Podcast Episode - Ask Suze Anything: Giving It Your Best Effort

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In this episode of Ask Suze Anything, we hear a heartwarming story about the man who helped Suze get started on her path and a great anecdote about Suze’s father.

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April 25, 2019. Today is Thursday. You know what Thursday means. It's Ask Suze Anything. And while you're asking me questions, you know, I've been asking you to do me a favor, which is to go to Apple podcast, scroll all the way down on my podcast, and give this podcast, Women & Money, a star rating. Can you do that for me? Because again, the more stars it has, the more notice that it gets, and the bigger it grows, and the better it is. Now before I start answering questions, I did get an email into the asksuzepodcast@gmail.com, and I love this email. Now, you all should know my story by now. I was a waitress at the Buttercup Bakery in Berkeley, California from 1973 till 1980, making $400 a month. And in 1980 is when I had this hit of, I can be more than just a waitress. Maybe I can open up my own restaurant. And nobody had any money to give me to be able to open up my own restaurant, and there was a man by the name of Fred Hasbrooke. And all of us should be very thankful to Fred Hasbrooke because Fred Hasbrooke is why I sit here in front of all of you today. And it was Fred that came in and asked me what was wrong. I didn't look happy that day and I told him the story that I'm always going to be a waitress. Not that there's anything wrong with that by any means, but I had this dream, but nobody had any money and da, da, da da da. And he went back and talked to all these other people I had been waiting on for all those years, and before he left he came back with checks and everything totaling $50,000. Now Fred himself gave me $2,000 dollars. Which for Fred, was a lot of money. He didn't have a lot of money back then. Nobody did. So I get this email and let me read it to you. It says hi Suze, one summer when I was in college I had the opportunity to work for Fred Hasbrooke as his personal driver. It was great hearing all his stories and driving him to his favorite places and restaurants. This was his way of getting out of the house to see the world, even though he was physically challenged due to a stroke. On multiple occasions, he shared the story about the buttercup where he and some of his buddies invested in you. He sure knew what he was doing. Obviously, he was more than just right about doing that. He did not even care that at the time he never saw the money returned, he was so proud of you and knowing that you were successful. That was what was important to him. Years later, I saw you on TV sharing the story about him and how you were able to pay his family back, good on you. You are a blessing and I look forward to learning from you. Thank you for continuing to be and do all that you are doing. I love that because I often sit here, and I wonder, does Fred's family hear the stories that I tell about him? Will he ever know up in that sky, how incredibly grateful I am to him? It's an amazing thing when we help strangers. It's an amazing thing when we dig deep into our souls, and we see the potential of somebody else, and we want to make that dream come true for somebody else. You know, I'll never forget my father. And my father died all the way back in 1981, and he never really saw me become the success that I've become. And if I was to tell you if there was any one regret that I have in life, the regret really would be that he didn't see it. He died feeling like he was a failed man because he was going to take care of me, and his wife, and everything and it was, it was so very, very sad. But the main story about my father that I loved was this. I came in and he was watching real a fortune and he was crying and I said dad, why are you crying? What's wrong? And he was crying because he was so happy that the people were winning money, who he could tell had no money, and he was just so happy for them. I learned a lot from my dad at that point in time. It was really something. So I just wanted to start this Ask Suze with those stories. I loved my dad's story obviously, but I really loved and thank you Annie for writing in. Alright, let's go and see who called in and asked questions today. Hi Suze, my name is Callie and I know that you have talked about this years ago, but I can't remember what you said. Um, my boyfriend and I have been together for years, planning on being together for a long time. Money is really tight right now. I'm a massage therapist, and he is in school and his family is actually helping him financially. I was wondering about the possibility of us having kids. I'm 34 and he's 32, and I have a feeling that you would say that's a terrible idea, but I just wanted to know because a lot of people say you can just figure it out, you just make it work and if you just wait until the right time then you're never gonna have them. So I just wanted to know what you actually thought. Thank you. So Callie, I want you to listen to me. First of all you just said to me, you and your boyfriend. You do not say to me you and your husband. Why is it that you aren't married? Or that you aren't marrying even though you know that you are going to be together for a long time? That is number one. Number two, you just also said to me that money is really, really tight. And that's just between the two of you. His parents have to help him, and yet you want to bring