Podcast Episode - Ask Suze & KT Anything: Buying A House, Inheriting A Roth & Boosting Your FICO Score


Credit Cards, Credit Score, Debt, FICO, Home Buying, Must Have Documents, Roth


June 23, 2022

Listen to Podcast Episode:

On today’s podcast of Ask Suze & KT Anything, Suze answers questions about filling must have documents, inheriting a ROTH, boosting a credit score and more.


Podcast Transcript:

00:00:08
MUSIC: MUSIC IN.

00:00:32
Suze: June 23rd 2000...

00:00:35
KT: 22.

00:00:36
KT: Second

00:00:37
KT: day of summer, Suze. How are you feeling about that?

00:00:41
Suze: hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot

00:00:43
Suze: for all of you. I hope

00:00:45
KT: you know we're

00:00:46
Suze: steamy hot. And the reason we're steamy hot is because not because of the weather. It's because we're steamy hot. No, just joking kg.

00:00:52
KT: That's true too.

00:00:53
Suze: Welcome everybody to the KT and

00:00:56
KT: Suze.

00:00:57
Suze: Anything you can ask us anything podcast

00:01:00
Suze: and what we're gonna talk about today KT?

00:01:03
KT: summer

00:01:05
Suze: are you into summer?

00:01:07
KT: Yeah, it's the second day of summer.

00:01:09
Suze: You already said that. Do you want to say it again? Say it three times. Just make sure everybody knows

00:01:14
KT: it's my favorite favorite time of the year.

00:01:18
KT: My

00:01:18
KT: birthday. It's hot. It's steamy. The water is beautiful.

00:01:25
KT: Everything's real. The days are long. I get lots of daylight. Everyone knows that I love daylight a lot of daylight. So yesterday I was talking to Colo we were taking a ride to the other end of the island in the morning and I said to him

00:01:39
KT: that there's places up way up north up by Norway and and Alaska and in Northern Maine where there the daylight is super super long and there's some places where there is no evening. He said what do you mean?

00:01:55
KT: There's no night. And I said yeah people have to pull shades down and make a room dark

00:02:00
KT: so they can go to sleep because the sun all the time

00:02:03
Suze: was he just shocked at that.

00:02:05
KT: Yeah. He didn't know that. And I told him I said that that's a place I'd like to visit I never have to sleep.

00:02:12
KT: Okay let's get started. So I have are you ready? I am.

00:02:18
Suze: But let's just tell people a few things today. Later today June 23

00:02:26
KT: this morning

00:02:27
Suze: I'm going to be on headline news. H. L. N.

00:02:30
Suze: At the 10 a.m. on East Coast time. So adjust that wherever you are

00:02:34
Suze: and then at two p.m. On CNBC somewhere in that two p.m. Hour

00:02:40
Suze: today I'll be on CNBC. I just thought you'd want to know. Did you know that KT?

00:02:45
KT: Yeah I knew about CNBC. I didn't know about headline news. Okay good. Those will be fun to listen to and watch you get to watch her.

00:02:54
KT: What should she... what are you going to wear?

00:02:56
Suze: I don't have any clothes here on my tv clothes are on you know in Florida.

00:03:01
KT: Yes you can't wear leather in the summer. Right?

00:03:04
Suze: So if you watch me you'll notice I usually have on the same jacket that I got for $5 at the HSN store.

00:03:13
KT: jacket

00:03:14
Suze: Jacket $5 & I love it. So I wear it all the time.

00:03:18
KT: All right. Look for that jacket.

00:03:20
KT: So Suze. This email is not a question. It's a statement and it's a statement based on a conversation. I guess you've been having with Barb for quite some time.

00:03:30
Suze: You know there are just so all of you know when you send in your emails to ask Suze podcast at gmail dot com.

00:03:38
Suze: Sometimes when I read people's emails,

00:03:41
Suze: there's something about them that strikes me.

