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Should I Pay Off My Mortgage Early or Invest? · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:07
  Suze: March 26, 2026. Did you like that, KT?
• 0:14
  KT: Is it Spring?
• 0:16
  Suze: I don't know, maybe.
• 0:17
  KT: Did Dpring happen?
• 0:20
  Suze: That's very sad that we don't know, but, but we'll
• 0:22
  Suze: continue this.
• 0:23
  KT: I feel like it's, I feel like Spring is in
• 0:26
  KT: the air. Let's put it that way.
• 0:27
  Suze: All right. Welcome everybody to the Women in Money podcast,
• 0:30
  Suze: as well as everybody smart enough to listen.
• 0:33
  Suze: Today is Ask KT and Suze Anything, and if you
• 0:36
  Suze: have a question, you can write it into Ask Suze,
• 0:40
  Suze: S U Z E podcast at gmail.com. If KT chooses it, oh,
• 0:44
  Suze: we will answer it on the podcast. Now, just know,
• 0:48
  Suze: sometimes we edit your emails, OK? Cause they're long. They
• 0:52
  Suze: have all this information that nobody else really cares about
• 0:54
  Suze: except for us. So, just know that if you hear
• 0:58
  Suze: your email on this podcast.
• 1:00
  Suze: What do you want to say, KT?
• 1:01
  KT: Well, I don't want to chit chat today because I
• 1:04
  KT: have lots and lots of questions...
• 1:06
  Suze: You always, love to chit chat.
• 1:08
  KT: No, you chit chat. She does it, everyone, not me,
• 1:10
  KT: but these questions, I have many, so I wanna try
• 1:13
  KT: to get through them.
• 1:15
  Suze: But wait, first, I wanna say something to all of
• 1:17
  Suze: you about the HELOC that I talked about from my
• 1:20
  Suze: Alliant.com last Sunday. Tremendous response to it. However...
• 1:27
  Suze: It's not in all 50 states. They're able to offer
• 1:33
  Suze: it to about 80% of the population. If you go
• 1:36
  Suze: to myalliant.com, right on the front page there, it will
• 1:41
  Suze: tell you all the states that the HELOC is available for. Listen,
• 1:46
  Suze: if it were up to them, they would
• 1:47
  Suze: have it in all states, but some states are very particular,
• 1:52
  Suze: and they want more rules and regulations. And so therefore
• 1:55
  Suze: they are not in those states. So sorry about that.
• 1:59
  Suze: All right, KT.
• 1:59
  KT: OK. And my first question happens to be regarding the
• 2:03
  KT: Alliant Credit Union HELOC from Mike. He said, thanks so
• 2:08
  KT: much for the information. This looks like an incredible opportunity.
• 2:13
  KT: And here's his question. I own two homes and I
• 2:16
  KT: have significantly more equity in my secondary residence than my
• 2:22
  KT: primary residence. Is the Alliant HELOC only available on primary residences,
• 2:29
  KT: or would my secondary residence qualify?
• 2:33
  Suze: Yes, my love, it is available for second residencies as
• 2:38
  Suze: long as you are the primary resident of that second
• 2:42
  Suze: home of yours. All right, KT.
• 2:43
  KT: OK. Next question is from Alicia.
• 2:47
  KT: And Alicia asks: Suze, will you give a quick recap
• 2:51
  KT: on what should go into revocable trust and what can
• 2:55
  KT: be left directly to the beneficiaries, example, life insurance policies
• 3:01
  KT: and bank accounts funded to the trust or left to
• 3:04
  KT: the beneficiary. I wanna make sure that my beneficiaries get
• 3:08
  KT: whatever cash ASAP without having to deal with probate courts.
• 3:15
  KT: Wow, Alicia, good for you. And, and the reason I
• 3:18
  KT: picked this, I love her subject, quick and dirty recap
• 3:21
  KT: on revocable trust.
• 3:23
  Suze: I'm not sure anything is quick and dirty when it
• 3:25
  Suze: comes to a trust. However, here's the scoop. Anytime you
• 3:29
  Suze: can put the name of a beneficiary on anything like
• 3:34
  Suze: a life insurance.
• 3:35
  Suze: Policy a retirement account, bank accounts that are pay on death,
• 3:39
  Suze: whatever it may be, they will pass immediately to your
• 3:43
  Suze: beneficiaries without probate just that simple. Everything else really a
• 3:49
  Suze: house and things like that should probably be in a trust. However,
• 3:52
  Suze: I just wanna say something.