a kid into this situation which will make money be even tighter? Now I get a lot of criticism when I say you should wait. Because it's true. A lot of people say, you gotta do it now, if you don't do it now when will you ever do it? And you'll regret it! But you have to face reality. And it is a reality and a possibility that you give birth, but you don't give birth to a healthy child. Something is medically wrong with that child, and now you have additional expenses, and now you have all kinds of things that are going on, but yet you Callie don't even have your own financial foundation. And here you are. And now you have a child, and you don't have any money and you are struggling and you are tense. Maybe you yourself Callie get ill, you injure yourself and you can't be a massage therapist anymore, you can't do that work. And if you think that your child doesn't pick up that something is wrong, well I have a bridge to sell your girlfriend. I would not be bringing in a child to a situation where number one money is so currently tight that my boyfriend's parents have to help me, because what if all of a sudden they can't help him anymore? I would want to know that I was financially responsible not only to myself, but if I had a child, I would be able to be financially responsible to that child as well. So you betcha, I would tell you to absolutely wait. Sorry for all of those of you who disagree with me. Hi Suze, this is Pam, I have about 60,000 to put in a Roth IRA, but I have no um income besides my social security. My question is can I do this, can I just take my own savings and my own money that I have and opening a Roth IRA, thank you so much. I love you, and I love everything you say. Pam, listen to me. When it comes to a Roth IRA, or traditional IRA, in order to fund any of those kinds of accounts, a SEP IREA, a simple IRA, you have got to have earned income. You cannot just take money that you have in a savings account and fund a retirement account with it if you aren't working that year. So earned income is money that you earn from a job. It is not from Social Security, it is not from dividends on stocks, or interest on your savings account, it is money that you have earned in that year. It is not from alimony that you are not required to pay taxes on. Let me just say something right here before I go on. If you do get alimony and you pay taxes on it, then guess what that? That is earned income. Because when you think about it, you truly did earn it. The only exception to that, is when you are married, and you are a non-working spouse, but your spouse is working and making money, so they have earned income, then you can contribute as a non-working spouse. But that is not your situation. So all of you, I want you to understand this because I am getting this question over, and over, and over again in various ways. Suze, I have money in the savings account, I have this, can I just put all of it in to a Roth IRA? First of all, there are limits as to how much you can put into a Roth IRA. In 2019, it is $6,000 if you are under 50, 7,000 if you are 50 or older. And, you have to meet income qualifications. But let's just forget the income qualifications for now. The key here is, you need earned income. So Pam, you don't have earned income. So you cannot put any money in to a Roth IRA, a traditional IRA, any type of retirement account. I hope you all understand that now. Hi Suze Orman, my name is Robert and I have a question please about sweeps, holly sweepstake promotion. I have a brother that is looking to invest $30,000, which is a 1% fee for insurance that he will get back $8 million. And I went on to your Facebook page, and noticed that other people have noticed this, this promotion, and I'm assuming scam. Robert and everybody else listening, it is a scam, scam, scam, scam. Do not. And I repeat, if you see something on my Facebook page, if anything, you might want to check it out on suzeorman.com. S-U-Z-E-O-R-M-A-N dot com. If you also don't see it on my own website, it is a scam. We have been trying to shut it down. It is almost impossible because they keep popping up. They keep using my face. So if you see my face, if you see anything and it is not also on my own website, it is a scam. You should report it. Stay away from it. Don't ever give them a penny. It is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. But it's very difficult with the internet today, to prevent these things from happening. But trust me, I'm trying. Hi, I'm from Lumberton, North Carolina. A collection agency collecting on behalf of Citibank has called first, and then they sent me a letter saying that I owe $1,113.32 of a $3,000 attorney fee from 2008. The money was being drafted by the attorney which has since passed away at $100 per month from his clients Citibank credit card. The agency said they would take $1,000, or I could offer them in the mail if I paid today. If not they would turn me over to the credit bureau. I have no knowledge of this. They would not supply me of any documents of proof, and the limitations on the keeping um, my bank account records back to 2008, um they say have to be subpoenaed. Does this sound legit? What should I do? Here is what you should do. You should absolutely ignore it. Do not respond in any way on any level. Here is what you need to know. Every single state. Every single state has a statute of limitations when it comes to debt. Except for student loan debt. What that means is very simple. In North Carolina for instance, which is where you are calling from, there