00:03:44
Suze: It's not even always about money. It's about they've just lost a loved one there in divorce, they're in an abusive relationship. And then those are the types of emails that I sometimes respond to. And by the way, I just want to say Joanne who is Candice's mother. Yes. The other day I spoke to Candace for an hour or two and for everybody, Candace is somebody who wrote in

00:04:16
Suze: and she lost her husband Andrew about four months ago to a skiing accident.

00:04:23
Suze: She

00:04:23
Suze: has three kids. She didn't really know what to do. She's still in total shock. So, I wrote her back and I said, what's your phone number?

00:04:31
Suze: And I called her and we had a wonderful conversation and hopefully she's gonna take all of my suggestions. But she said her mother is never going to believe that I've been talking to you. I said we'll have her listen to today's podcast and I'll tell her Joanne yes, Candace and I spoke and hopefully

00:04:53
Suze: you'll believe that now. All right. Anyway, go on KT.

00:04:56
KT: And hopefully Candace will be better.

00:04:59
Suze: Well, it will take her a while.

00:05:01
KT: Big Tragedy.

00:05:02
Suze: Death is always a tragedy of a loved one.

00:05:05
KT: So Suze, This first email is really powerful and I want to share it with everyone, it starts with this.

00:05:12
KT: You know, and I know that it's time to say goodbye to him. Just that simple, you can and must do that. Then it said these were the words to me four months ago, Suze. I needed to hear them. And they've been playing in my mind ever since. But I'm empathetic and loyal to a fault.

00:05:34
KT: So breaking someone's heart is the last thing I want to do.

00:05:38
KT: I had a hard time mustering up the courage

00:05:42
KT: but I did it and I wanted you to know Suze, thank you so much for the tremendous impact you've made in my life throughout the decades. And thank you for this Suze. This validation from someone I so respect to do the right thing. I'm sleeping better at night.

00:06:01
KT: I'm waking up without that knot in my gut.

00:06:03
KT: I feel as though I stepped off the train before it wrecked wishing you and Katie all the best.

00:06:11
KT: There you go, Suze. That's from Barb and congratulations. You listened to her advice and you did it.

00:06:18
Suze: Barb wrote me. And again, that's one of these emails that is like very

00:06:22
KT: long correspondence back and forth. And and Suze finally just bit the bullet and said you've got to leave him end of story.

00:06:31
Suze: It's like all right. So

00:06:33
KT: I wanted to start the day with that and hopefully those of you that need a little courage and mustering up. There you go.

00:06:40
KT: So next one is

00:06:43
Suze: Wait, I just have to say something about that,

00:06:46
Suze: which is recently, KT,

00:06:49
Suze: I've gotten a lot of emails, emails from somebody that goes by the initials of A T - Amber

00:06:57
Suze: and and many, many women who were in relationships whether they were married and they wanted to get out domestic abuse relationships that were horrific and that and it took a while. But so many of them

00:07:16
Suze: have left. Their abuser have left or never gotten into. Thank God, a relationship that would have been not good for them and they're all standing so strong today. Coming from the most horrific situations you can imagine. And a year or two later, they're all writing thank you letters

00:07:36
Suze: because they're all doing great. So if you happen to be in that situation, if you happen to be somebody who feels like they can't change, they have to stay because they don't know what to do. But it's not good for you.

00:07:50
Suze: Just know there is hope if you're willing to take the action, you know, you should take All right, go on.

00:07:57
KT: Next email is again, a very simple answer for you, Suze. This is from Lenore. Ready. If if someone doesn't own a home and wants to do a trust yours, of course,

00:08:12
KT: by just filling out the paperwork, printing it and Notarize ng it. That's it or do they need to file the paperwork somewhere. So it can be legal.

00:08:23
Suze: No,

00:08:24
Suze: that's it. So here's what you need to know everybody. If you happen to get the MUST HAVE™ Documents, All you have to do and they must have documents are living revocable trust will an advanced directive and durable power of attorney for healthcare as well as the financial power of attorney.

