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Suze's Mega Retirement Plan Strategy For 2026 · Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)

• 0:08
  KT: Hey everybody, it's KT and Suze here, and today is
• 0:13
  KT: the beginning of 2026 Women and Money podcast.
• 0:17
  Suze: What's the date, KT?
• 0:19
  KT: January 4th. Do you believe it?
• 0:22
  Suze: 2026.
• 0:23
  KT: So it's still Happy New Year.
• 0:25
  Suze: It's Happy New Year, yes, but you have to welcome everybody.
• 0:29
  KT: Welcome to the Women and Money podcast and today's special.
• 0:32
  Suze: No, you gotta do it right, KT, come on.
• 0:36
  KT: Welcome to the Women and Money podcast and ask KT
• 0:39
  KT: and Suze. All right, welcome to the Women and Money
• 0:42
  KT: podcast 2026. This is Suze School.
• 0:46
  Suze: All right, let's stop, everybody. You would think by the time
• 0:50
  Suze: we've gone into this many years, KT would get it right,
• 0:54
  Suze: wouldn't you? Welcome to the Women and Money podcast and
• 0:58
  Suze: everybody's smart enough to listen.
• 1:01
  KT: It's Suze School.
• 1:03
  Suze: And Suze just schooled you.
• 1:04
  KT: Oh my God, wait till you hear what she has
• 1:07
  KT: in store today, and that's why I'm sitting in here
• 1:11
  KT: with her. None of you are gonna
• 1:14
  KT: understand it.
• 1:16
  Suze: I was trying to explain, KT this morning asked me, Suze,
• 1:20
  Suze: what are we gonna do for the first podcast of
• 1:23
  Suze: the year that we're doing? And I said, first of all, KT,
• 1:26
  Suze: it's Suze School. I'm doing. And I started to explain
• 1:29
  Suze: to her what it was and what did you say?
• 1:32
  KT: No one is gonna get it, and you need me
• 1:34
  KT: in there to ask questions or to
• 1:37
  KT: listen, because if I don't get it, they're not gonna
• 1:40
  KT: get it.
• 1:41
  Suze: Now, why do you all think that she doesn't think
• 1:44
  Suze: you're gonna get it? Everybody?
• 1:46
  KT: All right, simple four-letter word and the word is Roth. R-O-T-H.
• 1:50
  Suze: Now for those of you who are new to the
• 1:53
  Suze: Women in Money podcast,
• 1:55
  KT: and everyone's smart enough to listen.
• 1:57
  Suze: Oh, thank you, KT. What you have to know about KT,
• 2:02
  Suze: is this: Roth's my favorite retirement account totally does her in.
• 2:08
  Suze: She just goes nuts with them. So that's why she
• 2:12
  Suze: thought she needed to be here today.
• 2:15
  KT: Suze's starting the new year with her boyfriend Roth and
• 2:20
  KT: all of these accounts that are so confusing, but they're
• 2:24
  KT: really important because we're all gonna benefit from them.
• 2:28
  KT: But they're very, very confusing, so you need to listen
• 2:31
  KT: up and you need to listen
• 2:32
  KT: carefully.
• 2:33
  Suze: So right now, Suze School is in session, but I
• 2:37
  Suze: am telling all of you, you have got to take
• 2:41
  Suze: out your Suze notebooks because it's possible or probable you
• 2:47
  Suze: have no idea about what I am going to tell
• 2:52
  Suze: you today.
• 2:53
  Suze: So we'll just kind of sit here and we'll wait
• 2:55
  Suze: KT for them to out their notebooks. How was your
• 2:58
  Suze: New Year's?
• 2:59
  KT: It was great.
• 3:01
  KT: Tell everybody what we did. All right, so we're back
• 3:04
  KT: in Florida. You all know that we're no longer living
• 3:07
  KT: in the Bahamas. We're back in Florida.
• 3:09
  KT: We have this fabulous cozy little condo and we looked
• 3:13
  KT: at each other and said we're not going to parties,
• 3:15
  KT: we're not gonna watch Anderson and Andy drop the Ball
• 3:19
  KT: on New Year's Eve in Times Square we're gonna do
• 3:22
  KT: something very different she said what?