• 3:55
  Suze: All of you, all of you have this in your mind.
• 3:58
  Suze: How do I get my assets to my beneficiaries without
• 4:01
  Suze: probate the fastest? You're not thinking about yourselves. Stop thinking
• 4:06
  Suze: just about your beneficiaries. Start thinking about what happens if
• 4:11
  Suze: you become incapacitated. What happens if all of a sudden
• 4:15
  Suze: you have a stroke, you're in an accident, you're ill,
• 4:17
  Suze: whatever it may be. Who's going to pay your bills
• 4:20
  Suze: for you? Who's gonna write the check, whatever it may be.
• 4:23
  Suze: So a living revocable trust with an incapacity clause in
• 4:27
  Suze: it assigns who you are going to have take care
• 4:31
  Suze: of you when you can't take care of yourself, just
• 4:34
  Suze: that simple, which is why you want a living revocable trust.
• 4:39
  Suze: For those of you interested, you know, the must-have documents, $99...
• 4:44
  Suze: $2,500 worth of state of the art documents, good in
• 4:47
  Suze: all 50 states.
• 4:49
  Suze: Just go to must-havedocs.com and check it out. Next, KT.
• 4:53
  KT: OK, this is from Greg. In your description of roadmap
• 4:57
  KT: for 2026, you mentioned to be careful getting a Medicare
• 5:03
  KT: Advantage account. Then you stated sooner or later they will
• 5:07
  KT: no longer exist. OK, now.
• 5:10
  KT: So Greg's questions are, Suze, how can we be careful
• 5:15
  KT: getting a Medicare Advantage account? What makes you believe that
• 5:19
  KT: all Medicare Advantage plans will no longer exist sooner or later?
• 5:24
  Suze: Yeah, now this is a person that I personally wrote back, KT,
• 5:27
  Suze: just so you know. Here's why I think it: because
• 5:31
  Suze: it's happened.
• 5:32
  Suze: Do I think that Medicare Advantages, all of them are
• 5:36
  Suze: gonna go away? No, I don't. But there are certain
• 5:40
  Suze: Medicare Advantage plans that have gone away. They've been shut down.
• 5:46
  Suze: The people now don't know what to do, and on
• 5:48
  Suze: and on and on. So, Medicare Advantage plans do not
• 5:52
  Suze: guarantee you that you are always going to be able
• 5:55
  Suze: to have that particular plan.
• 5:59
  Suze: Overall, are they going to go away? No, but as
• 6:02
  Suze: things get rougher, as things get less profitable, whatever it
• 6:06
  Suze: may be, yours may close down. You never know, so
• 6:10
  Suze: check it out.
• 6:12
  Suze: Are they here to stay? How good are they? How
• 6:15
  Suze: good is your company? And so on and so forth.
• 6:17
  Suze: Next question, KT.
• 6:19
  KT: This is, this is one of my favorite questions of all,
• 6:22
  KT: only because of the way she wrote it. This is
• 6:25
  KT: from Michelle. She said, Hi, Suze and KT. My name
• 6:29
  KT: is Michelle. I am a single 36 year old with
• 6:33
  KT: a cattle dog named Ladybug.
• 6:35
  Suze: Oh, you chose it simply because she has a doggy
• 6:39
  Suze: ladybug because I used to call everybody...
• 6:41
  KT: A love bug.
• 6:43
  Suze: Oh, a love bug. That's right, love bug.
• 6:45
  KT: But we all love ladybugs. But Michelle has been in
• 6:48
  KT: active duty in the military for 11 years, Suze. Good
• 6:52
  KT: on you, Michelle. And she said, my question is, does
• 6:55
  KT: it make sense to pay my mortgage off early?
• 6:59
  KT: I bought a home in August of 2020 for $285,000
• 7:05
  KT: using a VA loan.
• 7:07
  KT: $291,500 including the VA funding fee at 2.25% for 30 years.
• 7:16
  KT: The principal amount left on the home is $250,000.
• 7:22
  Suze: So let me just get this right. 2020, six years ago,
• 7:27
  Suze: she bought a home for really $285,000. Here we are...
• 7:31
  Suze: Six years later and all she owes on it is what?
• 7:35
  KT: $250,000.
• 7:37
  Suze: All right, got it. OK.
• 7:39
  KT: And she, she got this at 2.25% for 30 years. OK.
• 7:44
  KT: Now here's what she's saying: Suze, It feels like it's
• 7:46
  KT: taking forever to pay off my home. The principal has
• 7:50
  KT: barely gone down. I've been making an extra $100 payment
• 7:55
  KT: each month.