00:08:43
Suze: $2500 worth of state of the art documents.

00:08:46
Suze: Now for $99, you get them by going to https://www.hayhouse.com/checkout/cart/add?product=17668&qty=1 .

00:08:53
Suze: Suze is S U Z E by the way. And again, totally legal in all the states.

00:09:01
Suze: What all you have to know is, no, you do not file a trust with a court or something like that. All you have to do is fund the trust, which means you transfer the titles of your home, your bank accounts, your stock brokerage accounts into the title of

00:09:20
Suze: the trust

00:09:22
Suze: directions are with this kit. So it's not a big deal on any level. The point of the matter is nothing needs to be filed with the court system. You do have to have the documents, however notarized as well as witnessed, but all the instructions are right there with it.

00:09:38
KT: There you go.

00:09:40
KT: Okay, that was an easy

00:09:41
Suze: why? When I say something that's right, you don't go. Ding Ding Ding Ding ding.

00:09:45
KT: Because the whole podcast would be dinging in everyone's ear ringing in everyone's ear right next one is from TJ.

00:09:54
Suze: Wait, I want to say something about ring-a-ding-ding.

00:09:57
KT: Do you have to?

00:10:01
Suze: So I was walking back here to the studio and I saw the big bell

00:10:09
KT: that

00:10:09
Suze: you've now put somewhere else. You've like put it away and tell them what the bell is for.

00:10:17
KT: So we have this big bell. I call it the dinner bell, but it's a big bell with a handle and you ring it like, you know when your

00:10:24
KT: mom would call you for

00:10:25
KT: dinner

00:10:26
KT: and I always put it by Suze's bedside because when she came out of the hospital, if she needed me, we don't have an intercom system throughout this island house. So I said just ring the bell wherever I am inside or out. I'll hear that bell. It's real loud. So I decided she's

00:10:46
KT: doing great.

00:10:47
KT: She's on the mend, she's no longer in the repair shop. So I moved the bell.

00:10:51
KT: Yeah, that was a big deal. Right?

00:10:53
Suze: And coming up, I just have to say one other thing. We're not going to answer questions today. We're just going to talk because I feel like talking to you today because I haven't talked to you in a few days because I've been so busy. You've been so busy

00:11:06
Suze: and all which is

00:11:08
Suze: We are going salmon fishing. I am going for KT's 70th birthday to British Columbia. I've been scared to death to go. I don't know how exactly I'm going to do it but I'm going to do it but want to know what I realized, KT, July 23 is the day

00:11:28
Suze: that we actually arrive at the fishing lodge in British Columbia

00:11:34
Suze: and that will be exactly two years to the date

00:11:39
Suze: that I was in that operation.

00:11:40
KT: That big surgery.

00:11:42
Suze: The big surgery. So

00:11:42
KT: we're going to celebrate.

00:11:44
Suze: Yeah, so two years ago

00:11:48
Suze: I was in a surgery now

00:11:51
Suze: on that date

00:11:53
Suze: I'm gonna be salmon fishing

00:11:54
KT: and celebrating.

00:11:56
Suze: Yeah, alright

00:11:58
KT: everything.

00:12:00
Suze: But now we decided the other night at dinner I'm in the, I'm no longer in the repair

00:12:06
Suze: shop

00:12:06
Suze: now everything's fine. So KT doesn't have to worry about leaving the house or

00:12:12
Suze: what am I doing because now

00:12:14
KT: I don't need to have her in my line of sight and believe me for two years I didn't want her out of my line of sight because I worried so much

00:12:25
KT: I worried about you know everything and now I'm not worrying anymore. I feel really great and confident and secure and positive that she is so on the man, she's going salmon fishing, she's gonna pull in a damn salmon too.

