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Classic Suze School: Don’t Make This Mistake · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

0:09
Robert: July 16th, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast
0:12
Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi, everybody, Robert,
0:17
Robert: the producer here. Hope you're staying cool and safe. For
0:21
Robert: today's classic Suze School, we are reaching way back to
0:24
Robert: the very first year of the podcast from June of 2019.
0:28
Robert: I want you to keep that in mind, and Suze
0:31
Robert: will mention the month and the year in the middle of the show.
0:33
Robert: This was before we added, and everyone's smart enough to
0:37
Robert: listen to the title of the show, and this was
0:39
Robert: also before KT started being your avatar and reading your
0:44
Robert: emails to Suze. So you'll hear Suze mention the original
0:47
Robert: title of the Thursday episodes.
0:49
Robert: The lesson is what's important, so please enjoy this classic
0:54
Robert: Suze School called Don't Make This Mistake.
1:02
Suze: So today I want to talk about finances with you.
1:07
Suze: And the reason I want to do this is I
1:09
Suze: am pissed. I am pissed at the number of emails
1:14
Suze: that I am getting from teachers and nurses, two groups
1:21
Suze: of women.
1:22
Suze: Mainly women, and I understand there are men in this
1:25
Suze: group as well, but the emails are all from women,
1:28
Suze: so I'm going to address women on the Women in
1:31
Suze: Money podcast that are talking about you are being suckered
1:37
Suze: into investing your money in life insurance policies,
1:43
Suze: for you to save for your future. How many times
1:47
Suze: do I have to tell you that life insurance is
1:50
Suze: life insurance, investments are investments, and they never, ever, ever
1:55
Suze: should be combined? It's one thing,
1:57
Suze: when you're getting a life insurance policy or an annuity
2:01
Suze: or something like that, that's giving you lifetime income, and
2:05
Suze: that gives you security, there are places for that in
2:08
Suze: your life. But there are no places in your financial life,
2:13
Suze: for you to purchase an insurance policy where you invest
2:18
Suze: in this policy to get tax-free income later on in life,
2:22
Suze: to get growth, and to replace retirement savings for you.
2:27
Suze: It is driving me crazy. I don't like getting the
2:31
Suze: emails that I am currently getting, which tells me so
2:36
Suze: much about the bad financial advice that happens to be
2:40
Suze: out there.
2:42
Suze: Now I get that people love to make a target
2:46
Suze: out of me. I get that.
2:49
Suze: I get that sometimes magazine articles can be written about
2:52
Suze: me and just say, what does Suze Orman know? Well,
2:55
Suze: here's what I know.
2:57
Suze: I know that I care about you. I know that
3:01
Suze: there isn't one other financial expert at my stature that
3:08
Suze: takes their personal time to answer your emails.
3:15
Suze: I know that most of the money podcasts that are out
3:18
Suze: there are out there for what? For getting your money
3:22
Suze: so they can make you their client, they're talking to
3:25
Suze: you about this, they're talking to you about that. But
3:27
Suze: most of them are not talking to you about the
3:29
Suze: fact that you don't have any money. All you have
3:32
Suze: is credit card debt. You've been in a relationship for
3:34
Suze: 30 years and now that relationship is down the drain,
3:37
Suze: and how do you start over without absolutely nothing?
3:41
Suze: Now, this is a one of a kind podcast. This
3:46
Suze: is a valuable podcast because in this podcast, you and
3:52
Suze: I talk about the things that most other podcasts don't
3:57
Suze: even go near. Most other magazine articles don't even go near.
4:02
Suze: It's about you, your money, what your money reflects in
4:07
Suze: your life, how you never fix a financial problem with money.
4:11
Suze: And the gift of understanding who you are and becoming
4:16
Suze: the strong, smart, and secure women I all want you
4:18
Suze: to be.
4:19
Suze: That gift can turn your life into solid gold.
4:24
Suze: But that can't happen if our teachers and our nurses
4:29
Suze: are all being taken advantage of. Now, here's what I'm
4:32
Suze: gonna do today. Two people have written me, and here's
4:37
Suze: the first email. It's from Denise. She says, Hi, Suze,
4:42
Suze: This product was sold to me as a savings account
4:44
Suze: for nurses. It is actually a whole life insurance policy.
