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My Husband Has Dementia, What Can I Do? · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:08
  KT: OK, everyone, welcome to the Women and Money podcast and
• 0:12
  KT: everyone smart enough to listen. This is Ask KT and
• 0:16
  KT: Suze Anything Sunday, August 9th, 2026. Do you believe it?
• 0:23
  Suze: I can't believe that hair is what I cannot believe.
• 0:26
  KT: OK, so...
• 0:27
  Suze: Why does your hair look like that?
• 0:29
  KT: I... they need to see it. No one can see
• 0:31
  KT: it except for you. My hair is going in every
• 0:35
  KT: direction north, south, southwest, northeast, every possible compass direction you
• 0:42
  KT: can think of. Why? Because I just got it cut
• 0:46
  KT: and instead of doing anything, I got out of the
• 0:48
  KT: pool and bam, dried it off and that's what I got.
• 0:54
  KT: Oh, listen to her. That's not nice. All right, Suze,
• 0:58
  KT: I'm gonna start.
• 0:59
  Suze: Why did you pay for that?
• 1:02
  KT: That is not nice. That's so not nice.
• 1:06
  Suze: Usually your hair is so perfect.
• 1:10
  KT: Not this morning. It's very early.
• 1:12
  Suze: All right, go on, KT.
• 1:14
  KT: So Suze has an announcement for everyone, and I want
• 1:17
  KT: you to listen up because we're gonna be there.
• 1:20
  Suze: Yes, and that announcement is October 3rd and 4th, in LA.
• 1:25
  Suze: I want all of you to go to Suze Orman.com/empower
• 1:31
  Suze: E M P O W E R and check it
• 1:34
  Suze: out because if you happen to be in the LA
• 1:37
  Suze: area or you even wanna travel to the LA area,
• 1:41
  Suze: Hay House is putting on a two day event with
• 1:46
  Suze: 16 of their top authors. Doctor Mindy will be there.
• 1:51
  Suze: I'm gonna be there. I will be the closing keynote
• 1:54
  Suze: on October 4th. So come on down. But if you
• 1:59
  Suze: do anything, check it out because maybe you'll be able
• 2:03
  Suze: to zoom in. Who knows? I don't know what else
• 2:05
  Suze: they have planned.
• 2:06
  Suze: But check it out. It's gonna be quite the day.
• 2:10
  Suze: All right, KT.
• 2:11
  KT: That's in honor of her birthday.
• 2:13
  Suze: Who is her?
• 2:14
  KT: Louise Hay's 100th. She would have been 100 on, I think,
• 2:20
  KT: October 8th, right?
• 2:22
  Suze: So it's right around there a few days later. But
• 2:25
  Suze: for those of you who don't know.
• 2:26
  KT: Oh, what a great woman.
• 2:28
  Suze: Louise was one of the most magnificent human beings. Forget woman.
• 2:33
  Suze: Magnificent human beings God ever created and all she ever
• 2:39
  Suze: wanted was for all of you to love yourself, to
• 2:43
  Suze: have a great life, to have a positive life, to
• 2:47
  Suze: create the life that you want, and in my opinion
• 2:50
  Suze: she started that with you can heal yourself and millions
• 2:54
  Suze: and millions of books and did all these events and
• 2:59
  Suze: really extraordinary lived to her nineties and I'm telling you,
• 3:04
  Suze: I only wish you had met her, maybe many of
• 3:06
  Suze: you did, but to honor her is really to honor yourself,
• 3:13
  Suze: which is why they're calling it the Empower Workshop. All right, KT.
• 3:18
  KT: She is the best.
• 3:20
  KT: OK. My first question isn't a question, it's a statement.
• 3:25
  KT: It's a great statement. I love this one. This is from...
• 3:29
  Suze: I can't stop looking at your hair.
• 3:31
  Suze: This is from...
• 3:31
  Suze: Can you put a hat on?
• 3:33
  KT: Want me to put a cap on?
• 3:35
  Suze: All right, never mind.
• 3:36
  KT: All right, this is from Noreen, and it said, your
• 3:39
  KT: advice paid off again, Suze. I love this. She said,
• 3:44
  KT: Thank you for advising that if I put my adult
• 3:47
  KT: child on our credit cards, it would build his credit
• 3:51
  KT: scores and ratings. My son just bought his first car
• 3:56
  KT: with an 810 credit score totally accredited to my 833
• 4:02
  KT: score and was able to get an apartment on his
• 4:05
  KT: own without having me co-sign for either. Great advice as always, Suze.
• 4:11
  KT: Thank you. The significance of the car is that I
• 4:15
  KT: did not have to co-sign on the auto purchase. Removes
• 4:20
  KT: me from any liability, which is fantastic. Yay yay yay.
• 4:25
  KT: That's what she wrote.
• 4:26
  Suze: So for all of you who don't know what she's
• 4:28
  Suze: actually talking about.
• 4:30
  Suze: The truth is all of you, whether you know it
• 4:33
  Suze: or not, have a FICO score, a credit score, and
• 4:37
  Suze: the one that most creditors still look at to this
• 4:39
  Suze: day is the one from Fair Isaac Corporation, and that
• 4:44
  Suze: score goes to a high of 850. If you're below 500,
• 4:49
  Suze: trust me, you are absolutely already FICOed.
• 4:53
  Suze: The higher your FICO score, the lower your interest rates,
• 4:57
  Suze: the lower your FICO score, the higher your interest rates.
• 5:02
  Suze: So therefore, what made this so great is that obviously
• 5:06
  Suze: her son didn't have credit because you need credit cards.
