November 24, 2024 • 19 mins
Suze starts by asking us to think about the power of our words, specifically “can” and “can’t.” Then, Suze tells us what we need to think about, with regards to Social Security and how we can best secure our financial future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Suze (00:41):
November 24th, 2024. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money
podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen, Suze O,
here and today is Suze School. So make sure you
get out your notebooks along with either that or pen
and paper, whatever it is because there are some numbers
(01:01):
here that I am going to give you that you
might just want to contemplate when I give them to you.
What does that mean, Suze Orman? I don't know, but
it kind of sounded good at the second. Anyway, I
love talking to myself so much so that this morning
when KT brought me a cup of coffee into my
(01:22):
little studio, she was saying to me, what are you
mumbling about?
And she said, who are you talking to? And I
said me, she said, why are you talking to yourself?
And I said, I'm trying to figure something out, KT.
(01:43):
And she said, what are you doing, Suze Orman? I said,
I've been reading emails and so many times within an email,
I'm finding that all of you, some of you whoever's
writing in somewhere in that email, you use the word can't,
I can't do this. We can't have that. We can't
(02:06):
afford this. We can't, C-A-N-T, we can't.
And she said so...
and I said, we gotta change that. KT we've got
to change. Can't, I can't, to
and how do you expect to do that by talking
(02:27):
to yourself? And I said, no, I want people to
understand truthfully when they say the word can't what it means.
What does it mean? Suze? And I said, when you
say the word can't, cant
that stands for creating a negative thought. Think about that
(02:52):
everybody right now,
when you say the word can't, you have created a
negative thought.
Then of course, in KT's way, she said, so what
is can mean? I said, well, that's what I was
talking to myself about. She said, OK, just tell me.
And I said, can, can is one word that can
(03:16):
cancel all negativity. And she said, well, you better open
up your podcast with that when you still remember it.
So here I am. But actually
what I just did there is so important. I really
believe that words, your thoughts, your actions, but mainly your words,
(03:39):
I have to tell you that they have the power
to create or the power to destroy. And the choice
is up to you when you speak negative words,
when you think negative words or thoughts that negativity is
within you keeping you from doing that, which you wanna
(04:01):
do or you're able to do but you just use
the wrong words.
So I'm asking all of you as we approach the
Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, I ask all of you every
time you say the word can't in any sentence. Now,
(04:22):
I can't come at 6:30 I can't do this. I
can't do that.
Creating a negative thought. You don't want negativity in you
at this point in time or ever for that matter,
just change it to the word can.
Rather than saying I can't come at 6:30. Why don't
(04:45):
you just say I can come at six or seven.
Which do you prefer?
You don't have to use the word. Can't change it
to can in every answer and everything that you say.
All right, thats a Suze School for today. Not just joking. Now,
(05:07):
the other thing that I've noticed the word can't with
a lot, which is really how this all came up,
is that the people who are on Social Security because,
you know, the Women and Money podcast has a lot
of men and women who are on Social Security and very
afraid that something's going to happen to Social Security, but they're
(05:29):
really afraid. Not so much for them, although they're a
little faked for them, but for their children,
Suze, my kids aren't doing that well. My kids are
a lot older. I have a 50 year old who
actually still lives with me. Suze, I don't have anything
to leave to him and all he's planning on is
(05:50):
social security. Do you think it will be there when
he becomes 67
in 17 years from now, do you Suze?
And the answer to that question is yes. I think
it is going to still be here. Not just in
(06:10):
another 17 years, but really for a long, long time.
I don't want you to worry if you're currently on Social Security.
I don't want you to worry if you're 10 years
away from it, 20 years away from it, whatever it
may be, Social Security in some form
(06:32):
will be here. What do I mean by some form?
It is possible that they'll figure out a new formula
for those who are younger right now and won't start
collecting Social Security for 20 or 30 years or whatever it
may be
where the benefit is figured differently. So it's not as
(06:52):
high as it would have been if nothing changed.
Is it possible that rather than collecting full Social Security at
67
maybe full Social Security, the full retirement age will be 70.
Is it possible that maybe they'll find new ways to
(07:13):
invest that money and make more money so that there's
actually enough money in Social Security and none of these things
have to happen and it's no longer a worry,
but no matter and I've said this before, no matter
what happens, you always have to be prepared.
(07:38):
Now, I am not here to be a fear monger
to put down any policies or anything that's going on.
