Latest / Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen) / Is It Better To Own Actual Gold In My IRA Or In An ETF?
Transcript
- 0:07Suze: January 29th, 2026. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money
- 0:12Suze: podcast and Everybody Smart enough to listen.
- 0:16Suze: What is today, KT?
- 0:18KT: Today is a great day, Suze. It's Oprah's birthday. Happy birthday, Oprah.
- 0:24KT: Wherever you are.
- 0:26Suze: You know, out of all the people in my life
- 0:29Suze: that if I were gonna name one person.
- 0:32Suze: That contributed the most to Suze Orman becoming Suze Orman,
- 0:36Suze: wouldn't you say it had to be Oprah?
- 0:37KT: Absolutely. I mean, that's without a doubt. Suze and Oprah, like,
- 0:42KT: you know, bread and butter.
- 0:44Suze: Yeah. Wanna tell everybody a secret about me and the
- 0:46Suze: Oprah Winfrey show and the 30 shows I did. How many,
- 0:50Suze: because most of them were taped.
- 0:52Suze: Right. How many did I ever see?
- 0:56KT: None, but I have them all. Matter of fact, we
- 0:59KT: have every one of the shows. We have every magazine
- 1:03KT: she ever wrote for, for Oprah, and Susie's never ever
- 1:07KT: sat down and seen herself on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
- 1:13KT: I don't think you've watched yourself on the Suze Orman
- 1:15KT: show either.
- 1:17KT: She doesn't watch herself...
- 1:18Suze: I can count on one hand, the number of shows
- 1:22Suze: that I did on CNBC.
- 1:24KT: What about Larry King? You were on there like 29 times.
- 1:28KT: Didn't watch that once
- 1:29Suze: Because it was live.
- 1:30KT: I know.
- 1:31Suze: But all the other shows were taped and everyone, everybody
- 1:34Suze: else was watching them and
- 1:36Suze: you would watch him. I'd go in the other room.
- 1:38Suze: Don't you think that's all strange, everybody, a little bit,
- 1:41Suze: but that is besides the point. All right, so happy birthday, O.
- 1:46Suze: Now this is the Ask KT and Susie Anything edition.
- 1:52Suze: What are you taking from me?
- 1:54KT: Julie.
- 1:55Suze: I was open with Julie.
- 1:57KT: You're gonna do it. You don't want me to do it.
- 1:59Suze: No, I was gonna do it. That's why it was in front of me.
- 2:01KT: OK, so I, I thought I was gonna tell everybody
- 2:04KT: who Julie is.
- 2:06Suze: No, I want to now, as you know, if you
- 2:10Suze: want your question to be answered on the podcast, first
- 2:15Suze: of all, KT has to choose it, and you would
- 2:18Suze: send in your question to ask Suze podcast@gmail.com. That is
- 2:23Suze: number one.
- 2:25Suze: However, just cause she chooses it doesn't mean that I
- 2:29Suze: haven't already read it. And the other day, about five days
- 2:34Suze: ago actually now, I was looking at some of the emails,
- 2:38Suze: and I read this one from Julie, and Julie was
- 2:42Suze: correcting me because I was wrong on something.
- 2:46Suze: And I have to tell you I love when that
- 2:48Suze: happens because there's no way everybody, that I could keep
- 2:51Suze: up on every single thing that's happening in the world
- 2:54Suze: when it comes to money. This wasn't a major wrong,
- 2:58Suze: but it was something that I want to correct. And
- 3:02Suze: here's what Julie said to me.
- 3:05Suze: I'll just read it directly from her. She says, in
- 3:08Suze: your podcast from January 22nd, there was a question from
- 3:12Suze: a listener with a TSP that had 50% in the
- 3:16Suze: G Fund.
- 3:17Suze: Which is everybody like a government fund, like a money market,
- 3:20Suze: so to speak, and 50% in the C Fund, C
- 3:24Suze: standing for common stocks. Suze, you shared the advice regarding
- 3:29Suze: retirees having at least three years of living expenses in
- 3:33Suze: funds such as the G Fund or money markets, etc.
