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00:00:00
KT: Suze, do you know what happens in 20 days?
00:00:03
Suze: Actually, KT, I have no idea.
00:00:05
KT: It's not Halloween.
00:00:06
Suze: So what are you talking about?
00:00:08
KT: It is the last day of the amazing Alliant Credit Union offer. Tell everyone about it.
00:00:14
Suze: Oh, KT, that's what you're talking about. Listen to me, everybody. Alliant Credit Union created something just for Suze fans. Nobody else can get it.
00:00:26
Suze: So what is the offer? Very simple. For a 12 month certificate, minimum $1000 deposit, you can lock in 4.45% APY for $75,000 or more, it's 4.5% APY now.
00:00:44
Suze: I'm here to tell you that is a great rate and you cannot pass it up. Go to my Alliant.com. You're not gonna find this anywhere else. MyAliant A L L I A N T.com.
00:01:10
KT: Welcome everyone to the Women and Money podcast, and everyone's smart enough to listen. Today is October 11th, 2026, and wait, I hope you're all listening and enjoying this because Suze and I pre-recorded this podcast because today we are in Kenya, Nairobi.
00:01:31
Suze: Are you sure about that? So, as many of you know that we left on October 3rd, October 4th. Did you enjoy the LA event if you went and you streamed, I hope you did. And then immediately after that we took off for Istanbul, and now we are in Kenya. And today I'm actually addressing all the teachers that I have taught how to teach 700 women in Pokot, Kenya, and it's really very exciting that we are bringing financial freedom to Africa and I am so thrilled to have pioneered that course for them. All right, so, but we're here for you.
00:02:25
Suze: We're here to pioneer you. So, we pre-recorded this, but you're hearing it now. All right.
00:02:32
KT: OK, so my first question is really great, Suze. I, I love this. Listen up, everyone. This is from Dottie.
00:02:41
KT: I love Dottie. Hi, Suze. I just want you to know that four years ago, I joined Amazon and wrote to you about my RSU stock vesting and what to do with it. I took your advice. Ready? I never cashed out a single one and I've held on to them thanks to your advice and thanks to
00:03:05
KT: you, Suze, I'm leaving Amazon with almost $1.7 million next month. You and your podcast have truly changed my life and my future. I cannot thank you enough. Dottie.
00:03:23
Suze: See KT, that's one of those emails that I read years ago, and I went, oh my God, I want to help this woman, and the advice happened to be, for those of you who don't know, an RSU is a restricted stock unit. And not only did Dottie keep what she had, but she kept adding to it. I said, you put every cent you have into it. Keep doing it. Keep doing it, keep doing it. And now here she is. So, I'm glad you chose that, KT, because the point of it is if you stick with something that's good.
00:03:58
Suze: If you continue to invest in something you already have like she did, you too might be able.
00:04:07
KT: 1.7 million four years later. Wow, you got it. Unbelievable. Good for you, Dottie.
00:04:15
Suze: We're happy for you, Dottie. Don't spend it all in one place. Next question.
00:04:18
KT: I was gonna say go out and have a party. Susie says don't spend it.
00:04:23
KT: So Suze, next statement is from Chris. Listen up again, dear Suze. You were right. I just wanted to share a real life example from a faithful listener. My friend's father recently passed away. He had done the responsible thing and set up a trust, but the family soon discovered that he had never named a beneficiary on his $80,000 IRA.
00:04:52
KT: Now the IRA has to go through probate. This is especially difficult for a family without much money that is also caring for a special needs child. Thousands of dollars wasted and so much time lost.
00:05:08
KT: So once again, you were right. Please keep reminding your listeners to check their beneficiaries regularly, right, Suze, especially divorced people.
00:05:19
Suze: Yeah, what's important about this one, KT, and again, I'm glad you chose it, is that so many of us think: "Oh, I've set up this account. I have this. I have this much money. I have that." And we never ever think about what happens if I die and how many times do I have to say it's not an if, it is a when. So you have to dot your I's, cross your T's. You have to be crystal clear. You have to.
00:05:48
Suze: Check and you have to double check when it comes to your money, your beneficiaries, your titles on your property, titles on your brokerage accounts, making sure your trusts are funded, and so on. KT, can you just now ask me a question?
00:06:05
KT: All right, I have a question for you, Suze.
00:06:08
Suze: Finally.
