Podcast Episode - Ask KT & Suze Anything: Do The Trump Tariffs Mean It’s Time to Buy or Sell?


Dental Savings Plan, ETFs, Investing, Must Have Documents, Podcast, Stocks, Trust


February 02, 2025

For this Ask KT & Suze Anything episode, Suze answers your questions about selling or buying stocks of companies affected by the new tariffs, dental insurance, putting a home in trust and so much more!

Listen to Podcast Episode:


Podcast Transcript:

Suze: February 2nd, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast, as well as everybody smart enough to do what, KT?

KT: Well, wait, tell them it's Sunday school and KT is here.

Suze: Yes, but you needed to finish my line,

KT: smart enough to listen.

Suze: That's my girl, now KT is here today because why? Because Thursday was Suze School rather than ask KT and Suze anything.

KT: And you all wrote in and said, Where is she? We miss her. Put KT back. It's not the same without her.

Suze: Now, I don't know if that's true because she's the one who reads a lot of the emails, but I bet it is on some level. Did you miss being here?

KT: Yes, I missed myself on Thursday, being on the Thursday. When I listen and I don't hear me, it's like, KT, where are you?

Suze: You know what I would love all of you to do, by the way, if you want to ask a question, write into Ask Suze podcast at gmail.com. And if KT chooses it, we will answer it and and kind of haggle over it, right KT?

KT: A little bit.

Suze: A little bit on this podcast. However, I did an experiment the other day and I was able to translate what I said in my voice into Spanish.

KT: It was so great.

Suze: So the question is, is anybody out there interested in hearing this podcast in Spanish? I'm just curious. If so, you can go on the Women and Money community app and you can download it at Apple Apps or Google Play or send in an email. KT, what you got for me today?

KT: OK, my first question, it's a little bit, it's a little sad, but it's important. It's from Juliana. She said, hello, Suze, I'd like some advice.

KT: I've been married for over 40 years, but I'm getting a divorce. I'm separated at this time. The marriage was all about abuse, emotional, physical, verbal, and financial gaslighting. I was close to having a stroke and a heart attack plus stress. Is making this move the right direction, Suze, please reply.

Suze: Oh, Juliana, it's, you know, I have this saying. And as you know, I have many sayings that you usually never ask a question that you don't know the answer to Juliana, read the email that you sent me. Why in the world would you want to stay in a relationship that was financially, emotionally, psychologically, physically, in every possible way abusive? You had the courage to separate from him.

Suze: Now you have to be really courageous and do what it takes to divorce him. There's a tendency with women who are abused because, as you know, I work with many, many women who are abused in many ways, and it all starts, by the way, with financial abuse. But anyway.

Suze: The tendency is, no, I want to go back. He's not that bad. I can stay. He'll change. I need him to be happy. No, what you need in your life is for you to be happy. What you need in your life is for you to be secure. What you need in your life is to be the powerful woman you were born to be. What you need in your life is simply the courage and the faith in yourself to do what you know is right versus what's easy. It's easy to go back and continue to suffer for the rest of your life. It's right for you not to do what's wrong.

KT: I want to add one more thing. 40 years, Juliana, you're at that age in your life where you deserve your final, you know, swan song to be the very best and to be happy and free and light. So just go for it. I agree 100% with what Suze said.

Suze: And if any of you are out there and were in the situation that Juliana was in. Either post it on the Women and Money app or send in an email. And we'll send them on to Juliana so she can feel your support. All right, KT.

KT: OK, next question's from Stephen. Hello, Suze. Thank you for your advice this morning. I've been dollar cost averaging into Whirlpool and noticed it plummeted to about $109. Is this a buying opportunity or a time to hold back?

Suze: Well, my dear Stephen, you didn't see it then obviously on Friday when it plummeted to $105 a share, but here's what you need to know why did that happen, in my opinion, especially on Friday. Because of the tariffs that President Trump implemented on February 1st, and a lot of the goods come from Mexico and 20% for whirlpool come from Mexico, so it's going to impact their costs and everything like that. So that's why it went down. So what would I do if I were you?

Suze: I don't say this often, but I probably would sell, believe it or not, and I would probably diversify at this point in time into two stocks, Verizon as well as Pfizer. You'll actually get a higher dividend yield and you'll be able to buy, let's just say you owned 100 shares of Whirlpool, and the price of Whirlpool right now, as you know, is 105.

