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October 2, 2025 21 mins

On this special episode, Suze gives a step-by-step plan for surviving this government shutdown, with courage.  The suggestions Suze makes are not just for those people currently furloughed, it’s for all of us, so that we may be prepared for the what-ifs of life.


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Suze (00:07):
October 2, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Woman and Money
podcast and everybody smart enough to listen. Suze O here
and today's episode is not business as usual. It's not
Ask KT and Suze Anything and why is that? It's

(00:28):
because the government has shut down.
And when Washington grinds to a halt, millions, and I
mean millions of people's paychecks stop cold.
Federal employees, contractors, families, small businesses that depend on that income,

(00:50):
I have to tell you, not only is it frightening,
but in my opinion it is totally frustrating and seriously
it's just unfair, but I'm not going to get into
the politics of this.
But it's just not right. None of it is right,
just so you know. Here's what we're not going to

(01:12):
let happen, at least not on my watch.
If this has affected you, you are not going to
let this fear of what just happened paralyze you, no.
Because fear makes you hide.
And you know I've said it over and over again.

(01:32):
Fear is one of the main internal obstacles to wealth.
You also know that I have said to you courage
is one of the eight qualities of a wealthy, wealthy person.
All right, so you're not going to let fear paralyze
you right now, 'cause again fear makes you hide, but

(01:53):
courage makes you act.
So today I'm going to walk you step by step
through what you can and must do right now to
protect yourself, your money, and your future, and I'm going
to get into the stock market with all of this
as well, but really I want us to take care

(02:17):
of those that are going to be affected by this
because we do not know how long this is going
to last.
The very first thing I want you to do is
just stop.
And get honest with yourself, and I want you to
ask yourself the question. By the way, you should get
out your Suze notebooks. Just do that.

(02:40):
You have to ask yourself the question, and all of
you should do this anyway because you never know when
something like this could happen to you, not where the
government shuts down, but your corporation shuts down. You get fired,
whatever it is you have to do what I'm about
to say. You have to ask yourself what are my

(03:00):
essential expenses?
To keep a roof over your head, food on the table,
utilities and insurance. What is essential for you to live
and pay? Everything else is a want.
Those others are a need. Everything else is a want. Subscriptions,

(03:23):
eating out, extra for the kids. It's all going to
get cut right now cause you cannot afford to waste
even one dollar on something that isn't essential. Now, obviously, even
if you're affected by the federal government, you have a
lot of money. It doesn't matter. You're going to get
through this, OK.

(03:44):
But the majority of you, you know, and I know
you're all still living essentially paycheck to paycheck on some level,
so it's really important that you get real with yourselves. Next,
I need you to communicate before you default. The biggest
mistake people make in a shutdown like this is you

(04:05):
just go silent, you hide, you miss payments.
Right, you let your credit score absolutely just sink, but
on my watch again, you are not going to do that. Instead,
I want you to pick up the phone. I want
you to call your mortgage lender. I want you to
call your credit card company. I want you to call

(04:28):
your utility providers. Call your landlord, and I want you
to tell them the truth.
I'm a federal employee. I'm impacted by the shutdown. I'm
not receiving my paycheck. What hardship program do you have?
Can you waive late fees, defer payments, or reduce my
bill temporarily? Also, I've given a podcast on this. The

(04:54):
greatest words you could ever say, and three of the
greatest words you could ever say is, "could you please."
So when you're calling these people, if you don't have
the money to pay them, it's like, could you please
help me?
Could you please reduce my bill temporarily? Just use those

(05:18):
words now. Write that down, everybody, cause I have to
tell you, you would be absolutely amazed at how many
companies will work with you if you simply ask.
Because protecting your credit score really is protecting your future,
but you have to be proactive. No one is going

(05:40):
to come and rescue you. You have got to rescue yourself.
Next, if you're in a situation where you absolutely must borrow.
All right, but there's a right way and a wrong way.
What's the wrong way? Payday loans, cash advances, anything with

(06:04):
sky high interest fees that will bury you in debt.
What is the better way? It's at this point in
time I want you. Don't faint now.
I want you to use your credit cards, but only
for essentials for those needs. Use the one with the
lowest interest rate, so I want you to charge food, gas, utilities.