• 7:56
  KT: Against the principal, I know my interest rate is low
• 7:59
  KT: and that the cash plus is a higher interest rate
• 8:03
  KT: than my mortgage rate, but I feel like you cannot
• 8:06
  KT: put a price on being free from debt and owning
• 8:09
  KT: your home outright. Because I'm living comfortably. I'd like to
• 8:13
  KT: use my extra money from the cash plus account to
• 8:17
  KT: put extra payments toward the principal.
• 8:21
  KT: And then she said, ready, Suze, this is the big question.
• 8:24
  KT: I'm thinking of putting an extra $20,000 a year towards
• 8:29
  KT: the mortgage. Is this a good idea?
• 8:31
  Suze: Michelle My Belle, first of all, girlfriend.
• 8:36
  Suze: Or as I used to call everybody love bug. All right,
• 8:40
  Suze: will you ever forget when I was on Larry King
• 8:43
  Suze: and somebody called in and I looked in. I went, Well,
• 8:45
  Suze: listen to me, love bug, and he just went, What? What? What? Anyway,
• 8:50
  Suze: all right, you are so young. Will you keep this
• 8:55
  Suze: home for the rest of your life? Maybe yes, maybe no.
• 8:58
  Suze: Things can happen over time.
• 9:01
  Suze: So if you think about it, you have to compare
• 9:05
  Suze: what would you have if you took $20,000 a year
• 9:10
  Suze: and invested it for the same amount of time than
• 9:13
  Suze: if you put it towards this mortgage that the house
• 9:15
  Suze: would be paid off. Now, if you put $20,000 more
• 9:20
  Suze: per year towards your home right now.
• 9:25
  Suze: You're gonna have it paid off in approximately eight years,
• 9:29
  Suze: just that simple, OK? If you took that $20,000 a
• 9:35
  Suze: year and you invested it for, let's say the next
• 9:37
  Suze: eight years, right, maybe depending on your investment return, 6, 8%,
• 9:43
  Suze: whatever it may be, you would have $200,000 or $250,000.
• 9:49
  Suze: So it kind of comes out even over that period
• 9:52
  Suze: of time.
• 9:53
  Suze: If you just stay paying that 20,000 extra a year,
• 9:58
  Suze: you're gonna be mortgage free in 2034.
• 10:02
  Suze: That's pretty good if you ask me. However, if you
• 10:07
  Suze: just invest $20,000 a year for the next eight years,
• 10:12
  Suze: you've now invested it. You continue to put the $100
• 10:17
  Suze: a month more towards your mortgage because it's at such
• 10:20
  Suze: a low interest rate. In eight years you would probably
• 10:24
  Suze: only owe $180,000 on that mortgage.
• 10:30
  Suze: Then if you wanted to, you can decide, do you
• 10:33
  Suze: want to take the money that you made investing, pay
• 10:36
  Suze: off your mortgage or whatever. I don't think I would
• 10:39
  Suze: pay it off right here and right now. I would
• 10:42
  Suze: give myself more time, especially at this interest rate. You know, KT,
• 10:47
  Suze: I don't think people understand that when they buy a
• 10:51
  Suze: home and they take out a mortgage.
• 10:53
  Suze: That the bank knows that most likely you're going to
• 10:58
  Suze: sell that house within seven years. That's on average. So therefore, 100%
• 11:05
  Suze: almost of every payment you make does what? It goes
• 11:10
  Suze: towards the interest, not towards the mortgage. That's why at
• 11:14
  Suze: the ending years of a mortgage, it's all principal payments
• 11:19
  Suze: because the bank wants to know.
• 11:21
  Suze: If you sell your home in seven years, you still
• 11:25
  Suze: owe them almost everything you borrow plus they made interest
• 11:27
  Suze: on it for the whole time. So mortgages aren't quite
• 11:32
  Suze: as lucrative as one might think. But in this particular case,
• 11:35
  Suze: I would invest that money given just what I think
• 11:38
  Suze: she can do.
• 11:39
  KT: And also she's so young.
• 11:40
  Suze: She's young, so we'll see what she thinks eight years
• 11:44
  Suze: from now. And if eight years from now she decides,
• 11:46
  Suze: you know what...
• 11:47
  Suze: I'm gonna keep the house forever. I like it here.
• 11:50
  Suze: Just take whatever you invested and pay off the mortgage,
• 11:52
  Suze: and you're done, right?
