Latest / Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen) / Taking The Courage Challenge

Transcript

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

0:08
Robert: June 14th, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
0:13
Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi everybody, Robert,
0:16
Robert: the producer here. Now, I know that on the last
0:19
Robert: Ask KT and Suze Anything episode, Suze mentioned that she
0:22
Robert: was thinking about going over her faves today.
0:25
Robert: But see, I needed to travel this weekend, and I
0:28
Robert: asked Suze if we could do a best of today
0:30
Robert: as a favor to me, since I'm gonna be in
0:32
Robert: a place with kind of dodgy internet and editing might
0:36
Robert: be a little tough. And Suze Orman, being the best
0:39
Robert: boss and friend ever, said that was OK.
0:42
Robert: So what we're gonna do today is revisit an episode
0:45
Robert: from late last year, which is also really good to
0:49
Robert: have at the top of your feed right now. It's
0:51
Robert: called Taking the Courage Challenge. Suze and KT will be
0:55
Robert: back with a brand new podcast this coming Thursday.
0:59
Robert: Enjoy.
1:03
Suze: I did a Suze School about a woman that we
1:07
Suze: decided to call Susan.
1:09
Suze: And what happened to her in terms of her very
1:12
Suze: good friend asking her to take her money from a
1:15
Suze: successful financial adviser where she was making money and give
1:19
Suze: it to this woman's son who was a brand new
1:21
Suze: financial adviser just so he could look like he was
1:25
Suze: doing well and attracting big clients and because her son
1:29
Suze: was only going to charge her 1% versus this extraordinary
1:33
Suze: adviser that was charging her 1.5%.
1:36
Suze: Well, I have to tell you that podcast generated more email,
1:43
Suze: in a way that I didn't expect.
1:46
Suze: So many of you wrote and said, Suze, that happens
1:49
Suze: to me all the time, not necessarily about me transferring
1:54
Suze: my account, but I just get so afraid. One friend
1:58
Suze: tells me to do this, another friend tells me to
2:00
Suze: do that. My spouse tells me to do this. I'm
2:02
Suze: just so afraid. And what can you tell me about
2:06
Suze: being afraid?
2:09
Suze: So, what's interesting is that I hear from so many women,
2:13
Suze: you would imagine that, the Women and Money podcast, and
2:17
Suze: everybody's smart enough to listen. But what I love so
2:20
Suze: much about this podcast is that really the majority of
2:24
Suze: people that are listening are 50, 60, 70, 80, and
2:29
Suze: so on.
2:30
Suze: I love that because there's not another podcast out there
2:35
Suze: that specializes in getting financially mature, financially older, the decisions
2:40
Suze: you have to make and face when you are ill,
2:43
Suze: when you are old, you can't work anymore. And I
2:46
Suze: remember when I was 45 years of age and my
2:49
Suze: first book was You've Earned It, Don't Lose It, Mistakes
2:51
Suze: You Can't Afford to Make When You Retire. But what
2:53
Suze: did I know about retirement, really? I was 45.
2:58
Suze: Now I am 30 years older than that, and I
3:02
Suze: know a lot about retirement. I know about getting ill.
3:06
Suze: I know about making mistakes. I know certain things. So,
3:12
Suze: I love that I have my elderly community, and I
3:17
Suze: love the ones that are young enough, 25, 30, that
3:21
Suze: are enjoying it as well.
3:24
Suze: But what is still true from so many women is this...
3:31
Suze: Regardless of your age, regardless of your income level, even
3:35
Suze: your background, all of your stories sound the same.
3:40
Suze: That you're earning more than ever before, you're saving, you're investing,
3:45
Suze: you're doing everything that I've told you to do over
3:49
Suze: all these years, but deep down you are all still afraid.
3:57
Suze: And I got two or three emails about three weeks ago,
4:01
Suze: and these women were so accomplished, and the two of
4:05
Suze: you know who you are, because I wrote you back
4:08
Suze: significant long emails to help you and raise you up,
4:15
Suze: not so much from your finances, but out of your
4:18
Suze: fear and out of your self-doubt.
4:22
Suze: But all of you, you're still scared, you're scared that
4:26
Suze: the market's gonna crash. You're scared that you're gonna make
4:29
Suze: just one mistake and you're gonna lose it all. You're
4:32
Suze: scared that somehow it's going to all slip away.
4:38
Suze: You know, I used to call it that we all
4:39
Suze: have this bag lady syndrome that we imagined ourselves, not me,
4:44
Suze: by the way, that we imagined ourselves being powerless and
4:47
Suze: penniless and living on the streets.
4:51
Suze: And the only way that could ever happen.