• 5:11
  Suze: You need to be spending money, having credit in order
• 5:14
  Suze: to get a FICO score. So forever when everybody was
• 5:19
  Suze: first discovering FICO scores.
• 5:21
  Suze: I told all of you, listen, if you just put
• 5:25
  Suze: your kid on your credit card as an authorized user
• 5:30
  Suze: and don't tell them you did it.
• 5:34
  Suze: Right, then your FICO score will become their FICO score. Now,
• 5:40
  Suze: I didn't even know that that still works, but obviously
• 5:43
  Suze: it does. So it is a way if you have
• 5:46
  Suze: a child, they have a low FICO score, it was
• 5:49
  Suze: ruined for whatever reason, or you have a low FICO
• 5:53
  Suze: score and it was ruined. If you have somebody in
• 5:56
  Suze: your life that has a high FICO score.
• 5:59
  Suze: And they'll put you on as an authorized user. You
• 6:02
  Suze: cannot hurt their credit. It does not matter. They do
• 6:05
  Suze: not give you a credit card, so their score becomes yours.
• 6:10
  Suze: But if you ask somebody and they have a bad
• 6:13
  Suze: credit score, their bad credit score becomes your score. So
• 6:17
  Suze: make sure that it's good and that you see it
• 6:19
  Suze: in writing.
• 6:20
  KT: I want to show you, show Suze this, obviously.
• 6:24
  KT: I, I don't think we can post it, but look
• 6:26
  KT: at Noreen next to her son and the car. She
• 6:30
  KT: is beaming with pride. He's a good looking boy, and
• 6:35
  KT: I'm telling you...
• 6:36
  Suze: What kind of car is that?
• 6:37
  KT: I don't know. It looks like a pretty sexy sports car,
• 6:40
  KT: but you could tell that she is just so proud
• 6:44
  KT: of her boy and his first car.
• 6:47
  Suze: I actually think she's so proud of herself.
• 6:50
  Suze: That she was able to get herself off the hook
• 6:53
  Suze: and not have to co-sign for her son for his
• 6:55
  Suze: apartment or his car. And so if he screws up
• 6:58
  Suze: now it's on him and not her. Next question, KT.
• 7:02
  KT: OK, this is from Mary. She said, Suze, what would
• 7:04
  KT: you do? Hello...
• 7:06
  Suze: Wait, I just have to answer that question before you
• 7:08
  Suze: even go on. I'll tell you what I would do
• 7:10
  Suze: in terms of if I had a child that needed
• 7:14
  Suze: me to co-sign for a car, co-sign on an apartment
• 7:18
  Suze: or whatever it would be, I wouldn't do it in
• 7:20
  Suze: a million years. It will be the biggest mistake you
• 7:23
  Suze: have ever made. I don't care how much you love
• 7:25
  Suze: that kid. I don't care how great that kid is.
• 7:28
  Suze: If a bank will not lend your child money, neither
• 7:32
  Suze: should you, because if they screw up, it's gonna ruin
• 7:36
  Suze: your FICO score forever. And guess what? You're on the
• 7:39
  Suze: hook to pay those bills. All right, KT.
• 7:42
  KT: OK, this is from Mary. She said hello. I'm 47.
• 7:47
  KT: I inherited $100,000 from a grandparent. My spouse and I
• 7:53
  KT: have an emergency fund. We fund our Roth IRAs. He
• 7:57
  KT: has a 401k, and I have a small traditional IRA
• 8:02
  KT: from when we both worked.
• 8:04
  Suze: Mistakes.
• 8:05
  KT: OK. I've been an SAHM for 15 years
• 8:09
  Suze: Do you know what that is?
• 8:11
  KT: Mm, no.
• 8:12
  Suze: A stay at home mom.
• 8:13
  KT: Oh, a stay at home mom, yeah, and SAHM for
• 8:17
  KT: 15 years. What do you recommend I do? My husband
• 8:22
  KT: wants me now to start funding my Roth and put
• 8:25
  KT: the rest in CDs. I think we should consider other options.
• 8:30
  KT: Grateful Suze, but confused. That's from Mary.
• 8:33
  Suze: All right, so the very first thing that you need
• 8:36
  Suze: to do, and you best do this, you have got
• 8:40
  Suze: to keep that $100,000 in your separate name. You cannot
• 8:48
  Suze: put it in a joint account.
• 8:50
  Suze: Because if God forbid you and your husband all of
• 8:53
  Suze: a sudden aren't lovey-dovey anymore and you split, that $100,000
• 8:58
  Suze: remains yours if you put it in a joint account
• 9:02
  Suze: with his name and you split half of it is his.
• 9:07
  Suze: So I don't care where you invest it, how you
• 9:10
  Suze: do it, it's got to be in your individual name.
• 9:14
  Suze: So if you want to buy certificates of deposits, OK,
• 9:18
  Suze: depending on the state that you live in.
• 9:20
  Suze: If you live in a high income tax state where
• 9:25
  Suze: maybe it's New York, California, if I were you I
• 9:28
  Suze: would not be doing certificates of deposit right now. I
• 9:32
  Suze: would be looking at treasuries because treasuries you do not
• 9:37
  Suze: pay any state income tax on it, and treasuries may
• 9:41
  Suze: be even giving a higher interest rate right now than
• 9:44
  Suze: some certificates of deposit. So first, only in your name.
• 9:50
  Suze: Two, treasuries versus certificates of deposit. Three, you're young. You
• 9:57
  Suze: are 47 years of age. What are you doing? You're
• 10:00
  Suze: gonna make this money, just sit and make 3, 4, 5%
• 10:04
  Suze: for you. This is the time in your life for
• 10:07
  Suze: you to open up your own individual Roth IRA. You
• 10:12
  Suze: can fund it. It will still be yours just so
• 10:15
  Suze: you know.
