Latest / Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen) / Living a Life of No Regrets

Transcript

Living a Life of No Regrets · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:07
  Suze: March 1st, 2026. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast,
• 0:12
  Suze: as well as everybody smart enough to listen. Can you
• 0:17
  Suze: just even believe it's March?
• 0:19
  Suze: But I know when we're in March, that's our signal
• 0:24
  Suze: to march ahead with everything no matter what we have
• 0:28
  Suze: to face, no matter what happens in the month of March,
• 0:31
  Suze: we just have to keep moving forward. So let's march
• 0:35
  Suze: and march and march. That's how I always think about
• 0:39
  Suze: this month because for some reason crazy things happen in
• 0:43
  Suze: my opinion in the month of March, and that was
• 0:46
  Suze: true because look at what's happening right now.
• 0:50
  Suze: We've attacked Iran. They have retaliated, and the United States
• 0:56
  Suze: joining forces with Israel now we have that going on.
• 1:00
  Suze: We have what's happening with Cuba and the United States
• 1:03
  Suze: going on. We still have Venezuela that has to be decided.
• 1:07
  Suze: We have ICE that's still out of control if you
• 1:10
  Suze: ask me. We have all of these things going on.
• 1:15
  Suze: And here we are in the month of March.
• 1:19
  Suze: So I decided that it's really, really important.
• 1:24
  Suze: That we march into the independence of our own lives.
• 1:29
  Suze: How many times have I said you can't be dependent
• 1:32
  Suze: on the government or anything else? They can't even save themselves,
• 1:37
  Suze: which I think we're seeing every day. I don't care
• 1:39
  Suze: what side of the fence you're on. Everybody is making
• 1:43
  Suze: serious mistakes if you ask me. So what can we
• 1:47
  Suze: do as individuals?
• 1:50
  Suze: And what I realized is our main goal in life.
• 1:57
  Suze: Yes, I know the goal of money is to be secure.
• 2:01
  Suze: I get that. You get that, but our main goal
• 2:05
  Suze: in life is to live a life where we have
• 2:09
  Suze: no regrets, everybody.
• 2:12
  Suze: And if we live a life where we have no regrets,
• 2:17
  Suze: then we are secure not only hopefully financially but emotionally, psychologically,
• 2:25
  Suze: every possible way.
• 2:28
  Suze: And I'm so afraid that so many of us really
• 2:33
  Suze: are living a life that's going to lead to regrets.
• 2:38
  Suze: Because we are afraid to stand in our own truth.
• 2:42
  Suze: We are afraid to take our own power. We're afraid
• 2:46
  Suze: to tell people that we don't want in our lives
• 2:49
  Suze: anymore to get out of our lives.
• 2:52
  Suze: We're just afraid to take actions.
• 2:56
  Suze: That one day we'd make it so that we wouldn't
• 3:00
  Suze: have a life of regrets, but instead we live in
• 3:03
  Suze: a state of fear in most cases.
• 3:08
  Suze: So today we have a Suze school
• 3:13
  Suze: about living a life so you have no regrets, OK?
• 3:19
  Suze: Because I.. have you, by the way, taken out your
• 3:21
  Suze: little Suze notebooks? 'Cause I'm just rambling today, and that's
• 3:25
  Suze: what I'm gonna do for the rest of this podcast.
• 3:29
  Suze: I'm gonna ramble, hopefully right into your heart.
• 3:34
  Suze: So I just have to tell you something.
• 3:37
  Suze: After all these years and so many of them, after
• 3:42
  Suze: sitting with people who were dying, after talking to women
• 3:46
  Suze: who lost their partners, after hearing from people who had
• 3:49
  Suze: millions and people who had nothing, do you know what
• 3:54
  Suze: nobody has ever said to me.
• 3:57
  Suze: They have never said I wish I had made 2%
• 4:01
  Suze: more on my portfolio. They just don't say those types
• 4:06
  Suze: of things. What do they say? They say,
• 4:12
  Suze: I wish I had forgiven sooner.
• 4:14
  Suze: I wish I had taken that trip.
