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There Is No Greater Teacher In Life, Than Money - Revisited · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:08
  Robert: September 28th, 2025. Hi all. Robert, the producer here, and
• 0:12
  Robert: welcome to the Women and Money podcast, as well as
• 0:14
  Robert: everyone smart enough to listen. Unfortunately, there is some storm
• 0:18
  Robert: activity in the Atlantic Ocean, and that is preventing Suze
• 0:22
  Robert: from transmitting for the podcast today. Nothing to worry about.
• 0:25
  Robert: She and KT are safe. Today for Suze School, you're
• 0:29
  Robert: gonna get both KT and Suze again, and this is
• 0:32
  Robert: from a very special episode we published last fall. Enjoy.
• 0:37
  Suze: Now when it comes to money.
• 0:40
  Suze: There are many, many things that we have to learn
• 0:43
  Suze: when it comes to money, and it's not just about
• 0:47
  Suze: what to invest in, when to buy, when to sell,
• 0:51
  Suze: what about real estate, what about 529 plans, what about Roths,
• 0:54
  Suze: what about this, what about that.
• 0:57
  Suze: It's also about emotional lessons, psychological lessons, all kinds of
• 1:04
  Suze: personal lessons that we need to learn about ourselves in
• 1:09
  Suze: relationship to our money, cause sometimes money can make your
• 1:14
  Suze: life easier, sometimes it can make it harder, but as
• 1:17
  Suze: you well know by now, I firmly believe that you
• 1:23
  Suze: and your money are one.
• 1:25
  Suze: And that your money is there sometimes to teach you
• 1:29
  Suze: what you need to learn about yourself. There is no
• 1:32
  Suze: greater teacher in life than money.
• 1:36
  Suze: And therefore when you think about it, if you and
• 1:40
  Suze: your money are one, there's no greater teacher in life
• 1:44
  Suze: about your own life rather than yourself. And so to
• 1:49
  Suze: that end today is gonna be a different Suze School
• 1:53
  Suze: because not only is it gonna be about what I'm
• 1:56
  Suze: just talking about now, but it's gonna be a discussion,
• 2:01
  Suze: a conversation.
• 2:04
  Robert: With who?
• 2:05
  KT: KT, I'm here, everybody. She invited me to join her,
• 2:09
  KT: and I love coming to Sunday school.
• 2:12
  Suze: Right, because I think it's important because it is true
• 2:15
  Suze: that KT and I are one in so many ways,
• 2:19
  Suze: but we also have different
• 2:21
  Suze: experiences and different thoughts and different opinions and this today
• 2:27
  Suze: I think is a Suze school actually I know it's
• 2:30
  Suze: a Suze school that requires thought and a conversation at
• 2:36
  Suze: least between me and KT. So I want KT to
• 2:41
  Suze: start by reading the email that we got that spurred
• 2:47
  Suze: this Suze school.
• 2:50
  KT: First, happy Sunday, everybody, and Suze, thank you for asking
• 2:53
  KT: me to join you because I really like this email
• 2:56
  KT: a lot. All right, it says, Hi Suze and KT.
• 3:00
  KT: It's wild how much my life has changed in the
• 3:03
  KT: two and a half years since I wrote you. I truly feel like
• 3:08
  KT: Suze has been an important part of my life journey,
• 3:12
  KT: and I thought I'd share an update.
• 3:14
  KT: I finally got the courage to stand in my truth
• 3:18
  KT: and acknowledge that I wasn't happy in my marriage, and
• 3:22
  KT: I did the hardest thing I've ever done, which was
• 3:26
  KT: to leave my husband.
• 3:28
  KT: My ex is a good person. I just knew that
• 3:31
  KT: I deserved to be happy and to have the kind
• 3:34
  KT: of love that the two of you so obviously share.
• 3:39
  KT: Is that sweet, Suze?
• 3:40
  Suze: Yeah.
• 3:41
  KT: That's nice. I thought that was really touching, so.
