Podcast Episode - If You Don’t Have A Plan, You Plan To Fail

Listen to Podcast Episode:

How can we avoid planning to fail in our financial life?

---

Podcast Transcript:

00:00:31

Suze: September 18^th, 2022 . Welcome everybody to the Women & Money Podcast and everyone smart enough to listen. So just a few things before we start today’s Suze school. You have from today

00:00:47

Suze: just 21 days left to take advantage of what KT and I call the do-good account. Formerly known as the socially responsible checking account with Alliant Credit Union. Now wouldn't you like to deposit $100 today, and at the end of February 2023, that's just five months from now, get

00:01:09

Suze: $100 for yourself, as well as Alliant will give $100 to one of three charities of your choice. Alzheimer's, cancer, disabilities. Now of course you would. So how do you do that? All you have to do is go to myalliant.com/good,

00:01:32

Suze: and deposit $100 into an Alliant Credit Union checking account. Then every month after that from an account, not at Alliant. Just electronically transfer into your checking account, it could be $5, it doesn't really matter anybody just do that.

00:01:57

Suze: And by the end of February 2023. that is just five months from now.

00:02:04

Suze: Alliant will give you $100, and the charity of your choice, one of those three. After you open up the account you immediately deposit $100, and then maybe a few days later you will get an email from Alliant asking you which one of the three charities that they offer you want to give that $100 to via this account that Alliant will do on your behalf.

00:02:32

Suze: So you got to do this, why wouldn't you do this?

00:02:37

Suze: So go to myalliant.com/good and just do it. We did it. Listen you can't pass up free money. But remember, you only have till October 7th to sign up for this account. After that, it is too late. By the way, one more thing, for those of you who have the Ultimate Opportunity savings account at Alliant,

00:03:04

Suze: And all of you should do that as well by going to myalliant.com, They are raising interest rates to 1.8% and I am sure you are going to see in my opinion many more increases as time goes on.

00:03:21

Suze: All right, are we ready to go to Suze School?

00:03:26

Suze: So last week was a miserable week in the stock market if any of you don't know. But then you shouldn't be surprised, because we talked about this. We talked about this a month ago, two months ago, and I said to you if you think that the markets are going straight up from here when in June and July they were going up up, up, up, I said then I have a bridge to sell you.

00:03:50

Suze: and we talked about how when you dollar cost average and the markets go down, that's the time you want to really start to put money in the stock market over a long period of time.

00:04:03

Suze: We also talked about Ethereum, we talked a little bit about real estate in the past, but first I want to talk about inflation. Because you know I've said that these markets are not going to go up and up and up, we will not be at the end of a bear market until we see inflation start to come down.

00:04:27

Suze: Now, many of us were hearing on all these channels and other pundits saying we have peaked, inflation has peaked.

00:04:39

Suze: And everybody felt that way, especially you. Because as you were going into a gasoline station, filling up your car, it was costing you maybe a dollar a gallon less some places, then it had been costing you. So you got your little heads into the mindset, oh look, inflation is coming down.

00:05:02

Suze: The only place inflation was coming down that really affected you was at the gas pump.

00:05:11

Suze: Inflation continues to go up

00:05:15

Suze: if you don't count energy in that. in things known as services. So that means restaurants, when you go out to eat it's costing you more. When you go to get a haircut, it's costing you more. When you go and check into a hotel, it's costing you more. When you go and buy an airplane ticket, it is costing you more. When you want to go and buy a house or rent a house, it is costing you more. If you need health care and prescriptions, it is costing you more.

00:05:43

Suze: So all of those things affect you personally.

00:05:49

Suze: And yet, everywhere you hear, inflation has peaked. I don't think so.

00:05:57

Suze: So. What the feds have to do to get inflation to come down, is they continue to raise the Fed funds rate. This coming week on Wednesday, we will see that they probably will raise it again, maybe to about 3, 3 and a quarter percent.