• 3:24
  KT: I said I'm gonna make a big bowl of popcorn
• 3:27
  KT: and we're gonna watch the Landman series and binge it
• 3:32
  KT: until 2026 and that's exactly what we did. So it's,
• 3:37
  KT: it was so great.
• 3:38
  Suze: So Landman, for those of you who don't know, it,
• 3:43
  Suze: I don't know how you get it, but you should
• 3:45
  Suze: get it. It is worth every single penny of it.
• 3:48
  Suze: Number one, there are two seasons we did the entire
• 3:51
  Suze: first season, which was 10.
• 3:54
  KT: Episodes.
• 3:55
  Suze: The second season,
• 3:56
  KT: Seven episodes.
• 3:58
  Suze: Well, now, as of today, eight.
• 4:00
  KT: The eighth episode is after this podcast. I'm going right into, right into it.
• 4:05
  Suze: All right, KT, I think they all have their notebooks out?
• 4:07
  KT: I thinks everyone's ready, Suze.
• 4:10
  Suze: All right, so here we go. Suze School with my
• 4:15
  Suze: most favorite pupil of all, KT, is ready to begin.
• 4:21
  Suze: Now hopefully all of you know that there are two
• 4:23
  Suze: kinds of retirement accounts traditional or pre-tax ones and Roth
• 4:29
  Suze: or after-tax ones. So the contribution limits I'm about to
• 4:34
  Suze: tell you are the same for traditional IRAs as they
• 4:38
  Suze: are for Roths, as well as traditional and Roth for
• 4:42
  Suze: employer plans. However, let me just state now in my opinion.
• 4:48
  Suze: I really believe that the only place in most circumstances
• 4:52
  Suze: where you should be putting money is a Roth if
• 4:56
  Suze: it's available to you. So if you are going to
• 4:59
  Suze: contribute to a pre-tax plan, know the limits for contributions
• 5:03
  Suze: apply to both. However, I'm only addressing Roths today. So
• 5:09
  Suze: in 2026, the Roth IRA contribution limits are $7,500 if
• 5:16
  Suze: you are under 50.
• 5:18
  Suze: $8,600 if you are 50 or older, because that includes
• 5:24
  Suze: the $1,100 catch-up. So, if you're 50 or older, you're
• 5:30
  Suze: allowed to put in $1,100 more than the $7,500 if
• 5:36
  Suze: you are under 50.
• 5:39
  Suze: But here is what you need to know. You can
• 5:42
  Suze: only contribute up to the point of the max if
• 5:46
  Suze: you have earned at least that amount of money.
• 5:50
  Suze: So, for a Roth, you have to have earned at
• 5:53
  Suze: least $7,500 if you're under 50. $8,600 if you're 50
• 5:59
  Suze: or older, to put in the max. If you only
• 6:03
  Suze: earn $4,000 that is the max that you can put in. Now,
• 6:08
  Suze: let's talk about the income limits. If you are filing single,
• 6:13
  Suze: You can put the max of $7,500 or $8,600 if
• 6:17
  Suze: you are 50 or older, if your modified adjusted gross
• 6:21
  Suze: income is under $153,000.
• 6:27
  Suze: You can put in money all the way from 153,000
• 6:31
  Suze: to 168,000. However, it starts to decrease as you make
• 6:36
  Suze: more money. But after 168,000 of modified adjusted gross income,
• 6:42
  Suze: you no longer qualify for a contributory Roth. And again,
• 6:48
  Suze: a contributory Roth is where every year,
• 6:51
  Suze: you put in the money that we just talked about.
• 6:54
  Suze: You got that, KT? You're good.
• 6:56
  KT: I got that.
• 6:57
  Suze: All right. That means we're doing good, everybody. All right.
• 7:00
  Suze: If you are married, filing single, be careful here, and
• 7:05
  Suze: you are living with your spouse. You do not qualify
• 7:10
  Suze: at all for a Roth if you make more than $10,000.
• 7:16
  Suze: Just know that.
