Suze Pop-Up: What Does This All Mean?

Suze offers her take on what’s happening with the economy as a result of the new tariffs and what steps we can take to protect our money, during these volatile times.

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Episode Transcript

Suze (00:00):
April 4th, 2025. Welcome everybody to one of the first
Suze Pop-Ups. A pop up is where I really want
you to know something right now. I don't want you
to have to wait till a Thursday or a Sunday.
I want you to know right now. And given that
I'm not in my studio, Sunday, as you will hear,

(00:22):
is not a normal Suze School, but one that's really,
really important.
But here's what I want you to know right now. Listen,
I get it. I know many of you are afraid
of what's happening in the economy and the stock market.
And I cannot blame you. Please listen to me closely now.

(00:43):
I have posted this also on the Women and Money
Community app, but I know that many of you don't
use that app, which is why I am doing a
Suze Pop-Up just for you. So here's my take, everybody.
We are looking obviously at another down day for the
markets today, and you have to ask yourself why, why

(01:07):
are the markets continuing to go down, and truthfully I'm
sorry to say the answer is very easy because number one,
China has retaliated.
They have put on retaliated tariffs, and that has gotten
the investors on edge. Therefore, the markets are projected to

(01:29):
go lower as a result. Now I know that many
of you, do you have your Suze notebooks out? You should. Anyway,
I know that many of you are dollar cost averaging.
You're thinking, oh, the markets are going down. This is
the time for me to buy. I'm going to get
a bargain, whatever. Now that's still OK. All right.
But you have to hear me on this. If you

(01:51):
are going to continue with that strategy right now, you
are to do it with seriously tiny amounts. Have you
ever heard the saying, Don't catch a falling knife?
This might be a falling knife because we don't know
how other countries are going to react. There's time to

(02:12):
get in. It's not like if these markets start to
go up again that they're going to go all the
way back up to the top. You have time, so
this is not where I want you to be aggressive
and go, I've gotten in at the bottom. So no
bottom fishing here. Do you hear me?
Because in my opinion we're seeing signs, and to me

(02:33):
this feels a lot like 2022 where it's volatile, it's emotional,
it's uncertain.
So I want you to breathe. Markets obviously will eventually recover,
but not all at once. It's impossible now because they
have gone down too much, too fast, and they're down here.

(02:57):
And if these tariffs stay in place, it's going to
take a long, long time.
So remember, money you have in the market should have
been money as I've told you over and over again
is money that you did not need for at least
5 years. So just let this play out and stay calm.

(03:19):
If you are contributing to a retirement account, especially an
employer retirement account, I am begging you not to stop
your monthly contributions. Just stay the course, especially if you
have 5, 10, 15 years or longer. Keep investing steadily
because consistency, I am promising you, is your power. It's

(03:42):
your secret weapon. Let's talk about fear which all of
you are having right now.
The VIX, remember me telling you about the VIX. It's
a measure of market volatility. Well, it just surpassed 45,
and that number means that it's the highest that it's

(04:02):
been since the spike in August. When the VIX is
this high, it means fear is absolutely overwhelming logic and historically.
When sentiment is this fearful, it is not the time
to sell, so just stay put right now. Now this

(04:23):
doesn't mean that the market can't bounce, because even in
the middle of a down trend, it can bounce but
just don't react emotionally. But you know there are bright
spots here that I want you to be aware of.
Bond yields are absolutely collapsing.
So if you've got bonds, your portfolio may be back

(04:46):
to even or even showing gains. Remember a long time
ago I had many of you buy 20 year bonds,
10 year bonds, or longer term bonds, and you were
also upset because interest rates continued to go up and
the value of those bonds went down.
Well, you're either even now or you are making money

(05:06):
just that simple. There's always a silver lining somewhere if
you are diversified in your holdings. Now listen to me.
The 10 year treasury as I'm recording this is below 4%.
It's at 3.8%.
Now that's great news for mortgages. It's great news for

(05:28):
many things, but you might be thinking about refinancing sooner
than later. Now, obviously when interest rates are going down,
interest rates everywhere are going to go down.
And I've said it before and I'm going to say
it again, but you've got to listen to me right

(05:50):
now and take action today when you are hearing this,
if you want your money to be safe and sound.
My favorite CD is the Alliant Credit Union CD, and
interest rates at Alliant are not going to last, in
my opinion. I give it at most one more week,
all right.

(06:11):
Now one year treasuries are at 3.8%.
Two year treasuries as I'm recording are at 3.6%.
That's why I want you to take advantage. I don't
make money if you do this, everybody. I want you
to make more out of your money. So if you
want to keep money safe and sound right now, you

(06:33):
have to take advantage of the 12 to 17 month
CD at .com.
They're at 4.25% APR for amounts of $1000 to $74,999
and 4.3% APR for $75,000 and up. That is a

(06:58):
big difference than what treasuries are paying. So seriously for
safe money.
You might want to take advantage of it right now
cause that rate is incredible and I don't want you
to miss out on it.
Now the dollar is weak.
So if you're thinking about traveling to Europe or doing

(07:18):
things like that, now is not the time.
Gold, however, and I told you a while ago, I
want you to be investing in gold. Gold has soared.
At one point it was almost $3,200 an ounce. It's
back at $3,065 but it is turning out to be
the safe haven. Bitcoin is not holding up as a

(07:40):
safe haven, for when things like this is happening, gold
is still the safe haven.
If you have been considering Roth conversions, a lot of
you are like, Oh, I want to put some money
in a Roth. I have it in a traditional retirement account,
and I want to do a Roth. Maybe it's time
to start doing that slowly, a little bit at a time,

(08:01):
and take advantage of these down markets. Remember when you
convert from a traditional to a Roth retirement account, you
owe taxes on whatever your portfolio or the amount you're
converting is at the time.
When markets are going down, your portfolio value is going down,

(08:21):
and that's the time to convert. WTI crude, I have
to tell you now, has dropped sharply, and I mean
sharply below its long term support near $65 per barrel.
And if this breakdown holds, it could head towards $45

(08:42):
a barrel, and that is a major shift in oil,
and you will absolutely see that at your pump. As
for the stock market, I'm just going to reiterate one
more time. I want you to stay diversified. Now is
not the time to bottom fish. Don't get angry at anybody.
Don't blame this. Just, just stay smart. Stay calm.

(09:06):
And this is when the dividend paying stocks, everybody that
I was telling you about can really help stabilize your portfolio.
I looked at all my dividend paying stocks where I
have a lot of money in them, and I am
only down from the beginning of the year 0.5%, and
I'm getting the dividend. So companies like AT&T, Verizon, and

(09:28):
so forth, they've held up pretty well. So here's the
bottom line.
I want you to take this one day at a time.
I want you to stick together.
I want you to be kind to yourself. I don't
want to read in the post or anything where you
are blaming anybody. It doesn't matter. All the blame, shame,

(09:51):
and everything in the world isn't going to help your money.
Taking action, the right action, from a place of courage,
not fear, from a place of power, not weakness is
what is going to make your money, make more money.
I want you to be kind to others.
And always remember you are stronger than your fear. I

(10:15):
hope you enjoyed this Susie pop up for now. Bye bye.