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Highlights from: How Can I Learn About Personal Finance? · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:07
  Robert: July 2nd, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast
• 0:11
  Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi, everybody, Robert,
• 0:15
  Robert: the producer here. Now, if you listened to the last
• 0:18
  Robert: episode from Sunday, the 28th of June, then you heard
• 0:21
  Robert: Suze and KT announce their summer schedule. This is where
• 0:24
  Robert: they're going to be doing new podcasts only on Sunday.
• 0:28
  Robert: For those of you who didn't hear that episode and
• 0:31
  Robert: skipped right ahead to today, well, we didn't want you
• 0:34
  Robert: to be alarmed that there was nothing in your feed.
• 0:37
  Robert: So here I am, teeing up a highlight episode. Now,
• 0:40
  Robert: we may do these highlight episodes for the next few
• 0:43
  Robert: Thursdays just to help you ease into the summer schedule. Again,
• 0:48
  Robert: brand new podcast with Suze and KT will drop right
• 0:52
  Robert: here in this feed every Sunday.
• 0:55
  Robert: For now, we're gonna start this highlight episode with KT
• 1:00
  Robert: asking the first question. Please enjoy.
• 1:06
  KT: OK, so this is from Craig. I like this one
• 1:10
  KT: a lot, Suze. He says, Help me, help my son
• 1:12
  KT: get on the right track. My son is 18, has
• 1:16
  KT: a Schwab account, has 10,000 invested in ETFs and a
• 1:21
  KT: couple of stocks. He asked me recently what are some
• 1:25
  KT: good books or some people to read up on for learning.
• 1:29
  KT: I rave about your podcast, but what else can I
• 1:32
  KT: advocate for my son to get him off on the
• 1:36
  KT: right foot? Thank you both from another man smart enough
• 1:40
  KT: to listen for over 20 years. You go, Craig.
• 1:46
  Suze: I have to say, I know I'm being self-serving here,
• 1:49
  Suze: but I really think one of the best books for
• 1:51
  Suze: somebody like 18 years of age...
• 1:55
  Suze: is the book that I wrote many years ago now
• 1:59
  Suze: called The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke,
• 2:02
  Suze: and even though the numbers in there now have changed,
• 2:05
  Suze: like how much you can put in a Roth and everything,
• 2:08
  Suze: it will give him the basics seriously of what he
• 2:12
  Suze: needs to understand in a very simple and concise way.
• 2:18
  Suze: I love, love that book, number one New York Times bestseller.
• 2:22
  Suze: Other than that,
• 2:24
  Suze: I don't know. He's got $10,000 at 18. I think
• 2:28
  Suze: he's doing pretty good. I would actually also have him
• 2:32
  Suze: read Five with Fitz since it's free. Just get him
• 2:39
  Suze: used to what Keith Fitz-Gerald is talking about and things
• 2:43
  Suze: like that. Other than that, there's so many of them
• 2:46
  Suze: out there.
• 2:47
  Suze: So you know, I have to tell you one of
• 2:49
  Suze: the greatest books I think he could read is The
• 2:52
  Suze: Richest Man in Babylon. Just have him read that as well.
• 2:57
  Suze: All right, KT.
• 2:59
  KT: I forgot about that story, Suze. You did the forward,
• 3:03
  KT: forward for that book.
• 3:04
  Suze: Fabulous, fabulous book, because you know...
• 3:06
  KT: That's a classic.
• 3:08
  Suze: It's not just about what to invest in.
• 3:10
  Suze: It's about values and how he sees himself and what
• 3:16
  Suze: he thinks and how he feels and his whole interaction
• 3:20
  Suze: with money. So there's more to it than just what
• 3:23
  Suze: to invest in. All right.
• 3:25
  KT: OK, good. From Paula. hello, Suze and KT. I have
• 3:29
  KT: followed you since I was 32.
• 3:32
  KT: And now I will be 70 in a few months.
• 3:36
  Suze: I was just gonna say, oh, tell me she's gonna
• 3:37
  Suze: be 72 now, right?
• 3:38
  KT: I recently retired and filed for Social Security three months
• 3:42
  KT: prior to age 70 with my spouse already collecting SS
• 3:47
  KT: several years ago.