- 3:37Suze: in case there is a market downturn so that retirees
- 3:41Suze: don't need to sell funds like the C Fund at
- 3:45Suze: a loss.
- 3:46Suze: Now that's great advice that I intend to live by. However,
- 3:50Suze: there is a TSP rule that every retiree should know.
- 3:56Suze: First of all, at TSP, everybody, is a thrift savings
- 4:00Suze: plan like a 401k or a 403B but for federal workers.
- 4:04Suze: Here's what Julie taught me. She said, when funds are
- 4:09Suze: withdrawn from a TSP in retirement.
- 4:12Suze: Money is withdrawn from each of the funds based on
- 4:17Suze: the percent invested in each fund. So for the listener
- 4:22Suze: with 50% in the G and 50% in the C,
- 4:26Suze: let's say the C Fund is down and this person
- 4:30Suze: is withdrawing $20,000 from her TSP. She can't sell just G.
- 4:37Suze: In that example, 10,000 would come from G and 10,000
- 4:42Suze: would come from C. Interesting. I did not know that.
- 4:48Suze: So what is the fix, everybody, to this problem?
- 4:53Suze: The fix really is that all of you need an
- 4:57Suze: outside retirement account or an account that has at least
- 5:01Suze: 3 months of living expenses above your guaranteed income within
- 5:07Suze: that account, and if you then have to take money out,
- 5:11Suze: you're taking it from where? You're taking it from either
- 5:14Suze: a Roth IRA or an investment account that's in a
- 5:17Suze: money market account or a savings account or something like that.
- 5:22Suze: That's one way that you could protect yourself and not
- 5:26Suze: have to take equal amounts out of your TSP. All right, KT,
- 5:31Suze: next question.
- 5:32Suze: Thanks, Julie, by the way.
- 5:34KT: Yeah, thanks, Jules. Next question is from Allie. Hi, Suze
- 5:39KT: and KT. I'm really grateful to you for introducing me
- 5:43KT: to the concept of Roth IRAs.
- 5:47KT: I, I love this. I have to admit I don't always...
- 5:51Suze: Ok, KT feels the exact same way.
- 5:52Suze: Wait, I have to admit I don't always completely follow
- 5:55Suze: you when you explain Roth strategies.
- 5:58Suze: Like I was saying, KT feels the exact same way.
- 6:01KT: So I play your podcast back multiple times until I
- 6:05KT: get it.
- 6:05Suze: That's the one thing KT doesn't do the same way.
- 6:08KT: Me too. The Roth strategy truly is powerful. Here is
- 6:12KT: my question.
- 6:13KT: I have a traditional IRA with 470,000. I want to
- 6:18KT: contribute to a Roth using a backdoor strategy. I did
- 6:24KT: some research and I'm able to roll my IRA into
- 6:27KT: my workplace 401k.
- 6:30KT: If I want to contribute for 2025, do I need
- 6:34KT: to roll my IRA funds into my 401k plan first,
- 6:40KT: then contribute to a traditional IRA and then convert to
- 6:45KT: a Roth, or does the order of operations not matter
- 6:50KT: as long as my traditional IRA is zero by year end?
- 6:56KT: OK, everybody repeat that three times back.
- 6:58Suze: Allie, here's what you gotta get. It's actually too late
- 7:02Suze: to do anything already for 2025. You have to do
- 7:05Suze: this for 2026. And why do I say you have
- 7:10Suze: to do it for 2026? Even though I know that
- 7:14Suze: you can open up an IRA or Roth IRA right
- 7:19Suze: now all the way till April 15th for 2025. That's true.
- 7:24Suze: But you want to do a backdoor Roth. So then you,
- 7:28Suze: once you open it up, you could do it this
- 7:30Suze: year if you wanted to, for last year, but when
- 7:34Suze: you convert it to a backdoor Roth, a conversion is
- 7:39Suze: deemed to have happened in the year you convert it.