• 7:18
  Suze: However, if you are married and filing separately everybody and
• 7:24
  Suze: you truly live apart from your spouse for the entire year,
• 7:28
  Suze: then you get to use the single Roth limits that
• 7:31
  Suze: I just told you about. But if you lived together
• 7:34
  Suze: even for one day,
• 7:36
  Suze: the Roth door practically slams shut on you. However, if
• 7:41
  Suze: you are married filing and jointly, you can do a
• 7:44
  Suze: full contribution up to the point of the max. If
• 7:47
  Suze: your modified adjusted gross income is under 242,000.
• 7:53
  Suze: And again from 242,000 to 252,000, the max starts to
• 7:58
  Suze: go down and once you've reached 252,000, you no longer
• 8:04
  Suze: qualify for a contributory Roth. Now, besides the Roth KT,
• 8:10
  Suze: you get, is this good so far?
• 8:12
  KT: Yeah, I'm trying to follow.
• 8:14
  KT: I'm trying to follow. Being being honest. It's, it's a
• 8:17
  KT: little complicated.
• 8:18
  Suze: But KT, these are contributions that everybody should know. I'm
• 8:21
  Suze: just reviewing in case you're new, everybody, to Roth's, and
• 8:26
  Suze: what we learned, by the way, at the dinner that
• 8:29
  Suze: we were at on the 30th, we went out to
• 8:32
  Suze: dinner with a whole bunch of new people that we
• 8:35
  Suze: had met.
• 8:37
  Suze: They had no idea.
• 8:38
  KT: No one at the table knew about, well, some people did,
• 8:41
  KT: but most did not.
• 8:43
  Suze: Have a clue.
• 8:44
  KT: These were really successful people.
• 8:47
  Suze: And I was just like, what?
• 8:49
  Suze: So anyway,
• 8:50
  KT: Me too. I like, I know more than them.
• 8:53
  Suze: So since I told all of them to tune in,
• 8:56
  Suze: here we go, and this is for them since they've
• 8:59
  Suze: tuned in. Now listen,
• 9:01
  Suze: besides a Roth, a contributory Roth, an IRA which you
• 9:05
  Suze: can do on your own, and you can do it
• 9:07
  Suze: at any brokerage firm wherever you wanna do it. If
• 9:11
  Suze: you work for an employer, you can also have your
• 9:14
  Suze: Roth IRAs and either a Roth 401k, a Roth 403B,
• 9:20
  Suze: or TSP depending on what your employer offers. So...
• 9:25
  Suze: Most places that you work for offer a Roth version
• 9:30
  Suze: as well as a traditional one, but you listen to
• 9:33
  Suze: me and you listen to me closely, I only want
• 9:36
  Suze: you to do a Roth if it is offered.
• 9:40
  Suze: Now, let's go over the contribution limits for 2026, cause
• 9:45
  Suze: they have changed everybody. The employee contribution limits are $24,500
• 9:53
  Suze: if you're under 50. $32,500 if you're 50 or older,
• 9:59
  Suze: cause that includes an $8,000 catch-up.
• 10:04
  Suze: Now KT, when I was telling her about that this morning,
• 10:07
  Suze: she said, so you have to put in all $8,000.
• 10:10
  Suze: I said, no, that's the max catch-up, but you can
• 10:14
  Suze: put in an extra $1000 3000 dollars, but the max
• 10:18
  Suze: catch-up is $8000. But if you are between
• 10:24
  Suze: 60 and 63 you get the super catch-up which is $11,250.
• 10:33
  Suze: So in the years 60, 61, 62, and 63, you
• 10:38
  Suze: can put in $11,250 more,
• 10:43
  Suze: than what somebody under 50 can put in. So this
• 10:46
  Suze: year it would be a total of $35,750.
• 10:53
  Suze: Now, your employer match does not count towards your employee limit,
• 10:59
  Suze: just so you are clear on that. Not all employers match,
• 11:04
  Suze: but most of them do. However, once again,
• 11:09
  Suze: just like I told you with the IRA limits, that
• 11:12
  Suze: the max is 100% of what you earned, whichever one
• 11:16
  Suze: is less or whatever the max is, or whatever you earn,
• 11:19
  Suze: whichever one is less, that also applies to your 401k,
• 11:26
  Suze: 403B TSP and the catch-up, just so you know. Now,
• 11:30
  Suze: here's the real reason for the podcast today.
• 11:35
  Suze: Because most of you knew exactly what I've already told you,
• 11:38
  Suze: except we have new limits.
