Podcast Episode – Advice For Buying Your First Home, Late in Life

In this episode of Ask KT and Suze Anything, Suze answers your questions about inheritance, debt collections, buying a home when one is in their 50s and so much more!

Listen to Podcast Episode:

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Podcast Transcript:

KT: OK, everybody, good morning. It is February 5th, 2026. Suze, not ’28, ’26, and we wanna welcome you all to the Women and Money podcast, and Everyone Smart enough to listen, and I’m gonna start this show with something a little different for Suze.

Suze: But tell everybody what this show, this podcast is. It’s a podcast, not a show, just so you know.

KT: I’m starting this show… A little bit different today. It’s a show. It’s the KT show and, and my first, the first, so this is about money, obviously…

Suze: But… let’s stop for one second please, KT. This is the Ask KT and Suze Anything podcast for those of you who are new to our podcast, and this is where if you write in…

KT: Where have you been?

Suze: Where have you been? And if you write in to ask Suze, S U Z E podcast at gmail.com. And you happen to write in a question that KT chooses, it’s then answered on this podcast, right?

But KT I have to say one other thing. As you know, a lot of scams using my name and everything have been going around. And so I wrote you on the Women and Money Community app. I’m not gonna be answering any of your questions because you don’t really know right now. Is it me? Is it not me?

However, when I do answer a question where I say to you, please write in to ask Suze podcast at gmail.com, it’s obviously me. Right, so you would only respond to ask Suze podcast at gmail.com because I do want information from you. So that’s how I will get it from you and you know it is me, just so you know. All right, KT.

KT: So I decided.

Suze, I wanna open today’s podcast with reading and sharing some emails I’ve received that are uplifting and also give us all a little faith at a time that I think we need it. America needs it.

So this, this first letter, it said, Dear Suze, I was listening to your podcast this morning, my weekend house cleaning routine. And when you started reading my email at the top of the show, I couldn’t believe my ears. Your email had been caught in my spam filter, so the podcast was a complete surprise. I am still floored.

And then she writes, Suze, your advice has really helped me in so many ways, not just my finances. When I started watching your show 20 years ago, I was a single mom and had just moved to DC after accepting a government job in the international trade, making about $65,000 a year. I didn’t know anything about investing. And my net worth was close to 0.

Your show made me nervous every week. That makes me laugh because everyone, many people say that. Because I had so little saved but also excited to try to change my situation and empowered to give it a try.

I picked up your book The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom at the airport on my first work trip, and it transformed my life. Suze, that is not an exaggeration. Transforming my relationship with finances gave me a new outlook on life, including how I was approaching my career.

Suze, last month I was sworn in as an ambassador.

Suze: Oh, makes KT cry.

KT: Makes me so happy. And she said, I mean, this is unbelievable how these people’s lives change. I said, I am so grateful for the opportunity to say thank you, Suze, directly.

Suze: Yeah. And that’s from a woman by the name of Julie who we’re so proud of for her individual accomplishment. She went on KT, to get a PhD and everything, and I have been writing with her.

Tell me why you really chose that particular email to read.

KT: I just felt that she accomplished so much. From nothing she was a ground zero Suze listener and 20 years later as a single mom in a new career, a government position, unbelievable how she, you know, just excelled and believed in herself. She believed she could do it with her money and with her career and everything else.

Suze: The point of that when you believe in who you are. You have to believe in your money as well, everybody, meaning that if you can’t deal with your money, you can’t deal with your own potential.

If you can’t deal with what can happen with your money and how you can be in control of your money, you can’t feel like you are in control of your life. Why? Because you and your money are one, and Julie is a perfect example of that.

So for those of you listening right now. If you feel you can’t, I’m telling you you can. If you feel afraid, I’m telling you to face your fear. If you feel that you just wanna be more, but you don’t know how to have more, turn towards your money. Learn about your money, and you will learn about who you are. KT next.

KT: OK, so let’s continue with some of these questions and sharing. Dear Suze, I’ve been listening to you off and on for over five decades. Is that true? 50 years, but never felt the need to call or write in until this year.

When I was single, I worked in foster care and was fortunate to adopt a baby who had been left in the hospital. My daughter is now a young teen with special needs and will likely never be able to fully support herself.