- 7:43Suze: So that will now be a backdoor Roth for 2026,
- 7:50Suze: not 2025. Did that make sense?
- 7:55Suze: So, here's how I would do it if I were you.
- 7:59Suze: I would actually, right now, roll all of your money
- 8:04Suze: from your traditional IRA into your traditional 401k at work. Done.
- 8:11Suze: You don't have anything now at all in a traditional IRA.
- 8:16Suze: I would then fund a non-deductible IRA.
- 8:22Suze: And I would absolutely do what with it? I would
- 8:25Suze: convert it to a Roth right away, and you are fine.
- 8:29Suze: That's how you do a back door.
- 8:32Suze: Now, do you have to do it all at once? No,
- 8:35Suze: you could do little by little by little, as long
- 8:38Suze: as all the money in the traditional IRA is out
- 8:44Suze: by the end of this year, December 31st, just so
- 8:49Suze: you know. But just don't play around, just do it
- 8:52Suze: all at once.
- 8:54Suze: And then do the backdoor Roth. OK, KT.
- 8:57KT: I have another Roth question, Suze.
- 9:00Suze: Does that surprise you since you picked them?
- 9:03KT: From Nicole kind of making a little theme here.
- 9:06KT: So Nicole said, Hi KT and Suze. I'm 30 years old.
- 9:10KT: I've been following your advice for the last year.
- 9:13Suze: I thought she was going to say for the last 25...
- 9:13KT: No, last she's only 30.
- 9:16KT: Your advice has given me the confidence to plan for
- 9:19KT: my future. Good for you, Nicole. Last year I started
- 9:22KT: a city job. I make $41,500 a year. My job
- 9:29KT: offers a 457B and a Roth 457B.
- 9:35KT: I was planning to pick the Roth because you say
- 9:38KT: it's the better option, but the representative, Nationwide, convinced me
- 9:43KT: to pick the 457B. Should I convert it to a
- 9:47KT: Roth 457B or keep the 457B?
- 9:54Suze: Now, I won't get too mad at you, because you've
- 9:57Suze: only been listening to me for a year.
- 10:01Suze: But don't you think, Nicole, you'd rather take advice from
- 10:06Suze: somebody like me than this idiot who gave you the
- 10:10Suze: advice to do the 457B number one? All you are
- 10:14Suze: making right now is $41,500 a year.
- 10:20Suze: That will put you in one of the lowest income
- 10:23Suze: tax brackets out there. Why in the world would you
- 10:28Suze: do a traditional 457 to simply save money on taxes,
- 10:33Suze: which will be very little, and giving up compounding tax-free
- 10:39Suze: with a Roth? Are you crazy?
- 10:41Suze: So no, you are to do a Roth 457B and
- 10:45Suze: you are to never ever take advice from this person again. KT.
- 10:51KT: So, Suze, my next question is from Maria, so keep
- 10:54KT: up with me. I'm all over the road today. My
- 10:57KT: massage therapist mentioned she rolled over her husband's work traditional
- 11:02KT: 401k into a gold traditional investment IRA two years ago,
- 11:08KT: and it has doubled since then.
- 11:11KT: Is that possible, Suze?
- 11:12Suze: Yes, it's possible.
- 11:14KT: So now Maria said Suze, I was thinking of maybe
- 11:17KT: a Gold Roth IRA.
- 11:21KT: So what do you say to that? Is there a
- 11:23KT: gold Roth IRA?
- 11:25Suze: Actually, within a traditional Roth IRA or IRA for that matter,
- 11:31Suze: one that you would get at Fidelity, at Schwab, at
- 11:34Suze: a major brokerage firm, you cannot
- 11:38Suze: hold the physical commodity gold. You cannot do it. To
- 11:43Suze: buy the physical commodity and hold it in an IRA,
- 11:48Suze: you have to go through, uh, it's just a mess.
- 11:51Suze: There are ways for you to do it like your
- 11:54Suze: massage person did, but personally I don't think it's worth it. Maria,
- 12:01Suze: here's the thing.
- 12:02Suze: Right now when you have gold that has gone up
- 12:05Suze: so high.
