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Take The Courage Challenge · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

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  Suze: December 14th, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money
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  Suze: podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen. And yes,
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  Suze: today is another Suze School, and we're almost coming down
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  Suze: to the end of another year. Last Sunday, I did
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  Suze: a Suze School about a woman that we decided to
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  Suze: call Susan and what happened to her in terms of
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  Suze: her very good friend
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  Suze: asking her to take her money from a successful financial
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  Suze: adviser where she was making money and give it to
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  Suze: this woman's son who was a brand new financial adviser
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  Suze: just so he could look like he was doing well
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  Suze: and attracting big clients and cause her son was only
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  Suze: going to charge her 1% versus this extraordinary adviser that
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  Suze: was charging her 1.5%. If you don't know what I'm
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  Suze: talking about, go back to last Sunday and listen to it.
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  Suze: Well, I have to tell you that podcast generated more email.
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  Suze: In a way that I didn't expect.
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  Suze: So many of you wrote and said, Suze, that happens
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  Suze: to me all the time, not necessarily about me transferring
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  Suze: my account, but I just get so afraid. One friend
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  Suze: tells me to do this, another friend tells me to
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  Suze: do that. My spouse tells me to do this. I'm
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  Suze: just so afraid. And what can you tell me about
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  Suze: being afraid?
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  Suze: So, what's interesting is that I hear from so many women,
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  Suze: you would imagine that, the Women in Money podcast, and
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  Suze: everybody smart enough to listen. But what I love so
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  Suze: much about this podcast is that really the majority of
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  Suze: people that are listening are 50, 60, 70, 80, and
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  Suze: so on.
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  Suze: I love that, because there's not another podcast out there
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  Suze: that specializes in getting financially mature, financially older, the decisions
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  Suze: you have to make and face when you are ill,
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  Suze: when you are old, you can't work anymore. And I
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  Suze: remember when I was 45 years of age and my
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  Suze: first book was "You've Earned It, Don't Lose It, Mistakes
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  Suze: You Can't Afford to Make When You Retire." But what
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  Suze: did I know about retirement, really? I was 45.
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  Suze: Now I am 30 years older than that, and I
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  Suze: know a lot about retirement. I know about getting ill.
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  Suze: I know about making mistakes. I know certain things. So
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  Suze: I love that I have my elderly community, and I
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  Suze: love the ones that are young enough, 25, 30, that
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  Suze: are enjoying it as well.
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  Suze: But what is still true from so many women is this:
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  Suze: regardless of your age, regardless of your income level, even
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  Suze: your background, all of your stories sound the same.
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  Suze: That you're earning more than ever before, you're saving, you're investing,
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  Suze: you're doing everything that I've told you to do over
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  Suze: all these years, but deep down you are all still afraid.
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  Suze: And I got two or three emails about three weeks ago,
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  Suze: and these women were so accomplished, and the two of
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  Suze: you know who you are, because I wrote you back
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  Suze: significant long emails to help you and raise you up,
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  Suze: not so much from your finances, but out of your
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  Suze: fear and out of your self-doubt.
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  Suze: But all of you, you're still scared, you're scared that
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  Suze: the market's gonna crash. You're scared that you're gonna make
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  Suze: just one mistake and you're gonna lose it all. You're
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  Suze: scared that somehow it's going to all slip away.
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  Suze: You know, I used to call it that we all
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  Suze: have this bag lady syndrome that we imagined ourselves, not me,
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  Suze: by the way, that we imagined ourselves being powerless and
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  Suze: penniless and living on the streets.
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  Suze: And the only way that could ever happen.
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  Suze: It is if you're powerless, because remember you and your
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  Suze: money are one and when you are powerless you tend
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  Suze: to make mistakes with your money but when you're powerful
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  Suze: you always tend to do the right thing and I
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  Suze: just have to be honest, you know, cause it's starting
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  Suze: to get to me, for I can teach you what
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  Suze: to invest in but I have to tell you, everybody,
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  Suze: that's just not enough.