4:49
Suze: I bought it as a new grad nurse in 1992.
4:54
Suze: It is $75 a month. What do I do with it?
5:01
Suze: The reason that I chose Denise's email and question to
5:07
Suze: read to all of you, even though I know this
5:10
Suze: isn't Ask Suze, this is about Suze's pissed off about
5:14
Suze: something today, and I want us all to go to
5:16
Suze: Suze School.
5:18
Suze: I'm reading this to you because this is what will
5:23
Suze: happen to you 27 years from now, because that is
5:27
Suze: how long Denise has been paying for this. This is
5:30
Suze: what will happen to you if you don't understand right
5:35
Suze: here and right now why whole life insurance is not
5:41
Suze: an investment that you want to touch on any level.
5:46
Suze: Denise sent to me all of her illustrations that she
5:50
Suze: was given when she purchased this, and if you look
5:54
Suze: at the illustration that she was given.
5:58
Suze: You would see, and I want you to learn from
6:01
Suze: this now, you would see that there's a guaranteed cash value,
6:06
Suze: a guaranteed death benefit on the illustration.
6:10
Suze: And there's also a projected cash value illustration and a
6:16
Suze: projected death benefit.
6:18
Suze: Her projected illustration showed her that after 27 years of
6:25
Suze: putting in $75 a month, that she would have $52,000
6:32
Suze: of cash value for her to take out.
6:35
Suze: Fabulous when you look at it. She also looked, I'm sure,
6:40
Suze: at the projected death benefit of this illustration, which was $200,000.
6:47
Suze: After we communicated for a bit, Denise actually contacted this company,
6:55
Suze: and here's what she found out. She found out that
7:00
Suze: she put in $24,300 over 27 years.
7:07
Suze: And if she was going to cash out that policy today, oh, no, no,
7:11
Suze: she would not be getting $52,000. She would be getting $28,399.
7:22
Suze: In 27 years, she made $4,000. You, you think you
7:30
Suze: could retire on that, that kind of returns? You really
7:33
Suze: think so?
7:34
Suze: And the death benefit was only $136,000.
7:41
Suze: Now the question is, what could Denise have done if
7:48
Suze: she simply had gotten great financial advice?
7:52
Suze: So pretend now that you are Denise, that somebody is
7:58
Suze: trying to sell you a whole life insurance policy, that
8:03
Suze: you are a nurse, you are a teacher, you are
8:05
Suze: anybody out there, and they're telling you what a fabulous
8:08
Suze: investment this is, and they're showing you the projected illustrations
8:13
Suze: of what it's going to be worth.
8:15
Suze: You need to disregard what they are projecting and look
8:21
Suze: at the guaranteed cash values and the guaranteed death benefit,
8:27
Suze: and if those numbers impress you, fine, but they won't,
8:31
Suze: they won't.
8:32
Suze: Because all of that money is going to pay what
8:35
Suze: for the insurance agent's commission, for the insurance company, for
8:39
Suze: everybody else to make money off of you than you.
8:43
Suze: Do you know that if Denise simply had taken $75
8:48
Suze: a month and invested it month in and month out
8:51
Suze: for 27 years in a good no load Standard and
8:56
Suze: Poor's $500 index fund like a Vanguard fund,
8:59
Suze: that just returned an average annual interest to her or
9:03
Suze: returned to her of 8% a year, she would have
9:05
Suze: $82,000 today versus $28,399. oh, but you're thinking to yourself,
9:14
Suze: but Suze, she didn't have any insurance. Do you know
9:18
Suze: that back then she could have purchased a $200,000, 30
9:23
Suze: year level term policy.
9:26
Suze: And that would have cost her $15 a month.
9:30
Suze: And she could have invested the $60 a month difference
9:35
Suze: between the $75 she was giving this company. And after
9:38
Suze: 27 years, she'd have $65,000 invested in that Vanguard fund.
9:44
Suze: Really? 65,000 versus 28,000?
9:50
Suze: The point that I am making here is if anybody,
9:55
Suze: and I mean anybody, approaches you.