• 10:16
  Suze: The number four... right now, I forgot the numbers I'm on.
• 10:20
  Suze: Have you been keeping track?
• 10:21
  KT: No.
• 10:22
  Suze: I'm totally losing focus because of her haircut, but that's besides, the point.
• 10:26
  KT: I'm gonna go put a cap on.
• 10:28
  Suze: But wait, that's besides the point is that you should
• 10:31
  Suze: not be listening to your husband here. Seriously, this is
• 10:35
  Suze: the time in your life that you want to make
• 10:38
  Suze: the most out of this money, so I would be
• 10:42
  Suze: opening up besides a Roth IRA.
• 10:45
  Suze: An individual investment account in just your name where you
• 10:50
  Suze: dollar cost average into either ETFs or individual stocks or
• 10:55
  Suze: whatever it may be. If you really don't know what
• 10:58
  Suze: to do, fine, then just dollar cost average into an
• 11:01
  Suze: ETF by the symbol VOO. But there are so many
• 11:06
  Suze: good ones. There's Fitz, FITZ.
• 11:09
  Suze: There's MSMH. There's all kinds of ones. You can also
• 11:14
  Suze: buy individual stocks, whether it's 5 shares here, whatever, and
• 11:17
  Suze: just keep doing it little by little while it sits
• 11:21
  Suze: in a money market fund, making 4, 4.5% while your
• 11:25
  Suze: dollar cost averaging it into the market. That's what I
• 11:29
  Suze: would be doing if I were you. However, overall.
• 11:34
  Suze: Why are you in a traditional IRA? It's a small one. OK,
• 11:40
  Suze: so why don't you convert it right now so it
• 11:42
  Suze: is a Roth IRA, so you have everything in a Roth.
• 11:46
  Suze: And why is your husband at work have a 401k
• 11:50
  Suze: and not a Roth 401k? So that's why I won't
• 11:54
  Suze: quite be listening to him. All right, KT.
• 11:57
  KT: The next email subject area said FEGLI.
• 12:00
  KT: And I didn't know what a FEGLI was. I thought
• 12:02
  KT: it was a new kind of pasta or something.
• 12:04
  Suze: It's a life insurance policy for a federal employee.
• 12:07
  KT: Yes, Suze knew. I said, Suze, what is FEGLI? Federal
• 12:11
  KT: Employees Group Life Insurance. So it's not a pasta, everyone.
• 12:16
  KT: Then she said...
• 12:17
  Suze: Do you still have Italy on your brain?
• 12:19
  KT: I do. So Susan said, Hi ladies, I'm 59 and
• 12:23
  KT: single with two sons aged 24 and 22. I have
• 12:28
  KT: 5 times my annual salary in F E G L I.
• 12:34
  KT: My job will pay for one time my annual salary.
• 12:38
  KT: Wouldn't it be smart to cancel the other 4 times
• 12:41
  KT: my annual salary as it is costing me $75 every
• 12:46
  KT: 2 weeks? So she's asking you that question. Would it
• 12:50
  KT: be smart to cancel the other $75 every 2 weeks,
• 12:55
  KT: 4 times her salary?
• 12:58
  Suze: Was that hard for you?
• 12:59
  KT: No, I'm asking you, what do you think?
• 13:01
  Suze: What do you think?
• 13:03
  KT: Cancel it.
• 13:04
  Suze: Why?
• 13:04
  KT: Well, FEGLI is one thing, but they're 24 and 22
• 13:08
  KT: year old. They're not, they, they're adult kids.
• 13:11
  Suze: So they don't need insurance, right?
• 13:12
  KT: Well, if she wanted to still keep them under her wing,
• 13:17
  KT: she can get term insurance.
• 13:18
  Suze: No, this is probably just as cheap as term. Maybe.
• 13:21
  KT: All right, so what do you think?
• 13:22
  Suze: I'll tell you what I think. So you know what's funny, KT,
• 13:25
  Suze: is that so many people think, oh $75 every two
• 13:30
  Suze: weeks isn't that much money.
• 13:32
  Suze: So, why not do it, all right? But the truth is,
• 13:36
  Suze: a little amount of money can build up to be
• 13:40
  Suze: a lot of money over a long period of time.
• 13:45
  Suze: Now, if she took that $150 a month and for
• 13:49
  Suze: the next 11 years just invested it for herself with
• 13:53
  Suze: average market returns, I'm sure she'd have about $40,000 at
• 13:57
  Suze: the age of 70. Or if she really wanted this
• 14:01
  Suze: money for her children.
• 14:03
  Suze: And they're so young she could put $75 every two
• 14:09
  Suze: weeks in an investment account in her own name, $150
• 14:13
  Suze: a month, and if she did that every single month
• 14:17
  Suze: for 25 years, maybe till she's like 85 years of age,
• 14:22
  Suze: very probable she will get there. All right. Do you
• 14:25
  Suze: know with average market returns they'd have $200,000 in that account,
• 14:31
  Suze: she would.
• 14:32
  Suze: Because she would just keep doing it month in and
• 14:35
  Suze: month out, no taxes on it. She would never sell,
• 14:38
  Suze: she would just do it all the time on her death.
• 14:43
  Suze: That money would pass down to her kids. They would
• 14:46
  Suze: get a step up in basis on it, and it
• 14:49
  Suze: would be all tax free to them.
• 14:52
  KT: Bingo.
• 14:54
  Suze: And if they needed it before she died because they're
• 14:57
  Suze: only going to get this money if she dies.