Suze: The price of Verizon is around 39. The price of Pfizer is around 29. You could buy 150 shares of each. Keep your dividend a little bit higher, and when those stocks do eventually start to go on one day, I believe they will, you'll make back the money faster. And in the meantime, if it's outside of a retirement account that you've been dollar cost averaging, you can take that loss if you have one. All right.

KT: OK. Next is from Nikki. I picked this one, Suze, because I always think about this for us, it said our condo association is voting on insurance. Should everyone have their own policy for the unit or not? Some believe they could cover any damage to another unit for less than the yearly premium. Do you have an opinion on this, Suze? I've carried my policy for 22 years and never used it. If I canceled and decided to go back on, the premium would be much higher.

Suze: If they even insure you at all.

KT: And then Nikki said she understands both sides. So what do you recommend?

Suze: So Nikki, here's the thing I'm a little bit confused. It's kind of hard to confuse me, don't you think, KT?

KT: Yeah, sometimes.

Suze: You can confuse me a lot.

KT: I confuse her all the time.

Suze: What's the main thing you confuse me over?

KT: Oh my goodness. When she tells me something, if she's not really clear with that, you know, explanation, then I get very confused.

Suze: So that we're not just talking about finance and things like that, anything, she goes, Well, what does that mean?

KT: All right, so wait, answer Nikki's question, because we always talk about this for ourselves.

Suze: We, well, not really, not this. We talk about should we drop our insurance on our condo since it's $28,000 a year.

KT: Unbelievable

Suze: For a 2000 square foot apartment period in South Florida. Or we self-insure because if you have one claim, they will drop you anywhere.

KT: So what should Nikki do?

Suze: And so just so you know, everybody, we are going to self-insure.

Suze: Nikki, there is a big difference between condo insurance that insures everything. It usually insures the condo building, the structure of the condo, the inside of the common areas of the condo. I don't know of a policy that insures individual units. The individual units, if you get damage for your inside of your condo.

Suze: You have a leak. You have a little fire in your condo and everything. I don't think I could be wrong, but I don't think that the condo insurance for the entire condo which they have to carry is going to take care of your individual units. So if it doesn't take care of your individual units and you don't have the money to self insure, then you need to keep a policy because you never know what can happen. However, please check and ask the question, simple question. If I have something go wrong in my apartment, it doesn't affect anybody else's apartment but my own, will the condo insurance cover it if I don't have individual insurance? Just look at what it will cover and what it won't, and I think you'll find you're gonna need your own individual policy. Next KT.

KT: OK, this is from. Uh Hm. This is Ramona, but wait, Ramona wrote Southern Gal. That was her, her email Southern Gal. So this is Ramona. Hi Suze, I'm single, 61 years of age, and recently retired from 34 years in education. Let's congratulate her.

Suze: Congratulations.

KT: We love teachers. I have learned within the last few days that it may be in my best interest to move my 403B into a Roth IRA because of the future taxes I will have to pay on the 403B. I'll be receiving my first pension check February 1st. What's the best time for me to make the move so that I will pay the least amount of taxes on the 403B? She's very confused in terms of all these tax brackets. So what's your advice, Suze?

Suze: My dear Ramona, listen to me. The very first question you need to ask yourself is, are you going to need any of the income from your 403B for you to live on? If the answer to that is yes, you are not to move a penny from the 403B into your Roth IRA.

Suze: Because you need the income anyway. Therefore, you're going to have to pay taxes on it. It makes no sense to do that, OK, if, however, your pension is enough for you to live on and you do not need any of the money and you don't think you're going to need any of the money for quite a while, if ever. Because maybe it's enough for you to live on your pension. Sooner than later, you're going to be able to collect Social Security, so you may not have to take any money from the 403B for you to live on.

Suze: Then little by little over these next few years start transferring or converting the money to a Roth IRA, not because tax brackets are going to go up because you're probably not going to be in that high of a tax bracket anyway, however, but because it's the smart thing to do, especially if you're not going to need that money.

Suze: Therefore, that would be the only reason I would do it. If you are going to need that money, do not convert it to a Roth IRA. All right.

KT: OK, my next question is from Brenda, and this is a category you and I both love the dentist.

Suze: I don't like the dentist. Actually, I love my new dentist. I actually love my old dentist too.

KT: You like, you just like your dentist. We both do.

Suze: I just don't like going to the dentist.

KT: I love going. I love to get clean.

Suze: What in the world do you love going.