- 12:07Suze: Do I think from here it can double? I do not.
- 12:12Suze: However, if you want to participate in gold within a
- 12:17Suze: Roth IRA, I think the best way for you to
- 12:20Suze: do it at this point is by buying an exchange
- 12:24Suze: traded fund by the symbol GLD. Just that simple. Why
- 12:29Suze: are you looking at me like that?
- 12:31KT: Well, because I have another gold question.
- 12:34Suze: Of course you do.
- 12:35KT: Are you ready? And this just kind of follows suit.
- 12:38KT: This is, um, this is from Janna. She said, my
- 12:41KT: husband and I listen to you all the time. Back
- 12:44KT: in June of 2022, you recommended a gold stock by
- 12:49KT: the name of Barrick Gold.
- 12:51Suze: I most certainly did. One of the best calls I've
- 12:53Suze: ever made.
- 12:54KT: All right. It was $18 at the time. The symbol
- 12:57KT: was G O L D.
- 12:59KT: All right,
- 13:00KT: I remember my husband wanted to buy 1000 shares, and
- 13:04KT: I didn't.
- 13:05KT: So we decided to only buy 500 shares or about
- 13:09KT: $9,000 in his Roth.
- 13:12Suze: Fabulous. See, there's gold in a Roth.
- 13:15KT: All right, there you go.
- 13:16Suze: Listen closely, Maria, what happened here.
- 13:19KT: Listen to what Janna said. She said he never shared
- 13:21KT: much with me about money. I always was afraid to
- 13:25KT: do anything. He recently died, so.
- 13:27KT: I'm trying to figure things out, Suze. I looked up
- 13:31KT: the symbol of G O L D, and it shows
- 13:34KT: a stock, but it's not Barrick. Did Barrick go belly up?
- 13:39KT: So is all the money gone? I'm just trying to
- 13:41KT: figure things out.
- 13:43Suze: So...
- 13:44KT: So Janna is really lost.
- 13:45Suze: So Janna, here's what happened sometime a year ago, maybe
- 13:48Suze: not even that. Barrick changed its symbol. It's on the
- 13:53Suze: New York Stock Exchange under the letter B.
- 13:56Suze: Let me tell you a little bit about Barrick so
- 13:59Suze: that you know. Number one, Maria, from the question before,
- 14:04Suze: listen closely, all right. The reason that I told everybody
- 14:08Suze: back in 2022 to buy Barrick gold is number one,
- 14:12Suze: I thought eventually it would go up, but it was
- 14:15Suze: also paying 40 cents a share of a dividend, so
- 14:19Suze: it was like a 2.something% return on your money even
- 14:23Suze: if gold did nothing.
- 14:25Suze: However, over the years, Janna, Barrick has raised its dividend
- 14:31Suze: to 70 cents a share, number one, based on the
- 14:36Suze: fact that you bought it at $18 a share. That's
- 14:41Suze: a 3.8% return just in dividends alone. Fabulous, given if
- 14:48Suze: you look at money markets and things like that, are
- 14:50Suze: even lower than that right now.
- 14:53Suze: Next, if you put in the letter B and look
- 14:57Suze: up the price of Barrick right now, it's about $50
- 15:02Suze: a share. So your 500 shares did not go belly up,
- 15:07Suze: my love. They are now worth about $25,500.
- 15:14KT: That's great, right?
- 15:16Suze: So, so here's the only thing I'm gonna say. I'm
- 15:19Suze: very number one, sorry for your loss.
- 15:22Suze: But the truth is you should have bought 1,000 shares.
- 15:25Suze: You should have listened to him, all right, but don't worry,
- 15:29Suze: everything is so great I can't even tell you. You
- 15:33Suze: did the right thing.
- 15:35Suze: There you go. All right.
- 15:36KT: Well, good, Janna, and now you know you never lost that.
