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Make A Date With Your Money - Revisited · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:08
  Robert: November 2nd, 2025. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
• 0:12
  Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi everybody.
• 0:14
  Robert: I am Robert, the producer. Suze and KT have returned
• 0:18
  Robert: safely from their Italian eating and painting adventure, but you
• 0:23
  Robert: know how it is when you come back from a
• 0:24
  Robert: long trip, sometimes you need a couple extra days to re-acclimate.
• 0:29
  Robert: And that's what's happening now. We are going to keep, however,
• 0:32
  Robert: the promise that Suze made on the last episode, where
• 0:35
  Robert: you get a Suz e School podcast today. However, it's
• 0:39
  Robert: got a little twist to it. You're going to hear
• 0:42
  Robert: the main part of an episode that we did about
• 0:44
  Robert: a year ago, but we think it's very important for
• 0:47
  Robert: you to hear again right now at the top of
• 0:50
  Robert: your feed. Today is November 2nd, as I just said,
• 0:53
  Robert: that means there are two more months left in the year,
• 0:56
  Robert: and it's really time.
• 0:58
  Robert: To start preparing for next year.
• 1:01
  Robert: And part of that preparation is making a date with
• 1:05
  Robert: your money. Here's Suze to explain everything.
• 1:11
  Suze: Make a date with your money.
• 1:15
  Suze: I really want you to take this time before the
• 1:20
  Suze: new year starts to sit down, make a date, get
• 1:24
  Suze: out your calendars, everybody, and make a date when you
• 1:29
  Suze: or your spouse or your life partner or your children,
• 1:32
  Suze: I don't care who, your parents. You sit down and
• 1:37
  Suze: you make a date.
• 1:40
  Suze: And that date is the entire day is devoted to
• 1:46
  Suze: dealing with every aspect of your money.
• 1:51
  Suze: Not so much what you're invested in.
• 1:55
  Suze: But is everything in place?
• 2:00
  Suze: Are you protected in case something happens? Check all your
• 2:05
  Suze: home or rental insurance policies as to what they cover
• 2:09
  Suze: and what they don't cover, and also have you increased
• 2:13
  Suze: the coverage, really everybody, since you bought the home, given
• 2:19
  Suze: that maybe it's worth a whole lot more than it
• 2:22
  Suze: was 10 years ago when you originally got that insurance.
• 2:27
  Suze: And the fact of the matter is, it costs a
• 2:30
  Suze: lot more to replace that home today because of inflation,
• 2:35
  Suze: as it did a long time ago. Next, what's really
• 2:41
  Suze: important about what I just said is this when you
• 2:45
  Suze: have as many homes that have been destroyed by hurricanes, tornadoes,
• 2:52
  Suze: by all the things that are happening in this area,
• 2:56
  Suze: and around the United States.
• 2:59
  Suze: That makes lumber, materials, the cost of building because all
• 3:06
  Suze: the workers, what do they do? They go to those
• 3:08
  Suze: areas because they know they're going to get jobs, which
• 3:12
  Suze: leaves these workers who are in your area possibly charging more,
• 3:17
  Suze: so it's gonna cost more to replace your home than
• 3:21
  Suze: it did 10 years ago than it did five years ago,
• 3:26
  Suze: and I want you on this date with your money.
• 3:29
  Suze: To make sure as you're looking at your insurance policy,
• 3:34
  Suze: what are you covered for?
• 3:37
  Suze: Are they going to allow you to rebuild your house
• 3:40
  Suze: and pay for all of it, so is it replacement costs,
• 3:43
  Suze: or do you just get the insurance value? Does it
• 3:47
  Suze: pay for trees and does it pay for your garage
• 3:50
  Suze: and the tools in your garage and all of those
• 3:53
  Suze: things you need to check that out.
• 4:00
  Suze: Are you insured for hurricane, for flood, for any of that.
• 4:05
  Suze: Now your normal insurance policy is not going to cover
• 4:08
  Suze: you for flood.
• 4:10
  Suze: And unless you've added hurricane insurance on, or earthquake insurance on,
• 4:16
  Suze: it's not gonna be there either, but you have to know.
• 4:22
  Suze: So you have to look at your insurance policies.
• 4:26
  Suze: And answer all of those questions. Am I insured for X, Y,
• 4:32
  Suze: and Z? Is everything in my house insured and how
• 4:37
  Suze: much is it insured for? Are my structures on my
• 4:42
  Suze: property insured? My garage, is everything in my garage insured?
• 4:47
  Suze: Are my trees insured? You have to ask every possible question.
• 4:54
  Suze: And what is the answer to that question, only you
• 4:58
  Suze: will know.
• 5:00
  Suze: So that's the first thing you're going to do when
• 5:02
  Suze: you have a date with your money.