• 3:45
  KT: There was a podcast episode that was especially influential. I
• 3:49
  KT: wish I remembered the specific one, but Suze seemed to
• 3:53
  KT: have been speaking to me directly in her tough love
• 3:56
  KT: Suze voice. So not only you, Anna, I get that
• 4:00
  KT: voice all the time.
• 4:02
  KT: The pep talk she gave was about the importance of
• 4:05
  KT: standing in your own truth and reminding us that we
• 4:08
  KT: are strong and can handle hard things. I'm fortunate that
• 4:13
  KT: the divorce was very easy as far as splitting assets, etc.
• 4:18
  KT: I had enough cash to buy my ex out of
• 4:21
  KT: the home equity of our townhouse, and I'm so very
• 4:25
  KT: grateful that he transferred the deed to me yet stayed
• 4:29
  KT: on the mortgage so that I can keep our 2.65% rate.
• 4:35
  Suze: So nice.
• 4:35
  KT: He's a good person, she said that.
• 4:38
  KT: As far as divorces go, it went as smooth as possible,
• 4:43
  KT: and I'm so happy it's behind me. So Suze, Anna
• 4:47
  KT: goes on now to say I need another Suze pep talk. Suze,
• 4:52
  KT: I'd love to hear about your experience when you started
• 4:55
  KT: to make a lot of money. Did you think you
• 4:58
  KT: didn't deserve it? Did you feel guilty for having it?
• 5:03
  KT: When there are people who have such challenging jobs that
• 5:05
  KT: make so little comparatively we know teachers, nurses, so on,
• 5:11
  KT: did it make you doubt yourself professionally? I'm in this
• 5:15
  KT: situation and I'm really struggling with it due to a
• 5:19
  KT: combination of being very good at my job and getting
• 5:23
  KT: very lucky.
• 5:25
  KT: And then she says that she worked for a company
• 5:27
  KT: that had a significant stock price growth, and a lot
• 5:30
  KT: of her pay is in stock, so she had a windfall, obviously,
• 5:35
  KT: she said, I'll make about 1.4 million this year, and
• 5:39
  KT: the thought of that is so absurd to me. I'm
• 5:43
  KT: almost ashamed to admit it. I know people would see
• 5:47
  KT: this question and roll their eyes at me, but I
• 5:50
  KT: can't help but feeling guilty. Remember that, Suze.
• 5:55
  KT: I can't help but feeling guilty and under deserving of
• 5:59
  KT: my income and the wealth that I'm building. I still
• 6:03
  KT: think of the advice that you gave me two and a half years ago,
• 6:07
  KT: which is that you never know what will happen to
• 6:10
  KT: your income. I know that I probably won't keep this
• 6:14
  KT: level of income forever, which is why I'm focused on
• 6:18
  KT: saving and investing.
• 6:20
  KT: But how can I get out of this mindset while
• 6:23
  KT: still staying humble and grateful, yet also acknowledging to myself
• 6:29
  KT: that I'm great at what I do? Thanks, Suze. I
• 6:32
  KT: would really love to hear from you. So, so sweet.
• 6:36
  KT: So what do you, what do you think about this?
• 6:39
  Suze: The reason that I chose this email, KT.
• 6:43
  KT: And that I wanted to do this because the way
• 6:45
  KT: that Anna is feeling is not uncommon. I have gotten Anna,
• 6:51
  KT: because now I'm talking directly to you and everybody that
• 6:53
  KT: might feel this way, the number of emails and people
• 6:58
  KT: I have met,
• 7:00
  Suze: that feel this way or come into an inheritance and
• 7:04
  Suze: they hide the fact that they've inherited millions of dollars
• 7:09
  Suze: from their family yet nobody, not one of their friends
• 7:14
  Suze: has a clue. It's like they are embarrassed by money.
• 7:20
  Suze: And so it's not just you, Anna, that feels that way.
• 7:25
  Suze: What would you say, KT? What do you want to
• 7:27
  Suze: say to her?
• 7:28
  KT: I think that um...
