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Classic Suze School: It’s Never Too Late To Fix a Mistake · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:08
  Robert: August 6, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast
• 0:12
  Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi everybody,
• 0:14
  Robert: it's Robert, the producer here. And for today's classic Suze School,
• 0:18
  Robert: we're gonna go back to the spring of 2024 for
• 0:21
  Robert: a great episode where Suze tries to help someone who
• 0:24
  Robert: wants to retire, but their spouse isn't totally on board. Enjoy.
• 0:33
  Suze: Today's podcast stems from an email that I recently received
• 0:39
  Suze: that I just want to read to you, 'cause I
• 0:43
  Suze: think it's really touching in many ways. This is from Ed.
• 0:50
  Suze: I owe this to my wife.
• 0:53
  Suze: I never realized how much pressure my wife endures in
• 0:57
  Suze: regards of me retiring. I am 62 and she is 54.
• 1:02
  Suze: I have chosen to retire this year, although she doesn't
• 1:07
  Suze: want me to.
• 1:08
  Suze: I've explained numerous times to her that I just can't
• 1:12
  Suze: do it any longer. I am writing to you for
• 1:16
  Suze: some much needed advice. My wife handles everything. She pays
• 1:22
  Suze: all the bills, does the accounting, the medical, everything. I
• 1:28
  Suze: trust her with all the finances. I never realize the
• 1:33
  Suze: effort and time that it requires.
• 1:37
  Suze: She arranged a Zoom call with my employer's financial consultant.
• 1:43
  Suze: She attempted to have all her questions ready, but was
• 1:47
  Suze: disappointed because every question she attempted to clarify, the adviser
• 1:52
  Suze: basically told her, "Don't worry about this or that, and
• 1:56
  Suze: we can fill out the paperwork for you."
• 1:59
  Suze: She was not happy about this, being that she is
• 2:02
  Suze: very detailed and organized and is very passionate about educating
• 2:07
  Suze: herself with these issues. Of course I just brushed it
• 2:12
  Suze: off and told her not to stress it, but she
• 2:15
  Suze: was frantic, explaining that once I sign or commit to anything,
• 2:21
  Suze: it cannot be changed, and this is my money, and
• 2:25
  Suze: we should know how it gets handled.
• 2:28
  Suze: Suze, I am ashamed to say that she is right.
• 2:32
  Suze: I should know what's going on with my finances, so
• 2:35
  Suze: I am writing to you with the hopes that you
• 2:38
  Suze: can help me or give me the best advice on
• 2:41
  Suze: my next step. And also I want to show her
• 2:45
  Suze: that I care enough for us to write to you together.
• 2:48
  Suze: So here is my situation.
• 2:51
  Suze: I have about $200,000 in my annuity fund. I was
• 2:56
  Suze: told I had three choices. The first one would be
• 3:01
  Suze: to take the monthly lifetime payments at $1,211 a month
• 3:08
  Suze: with a 50% survival spouse. The second option would be
• 3:13
  Suze: to choose a payout either within five years, 10 years, 15, 20, 25,
• 3:18
  Suze: or 30, all spread out.
• 3:22
  Suze: The third would be for me to roll over my
• 3:24
  Suze: annuity into an IRA.
• 3:28
  Suze: Sure, I want total control over my money. My wife
• 3:32
  Suze: suggested I open up a traditional IRA and roll over
• 3:36
  Suze: the annuity into this, but to make sure to request
• 3:39
  Suze: a custodian to custodian transfer or if my employer doesn't
• 3:44
  Suze: do this, then ask them to make a check directly
• 3:47
  Suze: out to the financial institution to avoid that 20% penalty.
• 3:53
  Suze: Is this correct?
• 3:55
  Suze: Well, before I even go on, of course it's correct.
• 3:57
  Suze: Your wife listens to me seriously and has totally gotten
• 4:02
  Suze: it down. She is a little Suze Student to the max.
• 4:06
  Suze: He goes on to say, Can I open up a
• 4:09
  Suze: Roth IRA instead? The answer to that is no, but
• 4:13
  Suze: that's besides the point. And if I do, do I
• 4:16
  Suze: have to wait five years before I can take out
• 4:19
  Suze: any withdrawals? I will be needing this money monthly for income.
• 4:25
  Suze: And my last question is, my wife told me that
• 4:29
  Suze: the money that I will put into an IRA is
• 4:32
  Suze: not FDIC insured. Is this correct? How can I secure
• 4:38
  Suze: my money? If it's not secured, then I might have
• 4:42
  Suze: to take the first option, which is to take the
• 4:45
  Suze: lifetime payments. First of all, what makes you feel that secured?