00:12:41
Suze: And by the way we're telling all of you all this stuff

00:12:44
Suze: because of all the thousands of because we

00:12:46
KT: don't want to answer emails today, we're just gonna

00:12:50
Suze: But for all of you that have been wondering or concerned and you keep asking that's the scoop everybody okay

00:12:57
KT: next one is from T. J. Love that name TJ member our pilot was T. J.

00:13:01
Suze: He was crazy... man

00:13:03
KT: Ready? My wife is a pastor and never paid into social security. I have paid into social security throughout my work life upon my death. Can my wife receive my social Security benefit? Also can both my wife and I open Alliant Credit Union accounts.

00:13:23
Suze: This is going to be your quizzie

00:13:25
Suze: Well

00:13:27
KT: first let's answer the second part. Yes you can both open Alliant Credit Union accounts.

00:13:33
Suze: Now let's talk about that for a second. Everybody. The Alliant Credit Union is the sponsor of the Women and Money podcast.

00:13:42
Suze: And approximately a year and a half ago when they started as our sponsor

00:13:47
Suze: we created something called the Ultimate opportunity savings account.

00:13:52
Suze: And this is an incredible account at Alliant Credit union where if you simply put in $100 a month every single month for 12 consecutive months at the end of those 12 months, as long as you have $1200 in there, they give you $100 what else? KT they're paying them what interest right now on the money as well. It doesn't cost you anything. So yes you can open up. This is for TJ and Alliant Credit union account. But the one that you want to open up is the ultimate opportunity savings account by going to where KT?

00:14:38
KT: my alliant dot com.

00:14:38
Suze: And what should they do when they get there?

00:14:40
KT: Look for Suze.

00:14:41
Suze: And then you'll know you're at the right place

00:14:44
KT: on the landing page. And at the end of this podcast, by the way you'll find and hear all the details and it's easy just do it.

00:14:54
Suze: But you're not out of this is your quizzie

00:14:59
KT: my wife received

00:15:01
Suze: all of you. Wait before you answer KT, how would you all of you answer that question?

00:15:06
Suze: Does his wife qualify for his Social Security? Given that she has never worked? Yes or no. KT

00:15:15
KT: Yes

00:15:16
Suze: ding Ding Ding Ding ding ding.

00:15:20
Suze: Can I ask you

00:15:21
KT: a question?

00:15:22
Suze: Wait a minute.

00:15:24
KT: Just upon death.

00:15:26
KT: Isn't she able to receive

00:15:28
Suze: T. J.

00:15:30
KT: So

00:15:31
Suze: T J. Here's the thing. Your wife never paid into Social Security but for many people stay at home spouses that take care of the kids for whatever reason they didn't pay into Social Security,

00:15:45
Suze: they still

00:15:48
Suze: get to get half of your Social Security when you claim.

00:15:53
Suze: And upon your death they will take over 100% of your social security. So when you start to claim social security, as long as your spouse is a full social security age as well, then she will get 50% of your social security.

00:16:13
Suze: So check out the rules TJ

00:16:15
Suze: because that will be extra money for you guys while you're alive. And even more money for her

00:16:21
Suze: in terms of what she was getting on her own when you die because she'll get years.

00:16:25
KT: So, Suze. Next question is from Erin

00:16:29
KT: and this is really for everyone listening because it's something that we need to all know. My widower father will be having heart surgery very soon. We are hoping for the best. But realistically I need to be prepared for the worst.

00:16:45
KT: Currently I am the designated beneficiary of his Roth Ira which was converted from a traditional less than five years ago

00:16:55
KT: because it doesn't meet the five year rule. Is it better to change the beneficiary to my school age daughter for tax reasons. I hate to think these thoughts, but I am the successor trustee and want to do what's right for everyone.

00:17:13
KT: Thanks so much for all your advice over the years. I don't know at all what happens if you say if you give it to a minor?

00:17:22
Suze: So

00:17:23
KT: actually I don't know if a minor can even

00:17:26
KT: inherit anything.