• 4:17
  Suze: I wish I had said I love you more. I
• 4:21
  Suze: wish I hadn't stayed so afraid.
• 4:25
  Suze: So regret is almost always about fear. It just is.
• 4:33
  Suze: It's the fear of truthfully, everyone looking foolish, losing money,
• 4:37
  Suze: being alone, starting over, saying no, saying yes, and I
• 4:43
  Suze: have met women who have stayed in marriages they knew
• 4:48
  Suze: were wrong for 20 years because they were afraid they
• 4:51
  Suze: couldn't survive financially.
• 4:54
  Suze: I've met women who had $5 million and were afraid
• 4:58
  Suze: to spend $5,000 on something that would bring them joy,
• 5:03
  Suze: so regret comes when fear runs your life instead of truth,
• 5:08
  Suze: and here is the truth.
• 5:10
  Suze: You are far more powerful than all of you think.
• 5:14
  Suze: Are you kidding me? Last night I was talking on
• 5:18
  Suze: the phone to my really good friend who is a powerful,
• 5:23
  Suze: powerful woman. She is a CEO.
• 5:27
  Suze: And she has been living in fear of telling a friend,
• 5:32
  Suze: she doesn't want to be a friend anymore.
• 5:34
  Suze: She doesn't want her in her life anymore, and there
• 5:37
  Suze: were valid reasons why she didn't want her in her
• 5:41
  Suze: life any more, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.
• 5:47
  Suze: So, all of you have got to understand, you are
• 5:51
  Suze: far more powerful than you think. So, this is a
• 5:56
  Suze: financial show.
• 5:58
  Suze: Usually that's what we always talk about. So let's go
• 6:01
  Suze: to money for one second here, because when I talk
• 6:05
  Suze: about money, you know I'm talking about you. You know
• 6:08
  Suze: you and your money are one. So if you can't
• 6:12
  Suze: do what you need to do with your money, it's
• 6:15
  Suze: because you can't do what you need to do with yourself.
• 6:19
  Suze: So let me give you the top 5 money regrets
• 6:23
  Suze: that I see all the time.
• 6:27
  Suze: And the first one is not investing earlier, OK?
• 6:33
  Suze: You tell me all the time, and I know there
• 6:36
  Suze: are men that are listening.
• 6:39
  Suze: But it's mainly the women that write me and tell
• 6:42
  Suze: me these things, so I'm sure there are men out
• 6:46
  Suze: there that do the same thing, but I'm addressing this
• 6:49
  Suze: to everybody who is smart enough to listen. So women
• 6:52
  Suze: tell me all the time, Suze, I waited. I was scared.
• 6:57
  Suze: I didn't think I knew enough.
• 7:00
  Suze: All right, what you all have to understand right now,
• 7:03
  Suze: and you have to write this down, time is the
• 7:07
  Suze: most valuable asset everybody you will ever have, and you
• 7:12
  Suze: will never ever get time back.
• 7:16
  Suze: So, your biggest regret of all is if you are
• 7:20
  Suze: wasting time, cause you think you don't have the knowledge,
• 7:25
  Suze: the ability, the capability, or whatever it may be to invest.
• 7:32
  Suze: The next one, number two, write this down. Trusting the
• 7:37
  Suze: wrong person. How many times have I said to you,
• 7:41
  Suze: you have got to trust yourself more than you trust others.
• 7:47
  Suze: Trusting the wrong person, such as a partner, a financial adviser,
• 7:53
  Suze: a family member.
• 7:55
  Suze: If something doesn't feel right, it usually isn't. Let me
• 7:59
  Suze: give you an example of trusting the wrong person. I've
• 8:04
  Suze: a friend.
• 8:05
  Suze: A friend who was in Hollywood, she makes a lot
• 8:09
  Suze: of money. She has a lot of money, and she
• 8:12
  Suze: was using a financial adviser that many of her friends
• 8:15
  Suze: in Hollywood were using. Great, and that was a good
• 8:20
  Suze: financial adviser. He was doing fabulous, I thought, for all
• 8:24
  Suze: of them.
