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Classic Suze School: The Keys to a Successful Relationship · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:08
  Robert: September 24th, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
• 0:12
  Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen, Robert, the
• 0:16
  Robert: producer here, and for today's classic Suze School. We're gonna
• 0:20
  Robert: go back a couple of years for part of an
• 0:22
  Robert: episode that originally dropped on Suze and KT's wedding anniversary.
• 0:27
  Robert: You'll hear their keys to making a successful relationship, not
• 0:31
  Robert: only with each other, but with their money as well.
• 0:34
  Robert: And just as a reminder, we'll have a brand new
• 0:36
  Robert: podcast for you this coming Sunday, and now, here's Suze.
• 0:46
  Suze: I gave a seminar to about 200 people, and there
• 0:51
  Suze: was one question that seemed to strike a chord with
• 0:55
  Suze: the audience more than really any question that I was asked,
• 1:00
  Suze: and the question was:
• 1:02
  Suze: "Suze, how do you deal with a relationship, when maybe
• 1:08
  Suze: you're the saver, your spouse or partner is not? How
• 1:11
  Suze: do you deal with it with kids?" But it seemed
• 1:14
  Suze: like that was when the audience really, really perked up.
• 1:19
  Suze: How do you have a successful relationship when it comes
• 1:25
  Suze: to finances?
• 1:27
  Suze: Miss Travis is sitting in the room with us right now.
• 1:34
  Suze: KT, what makes our relationship successful, financially speaking?
• 1:41
  Suze: What do you think that is, and what advice...
• 1:45
  KT: Well, the first is so easy, Suze. We both have 100%
• 1:51
  KT: transparency and communication with each other. We have never ever
• 1:56
  KT: hidden or not disclosed or we're afraid to talk about
• 2:01
  KT: money with each other ever. And for me speaking about
• 2:05
  KT: money has always been extremely easy, very easy, which makes
• 2:09
  KT: me the perfect partner for Suze Orman.
• 2:12
  KT: But I think that is the key is communication, communication, communication.
• 2:17
  Suze: Besides communication, because obviously everybody, it is really, really important
• 2:22
  Suze: to get out your little Suze notebooks. What is the
• 2:26
  Suze: key or keys to a successful relationship financially speaking, because
• 2:33
  Suze: if you can't be successful financially speaking, trust me, you
• 2:39
  Suze: are not gonna be successful on any other level. You're
• 2:41
  Suze: just not. Remember, one out of two people who get married,
• 2:46
  Suze: get divorced... couples. That's the number one reason for divorce is
• 2:50
  Suze: arguments over money.
• 2:52
  KT: What's the number two for you?
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  Suze: Number two for me, truthfully, is to, yes, we're totally
• 2:59
  Suze: one with our love, our communication, our relationship.
• 3:05
  Suze: But also you are one with your money.
• 3:09
  KT: Oh totally.
• 3:09
  Suze: With your money. I am one with my money, even
• 3:13
  Suze: though we know your money and my money is our money.
• 3:18
  Suze: You have total autonomy over the money that is in
• 3:22
  Suze: your name. You are not dependent upon me in terms
• 3:26
  Suze: of how to invest it. You have your own relationship
• 3:30
  Suze: with the brokerage firm, that you're totally independent with it.
• 3:34
  Suze: You look at your statements, you look at my statements.
• 3:38
  Suze: I don't look at statements because I look at them online,
• 3:41
  Suze: and I'm looking at it every single day.
• 3:44
  Suze: But I think the key, everybody, for our success is
• 3:48
  Suze: that KT has power over her own money.
• 3:53
  Suze: And I think we've set up our relationship in such
• 3:56
  Suze: a way that KT has trust that the power in
• 4:01
  Suze: this relationship is not because maybe I make more money
• 4:05
  Suze: than KT.
• 4:06
  KT: Always have. She's always had far more money than me,
• 4:11
  KT: but that doesn't matter..
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  Suze: Who's really the powerful one in this relationship?
• 4:15
  KT: KT.
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  Suze: And why do you think that is?
• 4:17
  KT: I, I know it is.
• 4:19
  Suze: But why? Because so many times, KT, seriously, people get
• 4:24
  Suze: into when they're in a relationship that the person who
• 4:28
  Suze: has the most money, the person who makes the most money,
• 4:32
  Suze: has the most power in the relationship. So why is that?
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  Suze: That really in our relationship and everybody knows this to
• 4:41
  Suze: be true, you have the most power.