00:17:27
Suze: Erin here's what you need to get.

00:17:30
Suze: Your father dies. The Roth hasn't met the five year rule. So what

00:17:35
Suze: You have 10 years until you need to withdraw any or all of the money from that Roth IRA. Within these years it will have met the five year rule. So you don't have to worry about it and then you'll just withdraw it as you want to tax free.

00:17:54
Suze: You are not to change it

00:17:56
Suze: to somebody else just because they're younger. It's not going to help. Just wait until it has met the five year rule and then you're fine. No big deal.

00:18:07
KT: So Suze explain about the I don't know about the 10 years. What did you mean by you have to wait.

00:18:12
Suze: You don't have wait

00:18:13
Suze: to

00:18:14
Suze: you inherit money. Okay, You have

00:18:18
Suze: 10 years.

00:18:20
Suze: The government gives you 10 years to withdraw all the money that's in that retirement account. You can take it out little by little you can take it out all at once. But by

00:18:33
Suze: the 10

00:18:34
Suze: year you have got

00:18:36
Suze: to have withdrawn all of the money.

00:18:39
KT: What if you don't

00:18:40
KT: what happens

00:18:41
Suze: then there's a penalty for

00:18:42
KT: next question. Suze is from Derek Hi Suze. My name is Derek.

00:18:48
KT: I like that he said that a. c. d. I opened five years ago recently met maturity with a balance of $41,000.

00:18:58
KT: I now have the entire balance in the Suze Orman Ultimate savings account with Alliant Credit Union

00:19:05
KT: with higher interest rates. The savings interest rates also continue to climb.

00:19:11
KT: I was thinking about taking 35,000 and splitting the amount among multiple C. D. S to earn additional money

00:19:21
Suze: because Alliant does have great C. D. Rates.

00:19:23
KT: However with the way everything in the economy is going I wonder if I should just keep it exactly where it is.

00:19:30
KT: So in case of an emergency I can access the full amount.

00:19:34
KT: What do you recommend Suze?

00:19:36
Suze: Leave it where it is, Derek.

00:19:40
KT: Ingrid's writes in. Hi Suze. My credit score declined significantly because of going through an ugly hospitalization

00:19:49
KT: leaving a negative toll on my credit score which used to be 7 50. I am now at 6 98. Is it possible to raise my credit score. And if, so what can I do to improve and raise the

00:20:05
Suze: score? The best

00:20:06
KT: Ingrid is like just want to tell everyone Ingrid. Ingrid is very obsessed about her score. She wants it to be an 8:50.

00:20:13
Suze: Good luck. Yeah

00:20:14
KT: I was going to say good luck as well but but tell her

00:20:17
Suze: I checked mine yesterday by the way it was only 780.

00:20:21
KT: Really? Is that right?

00:20:24
Suze: Because we don't put anything on our credit cards. Well that's not true. We do charge a lot on credit cards. We

00:20:31
KT: don't have

00:20:31
Suze: balances and carry them. And the reason

00:20:34
Suze: That I believe that my credit score was only 780

00:20:39
Suze: versus like in the eight hundreds is because when you check a score,

00:20:45
Suze: I checked it yesterday and they're looking at what my balance is currently on my cards and right now the balance is huge KT because we paid a lot of things within and blah blah blah. And so my debt to credit limit ratio is very high. So my score went down

00:21:05
Suze: and your debt to credit limit ratio is how much do you owe on your credit card compared to what is the credit limit on your cards? And right now

00:21:15
Suze: mine is very high

00:21:17
KT: I wonder what mine is,

00:21:18
Suze: we can check it but here's what I would tell you Ingrid. The best way for you to get your credit score up there

00:21:27
Suze: is to do what don't carry high balances or don't carry balances at all on your credit cards.