I later married somewhat late in life to a man with adult children. He retired early from military service, and I continue to work. There is a large asset gap. I have about 4 million, and he has around 600,000. Wow. Over half of my assets came from my late parents who wanted me to protect this inheritance for my daughter. You bet.

We’re creating a joint revocable trust and agreed that my daughter will inherit our primary home which I owned before marriage. While remaining assets will be divided equally among all children after both of our deaths. I’m worried this may short change my daughter. Attorneys are costly where we live, but I feel I should seek one who represents only me before signing.

Suze: You absolutely should. All right. And here’s the thing. So Marie, I want you to listen to me. You’ve been listening to me for five decades, and you are not gonna stop listening to me now. Do you hear me?

You have $4 million in assets, half of which came from your late parents who wanted that money to protect your daughter after you died. You cannot dishonor them by not doing that. That’s why they left it to you and to her, so at least 2 million of that 4 million besides the house needs to go to your daughter, not to his children at all. If you’re leaving the house to your daughter.

There are expenses to inheriting a house. There are property taxes. There are insurance. There’s maintenance, all kinds of things. Therefore, she is going to need money. Also, you say that she has special needs. She may need a caretaker who knows whatever. I personally have to tell you, I would leave it all to her. He could leave all his $600,000 to his children, but I would absolutely see a lawyer that absolutely represents your interests.

I would not put a penny of my money in joint name on any level. I would keep it all in separate name, and I would ask you to think about this. Now, how many times have I said you never ask a question that you don’t know the answer to, especially when it’s a question like this? In your gut you know what you wanna do and therefore you have to do it, OK? That’s what I would tell you. Do you agree with that, KT?

KT: Totally agree. Yeah, yeah. And if he loves her and they have a really great marriage, I think that he would agree to that.

Suze: He would care more about her daughter than dividing it equally.

KT: I think so.

Suze: Are you kidding me? No way. All right.

KT: This one I chose because buying your first home in your 50s, wow, a lot of people are here. Hi Suze, I’m reading your Women and Money book and in the book you say your mortgage should be paid off by the time you retire. Well, wait a minute, ready?

Suze, have your thoughts on this changed considering people are not able to buy homes at a younger age as they once were due to the high cost to purchase a home and high interest rates? Fair enough, Suze.

I’m curious what your advice is to the person wanting to own their first home in their 50s. It feels like owning a home are dreams deferred in these recent times. Sad, what’s your thought on that?

Suze: Let’s be clear first, KT, about what I think about owning your home by the time you retire. All of you, if you know that you have a home that you are going to keep forever, you know this, you feel it, it’s how you want it, all right, then your number one goal should absolutely be, in my opinion, owning that home outright by the time you retire.

These things about 50-year mortgages and everything, are you crazy? Your absolute biggest expense is the mortgage on your home. It’s one thing to have a lot of money in a retirement account, but when that money in the retirement account is generating enough money simply to pay the mortgage, now we’re in trouble.

So therefore, get rid of your expenses in retirement, and that’s how you make your money, make more money. If, however, you know you’re gonna have a home, you’re gonna sell it by the time you’re 65 or 70. That’s a whole different thing than just keep paying your mortgage and sell it.

However, if you’re gonna buy a home in your 50s, I would want you if you knew that you wanted to keep that home for the long run, I would ask you to see if you could afford buying it with a 15 year mortgage versus a 30 year mortgage, which means you’re gonna be paying that mortgage all the way until you’re 80 or 85.

I don’t want that for you, because as you get older, you have long term care expenses, medical expenses, trust me, KT and I know it gets more and more expensive as you get older, believe it or not. So if you’re gonna buy a home in the 50s, then I’m asking you to look at a 15 year mortgage, which is, by the way, usually a half a percent less in interest than a 30 year mortgage.

Listen, if you can’t afford to buy a home. That’s not the end of this world. I get that you feel that you’re throwing out money by renting and that you really want to own a home which is part of the American dream. My American dream for all of you is that you are financially independent, and there are incredible expenses to owning a home whether you know it or not.