• 5:06
  Suze: Also, what I want you to do is I really
• 5:09
  Suze: want you to look at every retirement plan and insurance policy,
• 5:14
  Suze: life insurance policy that you have. I also want you
• 5:19
  Suze: to look at the beneficiaries of your health savings accounts.
• 5:25
  Suze: Because you have got to make sure,
• 5:28
  Suze: that all the beneficiaries are the beneficiaries that you want
• 5:34
  Suze: to get the money. You don't want to have had
• 5:38
  Suze: a retirement account where you left an ex-spouse or whoever
• 5:42
  Suze: it may be that money.
• 5:44
  Suze: And now you're not even talking to that person.
• 5:48
  Suze: And doesn't even matter if you're not remarried, but you
• 5:52
  Suze: don't want that person to get it, and so you
• 5:55
  Suze: have to look at the beneficiaries and make sure that
• 5:59
  Suze: they are absolutely up to date.
• 6:03
  Suze: If you happen to be married,
• 6:06
  Suze: I want you to double check that a trust is
• 6:10
  Suze: not the primary beneficiary of any of your retirement accounts
• 6:16
  Suze: or your HSA account. I want you to make sure
• 6:20
  Suze: that your spouse's name is the primary beneficiary of those
• 6:26
  Suze: retirement accounts. If it's not your spouse because you're not married,
• 6:31
  Suze: I don't care then.
• 6:32
  Suze: Whatever you want to do, but it is not to
• 6:35
  Suze: be anything other than your spouse as the primary beneficiary
• 6:41
  Suze: if in fact you are married. Next, I want you
• 6:46
  Suze: to check
• 6:47
  Suze: all the interest rates that you are paying on the
• 6:51
  Suze: unpaid balances on your credit cards, yeah.
• 6:58
  Suze: A lot of you have credit card debt. You just do.
• 7:03
  Suze: It's been very difficult possibly because of inflation. Maybe you've
• 7:07
  Suze: been ill, maybe you lost a job, who knows what,
• 7:11
  Suze: but you've been putting your everyday living or vacations or
• 7:15
  Suze: gifts on your credit cards. You've been paying the minimum
• 7:18
  Suze: payment due.
• 7:20
  Suze: And maybe if you look at the interest rates on
• 7:23
  Suze: there you'll find that they're at 13%, 20%, 28%, and
• 7:29
  Suze: you're only paying the minimum payment due. You are never
• 7:34
  Suze: going to get ahead. And how many times have I
• 7:37
  Suze: said debt is bondage, you will never have financial freedom
• 7:42
  Suze: if you're in bondage. So therefore I want you to
• 7:46
  Suze: sit down on this date.
• 7:49
  Suze: Make sure you have pencil and paper for all this.
• 7:52
  Suze: Get out all your credit card receipts, and I want
• 7:55
  Suze: you to write down in order.
• 7:59
  Suze: Your credit card, the interest rate that you are currently paying,
• 8:04
  Suze: the balance due, and the minimum payment due, and I
• 8:09
  Suze: want you to do that on every single one of
• 8:12
  Suze: your cards. And then I want you to arrange them
• 8:16
  Suze: from the highest interest rate to the lowest.
• 8:20
  Suze: Now if you in fact have a good FICO score,
• 8:26
  Suze: maybe 720 or above, sometimes even 680 or above, credit
• 8:31
  Suze: cards will take it, but you might want to consider
• 8:34
  Suze: if you have a really high interest rate on these cards.
• 8:39
  Suze: To do a balance transfer.
• 8:43
  Suze: To a credit card that will lock in a 0%
• 8:47
  Suze: interest rate for about 21 months.
• 8:50
  Suze: A credit card that won't charge you an annual fee
• 8:54
  Suze: and a credit card that will not charge more than 3%
• 8:58
  Suze: of a balance transfer fee.
• 9:01
  Suze: If you could do that, then pay as much as
• 9:05
  Suze: you possibly can during those 20 or 21 months at 0% interest.
• 9:12
  Suze: Hopefully your card will be paid off, or many of
• 9:15
  Suze: your cards will be paid off,
• 9:18
  Suze: by the time that interest rate is up, beware, once
• 9:23
  Suze: the 21 months is up, your interest rate's gonna go
• 9:25
  Suze: back up probably to 28%.
• 9:29
  Suze: So currently,
• 9:31
  Suze: if you look at your credit cards, you total up
• 9:35
  Suze: the minimum payments that you are paying right now, and
• 9:39
  Suze: whatever those minimum payments are, I want you to add 20%
• 9:46
  Suze: to that amount. So let's say you have five credit
• 9:49
  Suze: cards and the minimum that you're paying every single month
• 9:52
  Suze: on all five is, let's just say $500 100 dollars
• 9:56
  Suze: on each.