• 11:54
  KT: OK. Next is from Karen. Again, this is another HELOC question, Suze.
• 11:59
  KT: I'm sure the answer to my question is simple, but
• 12:02
  KT: I'm confused anyway.
• 12:04
  Suze: Here's your answer. Simple, simple.
• 12:07
  KT: Wait, you're not the only one, Karen.
• 12:11
  KT: I'm in the process of filing a quick claim to
• 12:14
  KT: move my property into a trust, but I want to
• 12:17
  KT: take advantage of the Alliant HELOC opportunity. Should I wait
• 12:21
  KT: to apply for the HELOC until all of the property
• 12:24
  KT: and trust paperwork is complete?
• 12:27
  Suze: Good question, girlfriend. And the answer to that is, first,
• 12:30
  Suze: do your trust in all the paperwork so that when
• 12:33
  Suze: you go to take
• 12:34
  Suze: out the HELOC, it will be in the name of
• 12:37
  Suze: the trust, which is how it should be. So do
• 12:40
  Suze: the transference first for the trust and everything, and then
• 12:43
  Suze: do the HELOC. HELOC opportunity, everybody is not gonna go
• 12:47
  Suze: away for some time. All right.
• 12:49
  KT: Great. OK, next question is for Stacy, and this is
• 12:53
  KT: again a great subject line. Suze, thanks for changing my
• 12:56
  KT: life for the better.
• 12:58
  KT: I love that. I like when...
• 13:00
  Suze: Can you say that?
• 13:01
  KT: Suze, thanks for changing my, oh, me say it to you?
• 13:05
  Suze: Yea.
• 13:05
  KT: Oh, Suze. Oh.
• 13:09
  KT: You are my jackpot. Oh my goodness, our life has
• 13:14
  KT: been changed not only for the better but for the unbelievable. OK,
• 13:20
  KT: this is, she said, Hi, Suze and KT. Thank you
• 13:23
  KT: for changing my life and helping me to become financially secure.
• 13:27
  KT: My question is:
• 13:29
  KT: My wife and I have been together for 20 years
• 13:32
  KT: and married seven. We are both 58 years old. We
• 13:36
  KT: are currently living in a house that's owned by my wife.
• 13:39
  KT: She bought it before we got together and has paid
• 13:42
  KT: it off over the years on her own. After listening
• 13:46
  KT: to your podcast, I've been encouraging her to set up
• 13:49
  KT: a trust.
• 13:50
  KT: Put the house in a trust rather than just leaving
• 13:53
  KT: it to me in her will.
• 13:55
  Suze: That's smart.
• 13:56
  KT: Well, wait, she's fine with the idea and has done
• 13:58
  KT: her must-have document trust. However, when this is the part
• 14:03
  KT: that it makes, you're gonna get watch Suze's face, everyone,
• 14:06
  KT: if you can imagine what this is gonna do. However,
• 14:12
  KT: when she called the title company to inquire about changing
• 14:15
  KT: the title, they advised her that she did not need
• 14:18
  KT: a trust,
• 14:19
  KT: because we are not wealthy people, and she should just
• 14:23
  KT: add my name to the title of the house, she
• 14:26
  KT: is very willing to do this. However, I am not
• 14:30
  KT: sure which is best for her. I have not contributed
• 14:33
  KT: directly to her paying off the house. What do you
• 14:36
  KT: think is best for her and why?
• 14:40
  KT: I know...
• 14:42
  KT: Suze has an expression on her face that looks like
• 14:46
  KT: if she was sitting across from the title company person
• 14:50
  KT: giving this advice, she would strangle them.
• 14:53
  KT: Am I right?
• 14:54
  Suze: Well, here's the thing. What expertise does possibly a clerk
• 15:00
  Suze: who works for the title company, who simply fills out,
• 15:04
  Suze: you know, paperwork and does... what the hell do they
• 15:07
  Suze: know about the wealth that these people have, the needs
• 15:11
  Suze: that these people have, if these people are healthy or not?
• 15:15
  Suze: What the hell does that person know?
• 15:17
  KT: And it's insulting.
