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Transcript

How Do Couples Enforce Spending Limits? · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:00
  KT: Suze, do you know what happens in 20 days?
• 0:03
  Suze: Actually, KT, I have no idea.
• 0:05
  KT: It's not Halloween.
• 0:06
  Suze: So what are you talking about?
• 0:08
  KT: It is the last day of the amazing Alliant Credit
• 0:12
  KT: Union offer. Tell everyone about it.
• 0:14
  Suze: Oh, KT, that's what you're talking about. Listen to me, everybody.
• 0:19
  Suze: Alliant Credit Union created something just for Suze fans. Nobody
• 0:24
  Suze: else can get it.
• 0:26
  Suze: So what is the offer? Very simple. For a 12
• 0:30
  Suze: month certificate, minimum $1000 deposit, you can lock in 4.45%
• 0:38
  Suze: APY for $75,000 or more, it's 4.5% APY now.
• 0:44
  Suze: I'm here to tell you that is a great rate
• 0:47
  Suze: and you cannot pass it up. Go to my Alliant.com.
• 0:53
  Suze: You're not gonna find this anywhere else. MyAliant A L
• 0:57
  Suze: L I A N T.com.
• 1:10
  KT: Welcome everyone to the Women and Money podcast, and everyone's
• 1:13
  KT: smart enough to listen. Today is October 11th, 2026, and wait,
• 1:20
  KT: I hope you're all listening and enjoying this because Suze
• 1:23
  KT: and I pre-recorded this podcast because today we are in Kenya, Nairobi.
• 1:31
  Suze: Are you sure about that? So, as many of you
• 1:35
  Suze: know that we left on October 3rd, October 4th. Did
• 1:40
  Suze: you enjoy the LA event if you went and you streamed,
• 1:44
  Suze: I hope you did. And then immediately after that we
• 1:48
  Suze: took off for Istanbul, and now we are in Kenya.
• 1:55
  Suze: And today I'm actually addressing all the teachers that I
• 2:01
  Suze: have taught how to teach 700 women in Pokot, Kenya,
• 2:09
  Suze: and it's really very exciting that we are bringing financial
• 2:14
  Suze: freedom to Africa and I am so thrilled to have
• 2:19
  Suze: pioneered that course for them. All right, so, but we're
• 2:24
  Suze: here for you.
• 2:25
  Suze: We're here to pioneer you. So, we pre-recorded this, but
• 2:30
  Suze: you're hearing it now. All right.
• 2:32
  KT: OK, so my first question is really great, Suze. I,
• 2:36
  KT: I love this. Listen up, everyone. This is from Dottie.
• 2:41
  KT: I love Dottie. Hi, Suze. I just want you to
• 2:44
  KT: know that four years ago, I joined Amazon and wrote
• 2:48
  KT: to you about my RSU stock vesting and what to
• 2:53
  KT: do with it. I took your advice. Ready? I never
• 2:58
  KT: cashed out a single one and I've held on to
• 3:02
  KT: them thanks to your advice and thanks to
• 3:05
  KT: you, Suze, I'm leaving Amazon with almost $1.7 million next month.
• 3:14
  KT: You and your podcast have truly changed my life and
• 3:18
  KT: my future. I cannot thank you enough. Dottie.
• 3:23
  Suze: See KT, that's one of those emails that I read
• 3:26
  Suze: years ago, and I went, oh my God, I want
• 3:29
  Suze: to help this woman, and the advice happened to be,
• 3:32
  Suze: for those of you who don't know, an RSU is
• 3:35
  Suze: a restricted stock unit. And not only did Dottie keep
• 3:41
  Suze: what she had, but she kept adding to it. I said,
• 3:44
  Suze: you put every cent you have into it. Keep doing it.
• 3:47
  Suze: Keep doing it, keep doing it. And now here she is. So,
• 3:52
  Suze: I'm glad you chose that, KT, because the point of
• 3:55
  Suze: it is if you stick with something that's good.