• 15:00
  Suze: Right, if they needed it before she died. Now she
• 15:04
  Suze: has a lump sum of money to give to them,
• 15:07
  Suze: or if she needs it, it's there for herself as well.
• 15:12
  Suze: So the bottom line here is, Susan, oh, you cancel
• 15:15
  Suze: that as fast as you can as long as you
• 15:18
  Suze: know that you are healthy.
• 15:20
  Suze: And that nothing seriously is wrong with you. All right, KT, good.
• 15:25
  KT: OK, this is...
• 15:26
  Suze: You have to admit that was brilliant.
• 15:27
  KT: It was pretty brilliant, especially the...
• 15:30
  Suze: Tax-free part.
• 15:31
  KT: Yeah, bingo, bingo, bingo,
• 15:33
  Suze: Because wait, let me tell you why everybody says, oh no, you
• 15:35
  Suze: want life insurance because life insurance will be tax-free to
• 15:39
  Suze: the kids. Oh please give me a break, everybody, tax free,
• 15:42
  Suze: and you paid for it. You left them 100,000.
• 15:45
  Suze: Ended up paying really 300,000 with growth. No, do it
• 15:49
  Suze: what I just said to you. Do it that way.
• 15:52
  Suze: All right, go.
• 15:52
  KT: OK. This next question is from Kathleen. She said, Suze,
• 15:56
  KT: thank you for empowering myself and so many women to
• 16:00
  KT: be financially independent. And then she wrote, especially when we
• 16:05
  KT: watched our mothers be totally dependent when it came to finances.
• 16:11
  KT: So she said, I work for a very small business.
• 16:14
  KT: My boss offers 3% contribution match and has set up
• 16:18
  KT: a target date traditional IRA. I really do not want
• 16:23
  KT: to put my money in a target date fund, but
• 16:26
  KT: I know that one should never say no to free money.
• 16:29
  KT: Is the free money really worth it when we're looking
• 16:32
  KT: at $15 a month? On average, I'm contributing around $500
• 16:38
  KT: a month to my retirement.
• 16:41
  KT: Should I continue with my employer's plan, or should I
• 16:45
  KT: opt out and start putting the 15% of my paycheck
• 16:49
  KT: into a Roth IRA that I already have set up
• 16:53
  KT: even though I will not be getting the 3% match
• 16:56
  KT: if I go this route?
• 16:58
  Suze: Would you give up the match, KT?
• 17:00
  KT: Yes?
• 17:01
  Suze: Right away.
• 17:02
  KT: Oh. Probably I don't, I don't know what's the difference
• 17:06
  KT: of right away.
• 17:07
  Suze: What would you, would you ever stop in and just
• 17:09
  Suze: do the Roth and forget free money?
• 17:11
  KT: Yeah.
• 17:12
  Suze: You would?
• 17:13
  KT: Yeah.
• 17:13
  Suze: Dinga dinga dinga.
• 17:15
  KT: Yeah.
• 17:15
  Suze: That's a yes.
• 17:16
  KT: Yeah. Oh good!
• 17:19
  Suze: She cannot believe that she got it right. So listen
• 17:22
  Suze: to me, Kathleen. Here's the serious problem with this isn't
• 17:27
  Suze: that it's a target date mutual fund. All right, things
• 17:30
  Suze: could be worse. It's in an IRA.
• 17:35
  Suze: And therefore what's happening there is it's growing pre-tax and
• 17:41
  Suze: as it does get larger, you're going to take it
• 17:45
  Suze: out and pay ordinary income tax on it. That's number one.
• 17:49
  Suze: Number two, given that you're only putting in $500 a month,
• 17:54
  Suze: that says to me that you're kind of not in
• 17:57
  Suze: a really big tax bracket.
• 17:59
  Suze: So I would much rather see you take that money
• 18:03
  Suze: after tax money, contribute it to your Roth.
• 18:06
  Suze: That's almost $6,000 a year. So you're almost at your max.
• 18:12
  Suze: You can add a little more there and do it
• 18:14
  Suze: after tax and forget what your company is offering. If anything,
• 18:20
  Suze: they should have been doing it with a Roth IRA,
• 18:23
  Suze: but obviously your boss has whatever and so go alone
• 18:27
  Suze: and let them do what they want to do. All right.
• 18:31
  KT: Good. OK, this is from Shelly.
• 18:33
  KT: I like this question, but it's a little bit, it's
• 18:36
  KT: a little confusing for me. Hi, KT and Suze. I
• 18:40
  KT: have a whole life insurance policy that my ex-husband and
• 18:43
  KT: I took out in 1995.
• 18:47
  KT: When we divorced, I took over the policy. He is
• 18:50
  KT: the beneficiary. The death value is 100,000, and the quarterly
• 18:55
  KT: premiums are 158. Over the 30 years, the total premiums
• 19:01
  KT: added up to approximately 18,000. The total fund value is
• 19:05
  KT: only 6,500.
• 19:08
  Suze: Welcome to the world of whole life insurance.
• 19:09
  KT: Oh my God, wait, 1995. That's all they have the value.
• 19:15
  KT: So I just received...
• 19:16
  KT: Now you know why on the top 10 hate list.
• 19:19
  KT: I just received my annual statement and noticed the cost
• 19:22
  KT: of the insurance for 2025 was $1,120 with expense charges
• 19:28
  KT: of $109. Interest credited was only $266.
• 19:35
  Suze: Welcome to the world of Whole Life Insurance.
• 19:37
  KT: Suze. I could use your help in determining whether the
• 19:40
  KT: policy is worth keeping or not.