00:06:09
Suze: This is great. I have an important question that I hope you can guide me on. My wife, 42, and I, 49, live in New York City. We have no children. We are focused on wealth accumulation, tax efficiency, peace of mind, and low stress preparation for my retirement in about 6 years. We also own a home in New Jersey and we plan to keep both properties for now.
00:06:38
KT: So Suze, here's the question, Should we pay off the 2.75% mortgage for New York at $70,000 with 5 years left or the $146,000 mortgage with 19 years left at 4.125% in New Jersey?
00:07:00
KT: Should we use our high yield savings account which has $720,000 in it, or do we keep paying our monthly payments and not pay off either mortgage?
00:07:13
Suze: This one's really easy, KT.
00:07:15
KT: OK, what would you do?
00:07:16
Suze: Here's what I would do if I were you. The goal of money is for you to be secure. Got this?
00:07:24
Suze: Obviously, $720,000 in cash making 3.5 or 4% taxable. Has made you feel secure.
00:07:36
Suze: You have to decide on an amount of money that you're willing to use from this high yield account. To pay off the mortgage, I would not touch the one that's at 2.75%.
00:07:50
Suze: The one in New Jersey for 4.125%. If you would feel secure using 146,000 from your 720,000, I would pay that one off. Just get rid of it. You don't need it,
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but only do it if it makes you feel secure. KT, next question.
00:08:09
KT: Hi, Suze, I have a question for you, and I need your advice. I'm trying to get out of credit card debt. I have $30,000 of debt.
00:08:19
KT: Do I pull out 30k from my 100k 401k to pay off the debt? Ar take my earnings from my $30,000 in gains from stocks that are doing great? I'm so confused because I don't want to take money out of my stocks. What should I do, Suze? Please help. I can't take it anymore, the 27% interest on my credit cards.
00:08:46
Suze: Let me see this one.
00:08:48
Suze: You know what's bothering me lately, KT?
00:08:51
Suze: I don't know if you've noticed this...
00:08:53
KT: Debt, debt is sneaking back.
00:08:55
Suze: You know, everybody, for quite a few years now, all the emails have been about I have this much money in my retirement account. I own these two homes outright. I'm very close to owning the homes outright. Everything has been so great.
00:09:12
Suze: The other day I was looking through all the emails, one after another after another after another is about credit card debt. I have debt. I don't know how to get out of it. I don't know what to do, and I don't know if these are people who have just found me or not, but that concerns me.
00:09:32
Suze: Should it concern you? Probably because when people have debt it runs through the whole system, believe it or not.
00:09:41
KT: It's, it's, it's sneaking in Susie, and I think the culprit is the price of gas, the high price of food.
00:09:49
KT: The price of everything and people are just living their usual life and putting it on the card and it's coming back. Listen to this one.
00:09:57
Suze: No, I have to answer this. I haven't answered this. Slow down, Speedy. Hey, Speedy Gonzalez, slow down. You're like a little roadrunner. She is. I have to tell you. Let me tell you what my mornings are like.
00:10:10
Suze: At 5 o'clock in the morning, right? I'm not quite up yet. Sometimes I am. All of a sudden, KT says, hi, we say hi. We do our exercises that we do every morning in bed, takes maybe 10 minutes, right, with our legs, and then she's up and running.
00:10:27
Suze: And when I say running, I mean running. She's either going fishing, watering the plants, going all over. I mean...
00:10:34
KT: I make coffee.
00:10:35
Suze: And makes coffee. All right, that's besides the point. But listen to me here for the answer to this question. You absolutely are not to take the money from the 401k to pay off the debt.
00:10:48
Suze: The only way that you would be able to do it if you wanted to touch money in your 401k, because I'm assuming you're still working, would be to take a loan for $30,000. But if you take a loan for $30,000 and then you lose your job, that loan is going to be payable probably within a month. And if you don't have the money, you're not only going to owe taxes, but you're going to owe a penalty on it as well if you don't have the money to pay it back.
00:11:18
Suze: Plus, that's $30,000 that's been invested in your retirement account, and it's still being taken out of the stock market. So, if this $30,000 is eating at you, what I would do if I were you is I would take the $30,000 of gains that you have in the stock market. Hopefully they are long term gains, and I would take that money and pay off the debt.