• 3:58
  Suze: If you continue to invest in something you already have
• 4:03
  Suze: like she did, you too might be able.
• 4:07
  KT: 1.7 million four years later. Wow, you got it. Unbelievable.
• 4:14
  KT: Good for you, Dottie.
• 4:15
  Suze: We're happy for you, Dottie. Don't spend it all in
• 4:17
  Suze: one place. Next question.
• 4:18
  KT: I was gonna say go out and have a party.
• 4:21
  KT: Susie says don't spend it.
• 4:23
  KT: So Suze, next statement is from Chris. Listen up again,
• 4:28
  KT: dear Suze. You were right. I just wanted to share
• 4:31
  KT: a real life example from a faithful listener. My friend's
• 4:36
  KT: father recently passed away. He had done the responsible thing
• 4:40
  KT: and set up a trust, but the family soon discovered
• 4:44
  KT: that he had never named a beneficiary on his $80,000 IRA.
• 4:52
  KT: Now the IRA has to go through probate. This is
• 4:56
  KT: especially difficult for a family without much money that is
• 5:00
  KT: also caring for a special needs child. Thousands of dollars
• 5:06
  KT: wasted and so much time lost.
• 5:08
  KT: So once again, you were right. Please keep reminding your
• 5:12
  KT: listeners to check their beneficiaries regularly, right, Suze, especially divorced people.
• 5:19
  Suze: Yeah, what's important about this one, KT, and again, I'm
• 5:22
  Suze: glad you chose it, is that so many of us think: "Oh,
• 5:27
  Suze: I've set up this account. I have this. I have
• 5:29
  Suze: this much money. I have that." And we never ever
• 5:32
  Suze: think about what happens if I die and how many
• 5:37
  Suze: times do I have to say it's not an if,
• 5:39
  Suze: it is a when. So you have to dot your I's,
• 5:45
  Suze: cross your T's. You have to be crystal clear. You
• 5:48
  Suze: have to.
• 5:48
  Suze: Check and you have to double check when it comes
• 5:51
  Suze: to your money, your beneficiaries, your titles on your property,
• 5:55
  Suze: titles on your brokerage accounts, making sure your trusts are funded,
• 6:00
  Suze: and so on. KT, can you just now ask me
• 6:03
  Suze: a question?
• 6:05
  KT: All right, I have a question for you, Suze.
• 6:08
  Suze: Finally.
• 6:09
  Suze: This is great. I have an important question that I
• 6:12
  Suze: hope you can guide me on. My wife, 42, and I, 49,
• 6:17
  Suze: live in New York City. We have no children. We
• 6:20
  Suze: are focused on wealth accumulation, tax efficiency, peace of mind,
• 6:26
  Suze: and low stress preparation for my retirement in about 6 years.
• 6:32
  Suze: We also own a home in New Jersey and we
• 6:34
  Suze: plan to keep both properties for now.
• 6:38
  KT: So Suze, here's the question, Should we pay off the 2.75%
• 6:44
  KT: mortgage for New York at $70,000 with 5 years left
• 6:49
  KT: or the $146,000 mortgage with 19 years left at 4.125%
• 6:58
  KT: in New Jersey?
• 7:00
  KT: Should we use our high yield savings account which has
• 7:04
  KT: $720,000 in it, or do we keep paying our monthly
• 7:10
  KT: payments and not pay off either mortgage?
• 7:13
  Suze: This one's really easy, KT.
• 7:15
  KT: OK, what would you do?
• 7:16
  Suze: Here's what I would do if I were you. The
• 7:20
  Suze: goal of money is for you to be secure. Got this?
• 7:24
  Suze: Obviously, $720,000 in cash making 3.5 or 4% taxable. Has
• 7:33
  Suze: made you feel secure.
• 7:36
  Suze: You have to decide on an amount of money that
• 7:39
  Suze: you're willing to use from this high yield account. To
• 7:43
  Suze: pay off the mortgage, I would not touch the one
• 7:48
  Suze: that's at 2.75%.