• 8:25
  Suze: And this woman is in her 40s and she had
• 8:29
  Suze: all the money that was with her adviser 100% in stocks,
• 8:35
  Suze: but besides what she had with this adviser, she had
• 8:39
  Suze: a lot of money in a money market account, in
• 8:42
  Suze: CDs and treasuries, so not all of her money by
• 8:46
  Suze: any means was all in stocks, and she didn't need
• 8:51
  Suze: money for a long time because she's very famous in
• 8:55
  Suze: her career and she was gonna be able to write
• 8:58
  Suze: and do things forever, OK.
• 9:01
  Suze: Now she has another financial advisor.
• 9:05
  Suze: Who happens to be talking to her and says, so
• 9:08
  Suze: what are you invested in? And she tells her.
• 9:14
  Suze: What she is investing in this was another woman, OK,
• 9:17
  Suze: and the financial adviser says, Are you crazy? You can't
• 9:23
  Suze: have 100% of your money invested in equities. That's far
• 9:28
  Suze: too much risk for you. Well, guess what my friend did?
• 9:33
  Suze: She changed 100% of the money that she had with
• 9:38
  Suze: this financial adviser that she had been with for years.
• 9:42
  Suze: And put it at the firm that her friend told
• 9:46
  Suze: her would be better for her and invest the money
• 9:49
  Suze: properly for her. Now here's what's so sad. She was
• 9:54
  Suze: invested properly.
• 9:56
  Suze: The woman that she was talking to knew nothing about
• 10:00
  Suze: how much cash she had, how the markets work, anything,
• 10:04
  Suze: and now this woman, seriously, I can tell you, is
• 10:09
  Suze: going to have regrets simply because she trusted somebody else.
• 10:16
  Suze: When I asked her, I said, what? Why did you
• 10:20
  Suze: do that? How did that feel to you? She said, well,
• 10:23
  Suze: it didn't feel right, but it seemed to make sense
• 10:25
  Suze: that I had too much in the market.
• 10:27
  Suze: So I said, so why don't you just go and
• 10:30
  Suze: talk to your current financial advisor? And she said, well,
• 10:35
  Suze: I was afraid to tell him what I thought.
• 10:39
  Suze: Do you see how fear in this situation most likely
• 10:44
  Suze: is going to lead to serious regret.
• 10:49
  Suze: Next, three, staying silent about money.
• 10:55
  Suze: When you are silent,
• 10:57
  Suze: you don't say something kind of like this woman did
• 11:00
  Suze: in a way. But when you are silent,
• 11:03
  Suze: it creates dependency. You don't ask, what is our money doing?
• 11:09
  Suze: Where is it? You are just afraid to say anything
• 11:13
  Suze: with anybody when it comes to money, so your silence
• 11:17
  Suze: creates dependency on whoever else is dealing with your money.
• 11:23
  Suze: How do you change that? Through knowledge, through getting involved,
• 11:27
  Suze: because knowledge creates power.
• 11:31
  Suze: And all of you know that I always say, I
• 11:34
  Suze: want you all to own the power to control your
• 11:37
  Suze: own destinies, but how are you gonna do that if
• 11:40
  Suze: you don't have a voice? If you stay silent.
• 11:45
  Suze: If you stay silent, I promise you it will be
• 11:49
  Suze: one of your biggest regrets. Next, spending to impress.
• 11:57
  Suze: Do you all understand that nobody is thinking about your
• 12:02
  Suze: handbag as much as you think they are? Nobody is
• 12:06
  Suze: paying attention to really what you are wearing.
• 12:10
  Suze: Your clothes will never make you. Your handbags will never
• 12:14
  Suze: make you. The car you drive will never make you.
• 12:18
  Suze: You make your clothes. You make the impression when you
• 12:21
  Suze: walk into the room. You make everything around you look
• 12:25
  Suze: like a million dollars. You could put a million dollars
• 12:28
  Suze: of clothes on you, and yet if you are powerless
• 12:31
  Suze: when it comes to your own money, when you don't
• 12:34
  Suze: have the strength to say what you want to say.