• 7:31
  KT: One of the things I noticed after reading the email, Suze,
• 7:34
  KT: is that Anna does know she's really great at what
• 7:37
  KT: she does. But Anna, the one thing you didn't say,
• 7:41
  KT: I'm so proud of myself. Like she didn't say she
• 7:45
  KT: was proud of herself and acknowledging,
• 7:48
  KT: to herself or to anyone around her that she's so
• 7:52
  KT: proud that she's been able to accomplish this, you know, great, um,
• 7:57
  KT: windfall and acknowledgment of how good she is at her job.
• 8:02
  KT: But she did, but wait, I have something else to
• 8:05
  KT: say that you taught her the other thing that she
• 8:08
  KT: acknowledged and, and she's smart because you, you told her
• 8:11
  KT: you said.
• 8:13
  KT: Anna, you never know what can happen to your income.
• 8:17
  KT: It's always a two way street.
• 8:19
  Suze: Yeah, I think what KT's trying to say there, right,
• 8:22
  Suze: is that your income can all of a sudden increase,
• 8:26
  Suze: but it's also true that something can happen in your
• 8:28
  Suze: life and you find yourself with no income, no money,
• 8:33
  Suze: all of that. But basically, Anna, here's what you will
• 8:38
  Suze: come to understand truthfully sooner than later:
• 8:42
  Suze: It's not whether you deserved this or not. Just because
• 8:47
  Suze: somebody doesn't get money or doesn't have money doesn't mean
• 8:50
  Suze: that they're not deserving of money.
• 8:54
  Suze: Simply it means that you were in a position in
• 8:58
  Suze: the right place at the right time working for the
• 9:01
  Suze: right company and it was almost as if it was
• 9:04
  Suze: just fate that this would come your way.
• 9:10
  Suze: However, if you are not responsible with it, if you
• 9:15
  Suze: do not invest it carefully, if you do not do
• 9:19
  Suze: the right things with it.
• 9:22
  Suze: Oh trust me, the guilt that you're feeling right now
• 9:26
  Suze: about getting it will be 10 times as worse as
• 9:29
  Suze: the guilt will be that you lost it or that
• 9:33
  Suze: something happened to it. How do you get over the
• 9:37
  Suze: fact of when I first got money cause I didn't
• 9:40
  Suze: always have money.
• 9:42
  Suze: You know, the truth is, remember, everybody, I did not
• 9:45
  Suze: write my first book till I was 45 years of age,
• 9:49
  Suze: even though I was a financial advisor making maybe $100,000
• 9:54
  Suze: or $200,000 a year after taxes, OK, whatever that would
• 9:57
  Suze: have been.
• 9:58
  Suze: It's not the same as when you get a check
• 10:01
  Suze: in one year or one month for a $1.5 million
• 10:06
  Suze: or $5 million when all of a sudden those million
• 10:10
  Suze: dollar numbers start to come up. It's a very different
• 10:14
  Suze: feeling now, KT, I just have to say this. I'll
• 10:16
  Suze: never forget the first time.
• 10:18
  Suze: That I got a check for $250,000 in one month from,
• 10:26
  Suze: you know, I had my own firm and that was
• 10:28
  Suze: the commission and everything, the fees that I had earned.
• 10:32
  Suze: I let that check sit on my kitchen counter.
• 10:37
  Suze: For maybe two weeks and looked at it every day.
• 10:41
  KT: Why? Because you couldn't believe it?
• 10:42
  Suze: I couldn't believe it. The first time I got a
• 10:45
  Suze: check for $60,000 when I actually switched from Merrill Lynch
• 10:52
  Suze: to Prudential securities, I took a picture of that check
• 10:57
  Suze: and I sent it to my mother and my mother
• 11:00
  Suze: said she looked at that picture every single day,
• 11:06
  Suze: for over a year. Because really amounts of money can
• 11:11
  Suze: be unbelievable no matter what. So what would my advice
• 11:17
  Suze: be to you, Anna?
• 11:20
  Suze: My advice to you would be this fear, shame, and anger,
• 11:25
  Suze: are the three internal obstacles to wealth, and in your
• 11:29
  Suze: own words you say I'm almost ashamed to admit it.