• 7:50
  Suze: The one in New Jersey for 4.125%. If you would
• 7:55
  Suze: feel secure using 146,000 from your 720,000, I would pay
• 8:00
  Suze: that one off. Just get rid of it. You don't
• 8:03
  Suze: need it, but only do it if it makes you
• 8:07
  Suze: feel secure. KT, next question.
• 8:09
  KT: Hi, Suze, I have a question for you, and I
• 8:11
  KT: need your advice. I'm trying to get out of credit
• 8:15
  KT: card debt. I have $30,000 of debt.
• 8:19
  KT: Do I pull out 30k from my 100k 401k to
• 8:24
  KT: pay off the debt? Ar take my earnings from my
• 8:28
  KT: $30,000 in gains from stocks that are doing great? I'm
• 8:33
  KT: so confused because I don't want to take money out
• 8:36
  KT: of my stocks. What should I do, Suze? Please help.
• 8:40
  KT: I can't take it anymore, the 27% interest on my
• 8:44
  KT: credit cards.
• 8:46
  Suze: Let me see this one.
• 8:48
  Suze: You know what's bothering me lately, KT?
• 8:51
  Suze: I don't know if you've noticed this...
• 8:53
  KT: Debt, debt is sneaking back.
• 8:55
  Suze: You know, everybody, for quite a few years now, all
• 8:59
  Suze: the emails have been about I have this much money
• 9:02
  Suze: in my retirement account. I own these two homes outright.
• 9:06
  Suze: I'm very close to owning the homes outright. Everything has
• 9:10
  Suze: been so great.
• 9:12
  Suze: The other day I was looking through all the emails,
• 9:15
  Suze: one after another after another after another is about credit
• 9:21
  Suze: card debt. I have debt. I don't know how to
• 9:23
  Suze: get out of it. I don't know what to do,
• 9:26
  Suze: and I don't know if these are people who have
• 9:28
  Suze: just found me or not, but that concerns me.
• 9:32
  Suze: Should it concern you? Probably because when people have debt
• 9:38
  Suze: it runs through the whole system, believe it or not.
• 9:41
  KT: It's, it's, it's sneaking in Susie, and I think the
• 9:44
  KT: culprit is the price of gas, the high price of food.
• 9:49
  KT: The price of everything and people are just living their
• 9:52
  KT: usual life and putting it on the card and it's
• 9:55
  KT: coming back. Listen to this one.
• 9:57
  Suze: No, I have to answer this. I haven't answered this.
• 10:00
  Suze: Slow down, Speedy. Hey, Speedy Gonzalez, slow down. You're like
• 10:04
  Suze: a little roadrunner. She is. I have to tell you.
• 10:07
  Suze: Let me tell you what my mornings are like.
• 10:10
  Suze: At 5 o'clock in the morning, right? I'm not quite
• 10:13
  Suze: up yet. Sometimes I am. All of a sudden, KT says, hi,
• 10:18
  Suze: we say hi. We do our exercises that we do
• 10:21
  Suze: every morning in bed, takes maybe 10 minutes, right, with
• 10:24
  Suze: our legs, and then she's up and running.
• 10:27
  Suze: And when I say running, I mean running. She's either
• 10:30
  Suze: going fishing, watering the plants, going all over. I mean...
• 10:34
  KT: I make coffee.
• 10:35
  Suze: And makes coffee. All right, that's besides the point. But
• 10:38
  Suze: listen to me here for the answer to this question.
• 10:41
  Suze: You absolutely are not to take the money from the
• 10:45
  Suze: 401k to pay off the debt.
• 10:48
  Suze: The only way that you would be able to do
• 10:50
  Suze: it if you wanted to touch money in your 401k,
• 10:54
  Suze: because I'm assuming you're still working, would be to take
• 10:56
  Suze: a loan for $30,000. But if you take a loan
• 11:01
  Suze: for $30,000 and then you lose your job, that loan
• 11:06
  Suze: is going to be payable probably within a month. And
• 11:09
  Suze: if you don't have the money, you're not only going
• 11:12
  Suze: to owe taxes, but you're going to owe a penalty
• 11:15
  Suze: on it as well if you don't have the money
• 11:16
  Suze: to pay it back.