• 11:41
  Suze: Starting January 1st, 2026, and I want you to pay
• 11:48
  Suze: attention here, OK? If you are 50 or older and
• 11:52
  Suze: you earned more than $150,000 in W-2 wages from an
• 12:00
  Suze: employer in 2025.
• 12:03
  Suze: Then every dollar of your catch-up contribution has to go
• 12:08
  Suze: to a Roth, and that's where KT went, What? What?
• 12:14
  Suze: So again,
• 12:16
  Suze: A catch-up contribution is what you voluntarily want to put
• 12:21
  Suze: in once you turn 50 or older, cause you wanna
• 12:25
  Suze: put more money and you wanna catch-up on maybe you
• 12:28
  Suze: didn't max out, maybe you have extra money, so you
• 12:30
  Suze: wanna get it into the retirement account. So, it's called
• 12:34
  Suze: a catch-up. However...
• 12:37
  Suze: This rule only applies to the catch-up if you are
• 12:42
  Suze: 50 or older and you earned more than $150,000 in
• 12:50
  Suze: W-2 wages from an employer in 2025 that goes into
• 12:58
  Suze: a Roth 401k, 403B, or TSP. Now, I'm gonna tell
• 13:04
  Suze: you something that I'm sure most of you expect.
• 13:07
  Suze: I personally love this new rule. I love it because
• 13:12
  Suze: it's almost like it's forcing you to put your catch-ups
• 13:15
  Suze: or some money in a Roth retirement account if you
• 13:18
  Suze: are 50 or older and you earned more than $150,000
• 13:25
  Suze: in W-2 wages from an employer in 2025.
• 13:31
  Suze: Because many of you are just so stubborn and you go, no,
• 13:34
  Suze: I want the write-off now. When I retire, I'm gonna
• 13:37
  Suze: be in a lower tax bracket. Good luck, everybody. However,
• 13:41
  Suze: it's almost like the government is saying, you don't have
• 13:44
  Suze: a choice, cause guess what? You don't. And I love
• 13:49
  Suze: that they're doing this. But what happens if your employer
• 13:53
  Suze: doesn't have a Roth 401k option?
• 13:57
  Suze: Guess what? They either have to add one or you're
• 14:00
  Suze: not gonna be allowed to make a catch-up contribution. Do
• 14:05
  Suze: you get that?
• 14:06
  KT: So tell your boss to add it.
• 14:08
  Suze: So most employees are now going to finally add a
• 14:12
  Suze: Roth option, KT, because I got news. Employees are gonna
• 14:16
  Suze: get really angry when catch-ups disappear simply because they didn't
• 14:23
  Suze: offer a Roth option.
• 14:26
  Suze: Now, I have to tell you the truth. Normally, KT,
• 14:28
  Suze: I would stop at this point.
• 14:31
  Suze: Because this is a lot, according to your face.
• 14:36
  Suze: This is a lot, but I am not stopping here
• 14:39
  Suze: because there is something that I have never talked about
• 14:43
  Suze: in all these years, but it's something at this point
• 14:47
  Suze: that I really want you to know.
• 14:49
  KT: OK, here we go.
• 14:50
  Suze: No, why is that I want them to know this?
• 14:52
  KT: I don't know.
• 14:54
  Suze: I'm gonna tell you. All right, you're ready?
• 14:57
  KT: I'm ready.
• 14:57
  KT: Here we go. What is it?
• 14:59
  Suze: It's because over all the years, KT.
• 15:03
  Suze: That the people have been listening to me and truly
• 15:05
  Suze: the majority of people that are listening to this podcast,
• 15:09
  Suze: they're 50, 60, 70, 80, even in their 40s, their 30s,
• 15:13
  Suze: and I got news for you, they are making a
• 15:16
  Suze: lot of money or they have a lot of money.
• 15:20
  Suze: They're still working. They've maxed out their 401ks or 403bs.
• 15:24
  Suze: Now they don't know what to do to save for retirement,
• 15:27
  Suze: so they put it in an investment account.
• 15:31
  Suze: Now I'm going to tell them what they can do
• 15:33
  Suze: if they still are working and they have extra money
• 15:38
  Suze: what I want them to do with it.