9:59
Suze: And I don't care if they get to come into
10:02
Suze: your hospital and speak to you. I do not care
10:05
Suze: if they get to come into your school and speak
10:08
Suze: to you. I do not care if they show up
10:11
Suze: on a military base.
10:13
Suze: They are not sanctioned by the hospital. They are not
10:17
Suze: sanctioned by the school. They are not sanctioned by the
10:20
Suze: military or the church or the synagogues or wherever you
10:23
Suze: go and you hear these people. These are people wanting
10:27
Suze: to make money off of you.
10:29
Suze: So if you ever hear anybody say to you, oh,
10:33
Suze: I have a great way for you to save for
10:37
Suze: your future tax-free, and they mention the word insurance in
10:41
Suze: there on any level, you get up and you walk out.
10:48
Suze: Just that simple.
10:51
Suze: But it wasn't just Denise that this happened to 27
10:55
Suze: years ago. Last October, this happened to a woman by
11:00
Suze: the name of Turquoise, and here is what she says.
11:07
Suze: Hi Suze, my name is Turquoise. I'm a 32 year
11:11
Suze: old nurse from the Bay Area.
11:14
Suze: I've started listening to your podcast and I am so
11:17
Suze: scared that I made a huge mistake. I had met
11:22
Suze: a financial advisor and after several no strings attached meetings,
11:29
Suze: decided to invest money in a life insurance policy.
11:34
Suze: I opened it with $5,000 and have been giving him
11:40
Suze: $600 a month since last October.
11:44
Suze: As I am recording this podcast, everybody, it is June,
11:49
Suze: the middle of June in the year 2019.
11:54
Suze: The way it was explained to me multiple times because
11:58
Suze: numbers aren't my thing was that this was to be
12:02
Suze: considered like a savings of sorts. Should I need money,
12:05
Suze: I would have access to it. If I die, my
12:08
Suze: children will get money. I have two young children, and
12:12
Suze: it would be there when I retired to use to
12:15
Suze: supplement my 401k as tax-free income.
12:21
Suze: Warning bells, warning bells. The reason I know I am
12:25
Suze: reading you an email, even though it isn't Ask Suze
12:28
Suze: Anything on Thursdays, is because you have to learn from this.
12:33
Suze: And this is a serious email because this woman, thank God, Turquoise,
12:40
Suze: wrote in, and she's only been doing this since October
12:44
Suze: and again, we're in the middle of June. So, all right,
12:47
Suze: we're not losing that much.
12:49
Suze: But at 32 years of age, we do not have
12:52
Suze: $9,000 to lose or $5,000 to lose. You don't have
12:57
Suze: a penny to lose.
12:59
Suze: So therefore, that's why I'm doing this today.
13:04
Suze: She goes on to say, I asked about an IRA,
13:09
Suze: but it was explained to me that I make too
13:12
Suze: much to have one, and I would have to fund
13:15
Suze: it in some convoluted way at the end of the
13:18
Suze: year instead of just steadily adding money every month. It
13:23
Suze: wasn't the first time I've heard that. A rep from
13:26
Suze: Merrill Lynch once told me the same.
13:30
Suze: The reason The Women and Money podcast is so important,
13:36
Suze: is that you have got to understand how everything works yourself.
13:42
Suze: If you just decide to rely on financial advisors from
13:47
Suze: these major brokerage firms or
13:48
Suze: wherever you are finding them or wherever they are finding
13:51
Suze: you and you are not aware of how everything works,
13:56
Suze: you are going to be taken advantage of. You absolutely are,
14:02
Suze: and I don't want that happening to you. I wrote
14:05
Suze: Turquoise back and after the shock of her realizing it
14:10
Suze: was really me, here's what went on. I wrote her
14:13
Suze: and I said, can you imagine?
14:17
Suze: For $600 a month you could at your age, assuming,
14:23
Suze: let's just say assuming she was in great health, she
14:26
Suze: could have purchased a 30 year level term policy for
14:31
Suze: $300 a month with a death benefit of $500,000 more
14:37
Suze: than this was giving her.
14:39
Suze: And then she could have been using the $300 a
14:42
Suze: month difference because remember she was investing $600 a month
14:47
Suze: to fund a contributory Roth IRA and in 30 years
14:52
Suze: at an 8% annual average rate of return, she would
14:55
Suze: have $500,000 that would all be tax-free.