• 11:18
  Suze: Plus, that's $30,000 that's been invested in your retirement account,
• 11:24
  Suze: and it's still being taken out of the stock market. So,
• 11:28
  Suze: if this $30,000 is eating at you, what I would
• 11:34
  Suze: do if I were you is I would take the
• 11:36
  Suze: $30,000 of gains that you have in the stock market.
• 11:42
  Suze: Hopefully they are long term gains, and I would take
• 11:47
  Suze: that money and pay off the debt.
• 11:50
  Suze: Because you know, yeah, the markets are going up. Everything's
• 11:54
  Suze: been great, you're all happy again, and then all of
• 11:56
  Suze: a sudden it goes way back down. Don't think those
• 11:59
  Suze: $30,000 of gains can't disappear if something happens, so you
• 12:03
  Suze: have gains, take them. Doesn't mean you sell the stocks
• 12:08
  Suze: that gave you the gains. You're just simply taking the
• 12:11
  Suze: gains and get rid of this debt. However, now listen up.
• 12:18
  Suze: You are going to owe taxes on those capital gains
• 12:22
  Suze: $30,000 of capital gains. So every single month I want
• 12:29
  Suze: you to take the money that you were paying towards
• 12:33
  Suze: that debt.
• 12:34
  Suze: And put it in a high yield savings account or
• 12:38
  Suze: money market account every single month, because taxes are not
• 12:43
  Suze: going to be due on this until April 15th of 2027.
• 12:49
  Suze: So you have a whole lot of months to gather
• 12:52
  Suze: enough money that when the taxes are due, you're gonna
• 12:57
  Suze: have the money to pay for it. Now, I don't
• 13:00
  Suze: know what your income is and how much you're actually
• 13:03
  Suze: going to owe in taxes, but it might not hurt
• 13:07
  Suze: to just ask a CPA or somebody, how much am
• 13:10
  Suze: I going to owe in taxes on these gains, and
• 13:13
  Suze: you make sure that you save that money. So that
• 13:17
  Suze: you don't have to go into debt again just to
• 13:20
  Suze: pay the taxes. All right, KT, next.
• 13:23
  KT: That was a good answer.
• 13:26
  Suze: And if it was a bad answer, trust me, wait
• 13:28
  Suze: a minute, I gotta tell you this. If it was
• 13:30
  Suze: a bad answer, what would you do, KT?
• 13:32
  KT: I'd say, Suze, that's not right.
• 13:35
  KT: Here's another one ready for this one. I'm a full-time
• 13:38
  KT: elementary school social worker. I spend my work days helping
• 13:43
  KT: children and families find resources when life feels overwhelming.
• 13:47
  Suze: Don't tell me this is another one about debt.
• 13:51
  KT: Yes ma'am.
• 13:51
  Suze: All right, go on.
• 13:52
  KT: And lately I found myself wishing I knew where to
• 13:56
  KT: turn for a little help of my own.
• 13:58
  Suze: You picked it because she was a teacher, right?
• 14:00
  KT: I do.
• 14:00
  Suze: And, and she's a social worker.
• 14:03
  KT: And she, yeah, and she's young. I currently have approximately $13,600 in
• 14:08
  KT: credit card debt that I'm trying desperately to pay down.
• 14:13
  KT: I'm also preparing to marry my fiance.
• 14:16
  KT: And we are paying for our wedding ourselves. We're trying
• 14:19
  KT: to build a stable future while handling all of these
• 14:22
  KT: responsibilities our rent, our student loans, our living expenses, and Suzie,
• 14:28
  KT: some days the numbers feel overwhelming. I just don't know
• 14:33
  KT: what to do next. I feel like I'm just running
• 14:35
  KT: in circles.
• 14:36
  Suze: Oh, here we go again, another debt one. Here's the thing.