• 3:49
  KT: Between the two of us, our monthly expenses will be covered.
• 3:53
  KT: So my question is, should we open a CD with
• 3:56
  KT: the liquid capital, of course, less their emergency fund, or
• 4:00
  KT: what should we do with our excess cash? They have
• 4:03
  KT: about 300,000.
• 4:05
  KT: Just to give you a little backstory, Suze, they have
• 4:08
  KT: 525,000 in stocks and bonds, another 275,000 to 300,000 in metals,
• 4:17
  KT: and zero debt. Yay.
• 4:22
  Suze: So does metals, do you think mean gold?
• 4:24
  KT: I think so.
• 4:26
  Suze: So let me just answer this quickly, which is, and
• 4:29
  Suze: everybody listen to me carefully, I cannot...
• 4:33
  Suze: I cannot tell you what to do with money because
• 4:37
  Suze: I don't necessarily know enough about you. What are your expenses?
• 4:43
  Suze: What is your health? Do you need a new car?
• 4:46
  Suze: Does your house need a new roof? Do you have
• 4:48
  Suze: a trust? Do you have a will? Do you have
• 4:50
  Suze: all of that in place? It's more than what should
• 4:54
  Suze: you do with 300,000.
• 4:57
  Suze: Now, KT chose this, and here's what I want to
• 5:01
  Suze: say to you. Let's say you didn't come to me
• 5:04
  Suze: with this question. Let's say you walked into a brokerage firm,
• 5:08
  Suze: a financial adviser, and you say, Here, I have $300,000.
• 5:13
  Suze: What should I do with it? You now have set
• 5:16
  Suze: yourself up seriously, everybody, for the salesperson or possibly also
• 5:22
  Suze: known as a financial adviser to say, Buy this, buy that,
• 5:26
  Suze: do this, do that.
• 5:28
  Suze: A great financial advisor can never tell you what to
• 5:32
  Suze: do with $300,000 just because you already have $525,000 in stocks.
• 5:38
  Suze: You have like $300,000 in gold, no debt, not enough information.
• 5:45
  Suze: So don't go writing me saying what should I do
• 5:49
  Suze: with my money? What should I invest in? I cannot
• 5:52
  Suze: answer that question for you.
• 5:55
  Suze: Because I don't know enough about you. However, at the
• 6:00
  Suze: age of 70, if you feel that you have everything
• 6:05
  Suze: under control, do you have a long-term care insurance policy?
• 6:09
  Suze: What happens if one of you ends up where? In
• 6:12
  Suze: a nursing home, and now it's 100,000 to $20,000 a month?
• 6:16
  Suze: Have you really taken everything into consideration?
• 6:20
  Suze: So before you do anything with that $300,000 I want
• 6:26
  Suze: you to look at every possible thing that could go wrong.
• 6:30
  Suze: Your health, your caring for each other, your home that
• 6:33
  Suze: you live in does it need a new roof, all
• 6:36
  Suze: of that.
• 6:37
  Suze: What's ever left over and you're fine with everything, I
• 6:41
  Suze: don't know then at your age, if I were you,
• 6:44
  Suze: I would be dollar cost averaging whatever you can afford
• 6:48
  Suze: to put in the market wisely and take advantage of
• 6:52
  Suze: what's going to be happening with artificial intelligence. That's all
• 6:56
  Suze: I'm going to say here. But Paula, really, you've been
• 7:00
  Suze: listening to me for so many years.
• 7:04
  Suze: You know what can happen when you get older. I
• 7:08
  Suze: just wanna know before you invest anything. You've taken care
• 7:12
  Suze: of the what ifs of life. Next question, KT.
• 7:16
  KT: OK, this is from Kyle. Kyle asks, Good morning, Suze.
• 7:21
  KT: Thank you for all that you do for the men
• 7:24
  KT: smart enough to listen.
• 7:25
  KT: I was reading about structured CDs with market linked returns.
• 7:30
  KT: What is your expert opinion about MLCDs and is there
• 7:35
  KT: a particular index aligned to the CD that you would
• 7:39
  KT: recommend if you recommended MLCDs?