00:21:35
Suze: Keep using them, paying them off every single month in full

00:21:40
Suze: and over time your score will go up. But it does take time. And the other thing Ingrid is you have to make sure that you are never ever late on a payment. All right, so keep your balances down,

00:21:57
Suze: make sure that you pay everything on time. And possibly if you want to increase your Fico score,

00:22:03
Suze: call the credit card companies and ask them to increase your credit limit.

00:22:08
Suze: That could possibly help if you do carry a credit on your credit cards. All right,

00:22:14
KT: so the next one is from Katherine.

00:22:16
KT: Hi Suze and KT. How do we estimate our budget for a new house? We will be first time homeowners and have money put aside. But do not know how to calculate the price of the house we can afford.

00:22:31
KT: Oh, this is a great question because I love your little model. Is there a simple way to do this. Thank you so much for all your help. So Katherine needs to know that little model. You always play house.

00:22:45
Suze: Right, so here's what I would tell you to do.

00:22:48
Suze: Go first and look at a house that you need. Maybe not the house that you want, but the house that you need

00:22:57
Suze: not above your means. But right there. And how much does that house cost?

00:23:03
Suze: Then? Go and look at what will your mortgage payments be with 20% down on that house.

00:23:12
Suze: Now let's just say you did that and your mortgage payment would be $2,000 a month. Let's just say that's true. Okay.

00:23:22
Suze: And that happens to be the exact same amount that you're paying for rent, which is $2,000 a month.

00:23:29
Suze: So in your head you normally think, oh

00:23:32
Suze: I'm paying rent for 2000. Therefore I can afford a house or a mortgage payment. That's $2,000. That's normally how people do it.

00:23:44
Suze: But you can't do it that way because it costs a lot more to buy a house than to rent an apartment.

00:23:53
Suze: So here's what I want you to do.

00:23:55
Suze: I want you to add 40% to whatever your mortgage payment is going to be in your situation. So if it was $2,000

00:24:05
Suze: Then you are to add $800 to that.

00:24:09
Suze: That $800 is enough for maintenance, property tax insurance, and little things that happen that need to be possibly replaced. OK

00:24:20
Suze: Then what I want you to do is I want you to play house because again that $2,800 is most likely what it's going to cost you if your mortgage payment alone is $2,000, okay.

00:24:34
Suze: I want you to pay your rent on time every single month like you're doing right now,

00:24:40
Suze: Then I want you to take $800 and deposited into a savings account. Hopefully it's the Alliant credit union savings account.

00:24:51
Suze: But I want you to do that

00:24:54
Suze: And I want you to do that every single month for at least six months. That will show you can you easily afford in this example $2,800 a month for a home.

00:25:08
Suze: If you're always on time with that $800, if you're finding that it's easy to deposit that extra $800

00:25:17
Suze: Then you know, you can afford $2,800 mortgage and you know how much you can afford in this example.

00:25:25
Suze: the good news is six months later you're gonna have a nice little sum of money, you're gonna have $4800 extra that you can do what with put towards closing, put towards moving. It's a great way to start saving money and pretending to buy a house before you do.

00:25:46
Suze: So that's how you know. Also don't worry six months from now. I think houses will be a little cheaper than they are now, believe it or not. So I don't think you'll be missing out on anything.

00:25:57
KT: Do you think it will go down a bit?

00:25:59
Suze: They're starting to stall right now. I'll talk about that on Sunday KT, but houses are absolutely staying on the market when you used to be able to sell a house the day it went on the market with 20 bids over price. Now you have in places like Austin which was the hottest housing market out there.

00:26:18
Suze: Houses are now selling

00:26:20
Suze: for under asking price after a month of sitting on the market. So yeah things are slowing down

00:26:26
KT: The next question. Suze is from James. Dear Suze and KT, my wife and I have a running debate discussion. Not a fight regarding bonds ready. She feels that bonds are an important part of a diversified portfolio. While I'm in agreement about diversification, I just don't like bonds while the income is good. There is no growth, it is alone. I would like to move our bonds into stocks and or an index fund like noble we are 61 and 63.