• 15:19
  Suze: Well, besides that, no, I have a saying, the less
• 15:22
  Suze: money you have, the more you need a trust, because
• 15:26
  Suze: when all you have is a will, you are going
• 15:29
  Suze: to pay. And if you don't have a lot of money,
• 15:32
  Suze: you're gonna have to pay for probate this and that. Next,
• 15:35
  Suze: why transfer the name
• 15:38
  Suze: into joint tenancy? Why would you do that? And the
• 15:41
  Suze: reason that I say that is this. All right, now
• 15:44
  Suze: your name is on the house. Now she's gifted you
• 15:48
  Suze: half the value of the house, the value of when
• 15:51
  Suze: she bought it. Why would you not want to just
• 15:55
  Suze: inherit it so you actually get a step up in
• 15:58
  Suze: basis if she bought that house for $50,000? Let's just
• 16:02
  Suze: say she did.
• 16:03
  Suze: And it's now worth $500,000 just in her name. You
• 16:08
  Suze: have a living revocable trust where it's held for her
• 16:12
  Suze: benefit while she's alive, your benefit after she has died.
• 16:15
  Suze: She dies. Now it goes directly to you. No probate.
• 16:19
  Suze: Two weeks later it's yours.
• 16:22
  Suze: But you also now get a step up in basis.
• 16:25
  Suze: So now your cost basis on that house is $500,000.
• 16:29
  Suze: If you can't live there anymore, too many memories, whatever,
• 16:33
  Suze: you turn around and sell it, guess what? You don't
• 16:36
  Suze: pay any capital
• 16:37
  Suze: gains tax whatsoever, are you kidding me? And I can
• 16:42
  Suze: go on and on and on about it. It absolutely
• 16:47
  Suze: should be in a living revocable trust with the must-have
• 16:51
  Suze: documents given that she already has them, just held in
• 16:55
  Suze: her name. You should be the successor trustee of the trust.
• 17:01
  Suze: So if she becomes incapacitated, if something happens to her,
• 17:06
  Suze: then you simply take over as the trustee, and then
• 17:09
  Suze: you can manage everything for her. But that is the
• 17:12
  Suze: most stupid advice I have ever heard coming out of
• 17:16
  Suze: a more stupid title person. All right. Ugh.
• 17:24
  Suze: It pisses me off.
• 17:26
  KT: Suze just needs to cool down for a moment. We're gonna
• 17:28
  KT: take a pause.
• 17:29
  Suze: Does anybody realize that the damage that's done from people
• 17:34
  Suze: who don't know, yet they think they know you're not
• 17:39
  Suze: wealthy enough for a trust? Like what the hell is
• 17:43
  Suze: that about? Like, is there a dollar amount that you
• 17:46
  Suze: can put on incapacity and taking care of one another
• 17:50
  Suze: and on and on and on? Really, everybody. Oh, anyway, go on, KT. Just go on.
• 17:57
  KT: Well, here's another trust question. This is from Rebecca, and
• 18:01
  KT: she said, You've helped me before, and I'm hoping you
• 18:04
  KT: can help me as a person is preparing for Medicaid.
• 18:08
  KT: Can you explain if they should create an irrevocable trust?
• 18:13
  KT: My parents are aging and trust me to guide them
• 18:16
  KT: because I listen to you and have listened to you
• 18:20
  KT: for years.
• 18:21
  KT: So there's a smart person writing in. She said, my
• 18:24
  KT: mom and I used your must-have documents for mom's funded
• 18:28
  KT: revocable trust. However, I'm concerned that her trust may impact
• 18:33
  KT: the Medicaid eligibility. What should we do?
• 18:37
  Suze: Yeah, it's not the trust that impacts it. It's the
• 18:40
  Suze: amount of money that you have.
• 18:42
  Suze: And so a lot of you think that if you
• 18:44
  Suze: just did an irrevocable trust, then it's out of your
• 18:48
  Suze: mom's name, then she'll qualify for Medicaid. 'Cause that's just
• 18:53
  Suze: what you're all thinking for some reason.
• 18:55
  Suze: So I want you to go back, I think it's
• 18:58
  Suze: either last week or the week before. I did a
• 19:01
  Suze: big answer to this particular question. Even if you change
• 19:06
  Suze: everything now, just so you know, to an irrevocable trust,
• 19:09
  Suze: it still will have a five year look back. But
• 19:13
  Suze: here is the bottom line again.
• 19:15
  Suze: Do you really want to deplete all your mother's money
• 19:19
  Suze: just so she could be on Medicaid, which means she
• 19:21
  Suze: doesn't have any money. So now the state, everybody pays
• 19:24
  Suze: for her. Do you have any idea of the care
• 19:27
  Suze: in a Medicaid nursing home when you're on Medicaid versus
• 19:31
  Suze: a private care patient? Do me a favor, go back
• 19:35
  Suze: one or two Ask KT and Suze Anythings, right, and
• 19:39
  Suze: you'll hear the answer to that question. Ugh, again.