But
I am shocked by the fact
that in just a month or so, it's going to
be 2025. And the reason that that shocks me is
(08:01):
I remember for the past 10 years, 20 years, even
30 years ago,
it was projected that in 2035, 2033 Social Security would
probably run out of money and all the benefits would
(08:23):
have to be reduced by some percentage.
And I remember in 2010 thinking of course, they're gonna
solve it. Now. 2035 is just 10 years away. There
are many people who say it will be 2033.
So now we're talking about eight years away
(08:47):
and that is nothing.
So therefore, what do I think we should do? Seriously?
I could only hope and pray that the administration figures
out a way to solve this crisis. But I want
to see if I can just make a little sense
to you right now, not to scare you, but just
(09:08):
let's look at this really realistically speaking,
which is the reason that Social Security is having such a
hard time
is that we have more people receiving Social Security benefits
than people generating the income to pay the taxes to
(09:32):
pay for the Social Security benefits.
What concerns me is artificial intelligence, everybody.
And I talked about this before
I said I don't think it's impossible
that by 2030 or so we could have a really
(09:54):
high unemployment rate.
And the reason that I said that about 10 years
ago now is that you have all of this artificial
intelligence doing things much faster, quicker, better, really, in some
cases than human beings.
(10:15):
Machines, robots, artificial intelligence on computers, they don't get sick,
they don't need health benefits. They don't need a whole
lot of things. They don't need to be replaced on
a sick day because there is no sick days. They
don't argue about, they're not going to come into the office.
They like working at home.
It's a serious problem on some level. And I think
(10:38):
about way back when, when I lived in San Francisco
and I would go across the bridge
either to the Bay area or back to San Francisco,
whatever it was. There was a person in a toll
booth that took your 50 cents, then tolls went up
and they took your dollar. And now even 15 years
(11:00):
ago you went through and there wasn't one person there really,
they're all there with little things that are automated and
everything either goes on your license plate or whatever it is.
You can see it coming. My main concern about that, everybody,
is this:
If artificial intelligence and I don't know if it's going
(11:23):
to or not. If artificial intelligence gets to the place
where everything is changed, people are replaced, the workforce continues
to decrease in size because they're just not needed anymore.
That means less people paying into the tax system,
(11:47):
which means that the Social Security Trust Fund
doesn't even have as much money as it has to
day coming into it. So, could that 2035 day be
moved up? I don't know.
But these are serious things that we need to think about. Now,
(12:08):
before I did this podcast, I have to tell you honestly,
I'm like, oh, Suze... Thanksgiving is coming up and then
there's Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, all these holidays. You
don't want to be a downer.
And then I thought I'm not being a downer. This
is also when KT kind of came in, right? I'm
not being a downer. I'm being realistic
(12:29):
and I always think you have to have a plan.
I think it's important that all of us start to
count on ourselves.
If you're figuring out your future
and part of your future retirement plan is I'm going
(12:51):
to get this much money in social security. My spouse
is going to get this much money in social security
and that is part of your retirement formula.
I would like you to see if you can make
it work for yourself
without including Social Security now. Fine. Maybe that's too drastic for you.
(13:16):
But I sure would like to see if you could
do that. If you feel like, no, I don't wanna
do that, then I would suggest to you
that whatever your Social Security benefit is going to be
according to projections, reduce it by half. Just see if
you can make your life work with a reduction of
(13:39):
Social Security when planning your retirement future and income. That's number one.
Number two, recently, there's been some important changes for 2025
that are coming to 401k plans that will affect part
(13:59):
time workers. Specifically, part time employees will need to work
at least 500 hours per year for two consecutive years
to become eligible for the 401k plan or 403 B
(14:19):
or TSP whatever it may be.
So, lets say you don't have a career right now
and you only do part time work because you maybe
have to stay at home and take care of the
kids or whatever. Please remember what I just said to
you
because a 401k especially a Roth 401k is going to
(14:41):
be essential the same way a Roth IRA is going
to be essential
to be able to supplement your income as you get older,
especially if something happens to social security. What if you
want to start saving more and more for retirement? I
(15:03):
just scared you, you decided after this podcast, you're gonna
make saving money your number one priority and you need
to know that for 2025 the contribution limits have absolutely
gone up.
So write these down for a 401k or 403 B
or 457 plan. You can now for a standard contribution,
(15:25):
individual contribute up to $23,500 you can do that.