• 9:58
  Suze: If you're paying $500 a month, I want you to
• 10:02
  Suze: pay 20% more or another $100 and I want you
• 10:07
  Suze: to pay at least $600 or more on the ones
• 10:12
  Suze: with the 0% if you're able to do a balance
• 10:16
  Suze: transfer if you are not.
• 10:19
  Suze: Then what you are to do is put those credit
• 10:22
  Suze: cards in the freezer. Just get rid of them for now.
• 10:25
  Suze: You are to continue to pay the minimum payment due
• 10:29
  Suze: that you are paying now. You are not going to
• 10:33
  Suze: pay the minimum payment due that they're going to say
• 10:35
  Suze: is due next month or the month after that. If
• 10:38
  Suze: you can afford to pay that this month, you can
• 10:41
  Suze: afford to pay it every month.
• 10:44
  Suze: And you're going to pay the minimum payment due on
• 10:47
  Suze: every credit card and add that extra $100 that I
• 10:50
  Suze: was just saying to the one with the highest interest rate.
• 10:54
  Suze: When that credit card is totally paid off.
• 10:58
  Suze: You're going to take that amount plus that $100 that
• 11:01
  Suze: you were paying, roll it down to the next highest.
• 11:05
  Suze: When that's paid off, you're going to take the $100
• 11:08
  Suze: the first credit card payment, the second credit card payment,
• 11:11
  Suze: and roll it down to the third, and you're going
• 11:13
  Suze: to keep doing that till you are out of credit
• 11:16
  Suze: card debt.
• 11:19
  Suze: Once you pay off a credit card, please do not
• 11:22
  Suze: close down your credit cards because if you do, you
• 11:25
  Suze: are closing down your credit limit, and that will affect
• 11:30
  Suze: your FICO score. So talking about FICO scores and your
• 11:36
  Suze: date with money, I want you to check all of
• 11:39
  Suze: your credit reports and FICO scores to make sure all
• 11:45
  Suze: is as it should be.
• 11:48
  Suze: And it's important because now with so many people being
• 11:52
  Suze: able to steal your identity to do all kinds of things,
• 11:56
  Suze: the only way that you're going to catch it before
• 11:58
  Suze: it becomes a really big problem is to be checking
• 12:01
  Suze: your FICO scores as well as your credit reports. You
• 12:06
  Suze: can get your credit reports for free by going to annualcreditreport.com.
• 12:12
  Suze: But just check and see what's on there. If anything
• 12:15
  Suze: looks suspicious, contact the credit bureau, and by the way,
• 12:19
  Suze: while you're at it, if you really want to make
• 12:21
  Suze: sure that you stay safe and sound.
• 12:24
  Suze: Than freeze your credit reports. Last but not least, it's
• 12:30
  Suze: really important that you make sure that you have created
• 12:35
  Suze: and signed and notarized and funded, obviously what I talk
• 12:41
  Suze: about all the time, the must have documents: a living trust,
• 12:46
  Suze: a will, an advanced directive, and a durable power of
• 12:49
  Suze: attorney for health care and a financial power.
• 12:52
  Suze: And funding, by the way, simply means changing the titles
• 12:56
  Suze: on your accounts and real estate from your individual name
• 12:59
  Suze: to the name of the trust.
• 13:03
  Suze: When something goes wrong, when you are injured, when all
• 13:07
  Suze: of a sudden you have unexpectedly lost your life, think
• 13:11
  Suze: about all the people who have unexpectedly lost their lives.
• 13:18
  Suze: And now what's happening, their beneficiaries, their people...
• 13:24
  Suze: you know, they probably don't even have paperwork. Who knows?
• 13:29
  Suze: So it's really important that you have all of these
• 13:33
  Suze: things together. You know about your insurance. You know about
• 13:37
  Suze: your FICO score, you know about your beneficiaries. You know
• 13:41
  Suze: about what your insurance covers, doesn't cover you know that
• 13:44
  Suze: you have the must have documents in order. You know
• 13:47
  Suze: all of those things.
• 13:50
  Suze: And when you know all of those things, and there's
• 13:52
  Suze: so many more, but I won't overwhelm you today.
• 13:56
  Suze: Then really you start to own the power to control
• 14:00
  Suze: your own destiny versus lack of knowledge, lack of wanting
• 14:05
  Suze: to have a date with your money, and then something
• 14:08
  Suze: happens and then you lack that power to control your destiny.
• 14:13
  Suze: And that's not what I want for you.
• 14:17
  Suze: So if you can do all that and remember that
• 14:21
  Suze: there's only one thing that matters when it comes to
• 14:23
  Suze: your money, and it is this: people first, then money,
• 14:27
  Suze: then things now you stay safe bye bye.