• 19:46
  Suze: KT, here's the thing, seriously, I get that people wanna
• 19:50
  Suze: protect their money because they don't wanna waste it going
• 19:53
  Suze: into a nursing home and doing all these things. I
• 19:56
  Suze: get that sometimes the kids want their parents to protect
• 20:00
  Suze: the money so that they have money.
• 20:03
  Suze: That's what the money of the parents are there for.
• 20:07
  Suze: It's not just there so that the kids get to
• 20:10
  Suze: inherit money. All of us have money.
• 20:14
  Suze: Really, our main priority is that money takes care of us,
• 20:19
  Suze: us when we're older, so our kids don't have to
• 20:22
  Suze: take care of us, so that we can have help,
• 20:25
  Suze: we can have aids, we can, if we have to
• 20:28
  Suze: go into a nursing home, go into a nursing home
• 20:31
  Suze: with nice care, or we are able to buy long-term
• 20:34
  Suze: care insurance or whatever it may be, but the goal
• 20:37
  Suze: is not to protect the money, so we end up
• 20:39
  Suze: in a nursing home on Medicaid. Wrong.
• 20:43
  Suze: Now, if you don't have any money, and that's true, OK,
• 20:48
  Suze: but when it's not true, don't hide money, just to
• 20:53
  Suze: have money.
• 20:56
  Suze: Uh, don't, anyway, go on.
• 20:58
  Suze: This has not been a good podcast.
• 21:02
  KT: I didn't mean to aggravate you, but, OK, here's...
• 21:04
  Suze: You know what, it doesn't aggravate me, KT. It hurts me.
• 21:09
  KT: What hurts her the most is when you're all getting
• 21:13
  KT: the wrong advice or you're getting advice from people that
• 21:17
  KT: are
• 21:17
  KT: Basically stupid...
• 21:18
  Suze: Or people who wanna make money off of you.
• 21:21
  KT: Or they they're whatever for their gain, not yours.
• 21:24
  Suze: Listen, I never wanna make money off of you. All
• 21:28
  Suze: I want for you is to make money off of
• 21:30
  Suze: the advice that I give you.
• 21:33
  Suze: It's just that simple, you know what, we're gonna go
• 21:36
  Suze: off track here for a second, KT. So the other
• 21:38
  Suze: day we're talking about how mad I used to make
• 21:41
  Suze: the publishers when I would give a talk, OK. So
• 21:45
  Suze: normally what would happen is I would go and give
• 21:48
  Suze: a talk, and when I gave a talk, a few
• 21:50
  Suze: thousand people would come, if, especially if I was doing
• 21:53
  Suze: a book signing, and I would sign books after my talk.
• 21:58
  Suze: All right.
• 21:58
  Suze: And normally a major bookseller would come there and sell
• 22:03
  Suze: the books to everybody, but when a major bookseller goes
• 22:07
  Suze: to somebody and author's talk, they sell the book at
• 22:11
  Suze: full price, $28 at the time, I think it was.
• 22:15
  Suze: What would I do, KT?
• 22:17
  KT: Suze would...
• 22:19
  KT: Suze would be thrilled to sign the book for people,
• 22:22
  KT: but she'd say, Listen, they're selling the books outside, but
• 22:26
  KT: they're full cover price. If you wanna save money, go
• 22:29
  KT: to Amazon, or she would tell, she would steer them
• 22:34
  KT: to a place where her book was being sold for
• 22:37
  KT: a significantly less.
• 22:38
  Suze: Usually like $10 to $12 cheaper, and I would say, Really,
• 22:43
  Suze: my signature in the book isn't that important. Just stand
• 22:46
  Suze: in line
• 22:46
  Suze: and I'll sign a little bookmark for you, something that
• 22:50
  Suze: you could put in your book and save the money.
• 22:53
  KT: Can I tell them a great, greater example than that?
• 22:55
  Suze: What? Tell me.
• 22:56
  KT: Oh my goodness. On QVC, Suze would be educating everyone
• 23:03
  KT: about the must-have documents, and there was the must-have document
• 23:07
  KT: kit that she would be selling.
• 23:09
  KT: And she'd get a phone call. She'd get live, they
• 23:12
  KT: called it "T calls", telephone calls would come in live
• 23:15
  KT: to the show, and Suze would get a call and
• 23:18
  KT: the viewer would say, Suze, I'm so proud. I just
• 23:21
  KT: bought the kit and five more for my kids. And
• 23:24
  KT: Suze would say, Wait, wait, wait, what did you just say?