• 11:35
  Suze: With shame, another word for shame could be guilt. At
• 11:39
  Suze: times they kind of go together on some level. Therefore,
• 11:44
  Suze: you have to understand that you don't want to become
• 11:48
  Suze: an obstacle in your path to wealth. And when I
• 11:53
  Suze: say wealth.
• 11:54
  Suze: The true definition of wealth is that which can never
• 11:59
  Suze: diminish because the truth of the matter, Anna, is money
• 12:03
  Suze: can come, money can go, but true wealth, how you
• 12:07
  Suze: feel about who you are, how you know who you are,
• 12:13
  Suze: your own self-worth, when it is grounded in the truth
• 12:18
  Suze: of who you are, it can't diminish.
• 12:23
  Suze: And you already had the courage to stand in your
• 12:28
  Suze: truth once and to do what made you happy because
• 12:32
  Suze: you felt you deserved a life that made you happy.
• 12:37
  Suze: Why don't you feel that you deserve a life of wealth?
• 12:42
  Suze: Why are you smiling, KT?
• 12:44
  KT: Because that's what she needs to do.
• 12:47
  KT: Anna needs to acknowledge that she did get this incredible
• 12:52
  KT: lucky windfall because she's good at her job. The company's
• 12:56
  KT: succeeding because of her contribution.
• 12:59
  KT: And Anna, man, if it happened to me, I'd walk
• 13:03
  KT: around with the biggest smile, so my friends say, KT,
• 13:06
  KT: why are you so happy? What happened? I, and I
• 13:09
  KT: would tell them I just came into like this mountain
• 13:12
  KT: of money and I'm so excited because it's gonna give
• 13:16
  KT: me security to pay off my mortgage or do this
• 13:19
  KT: or do that.
• 13:20
  KT: I would actually tell people and when you share that
• 13:24
  KT: right when you share it, you get it out there.
• 13:27
  Suze: But bingo, KT because so good. Because do all of
• 13:32
  Suze: you remember when I tell you that you have debt.
• 13:36
  Suze: And when you hide the fact that you have debt
• 13:39
  Suze: from others, it makes you feel less than it's fear,
• 13:45
  Suze: it's shame, and it's even anger at yourself for having
• 13:49
  Suze: created that debt. So what have I told you to do?
• 13:53
  Suze: Go and tell everybody how much debt you have.
• 13:59
  Suze: Anna, when you are afraid to tell people of this
• 14:03
  Suze: windfall to do it with pride, then the same will happen.
• 14:09
  Suze: Fear and shame are ruling you right now. And like
• 14:14
  Suze: I said a little bit ago, when you come from
• 14:17
  Suze: that place, it is the main internal obstacle to wealth.
• 14:22
  Suze: So tell the people that you trust.
• 14:26
  Suze: Tell the people that you love. Why wouldn't you think
• 14:29
  Suze: that they would be as happy for you as you
• 14:31
  Suze: need to be for yourself? Are you kidding me? With
• 14:37
  Suze: this money, you now can either pay off the mortgage
• 14:41
  Suze: if you even had one on your home, because remember...
• 14:45
  Suze: You said in this that your husband, ex-husband was kind
• 14:49
  Suze: enough to remain on the mortgage but to give you
• 14:53
  Suze: the deed, so maybe you still have a mortgage and
• 14:57
  Suze: even if it's at the 2.65% rate, maybe you take
• 15:02
  Suze: this money, pay off the mortgage, and free your husband.
• 15:07
  Suze: Give that gift back to your husband so he's no
• 15:10
  Suze: longer on the mortgage.
• 15:13
  Suze: So see this as a gift, not just for yourself,
• 15:18
  Suze: but a gift for everybody, yep.
• 15:20
  KT: Wait, I need to say something else.
• 15:22
  Suze: Go
• 15:23
  KT: You need to go celebrate. Listen, if you get a
• 15:26
  KT: handful of your best friends or a family dinner or whatever,
• 15:29
  KT: go celebrate.