• 4:49
  Suze: That's besides the point. Any constructive advice would be appreciative.
• 4:54
  Suze: I should have listened to my wife for all the
• 4:57
  Suze: times that she spoke about this. Maybe I would have
• 5:00
  Suze: been better prepared and not waiting at the edge. May
• 5:05
  Suze: my mistake be a lesson to other husbands who also
• 5:09
  Suze: choose to not worry about it. Thank you.
• 5:14
  Suze: Well, that email totally got to me, not in a
• 5:20
  Suze: bad way. I was so proud of Ed only because
• 5:25
  Suze: it's better to realizing something later on in life than
• 5:29
  Suze: not realizing it at all.
• 5:34
  Suze: I want us to all go over this together.
• 5:38
  Suze: To understand how I decipher the answer that I'm going
• 5:43
  Suze: to be giving to Ed and the things that I
• 5:47
  Suze: think about, so get out your Suze notebooks because I
• 5:51
  Suze: want you to see all the things that I went
• 5:55
  Suze: through to come up with the right solution for Ed,
• 6:00
  Suze: 'cause Ed's not the only one in this situation.
• 6:03
  Suze: So many people out there do retire, they do get
• 6:06
  Suze: offered a joint and survivor benefit, they don't know which
• 6:10
  Suze: one to take, and they get all confused about all
• 6:14
  Suze: the things that Ed talked about.
• 6:18
  Suze: And to Ed's wife, he got it, girlfriend. Good for you. Truthfully,
• 6:24
  Suze: if I was just going to put an end to
• 6:25
  Suze: all of this, I would say, Ed, you are not
• 6:27
  Suze: to retire. You are to stay there another eight years. However,
• 6:32
  Suze: you say you have to, you can't do it any longer. OK,
• 6:36
  Suze: let's just see where we go from this email. So
• 6:42
  Suze: first of all, I look at the problems.
• 6:45
  Suze: What are the problems with a 50% joint and survivor annuity?
• 6:54
  Suze: All of you have to remember that actually speaking, women
• 6:59
  Suze: live longer than men, especially in most cases when the
• 7:04
  Suze: man is eight years older to begin with than his wife.
• 7:11
  Suze: And as we get older, we usually depend on the
• 7:16
  Suze: income from our investments, possibly a pension like this, as
• 7:22
  Suze: well as both of our Social Security checks.
• 7:27
  Suze: Upon the death of Ed, I want you to think
• 7:31
  Suze: about this because it's most likely that is what is
• 7:35
  Suze: going to happen.
• 7:37
  Suze: At that point in time when his wife may be
• 7:42
  Suze: needing more money than ever because as you get older
• 7:45
  Suze: you tend to need more money, you tend to spend
• 7:49
  Suze: more money on prescriptions you might need help all of
• 7:53
  Suze: these things are possible, all right, so at the time
• 7:57
  Suze: when Ed dies when his wife may be needing every
• 8:02
  Suze: cent that they have.
• 8:04
  Suze: Upon Ed's death, his wife is going to lose one
• 8:11
  Suze: Social Security check, 'cause remember, even if they are both
• 8:16
  Suze: getting a Social Security check, forget about the amounts.
• 8:21
  Suze: Upon death, one of those Social Security checks go away,
• 8:26
  Suze: and the surviving spouse will take over the higher of
• 8:31
  Suze: the two.
• 8:32
  Suze: Ed's wife will keep hers if hers would be higher
• 8:35
  Suze: than his, but if his is higher than hers, then
• 8:41
  Suze: she will take over his. That's very important, but she
• 8:45
  Suze: still lost that income.
• 8:48
  Suze: When you take a 50% joint and survivor benefit, you
• 8:56
  Suze: may get, and in Ed's case, this is true, you
• 9:01
  Suze: may get $14,532 a year that's guaranteed to you.
• 9:08
  Suze: But upon Ed's death, his wife will only get 50%
• 9:14
  Suze: of that, which is only $7,266 in a year. Obviously
• 9:23
  Suze: she gets that monthly, so she would go from like
• 9:26
  Suze: $1,211 a month down to $605 a month. So what, Ed,
• 9:33
  Suze: have you just done?
• 9:36
  Suze: Your wife now has lost one Social Security check, $600
• 9:41
  Suze: a month of income from this pension.
• 9:44
  Suze: And that may hurt her tremendously financially. Also, when you
• 9:52
  Suze: take a joint and survivor benefit.