00:27:01
KT: What do you think Suze? How wrong am I? Jim.

00:27:05
KT: I loved his ending. How wrong am I

00:27:08
Suze: guess what KT

00:27:09
KT: He's right.

00:27:10
Suze: This is going to be your quizzie

00:27:14
Suze: your final.

00:27:15
KT: Yes

00:27:16
Suze: because we're running out of time.

00:27:18
KT: All right so today. Alright.

00:27:21
KT: Oh boy.

00:27:22
Suze: So let me take over, just

00:27:24
KT: says bonds,

00:27:26
Suze: let me take over now.

00:27:28
Suze: So everybody the final quizzie Of the Ask K. T. And Suze anything podcast for all of you to try to answer.

00:27:37
Suze: Is

00:27:39
Suze: it a good idea to have bonds? You all know how I feel about interest rates and when interest rates go up the value of bonds go down.

00:27:49
Suze: Is it a good idea to have bonds

00:27:53
Suze: Be part of a portfolio. Especially for somebody who is 61 and 63 or should they rather than being in bonds at all.

00:28:04
Suze: Take advantage of how low the stock market is and will probably go a lot lower and invest in dividend paying stocks and things like that. Which should they do? Miss Travis. It's you, what would you do?

00:28:19
KT: Well, the bonds

00:28:23
KT: are a little more secure than the stock market.

00:28:26
KT: So I don't know, maybe go with the bonds.

00:28:31
Suze: Ding ding ding Ding, Ding ding ding. Here's the answer. Everybody. It is true.

00:28:37
Suze: I don't like bond funds. I never have, I never will.

00:28:42
Suze: But I have to suggest them at times. I have to tell people in books and things like that to buy them because a lot of times people don't have enough money to buy an individual bond or whatever it may be. But I don't like bond funds period,

00:29:00
Suze: especially during a time when interest rates are going up. When interest rates go up, the price of bonds go down, when interest rates go down, the price of bonds go up

00:29:14
Suze: Recently, bond funds as well as bonds, individual bonds have been obliterated, they're down 10 or 15%.

00:29:23
Suze: The reason that I don't like bond funds is that bond funds do not have a maturity

00:29:28
KT: date

00:29:29
Suze: and in a podcast past, I explain all about why I don't like bond funds. However, I don't mind individual bonds on any level. KT, the majority of our money

00:29:46
Suze: is invested in individual municipal bonds.

00:29:51
KT: She always buys MUNIS ,

00:29:53
Suze: right? But I stopped by MUNIS a while ago

00:29:57
Suze: Because interest rates were so low, there really weren't good ones out there. But years and years ago, KT starting actually in 2007,

00:30:07
Suze: Right in there, we came out of the market

00:30:11
Suze: And totally before everything crashed and we took the money and invested all of it 90% in municipal bonds. Right? And everybody criticized me. So and we're still heavily invested in municipal bonds. But as I explained to everybody a little bit ago, were interested in preservation of our money.

00:30:33
KT: And at 61 and 63,

00:30:36
Suze: The 61 and 63, you need some part of your portfolio

00:30:42
Suze: that is giving you a good interest rate which you can get right now in Treasury notes.

00:30:49
Suze: And possibly as interest rates go up here, maybe you buy a 30 year treasury bond because then when interest rates go down,

00:30:58
Suze: not only have you locked in a good interest rate, but the value of that bond will go up

00:31:02
Suze: sell.

00:31:03
Suze: I do not think you should totally come out of individual bonds if that's what you're in

00:31:09
Suze: to go into the stock market. If you think right here that the market

00:31:15
Suze: is at its bottom and it is not going to go down anymore. I have a bridge to sell you. It is very possible that the markets will go up yesterday today tomorrow, it'll go up maybe for a week or two. And then I think it's going to turn around and go right back down and I think you'll see the lows

00:31:35
Suze: in

00:31:35
Suze: September of this year.

