Episode Transcript
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Suze (00:30):
July 2nd, (can you believe it?) 2025. Welcome everybody to
the Women and Money podcast, as well as everybody smart
enough to listen. Suze O here, and I'm coming to
you early. I know, I know. It's supposed to be
tomorrow when we drop the podcast, but we're dropping it
one day early because number one, the holiday is coming up.
(00:53):
We have guests coming.
And I have something that I want every single one
of you to do if it makes sense for you
to do it. Now, when I started this podcast this year,
I wanted the theme to be "Make Your Money, Make
More Money." Do you remember that? Make your money, make
(01:17):
more money. And what absolutely confuses me...
Confuses me and kind of keeps me up at night
sometimes is how so many of you, when I talk
to you, you're scared to death. You don't know what
to do with your money. You want to make sure
that it's making the most. And when I ask you
(01:38):
where is your money right now, you tell me it's
in a savings account at a bank.
And I go, and why is it there? And you
tell me cause you are afraid to put it anywhere else.
Like Suze, I used to put it into Treasuries, but
now I'm afraid that the Treasury's going to go under.
(01:59):
So I took it all out of Treasuries and I
put it in my bank account. Or,
you tell me, like my friend just told me the
other day who lost his mother, approximately 1 year ago.
We were talking to him about how is he doing,
what is he doing with his money, as I talked
to everybody about, and he said, Well, you know, Suze,
(02:22):
she left me $100,000.
And really, you know, I didn't know what to do
with it, so what did he do with it? He
left it at a bank and I said, What do
you mean you left it at a bank? He said,
I've had it in a savings account at a bank
down the street from me for the past year.
(02:42):
And I said, and can you tell me the interest
rate that you're getting on it?
And he said, I think it's about 0.60%, something like that.
I don't remember.
Right, so let's just say it was .60, but I
have to tell you, the savings national average in banks...
(03:04):
0.38%. So maybe .60%'s a little high, but let's just
say that's true. So I said wait a minute, are
you telling me that for one full year, he said, yeah,
it's a full year now, Suze, maybe even a little longer.
That you have left that money just sitting in a
(03:26):
savings account, and he said yes.
I said, do you realize that if it's true what
they're paying you is .60%?
That over that entire year.
Do you have any idea how much interest you made?
And he said, maybe a few $1000. He said, I
(03:48):
don't know. And I said, you're lucky if you made $600.
And I said, why...
would you do that? Do you need this money? He said, No.
I said, Can you lock this money up for a year,
2 or 3? He said, Yes.
I said, so why did you just let it sit there?
(04:11):
And he said, because it was easy, it was convenient,
and I thought, why not? And I said, I'll tell
you why not.
Because rather than just having made $600 because your money
was sitting in a bank account, you could have easily
made in a certificate of deposit $44,500 a year. That
(04:36):
is a big difference.
OK, so when we got off the phone with him,
I started to ask other people just out of curiosity,
do you have money in a savings account? Do you
have money at a bank? Do you have money just liquid?
And people would tell me, absolutely.
(04:57):
I have anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 to somebody had
close to $200,000 just sitting in a savings account.
And I'm like I just can't even believe it.
So to that end I decided, you know what, how
(05:19):
many of you out there, and I need you to
be honest with me right now. You have money sitting
in a savings account that you do not need. Come on,
be honest with me.
But actually more important than being honest with me, you
need to be honest with yourself.
(05:41):
Because if you have money that you don't need simply
sitting in a savings account, making a 0.5% or whatever,
you are not making your money, make more money. If anything,
you're actually after taxes, inflation, and everything, you are losing
(06:05):
money year in and year out.
And given in times like we have now where inflation
is still here, the cost of food is still high,
rents are still high, interest rates on mortgages are still high,
insurance premiums are still high. Every single one of you
(06:25):
needs to make your money make more money. You need
to make your money make the most possible money it
can make. Do you understand that?
Now, I understand that so many of you have written
in and said you don't want to do treasuries.
(06:46):
And you ask me, Suze, what is a good interest
rate that I could get on a certificate of deposit,
and that is why I wanted today to be the
day that this podcast drops.
Listen to me closely.
Alliant Credit Union, which you know has been the sponsor
(07:09):
of this podcast for a long time.
After conversing with them and talking with them.
Just for Suze Orman listeners on this podcast. So you're
not gonna see this advertised really anywhere else. It's mainly
for all of you.