• 15:43
  KT: Listen up, listen up, everyone with that extra money, listen up.
• 15:48
  Suze: There is an IRS rule, and it's called 415C.
• 15:55
  Suze: 415C. Now I've never talked about this before, but you
• 16:00
  Suze: need to know about it, and it allows you in
• 16:05
  Suze: an employer plan to put in after-tax contributions into your 401k.
• 16:16
  Suze: And the max, because there is a limit, the 415
• 16:20
  Suze: max is ready: $72,000 per employer or $80,000 per employer
• 16:29
  Suze: if you are 50 or older.
• 16:32
  Suze: You can only contribute up to the point of the
• 16:35
  Suze: max if you have earned at least that amount of money.
• 16:41
  Suze: How do you get to that number? If you are
• 16:44
  Suze: under 50? The $72,000 limit includes your employee contributions, which
• 16:52
  Suze: is $24,500 this year, and your employer match. You would
• 16:58
  Suze: add all those together
• 17:01
  Suze: and minus it from the 72,000 limit.
• 17:06
  Suze: And that is how much you can put in extra
• 17:09
  Suze: from your after-tax contribution. I want all of you to
• 17:15
  Suze: listen to this again and again so that you understand it. However,
• 17:20
  Suze: why am I talking to all of you about the
• 17:22
  Suze: 415 now when I never did previously?
• 17:27
  Suze: Because now that it's mandatory if you are 50 or
• 17:31
  Suze: older and you earned more than $150,000 in W-2 wages
• 17:40
  Suze: from an employer in 2025...
• 17:43
  Suze: Your catch-up contributions have to go into a Roth 401k.
• 17:49
  Suze: Now all corporations are going to start to offer a
• 17:54
  Suze: Roth 401k, and most of them, if you complain enough
• 17:59
  Suze: to them to allow in-plan conversions, now you can have
• 18:06
  Suze: your cake and eat it too. Where if you have
• 18:09
  Suze: extra money,
• 18:11
  Suze: that you're putting in an investment account for your retirement
• 18:16
  Suze: now you would put it in via a 415C into
• 18:20
  Suze: your traditional 401k and immediately convert it, if allowed, to
• 18:26
  Suze: your Roth 401k. So the reason for this podcast today
• 18:32
  Suze: is this is how you build up a massive tax-free
• 18:38
  Suze: retirement account.
• 18:41
  Suze: This is how you do it, but you have to
• 18:45
  Suze: know if you are allowed to do it or not.
• 18:48
  Suze: So here's what I need you to do. Number one,
• 18:51
  Suze: I need you to look at your 2025 W-2 wages.
• 18:56
  Suze: You need to know what did you make? What is
• 19:00
  Suze: on your W-2? All right, then you need to call
• 19:04
  Suze: your HR department
• 19:06
  Suze: and ask if they have the ability to support Roth
• 19:11
  Suze: catch-ups because you need to know if you're going to
• 19:14
  Suze: be allowed to do a catch-up in your 401k plan.
• 19:20
  Suze: You need to know that, especially if you're 50 and older,
• 19:24
  Suze: and you earned more than $150,000 in W-2 wages from
• 19:31
  Suze: an employer in 2025.
• 19:35
  Suze: You also need to ask them if they allow after-tax
• 19:40
  Suze: contributions into your 401k plan.
• 19:45
  Suze: And ask them if they allow in-plan conversions. Once you
• 19:52
  Suze: know all that, then maybe you talk to your accountant
• 19:56
  Suze: or your CPA to adjust your withholdings to do whatever,
• 20:00
  Suze: since now we have a new tax strategy for all
• 20:04
  Suze: of you.
• 20:06
  Suze: So here's what I want all of you to do,
• 20:09
  Suze: cause I can tell you by KT's face she could
• 20:11
  Suze: not be more confused if she tried, correct?
• 20:14
  KT: Yeah, I'm a little confused.
• 20:15
  Suze: A lot confused. So if you have questions about this,
• 20:19
  Suze: I want you to write them to ask Suze podcast@gmail.com.
• 20:25
  KT: Keep them short.
• 20:26
  Suze: Keep them short. Don't necessarily post on the wall.