4:54
Suze: It is if you're powerless cause remember you and your
4:59
Suze: money are one and when you are powerless you tend
5:03
Suze: to make mistakes with your money but when you're powerful
5:07
Suze: you always tend to do the right thing and I
5:11
Suze: just have to be honest, you know, cause it's starting
5:14
Suze: to get to me, for I can teach you what
5:17
Suze: to invest in, but I have to tell you, everybody,
5:20
Suze: that's just not enough.
5:23
Suze: But I also need to teach you about fear because
5:27
Suze: you can have money and still not have peace, and that,
5:31
Suze: my dear friends is not the way to live life. Remember,
5:36
Suze: as I just said a second ago you and your
5:39
Suze: money are one. So if you fear your money, you
5:43
Suze: in essence are fearing yourself.
5:47
Suze: So, here is what I need you to get once again,
5:49
Suze: and I have told you this before, but since this
5:52
Suze: is Suze School, how about if we take out our
5:56
Suze: Suze notebooks and we write this down.
6:00
Suze: Money doesn't erase fear. Do you remember me telling you this?
6:05
Suze: Courage does.
6:08
Suze: Courage, one of the eight qualities of a wealthy woman.
6:13
Suze: Actually, the third quality, just so you know, courage is
6:19
Suze: what shows up when you finally stop running from your
6:23
Suze: finances and start standing in your power, when you stop
6:29
Suze: running from self-doubt.
6:32
Suze: My second book that I ever wrote was The 9
6:35
Suze: Steps to Financial Freedom, and truthfully, in my opinion, the
6:38
Suze: best book I ever wrote.
6:40
Suze: And I would always say, if you can just take
6:44
Suze: one step towards your money, which means taking one step
6:47
Suze: towards yourself, since you and your money are one.
6:51
Suze: You and your money will take 9 steps back towards you.
6:57
Suze: But you know, the truth is I've seen it over
7:00
Suze: and over again.
7:02
Suze: Women who are brilliant.
7:05
Suze: Women who are responsible, hardworking.
7:08
Suze: Yet for some reason they carry this quiet anxiety about money.
7:17
Suze: And a lot of the women that I've been writing
7:19
Suze: back and forth with, not like they're only making 10,000
7:22
Suze: a year, they're making 100,000 a year, 150,000, one's making 350,000,
7:27
Suze: and she's still scared to death.
7:31
Suze: So what do they do?
7:33
Suze: They check their accounts constantly. They second guess every decision.
7:38
Suze: They feel guilty for spending and worried about not saving enough.
7:44
Suze: And here's the truth, the fear isn't about numbers. It's
7:48
Suze: about trust.
7:50
Suze: Trusting yourself, trusting that you know what's right for you,
7:54
Suze: trusting that you can handle everything and whatever comes next.
8:00
Suze: And when you build everybody that kind of trust with yourself,
8:05
Suze: that's when your relationship with money and who you are transforms,
8:12
Suze: because fear can't survive where confidence lives. You know, I
8:17
Suze: just want to say this a little, and then I'll
8:19
Suze: go on with this.
8:21
Suze: I have a sister-in-law, KT's twin sister, and Lynn, I
8:24
Suze: know you're going to hear this, and I'm so proud
8:28
Suze: of her.
8:29
Suze: And I may have told you this again a little
8:32
Suze: bit ago because I never know what I say or
8:33
Suze: I don't cause I just kind of speak in the
8:35
Suze: microphone and I never remember what I've said after I
8:39
Suze: said it, so excuse me if I already told you this,
8:42
Suze: but I'm so proud of her and her husband Tom,
8:45
Suze: by the way, and Lynn is starting to really learn
8:49
Suze: about stocks and feeling confident enough about deciding what stocks
8:55
Suze: she wants to buy with their money.
8:59
Suze: I love that. I love that. I love that.
9:04
Suze: But here's the truth. What I find fascinating is that,
9:09
Suze: do you know that women today, women, women control nearly
9:14
Suze: a third of all the wealth in this country? Can you
9:17
Suze: just imagine that? And that number is growing every single year.
9:24
Suze: But still, most women say they don't feel confident making
9:31
Suze: financial decisions, really, everybody.
9:35
Suze: Really.
9:37
Suze: But, you know what's so funny, when women do invest,
9:41
Suze: studies show that they all outperform men, because women are steady,
9:48
Suze: they're thoughtful, and they think long term.
9:52
Suze: So maybe we need to stop calling this and where
9:55
Suze: everybody says, Suze, I want to be risk averse. Please,
9:59
Suze: I don't want to invest my money. I want to
10:00
Suze: be risk averse.