The catch-up contribution, you know, when you're 50 or over,
they allow you to put in money that's gonna stay
at $7500. It is unchanged from 2024. All right. However,
(15:46):
listen closely, there is a new catch-up contribution limit now,
for those people who are only age 60 to 63
only 60 to 63 that, that catch-up amount is now $11,250.
(16:10):
Big difference. So the truth of the matter is that
your total contribution limit now between the employee, the employer
and everything is up to 70 thou. It's a lot.
So just know that because there's a lot of you
between the ages of 60, 63 that work for an
employer
(16:31):
and you should take advantage of it, especially if you're
in a Roth 401k 403 B or 457 plan.
Do you hear me? Let's talk about IRA contributions that
includes whether it's a Roth IRA or a traditional pre-taxed, IRA.
(16:52):
The standard contribution for 2025 it's gonna be the same
as it was in 2024 $7000 a year.
The catch-up contribution limit for age 50 over is still $1000.
So that's unchanged from 2024. What is changed is the
M A G I limits to qualify for a contributory
(17:16):
Roth IRA. So the Roth IRA phase out range for
a single person is now 100 and 50,000
M A G I to 165,000 M A G I -
modified adjusted gross income. That's a nice five or $6000
(17:37):
raise there. And for married, filing jointly, it's $236,000 phases
out after 246,000. So that's great. Now, I know these
numbers probably have just driven you crazy.
But there's a point to why I'm doing this number one,
this allows you and do you see the trend that's
(17:59):
happening here? The trend that's happening here is that they're
increasing these amounts because they want you to save more
and more. They want you to save more and more
so that you're able to take care of yourselves
really? And don't you want that for yourself? Everything that
(18:20):
I said to you today was not to scare you,
but it was to propel you into action, to propel
you into saying I can do this
to propel you to stop thinking that you can't
and to really know that your future security is in
(18:42):
your hands.
So until Thursday, aren't you glad you turned into this one?
Everybody anyway, until Thursday, when Miss Travis and I will
be here for our Thanksgiving podcast.
If you can just remember people first. And when I
(19:04):
say people, I mean, you, I don't mean other people
I mean, you people first then money, then things and
if you could do it in that priority, I promise
you you can be unstoppable.
November 24th, 2024. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money
podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen, Suze O,
here and today is Suze School. So make sure you
get out your notebooks along with either that or pen
and paper, whatever it is because there are some numbers
(01:01):
here that I am going to give you that you
might just want to contemplate when I give them to you.
What does that mean, Suze Orman? I don't know, but
it kind of sounded good at the second. Anyway, I
love talking to myself so much so that this morning
when KT brought me a cup of coffee into my
(01:22):
little studio, she was saying to me, what are you
mumbling about?
And she said, who are you talking to? And I
said me, she said, why are you talking to yourself?
And I said, I'm trying to figure something out, KT.
(01:43):
And she said, what are you doing, Suze Orman? I said,
I've been reading emails and so many times within an email,
I'm finding that all of you, some of you whoever's
writing in somewhere in that email, you use the word can't,
I can't do this. We can't have that. We can't
(02:06):
afford this. We can't, C-A-N-T, we can't.
And she said so...
and I said, we gotta change that. KT we've got
to change. Can't, I can't, to
and how do you expect to do that by talking
(02:27):
to yourself? And I said, no, I want people to
understand truthfully when they say the word can't what it means.
What does it mean? Suze? And I said, when you
say the word can't, cant
that stands for creating a negative thought. Think about that
(02:52):
everybody right now,
when you say the word can't, you have created a
negative thought.
Then of course, in KT's way, she said, so what
is can mean? I said, well, that's what I was
talking to myself about. She said, OK, just tell me.
And I said, can, can is one word that can
(03:16):
cancel all negativity. And she said, well, you better open
up your podcast with that when you still remember it.
So here I am. But actually
what I just did there is so important. I really
believe that words, your thoughts, your actions, but mainly your words,
(03:39):
I have to tell you that they have the power
to create or the power to destroy. And the choice
is up to you when you speak negative words,
when you think negative words or thoughts that negativity is
within you keeping you from doing that, which you wanna
(04:01):
do or you're able to do but you just use
the wrong words.