• 4:44
  KT: I make decisions.
• 4:45
  Suze: And I don't?
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  KT: You, you weigh in. You're a Gemini. She's a Gemini,
• 4:52
  KT: which means that she weighs in. She changes her mind.
• 4:55
  KT: She's not sure. She goes back, she analyzes things. I
• 4:58
  KT: can make a decision, flat out. Whether it's right or wrong is
• 5:03
  KT: another podcast, but I do make decisions and I stick
• 5:07
  KT: by them, and I have incredible confidence in my decisions.
• 5:11
  Suze: And because she has confidence in her decisions and because
• 5:16
  Suze: she has power and knowledge of who she is in life.
• 5:21
  Suze: When she decides something, even if I disagree with it,
• 5:25
  Suze: I say yes, do it, because my job in this
• 5:30
  Suze: relationship isn't always to be right, isn't to be the
• 5:33
  Suze: one that makes decisions and do da da da da. No.
• 5:36
  Suze: The key in this relationship, everybody, is for me to
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  Suze: make sure that KT feels mutually respected.
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  Suze: Admired, honored that when she says something, I say, OK,
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  Suze: that I don't put her decisions down, that I do
• 5:56
  Suze: come to her and I ask that we have equal power.
• 6:03
  KT: Yeah, I think Suze, it's respect, it's trust, it's communication.
• 6:08
  KT: It's not even equal power. It's not the word power.
• 6:11
  KT: It's more the word um. you know, sharing, we're kind
• 6:15
  KT: of in it together. We're in it together, and I
• 6:19
  KT: think that we have very, very uniquely different roles, but
• 6:23
  KT: we respect each other's roles, and one role isn't more
• 6:27
  KT: important than the other.
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  Suze: But we're talking about finances now, KT. So when we
• 6:33
  Suze: first met.
• 6:35
  Suze: Because a lot of people say, "Suze, my spouse is
• 6:38
  Suze: so horrible with money," or "Suze, my spouse doesn't understand money.
• 6:42
  Suze: I do. They don't wanna learn about money." Whatever it
• 6:46
  Suze: may be.
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  KT: When Suze and I met, which was very, well, we
• 6:50
  KT: were 50 when we met each other.
• 6:53
  Suze: Actually when we met, we were, we were about, you
• 6:55
  Suze: were 48. I was 49.
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  KT: So, and we were both, I was a baby millionaire
• 7:00
  KT: and Suze was a very big millionaire, so we already
• 7:04
  KT: met each other with significant wallets, let's put it that way.
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  Suze: But you knew nothing about that wallet.
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  KT: I knew nothing about finances. I was always extremely responsible
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  KT: and good with the money I had. I wish I
• 7:20
  KT: knew Suze a lot earlier. I did not know anything
• 7:24
  KT: about finances, investments, things like that, but I was very responsible,
• 7:29
  KT: not in debt, never in debt.
• 7:31
  Suze: Never in debt. So that's a big key, everybody, when
• 7:34
  Suze: you get in a relationship, you better know is your
• 7:37
  Suze: spouse to be or partner to be in debt? What
• 7:41
  Suze: do you know about them financially speaking?
• 7:44
  Suze: Write this down. You need to be as intimate financially
• 7:48
  Suze: speaking as you are personally with your spouse or your partner.
• 7:54
  Suze: Don't be afraid to talk about money. So when KT
• 7:59
  Suze: and I first met, and this is the main reason
• 8:03
  Suze: I wanted you on today, KT. When we first met...
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  Suze: I wasn't afraid to ask KT serious questions about how
• 8:14
  Suze: much money do you have, what do you owe on
• 8:17
  Suze: your home, if anything? Do you have a car? Are
• 8:20
  Suze: you leasing it? What do you have? and what's going
• 8:24
  Suze: on in your finances? When KT answered, the truth of
• 8:30
  Suze: the matter is what KT?
• 8:33
  KT: When I met her, I was so proud that I
• 8:35
  KT: had this whole life insurance policy sold to me while
• 8:40
  KT: I was working in Hong Kong, making a lot of money,
• 8:44
  KT: and this was sold to me under the guise that
• 8:46
  KT: this would be a great way to have a retirement
• 8:49
  KT: fund in my later years, and I was so excited.
• 8:53
  KT: I was real proud. I thought, oh, this is gonna
• 8:55
  KT: impress her, she's gonna love this.
• 8:58
  KT: Well, that's not exactly what happened.