00:06:16

Suze: And if they do that, they expect that it's going to start to affect you, because why? Mortgage rates will start to go up. Other things will start to go up. Businesses will start to close, because they can't afford things anymore. They can't afford to borrow money at those high rates, whatever it may be. And that, they think, will slow the economy.

00:06:41

Suze: I'm not so sure I agree with them on that, but it doesn't matter what I think because that is what they are going to do and they are going to continue to raise the Fed funds rate until they see inflation at about 3%. We’re at 8.3% right now. Okay? So we have a ways to go. So you have to keep your spending under control.

00:07:09

Suze: You really have to have a plan. You know, recently KT and I were watching King Richard again, which was the story of the Williams sisters’ father.

00:07:19

Suze: And how he raised Venus and Serena to really succeed. And he would put up this little screen and it would say, a little like tack this thing up on the wall where they would play tennis, that would say if you don't have a plan, you plan to fail.

00:07:39

Suze: So if all of you don't have a plan, and start getting realistic about inflation and how it affects you, and what you are doing with your money, then you truthfully are planning to fail. And that plan has to do with, how do you invest your money, how do you spend your money, what do you do with refinancing your home, what do you do for income, you have to have a plan.

00:08:08

Suze: And you have to want to have a plan. You know when we're back in Florida, because when we're on the island, there's really only two miles that you can drive on your little golf cart, very difficult to get lost. But you have to know when you're in, let's say Florida or you want to go somewhere,

00:08:26

Suze: you put it in your little GPS on your iPhone or whatever you use your starting point and where you want to get to, and it shows you exactly how to get there.

00:08:39

Suze: And if you go off plan, if you go off that route, it adjusts to get you back to where you want to go.

 00:08:47

Suze: Well, I wish we could develop a system of some kind where you put in, this is where you want to go financially speaking, this is where you want to end up. But it could catch you, if you go off plan.

00:09:01

Suze: It's easy to tell you what you need to do to get there, it's another thing to say, but you aren't doing that. You have gone off course.

00:09:12

Suze: So when you make a plan, you have to stick to that plan. You have to reevaluate that plan, adjust that plan, so that you get to where you want to go. So how many times have I said to you that you have got to save yourself?

00:09:32

Suze: The government cannot save you. They cannot even save themselves. I think they're totally confused on what they should and should not do.

00:09:43

Suze: So, let's just take this down to a personal level. Right into your home, for your situation. Because everyone of your situation is different.

00:09:55

Suze: It's different. Some of you have a lot of disposable income, some of you don't have any at all. Some of you are living off of your social security checks. Some of you are wondering should you sell your house and buy another? Some of you are wondering if you're buying a house right now, should you get a fixed rate mortgage, or should you get

00:10:14

Suze: a variable rate mortgage? You're wondering about all of these things. So let's see if I can answer with just a few of my thoughts on where I think we are going, and what actions you should and should not take. Let's start with real estate. We have a problem here.

00:10:39

Suze: And the problem is this, most people who buy a home do not buy it outright. They finance it.

00:10:49

Suze: So here we are, we have many people who have tremendous gains in their homes.

00:10:56

Suze: And they want to sell it. They may want to buy a new home, a new piece of real estate.

00:11:03

Suze: Now, if they could buy another piece of real estate, and pay for it outright, okay, no problem. But if they have to finance a piece of real estate,

00:11:14

Suze: they are possibly going to go from a 2.5 or 3% interest rate that they are paying on their mortgage right now, to 6, 6.5, could go to 7%. They may find that their payments for a new house, that might even be a smaller house, will be more than the payments that they're paying on their large house right now.

00:11:41

Suze: So a lot of people are thinking,

00:11:44

Suze: oh my, I don't think I want to do that. I don't think I want to do that because not only will I be paying a higher interest rate, but I'm going to be paying higher property taxes, and insurance costs because it is very probable that the states will continue to raise property taxes, insurance companies will continue to raise insurance costs, because of all the costs that the individual states are having,

00:12:11

Suze: and the damage throughout the entire United States of the heat, the floods, the rain, is causing in terms of claims for insurance companies. So your costs are higher. So a lot of people are just starting to stay put.