• 15:30
  KT: Say, hey everybody, I want to celebrate because I just
• 15:34
  KT: had this fabulous windfall. But you need to celebrate and
• 15:37
  KT: be strong in all of the convictions that you make
• 15:42
  KT: to yourself and to everyone around you.
• 15:44
  Suze: So I just want to say something as well.
• 15:49
  Suze: If you do get into a situation. You've accepted the
• 15:53
  Suze: fact that you have this money and you deserve it.
• 15:57
  Suze: You worked for it, you know, and I know we
• 16:00
  Suze: keep saying the word luck. I'm not so sure it
• 16:02
  Suze: was luck. You decided to stay in that corporation. You
• 16:07
  Suze: decided to invest in stock options. You made a lot
• 16:11
  Suze: of decisions in your life, Anna.
• 16:14
  KT: And you're good at your job and you know it.
• 16:17
  Suze: That led you to where you are. Do not insult
• 16:22
  Suze: yourself like this. You know, for me, my speaking fees
• 16:27
  Suze: are very high, and I could feel guilty that major
• 16:31
  Suze: classical musicians that have studied their whole life when they perform,
• 16:35
  Suze: maybe they get 25,000.
• 16:37
  Suze: I could feel guilty about a whole lot of things,
• 16:40
  Suze: but I don't. I know what I'm worth. I stand
• 16:44
  Suze: by what I'm worth, and I stand in that truth
• 16:48
  Suze: and because I stand in that truth.
• 16:51
  Suze: People pay it. They wait to be able to do
• 16:54
  Suze: that with me. Now, Anna, you need to stand in
• 16:58
  Suze: that truth, cause you don't know this isn't going to
• 17:01
  Suze: happen again. You don't know that you're not going to
• 17:04
  Suze: get another paycheck that's above what you think you're going
• 17:07
  Suze: to get. You don't know, but you have to stay
• 17:11
  Suze: open to the probabilities of life and not think about
• 17:17
  Suze: anything other than what can be.
• 17:21
  Suze: So that's basically what you have to do. Now, how
• 17:26
  Suze: do you do that? You are to create a new
• 17:30
  Suze: truth for yourself because you have to retrain your brain.
• 17:36
  Suze: You have to retrain your heart. You have to retrain
• 17:40
  Suze: every molecule in your being.
• 17:43
  Suze: To feel like you deserve this, and once you have
• 17:48
  Suze: created that new truth, I want you to write it
• 17:52
  Suze: down every single day 25 times. Just sit down and
• 17:58
  Suze: write it 25 times. Every single day, I want you
• 18:02
  Suze: to scream it out loud. 25 times. Maybe you're in
• 18:08
  Suze: the car. Maybe you're somewhere. Just scream it.
• 18:12
  Suze: And right before you go to bed at night, I
• 18:16
  Suze: want you to look in the mirror and I want
• 18:19
  Suze: you to say it silently to yourself as you're looking
• 18:23
  Suze: back at yourself at least 25 times, and I want
• 18:28
  Suze: you to do that every single day for at least
• 18:33
  Suze: 6 months. Every time your fear comes up, I want
• 18:37
  Suze: you to say it. You have got to quiet your fear.
• 18:42
  Suze: And change how you think, feel, and act, not only
• 18:48
  Suze: with money but yourself.
• 18:51
  Suze: So what is the new truth?
• 18:54
  KT: She actually wrote her truth in this email, and the
• 18:58
  KT: truth is:
• 19:00
  KT: I am humble, grateful, and great at what I do,
• 19:04
  KT: and that is why I now am a millionaire. Bam.
• 19:08
  Suze: All right, well, there you go.
• 19:09
  KT: There's your new truth, and you wrote it yourself. So
• 19:13
  KT: you were up on the top of this email. She
• 19:15
  KT: said she's ashamed, guilty, um, she's afraid, you know, of
• 19:20
  KT: what people will say or think. And the only thing, Anna,
• 19:23
  KT: is I wish Suze and I knew how old you were,
• 19:26
  KT: cause if we knew that,
• 19:27
  KT: we could probably really richen up this lesson in terms
• 19:32
  KT: of having this money at what point in your life.