(06:30):
Never withdraw cash, however, on your credit cards because that's
going to cost you 21% or so.
So I want you to save any cash that you
may have in your emergency fund right now.
And instead, I want you to put everything on a

(06:50):
credit card at this point in time. Why do I
want you to do that? Because I don't know how
long this is going to last, nor do you.
And I don't want you to use up all your
cash and now go to credit cards. I'd rather you
use up your credit limit first and then you still

(07:11):
have cash just so you know. Also, if you have
a Roth IRA and all of you better have a
Roth IRA at this point in time.
You can withdraw remember any other contributions that you've made.

(07:31):
As long as you don't touch the earnings of just
the contributions without penalty regardless of age and how long
the account has been opened now, that's your last resort.
But if it's the difference really between keeping the lights
on or not, you need to know that that option

(07:53):
exists now for all of you seriously that are listening,
and I know you're thinking to yourself this doesn't affect me.
I don't work for the federal government. You're not directly
impacted by this shutdown.
I am begging you not to tune this out.
Because this is your financial wake up call.

(08:16):
Shutdowns prove one thing. You cannot rely on anyone else.
Remember me all these years I've said you have to
save yourself. The government can't save you. The economy can't
save you. Your family probably can't even save you.
But you have to save yourself.

(08:36):
So the question is, do you have an emergency fund?
Could you survive 12 months without a paycheck? I want
you to be honest to yourself.
And if you can't, I want you to start doing
that and building an eight to 12 months of must

(08:57):
pay expenses and savings right now because that is what
will give you true freedom and peace of mind. I
want you to think about it. You work for the
federal government.
And now they've shut down.
You're not gonna get a paycheck. Maybe you're an air
traffic controller and you're gonna have to work even though

(09:18):
you're not getting a paycheck. You don't have a choice.
If you had a 12 month must pay account or
emergency account that I call it.
You would be all right.
I can still pay my bills. This qualifies as an emergency,

(09:38):
and you would still be relatively calm. Those of you
out there that are freaking out, it's because you don't
have
an emergency fund, you don't have any money saved and
you don't know what you are going to do.
So therefore, you have to do certain things. If you

(10:00):
don't have that emergency fund of eight to 12 months,
I want you to go through your subscriptions, cancel what
you don't need.
Look at your spending habits. Ask yourself the question. If
my paycheck stopped tomorrow, how long could I last? And
if the answer is two weeks, one or two months,

(10:22):
I'm telling you you have work to do because shutdowns
or when you are fired or whenever it may be,
they are painful.
But they are also teachers. They teach us what happens
when we don't plan, and they remind us of the
power of planning ahead. Got that everybody? Again just like

(10:45):
with the hurricane,
you plan for the worst, but you hope for the best,
and then when something happens, you are prepared. That's why
I want you all to have a will and a
trust in the must have documents so that you can
protect your tomorrows today. But if you just keep putting
things off and not deal with reality and something happens

(11:10):
now we're in trouble. Let's talk about something
that I'm sure a lot of you are worried about. Suze,
the markets, what are the markets going to do? The
government has shut down. Should I sell? Should I sell everything?
Are you out of your mind?
Every time that there has been a shutdown, Wall Street

(11:34):
has reacted, absolutely.
But stocks may swing not just down. They may swing
up as well. So when you say, should I sell
before it gets worse, I'm telling you do not panic
here and let me just give you some facts. Let's
go back to the recent shutdown, 2019. Remember that one?

(11:59):
That one was bad, or so we thought, right?
Because it was the longest one in US history, lasting
35 days. The headlines, I'm telling you, they were terrifying.
You were all freaked. I even did a podcast on
it way back then. If you go back that far.
But here's the truth. Do you know that during that shutdown,

(12:24):
the Standard and Poor's 500 index actually went up about 10%.
Do you know that?
And about 12 months later, the S&P had gained about 26%.
Think about that. You would have thought during those 35

(12:46):
days the markets would have been destroyed and everything. They
actually went up about 10%.
I can tell you,
the other day I was looking at Colo's portfolio.
And I was going, oh God, here we go.
And we were down to a certain amount of money.