• 19:42
  KT: I love the show. I listen all the time. You
• 19:46
  KT: gave me the confidence to manage my money and educated me,
• 19:52
  KT: and I want you to know that my Fidelity account,
• 19:55
  KT: which just tipped 1 million this year, saved me thousands
• 20:00
  KT: in fees. There you go. So tell everyone, well, well,
• 20:04
  KT: she kind of said it herself.
• 20:06
  Suze: Yeah, she did.
• 20:07
  KT: She knows what to do.
• 20:08
  Suze: But here's what I want you to get, KT.
• 20:12
  Suze: 158 quarterly over 30 years would be about $62,000 just
• 20:21
  Suze: like in nothing, right, not whatever so here's the bottom line.
• 20:27
  Suze: Get rid of it. Just get rid of it. It
• 20:31
  Suze: makes absolutely no sense. If it wasn't part of your
• 20:35
  Suze: divorce decree where you had to keep an insurance policy
• 20:40
  Suze: on yourself, get rid of it as long as you
• 20:43
  Suze: know you are healthy. Whole life insurance is always a
• 20:47
  Suze: waste of money. I've never seen one example where it
• 20:50
  Suze: is not a waste of money.
• 20:53
  Suze: Again, many of you know I have a top 10
• 20:56
  Suze: hate list, and maybe whole life insurance is on the
• 20:59
  Suze: very top of that list. Many of you may have
• 21:02
  Suze: a policy, but you are terminally ill. You need to
• 21:06
  Suze: then not get rid of it, but if you are
• 21:08
  Suze: still healthy.
• 21:09
  Suze: If things are good, can you just do me a
• 21:12
  Suze: favor and get rid of it? And if you want,
• 21:17
  Suze: take that $158 quarterly and invest it in your own
• 21:21
  Suze: Roth or something else, or maybe take your ex out
• 21:24
  Suze: to dinner and tell him, I'm not insured anymore, so
• 21:28
  Suze: go for it yourself, boyfriend.
• 21:32
  KT: He was the beneficiary.
• 21:34
  Suze: I know.
• 21:34
  KT: Right? Even that part was like, wait a minute,
• 21:37
  Suze: But no, that's why I asked this that it wasn't
• 21:39
  Suze: part of the divorce decree because if it is, she's
• 21:43
  Suze: got to keep it, but maybe you can switch it
• 21:45
  Suze: to a term life insurance or just pay them out.
• 21:51
  KT: All right, this is from Debbie. Debbie said, Suze and KT,
• 21:55
  KT: I believe you said an IRA does not belong in
• 21:58
  KT: a trust. I don't think you can put one in
• 22:00
  KT: a trust. What about an HSA?
• 22:03
  Suze: Keep going. Is that it?
• 22:05
  KT: Yeah, that's the question.
• 22:06
  Suze: All right, so
• 22:07
  KT: I think you can have an HSA. Can you?
• 22:10
  Suze: No, KT, you cannot, right, so.
• 22:13
  Suze: An IRA. I want you to think about the initials,
• 22:17
  Suze: whether it's a Roth or a traditional IRA. It stands
• 22:22
  Suze: for Individual Retirement Account. It's not a TRA, a trust
• 22:30
  Suze: retirement account. It's an IRA.
• 22:34
  Suze: Therefore, you cannot put an account that's for an individual
• 22:39
  Suze: into a trust. You can make the trust the beneficiary,
• 22:44
  Suze: but you should only do that if you are not married,
• 22:49
  Suze: because you never want the primary beneficiary of an IRA
• 22:54
  Suze: to be a trust if you're married, because then if
• 22:57
  Suze: you were to die.
• 22:59
  Suze: Your spouse wouldn't be able to take it over as
• 23:02
  Suze: their own, so your spouse is always the primary beneficiary
• 23:07
  Suze: of your IRA. The secondary, if you have minor children
• 23:11
  Suze: or whatever, can be the trust. Now, I just want
• 23:14
  Suze: to say this, very different than a 401k plan.
• 23:19
  Suze: An IRA you do not have to, if you are married,
• 23:23
  Suze: leave your spouse, the beneficiary of that IRA in an
• 23:28
  Suze: employee sponsored plan like a 401k.
• 23:31
  Suze: Your spouse has to sign off if you're going to
• 23:34
  Suze: leave it to somebody else other than your spouse. That
• 23:37
  Suze: is not true with an IRA. So if you have
• 23:42
  Suze: money in an IRA and you are not happy with
• 23:46
  Suze: your spouse, you do not have to leave him or
• 23:50
  Suze: her any money just so you know.
• 23:54
  Suze: But again, the trust cannot be an owner of an IRA.
• 23:58
  Suze: The same is true with a health savings account.
• 24:02
  Suze: It cannot be owned by a trust because it's a
• 24:06
  Suze: health savings account on yourself. A trust is not a
• 24:10
  Suze: human being, so it can't be insured. Do not make
• 24:14
  Suze: the mistake of leaving a trust as a beneficiary of
• 24:20
  Suze: an HSA because if you do, if you have any
• 24:23
  Suze: money in there, because remember you can invest money in
• 24:26
  Suze: a health savings account.
• 24:28
  Suze: It has to be distributed taxable to whoever the beneficiaries
• 24:34
  Suze: of your trust happen to be, and even if the
• 24:37
  Suze: beneficiaries of your trust is your spouse, it does not matter.
• 24:42
  Suze: It has to be distributed and taxable to him or her.
• 24:46
  Suze: So again you would want to leave it to an
• 24:50
  Suze: individual if that individual, especially was your spouse because then
• 24:54
  Suze: the spouse can take it over as their own as well.