• 14:41
  Suze: What concerns me most, KT, about this email is she's
• 14:45
  Suze: preparing to marry her fiance.
• 14:47
  KT: I think they have to wait.
• 14:49
  Suze: And they're paying for it themselves. Tell everybody how we
• 14:53
  Suze: got married, KT. We went to a justice of the
• 14:56
  Suze: peace in South Africa,
• 14:58
  KT: Yeah, because we, it wasn't legal to get married yet
• 15:01
  KT: in America.
• 15:01
  Suze: We didn't have a fancy wedding. We didn't spend a
• 15:04
  Suze: whole lot of money. That's what we did. You cannot.
• 15:10
  KT: When you have $13,600 of credit card debt, most likely
• 15:15
  KT: at a high interest rate, even though you did not say.
• 15:20
  Suze: And it's eating you alive, and you have student loan payments,
• 15:23
  Suze: you're barely making it for your rent, you're doing all
• 15:26
  Suze: of these things, and you're going to pay for yourself
• 15:30
  Suze: for a wedding out of what? When you start a
• 15:34
  Suze: marriage in debt, that is a formula for divorce, I
• 15:39
  Suze: am telling you right now. Divorce, the number one reason
• 15:44
  Suze: for divorce today is arguments over money.
• 15:48
  Suze: Don't do this yet. You can get married, but you
• 15:52
  Suze: are not paying for your own wedding. If you love him,
• 15:55
  Suze: you want to be together, you're OK about money. You
• 15:59
  Suze: understand that your values and everything are OK, whatever it
• 16:02
  Suze: may be.
• 16:04
  Suze: Then just go get married, but do not spend one
• 16:08
  Suze: penny 'cause you don't have one penny to spend to
• 16:12
  Suze: get married. You have to take care of your debt now,
• 16:19
  Suze: before you can spend one penny on anything else. Where
• 16:23
  Suze: I would go if I were you would be to NFCC.org.
• 16:29
  Suze: Just look them up.
• 16:31
  Suze: They'll look at your credit cards you have, the interest
• 16:33
  Suze: rate that you have, and maybe they'll be able to
• 16:36
  Suze: lower those interest rates so that you can have a
• 16:39
  Suze: plan to get out of debt. You want to work
• 16:42
  Suze: with somebody, that's who I would work with. All right, KT,
• 16:47
  Suze: do not, do not, Miss Travis, read me another debt question.
• 16:52
  KT: This is worse.
• 16:55
  KT: This is, this is worse than debt. Ready? Hi Suze.
• 17:00
  KT: My husband and I, both 49, have a great combined income,
• 17:06
  KT: no debt, investments, retirement, and a paid off house, but
• 17:11
  KT: we still have lots of arguments about money. That's what
• 17:15
  KT: I'm talking about. This is worse. My issue is this
• 17:18
  KT: he makes $80,000 a year.
• 17:21
  KT: I make 220,000, but month after month he spends hundreds
• 17:28
  KT: on his hobbies or toys, and sometimes his credit card
• 17:32
  KT: bill is even close to his entire monthly take home pay.
• 17:37
  KT: He doesn't see a problem because he says we have
• 17:40
  KT: the money. Oh my God.
• 17:43
  KT: So listen to this. She said the only reason we
• 17:45
  KT: have a paid off house and anything saved at all
• 17:48
  KT: is because of me. How do you suggest a couple
• 17:52
  KT: enforce fund money limits when the high earner is not
• 17:57
  KT: a spender and the low earner is?
• 18:00
  Suze: Before I answer KT, what would you tell him?
• 18:04
  KT: Clearly, I think that he's just being an idiot.
• 18:08
  KT: He's being arrogant.
• 18:10
  Suze: He's being very disrespectful
• 18:11
  KT: And disrespectful, and I think that she's got to say, "Listen,
• 18:16
  KT: you make $80,000 a year. You're not contributing to anything.
• 18:20
  KT: So we need to separate our finances." It's that simple.