KT: Cleaning. I always feel great when I, when I leave and my teeth are real clean. OK, so the question is, Suze, what is the best dental insurance for me that pays more for implants, for crowns, and for most procedures? And is there a dental insurance that will let me take, let me cover my 10 year old granddaughter that pays for braces? And then she wrote, without waiting a year, so I don't understand why you have to wait a year.

Suze: Because most dental insurance plans have a 6 month or a year waiting period for, you know, things wrong,

KT: right,

Suze: so for preexisting things. So here's the thing, it is no secret that I don't like dental insurance. I don't like anything about it, to tell you the truth, KT. First of all, the premiums are expensive. Second of all, they have a maximum of what in most cases they will cover.

Suze: And also they usually have a 6 month waiting period, right? And then if something goes wrong they'll pay for it, but if something's wrong right now, they might not. What do I love? I love one thing and one thing only, and both KT and I have it, and that is a dental savings plan. What always amazed me when I first heard about this, KT, do you remember from Bob Harris?

KT: Yeah, we didn't know about it.

Suze: I'm like, Bob, he was the CEO of Dental Plans.com at the time. I was like, how's it possible that Suze Orman doesn't know about dental savings plans? How's that even possible? And then he started to explain it to me and then I just didn't believe it. It sounded like it was too good to be true till we used till we used one and I, are you kidding? So anyway.

Suze: What you should do, my dear Brenda, is you should go to dental plans.com. And there is where you will find dental savings plans that will cover all kinds of work. There's anywhere between, I don't know, a 10 to 60% savings on procedures. So there are ones out there that will cover obviously braces, implants, all of those things, especially not just for you but for your 10 year old granddaughter. You probably could get a family plan. And I think the premiums may be at most $200 a year to get a membership versus $150 a month or whatever for dental insurance. Now both KT and I can tell you how much money you think you save...

KT: My goodness on crowns, I always save over $1000 for sure, right?

Suze: Yeah, and

KT: uh.

KT: What about you, root canals.

Suze: I for some reason a root canal for some reason in the past two years I needed 3 root canals and I saved, I think, $1200 on each one, a lot. So do me a favor, just go to dental plans.com and check them out. I'm so glad, Bob Harris, thank you forever for introducing them to us and now to everybody listening because nobody really knows about them.

KT: All right, now next question is from Hem. Hem

Suze: Oh, you're having a thing with names today.

KT: I am. I, I picked a lot of these because I saw the Hem. I don't know who he is, if it's a man or a woman, but it's a Hem. Hi KT, My question is, how can I put my my house in my trust as I just purchased the must-have documents package. I co-own a house with my brother as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. Can I only put it in the trust if he passes first? Can't figure out how to do this within the trust package. Both of you are awesome. Keep it up for the people, as we are super grateful. So Hem.

KT: What does Hem do? First of all, great that you got the must have documents. All of us need them.

Suze: Yes, we do. But Hem, here we go. Should we do a little song for Hem?

KT: No, just Hem.

Suze: Hem, right, hem, you cannot have a living revocable trust in just your name if your brother doesn't also have a living revocable trust. KT and I own things jointly. We both have individual trusts. So therefore, and they're both with joint tenancy with the right to survive the whole thing because we both have trusts. Given that he does not have a trust, you cannot do that unless he gets a trust. And by the way, you can share your documents with him for free.

Suze: But if he doesn't want to do that, then you have to wait till he dies to be able to put it in trust.

KT: But if he did open a trust with the must have documents that Hem is working with now, then they could do that, right?

Suze: Yes, because it's both in trust.

KT: Yeah, great. All right, there you go, Hem.

KT: So next is from Mary Anne. Hi, Suze and KT just heard a suggestion, I love this one, that boomer candy ETFs may be a low risk option for retirees to invest in as interest rates go down on bonds. Can you explain, can you tell me what boomer candy is, Suze?

Suze: Never heard of it before.

KT: Yes, you know what it is.

Suze: No, I have no idea.

KT: She knows everybody. She knows everything, but I never heard of it. So when I picked this question, I wanted to know for myself, what the heck is a boomer candy, and will I like it?

Suze: It's a big lollipop.

KT: No, it is a boomer candy.

Suze: So Boomer

KT: is a great name.

Suze: It is a great name, right? But boomer candies are simply exchange traded funds that have all these strategies within them. They sell covered calls. They do options. They do these really, kind of experienced techniques, complicated techniques to keep the principle safe and sound so that you can get growth but not lose as much money. So they do covered calls. They're called bucket.

KT: Do you like them?

Suze: Listen, I'm not into these fancy things. A lot of people like them. Me, I'm like just a good old fashioned gal, and I like just regular.