• 9:56
  Suze: Normally unless your place has where they have a cost
• 10:00
  Suze: of living increase where I don't think they do, but
• 10:04
  Suze: you are stuck at $1,211 a month while you are
• 10:08
  Suze: alive for 20 years, maybe 30 years.
• 10:14
  Suze: Or maybe you live another 10 years or 20 years
• 10:18
  Suze: and then you die and Susan is stuck at $605
• 10:22
  Suze: a month. It has not grown at all.
• 10:26
  Suze: That is something you need to think about.
• 10:31
  Suze: So if I were you, first of all, no way
• 10:36
  Suze: would I be taking a 50% joint and survivor benefit.
• 10:43
  Suze: Also, let's talk about Social Security, cause this is also
• 10:48
  Suze: a problem, because your wife is eight years younger than you.
• 10:54
  Suze: First of all, you collecting Social Security at 62 is
• 10:59
  Suze: just off the table, so I'm not even gonna go
• 11:01
  Suze: there with you. Forget about it. But let's say you
• 11:05
  Suze: wait till you are 67 years of age.
• 11:11
  Suze: But at 67 years of age, which is just in
• 11:14
  Suze: five years from now, Ed, your wife is still only 59.
• 11:21
  Suze: So what does that mean? She is too young. She's
• 11:24
  Suze: under 62, so she can't claim her Social Security, and
• 11:29
  Suze: she can't even get half of your Social Security at all.
• 11:34
  Suze: If she claimed it at 62, she would only get
• 11:38
  Suze: a portion of it, not her full half of the
• 11:42
  Suze: Social Security.
• 11:44
  Suze: She would have to wait 'till she was at least
• 11:47
  Suze: 67 years of age.
• 11:51
  Suze: To claim 50% of your Social Security if that happened
• 11:56
  Suze: to be higher than 100% of her Social Security.
• 12:01
  Suze: I want you to think about that.
• 12:05
  Suze: So, it will be at least another eight years until
• 12:10
  Suze: your wife can collect Social Security at all, until she
• 12:15
  Suze: is 62.
• 12:18
  Suze: Then when you look at that, she still has to
• 12:20
  Suze: wait another five more years till she is 67, to
• 12:26
  Suze: collect 50% of what your benefit would have been at
• 12:30
  Suze: 67 if that was a plan that you happen to have.
• 12:35
  Suze: You two are just gonna have to decide, when do
• 12:38
  Suze: you collect Social Security, what is her Social Security, and
• 12:42
  Suze: you have to work on it as a team. My advice,
• 12:46
  Suze: given the age difference here.
• 12:49
  Suze: And given when she is going to be old enough
• 12:52
  Suze: to collect Social Security and old enough to collect 50%
• 12:56
  Suze: of your Social Security, you should not be collecting Social
• 13:01
  Suze: Security until you are 70 years of age, and you
• 13:08
  Suze: just figure it out from there.
• 13:10
  Suze: But do you understand how you retiring early with a
• 13:14
  Suze: spouse that is eight years younger than you.
• 13:20
  Suze: Really, your retirement has screwed up a fabulous possible financial plan,
• 13:28
  Suze: which is why your spouse was so stressed out that
• 13:32
  Suze: you were going to retire. You should have listened to her,
• 13:36
  Suze: but all right, you didn't, but here we are. Let's
• 13:40
  Suze: continue on with this.
• 13:43
  Suze: What should you be doing? What you should be doing,
• 13:47
  Suze: if you ask me, is you, even though you are retiring,
• 13:52
  Suze: you need to go back to work. Number one, just
• 13:57
  Suze: because you can't stand working at the job that you
• 14:00
  Suze: are working at does not mean that you cannot work
• 14:04
  Suze: somewhere else. So if I were you,
• 14:07
  Suze: I would go back and find another job, go somewhere,
• 14:11
  Suze: do whatever, and you need to work until you are
• 14:16
  Suze: 70 years of age. Do you hear me, Ed, 'cause
• 14:21
  Suze: that would be optimum. Now, obviously I don't know what
• 14:24
  Suze: other assets you have. I don't know whatever, but your
• 14:28
  Suze: wife is really, really smart.
• 14:30
  Suze: And there must have been a financial reason why she
• 14:35
  Suze: wanted you not to retire, and I am assuming since
• 14:39
  Suze: she does all the money.
• 14:41
  Suze: That she knows there isn't enough money for you to
• 14:45
  Suze: have retired right now. That's my opinion. If I'm wrong
• 14:50
  Suze: about that, OK, but let's just assume I'm not.