• 18:25
  KT: She has to separate the finances.
• 18:28
  Suze: And have him split the utility bills and everything that
• 18:33
  Suze: he jointly uses. He needs a serious reality.
• 18:36
  KT: He needs a slap down that's that.
• 18:39
  Suze: And on some level, you, you obviously have to take
• 18:42
  Suze: responsibility for this.
• 18:45
  Suze: Right, because he's been allowed to do this for a long,
• 18:49
  Suze: long time, and he doesn't understand why he can't continue
• 18:53
  Suze: to do it. And the reason he can't continue to
• 18:56
  Suze: do it, in my opinion,
• 18:59
  Suze: isn't because you guys don't have the money.
• 19:02
  Suze: It's because you don't want him to. And he has
• 19:07
  Suze: to respect what you want to do as well as
• 19:10
  Suze: you have to respect what he wants to do as well.
• 19:14
  Suze: But it has to be equal, and it is not
• 19:17
  Suze: equal right now. You say in this email you own
• 19:21
  Suze: the home because of you. You have the retirement account
• 19:23
  Suze: cause of you. You have everything because of you. He
• 19:26
  Suze: obviously hasn't been doing anything for a long, long time,
• 19:29
  Suze: and you have allowed it to go on for too long.
• 19:33
  Suze: So you are the one who's going to have to change.
• 19:36
  Suze: You are the one who's going to have to make
• 19:39
  Suze: a decision. Why are you still in a relationship with
• 19:42
  Suze: this man?
• 19:43
  Suze: Would you do it again if you could, and you
• 19:47
  Suze: have to have a serious talk with yourself because I
• 19:51
  Suze: can tell you when somebody writes me a letter like this,
• 19:56
  Suze: this is a precursor for somebody not wanting to be
• 19:59
  Suze: in that relationship anymore. I'm just telling you...
• 20:02
  KT: I told Suze divorce, divorce, right, simple one word answer divorce.
• 20:07
  Suze: So you have to get courage.
• 20:10
  Suze: You have to have a talk with him and you
• 20:12
  Suze: have to lay the financial law down to him. He
• 20:15
  Suze: either accepts it or let him go live on his
• 20:18
  Suze: own for a while at $80,000 a year before take
• 20:21
  Suze: home and see how well he does.
• 20:24
  Suze: Oh, go on, KT.
• 20:25
  KT: So Suze, I like this one.
• 20:27
  Suze: I hope you like it better, KT. These have been interesting,
• 20:31
  KT: But this is, this is Dolores. I like Dolores. Dolores
• 20:34
  KT: is a new, new investor, and she said, Hi, Suze
• 20:38
  KT: and KT. Hope you're both doing well. I'm super new
• 20:41
  KT: to the world of money.
• 20:43
  KT: Saving, it's exciting to learn all these cool things about
• 20:47
  KT: how to make money grow. My best friend introduced me
• 20:51
  KT: to your podcast, and I'm obsessed in a good way.
• 20:55
  KT: And now I have so many questions. I like Dolores
• 20:59
  KT: a lot. I'll start with this one.
• 21:02
  KT: Just for fun, I started to do Acorns a couple
• 21:05
  KT: of years ago, and like most things with money, I
• 21:08
  KT: do not have a clue as to what I'm doing
• 21:12
  KT: now that I'm confident to just learn. I'm worried. I
• 21:16
  KT: have been putting my wee bit of money into something
• 21:19
  KT: that is no way legit. Is Acorns an OK thing
• 21:23
  KT: to do, Suze? Should I try to get my money
• 21:26
  KT: out and start anew?
• 21:29
  KT: That's from Dolores. She's a poet and an investor.
• 21:33
  Suze: So listen to me, little squirrel, you. Right, which is,
• 21:38
  Suze: which is this I don't like acorns. I have to
• 21:42
  Suze: tell you I don't. And because your wee bit of money,
• 21:45
  Suze: do you know every time you put, let's just say
• 21:49
  Suze: $10 in, whatever... they're charging you like a 4.5% fee
• 21:53
  Suze: to do so.