00:11:50
Suze: Because you know, yeah, the markets are going up. Everything's been great, you're all happy again, and then all of a sudden it goes way back down. Don't think those $30,000 of gains can't disappear if something happens, so you have gains, take them. Doesn't mean you sell the stocks that gave you the gains. You're just simply taking the gains and get rid of this debt. However, now listen up.
00:12:18
Suze: You are going to owe taxes on those capital gains $30,000 of capital gains. So every single month I want you to take the money that you were paying towards that debt.
00:12:34
Suze: And put it in a high yield savings account or money market account every single month, because taxes are not going to be due on this until April 15th of 2027.
00:12:49
Suze: So you have a whole lot of months to gather enough money that when the taxes are due, you're gonna have the money to pay for it. Now, I don't know what your income is and how much you're actually going to owe in taxes, but it might not hurt to just ask a CPA or somebody, how much am I going to owe in taxes on these gains, and you make sure that you save that money. So that you don't have to go into debt again just to pay the taxes. All right, KT, next.
00:13:23
KT: That was a good answer.
00:13:26
Suze: And if it was a bad answer, trust me, wait a minute, I gotta tell you this. If it was a bad answer, what would you do, KT?
00:13:32
KT: I'd say, Suze, that's not right.
00:13:35
KT: Here's another one ready for this one. I'm a full-time elementary school social worker. I spend my work days helping children and families find resources when life feels overwhelming.
00:13:47
Suze: Don't tell me this is another one about debt.
00:13:51
KT: Yes ma'am.
00:13:51
Suze: All right, go on.
00:13:52
KT: And lately I found myself wishing I knew where to turn for a little help of my own.
00:13:58
Suze: You picked it because she was a teacher, right?
00:14:00
KT: I do.
00:14:00
Suze: And, and she's a social worker.
00:14:03
KT: And she, yeah, and she's young. I currently have approximately $13,600 in credit card debt that I'm trying desperately to pay down. I'm also preparing to marry my fiance.
00:14:16
KT: And we are paying for our wedding ourselves. We're trying to build a stable future while handling all of these responsibilities our rent, our student loans, our living expenses, and Suzie, some days the numbers feel overwhelming. I just don't know what to do next. I feel like I'm just running in circles.
00:14:36
Suze: Oh, here we go again, another debt one. Here's the thing.
00:14:41
Suze: What concerns me most, KT, about this email is she's preparing to marry her
fiance.
00:14:47
KT: I think they have to wait.
00:14:49
Suze: And they're paying for it themselves. Tell everybody how we got married, KT. We went to a justice of the peace in South Africa,
00:14:58
KT: Yeah, because we, it wasn't legal to get married yet in America.
00:15:01
Suze: We didn't have a fancy wedding. We didn't spend a whole lot of money. That's what we did. You cannot.
00:15:10
KT: When you have $13,600 of credit card debt, most likely at a high interest rate, even though you did not say.
00:15:20
Suze: And it's eating you alive, and you have student loan payments, you're barely making it for your rent, you're doing all of these things, and you're going to pay for yourself for a wedding out of what? When you start a marriage in debt, that is a formula for divorce, I am telling you right now. Divorce, the number one reason for divorce today is arguments over money.
00:15:48
Suze: Don't do this yet. You can get married, but you are not paying for your own wedding. If you love him, you want to be together, you're OK about money. You understand that your values and everything are OK, whatever it may be.
00:16:04
Suze: Then just go get married, but do not spend one penny 'cause you don't have one penny to spend to get married. You have to take care of your debt now, before you can spend one penny on anything else. Where I would go if I were you would be to NFCC.org. Just look them up.
00:16:31
Suze: They'll look at your credit cards you have, the interest rate that you have, and maybe they'll be able to lower those interest rates so that you can have a plan to get out of debt. You want to work with somebody, that's who I would work with. All right, KT, do not, do not, Miss Travis, read me another debt question.
00:16:52
KT: This is worse.
00:16:55
KT: This is, this is worse than debt. Ready? Hi Suze. My husband and I, both 49, have a great combined income, no debt, investments, retirement, and a paid off house, but we still have lots of arguments about money. That's what I'm talking about. This is worse. My issue is this he makes $80,000 a year.
00:17:21
KT: I make 220,000, but month after month he spends hundreds on his hobbies or toys, and sometimes his credit card bill is even close to his entire monthly take home pay. He doesn't see a problem because he says we have the money. Oh my God.