• 7:43
  KT: Now just so you know, Suze, Kyle says he's a
• 7:45
  KT: year or two away from retirement. As an educator, I
• 7:49
  KT: do have a pension plan through PSERS. Do you see
• 7:54
  KT: these as viable options to limit risk in the market?
• 7:59
  Suze: So, I think I answered him, to tell you the truth,
• 8:01
  Suze: but that's besides the point, because that, I think was,
• 8:04
  Suze: I don't know when I did that, but I think
• 8:05
  Suze: I did it.
• 8:06
  KT: So tell people what MLCDs are first of all.
• 8:08
  Suze: MLCDs, the, the letters stand for Market Linked Certificate of Deposit.
• 8:16
  Suze: Now I just have to tell you, I'm not somebody
• 8:19
  Suze: who likes when investments are joined.
• 8:24
  Suze: Like, either you buy a CD and lock in an
• 8:27
  Suze: interest rate, and there you go, or you invest in
• 8:30
  Suze: the market by buying either ETFs or individual stocks and
• 8:35
  Suze: dollar cost averaging into them. I personally do not like
• 8:39
  Suze: when you combine those two. Why? Because when you have
• 8:43
  Suze: a market-linked certificate of deposit, you do get an interest rate,
• 8:48
  Suze: probably a lower interest rate on your certificate of deposit.
• 8:53
  Suze: But then you also get upward movement when the market
• 8:59
  Suze: moves up according to a specific index. You asked, Kyle,
• 9:03
  Suze: which index would I link one to? Well, if I
• 9:05
  Suze: bought one, which I wouldn't, but if I did...
• 9:08
  Suze: I would link it to the Standard and Poor's 500 index.
• 9:12
  Suze: I would not link it to any other index other
• 9:15
  Suze: than that. But the problem is, in my opinion, if
• 9:18
  Suze: that index really goes, you're only going to get a percent
• 9:22
  Suze: of that increase. You're not, if it goes up 10%,
• 9:26
  Suze: you're not gonna get 10%, you're only gonna get maybe 8%
• 9:30
  Suze: or 7%.
• 9:32
  Suze: And when it all comes down to it, I don't
• 9:35
  Suze: think you'll make as much money. You're being conservative, but
• 9:40
  Suze: put what you want in a CD
• 9:43
  Suze: and do that and then put what you want in
• 9:46
  Suze: the market. Don't keep them together, separate them. But listen,
• 9:51
  Suze: if you don't want to lose any money and you
• 9:53
  Suze: don't really care about your return that much, you can
• 9:57
  Suze: do it if you want. Would I be doing it? No.
• 10:01
  Suze: All right, why are you laughing?
• 10:05
  KT: She doesn't sugarcoat anything, does she?
• 10:08
  Suze: Well, you should know you've lived with me for 25
• 10:11
  Suze: years now.
• 10:12
  KT: Next question is from Monique. Hello ladies. What is a
• 10:17
  KT: cash value life insurance?
• 10:19
  Suze: It's one of the investments I hate the most.
• 10:21
  KT: Wait... She doesn't sugarcoat. I recently came into some money.
• 10:26
  KT: Is that an instrument that would be appropriate for me?
• 10:29
  KT: I'm a 63 year old nurse still employed. We love nurses, Monique.
• 10:36
  KT: Tell her why you don't like it.
• 10:38
  Suze: Listen, you say I'm a 63 year old nurse still employed.
• 10:43
  Suze: You didn't say I'm a 63-year-old nurse. My husband or
• 10:47
  Suze: my spouse is X, Y, and Z. You didn't say
• 10:50
  Suze: anything about your children. You would only buy insurance if
• 10:54
  Suze: and only if you need a life insurance policy, because
• 10:58
  Suze: if something happened to you, those who might be dependent
• 11:02
  Suze: upon you,
• 11:03
  Suze: would need that money at 63. I doubt highly that
• 11:07
  Suze: is true. So number one, you don't need life insurance,
• 11:10
  Suze: and you definitely don't want a cash value life insurance. Cash...
• 11:15
  KT: Why?
• 11:16
  Suze: Why? What do you think I've been talking about all
• 11:18
  Suze: these years? Cash value life, KT ready... is whole life,
• 11:25
  Suze: universal life...