10:02
Suze: And I keep telling them that's not what you want
10:05
Suze: to be. You want to be what I call risk aware.
10:10
Suze: Write it down. Where you are aware of the risk
10:14
Suze: that you are taking. Is it a big risk? Is
10:17
Suze: it a small risk? It is a risk to do
10:20
Suze: absolutely nothing. I want you to be risk aware, and
10:25
Suze: that's exactly what will build wealth that lasts you forever.
10:31
Suze: Awareness, preparation, and courage, that's the real power trio, everybody.
10:38
Suze: Those are the three things I want you to be now.
10:41
Suze: I want you to be aware. I want you to prepare,
10:45
Suze: and I want you to have courage.
10:48
Suze: But let's be honest, and let me go back a
10:50
Suze: second here.
10:52
Suze: Because fear has been following women and money for generations,
10:58
Suze: which is why I wrote the book Women and Money,
11:03
Suze: maybe the second greatest book I ever wrote.
11:08
Suze: 'Cause, you know, women, it's true, and if you think
11:10
Suze: that we're not socialized to think this, you are wrong,
11:14
Suze: because I know when I'm in a room with people
11:16
Suze: and I just freely talk about money, I know, how
11:18
Suze: much was that? How much do you make? How much
11:21
Suze: did you spend? What's your real estate commission, all of that,
11:25
Suze: they look at me like I am nuts, and that's
11:28
Suze: because women.
11:30
Suze: We were taught that talking about money was impolite, that
11:34
Suze: asking questions made us difficult, that wanting independence made us selfish.
11:41
Suze: But I got news for you, everybody. Starting with this podcast,
11:46
Suze: those days are over. Financial fear is not your inheritance,
11:52
Suze: do you hear me? It's a habit, and habits can
11:55
Suze: be broken.
11:57
Suze: And the way you break it is with knowledge. You
12:00
Suze: learn to plan. You take small actions, and before you
12:04
Suze: know it, you have built confidence. And when confidence shows up,
12:09
Suze: I'm here to tell you, everybody, fear packs up and leaves.
12:14
Suze: So, here's your courage challenge for the week, and I
12:18
Suze: may have given this to you before.
12:21
Suze: But if I have, you need to still do it.
12:24
Suze: Step one, I want you to name the fear. What
12:28
Suze: are you afraid of? And I want you to write
12:32
Suze: it down, and I don't want you to sugarcoat it.
12:36
Suze: Then, I want you to just face the facts. I
12:41
Suze: want you to look at your numbers. You can't change
12:45
Suze: what you won't confront. And the reason that I want
12:48
Suze: you to do that is, given the women that I've
12:51
Suze: been doing plans with who have written me that touched
12:54
Suze: my heart, so I answered them personally, once they saw
12:58
Suze: the numbers really.
13:00
Suze: They weren't afraid any more. They weren't afraid cause they
13:05
Suze: saw the truth, the truth that they weren't willing to
13:10
Suze: look at.
13:11
Suze: And step three, can you just make one small move,
13:16
Suze: just one.
13:17
Suze: Whether it's increase your automatic savings, or maybe you're adjusting
13:21
Suze: your investment allocation up to you.
13:24
Suze: Or maybe you're asking one financial question you've been afraid
13:28
Suze: to ask.
13:30
Suze: But just take one small move and step four, rinse
13:36
Suze: and repeat.
13:37
Suze: Because courage isn't built in a moment, it's not. It's
13:42
Suze: built in motion.
13:44
Suze: And here again is what I want you to remember
13:49
Suze: from this podcast. Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's
13:55
Suze: the decision to move forward despite it. Did you hear me?
14:00
Suze: Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's the decision to
14:04
Suze: move forward despite it.
14:07
Suze: Remember, you don't need permission to be powerful cause you
14:10
Suze: already are. You know, I've said this before that in China,
14:14
Suze: they say women hold up half the sky.
14:18
Suze: And I've always said, but in the United States of America,
14:22
Suze: women hold up the entire sky. I believe from the
14:26
Suze: bottom of my heart that you have more power in
14:29
Suze: your little finger women than everybody else, and I'll let
14:33
Suze: you decide who that is, have in both of their hands.
14:38
Suze: So don't wait for the right time. I don't want
14:41
Suze: you to wait for the right market. I don't want
14:43
Suze: you to wait for someone to come and rescue you.
14:47
Suze: You've got the money now. It's time to get the courage.
14:52
Suze: All right, there's only one thing that I want you
14:55
Suze: to remember when it comes to your money, and it
14:57
Suze: is this people first, then money, then things. Now you
15:03
Suze: stay safe. Bye-bye.