• 21:55
  Suze: Really? So if you keep putting in money, a whole
• 22:00
  Suze: lot of it, at least 4%, is going to them.
• 22:04
  Suze: So no, if I were you, they're legit, but they're
• 22:08
  Suze: not smart. They're just not in the long run unless
• 22:12
  Suze: you're putting a whole lot of money in every single month.
• 22:17
  Suze: If I were you, I would absolutely take my money out.
• 22:20
  Suze: And given that you're probably working, I would start a
• 22:23
  Suze: Roth IRA with that money.
• 22:28
  Suze: And I would start to invest it. Now, you can
• 22:32
  Suze: invest it in many things, but you should choose an
• 22:35
  Suze: ETF that you like and dollar cost average every month
• 22:40
  Suze: into that, just that simple. You would be buying slices.
• 22:46
  Suze: And so you can choose from many. You've listened to
• 22:48
  Suze: me now, and I've named quite a few for you,
• 22:52
  Suze: and that's what I would be doing. But I'm so
• 22:55
  Suze: glad you are obsessed in a good way. How old
• 22:59
  Suze: do you think she is, KT?
• 23:02
  KT: A little squirrel like that, maybe 25.
• 23:06
  Suze: Maybe, right.
• 23:07
  KT: Yeah, Dolores, write to me. Tell me how old you are.
• 23:09
  Suze: Oh God. All right, here we go.
• 23:11
  KT: All right. So Suze, this next question is somewhat close
• 23:14
  KT: to home. You'll know when, when I read it to you,
• 23:16
  KT: you'll understand why. I purchased your must-have documents quite a
• 23:20
  KT: few years ago, and I've completed them and had them notarized.
• 23:24
  KT: Since they've been revised and re-notarized once. I shared them
• 23:29
  KT: with my two sisters who still have not completed theirs.
• 23:33
  KT: My 84 year old sister who has no children has
• 23:39
  KT: been hospitalized because she began experiencing psychotic episodes. She is
• 23:44
  KT: lucid in between. What would you suggest would be the
• 23:48
  KT: most important documents to complete so that my other sister
• 23:53
  KT: and I can put her affairs in order?
• 23:55
  KT: I'm not sure what to do. We all live in
• 23:59
  KT: different states. We had hoped that she could be placed
• 24:02
  KT: in a care home and receive medical and mental health
• 24:06
  KT: care where her friends could come visit, but since then
• 24:11
  KT: things took a turn for the worse.
• 24:13
  KT: And they have indicated that she will likely be sent
• 24:17
  KT: away across the state to a state geri-psych hospital. I
• 24:22
  KT: imagine this will be a terrible experience for her. And
• 24:26
  KT: then she said, Suze, your podcasts were so helpful to
• 24:29
  KT: me when I was preparing for retirement.
• 24:32
  KT: And I actually got prepared, but no such luck with
• 24:35
  KT: my sisters. They state she knows that she made mistakes
• 24:39
  KT: and she feels bad, but we just need to move
• 24:42
  KT: on from here. Your advice would be very much appreciated.
• 24:47
  Suze: So, let me keep this one, KT cause I will
• 24:50
  Suze: answer this person back directly. So if you're listening to this,
• 24:54
  Suze: please know you will be getting an email from me
• 24:57
  Suze: with absolute instructions of what I think you should do.
• 25:01
  Suze: But the main thing that I want to say here
• 25:04
  Suze: is that in order to create the must-have documents, which
• 25:11
  Suze: I all want you to have a will, a living
• 25:13
  Suze: revocable trust, an advanced directive, durable power of attorney for healthcare,
• 25:17
  Suze: and a durable power of attorney for your finances, you
• 25:20
  Suze: have to be in your right mind.