00:17:43
KT: So listen to this. She said the only reason we have a paid off house and anything saved at all is because of me. How do you suggest a couple enforce fund money limits when the high earner is not a spender and the low earner is?
00:18:00
Suze: Before I answer KT, what would you tell him?
00:18:04
KT: Clearly, I think that he's just being an idiot.
00:18:08
KT: He's being arrogant.
00:18:10
Suze: He's being very disrespectful
00:18:11
KT: And disrespectful, and I think that she's got to say, "Listen, you make $80,000 a year. You're not contributing to anything.
00:18:20
KT: So we need to separate our finances." It's that simple. She has to
separate the finances.
00:18:28
Suze: And have him split the utility bills and everything that he jointly uses. He needs a serious reality.
00:18:36
KT: He needs a slap down that's that.
00:18:39
Suze: And on some level, you, you obviously have to take responsibility for this.
00:18:45
Suze: Right, because he's been allowed to do this for a long, long time, and he doesn't understand why he can't continue to do it. And the reason he can't continue to do it, in my opinion,
00:18:59
Suze: isn't because you guys don't have the money.
00:19:02
Suze: It's because you don't want him to. And he has to respect what you want to do as well as you have to respect what he wants to do as well.
00:19:14
Suze: But it has to be equal, and it is not equal right now. You say in this email you own the home because of you. You have the retirement account cause of you. You have everything because of you. He obviously hasn't been doing anything for a long, long time, and you have allowed it to go on for too long. So you are the one who's going to have to change. You are the one who's going to have to make a decision. Why are you still in a relationship with this man?
00:19:43
Suze: Would you do it again if you could, and you have to have a serious talk with yourself because I can tell you when somebody writes me a letter like this, this is a precursor for somebody not wanting to be in that relationship anymore. I'm just telling you...
00:20:02
KT: I told Suze divorce, divorce, right, simple one word answer divorce.
00:20:07
Suze: So you have to get courage.
00:20:10
Suze: You have to have a talk with him and you have to lay the financial law down to him. He either accepts it or let him go live on his own for a while at $80,000 a year before take home and see how well he does.
00:20:24
Suze: Oh, go on, KT.
00:20:25
KT: So Suze, I like this one.
00:20:27
Suze: I hope you like it better, KT. These have been interesting,
00:20:31
KT: But this is, this is Dolores. I like Dolores. Dolores is a new, new investor, and she said, Hi, Suze and KT. Hope you're both doing well. I'm super new to the world of money.
00:20:43
KT: Saving, it's exciting to learn all these cool things about how to make money grow. My best friend introduced me to your podcast, and I'm obsessed in a good way. And now I have so many questions. I like Dolores a lot. I'll start with this one.
00:21:02
KT: Just for fun, I started to do Acorns a couple of years ago, and like most things with money, I do not have a clue as to what I'm doing now that I'm confident to just learn. I'm worried. I have been putting my wee bit of money into something that is no way legit. Is Acorns an OK thing to do, Suze? Should I try to get my money out and start anew?
00:21:29
KT: That's from Dolores. She's a poet and an investor.
00:21:33
Suze: So listen to me, little squirrel, you. Right, which is, which is this I don't like acorns. I have to tell you I don't. And because your wee bit of money, do you know every time you put, let's just say $10 in, whatever... they're charging you like a 4.5% fee to do so.
00:21:55
Suze: Really? So if you keep putting in money, a whole lot of it, at least 4%, is going to them. So no, if I were you, they're legit, but they're not smart. They're just not in the long run unless you're putting a whole lot of money in every single month. If I were you, I would absolutely take my money out.
00:22:20
Suze: And given that you're probably working, I would start a Roth IRA with that money.
00:22:28
Suze: And I would start to invest it. Now, you can invest it in many things, but you should choose an ETF that you like and dollar cost average every month into that, just that simple. You would be buying slices.
00:22:46
Suze: And so you can choose from many. You've listened to me now, and I've named quite a few for you, and that's what I would be doing. But I'm so glad you are obsessed in a good way. How old do you think she is, KT?
00:23:02
KT: A little squirrel like that, maybe 25.
00:23:06
Suze: Maybe, right.
00:23:07
KT: Yeah, Dolores, write to me. Tell me how old you are.