00:12:31

Suze: When they stay put, that then takes inventory off of the market for other people to buy. So that shrinks the inventory, and when there's less inventory, prices stay stable.

00:12:50

Suze: When inventory is vast and you can have your choice of buying any house that you want, then prices tend to go low because you have a choice. When you don't have a choice, that's when prices stay stable, or go up. At the same time, many of you because prices have gone up so much,

00:13:14

Suze: that let's just say you were buying a $400,000 home,

00:13:18

Suze: from one year ago till right now, it would cost you about $700 more a month for the exact same home, if you could find the exact same home for $400,000 a year later.

00:13:34

Suze: So now a lot of you are starting to think, maybe I should not buy property. Which then gets the home builders, and everybody that puts inventory on the market for all of you, to stop building. And that's essentially where we are right now. Now if you go back to 2006, 2007, 2008, truthfully, a 6% mortgage rate was not uncommon.

00:14:05

Suze: It didn't stop anybody really from buying a home back then, but home prices back then were not what home prices are today.

00:14:14

Suze: So you have to look at your situation. Now because interest rates on mortgages are so high,

00:14:22

Suze: a lot of you are thinking you should do an adjustable rate mortgage.

00:14:27

Suze: Because you think you're going to buy this house, you'll be out of it in four or five years, and so why not lock in maybe half a percent less? I do not think it is worth the risk, everybody. If you are going to buy a home, I really want you to buy a home with a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage. Or if you can afford it, a 15 year fixed-rate mortgage.

00:14:53

Suze: There's a law of money. And one of those laws, my laws go like this, you have to invest in the known versus the unknown.

00:15:03

Suze: We do not know where interest rates are going to be five years from now. And you really need to understand how adjustable rate mortgages work. So at this point, at this point, it's still not that high of an interest rate. If you're going to buy

00:15:22

Suze: comparatively speaking to really history,

00:15:25

Suze: just get a fixed rate mortgage. Because we do not know where you will be five years from now, or six years from now. What if all of a sudden you can't buy another home, or you can't qualify for another mortgage because your credit has been ruined, because maybe you had an accident or some medical repairs that you couldn't pay for because our health insurance in this country is absolutely crazy. And all of that.

00:15:52

Suze: So can you just invest in the known, versus the unknown. Which is why I still want every single one of you, if you can, to be doing a Roth retirement account. I do not care about the tax savings that you would get right now with a traditional retirement account.

00:16:13

Suze: If you are eligible for a Roth IRA, you should be doing a Roth IRA. Along with the Roth IRA, you can also have a Roth retirement account where you work. A Roth TSP, a Roth 401k, a Roth 403 B. If you can do that, you should do that.

00:16:34

Suze: I've done way too many podcasts on it, so you're just gonna have to go to the Women & Money app, search for past podcast put in Roth IRAs. And to get the Women & Money app, just go to Apple apps or Google play, download the Women & Money app. It is free.

00:16:55

Suze: And then you have searching capabilities of past podcasts, and that is also where you can ask questions that come into Thursday's Ask KT and Suze anything. Obviously you can also send in a question to ask Suze, S-U-Z-E podcast at gmail.com. Alright also I just want to have to say one other thing. It is through that app

00:17:21

Suze: that if you want to do things like buy the Must Have Documents for $99 versus $199 on my website, you can get discounts on the app. For all the products that are available for you to purchase to help you stay on plan. Especially The Ultimate Retirement Book for 50 plus.

00:17:48

Suze: So you want to make sure that you invest in the known versus the unknown, that's number one. So keep that in mind when it comes to your real estate. Because mortgage rates are going to continue to increase. How will that affect you if you are selling, you have to buy another place and you have to finance it.