• 11:26
  KT: Ouch.
• 11:27
  Suze: Variable life.
• 11:28
  KT: Yikes.
• 11:28
  Suze: And what have I always told you about those three
• 11:31
  Suze: kinds of life insurance?
• 11:34
  Suze: What have I told you? I what them?
• 11:36
  KT: You hate them.
• 11:38
  Suze: That's right.
• 11:39
  KT: She doesn't hate a lot of anything, but she does
• 11:42
  KT: hate those.
• 11:43
  Suze: Now, a second ago I told Kyle, don't mix investments.
• 11:48
  Suze: You want a CD, buy a CD. You wanna buy
• 11:52
  Suze: an ETF or whatever in the market.
• 11:56
  Suze: Monique, you don't buy life insurance just because it has
• 12:00
  Suze: cash value. You buy life insurance again because somebody is
• 12:05
  Suze: going to need money in case you die. And in
• 12:09
  Suze: that case, the only kind of insurance you should be
• 12:11
  Suze: buying is term insurance, but at 63,
• 12:15
  Suze: it would be expensive, so no, you should not, and
• 12:19
  Suze: I repeat, you should not be doing this under any
• 12:24
  Suze: circumstance whatsoever. You just came into some money. If you
• 12:28
  Suze: have a mortgage, pay it off,
• 12:30
  Suze: if you're gonna stay in your house forever. Oh, you
• 12:33
  Suze: want some money in the stock market or whatever, Open
• 12:36
  Suze: up a Roth IRA and do it in there in
• 12:38
  Suze: an ETF, whatever you do, but do not, do not
• 12:43
  Suze: do cash value life insurance. All right.
• 12:49
  KT: There you go, Monique. OK. Next question is from, I know, Suze.
• 12:55
  KT: I know what these questions do to her. Here's a
• 12:57
  KT: good one. This is from Sokary. Thank you for what
• 13:01
  KT: you do for us. I'm a single mom, business owner,
• 13:05
  KT: renting with an
• 13:06
  KT: emergency fund and a 20% down payment for a house.
• 13:11
  KT: I heard about seller financing and I'm curious, two questions
• 13:16
  KT: do you think I should buy? If so, what are
• 13:19
  KT: your thoughts about seller financing as an alternative option?
• 13:25
  Suze: Here is a situation once again.
• 13:29
  Suze: That all you tell me is you're a single mom,
• 13:32
  Suze: you're a business owner, currently you're renting, you have an
• 13:36
  Suze: emergency fund and 20% down. Do you think I should buy,
• 13:41
  Suze: you say.
• 13:44
  Suze: How would I know? OK, she's really laughing now.
• 13:49
  KT: I picked these questions that have a whole lot of
• 13:51
  KT: blanks in them because it challenges her to figure out
• 13:56
  KT: what advice to give you.
• 13:58
  Suze: Here's the advice I'm going to give you.
• 14:01
  KT: Send me more information.
• 14:02
  Suze: No, don't, right? But here's the advice. Seriously, is your
• 14:08
  Suze: job secure?
• 14:10
  Suze: Right? Can you afford the monthly payments on a mortgage,
• 14:15
  Suze: plus the insurance, plus the property tax, plus maintenance? So,
• 14:21
  Suze: do you want to own a home, or is it
• 14:24
  Suze: better for you to continue just renting because maybe renting
• 14:28
  Suze: is far simpler for you. Where, what area are you
• 14:32
  Suze: talking about?
• 14:33
  Suze: Because in certain areas like Florida and maybe LA you
• 14:37
  Suze: can't even get insurance anymore in many of the areas
• 14:41
  Suze: to even cover your home in terms of property insurance.
• 14:46
  Suze: And if you're going to take out a mortgage, you
• 14:48
  Suze: need insurance. So have you figured out all of those?
• 14:52
  Suze: You're a business owner. What happens if you get sick?
• 14:56
  Suze: And you can't run your business anymore. Then what are
• 15:00
  Suze: you going to do? And there's so many things to consider,
• 15:04
  Suze: so I don't have a clue what you should do.
• 15:07
  Suze: Do you all understand? It's not just as simple as,
• 15:11
  Suze: Should I buy a home, Suze?