The expenses of maintenance. Insurance going up, property taxes going up, having to replace a refrigerator, a water heater, all kinds of things that make owning a home quite expensive. Plus, we now have to take into consideration the climate.

Things are happening throughout the United States. I don’t care how you feel about climate warming or climate colding or whatever is happening, we now have more tornadoes, more hurricanes, more earthquakes. San Francisco just had one than ever before, so.

Are you going to be able to be insured against natural disasters? Look at what happened in California. Many of those homes are not insured, OK? So, please think about this. If you can’t afford a 15-year mortgage, and you are in your 50s, and your goal is to keep a home forever, I would probably say to you, all right, maybe you should continue renting.

If, however, you just want to buy a home for the next 10 years, and then you know you’re gonna sell or whatever, OK, you can do that if you want. But I have not changed my opinion on home ownership. I don’t think at this point in time, it’s absolutely as much as it cracks up to be.

Next question, KT.

KT: Dear Suze, my son, who has been incarcerated since 2018, received a debt collector letter a couple of weeks ago at my home address. Now, this woman, this mom is 70 years old, and she says the letter stated, Suze, that the current creditor debt that was owed on December 12, 2012.

With interest and fees is now $9,576 and the debt collector is now asking for a response in this letter to her or to him at her home by February 11, 2026.

So what she’s asking is, Suze, after so many years, can a debt be charged off or dismissed, especially if he’s incarcerated? What do you do?

Suze: I want all of you to listen and listen to me very closely. When you have a debt that now has been charged off, right? You, anybody, doesn’t matter who, meaning you haven’t paid for it for a number of years, and the original creditor has just written it off as a bad debt. It still stays on your credit report, however.

What happens is there are companies, collection agencies that go and buy these debts for pennies on the dollar. And then what they do is they send you a letter like this threatening they’re either gonna sue you or that it has to be paid, this is how much now you owe in the hopes of that you are going to respond and say, OK, I’ll send in $10 a month or whatever.

The time clock for a debt like this, KT usually is about four or five years after charge off. So if they haven’t paid it in that period of time, then nobody can sue you anymore. It’s passed the statute of limitations, and every state has their own statute, the number of years, but usually it’s four or five years after that time.

That debt cannot be collected anymore unless obviously it’s a student loan or something like that, but when it’s a credit card and things like that, it’s gone. It’s a loss to that company. These collection agencies come in, they write this mom a letter in the hopes that mom’s gonna say, yes, I’ll send in money. I’ll respond. I’ll do whatever. They’re pressuring her.

Now, if she does. It starts the time clock all over again, so you are not to respond to this email. You are to not say anything… or to this letter, nothing at all, period. Just rip it up. I doubt highly that you’ll continue to hear from them, but whatever you do, do not respond, do not say you’re gonna send in money, do not get afraid.

The statute of limitations is absolutely up. Now, obviously, if I’m missing something here and they send you something where you have to go to court, it’s from a legal thing, that’s different. You can’t ignore that, but I would bet my bottom dollar you’re not gonna get that. OK, KT.

KT: All right. Next question is from Antonia.

I like that name Antonia.

Suze: KT, you like all names.

KT: My name is…

Suze: Wait, before you even go on, everybody likes your haircut.

KT: They do.

Suze: They do tell everybody how much you paid for it.

KT: Um, I think, I think with the tip and everything, probably it was under $100 like around 87, 85, something like that.

Suze: All right, so that’s number one…

KT: But you know what, Suze, it wasn’t fair. I just learned something. We’re not gonna mention my hairstylist, but Mark, our trainer, went to the same hairdresser I went to. I recommended him. Mark’s a man. His haircut and his hair’s longer than mine was $55.

And I told, wait, wait, so I said, Mark, I can’t believe he only charged you 55. I paid just under 100, and he said, well, you’re a woman. I said, so what? Look at my head and look at yours. My hair is shorter than yours, Mark.

And he said, I know, but they always charge women more. Isn’t that crazy?

Suze: You know, you need to tell.

KT: I will. I’m gonna tell my, my guy. But in the old days they say that originally…

Suze: No, I know, but…

KT: … men would need to go in for a trim once a week.