(07:30):
They are willing to offer starting today, and you better
take them up on this.
A 12 month certificate for 4.30 APY and for those
of you who don't know, APY stands for annual percentage yield.
So if you hold your funds in that 12 month
(07:53):
certificate for the entire term, you will get 4.30 APY
on it. Now if you compare that rate
to other things that are out there right now, you
will see it is a great, great rate, especially because
it's at a safe institution. It's safe everybody, whether you're
(08:18):
already a member at Alliant Credit Union or not, just
go to myalliant.com. That's my M Y A L L
I A N T.com.
There you'll find all the terms you need to open
either an Alliant certificate with that interest rate of 4.30
(08:42):
APY or you will become a member there and it
doesn't cost you anything to do so.
You need to know that I do not make a penny.
If you decide to do it or you decide not
to do it, so many of you think I get
paid to say these things, and if you do it,
(09:02):
I make more money. Wrong, wrong, wrong. That's true for
this as well as any stock I have ever mentioned.
I don't get paid to say something like that. However,
I do want you to get paid to make your money,
make more money by if you have money in a
(09:24):
savings account at a bank, wherever it may be making
0.5% interest or whatever you're not going to need it
for at least a year. Why would you not immediately
go to My Alliant A L L I A N T.com?
(09:45):
And sign up for the one year certificate for 4.30 APY.
It's something I'm serious that all of you should be
taking advantage of. I'm waiting for my certificate to mature
this month sometime later on at Alliant Credit Union, and
(10:09):
I'm only hoping
that this will still be available. So what you have
to understand is I don't know how long they can
stay at this interest rate. Again, this was a special
for the Women and Money podcast listeners.
And so therefore I'm asking all of you
(10:32):
to take advantage of it now when you buy a
certificate at Alliant Credit Union, the minimum is $1000. So
it's not like you have to put in $10,000 50,000 dollars.
You have $1000 that's just been sitting. All right, do
it with $1000. If you have more that has just
(10:54):
been sitting, do it with more.
But it is really, really important to everybody that you
take advantage of this.
So that is essentially what I wanted to tell you
all today. So again, when it comes to your money,
(11:14):
it is really, really important that you make your money
make more money.
Now another way that you need to make your money
make more money is too many of you when I
am talking to you again or you are writing me,
you are still investing your money in traditional 401ks or
(11:41):
traditional IRAs. Have you all lost your mind.
And when I ask you why, you tell me because
you want the tax write off. April 21st of 2024,
I did a podcast. Don't bears with Uncle Sam, which
(12:03):
I explain in that podcast that it does not matter.
If you're making 300,000 a year, 500,000 a year, I
don't care how much money you're making a year. You
are making the absolute biggest mistake in life if you
don't take advantage of your Roth retirement accounts at work.
(12:28):
And if you qualify, your Roth retirements that you can
open up as an individual, an IRA Roth, and if
you are making too much money of modified adjusted gross income,
if you don't have a traditional IRA or a SEP
IRA right now, OK.
Then you can do a back door Roth. Do you
(12:51):
hear me? What's so upsetting to me is I was
talking to another friend. So this is going to be
a podcast about Suze talking to her friends who drive
her crazy anyway, but it's only because they don't get it,
and maybe it's my fault they don't get it, but
(13:11):
they should get it by now.
But then KT doesn't get it, so what can I
tell you when it comes to Roth? And she was
telling me how she has money in a SEP IRA
cause she makes too much money to qualify for a
Roth IRA. Remember, for 2025, if you're a single person,
(13:36):
you can make up to $150,000 a year of modified
adjusted gross income.
To do what contribute the full $7000 a year to
a Roth, if you are under 50.
Or $8000 a year if you are 50 or older.
(13:56):
Once you're at $150 and you go to 165, after
$165 you no longer qualify. If you're married finally and jointly,
it's up to 236,000. So if you make just below that.
You can then qualify for a Roth. Once it goes
to 246,000 or above, you no longer qualify. That's when
(14:21):
you could do a backdoor Roth as long as you
don't have a traditional,
or even a SEP IRA back to my friend. So
she tells me how she has a SEP IRA, and
that's exactly what her accountant wants her to do because
her accountant told her she makes too much money, which
(14:42):
she does.