• 15:14
  Suze: It's not just as simple as I have $300,000. What
• 15:17
  Suze: should I do with it? You have to think more
• 15:21
  Suze: deeply about your entire situation.
• 15:25
  Suze: And you have to make these decisions on your own,
• 15:29
  Suze: 'cause otherwise you're gonna meet up with possibly a real
• 15:32
  Suze: estate agent, and they're gonna say, oh yeah, buy this.
• 15:36
  Suze: You're gonna go and see possibly a financial advisor that
• 15:39
  Suze: will say, oh, 300,000, I don't care what else you have,
• 15:42
  Suze: buy this. Now, maybe you'll meet up with an honest
• 15:45
  Suze: one and a good one, possibly.
• 15:49
  Suze: So therefore you have to start thinking more deeply about
• 15:54
  Suze: your own individual situations and what could go wrong. And
• 15:58
  Suze: if you know you can cover everything, if it goes wrong,
• 16:02
  Suze: then it's right for you to do something with your
• 16:04
  Suze: money that you wanna do. KT!
• 16:07
  KT: I, I wanna give them one more piece of advice
• 16:10
  KT: I'll never forget. Suze's brother looked at us once when
• 16:13
  KT: we were buying our condo in Florida, and he said, Girls,
• 16:17
  KT: remember one thing: Condo fees never go down.
• 16:22
  Suze: Yes, he forgot to tell us about assessments as well.
• 16:25
  Suze: All right, go on.
• 16:26
  KT: OK. Next question is Jessica. We have a significant amount
• 16:30
  KT: of money in CDs, approximately 300,000. We have slowly been
• 16:35
  KT: learning about mutual funds and stocks. Over time we have
• 16:39
  KT: accumulated
• 16:40
  KT: $130,000 in mutual funds and individual stocks. They are doing
• 16:46
  KT: quite well. How much money should remain liquid and how
• 16:51
  KT: much should we invest? We have no debt. Our home
• 16:55
  KT: is paid off. We are 50 and 52, and retirement
• 17:00
  KT: is on the horizon but a few years away.
• 17:03
  KT: And Suze, I'll just give you real quick, they have
• 17:06
  KT: two kids. One gets a, they're in college. One is
• 17:09
  KT: a free ride. The other one needs to be paid for.
• 17:12
  KT: We have a small 529 plan. Our retirement 401k is
• 17:17
  KT: 2 million combined plus I will have a fixed pension
• 17:21
  KT: of 7,000 monthly. So there's a little more information for you.
• 17:27
  KT: I think they're doing pretty well.
• 17:28
  Suze: They're doing pretty well, but you're really doing really bad
• 17:33
  Suze: on one thing, you are 50 and 52 years of age.
• 17:38
  Suze: How is it possible that you haven't listened to me
• 17:42
  Suze: for all these years and you now have $2 million
• 17:47
  Suze: in a pre-tax retirement account and not in a Roth?
• 17:51
  Suze: That means later on when you go to take money out,
• 17:56
  Suze: you are going to pay ordinary income tax on it,
• 17:58
  Suze: you know, your two kids.
• 18:01
  Suze: All right, you die and leave it to them. They're
• 18:03
  Suze: going to pay ordinary income tax on it. You add
• 18:06
  Suze: that to your $7,000 a month pension plus Social Security
• 18:11
  Suze: and everything else. Oh, now you're in a seriously high
• 18:15
  Suze: income tax bracket, and you have made Uncle Sam so
• 18:18
  Suze: happy I can't even tell you.
• 18:21
  Suze: I don't care about what you should be doing with
• 18:24
  Suze: new money, how much you should keep safe, how much,
• 18:27
  Suze: I don't care about that right now. I care about
• 18:30
  Suze: you better figure out how to get that $2 million
• 18:34
  Suze: little by little into your Roth 401k,
• 18:38
  Suze: so that by the time you actually retire, it is
• 18:42
  Suze: all there and a new contribution should be going to
• 18:45
  Suze: a Roth 401k and if you can figure it out,
• 18:49
  Suze: a Roth IRA as well, period. That is the move, Jessica,
• 18:55
  Suze: that you really need to start thinking about because you
• 18:58
  Suze: are just so, so wrong with having so much money
• 19:03
  Suze: in a 401k pre-tax. What are you looking at me?