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  Suze: But I also need to teach you about fear because
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  Suze: you can have money and still not have peace, and that,
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  Suze: my dear friends is not the way to live life. Remember,
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  Suze: as I just said a second ago, you and your
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  Suze: money are one. So if you fear your money, you
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  Suze: in essence are fearing yourself.
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  Suze: So, here is what I need you to get once again,
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  Suze: and I have told you this before, but since this
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  Suze: is Suze School, how about if we take out our
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  Suze: Suze notebooks and we write this down.
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  Suze: Money doesn't erase fear. Do you remember me telling you this?
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  Suze: Courage does.
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  Suze: Courage, one of the eight qualities of a wealthy woman.
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  Suze: Actually, the third quality, just so you know, courage is
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  Suze: what shows up when you finally stop running from your
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  Suze: finances and start standing in your power, when you stop
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  Suze: running from self-doubt.
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  Suze: My 2nd book that I ever wrote was "The 9
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  Suze: Steps to Financial Freedom" and truthfully, in my opinion, the
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  Suze: best book I ever wrote.
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  Suze: And I would always say, if you can just take
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  Suze: one step towards your money, which means taking one step
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  Suze: towards yourself, since you and your money are one.
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  Suze: You and your money will take nine steps back towards you.
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  Suze: But you know, the truth is I've seen it over
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  Suze: and over again.
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  Suze: Women who are brilliant.
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  Suze: Women who are responsible, hardworking.
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  Suze: Yet for some reason they carry this quiet anxiety about money.
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  Suze: And a lot of the women that I've been writing
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  Suze: back and forth with, not like they're only making 10,000
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  Suze: a year, they're making 100,000 a year, 150,000, one's making 350,000,
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  Suze: and she's still scared to death.
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  Suze: So what do they do?
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  Suze: They check their accounts constantly. They second guess every decision.
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  Suze: They feel guilty for spending and worried about not saving enough.
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  Suze: And here's the truth, the fear isn't about numbers. It's
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  Suze: about trust.
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  Suze: Trusting yourself, trusting that you know what's right for you,
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  Suze: trusting that you can handle everything and whatever comes next.
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  Suze: And when you build everybody that kind of trust with yourself.
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  Suze: That's when your relationship with money and who you are transforms,
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  Suze: because fear can't survive where confidence lives, you know, I
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  Suze: just want to say this a little and then I'll
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  Suze: go on with this. I have a sister-in-law, KT's twin sister,
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  Suze: and Lynn, I know you're gonna hear this, and I'm
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  Suze: so proud of her.
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  Suze: And I may have told you this again a little
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  Suze: bit ago because I never know what I say or
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  Suze: I don't because I just kind of speak in the
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  Suze: microphone and I never remember what I've said after I
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  Suze: said it, so excuse me if I already told you this,
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  Suze: but I'm so proud of her and her husband Tom,
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  Suze: by the way, and Lynn is starting to really learn
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  Suze: about stocks and feeling confident enough about deciding what stocks
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  Suze: she wants to buy with their money.
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  Suze: I love that. I love that. I love that.
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  Suze: But here's the truth. What I find fascinating is that,
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  Suze: do you know that women today, women, women control nearly
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  Suze: 1/3 of all the wealth in this country? Can you
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  Suze: just imagine that? And that number is growing every single year.
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  Suze: But still,
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  Suze: Most women say they don't feel confident making financial decisions, really, everybody?
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  Suze: Really?
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  Suze: But, you know what's so funny, when women do invest,
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  Suze: studies show that they all outperform men, because women are steady,
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  Suze: they're thoughtful, and they think long term.
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  Suze: So maybe we need to stop calling this and where
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  Suze: everybody says, Suze, I wanna be risk averse. Please, I
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  Suze: don't want to invest my money. I wanna be risk averse,
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  Suze: and I keep telling them that's not what you wanna be,
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  Suze: you wanna be what I call risk aware.
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  Suze: Write it down. Where you are aware of the risk
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  Suze: that you are taking. Is it a big risk? Is
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  Suze: it a small risk? It is a risk to do
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  Suze: absolutely nothing. I want you to be risk aware, and
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  Suze: that's exactly what will build wealth that lasts you forever. Awareness, preparation,
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  Suze: and courage. That's the real power trio, everybody.