00:18:12

Suze: Now I know I talk a lot about inflation.

00:18:17

Suze: But for some of us, inflation, which is causing the Feds to raise the Fed funds rate,

00:18:26

Suze: is also helping many people.

00:18:30

Suze: Because of inflation, your social security checks starting January of next year, you should see an increase between 7,8 or 9% right in there, of your social security check. You know the other day I was talking to somebody who recently lost her husband,

00:18:52

Suze: and he did not leave her with much money at all. And she's essentially living off of her social security check. And the money that she does have is in an Alliant Credit Union Account making currently 1.7%,  hopefully shortly 1.8% or more as time goes on, and it's still not enough for her to get by.

00:19:19

Suze: So the good news about the Fed funds rate increase is that her social security check is going to increase by 2 or $300 a month, which will help her tremendously.

00:19:36

Suze: Also, interest rates are going up.

00:19:40

Suze: They're going up not only at Alliant Credit Union, but Treasury bills, bonds and notes are going up. Certificates of deposits are going up.

00:19:51

Suze: So she now is going to be able now to transfer some of her money from her savings account into an Alliant CD.

00:20:01

Suze: Also, if she wants she can take some of her money and buy a Treasury note or bond for a lot higher interest rate. She might be able to look at an income annuity that pays her a fixed interest rate for the rest of her life.

00:20:20

Suze: And not that I would do that right now, but these are things that are going to be open to her. So I said to her, just wait till you hear from me again, or listen to the podcast, and I'll tell you when it's time to get into those instruments, to get what I think will be the highest

00:20:37

Suze: interest rate out there. Now I have said to you in the past, I will let you know when it is time to buy 20- or 30-year Treasury bonds. It is not that time yet. But we are getting close to that time. So for those of you, now let's talk a little bit about bond funds, for those of you who are in bond funds and you never got out of those bond funds,

00:21:06

Suze: you want to stay there at this point in time. Maybe you even want to start dollar cost averaging into those bond funds, and now they can be medium term bond funds, because as interest rates go up, you already have learned the lesson, the value of your bond funds go down. But as interest rates go down and eventually, a year two or three from now they will come back down,

00:21:34

Suze: the value of those bond funds will go up. The value of your long-term Treasury bonds will go up. Far more than short term maturity Treasury bills or notes.

00:21:50

Suze: But if you need money for a short period of time, two years or whatever, hey, you might want to look in to the CDs, Treasury Notes and Treasury bills. I am being overwhelmed with questions of how do I buy a Treasury Bill, bond or note.

00:22:11

Suze: I will do a podcast shortly and take you through the steps of how you do it. It's really so simple. I can't even tell you. Especially you know, one of my favorite, and I've been saying this now for over a year, one of my favorite brokerage firms, discount brokerage firms is Fidelity. I just like how they work. But if you have an account at Fidelity,

00:22:34

Suze: you can do it yourself online. It is so easy, it's not even funny. Far easier than going to Treasurydirect.gov, and buying a Treasury there. You also can do it online though Schwab, Vanguard, you know, places like that. So I will do a podcast on that shortly. But because I don't want to do a two-hour podcast today.

00:22:59

Suze: I'll just cover the main things I want you to know. I bonds. We are coming close to the I bond renewal rate in November now. I personally think the I bond renewal rate November 1st will be between seven and 8%. Not bad everybody. Still a great interest rate in comparison to what

00:23:25

Suze: you could get anywhere else. If you don't know about series I bonds, listen to my April 17 podcast. I gave a masterclass on it. Use the app, put in series I bonds, because I've given many updates on that as well.

00:23:41

Suze: Get to know them, because they are without a shadow of a doubt for safe money that you do not need for at least one year, where you want to put your money. Now as time goes on and inflation goes down, we may not want to do I bonds

00:23:58

Suze: anymore. So we will take this every six months at a time during their resetting. But if you have not done an I bond yet right here and right now, you are to go to Treasurydirect.gov, open up an account and buy one, because your interest rate is still 9.62% on an annual basis, or 4.81% for the next six months.