• 23:28
  KT: I bought your kit and I bought five more for my kids.
• 23:32
  KT: Suze would say, OK, stop.
• 23:34
  KT: And she'd say to the producer, get this woman's name.
• 23:37
  KT: I want you to keep yours and return all the others.
• 23:41
  KT: And so they would say, Why? Because mine is shareware.
• 23:45
  KT: You do not need to buy one for every person
• 23:49
  KT: in your family. You can share it with everyone and
• 23:53
  KT: then she'd say, and if you go to church Sunday,
• 23:55
  KT: share it with the whole church.
• 23:59
  KT: So it was, um, it was fun for her to
• 24:02
  KT: do that and then I'd get the phone call in
• 24:04
  KT: the green room. What is Suze doing?
• 24:07
  Suze: But one thing I just want you to be aware
• 24:09
  Suze: of everybody, I would go on QVC and HSN because
• 24:14
  Suze: I went on there because there was something that I
• 24:17
  Suze: wanted you all to buy at a price that you
• 24:20
  Suze: couldn't get anywhere else, number one.
• 24:22
  Suze: Number two, why else would you be watching QVC or
• 24:27
  Suze: HSN if it wasn't to buy something? So I was
• 24:30
  Suze: there knowing that I was selling something when I was
• 24:34
  Suze: on the Today Show, when I was on my own show,
• 24:38
  Suze: when I was at a book signing, when I was
• 24:40
  Suze: at a talk, I never allowed any product to be mentioned.
• 24:45
  Suze: And or sold to you at that point in time. Sure,
• 24:49
  Suze: I could do an interview about the book and everything,
• 24:52
  Suze: but it wasn't a direct sell on it. So just
• 24:55
  Suze: know that again, I don't wanna make money off of you.
• 25:00
  Suze: I want you to make money off of my advice.
• 25:03
  Suze: All right, KT.
• 25:04
  KT: OK, next question again, please help Roth confusion. Whenever I
• 25:09
  KT: see these questions, I relate, so.
• 25:12
  KT: Hi Suze and KT. My Roth IRA was set up
• 25:16
  KT: more than five years ago, and if I roll my
• 25:19
  KT: Roth 401k into my Roth IRA, will it be treated
• 25:24
  KT: as the five plus year old account?
• 25:27
  Suze: Yes it will, it will.
• 25:29
  KT: All right.
• 25:29
  Suze: Remember your Roth 401k when you transfer it to a
• 25:34
  Suze: Roth IRA.
• 25:35
  Suze: No taxes or anything. It takes on the time limit
• 25:39
  Suze: of the Roth IRA. So even if you had a
• 25:43
  Suze: Roth 401k or 403B or TSB that had been open
• 25:47
  Suze: 10 years, and you had a Roth IRA that had
• 25:51
  Suze: only been open one year, it would take on the
• 25:55
  Suze: one year time limit of the Roth IRA.
• 26:00
  KT: This is from Charles. My last question. Hi, Suze. As
• 26:04
  KT: I listened to you and KT recently, I've been wondering
• 26:07
  KT: about my parents' plans. I am the executor of their
• 26:11
  KT: wills and also have access to their power of attorney
• 26:16
  KT: and their living wills.
• 26:17
  Suze: I already know where this has going, go on.
• 26:19
  KT: I asked them about a living revocable trust, and they
• 26:23
  KT: told me they had no need for one. They say
• 26:26
  KT: the bulk of their money is in retirement accounts, and
• 26:29
  KT: the only property they own is the house they live in.
• 26:33
  KT: The only reason I could think of was in case
• 26:36
  KT: one of them was not competent to make decisions. They
• 26:40
  KT: seemed to think the power of attorney would help in
• 26:43
  KT: that situation.
• 26:45
  KT: Can you explain to me the reason that they need
• 26:48
  KT: a trust, so I can explain to them.
• 26:52
  Suze: Mamma and Papa, while it is true that most of
• 26:55
  Suze: your assets are in a retirement account and for there
• 26:59
  Suze: it should be, each spouse should be the primary beneficiary
• 27:04
  Suze: of the other one's retirement account, and the contingent beneficiary
• 27:08
  Suze: should be the kids or whoever you want them to be,
• 27:11
  Suze: no problem there. But the house...