So I'm asking all of you as we approach the
Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, I ask all of you every
time you say the word can't in any sentence. Now,
(04:22):
I can't come at 6:30 I can't do this. I
can't do that.
Creating a negative thought. You don't want negativity in you
at this point in time or ever for that matter,
just change it to the word can.
Rather than saying I can't come at 6:30. Why don't
(04:45):
you just say I can come at six or seven.
Which do you prefer?
You don't have to use the word. Can't change it
to can in every answer and everything that you say.
All right, thats a Suze School for today. Not just joking. Now,
(05:07):
the other thing that I've noticed the word can't with
a lot, which is really how this all came up,
is that the people who are on Social Security because,
you know, the Women and Money podcast has a lot
of men and women who are on Social Security and very
afraid that something's going to happen to Social Security, but they're
(05:29):
really afraid. Not so much for them, although they're a
little faked for them, but for their children,
Suze, my kids aren't doing that well. My kids are
a lot older. I have a 50 year old who
actually still lives with me. Suze, I don't have anything
to leave to him and all he's planning on is
(05:50):
social security. Do you think it will be there when
he becomes 67
in 17 years from now, do you Suze?
And the answer to that question is yes. I think
it is going to still be here. Not just in
(06:10):
another 17 years, but really for a long, long time.
I don't want you to worry if you're currently on Social Security.
I don't want you to worry if you're 10 years
away from it, 20 years away from it, whatever it
may be, Social Security in some form
(06:32):
will be here. What do I mean by some form?
It is possible that they'll figure out a new formula
for those who are younger right now and won't start
collecting Social Security for 20 or 30 years or whatever it
may be
where the benefit is figured differently. So it's not as
(06:52):
high as it would have been if nothing changed.
Is it possible that rather than collecting full Social Security at
67
maybe full Social Security, the full retirement age will be 70.
Is it possible that maybe they'll find new ways to
(07:13):
invest that money and make more money so that there's
actually enough money in Social Security and none of these things
have to happen and it's no longer a worry,
but no matter and I've said this before, no matter
what happens, you always have to be prepared.
(07:38):
Now, I am not here to be a fear monger
to put down any policies or anything that's going on.
But
I am shocked by the fact
that in just a month or so, it's going to
be 2025. And the reason that that shocks me is
(08:01):
I remember for the past 10 years, 20 years, even
30 years ago,
it was projected that in 2035, 2033 Social Security would
probably run out of money and all the benefits would
(08:23):
have to be reduced by some percentage.
And I remember in 2010 thinking of course, they're gonna
solve it. Now. 2035 is just 10 years away. There
are many people who say it will be 2033.
So now we're talking about eight years away
(08:47):
and that is nothing.
So therefore, what do I think we should do? Seriously?
I could only hope and pray that the administration figures
out a way to solve this crisis. But I want
to see if I can just make a little sense
to you right now, not to scare you, but just
(09:08):
let's look at this really realistically speaking,
which is the reason that Social Security is having such a
hard time
is that we have more people receiving Social Security benefits
than people generating the income to pay the taxes to
(09:32):
pay for the Social Security benefits.
What concerns me is artificial intelligence, everybody.
And I talked about this before
I said I don't think it's impossible
that by 2030 or so we could have a really
(09:54):
high unemployment rate.
And the reason that I said that about 10 years
ago now is that you have all of this artificial
intelligence doing things much faster, quicker, better, really, in some
cases than human beings.
(10:15):
Machines, robots, artificial intelligence on computers, they don't get sick,
they don't need health benefits. They don't need a whole
lot of things. They don't need to be replaced on
a sick day because there is no sick days. They
don't argue about, they're not going to come into the office.
They like working at home.
It's a serious problem on some level. And I think
(10:38):
about way back when, when I lived in San Francisco
and I would go across the bridge
either to the Bay area or back to San Francisco,
whatever it was. There was a person in a toll
booth that took your 50 cents, then tolls went up
and they took your dollar. And now even 15 years
(11:00):
ago you went through and there wasn't one person there really,
they're all there with little things that are automated and
everything either goes on your license plate or whatever it is.
You can see it coming. My main concern about that, everybody,
is this:
If artificial intelligence and I don't know if it's going
(11:23):
to or not. If artificial intelligence gets to the place
where everything is changed, people are replaced, the workforce continues
to decrease in size because they're just not needed anymore.