KT: Do you think I should do one?

Suze: No, you are not doing an ETF like that. No, if you were going to do something like that, KT, you would take the individual stocks that you own. And you would sell covered calls on them. You don't need an ETF to do that for you when I could do it for you, and I hate to tell you, we already do it on our own. Do you not know that?

KT: I know that, but I just was wondering what the heck is Boomer Candy? Great, great name.

Suze: So a lot of these were created because they really appeal to people who are near retirement. All right. Anyway, go on.

KT: Boomers. OK. Next question is from Giselle. She said, Hi, Suze, my company does not offer a Roth 401k, just a traditional 401k. Is it better to do a traditional with a 4% match, or should I take that money and invest in my vanguard Roth IRA.

Suze: No, do the traditional...

KT: And get that 4%.

Suze: ...but only invest up to the point of the match. And then if you qualify for it income wise, do a Roth IRA on your own with the other part of that money. All right, next, KT.

KT: So next is from Heather, she said, I'm retired. Hubby works part time. We need to pull funds monthly from our IRAs. Should I be selling each month or do a big chunk when the market is up? Good question.

Suze: I have to tell you. If I knew I had to take money out of my IRA, assuming that everything you're invested in within your IRA happens to be good quality and you love it, I would take it from the stocks or the ETFs that are the highest.

Suze: Take it now while it's up. Those that are already down maybe that gives it a chance to come back up, but you don't want to see things that are up if you have to take it go down. However, I just want to say this if you know you need to take money from your IRA.

Suze: Then the truth of the matter is it's really wise for you to have at least 3 years of that money in a money market fund within your IRA so that you're not affected by the ups and downs of the market just so you know. So you might want to think about that. All right, go on.

KT: So the next question is from Alicia.

Suze: Are you having fun on Sunday?

KT: I am. I like, do you all like me being here with her?

Suze: I'd like you being here with me, and that's the only thing that matters. KT, do you know how difficult it is to just sit down in front of a microphone alone have absolutely no guests. Think about it, everybody. All these other podcaster, they have guest after guest after guest.

KT: They make a lot of small talk.

Suze: Well, we make small talk, but that's kind of easy to have a conversation to be the only one on is very, very difficult, so it makes it so much easier when you're here with me.

KT: You bet it is, Suze.

Suze: That's my girl.

KT: Next, my next question is from Alicia. She said, Hello, Suze and KT. My question is about investing and saving for retirement. My father recently passed and left me around $450,000. I have considered hiring a personal financial adviser at my bank to invest 250,000. He charges 1%. He said he would ready for this one, Suze. He said he would like to put 150,000 in a Transamerica structured index annuity fund and invest the other 1,000,000 in various securities. I would like to understand this Transamerica annuity fund better. Is it a good investment? Well, it's good for him.

KT: All right, there you go. I'm sorry. I didn't want to impose on your answers.

Suze: Here's what's not good, Alicia. Number one, is he gonna charge you 1%, um, that $150,000 that he's putting in a Transamerica structured index annuity fund.

Suze: Or because he's getting paid 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 or 8% of that $150,000 to put your money in there, so is that 1% exempt from that? Is the $100,000 in various securities that he's getting 1% on? Does that mean that those are all securities without any commission as well?

Suze: However, here's the bottom line. Let me tell you a little bit about the Transamerica structured annuity, since I happen to know about it, which is, it's really just an index annuity that's attached to an index that you get a certain percentage. So your upside is limited, your downside supposedly is limited as well, but here's the kicker. This particular annuity has for the first 6 years, just 6 years, all right. The first year if you want to take out money, there's an 8% surrender charge.

Suze: If you want to take out money the second year, there's still an 8% surrender charge. If you want to take money out the third year, there's a 7%, then it goes to 5%, then it goes to 4%, and then 6 years and beyond no fee at all. Why do you want to put your money in something that limits your upside, number one. It defers your money, meaning you don't pay taxes on it, but when you do take it out, you're going to pay ordinary income tax on it.And there's a surrender charge. Why not just put your money in some of the ETFs that we talk about here on the Women and Money podcast, whether it's SPY, VTI, VOO, or any of them to tell you the truth, and they're all no loaded, which means you're not going to pay any fees to buy them. 

Suze: And number 2, as they do go up, which they will when you take money out any time you want. As long as it's been in there a year, you're only going to pay capital gains tax on it. And if you leave this money to your beneficiaries in this annuity, they're going to have to pay ordinary income tax on whatever the gain happens to be. If you leave it to them via ETFs and just a regular account, they get a step up in bases. So here's the bottom line. Run, don't walk away. All right.