00:24:26

Suze: So even if you did that right now, six months from now, if in fact the I bond rate changes to, let's just say 7%, so that would be 3.5% for the next six months, that would give you close to an 8.3% yield for the year. Are you kidding me? So do not stop putting money in I bonds at this time.

00:24:54

Suze: And when it renews in November, if you haven't done it yet, and you don't want to do it, you're waiting to see, do it then, you should still be buying I bonds. Okay, let's talk just briefly about Ethereum.

00:25:12

Suze: Because as I told all of you, I like Ethereum. But I've also told all of you that you should be dollar cost averaging into any investment, I've always said that, not just the stock market, but anything you put your money into. Because everything is just too volatile these days.

00:25:32

Suze: So if you were buying Ethereum, and you were buying it at 1400 and then it went to 1200, then it went to 900, and you were just putting small amounts of money in it, you would be relatively okay today because it's around the 1400 area.

00:25:48

Suze: But it did not react

00:25:51

Suze: after it switched services the way we thought it was going to. So this is a situation where if you like the long term forecast for Ethereum, and this is money that you can afford to lose,

00:26:09

Suze: because the Biden administration now is coming out with new regulations and new laws that are going to govern all cryptocurrencies, so who knows where that goes and how it clamps down on all of this if it does at all.

00:26:25

Suze: This is money that you need to know you can lose. Do you hear me? Next is the stock market. What the heck happened last week?

00:26:38

Suze: This all happened for really one main reason. The CEO of Federal Express went on CNBC

00:26:48

Suze: and said that he, Federal Express, is going to be closing many, many outlets, laying off people, and he expects a worldwide deep recession next year.

00:27:04

Suze: And everybody freaked, because Federal Express, if you think about it, is the one that ships everything. They know that if you're buying stuff, or they're delivering stuff or whatever, it's based on how much money you are

00:27:19

Suze: sending to send things to other people, and they expect that to go down the tubes. Well to say that all the traders on Wall Street dumped their position of FedEx started to freak everybody out.

00:27:35

Suze: Now with that said, most stocks went down again, seriously.

00:27:42

Suze: But once again, how does this help you? Let me go back to the woman that I was speaking to who's living on a fixed budget and doesn't have enough income to get by. And how a down market, as well as interest rates going up, can save her

00:28:06

Suze: at this point in time. So maybe it can save, or make your lives a little bit easier for all of you.

00:28:14

Suze: So when things like this happen, the majority of the stocks really went down again big time.

00:28:24

Suze: Now I've been telling you that I want you to dollar cost average into dividend paying stocks. Whether it's through an ETF, or individual stocks that you're buying slices that with Fidelity or whatever you can afford to do because if you're buying individual stocks remember I want you all to have at least 20 stocks. You need a portfolio. If you can't do that then high yielding dividend paying ETFs that buy good quality dividend stocks, 00:28:54

Suze: as the price of a stock goes down,

00:28:59

Suze: in companies that are good and have good cash flow,

00:29:04

Suze: the yield of their dividend goes up to you. So let's say you bought obviously what you know is one of my favorite dividend paying stocks, devon energy, symbol DVN, and recently they declared a dollar 55 dividend for every share that you own. All right and you had to own Devon or have purchased it

00:29:30

Suze: by September eight just a little bit ago to qualify for that $55 a share dividend, now obviously if you're buying it now you'll get the next dividend three months from now whatever they declare,

00:29:45

Suze: but let me just give you an example because so many of you purchased it a long time ago actually and you still own it. So you're gonna get that dividend. But let me just give you an example of how, why when you buy a stock, and the stock price starts to go down,

00:30:05

Suze: or you buy it when it's lower, it helps your yield of that dividend. Let's say many of you wanted to jump on the Devon bandwagon. And you finally, after listening to me talk about it and talk about it,

00:30:21

Suze: you bought it at $79 a share.