She makes too much money to qualify for a Roth,
so I said, Did your accountant tell you that you
could convert whatever money you have in a SEP IRA
and you could convert it to a Roth cause there
are no income limitations on it whatsoever when you're converting
(15:06):
and of course you said no, he never told me
that I could convert it.
So now she's on a plan of converting to a
Roth IRA.
Just that simple. And in fact for those of you
who qualify for a SEP IRA, all right, so you
(15:26):
put money in a SEP, you get a tax write
off for it, no problem, and let's say you put
30 or $40,000 into it.
Right after you've done that, if you want, you could
convert it to a Roth, and yes, now you're going
to pay taxes on it, but it evens itself out.
(15:48):
But that's how you actually get more money into a
Roth IRA than if you were able to do a
Roth IRA on its own.
So this is another way of your money making more money.
And why does that make your money make more money
(16:10):
to convert and use a Roth? Again, I'm asking all
of you to listen to the April 21st, 2024 podcast
that I did.
Don't be partners with Uncle Sam, and I promise you
you will get it.
And then you will hopefully never do a traditional IRA
(16:33):
or 401k again. However, don't make the mistake if you
happen to have a large amount of money already in
a traditional 401k retirement plan, do not convert it all
at once to a Roth because you will owe ordinary
income taxes on it in the year that you convert.
So do it little by little and see a CPA.
(16:58):
Next, the way that you make your money, make more
money is that you understand the tax laws and how
things work. What's recently upset me is that I've gotten
a few emails saying, Suzy, I owe money on my mortgage.
I owe $70,000. I have $100,000 in my IRA.
(17:23):
And I'm going to take out that $100,000.
And I'm going to pay taxes on that and get
out of debt.
Now the reason they have to take out 100,000 in
their tax bracket.
And the penalty they're going to have to pay to
take it out, it's going to cost them $30,000 to
(17:47):
do so. But they felt that that was a fine
thing to do because they have a half a million
dollars in their IRA.
That is not making your money make more money. That
is actually losing money because when you lose $30,000 and
(18:08):
that money is no longer there to grow for you
and in fact that other $70,000 isn't there to grow
for you.
In the long run you lose out and you make
less money, so I tell you that because you are
never to take money out of a pre-taxed retirement account
(18:31):
to pay off your debt, to pay off a mortgage,
you are not to do it. It will never, ever,
ever make sense. However, I can tell you this if
you had had that money in a Roth retirement account.
Then possibly you could have taken out $70,000 income tax free,
(18:54):
especially if the account had been opened at least 5
years and you were over 59 and a half. Hey,
you could have taken it out totally tax free.
So a Roth IRA is the way to go, but
do not make the mistake.
Of taking money out of a pre-taxed retirement account to
(19:15):
pay off any kind of debt, do you hear me?
You should always know that any of your retirement accounts
are essentially protected against bankruptcy, so just don't do it now.
I could go on and on with this.
But I really wanted this to be a short podcast
(19:37):
and truthfully because today in its own right is Financial
Independence Day by the offer that Alliant Credit Union is
putting out there to all of you, we don't know
how long it will last. So.
Don't assume it's going to be there, but again, it's
4.30 APY for a 12 month certificate, as long as
(19:59):
you hold it for all 12 months. Go to myalliant
A L L I A N T.com.
And take advantage of it right now. And just remember
you don't need to call Alliant to open up an
account there. You can easily open a certificate by simply
(20:20):
going directly to again myalliant.com and just follow the prompts
just that easy.
Cause if you don't I take advantage of it next
time I go and I say, Can you do something
for these people? Can you give them something that only
the listeners can have and things like that, they'll say, Why?
(20:43):
They don't do it anyway. You need to take advantage
of it if it makes sense for you. But bottom line,
every one of you
really needs to make your money, make more money. All right, everybody,
until Sunday when it will be Suze School again and
(21:06):
we'll get back on a regular schedule, there's only one
thing that I want you to remember when it comes
to your money.
Normally I would say people first, then money, then things.
Now you stay safe, but what am I going to
say today? You need to make your money, make more money.
All right, everybody, bye bye and happy July 4th. You
(21:30):
stay safe.
Robert (21:32):
Regarding the certificates Suze just talked about, exclusions and restrictions apply.
Early withdrawal penalties do apply. Fees may reduce earnings on
the account, and any monthly withdrawals or transfers reduce earnings.
Alliant is federally insured by NCUA. Visit myalliant.com for full disclosures.