• 14:55
  Suze: So, you are gonna go back to work, hopefully, for
• 14:59
  Suze: another eight years. Now, let's talk about the $200,000.
• 15:06
  Suze: That you have in an annuity where you work. First
• 15:11
  Suze: of all, you are not going to take the joint
• 15:13
  Suze: and survivor option. You are not going to take it
• 15:16
  Suze: out over 5, 10, 15 years or whatever. What you
• 15:19
  Suze: are going to do is exactly what your spouse told
• 15:24
  Suze: you you should do. You are going to
• 15:27
  Suze: roll it over to an IRA rollover and invest it
• 15:32
  Suze: and let it grow for eight years to answer two
• 15:37
  Suze: of your questions, no, you cannot put it into a
• 15:40
  Suze: Roth IRA because if you did, you would be converting
• 15:45
  Suze: it and in the year that you did that, which
• 15:47
  Suze: would be now, you've already worked a whole part of
• 15:51
  Suze: this year already, so your income probably is up there.
• 15:56
  Suze: You would owe probably $100,000 of income tax depending if
• 16:00
  Suze: you live in a state that has a high tax
• 16:03
  Suze: state bracket or not, to taxes.
• 16:06
  Suze: So no, you cannot do that. Number one. Two, you
• 16:11
  Suze: should do it exactly as your spouse told you to
• 16:15
  Suze: do so. Do a custodian to custodian transfer, which means
• 16:20
  Suze: with the aid of your wife you are going to
• 16:23
  Suze: open up an IRA rollover at either Fidelity, at Schwab,
• 16:29
  Suze: wherever you want to do it.
• 16:31
  Suze: And then you're going to have your custodian where you
• 16:35
  Suze: work right now transfer it to your new custodian. It
• 16:39
  Suze: is not going to come to you as a check.
• 16:43
  Suze: If your employer will not do that, simply have them
• 16:47
  Suze: make the $200,000 check out to your new custodian, not
• 16:53
  Suze: to you, Ed. Do you hear me?
• 16:57
  Suze: Then you have 60 days from getting that check to
• 17:01
  Suze: putting it in your new IRA rollover account.
• 17:06
  Suze: So now you have $200,000 in that account.
• 17:11
  Suze: Now, you have this fear. It's not FDIC insured. Well,
• 17:16
  Suze: if you invested all of it in a certificate of deposit,
• 17:21
  Suze: then it would be FDIC insured because certificates of deposits
• 17:26
  Suze: are insured. If you put it all in Treasury bills, bonds,
• 17:30
  Suze: or notes, then it's guaranteed by the full faith of
• 17:35
  Suze: the United States government. If you decide, let's say, to
• 17:38
  Suze: put it in Alliant Credit Union, then it's insured by
• 17:41
  Suze: NCUA and you're fine there.
• 17:44
  Suze: It's insured up to $250,000 so you don't have to
• 17:49
  Suze: worry about it. If you have a beneficiary on the IRA,
• 17:54
  Suze: which you should, and it should absolutely be your spouse,
• 17:58
  Suze: And maybe contingent beneficiaries being maybe one child or somebody
• 18:02
  Suze: else in case you and your spouse are killed in
• 18:06
  Suze: a car crash together, then you're insured up to $500,000
• 18:10
  Suze: so I would not be worrying about that on any level,
• 18:13
  Suze: and that, sir, would not be the reason.
• 18:17
  Suze: Is this kind of like a Suze Slap Down? Maybe
• 18:20
  Suze: a little bit. I don't mean it to be Ed,
• 18:22
  Suze: but I need to be firm with everybody and with
• 18:25
  Suze: you on all of this, cause what I am telling
• 18:28
  Suze: all of you right now is so important, it's not
• 18:31
  Suze: even funny.
• 18:32
  Suze: Right, but you, sir, should not be using the fact
• 18:36
  Suze: that it's not insured, to have to choose the very
• 18:41
  Suze: first choice of the joint and survivor annuity. And by
• 18:44
  Suze: the way, if you put it into a brokerage firm, it's
• 18:49
  Suze: gonna be insured under CIPIC there, you'll be fine, all right?
• 18:53
  Suze: So stop it and don't be ridiculous about this, OK.
• 18:59
  Suze: Now you have this $200,000 in an IRA rollover, and
• 19:04
  Suze: you will decide what it is that you want to
• 19:07
  Suze: do with it. If you need to be 100% secure,
• 19:12
  Suze: then fine, put it all in different treasury maturities, short term,
• 19:18
  Suze: long term, whatever it is that makes you feel OK,
• 19:21
  Suze: or do a laddered CD.