• 12:38
  Suze: To do all of those things you could be dressed
• 12:41
  Suze: in every label possible and you will look and appear
• 12:46
  Suze: like a pauper because people recognize your inner power before
• 12:51
  Suze: they admire some stupid clothing that you may have on.
• 12:57
  Suze: And last but not least of these five top money
• 13:01
  Suze: regrets that I see all the time is waiting for
• 13:06
  Suze: some day.
• 13:09
  Suze: Waiting for some day. Well, I'll get around to it.
• 13:13
  Suze: I'll do it some day. Some day has to be
• 13:17
  Suze: the most expensive word in the English language. It was
• 13:23
  Suze: some day that word that got me to write one
• 13:27
  Suze: of my very best books of all books I've ever written,
• 13:30
  Suze: The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom.
• 13:33
  Suze: What keeps people from doing that which they know they
• 13:38
  Suze: should do with money? They're doctors. They're lawyers. They've raised
• 13:42
  Suze: a family, and yet when I tell them to do something,
• 13:47
  Suze: they say, OK, and then I see them again. I say,
• 13:50
  Suze: Did you do it? They go, Not yet. I'll do
• 13:52
  Suze: it some day.
• 13:54
  Suze: Some day you cannot wait for some day. Your new
• 13:59
  Suze: word has to be today. I am doing it today.
• 14:05
  Suze: And if you do these few things, they're just five
• 14:08
  Suze: very simple things, then what is it going to mean
• 14:12
  Suze: to you? Like, what does it actually mean to live
• 14:16
  Suze: a life with no regrets, everybody.
• 14:20
  Suze: So, first, I'll tell you what it doesn't mean.
• 14:24
  Suze: It does not mean that you made perfect decisions. You're
• 14:28
  Suze: going to make mistakes, OK.
• 14:32
  Suze: It does not mean that you're never gonna lose money
• 14:35
  Suze: and that you never failed. I have lost money. I
• 14:38
  Suze: have failed on many things that I tried. I did
• 14:42
  Suze: not always make perfect decisions. I'll tell you that.
• 14:47
  Suze: But that doesn't mean that I regret doing those things
• 14:51
  Suze: because at least I tried. What it does mean, however,
• 14:56
  Suze: is that you acted from courage, everybody, instead of fear.
• 15:00
  Suze: You told the truth when it mattered. You protected yourself.
• 15:06
  Suze: You loved fully. You really loved. You just didn't kind
• 15:10
  Suze: of stay in a relationship because you loved or what
• 15:13
  Suze: you loved fully.
• 15:15
  Suze: You filled your heart to its own capacity and you
• 15:19
  Suze: never settled.
• 15:21
  Suze: You lived intentionally. Like a lot of times when I
• 15:26
  Suze: do something and I get a new partner, they wanna
• 15:28
  Suze: do a partnership with me, I go, what's the intention
• 15:31
  Suze: behind this? Why are we doing this?
• 15:36
  Suze: Are we doing this simply to make money? Is that
• 15:39
  Suze: the intention? And if that's the intention, I don't want
• 15:42
  Suze: to do it.
• 15:43
  Suze: If the intention is to help people, if that is
• 15:47
  Suze: the intention, OK, count me in.
• 15:52
  Suze: So every one of us has to live intentionally knowing
• 15:57
  Suze: why do you do that which you do, and when
• 16:01
  Suze: you know why you do that which you do, you
• 16:04
  Suze: will live a life that doesn't have regrets, because one
• 16:07
  Suze: of the reasons we have regrets is we do something
• 16:11
  Suze: just because everybody else has done it. We do something
• 16:14
  Suze: because somebody else thinks we should do it. No.
• 16:18
  Suze: It's where you know what you want. You feel it
• 16:21
  Suze: in your gut. You make decisions that are good for you,
• 16:26
  Suze: not for anybody else, and you trust yourself more than
• 16:30
  Suze: you trust others. And what does it mean financially? What
• 16:36
  Suze: does it mean really financially to live a life of
• 16:40
  Suze: no regrets?
