
bypassing probate. It can serve for you to take care
of yourself when you can't do it for yourself. All right, everybody,
(30:16):
and again, every single one of you, you know, I
was talking to KT this morning.
About we... and if you have any good ideas let
me know because we're redoing our website and so KT
is featuring the Women and Money podcast and she's looking
for a...
KT (30:35):
A description, no, no, no, a description.
Suze (30:38):
Like how do you...
KT (30:39):
How would you describe in two sentences the Women and
Money podcast without it being boring and typical we want
something that that really sets this apart so if you
have a good descriptor...
Suze (30:53):
Let us know go to the Women and Money community
app or even send it in on ask Suze podcast@gmail.com.
Say idea idea we'll see it. But anyway, I was
telling her when she was asking me this, I said,
you know, KT can't we do something like...
The biggest mistake you will ever make is the mistake
(31:14):
you don't even know that you are making. Because I
really believe from my heart, everybody, that one of the
things the Women and Money podcast does, it keeps you
from making mistakes, mistakes that your financial advisor and a
major brokerage firm told you, which would have been a mistake,
a mistake of many things.
(31:38):
I don't want you to make mistakes, so, write in
what you think.
KT (31:44):
It just, it's called a description.
Suze (31:46):
So what should
KT (31:46):
the descriptor, the descriptor for
Suze (31:49):
the Women and Money podcast be. And if we happen to choose...
KT (31:53):
I'll send you a prize.
Suze (31:55):
We'll send you something seriously,
KT (31:57):
something great,
Suze (31:58):
Something really great because I just want to say one
other thing. The book I wrote, the Young, Fabulous and
Broke book that title came from.
Somebody who is listening to the TV show or my
radio show something...
KT (32:12):
We made a contest, I think.
Suze (32:13):
We chose it and we sent them a gift as well.
So let us know and maybe we'll send you a
little gift. There's really only one thing we want you
to remember when it comes to your money, and it
is this:
KT (32:26):
P eople first, then money, then things.
Suze (32:29):
Are you stay safe, stay healthy.
And make sure you make your money, make more money.
All right, everybody, till then, now we love you.
KT (32:40):
Bye bye.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.