15:03
Suze: Turquoise was simply looking for a way again to invest,
15:09
Suze: so that it could be tax-free. She could have access
15:12
Suze: to it. You understand when you put money into a
15:15
Suze: contributory Roth IRA, you can take out any money you
15:21
Suze: originally put in without taxes or penalties whatsoever, regardless of
15:27
Suze: your age or how long that account has been open.
15:32
Suze: So that money, a lot of it, what you're putting
15:35
Suze: in is liquid to you.
15:39
Suze: And so now I'm conversing with her and I'm telling
15:42
Suze: her this, and again, it goes back and forth, but
15:45
Suze: I can't have a Roth IRA. I make too much money.
15:49
Suze: I ask her some questions and she absolutely could have
15:54
Suze: a backdoor Roth IRA, that convoluted IRA that one of
15:59
Suze: the advisors told her, oh, you had to fund it
16:01
Suze: all at once at the end of the year. Who cares?
16:05
Suze: All Turquoise had to do, because she had no other
16:09
Suze: IRAs whatsoever, is open up a non-deductible IRA.
16:16
Suze: And convert it to a Roth. That's all she had
16:19
Suze: to do. That was it.
16:22
Suze: Not so complicated. It's actually, in her case, quite easy.
16:27
Suze: So now I'm telling her, all right, I want you
16:31
Suze: to cash this policy out and stop it now. Now,
16:35
Suze: she has put in, in total, $9,900.
16:43
Suze: Do you know how much, how much she's going to
16:45
Suze: be able to get back of the $9,900 that she
16:49
Suze: put in of this investment that the adviser told her
16:54
Suze: she could get her money any time she wanted with
16:56
Suze: just a little penalty. It wasn't a big deal. She's
16:59
Suze: only going to be able to get back $5,112. I
17:03
Suze: don't know. I think almost $5,000 penalty in a few
17:07
Suze: month period of time is a serious deal.
17:10
Suze: Serious, I asked her, did you know how much commission
17:14
Suze: he made off of you? No, I have no idea.
17:17
Suze: So again, you're listening to me. If you make an
17:21
Suze: investment with anybody, they need to tell you how much
17:25
Suze: commission they made. You don't need to ask them. They
17:28
Suze: should be telling you, and if they're not telling you,
17:32
Suze: you should get up and walk out.
17:34
Suze: Because you deserve to know how much you are paying
17:37
Suze: for something, and for some reason, women you get afraid
17:41
Suze: to ask. Oh, I'll hurt his feelings. I'll hurt her feelings.
17:45
Suze: It's all right.
17:47
Suze: I trust them. You should not. You should not trust
17:52
Suze: anybody but yourself.
17:54
Suze: And so, therefore, you don't trust somebody, you educate yourself.
18:00
Suze: You learn at what you're investing in or don't invest.
18:03
Suze: How many times do I have to say to you,
18:05
Suze: it is better to do nothing than something you do
18:07
Suze: not understand?
18:09
Suze: I know I tell you stories. I tell you stories
18:12
Suze: about people and relationships and things like that, but this
18:16
Suze: is the story you need to hear because this is
18:19
Suze: the story of your life. This is the story of
18:21
Suze: what could go wrong. This is the story of Denise
18:24
Suze: and Turquoise and how many other women and men who
18:28
Suze: are teachers, who are working as nurses, who are working,
18:33
Suze: serving everybody. And yet,
18:37
Suze: we are just allowing them to be ripped off, but no,
18:39
Suze: we're not allowing them to be ripped off. They are
18:43
Suze: allowing themselves to be ripped off because they did not
18:46
Suze: take the time to get educated.
18:50
Suze: I am using them as examples for you. Because if
18:55
Suze: something goes wrong in your life, financially speaking, and you
19:01
Suze: know that this podcast is here, you know that you
19:05
Suze: can write in and ask, and you don't, I can't
19:10
Suze: help you. But you can. You can help yourself.
19:16
Suze: Listen to this podcast. Tell everybody you know about this podcast.
19:20
Suze: Make this podcast a part of your life,
19:24
Suze: so that you can become the strong, smart, and secure
19:29
Suze: women that you were born to be.