• 16:42
  Suze: It's, you know, where your money is. How sick and
• 16:46
  Suze: tired am I of asking really brilliant people,
• 16:53
  Suze: where is your Roth IRA located? At such and such
• 16:57
  Suze: a place, they tell me. Well, what's it invested in?
• 17:00
  Suze: I don't know.
• 17:02
  Suze: How much do you have in there? I don't know.
• 17:05
  Suze: Well, what did you buy the house for? What did
• 17:08
  Suze: your mother buy the house for? People go, I don't know.
• 17:13
  Suze: They do not know where.
• 17:16
  Suze: Their money is so you do not know where your
• 17:20
  Suze: money is and what it is invested in is one
• 17:24
  Suze: of the biggest regrets you will have. It's almost like saying,
• 17:30
  Suze: where are your children? I don't know. Are you telling
• 17:33
  Suze: me that if you have a 2-year-old, a 5-year-old, a 20-year-old,
• 17:38
  Suze: even a 30 or 40-year-old, they're children, and somebody said, Well,
• 17:42
  Suze: where are your kids these days? I don't know.
• 17:46
  Suze: What are they doing? I don't know. Where are they living?
• 17:50
  Suze: I don't know. There is no difference between your children
• 17:55
  Suze: that you gave birth to or adopted.
• 17:59
  Suze: And your financial children.
• 18:03
  Suze: 'Cause it is those financial children one day that are
• 18:07
  Suze: going to have to take care of you when you
• 18:10
  Suze: can no longer take care of yourself.
• 18:14
  Suze: Living a life of no regrets means that you have
• 18:19
  Suze: the must-have documents.
• 18:22
  Suze: You have a will, a living revocable trust, an advanced directive,
• 18:27
  Suze: a durable power of attorney for health care, as well
• 18:30
  Suze: as a financial power of attorney. And not only do
• 18:32
  Suze: you have them, but you have filled them out. You
• 18:37
  Suze: have actually funded them. You have taken the steps today
• 18:42
  Suze: to protect your tomorrows.
• 18:45
  Suze: Also, what living a life of no regrets means financially.
• 18:51
  Suze: Is this you are not dependent on someone else to
• 18:57
  Suze: explain your own life to you, your own money to you.
• 19:03
  Suze: Now they can explain it to you the first time,
• 19:06
  Suze: the second time, but you have got to know where
• 19:10
  Suze: every penny is, where it is invested, why it is invested.
• 19:14
  Suze: You have to know everything.
• 19:17
  Suze: Because when you do these things that I just said,
• 19:21
  Suze: you become powerful.
• 19:23
  Suze: And power, I promise you, eliminates regrets, not false power,
• 19:29
  Suze: not where you say you know, not where you feel
• 19:32
  Suze: like you're secure, but where you know without a shadow
• 19:35
  Suze: of a doubt.
• 19:37
  Suze: Where everything is, why it's there, how you feel about it,
• 19:41
  Suze: and everything I just said to you. Now I have
• 19:46
  Suze: a question to ask you, and this is a hard question.
• 19:51
  Suze: If your partner, let's say you are sharing money with somebody,
• 19:56
  Suze: you are married, you live together, whatever it may be,
• 20:01
  Suze: if your partner didn't come home tomorrow for whatever reason.
• 20:06
  Suze: They had a heart attack. They died. They just left you.
• 20:11
  Suze: Who knows? But if your partner didn't come home tomorrow,
• 20:15
  Suze: would you know? And you'd better be honest with yourselves
• 20:18
  Suze: right now, everybody. Would you know where everything is? Would
• 20:22
  Suze: you know how to access it? What to do next?
• 20:27
  Suze: I cannot tell you how many women I have met
• 20:30
  Suze: who were financially secure.
• 20:32
  Suze: But emotionally and really administratively they were paralyzed. How do
• 20:38
  Suze: I know this? Because when September 11th happened,
• 20:44
  Suze: do you know the number of calls I got from
• 20:48
  Suze: women who were married to the top executives of financial
• 20:52
  Suze: firms and they didn't know anything.