Suze: Yeah, but I don’t care about the old days. I care about today anyway, but they like your haircut. They loved our little video that we did.

KT: You think we should do more?

Suze: I don’t know.

KT: Maybe we’ll do one for Super Bowl.

Suze: We’ll see what happens there. But it was almost split. People liked my glasses, and they didn’t like my glasses. They liked your haircut, but they were divided about my glasses.

But I wanna tell you all something. I’m divided again about them as well. Sometimes I like how they look, and sometimes I don’t like how I look in them. So I agree with all of you. KT, next question.

KT: OK. This is from Antonia.

I am 74 years old and a widow. I also own a business, and she has a software company. I own property and land with no mortgage and no credit card debt. I have a revocable trust that was done in December 2025, so she just did it.

My son is a good person, but not very responsible..

Suze: When I hear that, I go, uh oh.

KT: Wait, this is the funny part. Listen to this, but not very responsible with money. Then, then in brackets she wrote:

This is very funny, she said he does drink, no smoking, clean.

Suze: So it means he drinks, but he doesn’t do drugs or smoke cigarettes…

KT: Yeah, so he does drink. Isn’t that funny though that she put that in?

I am being advised to name my trust as the beneficiary of my IRA and 401k and of all my other savings. I’m getting so much conflicting information. My goal is to protect my unmarried son who drinks but he’s clean otherwise.

I want my estate to pay for the taxes, insurance, and repairs on the properties and not to deplete everything in 10 years as I was told. Suze, I would appreciate your advice. So she needs your advice.

Suze: Obviously, so it’s.. Antonia. I want you to listen to me within your trust, you have to appoint a successor trustee who is going to be in charge of all of this money on the behalf of your son.

And you have to kind of lay out guidelines for them unless you wanna give them full discretion. I think the advice is correct that you should have a trust as the beneficiary to things, maybe not the most efficient way to do it. Make sure it’s a see-through trust for your IRAs and your 401ks and everything.

But what also concerns me is does your son have the ability to manage all of your properties? It’s one thing to pay for all the taxes and the insurance and everything, but there’s also management of properties.

So you may also decide that you need a property manager for your properties for your business, whatever it may be, but it should not be your son until your son demonstrates to you that he is responsible and that he doesn’t drink too much, all right, but that’s what you should do all right, everybody, yes,

KT: Suze, here’s my next email. This is from Anisha.

Hello, Suze. I hope your new year began on a loving and positive note. I have been learning much from you and want to share what I’ve learned with my family.

My mother and stepfather are in their 70s. They are retired and collecting Social Security. They both do not have retirement plans and only have Social Security benefits.

My stepfather worked as a deli manager in a supermarket for years, and my mother worked sporadically off the books, so no retirement account and no real savings. They have life insurance policies, but no investments, no money market accounts, no retirement, and no real savings.

My mom and I were discussing wills, and my stepfather said no need. I was secretly thinking of purchasing for them the must-have documents.

My stepfather insists they do not have anything to leave behind, so no need for documents like wills or trusts. Is this accurate?

Suze: KT, why are men so stubborn? Right? Usually, everybody, and the reason I say that is that so many women write in saying, my husband doesn’t think I need a will or a trust. My father doesn’t think they need one, and on and on.

Anisha, here’s the truth. Your stepfather is not all that wrong because if in fact you rent, you don’t own anything, any assets and all, what could happen is whatever money they do have is probably in a joint account in both their names. You can make it a pay on death account or transfer on death account which upon their death, both of them, it goes immediately to you or to whoever the money’s supposed to go to.

The only problem that we have, which is why they might want a revocable trust and why you might want to, believe it or not, purchase the must-have documents for $99 which is $2,500 worth of state of the art documents. By the way, everybody go to must-havedocs.com, check it out. Fabulous.

Is this… Mom and dad are in a car crash together. Let’s just say that’s true. And now they are both incapacitated. Who is going to pay their bills for them? Who’s going to be able to access their money for them?

They cannot do it if they’re incapacitated, and that’s where either your name goes on their accounts so that you can do so, or they have a revocable trust where they own everything in trust where you are the successor trustee.