• 25:24
  Suze: You cannot go in and out and be losing it
• 25:28
  Suze: and have Alzheimer's or whatever it may be because they
• 25:32
  Suze: won't hold up. So it is very important that if
• 25:36
  Suze: you have the must-have documents or you go to a lawyer,
• 25:39
  Suze: you do whatever that you sign them, you make sure
• 25:43
  Suze: that they are valid because when something like this happens,
• 25:48
  Suze: I'm afraid there's nothing that this person can do.
• 25:53
  Suze: Because it seems like her sister is really not with
• 25:57
  Suze: it anymore at all, so my advice to her will
• 26:02
  Suze: be she needs an elder care lawyer. She needs to
• 26:05
  Suze: go with the lawyer to see her sister. The lawyer
• 26:09
  Suze: has to believe that the sister knows what she is signing.
• 26:14
  Suze: And I'm not sure that will be able to happen
• 26:16
  Suze: at this point in time. What I wished she had
• 26:21
  Suze: had was a durable power of attorney for healthcare and
• 26:25
  Suze: an advanced directive for healthcare so that she could make
• 26:30
  Suze: the decisions for her sister.
• 26:33
  Suze: And she could have decided where she wanted her sister
• 26:37
  Suze: to go, not automatically sent off to some psych hospital,
• 26:42
  Suze: you know, in whatever state there is, because they don't
• 26:45
  Suze: know what else to do with her and nobody has
• 26:47
  Suze: the power to do anything, so they're able to make
• 26:51
  Suze: the decision.
• 26:53
  Suze: So, do you understand why these must-have documents are so important?
• 26:58
  Suze: And I just have to say this, do you all
• 27:01
  Suze: understand as well?
• 27:03
  Suze: That once you are older than 18, or if you
• 27:07
  Suze: have a child who is older than 18, you no
• 27:12
  Suze: longer have legal authority over what to do with their
• 27:16
  Suze: medical situation.
• 27:19
  Suze: So, you would think, well, this is my sister. I
• 27:23
  Suze: can dictate where she's going to go and what she's
• 27:25
  Suze: going to do. She doesn't have the legal authority to
• 27:27
  Suze: do so because her sister's over 18.
• 27:31
  Suze: So if you have younger children, that's a different story,
• 27:35
  Suze: but once they turn 18, you have a 30-year-old son,
• 27:38
  Suze: a 40-year-old daughter in a car accident, you can't make
• 27:43
  Suze: any medical decisions about them at all. And if you
• 27:46
  Suze: think you can, you are making one of the biggest
• 27:50
  Suze: mistakes out there. That's why for over 30 years now.
• 27:55
  Suze: I have been saying to you, you have to get
• 27:58
  Suze: the must-have documents, so I ask all of you to
• 28:02
  Suze: go to must-havedocs.com and check them out, seriously, good in
• 28:09
  Suze: all 50 states, $2500 worth of state of the art
• 28:12
  Suze: documents for $153 that you can share with all your
• 28:16
  Suze: family members use over and over again, whatever it may be.
• 28:21
  Suze: If you don't. and something happens like this, there's really
• 28:27
  Suze: not much that I can tell you to do to
• 28:30
  Suze: help you. All right, KT, well, that was a very
• 28:34
  Suze: uplifting podcast.
• 28:35
  KT: I'll try to find happier ones next time.
• 28:38
  Suze: Can you do me a favor?
• 28:39
  KT: I'll find some happy ones. I'll throw some happies in there.
• 28:42
  Suze: All right, so we're still away for a while here, but.
• 28:47
  Suze: But until we do come back, we will make sure
• 28:50
  Suze: that every single Sunday you have a podcast that you've
• 28:53
  Suze: never heard before. But until then, there's only one thing
• 28:56
  Suze: that we want you to remember when it comes to
• 28:58
  Suze: your money. And what is it, KT?
• 29:00
  KT: People first.
• 29:01
  Suze: That means you.
• 29:02
  KT: Then money. Then Things.
• 29:05
  Suze: You got it, girlfriend.
• 29:07
  KT: Stay safe, everyone.
• 29:08
  Suze: All right, bye bye.