• 20:57
  Suze: They had a lot of money, but they didn't even
• 21:00
  Suze: know where their money was. They knew no passwords. They
• 21:03
  Suze: knew nothing, and this is what they all said to
• 21:07
  Suze: me during those days, and many women today still say
• 21:10
  Suze: it to me.
• 21:12
  Suze: They say these words. I should have paid attention. Are
• 21:18
  Suze: you kidding me? I'm asking you not to let that
• 21:23
  Suze: be you. So let's just do an exercise.
• 21:27
  Suze: This is something I want you to do tonight. What
• 21:32
  Suze: else are you doing tonight that could be possibly more
• 21:34
  Suze: important than this? So I don't care if you're listening
• 21:37
  Suze: to this on a Sunday, on a Monday, on a Tuesday.
• 21:40
  Suze: I don't care the day that you're listening to this.
• 21:42
  Suze: This is what I want you to do tonight, not someday.
• 21:47
  Suze: I want you to do it tonight. Where are you
• 21:51
  Suze: not taking your power, everybody? So ask yourself the question,
• 21:56
  Suze: where am I living smaller than I should be?
• 22:02
  Suze: Does that make sense to you?
• 22:04
  Suze: Next, where am I staying silent.
• 22:09
  Suze: Where are you not saying something that you're thinking and
• 22:12
  Suze: you're feeling, but you just aren't saying it? Write it down.
• 22:19
  Suze: What financial decision am I postponing because I'm scared.
• 22:25
  Suze: Are you scared to put the money in your Roth
• 22:28
  Suze: IRA in these markets? You have to face your fear.
• 22:33
  Suze: You have to face what's true in your life. There's
• 22:37
  Suze: only 4 questions here, so here's the last one. If
• 22:40
  Suze: I only had 5 years left, what would I fix today?
• 22:46
  Suze: OK.
• 22:48
  Suze: Can you write those down? Where am I living smaller
• 22:52
  Suze: than I should? Where am I staying silent? What financial
• 22:57
  Suze: decision am I postponing because I'm scared? And if I
• 23:00
  Suze: only had five years left, what would I fix today?
• 23:06
  Suze: I just want you to take one action this week.
• 23:08
  Suze: You don't have to fix all of those things. I
• 23:11
  Suze: want you to look at what you wrote down.
• 23:14
  Suze: And then just take one action.
• 23:17
  Suze: To reverse just one of those things so that in
• 23:21
  Suze: that little area you no longer will have a regret.
• 23:25
  Suze: And remember, and I've said this to you before, courage,
• 23:29
  Suze: it takes courage.
• 23:32
  Suze: To face yourself, to do these things, that's why courage
• 23:36
  Suze: is one of the equalities of wealth, but courage, I
• 23:41
  Suze: promise you, compounds just like money does. You know how
• 23:44
  Suze: when you invest money and then all of a sudden
• 23:46
  Suze: the money, your money invested makes money and on and
• 23:49
  Suze: on and on. Courage does the exact same thing. Once
• 23:54
  Suze: you take some action out of courage, all of a
• 23:57
  Suze: sudden you realize, oh.
• 23:59
  Suze: I'm courageous, and then your courage starts to become more
• 24:03
  Suze: and more, and then you start to do things that
• 24:06
  Suze: are stronger, more truthful, more intentful.
• 24:11
  Suze: And more freeing.
• 24:14
  Suze: You have to remember that your money is not just numbers.
• 24:19
  Suze: It is freedom. It is dignity. It is choices. So
• 24:25
  Suze: I want you to live so you have no regrets.
• 24:28
  Suze: Do you hear me? And I want you to remember.
• 24:32
  Suze: And I've said this before many times. You are your
• 24:37
  Suze: own greatest rescuer. So until Thursday when Miss Travis joins
• 24:44
  Suze: us for another Ask Katie and Susie anything, I also
• 24:48
  Suze: want you to remember people first, then money, then things,
• 24:54
  Suze: and when I say people first, I mean you.
• 24:58
  Suze: If you put yourself first with everything I talked about
• 25:02
  Suze: in this podcast, I promise you, you will live a
• 25:06
  Suze: life with no regrets, and then you really will stay safe. Bye bye.