Just that simple. So in case of an incapacity, you’re able to make decisions for them, even while they’re both alive. Let’s just say they get older. And now they’re kind of losing it a little bit and neither of them are making wise decisions then you wanna be able to step in and be able to do things for them and the easiest way to do that is with a revocable living trust that has an incapacity clause in it.

I just wanna say one other thing. Walk through their home. And I don’t know if you have siblings or not, cause if you do, this is where a will comes in handy. Who’s gonna get that picture that all of you want? Who’s gonna get the little things around the house that mean nothing to anybody, but 1 may mean more to you than your sister.

KT: Your auntie did that. Tell them that story. It was so great.

Suze: Yeah, my aunt…

KT: Aunt Thelma did that with her three children.

Suze: Yeah. They all went through her apartment and they had to put a sticker on a little chart she made, yeah, of what they wanted. And if more than one put a sticker on something, then she got to decide who got it, but it was all decided beforehand and then designated and put into writing within her trust in her will.

So I ask you to think about that, Anisha. Now if you’re an only child, obviously it’s all gonna go to you. So maybe that makes it a little bit easier, but there’s nothing wrong with making it official because.

And I don’t like to talk about this, but it’s possible. What happens if you die? Where does it go? Have they thought about that? Because it’s not always that they die before you. Things go wrong in life, because, you know, it’s wrong when a child dies before their parents, in my opinion, but it happens. So therefore it’s obviously right in God’s eyes, so…

Think about that. It’s not just I have nothing and therefore it doesn’t matter. And when you think you have nothing, you never have something. So your stepfather needs to start stepping in the reality of life. All right, KT, one more, and that should be it.

KT: So this is my final. It’s from M&M.

Suze: I love M&M’s. Do you remember that? Tell them the story,

KT: Plain or peanuts?

Suze: I like plain it, and between M&M’s and Raisinets is what caused me to gain a whole lot of weight.

KT: When I met Suze, there was a great deal of touring in her career, especially book tours, speaking tours, lots and lots of we were on a plane a couple of times a week. We were never in one city more than a few days, and when you’re a speaker and a celebrity, they have what’s called a rider, and the rider is simply what’s sent to the person booking you, telling you what kind of, you know, food you like to have as your snack or what you need in terms of air conditioning, water, blah, blah, blah. So that’s called a rider.

So, I said, Suze, what should we put on your rider? And she looked at me one day, she said, M&M’s and Raisinettes.

Suze: Either one, first it was M&M’s, and then I moved on to Raisinettes.

KT: Most people have this very long detailed list, but that was Suze’s. So wherever we went, the host would present her with a gigantic presentation of M&M’s like cases and raisinets.

Suze: I gained a lot of weight on those tours. All right, go on, KT.

KT: So I said we better change that quick. All right, so this is from M&M.

Suze: Hi and I love Eminem. Remember when I was on tour with Eminem? I love that. It was the Get Your Money Right tour. He loved you too. I’m not sure he even knew me, to tell you the truth, but go on. He knew who you are.

KT: He was afraid of you. Hi, Suze and KT. Thank you so much for the very incredible insights every week. I am so grateful for the advice and thoughts shared in the podcast, emails, and the app. Here is my question.

I recently got laid off from a big corporation and I was offered a severance package. Is this negotiable with a lawyer? I am enrolled in a legal plan offered by my wife’s company. Please advise if I should negotiate with the lawyer to get a better severance.

Suze: Absolutely. Quick answer to a quick question. Everything is up for negotiation just so you know.

KT: All right, on that note, there’s only one thing…

Suze: We’re ending that quick?

KT: Wait, there’s only one thing we want you to remember before Super Bowl Sunday with Suze and KT.

Suze: We’re on different sides of who we want to win.

KT: Don’t tell them which one. Let them guess who you’re for and who I’m for. Don’t, don’t.

Suze: KT said to me earlier… She said, Are you sure you don’t want my team to win? And I said, No, I want a different team to win. And then I gave her the reason why. Who do you think we’re for, everybody?

KT: Send it in. So we’ll see you on Super Bowl Sunday. But before then, we only want you to stay safe. And remember, people first, then money, then things.

Suze: All right, everybody, bye bye.