is a three year statute of limitations. So if this debt is from 2008, and now it's past three years past 2008 it's now 2012, 2013, you no longer legally can be sued for this debt again. This is not student loan debt. This is any other type of debt besides student loan debt. So you do not owe this money. And a lot of times what happens, is creditors tend to call people, scare people. And let's say it was legit, let's just say you really owed this money. But somehow, they didn't contact you and here you are now 11 years after this debt. And somehow, they're a collection agency, and they see that you owed this debt. They'll call you, or they'll send you an email, or a letter in the hopes that you will be scared. And you will respond to them and you will say to them, I'll send you a check. How about if I send you $25 a month? If you do that, you start the statute of limitations all over again. So when you get a call from a creditor saying that you owe money, and they give you the year that that debt is from, the first thing you want to do is check the stay statute of limitations in the state that you live in. If it is past the statute of limitations date, forget about it. Don't even pay attention to it. They're just trying to scare you. If however you do owe that money, then that's a whole nother story. But chances are you don't. Hi Suze, I'm renting a property to my sister for 5.5 years approximately for $354 because I took a 30 year mortgage and she helped me out of a pinch. Now I had to raise the rent to 600, and now she wanted me to give it to her for cheap or give it to her all together. I do not want to do that. I have young kids in college, and I can't afford to support her. So I told her that she has to move. Should I sell the property or should I continue to rent it and fix it up? Desperately needing your advice. It seems like, well no matter what I do, it's not gonna be harmony, but I don't care anymore because I’ve been a people pleaser and now she's screwing me tax-wise and otherwise. I need your advice. Thank you. My name is Martha. Martha. Martha Martha. This is why it's always very difficult when you start to mix finances and family. If family helps you out, but you have to be very, very clear on what are the terms, how is it going to work? Do you owe them the money back? What are the terms? And so you solve one problem, she helps you out by renting this place from you to help give you money that you put towards your 30 year mortgage, and obviously she's been doing this for a while, and now for whatever reason your expenses have increased, whether it's property tax insurance, whatever it is and you need more money, or your own personal expenses Martha have increased so you just want more money, and now you want it from your sister but she doesn't have the money to give you and now she's in a pinch and she is expecting that you need to help her, like she helped you but you don't want to help her for whatever reason, and now are we going to lose a relationship with a sister over money? That's hard. And I get that you're angry, and I get that you want to kick her out. And I get that either you're going to sell the property or what are you gonna do? But you two have to figure this out. Because you don't want to lose your relationship with your sister, it's gonna bug you for the rest of your life. And no matter what you do, you're never gonna feel good about it. So can you just sit down, and try and talk with her not to her? Not like you're angry at her, because she's going to be angry at you and you're going to be angry at her. But can you sit down and ground yourself in that sisterly love of when you did help each other out? Because otherwise, I don't know, you just lose more than money can buy. So hopefully you can come to a decision, that maybe she can pay you a little more. Maybe, who knows what? But if you can't work it out between you, and you absolutely need that money, not want that money, but you need that money, then you have to take actions. Should you sell the home, should you fix it up? There's no way for me to know that. But my big concern here is the relationship. It's hard when you lose a sibling. You know, I'm just gonna tell you a personal story here. My mother has been dead now for almost seven years, and to this day, I'm not exactly sure why. I don't know what I did. I don't know what happened. But one of my brothers just hasn't talked to me for almost seven years now. And I don't get it. I just don't get it. And it hurts. I don't know what I did. I don't know, we weren't really that close, but when a relative doesn't speak to you, or you're not as close, and you're getting older, and you know, it's possible like my brother right now he's in his seventies and he's not healthy from what I hear, and it's possible that he could die. And then how is that going to make me feel? And I've tried, but to no avail. So at least I can say, but I tried. He didn't want it, but I tried. Martha, I just want you to make sure that you have given it your best effort. All right, everybody. Those were some of the questions that came in to the phone number, where you can actually call in and leave a question. It's 1-877-545-7893. And the 7893 stands for Suze, S-U-Z-E. If you would rather write in and ask a question, you can write in to asksuzepodcast@gmail.com, and I will try my best to either answer you on air. Maybe send you back a little note. Maybe call you. You never know what I will do. So keep those questions coming in.

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