• 19:24
  Suze: For 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, whatever it may
• 19:28
  Suze: be that makes you feel secure.
• 19:31
  Suze: Or if you wanna also be smart with the money,
• 19:35
  Suze: maybe you do some of that, and maybe you buy
• 19:38
  Suze: some dividend paying stocks that are at 6 or 7%
• 19:41
  Suze: right now, or whatever it may be.
• 19:44
  Suze: But there are things that you can do with it
• 19:47
  Suze: so that nothing happens to this money. But probably eight
• 19:53
  Suze: years from now, even at 4%, 5%, you're going to
• 19:59
  Suze: have approximately $300,000 in there.
• 20:05
  Suze: And even if you invested that at just a 4, 4.5% rate,
• 20:11
  Suze: that would equate exactly to what you are going to
• 20:16
  Suze: get from the 50% joint and survivor annuity, and if
• 20:20
  Suze: you die, your spouse will continue to get that as well.
• 20:25
  Suze: So, it is really, really important that you understand exactly
• 20:32
  Suze: how it works. Now, what's really important about this podcast
• 20:39
  Suze: is at this point in your life where you apologize
• 20:44
  Suze: to your wife, where you want to show her that
• 20:48
  Suze: you really care.
• 20:50
  Suze: And you want to show the other husbands out there,
• 20:53
  Suze: or spouses, that the mistake that you made should be
• 20:57
  Suze: a lesson to others, and then live your life so
• 21:02
  Suze: you don't have to worry about it. The two of
• 21:04
  Suze: you need to sit down and decide what you should do,
• 21:11
  Suze: but you need to listen to your wife.
• 21:15
  Suze: You really need to take her suggestion so with the
• 21:19
  Suze: utmost of respect to you, Ed, the mere fact of,
• 21:24
  Suze: and I say this with love, really, of the naïveté.
• 21:29
  Suze: The mere fact that you ask certain questions like can
• 21:33
  Suze: I open up a Roth IRA? Can I do this?
• 21:36
  Suze: Can I do that, shows that innocently, really your knowledge
• 21:41
  Suze: of money and how it works is nil, is nil
• 21:45
  Suze: at this point in time.
• 21:47
  Suze: But the knowledge of your spouse is absolutely extraordinary. So,
• 21:53
  Suze: your spouse needs to become the lead in what you do.
• 21:58
  Suze: She obviously has been listening to the Women and Money
• 22:02
  Suze: podcast for a long time, or possibly reading my books
• 22:05
  Suze: or watching the Suze Orman Show, or has another
• 22:09
  Suze: person that she listens to, but whoever she's listening to,
• 22:14
  Suze: she has become sophisticated with money. She has become knowledgeable
• 22:20
  Suze: with what to do with money.
• 22:23
  Suze: So therefore don't try to exert your power now in
• 22:28
  Suze: terms of what you want to do with this. I
• 22:31
  Suze: do not like when you say you want to control
• 22:35
  Suze: this money. This is not your money. This is the
• 22:41
  Suze: both of your money, and I'm telling you, if she
• 22:44
  Suze: divorced you, you would lose, I'm sure, half of it
• 22:49
  Suze: to her.
• 22:50
  Suze: And she probably would make more out of the $100,000
• 22:54
  Suze: that she got than you would make out of the
• 22:56
  Suze: $100,000 that you would be left with. So, when you say,
• 23:00
  Suze: and you said it, I think twice in your email,
• 23:04
  Suze: that you want control over this money.
• 23:07
  Suze: You did not say I want us all to have
• 23:11
  Suze: control over the money. You said the word I.
• 23:15
  Suze: So, you have to do this, so that it is
• 23:19
  Suze: an equal thing, 'cause your wife is correct, this is
• 23:22
  Suze: both of your money. But more importantly than what you
• 23:28
  Suze: do with this money,
• 23:30
  Suze: It's at this point in time when you show your
• 23:34
  Suze: wife the respect that she deserves one, the lessons that you
• 23:42
  Suze: have learned two.
• 23:45
  Suze: And how really sorry you are for all the years
• 23:50
  Suze: that you have put her through this.
• 23:54
  Suze: So, until the next podcast, there's only one thing that
• 23:58
  Suze: I want you to remember when it comes to your money,
• 24:00
  Suze: and it is this people first, Ed, you remember that,
• 24:04
  Suze: that means your wife. People first, then money, then things.
• 24:11
  Suze: Now you stay safe and stay unstoppable.