00:23:09
Suze: Oh God. All right, here we go.
00:23:11
KT: All right. So Suze, this next question is somewhat close to home. You'll know when, when I read it to you, you'll understand why. I purchased your must-have documents quite a few years ago, and I've completed them and had them notarized. Since they've been revised and re-notarized once. I shared them with my two sisters who still have not completed theirs.
00:23:33
KT: My 84 year old sister who has no children has been hospitalized because she began experiencing psychotic episodes. She is lucid in between. What would you suggest would be the most important documents to complete so that my other sister and I can put her affairs in order?
00:23:55
KT: I'm not sure what to do. We all live in different states. We had hoped that she could be placed in a care home and receive medical and mental health care where her friends could come visit, but since then things took a turn for the worse.
00:24:13
KT: And they have indicated that she will likely be sent away across the state to a state geri-psych hospital. I imagine this will be a terrible experience for her. And then she said, Suze, your podcasts were so helpful to me when I was preparing for retirement.
00:24:32
KT: And I actually got prepared, but no such luck with my sisters. They state she knows that she made mistakes and she feels bad, but we just need to move on from here. Your advice would be very much appreciated.
00:24:47
Suze: So, let me keep this one, KT cause I will answer this person back directly. So if you're listening to this, please know you will be getting an email from me with absolute instructions of what I think you should do.
00:25:01
Suze: But the main thing that I want to say here is that in order to create the must-have documents, which I all want you to have a will, a living revocable trust, an advanced directive, durable power of attorney for
healthcare, and a durable power of attorney for your finances, you have to be in your right mind.
00:25:24
Suze: You cannot go in and out and be losing it and have Alzheimer's or whatever it may be because they won't hold up. So it is very important that if you have the must-have documents or you go to a lawyer, you do whatever that you sign them, you make sure that they are valid because when something like this happens, I'm afraid there's nothing that this person can do.
00:25:53
Suze: Because it seems like her sister is really not with it anymore at all, so my advice to her will be she needs an elder care lawyer. She needs to go with the lawyer to see her sister. The lawyer has to believe that the sister knows what she is signing.
00:26:14
Suze: And I'm not sure that will be able to happen at this point in time. What I wished she had had was a durable power of attorney for healthcare and an advanced directive for healthcare so that she could make the decisions for her sister.
00:26:33
Suze: And she could have decided where she wanted her sister to go, not automatically sent off to some psych hospital, you know, in whatever state there is, because they don't know what else to do with her and nobody has the power to do anything, so they're able to make the decision.
00:26:53
Suze: So, do you understand why these must-have documents are so important? And I just have to say this, do you all understand as well?
00:27:03
Suze: That once you are older than 18, or if you have a child who is older than 18, you no longer have legal authority over what to do with their medical situation.
00:27:19
Suze: So, you would think, well, this is my sister. I can dictate where she's going to go and what she's going to do. She doesn't have the legal authority to do so because her sister's over 18.
00:27:31
Suze: So if you have younger children, that's a different story, but once they turn 18, you have a 30-year-old son, a 40-year-old daughter in a car accident, you can't make any medical decisions about them at all. And if you think you can, you are making one of the biggest mistakes out there. That's why for over 30 years now.
00:27:55
Suze: I have been saying to you, you have to get the must-have documents, so I ask all of you to go to must-havedocs.com and check them out, seriously, good in all 50 states, $2500 worth of state of the art documents for $153 that you can share with all your family members use over and over again, whatever it may be. If you don't. and something happens like this, there's really not much that I can tell you to do to help you. All right, KT, well, that was a very uplifting podcast.
00:28:35
KT: I'll try to find happier ones next time.
00:28:38
Suze: Can you do me a favor?
00:28:39
KT: I'll find some happy ones. I'll throw some happies in there.
00:28:42
Suze: All right, so we're still away for a while here, but.
00:28:47
Suze: But until we do come back, we will make sure that every single Sunday you have a podcast that you've never heard before. But until then, there's only one thing that we want you to remember when it comes to your money. And what is it, KT?
00:29:00
KT: People first.
00:29:01
Suze: That means you.
00:29:02
KT: Then money. Then Things.
00:29:05
Suze: You got it, girlfriend.
00:29:07
KT: Stay safe, everyone.
00:29:08
Suze: All right, bye bye.