- 15:39Suze: Barrick was a mining company, KT, and the reason I've
- 15:43Suze: kind of switched now to gold is that now gold
- 15:47Suze: is the commodity. Barrick has also gone up tremendously, obviously,
- 15:50Suze: far more than just a double, um, so that's why
- 15:54Suze: I kind of switched to GLD.
- 15:57Suze: The ETF. Oh, I'm so happy for her.
- 15:59KT: Me too. I'm really glad she found it. There's nothing
- 16:03KT: worse than trying to figure things out, and basically she
- 16:05KT: thought she lost all that money.
- 16:07Suze: Yeah, because you go to put in GOLD, and it's
- 16:09Suze: a whole different..
- 16:10KT: What... that was only four years ago.
- 16:12Suze: That's pretty great, right?
- 16:13KT: Yeah, that really, that's a huge...
- 16:14Suze: Actually, truthfully, it was in June.
- 16:18Suze: Of, um, 2022 that I first recommended it, so it
- 16:22Suze: wasn't even four years ago anyway, go on.
- 16:25KT: All right, so question from Lauren and, and this is
- 16:27KT: based on January 22nd episode she learned all about IRAs
- 16:32KT: and she said, Suze, is it possible to convert a
- 16:35KT: SEP IRA into a SEP Roth IRA?
- 16:39Suze: If you could find one.
- 16:41KT: All right. Second, if so, how should that be done properly? Three,
- 16:46KT: my current investments are down about 2%. Does that make
- 16:51KT: now a smart time to convert and potentially take advantage
- 16:55KT: of tax loss harvesting?
- 16:57Suze: Great. Now you're not gonna be able to do any
- 17:00Suze: tax loss harvesting.
- 17:01Suze: Because everybody tax loss harvesting is when you take your
- 17:05Suze: losses now and are able to offset them for your taxes.
- 17:09Suze: So everybody don't ever make the mistake that the money
- 17:14Suze: that you have in a retirement account is subject to
- 17:17Suze: capital gains or whatever when you sell within there or losses.
- 17:21Suze: It doesn't work that way. However, the truth of the matter,
- 17:25Suze: my dear Lauren, when the money in a SEP IRA
- 17:29Suze: is down.
- 17:31Suze: And you want to get it into a Roth, now
- 17:34Suze: is when you wanna do it, because since it's down
- 17:38Suze: and you do convert it, you're not gonna owe as
- 17:41Suze: much on taxes, but it's not known as tax loss harvesting. However...
- 17:48Suze: Here's the problem. Even though now legally you can have
- 17:53Suze: a SEP Roth IRA, OK, good luck finding one. None
- 17:59Suze: of the major brokerage firms allow them. I can't find
- 18:02Suze: any of them. So here's what you would do. Who
- 18:07Suze: cares if it's another SEP? Just take your SEP IRA
- 18:12Suze: and convert it to a Roth IRA knowing you are
- 18:16Suze: going to pay taxes on whatever amount you convert, and
- 18:20Suze: now it's all in a Roth IRA and you can
- 18:23Suze: keep your SEP IRA funding it for as much as
- 18:27Suze: you can every year and then just convert it to
- 18:30Suze: a Roth IRA every single year. And that's how I
- 18:34Suze: would do it if I were you. All right, KT.
- 23:38KT: Next question is from Anne. She said, thank you for
- 23:41KT: your podcast. They've been invaluable to me and to many
- 23:44KT: others who listen.
- 23:46KT: Regarding Social Security benefits after 20 years of marriage that
- 23:52KT: ended in an annulment...
- 23:54Suze: How is that possible?
- 23:54KT: I know, I don't know, would I be eligible to
- 23:58KT: receive one half of my former spouse's Social Security?
- 24:03Suze: Wait, did she say that it absolutely already ended?
- 24:07KT: After 20 years of marriage that ended in an annulment.
- 24:11KT: It already happened.
- 24:13Suze: Anne are you sure, or did your ex-husband tell you
- 24:17Suze: that it ended in an annulment? Are you positive that
- 24:20Suze: it did? 20 years is a long time to be
- 24:24Suze: married and end in an annulment, but let's just say
- 24:27Suze: for now it did. What's the question, KT?