• 19:08
  KT: Because you don't have to give her a slap down
• 19:10
  KT: so hard.
• 19:11
  Suze: I, but I'm telling you, KT, for how many years
• 19:14
  Suze: now have I been telling people don't do pre-tax account,
• 19:20
  Suze: and yet you all still are doing them.
• 19:23
  Suze: And even if you're doing them, are you doing what
• 19:26
  Suze: it takes to convert little by little into a Roth?
• 19:30
  Suze: And you're thinking, oh, but I'm gonna owe taxes and this,
• 19:33
  Suze: the biggest mistake I am telling you, in my opinion,
• 19:37
  Suze: you are making is to have a whole lot of
• 19:41
  Suze: money in a traditional 401k or IRA.
• 19:47
  Suze: All right, one more, KT.
• 19:48
  KT: OK, this is from Regina. It said Roth converting: Is
• 19:53
  KT: it too late? I am 60 years young.
• 19:57
  Suze: No.
• 19:57
  KT: And then, wait, Regina said, I have one more question.
• 20:00
  KT: Is there such a thing of being over diversified? I
• 20:03
  KT: have about 14 investments in ETFs and stocks.
• 20:08
  Suze: Yes.
• 20:10
  Suze: All right, there you go. But, but very serious, listen,
• 20:14
  Suze: I want all of you to get this. I want
• 20:17
  Suze: all of you to get this more than you ever
• 20:19
  Suze: gotten anything I have ever said in the 40 years
• 20:22
  Suze: I've been doing this.
• 20:24
  Suze: In most cases you are not too old to be
• 20:28
  Suze: converting money to a Roth, especially if you're not going
• 20:32
  Suze: to be needing that money. If you have money in
• 20:35
  Suze: a traditional retirement account, and you are retired and you
• 20:39
  Suze: actually need to withdraw money for you to live on,
• 20:42
  Suze: then it doesn't make any sense to convert. But if
• 20:45
  Suze: you're not going to need that money, or you're still young,
• 20:49
  Suze: like 60.
• 20:51
  Suze: You should absolutely be converting. Can you please, please get that?
• 20:58
  Suze: I promise you, years from now you're going to love
• 21:02
  Suze: me for it, but you should love me right now,
• 21:06
  Suze: even without it. But that's besides the point. In terms of,
• 21:10
  Suze: is there such a thing of being over diversified? Oh,
• 21:13
  Suze: you bet there is. I was looking at somebody's portfolio
• 21:18
  Suze: a little bit ago.
• 21:20
  Suze: Their financial advisor, and I may have told you this,
• 21:24
  Suze: have them in possibly like 30 different exchange traded funds
• 21:29
  Suze: and mutual funds, maybe even more than that, and if
• 21:34
  Suze: they looked at the holdings of each of those ETFs
• 21:37
  Suze: and mutual funds, they're invested almost in the same thing.
• 21:42
  Suze: So, yes, you can be over diversified. Truthfully, if I
• 21:47
  Suze: were going to be investing and I didn't really know
• 21:50
  Suze: what to do...
• 21:52
  Suze: and I had at least 5, 1015 years till I
• 21:54
  Suze: needed this money. I would take whatever money I had,
• 21:59
  Suze: and I would put half of it, 50% into VOO, VOO,
• 22:04
  Suze: and the other 50% I would probably put into stocks
• 22:08
  Suze: like possibly Tesla, Microsoft, any of the ones that I
• 22:14
  Suze: have been mentioning, and that's what I would be doing
• 22:18
  Suze: if I were you anyway.
• 22:21
  Suze: Is that that?
• 22:22
  KT: That's a wrap, Suze.
• 22:24
  Suze: All right, there's really only one thing we want you
• 22:27
  Suze: to know.
• 22:28
  KT: People first, then money, then things.
• 22:30
  Suze: Oh, so good, KT.
• 22:31
  KT: Now you stay safe...
• 22:34
  Suze: And healthy and secure. See you soon. We love you. Bye-bye.