• 9:01
  Suze: She put in $15,000 a year on her birthday into
• 9:06
  Suze: this for 10 years. She deposited $150,000 in this policy.
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  Suze: Now you tell the rest, KT.
• 9:19
  KT: She looked at me. She said, OK, we're gonna cancel.
• 9:21
  KT: I said, What?
• 9:22
  Suze: And why are we gonna cancel? What was your cash value?
• 9:25
  KT: It was very little. It was $50,000.
• 9:27
  Suze: Now here's my question to you. During the time that
• 9:29
  Suze: you owned this investment, had you ever bothered to even
• 9:33
  Suze: look at what it was really worth?
• 9:36
  KT: No, not really, because I just trusted it was a
• 9:39
  KT: great thing I was doing every year by putting that
• 9:42
  KT: money in.
• 9:43
  Suze: This is very important. Whether you're in a relationship, you're
• 9:47
  Suze: not in a relationship, you cannot just do something every
• 9:51
  Suze: single year or month and not look at the results
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  Suze: of what you are doing. KT had never bothered to
• 9:59
  Suze: look at what was that $15,000 a year doing.
• 10:05
  Suze: Well, I'll tell you what it was doing. It was
• 10:07
  Suze: making her insurance agent rich.
• 10:10
  KT: It was, yeah, he got a big, and I like,
• 10:13
  KT: I liked him so much, and I said, he sends
• 10:16
  KT: me a birthday card and, and holiday cards every year,
• 10:19
  KT: and she said, of course he does, KT.
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  Suze: The point of the matter is I wasn't afraid when
• 10:25
  Suze: we first met to ask her about her money, look
• 10:29
  Suze: at her money, see that after all those years, 10
• 10:33
  Suze: years of doing something, she only had 50,000 in this investment.
• 10:39
  Suze: So we had open communication for her to listen, but
• 10:43
  Suze: not all of a sudden go, no, Suze...
• 10:45
  Suze: this was good and stand by it so that she
• 10:49
  Suze: didn't have to appear wrong. She immediately canceled it. So
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  Suze: many of the things, truthfully, KT, that you were doing
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  Suze: based on the advice of other financial people, whether it
• 11:00
  Suze: was with your home, your car, whatever it may be,
• 11:04
  Suze: they were all wrong. They were just wrong, but we
• 11:10
  Suze: had the open communication to make it right.
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  Suze: So that's what's important is for you to be able
• 11:19
  Suze: to talk about everything. We knew each other's FICO scores.
• 11:24
  Suze: We looked into everything about both of our personal finances.
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  Suze: Nothing was a secret between us. What's important is that
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  Suze: during that time, KT, from then 'till now...
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  Suze: It's amazing how you scour everything, right? The mail comes in.
• 11:46
  Suze: Obviously we own a lot of individual stocks, probably close
• 11:51
  Suze: to 70, believe it or not, and when you own
• 11:55
  Suze: an individual stock, you get these prospectuses. You get these
• 11:59
  Suze: annual reviews. KT, what do you do with everyone that
• 12:03
  Suze: comes in?
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  KT: Every single one I look and, and you also get
• 12:05
  KT: an individual statement on the buy and sell call for
• 12:09
  KT: the stocks. I look at every single one, every one,
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  KT: and if there's something that looks a little odd or
• 12:16
  KT: I don't understand a term.
• 12:19
  KT: I immediately either look it up or make a phone
• 12:22
  KT: call or ask Suze what does this mean.
• 12:24
  Suze: Right now, the reason that that is important is that
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  Suze: KT went from knowing nothing about her money, even though
• 12:34
  Suze: she was good with saving her money.
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  Suze: To now knowing every possible thing there is to know
• 12:42
  Suze: about her money except understanding inherited IRAs which she never
• 12:49
  Suze: wants to hear about that topic again as long as
• 12:51
  Suze: you live.
• 12:52
  KT: Tell them what I said after we did that podcast.
• 12:54
  KT: I said, Suze, I'd better die before you.
• 12:58
  KT: Because if I, if you die before me and I
• 13:01
  KT: have to deal with this thing and listen to this
• 13:03
  KT: podcast about inherited IRAs, I'm gonna go crazy.
• 13:06
  Suze: The good news is though, KT, you're my spouse, so
• 13:10
  Suze: you don't have to think about a lot of that stuff.
• 13:13
  Suze: You just need to know you are an eligible designated beneficiary,
• 13:18
  Suze: and really, given that we're almost the same age, it
• 13:21
  Suze: will just go into your account. That's all you need
• 13:24
  Suze: to remember, all right? That's it. Simple, right?