- 24:30KT: So the question is.
- 24:33KT: Regarding Social Security, is she eligible to receive one half
- 24:38KT: of my former spouse's Social Security benefits?
- 24:43KT: She said she understands it's a complex situation.
- 24:46Suze: It's a complex situation because she allowed it to happen. Why, Anne,
- 24:50Suze: would you even allow that? Why didn't you just get divorced?
- 24:54Suze: If you look at the rules.
- 24:57Suze: You only get part of your spouse's or ex-spouse's Social Security,
- 25:03Suze: if in fact you were married legally at least 10 years.
- 25:09Suze: Or got divorced. Because it was annulled, meaning you were
- 25:15Suze: never married to him. That's what an annulment means. So
- 25:19Suze: given you were never married to him, you will not
- 25:24Suze: in most cases qualify for any of his social security, however.
- 25:30Suze: There are, I am sure, limited technical exceptions, um, and
- 25:35Suze: you should check whatever state you live in. There are specific
- 25:39Suze: state laws, in which case maybe Social Security treats it differently.
- 25:44Suze: It's something that I would absolutely look into, given how
- 25:49Suze: much money we're probably talking about here. If it were me,
- 25:53Suze: I would have an expert review your decree.
- 25:56Suze: That you really have an annulment and the annulment is valid.
- 26:01Suze: Wanna know what I really think, KT?
- 26:04Suze: I'm not sure Anne knows that it's absolutely valid. I
- 26:08Suze: think her, this is going to be crazy what I think,
- 26:11Suze: but that's not unusual. I think her ex-husband thought if
- 26:16Suze: she got benefits, he was going to have to be
- 26:19Suze: the one who paid her. He may not have gotten
- 26:23Suze: that if she got ex benefits from him. It doesn't
- 26:26Suze: come from him. It comes from Social Security.
- 26:30KT: It doesn't lessen his.
- 26:31Suze: It doesn't lessen his. And so why else would he
- 26:35Suze: most likely have wanted to do an annulment unless he
- 26:39Suze: just really wanted to punish her seriously. So, Anne, if
- 26:44Suze: I were you, I would get on my warrior outfit,
- 26:49Suze: and I would do whatever I can to get that
- 26:52Suze: annulment declared invalid and get a divorce from him if
- 26:57Suze: you can.
- 26:58Suze: Sad KT. So I think we have to end on
- 27:02Suze: that one.
- 27:03KT: It's sad, right? Annulment after... Annulments, I thought were when
- 27:08KT: two kids run away to Las Vegas. They drink too much,
- 27:10KT: they get married. They come home, tell their parents, and
- 27:13KT: the parents say, Oh, this is getting annulled. Something is
- 27:16KT: not right with the annulment.
- 27:19Suze: And are you sure he got one, or did he
- 27:21Suze: just tell you he got one?
- 27:24Suze: I don't know.
- 27:25KT: She would have to know. A marriage is a marriage. Two
- 27:28KT: people have to know.
- 27:29Suze: Well, let's just... Anne, you check it out. So everybody...
- 27:33KT: And let us know. I'm curious.
- 27:36Suze: Yeah, we are.
- 27:38Suze: I have no idea what I'm going to do for
- 27:39Suze: Suzie's school on Sunday. So,
- 27:43Suze: You wanna say anything else before we go, KT?
- 27:45KT: Happy birthday again, Oprah.
- 27:47Suze: All right, so until Sunday, there's only one thing that
- 27:50Suze: we want you to remember when it comes to your money, sweetheart.
- 27:53Suze: Tell him everything. What do I want them to know?
- 27:55KT: It is people first, then money, then things, and you
- 27:59KT: stay safe and warm across this country. Stay warm.
- 28:04Suze: Stay warm and seriously, given everything that's going on out there,
- 28:08Suze: which I think is such a heartbreak, and I have
- 28:11Suze: to tell you I think it is so wrong. It's
- 28:14Suze: not even funny. Please all of you stay safe. Bye bye.