• 24:58
  Suze: Next question, KT.
• 25:00
  KT: OK, this is...
• 25:01
  Suze: Did you find that interesting?
• 25:02
  KT: I did. I, I think that I knew that an
• 25:05
  KT: IRA definitely cannot individual means it can't...
• 25:09
  Suze: But did you find it interesting that if I want,
• 25:11
  Suze: I don't have to leave my IRA to you.
• 25:15
  KT: Who would you leave it to?
• 25:16
  Suze: Nobody, just you, OK.
• 25:20
  KT: OK, next question. I like this. This is very sweet.
• 25:24
  KT: Hello Women and Money podcast team.
• 25:27
  KT: That's KT and Susie. We're the team.
• 25:30
  Suze: And Robert.
• 25:31
  KT: All right, and Robert. So my name is Sage. I'm 22.
• 25:36
  KT: I live in Germantown, Ohio, and I work full time
• 25:40
  KT: as an industrial mechanic on rotating day and night shifts.
• 25:44
  KT: Good for you, Sage. We need great mechanics in this world.
• 25:49
  KT: So he said, Susie, I'm reaching out with a big
• 25:51
  KT: but honest ask. I'm carrying roughly $20,000 in debt, including
• 25:58
  KT: collections and the vehicle deficiency, and my credit score is
• 26:02
  KT: around 521. I earn a steady income, and I'm not
• 26:07
  KT: looking for a shortcut that lets me avoid responsibility.
• 26:11
  KT: I want to settle what I owe. I want to
• 26:14
  KT: rebuild my credit, and I want to become ready for
• 26:18
  KT: a home and marriage. Is that the sweetest?
• 26:22
  Suze: I think.
• 26:23
  KT: I love that.
• 26:24
  Suze: Who's gonna marry somebody with $20,000 of debt.
• 26:26
  KT: Well wait, I have a feeling that Sage, he ends
• 26:29
  KT: it with and become ready for home and marriage. He's
• 26:32
  KT: got some fiance behind him.
• 26:35
  KT: That probably wrote this for him. Really, I think that
• 26:39
  KT: we have to help him.
• 26:40
  Suze: So Sage, here's what I really want to tell you
• 26:43
  Suze: to do number one, when you have a bad FICO score.
• 26:48
  Suze: And you have debt that's already in collections, which means
• 26:51
  Suze: it is past 90 days due. It's past that. Don't
• 26:56
  Suze: think that by paying off that debt, your FICO score
• 27:01
  Suze: is going to go up. It will not, just so
• 27:04
  Suze: you know. So the first thing you want to do
• 27:07
  Suze: is look at your credit report.
• 27:11
  Suze: And look at the debt that you have that is
• 27:13
  Suze: more currently past due, then way past due and deal
• 27:17
  Suze: with that debt first because that will help your FICO
• 27:21
  Suze: score more than paying off debt that has already been
• 27:25
  Suze: written off, so to speak. That's number one. Number two,
• 27:29
  Suze: you are to contact the NFCC, the National Foundation of
• 27:35
  Suze: Credit Counseling, so NFCC.org.
• 27:40
  Suze: And they will set up a payment plan for you.
• 27:43
  Suze: You will work with a counselor there. It will cost
• 27:46
  Suze: you probably 10 to $20 a month. And what happens
• 27:50
  Suze: is they make a deal with your credit card companies
• 27:54
  Suze: to lower your interest rate so that you pay them
• 27:58
  Suze: and they pay your credit cards and
• 28:01
  Suze: they're actually funded by the credit card companies. A lot
• 28:05
  Suze: of them are because the credit card companies would rather
• 28:08
  Suze: get something rather than nothing. But here's the thing.
• 28:13
  Suze: Right? I want to rebuild my credit and become ready
• 28:17
  Suze: for home and marriage. Great.
• 28:21
  Suze: But before you can do that, you have to look
• 28:24
  Suze: at yourself in the mirror.
• 28:27
  Suze: And you have to ask yourself why when somebody has
• 28:31
  Suze: the intelligence to be an industrial mechanic, why am I
• 28:38
  Suze: such a screw up when I can't even put the
• 28:41
  Suze: nuts and bolts together of a dollar, savings, credit cards,
• 28:45
  Suze: or anything like that? What is going on in your
• 28:49
  Suze: life today? You have got to look at this because
• 28:52
  Suze: otherwise you're just gonna fix it and you're gonna screw
• 28:55
  Suze: it up all over again.
• 28:57
  Suze: You're gonna strip the screw that you want to put
• 28:59
  Suze: in that bolt or in that hole, so it's a
• 29:02
  Suze: solid connection, and that's what I need you to do
• 29:07
  Suze: for yourself.
• 29:08
  Suze: So, you have got to go within and see why
• 29:11
  Suze: you are doing without. How did you spend that money?
• 29:14
  Suze: Why did you spend that money? You knew exactly what
• 29:17
  Suze: you were doing when you did it, right? You have
• 29:20
  Suze: a vehicle deficiency, you have collections. You were like this
• 29:24
  Suze: entitled little kid that thought they can just buy anything
• 29:27
  Suze: they want and not have to pay for it.
• 29:30
  Suze: So the best way to pay for it is to
• 29:32
  Suze: stand in your truth and tell yourself, why did you
• 29:37
  Suze: do this and then promise yourself you are never going
• 29:41
  Suze: to do that again and you'll figure that out as
• 29:45
  Suze: you're going to NFCC.org KT go on.
• 29:50
  KT: Good for you, Sage. I know you can do it.
• 29:52
  KT: I have faith in him. I have a great deal
• 29:54
  KT: of faith in him.