KT: You don't need him.

Suze: No, I don't think she does. No.

KT: All right, that's a wrap for me, Suze.

Suze: Well, it's a wrap for you, but I do have a quizzy.

KT: Oh, OK, I'm ready. Are even on Sunday, on Sunday, OK, I get a quizzy Sunday?

Suze: Right? So we're going to go to church right now. But I chose this because it really touched my heart because as all of you know, I really do scan the emails. I don't know which one she's going to pick, but every time I see one that touches my heart, I either answer it directly and or I choose it for KT's quizzy. 

Suze: Hi guys. She says, love your podcast and would like to thank you for the heart you put into your conversations as well as your advice. I have a simple question. I am a widow with two grown children. Now listen carefully, KT, and everybody, cause this quizzy isn't just for KT. How would you answer it as well? My daughter is married to a wonderful man, and they are financially going to be OK. My son is a single father of three boys and has struggled with money since the boy's mom passed away 4 years ago.

KT: So sorry.

Suze: My question, would it be ethical to divide my life insurance policy 60% to give to him, 40% for my daughter, or to give him even a little more? If so, should I discuss it with them. I think my late husband would agree, and we would probably go ahead with this. Would love your opinion on this financial and more important for me, this ethical question. 

Suze: So just think about it, everybody, and KT, you think about it as well. You're the daughter of this woman. You're married to a wonderful man, but you're just doing financially OK, not sure. Right, but just financially OK, so we don't know what could happen in the future. 

Suze: How would you feel if your mommy died and left more to your brother than to you. Just think about it before you say what you think this woman should do. Oh, you should see her little face. What would you do?

KT: So Suze, I did think about this, and I think what's important is what she said in the email. Absolutely discuss this with them now with the son and the daughter now because I think the daughter could very well be hurt if Mommy dies and she sees that 60% of her life insurance policy was left to the brother and only 40% to her instead of a 50/50.

KT: So I think it's really important that they have the conversation first, and I do think, yes, she absolutely should give her son more.

Suze: All right so. Ding ding

KT: ding ding ding kind of kind of ding ding ding because there's sensitive

Suze: there's more to it than that.

KT: What's that?

Suze: Alright. So here's what I would tell you to do. Have just like KT said, have a discussion with them right now. But also tell them you're open to as time goes on. Cause you don't know when death occurs. If death was going to occur tomorrow, then yes, I would like to split it 60/40 or 70/30, and I'm sure your daughter will say absolutely, Mommy, you know my brother has kids, he's not doing well emotionally, lost his wife. I get that, Mommy. In fact, maybe you leave it all to him, but let's just say...

Suze: Cause I don't know how, how old Sandy happens to be, OK, is that Sandy who wrote this email, by the way, Sandy, let's say 10 years from now, 15 years from now, all of a sudden your daughter is the one that isn't doing well. Maybe she got sick. Maybe her husband got sick. Maybe they spent all their money on medical bills, but now your son has remarried flourishing and everything is great for him. So whenever making a plan, everybody, it's a plan for today. But 5 years from now, 10 years from now, situations may change, and if they change, then you have to change it as well, Sandy, so you never know, maybe 10 years from now you'll leave it all to your daughter and none to your son. So have him talk with them now. Tell them if things change in the future. So will this, but it's not just your life insurance policy, it's how about your other assets as well. 

Suze: And the real question to you is, do you have everything set up to pass to them in a way that's financially, easily and beneficial to them? Do you have a living revocable trust. Do you have an advanced directive and durable power of attorney for health care? Do you actually have a will and everything? Do you, Sandy? Because it's more than just a life insurance policy for those of you, you should go to musthavedocs.com. Take a look at the must-have docs there. $99 for over $2500 worth of state of the art documents that you can share with any of the members of your family telling you you all should look into it, and that includes you, Sandy.

Suze: All right KT

KT: I, I agree with that. I think that's really...

Suze: Well then you want to give me a ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. Whose ding is cuter? Ready? Let's try ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.

KT: That was pretty that was very harmonious,

Suze: Just like our relationship.

KT: Yes.

Suze: all right. OK, everybody, that is a wrap. So there's only one thing that we want you to remember when it comes to your money, and it's what KT?

KT: People first, then money, then things.

Suze: And if you do that, stay strong and stay safe and stay healthy, hopefully together we will rise.

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