• 13:27
  Suze: The next thing that you need to write down is
• 13:31
  Suze: that if you're in a relationship, you both need to
• 13:36
  Suze: take responsibility for everything.
• 13:39
  Suze: We both look at the bills that come in. We
• 13:43
  Suze: make sure that everything that we're charged for, whatever it is,
• 13:47
  Suze: that it is something that we purchased, that it is
• 13:51
  Suze: something that we have, we both look at it. It's
• 13:55
  Suze: just not KT's responsibility when it comes to our monthly
• 13:58
  Suze: expenses and everything. It is both of our responsibilities.
• 14:04
  Suze: So if you want a great personal relationship, you have
• 14:08
  Suze: to have a great financial relationship where you are both
• 14:13
  Suze: wanting to know everything about what's going on with your
• 14:17
  Suze: money every single month. So, you need to make a
• 14:21
  Suze: date once a month, that when everything comes in, you
• 14:25
  Suze: sit down and you look at it, but not like, oh,
• 14:28
  Suze: I have to look at it.
• 14:30
  Suze: You do it like we get to look at what
• 14:34
  Suze: our money that we have put all our efforts into
• 14:37
  Suze: earning is making for us. Oh, we get to look
• 14:41
  Suze: at how we are spending our money. Are we spending
• 14:45
  Suze: it wisely or are we wasting it? Oh, we get
• 14:49
  Suze: to cut expenses here, whether you have to cut expenses
• 14:53
  Suze: or not. You get enjoyment out of saving.
• 14:58
  Suze: True saving. And if you can start to do those
• 15:02
  Suze: things and be open, then you will have a successful
• 15:07
  Suze: personal relationship as well. How does this relate back to
• 15:12
  Suze: the topic that I started with?
• 15:15
  Suze: In the same way that when you get into a
• 15:18
  Suze: personal relationship with somebody, you enter it with the desire
• 15:24
  Suze: and the hope, that you're in it for the long term,
• 15:29
  Suze: in essence, 'till death do you part, that is part
• 15:34
  Suze: of the vows that many of you have taken.
• 15:38
  Suze: And as you know, my belief with money, is money
• 15:43
  Suze: is just a physical manifestation of who you are. You know, everybody,
• 15:48
  Suze: that I believe that. So the truth of the matter is,
• 15:52
  Suze: you are also in a long term relationship with your money,
• 15:59
  Suze: and when you invest, you invest your money just like
• 16:04
  Suze: you're investing in a personal relationship.
• 16:08
  Suze: You're investing in it for the long term. It is
• 16:12
  Suze: not short term. It's not five years, two years, it's
• 16:17
  Suze: long term, and just like in a personal relationship where
• 16:21
  Suze: there are ups, there are downs obviously there are fights.
• 16:25
  Suze: There are disagreements. KT and I have arguments. We have disagreements.
• 16:30
  Suze: We do things that we wish we hadn't or we
• 16:33
  Suze: say things that sometimes we wish we hadn't, but since
• 16:36
  Suze: we know we're in this for the long term...
• 16:39
  Suze: Our thoughts never go to, oh this is it, we're
• 16:43
  Suze: out of it. Same thing with money and your investments.
• 16:48
  Suze: There are times when it's up, times when it's down,
• 16:52
  Suze: but you cannot just think, no, I'm out of it.
• 16:55
  Suze: I'm selling. I'm gone. If it's a good quality investment portfolio,
• 17:01
  Suze: you are in it for the long term.
• 17:04
  Suze: So let the ups and downs happen, whether it's with
• 17:09
  Suze: your money, in your relationship, no matter what, but if
• 17:14
  Suze: you understand everything and the long-term goals that you have,
• 17:20
  Suze: Then in the long run, you too will be happy
• 17:24
  Suze: to watch KT celebrate your anniversary. What do you want
• 17:29
  Suze: to say, my love?
• 17:30
  KT: I love you.
• 17:32
  Suze: Do you love me more than I love you?
• 17:35
  KT: We love each other the same.
• 17:36
  Suze: There you go. So there's only one thing that we
• 17:39
  Suze: want you to remember, people first...
• 17:42
  KT: Then money.
• 17:43
  Suze: Then things, and respect each other, honor each other, love
• 17:48
  Suze: each other, and remember you're in it for the long term.
• 17:53
  Suze: Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay unstoppable.