• 29:56
  KT: My last question is from Karen, Suze. She said, hello,
• 29:59
  KT: Suze and KT and her subject said, not sure what
• 30:03
  KT: to do. I'm writing today with a heavy heart. I
• 30:07
  KT: am a 54-year-old teacher and my 59-year-old husband is being
• 30:12
  KT: assessed for early onset dementia. We also have a 17-year-old
• 30:17
  KT: daughter at home. I have been listening to your podcast
• 30:20
  KT: since December 2025.
• 30:23
  KT: I tried to get long-term care insurance, but he's not
• 30:27
  KT: eligible because of his memory issues.
• 30:31
  KT: I honestly don't know what to do at this point.
• 30:34
  KT: He is able to stay home while I work for now,
• 30:37
  KT: but I'm so concerned for his care and safety as
• 30:40
  KT: the disease progresses. I cannot quit my job and stay
• 30:44
  KT: home since I've been the main wage earner for 3 years.
• 30:48
  KT: We need the health and care benefits attached to my job.
• 30:52
  KT: Suze, our whole family is overwhelmed by the situation. For
• 30:56
  KT: several years, he didn't want anyone to know, but I
• 30:59
  KT: finally demanded that we reach out for help from friends
• 31:03
  KT: and family. They've all been supportive with making appointments, taking
• 31:08
  KT: him to doctors, finding resources such as Social Security disability.
• 31:13
  KT: But Suze, how do I plan for this when I
• 31:16
  KT: had no plan in place?
• 31:19
  Suze: So KT...
• 31:20
  KT: So true.
• 31:21
  Suze: This is one of those emails that I came across
• 31:25
  Suze: and I wrote her back.
• 31:26
  KT: Oh, what did you tell her to do?
• 31:28
  Suze: And it was a long answer that I wrote her,
• 31:31
  Suze: but I'll try to remember what I said to her.
• 31:34
  Suze: But you know, a lot of times you guys, when
• 31:37
  Suze: I read certain emails.
• 31:40
  Suze: Not that all your questions don't touch my heart, but
• 31:44
  Suze: there's certain people that really need help right now with
• 31:49
  Suze: a situation that you can't change, such as your husband
• 31:53
  Suze: has early onset dementia.
• 31:56
  Suze: And he doesn't qualify for long term care insurance. So
• 32:00
  Suze: what does somebody do? And these are the things that
• 32:04
  Suze: I'm sure I said to her. The very first thing
• 32:07
  Suze: KT I told her is she's got to get the
• 32:09
  Suze: must-have documents while he still has some mental capacity.
• 32:15
  Suze: He and she needs a living revocable trust, an advanced directive,
• 32:20
  Suze: a durable power of attorney for health care, financial power
• 32:23
  Suze: of attorney, all of that while he can still sign
• 32:28
  Suze: those documents. So I told her to go to must-havedocs.com
• 32:32
  Suze: and get them.
• 32:34
  Suze: And the reason that that's so important, everybody, is that
• 32:38
  Suze: once your spouse becomes incapacitated, and let's just say both
• 32:43
  Suze: of them, KT own their home, they maybe have their
• 32:46
  Suze: home and they own an in joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
• 32:50
  Suze: Now he becomes incapacitated, he doesn't recognize everything.
• 32:55
  Suze: And they need to sell the house, they can't, because
• 32:58
  Suze: it takes two signatures to sell a house that's in
• 33:02
  Suze: both your names, but with a living revocable trust.
• 33:07
  Suze: That has an incapacity clause in it like the must-have
• 33:10
  Suze: documents have then she can sign for him, he can
• 33:15
  Suze: sign for her if it were reversed, and they would
• 33:18
  Suze: be protected and then she also has the right to
• 33:22
  Suze: make health decisions for him.
• 33:25
  Suze: If it's needed, all right, so that was number one. Also,
• 33:29
  Suze: I've told her to really check Social Security disability and
• 33:34
  Suze: try to get it to start now.
• 33:37
  Suze: Because it's possible that the onset of early Alzheimer's, that's
• 33:43
  Suze: on the Social Security Compassionate allowance list. So if they
• 33:49
  Suze: simply got it fast tracked, they could get money now
• 33:54
  Suze: rather than have to wait for it.
• 33:57
  Suze: And here's what I'm telling you, nobody tells anybody. While
• 34:01
  Suze: your daughter is still a minor, she may qualify for
• 34:05
  Suze: a dependent benefit on his record because she is only 17,
• 34:10
  Suze: KT and so the clock is running out. So I
• 34:14
  Suze: asked about it, that she should absolutely right now, without
• 34:19
  Suze: a shadow of a doubt, apply. Also, you need to
• 34:24
  Suze: fear about him being home alone.
• 34:26
  Suze: You need to understand that that is a reality and
• 34:30
  Suze: we all know that's a reality because they wander and
• 34:32
  Suze: think the real answer to her question is that they
• 34:37
  Suze: need an adult day program that's structured, that's supervised, that
• 34:43
  Suze: has all of that. So I asked her to call
• 34:45
  Suze: the elder care locator.
• 34:49
  Suze: And the number was 800-677-1116, and I remember that number
• 34:54
  Suze: because of how many people I have had call the
• 34:57
  Suze: elder care locator, as well as the Alzheimer's Association helpline. Now,
• 35:03
  Suze: that number I don't know by heart, but you can
• 35:06
  Suze: call that number. They're open 24 hours a day. They're free.
• 35:10
  Suze: And I'm telling you it's what you need to do
• 35:14
  Suze: and that ends this all of a sudden call in
• 35:17
  Suze: the middle of the night panic like I don't know
• 35:19
  Suze: where he is, he's gone.