• 27:14
  Suze: The house... number one, why would you want the house
• 27:19
  Suze: to have to go through probate for your beneficiary? Probate
• 27:25
  Suze: is a court procedure depending where you live. It could
• 27:29
  Suze: be six months, one year, two years. It is expensive
• 27:32
  Suze: statutory fees in many cases to the lawyer and the executor,
• 27:37
  Suze: and on and on and on. Number 1, why would
• 27:39
  Suze: you want that?
• 27:40
  Suze: Oh, you think it's not gonna be a big deal.
• 27:43
  Suze: It is a big deal. Trust me on that. So,
• 27:49
  Suze: number one, if nothing else, you had nothing else other
• 27:52
  Suze: than this house, your retirement accounts are fine, OK.
• 27:56
  Suze: So here you have your home. Both of you own it,
• 28:01
  Suze: however you own it, fine, and you're leaving it to
• 28:03
  Suze: whoever via a will.
• 28:05
  Suze: But while you're living in it, one of you becomes incapacitated.
• 28:11
  Suze: And the other one needs to sell the house, 'cause
• 28:15
  Suze: maybe it's two stories, and you have to go to
• 28:17
  Suze: a one-story house. The question is, can they sell it?
• 28:22
  Suze: And the answer to that question is, no, they cannot.
• 28:26
  Suze: Because if you own it in both your names, it
• 28:28
  Suze: takes both signatures to be able to sell it. So
• 28:32
  Suze: what's gonna have to happen? One of you, whoever is incapacitated,
• 28:36
  Suze: gets declared incompetent. They get a conservatorship for that person,
• 28:40
  Suze: and from that point on, they have to continuously report
• 28:43
  Suze: back about what's happening with that half of the money. Oh,
• 28:46
  Suze: you say that's not a problem.
• 28:48
  Suze: Because you have a power of attorney, do you know
• 28:51
  Suze: that most power of attorneys become null and void the
• 28:54
  Suze: day that there's an incapacity? You become incapacitated and you
• 28:59
  Suze: have an account just in your name and somebody says,
• 29:01
  Suze: I'm power of attorney. I want to take money out
• 29:04
  Suze: of this person's account. The bank isn't going to let
• 29:06
  Suze: that happen cause you can revoke a power of attorney
• 29:09
  Suze: any time you want.
• 29:11
  Suze: And the bank is going to be afraid that maybe
• 29:14
  Suze: you revoked it, so it's gonna be a whole mess there.
• 29:17
  Suze: When you have a living revocable trust with an incapacity
• 29:20
  Suze: clause in it which requires a doctor to say, yes,
• 29:24
  Suze: this person's incapacitated, and then a successor trustee immediately steps in.
• 29:30
  Suze: The bank usually has a copy of your trust, so
• 29:33
  Suze: they know that's true.
• 29:35
  Suze: So it becomes very easy for you. There is absolutely
• 29:39
  Suze: no downside whatsoever for you to have a living revocable trust. So,
• 29:46
  Suze: I gotta tell you, your parents should listen to this
• 29:50
  Suze: particular podcast, and if you want, go to must have docs.com.
• 29:56
  Suze: They're $99 for $2,500 worth of state of the art documents.
• 30:01
  Suze: I said it before, but I'm gonna say it again.
• 30:04
  Suze: Good in all 50 states. Are you kidding me? All right, KT,
• 30:10
  Suze: is that really it?
• 30:11
  KT: That is it. That is a wrap.
• 30:13
  Suze: That went fast, huh?
• 30:15
  Suze: Yes.
• 30:15
  Suze: And on Sunday, everybody, after we do the podcast, and
• 30:19
  Suze: by the way, Fitzy is gonna be on again on
• 30:22
  Suze: Sunday since all of you love him so and since
• 30:25
  Suze: he has guided us correctly, has he not? The two
• 30:29
  Suze: of us make such a dynamic duo.
• 30:32
  Suze: Um, however, right after that, guess what?
• 30:36
  KT: We're going to New York City.
• 30:37
  Suze: We're going to New York City, and we'll be there
• 30:39
  Suze: 4 days, but we will be back in time to
• 30:42
  Suze: do another Ask KT and Suze anything for you. We
• 30:46
  Suze: wouldn't leave you in the lurch. But until then, there's
• 30:49
  Suze: only one thing that we want you to remember when
• 30:52
  Suze: it comes to your money. What is it, KT?
• 30:54
  KT: It is people first, then money, then things.
• 30:58
  Suze: Now you stay safe. Bye-bye now.