That means less people paying into the tax system,
(11:47):
which means that the Social Security Trust Fund
doesn't even have as much money as it has to
day coming into it. So, could that 2035 day be
moved up? I don't know.
But these are serious things that we need to think about. Now,
(12:08):
before I did this podcast, I have to tell you honestly,
I'm like, oh, Suze... Thanksgiving is coming up and then
there's Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, all these holidays. You
don't want to be a downer.
And then I thought I'm not being a downer. This
is also when KT kind of came in, right? I'm
not being a downer. I'm being realistic
(12:29):
and I always think you have to have a plan.
I think it's important that all of us start to
count on ourselves.
If you're figuring out your future
and part of your future retirement plan is I'm going
(12:51):
to get this much money in social security. My spouse
is going to get this much money in social security
and that is part of your retirement formula.
I would like you to see if you can make
it work for yourself
without including Social Security now. Fine. Maybe that's too drastic for you.
(13:16):
But I sure would like to see if you could
do that. If you feel like, no, I don't wanna
do that, then I would suggest to you
that whatever your Social Security benefit is going to be
according to projections, reduce it by half. Just see if
you can make your life work with a reduction of
(13:39):
Social Security when planning your retirement future and income. That's number one.
Number two, recently, there's been some important changes for 2025
that are coming to 401k plans that will affect part
(13:59):
time workers. Specifically, part time employees will need to work
at least 500 hours per year for two consecutive years
to become eligible for the 401k plan or 403 B
(14:19):
or TSP whatever it may be.
So, lets say you don't have a career right now
and you only do part time work because you maybe
have to stay at home and take care of the
kids or whatever. Please remember what I just said to
you
because a 401k especially a Roth 401k is going to
(14:41):
be essential the same way a Roth IRA is going
to be essential
to be able to supplement your income as you get older,
especially if something happens to social security. What if you
want to start saving more and more for retirement? I
(15:03):
just scared you, you decided after this podcast, you're gonna
make saving money your number one priority and you need
to know that for 2025 the contribution limits have absolutely
gone up.
So write these down for a 401k or 403 B
or 457 plan. You can now for a standard contribution,
(15:25):
individual contribute up to $23,500 you can do that.
The catch-up contribution, you know, when you're 50 or over,
they allow you to put in money that's gonna stay
at $7500. It is unchanged from 2024. All right. However,
(15:46):
listen closely, there is a new catch-up contribution limit now,
for those people who are only age 60 to 63
only 60 to 63 that, that catch-up amount is now $11,250.
(16:10):
Big difference. So the truth of the matter is that
your total contribution limit now between the employee, the employer
and everything is up to 70 thou. It's a lot.
So just know that because there's a lot of you
between the ages of 60, 63 that work for an
employer
(16:31):
and you should take advantage of it, especially if you're
in a Roth 401k 403 B or 457 plan.
Do you hear me? Let's talk about IRA contributions that
includes whether it's a Roth IRA or a traditional pre-taxed, IRA.
(16:52):
The standard contribution for 2025 it's gonna be the same
as it was in 2024 $7000 a year.
The catch-up contribution limit for age 50 over is still $1000.
So that's unchanged from 2024. What is changed is the
M A G I limits to qualify for a contributory
(17:16):
Roth IRA. So the Roth IRA phase out range for
a single person is now 100 and 50,000
M A G I to 165,000 M A G I -
modified adjusted gross income. That's a nice five or $6000
(17:37):
raise there. And for married, filing jointly, it's $236,000 phases
out after 246,000. So that's great. Now, I know these
numbers probably have just driven you crazy.
But there's a point to why I'm doing this number one,
this allows you and do you see the trend that's
(17:59):
happening here? The trend that's happening here is that they're
increasing these amounts because they want you to save more
and more. They want you to save more and more
so that you're able to take care of yourselves
really? And don't you want that for yourself? Everything that
(18:20):
I said to you today was not to scare you,
but it was to propel you into action, to propel
you into saying I can do this
to propel you to stop thinking that you can't
and to really know that your future security is in
(18:42):
your hands.
So until Thursday, aren't you glad you turned into this one?
Everybody anyway, until Thursday, when Miss Travis and I will
be here for our Thanksgiving podcast.
If you can just remember people first. And when I
(19:04):
say people, I mean, you, I don't mean other people
I mean, you people first then money, then things and
if you could do it in that priority, I promise
you you can be unstoppable.
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