(13:08):
It had gone down about $2,000 or whatever. When I
looked Wednesday morning, it was higher. His portfolio was higher
than it was the day before they announced the shutdown.
It was the fear of it's going to shut down,
we better sell.
And now a day later it was even higher. OK,

(13:33):
let's go back to 2013, which was a six day shutdown.
Guess what?
The market rose about 3% while the government was closed
and in the year after,
it was up nearly 20%. So you must hear me

(13:55):
loud and clear, that while shutdowns may rattle your nerves,
it's only in the moment. But history has shown us
that they have been nothing more than a blip, just
a blip, everybody, and what really drives the market long
term is the Federal Reserve interest rate earnings, the strength

(14:20):
in the economy, and how much money is on the
sidelines waiting to be invested, not Washington's dysfunction.
So the truth is the only people hurt by market
swings are the ones who make emotional decisions. So if

(14:42):
you sold in the panic or if you tend to
sell in a panic, you lock in your losses, and
if you simply stay invested, you give your money time
to recover and grow. Now that happened with the tariffs.
Aren't you glad you didn't sell? It happened

(15:03):
when the pandemic happened, the markets went down. I was
telling you, don't sell, buy, do certain things, aren't you
glad you did.
So what should you do now? You need to stay
the course. If you're investing for retirement, keep contributing to

(15:23):
your Roth 401k, your Roth IRA. Do not stop, do
not pull money out. You need to be focused on quality,
these broad-based index funds if you want.
Diversified portfolios but also the individual stocks that we have
been talking about that just are fabulous, fabulous, everybody. So

(15:50):
if you combine those individual stocks that we've been talking
about with a percent of your portfolio in VOO, you're
going to be just fine. You need to look at
what's happening here.
And use this as a test of your courage.
And that volatility seriously is the price of admission for

(16:15):
long term growth like I was literally hoping that these
markets would go down big time.
So that I could buy more of the things that
had been going straight up.
So if a shutdown, for instance, makes you lose sleep,
it's not the shutdown that's the problem, it's that your
portfolio may be too risky or you are somebody who

(16:39):
just maybe doesn't belong in the stock market at all.
And listen to me if you have cash on the sidelines.
Any volatility that you're actually seeing here now.
It is in my opinion, an opportunity for you to
invest that money.

(17:01):
Remember strong companies, the ones that we have been talking
to you about for the past year or so, they
don't become weak just because Congress can't pass a budget.
So sometimes temporary dips are your chance to buy at
a discount. But, and you know me by now, don't you?

(17:25):
Tell me you know me by now. I only want
you to invest money
that you are not going to need for at least
five or 10 years, preferably longer. I only want you
to invest money when your emergency or, like I say,
the must pay account is in place.

(17:46):
And you have to get that the stock market is
for long term goals. It is not for you to
invest money that you may need in the next few years,
and it's not for you to invest, oh, something's gone
up 10% or 20%. I should sell. No, it is
for years from now, long term investing, so the shutdown's

(18:09):
going to come and it's going to go. Markets are
going to rise and they're going to fall.
But financial independence really everybody belongs to those who don't
get shaken by headlines. You want to build wealth? Do
you want to build wealth? I want you to build wealth.

(18:30):
I want you to make your money, make more money.
Then repeat after me and write down this new truth
that I want you to say over and over again.
I do not sell out of fear.
I do not buy out of greed.
And I invest with courage and discipline.

(18:54):
So what is it that I want you to take
from this podcast? I want you to remember that courage
is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing what
you must do even when you are afraid.
And I get it, everybody. I get that it's scary

(19:14):
when your paycheck stops. I get that it's exhausting to
fight through all the red tape.
But you are stronger than this shutdown. You are stronger
than any market decline.
You have the power to cut back. You have the
power to negotiate. You have the power to protect yourself

(19:35):
and your family.
And when it comes to your investments, courage, as I
said earlier, one of the qualities of wealth is staying
the course when everyone else is panicking.
That's how wealth is built, so repeat after me.

(19:55):
I am my own greatest rescuer.
You're gonna rescue yourself.
And that, my friends, is how you get through a
government shutdown with clarity, with courage, and with conviction that
no matter what happens in Washington you have the power

(20:18):
to secure your own financial life.
So until next time there's only one thing I want
you to remember when it comes to your money, and
it's this people first, then money, then things. Now you
stay safe and strong. See you soon. Bye bye.
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