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  Suze: Those are the three things I want you to be
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  Suze: now in this coming year. I want you to be aware.
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  Suze: I want you to prepare, and I want you to
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  Suze: have courage.
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  Suze: But let's be honest, and let me go back a
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  Suze: second here.
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  Suze: Because fear has been following women and money for generations,
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  Suze: which is why I wrote the book Women and Money,
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  Suze: maybe the second greatest book I ever wrote.
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  Suze: Cause you know, women, it's true, and if you think
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  Suze: that we're not socialized to think this, you are wrong
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  Suze: because I know when I'm in a room with people
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  Suze: and I just freely talk about money, you know, how
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  Suze: much was that? How much do you make? How much
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  Suze: did you spend? What's your real estate commission, all of that.
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  Suze: They look at me like I am nuts, and that's
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  Suze: because women.
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  Suze: We were taught that talking about money was impolite, that
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  Suze: asking questions made us difficult, that wanting independence made us selfish.
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  Suze: But I got news for you, everybody. Starting with this podcast,
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  Suze: those days are over. Financial fear is not your inheritance,
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  Suze: do you hear me? It's a habit, and habits can
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  Suze: be broken.
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  Suze: And the way you break it is with knowledge. You
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  Suze: learn to plan. You take small actions, and before you
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  Suze: know it, you have built confidence. And when confidence shows up,
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  Suze: I'm here to tell you everybody, fear packs up and leaves.
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  Suze: So, here's your courage challenge for the week, and I
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  Suze: may have given this to you before.
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  Suze: But if I have, you need to still do it.
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  Suze: Step one, I want you to name the fear. What
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  Suze: are you afraid of? And I want you to write
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  Suze: it down, and I don't want you to sugarcoat it.
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  Suze: Then, I want you to just face the facts. I
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  Suze: want you to look at your numbers. You can't change
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  Suze: what you won't confront. And the reason that I want
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  Suze: you to do that is, given the women that I've
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  Suze: been doing plans with who have written me that touched
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  Suze: my heart, so I answered them personally, once they saw
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  Suze: the numbers really.
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  Suze: They weren't afraid any more. They weren't afraid cause they
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  Suze: saw the truth, the truth that they weren't willing to
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  Suze: look at.
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  Suze: And step three, can you just make one small move,
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  Suze: just one.
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  Suze: Whether it's increase your automatic savings, or maybe you're adjusting
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  Suze: your investment allocation up to you, or maybe you're asking
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  Suze: one financial question you've been afraid to ask.
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  Suze: But just take one small move and step four, rinse
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  Suze: and repeat.
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  Suze: Because courage isn't built in a moment, it's not. It's
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  Suze: built in motion.
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  Suze: And here again is what I want you to remember
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  Suze: from this podcast.
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  Suze: Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's the decision to
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  Suze: move forward despite it. Did you hear me? Courage isn't
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  Suze: the absence of fear. It's the decision to move forward
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  Suze: despite it. Remember, you don't need permission to be powerful
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  Suze: cause you already are. You know I've said this before,
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  Suze: that in China they say women hold up half the sky.
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  Suze: And I've always said, but in the United States of America,
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  Suze: women hold up the entire sky. I believe from the
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  Suze: bottom of my heart that you have more power in
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  Suze: your little finger women than everybody else, and I'll let
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  Suze: you decide who that is, have in both of their hands.
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  Suze: So don't wait for the right time. I don't want
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  Suze: you to wait for the right market. I don't want
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  Suze: you to wait for someone to come and rescue you.
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  Suze: You've got the money, now it's time to get the courage.
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  Suze: All right, a very short podcast, just 10 days from
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  Suze: the holiday season.
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  Suze: However, there's only one thing that I want you to
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  Suze: remember when it comes to your money, and it is this:
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  Suze: people first, then money, then things. Now you stay safe.
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  Suze: Bye bye.