• 19:35
  Suze: Maybe, but I'm not sure. I don't think that's true, KT.
• 19:39
  Suze: I think this is a great lesson no matter what
• 19:41
  Suze: point you are in your life. I hope those of
• 19:44
  Suze: you who are listening can feel that as well.
• 19:47
  Suze: Because many of you might get a big inheritance from
• 19:50
  Suze: your parents. Many of you may be in a position
• 19:53
  Suze: that you work for a technology company and you get
• 19:56
  Suze: a big windfall like Anna. Maybe some of you have
• 19:59
  Suze: listened to some of the stocks that Keith Fitz-Gerald or
• 20:02
  Suze: even myself have said think about buying like Palantir.
• 20:08
  Suze: So you just never know when or maybe you bought
• 20:11
  Suze: a house years ago and now it's worth a real fortune.
• 20:14
  KT: Or there's the lottery.
• 20:16
  Suze: Or there's the lottery that's true. So you never know
• 20:20
  Suze: in life, but I do know one thing. You all
• 20:24
  Suze: have to keep your hands open.
• 20:27
  Suze: Don't keep them closed, everybody. Don't hold on to your
• 20:31
  Suze: thoughts and your fear and your shame and the little
• 20:34
  Suze: amount of money that you think you have with tightened,
• 20:36
  Suze: closed hands. I know you have to open those hands.
• 20:41
  Suze: Keep them open to receive that which is meant to
• 20:46
  Suze: come your way.
• 20:48
  Suze: Because you can be the masters of your own financial destiny.
• 20:53
  Suze: You can have financial independence and financial freedom. You can
• 20:59
  Suze: have all of those things.
• 21:02
  Suze: But you have to not have shame,
• 21:05
  Suze: guilt, anger. You have to be grateful when that happens.
• 21:11
  Suze: You have to protect it when it happens, and you
• 21:15
  Suze: have to make sure.
• 21:17
  Suze: That you invest it and save it wisely.
• 21:21
  Suze: What do you think, KT?
• 21:22
  KT: I love that. I love that. I agree with you 100%.
• 21:27
  KT: Invest it wisely and treat your friends to a little
• 21:32
  KT: party or something. Celebrate. Money is something that...
• 21:37
  KT: Again, it's the fabric of life. It's our currency of life.
• 21:42
  KT: Use it that way.
• 21:44
  Suze: Also remember, however, money will never define you. You have
• 21:49
  Suze: to define your money. KT will tell you. It does
• 21:54
  Suze: not matter how wealthy I have become.
• 21:58
  Suze: It does not matter how famous I have become, because
• 22:03
  Suze: what do I still think I am, KT?
• 22:07
  KT: A waitress. She still has the mentality of wanting to
• 22:12
  KT: serve people and feeling her joy doesn't come from her
• 22:17
  KT: windfalls and her great wealth. It has always, as long
• 22:20
  KT: as I've known Suse almost 25 years now, it comes
• 22:24
  KT: from knowing she can help someone.
• 22:27
  KT: And I hear her on the phone and I see
• 22:30
  KT: what she writes and I hear what she tells people
• 22:34
  KT: that she haphazardly meets in the street. It's giving advice
• 22:38
  KT: that you know is going to help them have a
• 22:41
  KT: better financial life.
• 22:42
  Suze: That is my true bank account.
• 22:45
  Suze: That is my true bank account that I will take
• 22:51
  Suze: with me no matter what. That is true wealth. So
• 22:57
  Suze: I hope you enjoyed this Suze School for today and
• 23:04
  Suze: remember there's only one thing that matters when it comes
• 23:07
  Suze: to your money, and what is that, my sweet KT?
• 23:10
  KT: It's always people first, then money and then things.
• 23:14
  Suze: And if you do that and stay safe and healthy,
• 23:19
  Suze: I promise you you will be unstoppable.