00:31:38
Suze: So dollar cost averaging again. I'll talk about this on sunday. But James what I would tell you is

00:31:46
Suze: you cannot like bond funds

00:31:49
Suze: but you should like bonds. There is nothing wrong with individual bonds for money that you want to preserve. As I told everybody a little bit ago, I've been buying two year treasury notes,

00:32:02
Suze: treasury bills. I've been putting money that I want relatively liquid so that when the market does go down to the level that I think it will go down then I have money that I'll put back into the market.

00:32:15
Suze: But no I agree with your wife here just so you know.

00:32:21
KT: There

00:32:21
KT: you go. Jim.

00:32:23
Suze: Oh now he's Jim you're on.

00:32:25
KT: He signs it Jim.

00:32:26
Suze: Oh I see. Okay. So KT, you know what else we have going on June 30 and that's coming up.

00:32:36
Suze: I'm giving a webinar with.

00:32:38
KT: Oh yeah, don't miss this.

00:32:40
Suze: Right. Alliant Credit Union, the

00:32:43
KT: ceo Dennis

00:32:44
Suze: Dennis and I will be answering questions and to register for the webinar it is free. You would just go to my (M. Y.) Alliant dot com. So my alliant dot com

00:32:58
Suze: the same place you would go when you're opening up the ultimate opportunity, savings account. But now all you have to do is put a slash webinar on that. So my alliant dot com slash webinar and you can register it will be at one p.m. Central time, two p.m.

00:33:17
Suze: East coast time adjusted to whatever time zones you're in and see what happens. It will be one hour and again that is on June 30. What are you looking?

00:33:29
KT: No, I'm just happy because I love when you and Dennis talk to each other, it's a very inspiring

00:33:36
KT: educational and motivational talk.

00:33:39
KT: So listen to this everyone

00:33:41
Suze: and I think

00:33:42
KT: they they're sending in their questions.

00:33:44
Suze: Yeah, you can send in questions and things like that. And so register now and let's see what happens. All right.

00:33:52
Suze: Until sunday. What do you want to tell everybody? KT...

00:33:56
KT: have a great summer day.

00:33:59
Suze: You in this damn summer thing? I love it.

00:34:03
KT: (Singing) Summer Time and the living is easy, fish are jumping.

00:34:10
Suze: Here we go, everybody until next Sunday, right? We only want you to be what

00:34:16
KT: safe. Strong and summer, secure.

00:34:20
Suze: Summer secure. See you then everybody. Bye bye.

00:34:25
MUSIC: MUSIC OUT

Suze Orman Blog and Podcast Episodes

Suze's Financial Strength Test

Answer Yes or No to the follow statements.

I pay all my credit card bills in full each month.

I have an eight-month emergency savings fund separate from my checking or other bank accounts.

The car I am driving was paid for with cash, or a loan that was no more than three years, and I sure didn’t lease!

I am contributing at least 10% of my gross salary to a retirement plan at work, or I am saving at least that much in an IRA and/or regular taxable account.

I have a long-term asset allocation plan for my retirement investments, and once a year I check to see if I need to do any rebalancing to stay on target with my allocation goals.

I have term life insurance to provide protection to those who are dependent on my income.

I have a will, a trust, an advance directive (living will), and have appointed someone to be my health care proxy.

I have checked all the beneficiaries of every investment account and insurance policy within the past year.

So how did you do?

If you answered yes to every item, congratulations. If you are working on improving on a few items, I say congratulations as well.

As long as you are comitted to truly creating financial security, I applaud you. If that means you are paying down your credit card balances, or are building up your emergency fun with automated payments, that’s more than fine. You are on your way!

But if you found yourself saying No to any of those questions, and you’re not working on moving to Yes, then I want you to stand in your truth. No matter how good you feel, you have some work to do before you can honestly know what you are on solid financial ground.

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