• 20:27
  Suze: Keep them short and I'll answer. I'll give them to
• 20:30
  Suze: Suze if you keep them short.
• 20:32
  Suze: This coming Thursday we will answer any questions that you
• 20:36
  Suze: happen to be confused about this. Now, on the wall, however,
• 20:42
  Suze: today I will post a summary
• 20:46
  Suze: of all of these things that I just said, the amounts,
• 20:50
  Suze: the this and that, that you can just kind of
• 20:53
  Suze: just copy and print out. For all of you that
• 20:56
  Suze: don't know, we have a Women and Money Community app.
• 21:00
  Suze: Just download it on Apple Apps or Google Play. Obviously
• 21:04
  Suze: it's free, and you'll see little boxes, and there is
• 21:07
  Suze: a wall, and that's where all of you talk to
• 21:10
  Suze: one another once in a while. I go on there
• 21:13
  Suze: as well, but that's where I will list everything that
• 21:17
  Suze: I just said today in a very simple format in
• 21:21
  Suze: terms of the amounts. Does that help you, KT?
• 21:24
  KT: Yeah, I love that. Then I can read what to do.
• 21:29
  KT: And get it done
• 21:30
  Suze: Right. Also, all of you do not forget to go
• 21:34
  Suze: to my YouTube channel, youtube.com/Suze Orman, where you never know
• 21:40
  Suze: when KT and I this year may start to actually
• 21:44
  Suze: video these podcasts.
• 21:46
  KT: Oh my God, really?
• 21:48
  Suze: Yes, the two of us, now that we're back in Florida,
• 21:51
  Suze: maybe we'll go to a real studio and do it.
• 21:54
  Suze: You know, early this
• 21:55
  Suze: morning we started to do this podcast and in the
• 21:58
  Suze: middle of us doing it what happened KT?
• 22:00
  KT: The fire alarm went off.
• 22:01
  Suze: In the building. So then we had to listen to
• 22:04
  Suze: it for an hour and I said, you know, KT,
• 22:06
  Suze: it's a little different than when we were on the island.
• 22:09
  Suze: So we'll figure that out. However, I hope you're happy
• 22:12
  Suze: that we're back. I hope you understand why I chose
• 22:16
  Suze: to do this particular podcast. Remember, you can still fund
• 22:23
  Suze: your 2025 Roth IRAs and traditional IRAs, if you wanna
• 22:28
  Suze: do a traditional, up till April 15th of this year,
• 22:31
  Suze: but use 2025 MAGI limits and the limits for 2025
• 22:38
  Suze: if you're going to do so. All right, Ms. Travis,
• 22:41
  Suze: how'd we do?
• 22:44
  KT: That was a really tough opening of '26, not necessarily
• 22:49
  KT: what I expected, but here's the good news.
• 22:52
  Suze: What's the good news, girlfriend?
• 22:53
  KT: If everyone follows this rule, you're gonna have what you
• 22:57
  KT: call it a mega retirement strategy.
• 23:00
  Suze: Yeah, and I know a lot of you are probably
• 23:02
  Suze: sitting there thinking, Susie, I don't even fully fund my
• 23:05
  Suze: retirement accounts now. I get that.
• 23:08
  Suze: But hopefully if you continue to listen to the Women
• 23:10
  Suze: and Money podcast enough, just like the majority of the
• 23:14
  Suze: people listening who when they first started with me 30
• 23:18
  Suze: years ago, they had debt. Some were living in their car,
• 23:21
  Suze: they didn't own any real estate. Now the majority of them,
• 23:23
  Suze: honest to God, super rich, are multi-millionaires, maxed out their
• 23:28
  Suze: retirement accounts, own two homes, and now have extra money
• 23:32
  Suze: to invest.
• 23:34
  Suze: For those of you who are going to be in
• 23:36
  Suze: that situation one day or who are in that situation now,
• 23:41
  Suze: this podcast was for you. So until Thursday, when we
• 23:46
  Suze: will be answering your questions on this podcast, there's only
• 23:50
  Suze: one thing that we want you to remember for this
• 23:52
  Suze: new year, and what is it, girlfriend?
• 23:54
  KT: People first, then money, then things, then Roth.
• 23:59
  Suze: Now you stay safe. See you Thursday. Bye-bye.