• 35:22
  Suze: And trust me, that happens, right, right, so you can't buy,
• 35:27
  Suze: she said she can't buy long term care insurance now.
• 35:30
  Suze: Now listen to me, everybody.
• 35:32
  Suze: You don't wait until you're 60 or 65 or 70
• 35:38
  Suze: to get long term care insurance. Really, Phyllis Shelton, who
• 35:42
  Suze: is the expert in my opinion on long term care insurance,
• 35:45
  Suze: will tell you 45 or 50 is the absolute best
• 35:50
  Suze: time to get it. Your premiums are less. You're usually healthy.
• 35:56
  Suze: Because as you get older, as soon as something like
• 35:58
  Suze: this happens, forget it, you're not going to get it. So,
• 36:03
  Suze: you should all reach out to Phyllis Shelton at Phyllis,
• 36:07
  Suze: P H Y L L I S at got LTCI.com,
• 36:14
  Suze: which stands for Got Longterm Care Insurance.com. So, Phyllis at
• 36:19
  Suze: got LTCI.com.
• 36:21
  Suze: And she will help you, and you need to know,
• 36:24
  Suze: I do not get a referral fee. I do not
• 36:27
  Suze: make one penny, just so you know.
• 36:29
  Suze: She is the best and I get so many thank
• 36:33
  Suze: you letters from all of you seriously, who have spoken
• 36:38
  Suze: to her or her team and said, oh my God,
• 36:40
  Suze: she helped me, she helped me so much we didn't
• 36:42
  Suze: even buy anything from her and she still helped us.
• 36:46
  Suze: So therefore, though, back to the point that I was making, right,
• 36:50
  Suze: you have to understand who pays and who doesn't pay.
• 36:55
  Suze: So please everybody, just remember that Medicare does not cover
• 37:00
  Suze: long term custodial care. Medicaid, however, does, and you only
• 37:06
  Suze: qualify for medical when you're totally broke, all right? So
• 37:11
  Suze: I'm not exactly sure that you want to do that,
• 37:14
  Suze: but it does have some protection, specifically for women like you,
• 37:19
  Suze: just so you know.
• 37:21
  Suze: And rules that let at home spouses keep a share
• 37:24
  Suze: of their assets and income so you aren't left destitute.
• 37:28
  Suze: All right. Also remember there is a 5 year look
• 37:32
  Suze: back on transfers, so I told her not to move money,
• 37:36
  Suze: do not give things to the kids, do not take
• 37:39
  Suze: on single asset protection steps without consulting an elder lawyer.
• 37:45
  Suze: And last, and I think there was only five things
• 37:48
  Suze: that I told her, but I'm going into detail with
• 37:51
  Suze: all of you on this answer, because so many of
• 37:53
  Suze: you are in this situation.
• 37:57
  Suze: So the last thing I told her was that she
• 38:00
  Suze: was not to cash out her retirement, not for his care,
• 38:04
  Suze: not for her daughter's college, that she builds a saving
• 38:07
  Suze: cushion as high as she can, eight months, you know,
• 38:11
  Suze: I want you to have at least an eight month
• 38:13
  Suze: emergency savings account.
• 38:15
  Suze: And her situation actually calls for more. She should try
• 38:20
  Suze: to open a HELOC right now while she is employed,
• 38:24
  Suze: and qualifying will be easy for her because you never
• 38:28
  Suze: know when she may have to use it. You might
• 38:30
  Suze: want to go to myalliant.com. They really do have the
• 38:34
  Suze: best home equity line of credit
• 38:37
  Suze: offer out there but it's only good in 28 states
• 38:41
  Suze: so go to my alliant.com and see if one of
• 38:45
  Suze: your states is eligible for a home equity line of credit.
• 38:50
  Suze: They tell me that in October all the states will
• 38:54
  Suze: be eligible, but we'll see if that's true or not.
• 38:57
  Suze: She needs to check in the district that she lives
• 39:00
  Suze: in if they have a flexible spending account, an FSA,
• 39:05
  Suze: that allows dependent care for an adult who can't care
• 39:09
  Suze: for themselves, and usually that can be pre-tax dollars towards
• 39:14
  Suze: adult daycare. That was just a few of the things
• 39:17
  Suze: that I told her, and I am telling all of you.
• 39:21
  Suze: So those are the things that you need to know.
• 39:24
  KT: So bottom line, there's many resources available for her.
• 39:27
  Suze: Yes, great, but you know what's funny, KT? All people
• 39:31
  Suze: want to know is what stock should I buy, what ETF,
• 39:34
  Suze: what should I do with my money.
• 39:36
  Suze: And they never think about what are you gonna do
• 39:41
  Suze: with your money if that happens to your spouse, if
• 39:43
  Suze: it happens to you, if there's an accident, because so
• 39:47
  Suze: many times when I was actually seeing clients.
• 39:51
  Suze: I saw it over and over again all the money
• 39:54
  Suze: that we saved for them gone gone fast, fast, all
• 40:00
  Suze: because they didn't plan correctly they didn't have long term
• 40:03
  Suze: care insurance and they didn't really think that ever could
• 40:07
  Suze: happen to them.
• 40:08
  KT: The what ifs of life.
• 40:10
  Suze: All right, now go wash your hair.
• 40:15
  KT: OK, on that note, we bid you farewell.
• 40:18
  Suze: Until next week. There's really only one thing we want
• 40:24
  Suze: you to remember, and it's this
• 40:26
  KT: people first, then money, then things.
• 40:29
  Suze: Now you stay safe. Bye bye everybody.