00:30:25

Suze: And now, they are going to pay you a dollar 55 for every share that you own. Because you bought it at 79, your yield for these three months is only 1.9%. But if you extrapolate that over a year period of time,

00:30:46

Suze: that's a 7.8% return on your money. If they keep that dividend at $1.55 a share, but they've been raising these dividends every single quarter. If however you bought it at $65 a share, your annual yield is 9.5

00:31:08

Suze: for the quarter, it's a 2.4% yield to you. But if you extrapolate that out because you get four dividends a year,

00:31:17

Suze: that's 9.5%. If you bought it at $55 that's an 11.27% yield to you as to when you bought it. So for the woman that I was talking to, I'll go back to her for a second, and to many of you, as the prices of these stocks come down, if they keep their dividend the same or increase them,

00:31:48

Suze: which many energy companies are still doing for many reasons, your yield or your income actually goes up. So let's put this whole entire picture together. As interest rates are going up, as the stock market is going down, if you invest in dividend paying stocks as the markets are going down, so you're investing at the right time,

00:32:13

Suze: and they're paying you good dividends that are either increasing or are safe, your yield, what you're actually getting is going up. It is not unlikely that you could get 4.5, 6% or more in many of these great companies that are out there,

00:32:31

Suze: and your social security check, if you're on social security, is going to go up and it may not only go up for this year, it is very probable it will go up the year after as well.

00:32:43

Suze: And if you wait for a little while longer to buy 20-year or 30-year treasury bonds and you are locking in a really higher interest rate 4, 4.5%,

00:32:56

Suze: all of that will help you. And yes, I know, that inflation, you think, is eating up everything. But it's eating up everything if you are traveling, if you're going out to eat, if you are doing certain things that maybe you don't need to do, and you are conserving your money, you're buying things that are on sale or whatever at the grocery store, and you just stick to your plan.

00:33:24

Suze: Now. I know I've told all of you maybe you should dollar cost average monthly,

00:33:29

Suze: I think you maybe at this point, to cost average every three months.

00:33:34

Suze: Because if the Feds continue to raise rates

00:33:39

Suze: and right now like I said there between the Fed funds rate is between two and a quarter and 2.5%, and many people think that they may have to raise it to 4.5, 5, or 6% to get inflation under control. That if they do that it is not impossible to see the stock market go down another 20% from where it is right now.

00:34:08

Suze: I don't know if that's gonna happen or if it's not gonna happen.

00:34:13

Suze: But let's just start to hedge in terms of how much money we're putting in the stock market on our own. If you're investing in your 401k plans, and it's automatically being taken out of your paychecks, just keep doing that. But money that you have that you want to put into a Roth IRA, and you're controlling that money or an individual investment account,

00:34:38

Suze: you might want to just, if you're dollar cost averaging, do it every three months versus every month, or if the market is down really big one day,

00:34:50

Suze: and we're going to see those down days again that are this big. 1200 points, you'll see it again.

00:34:56

Suze: That that's when you take advantage of dollar cost averaging into high yielding dividend paying, ETF and or individual stocks.

00:35:08

Suze: Why am I stressing on dividend payers? Because as these markets go down, you want to be making something on your money.

00:35:19

Suze: And also because many of the people that are listening to the Women & Money podcast are women who are 50, 60, 70, 80 years of age, they're by themselves or eventually they know they're going to be by themselves, and they need money to live on.

00:35:38

Suze: So I concentrate on that.

00:35:41

Suze: Because the truth of the matter is everybody, there are very few podcasts that gear or any financial advice that gears themselves towards the elderly.

00:35:52

Suze: And I think it's really important that we take care of our elders. That we take care of them in any and every possible way.

00:36:02

Suze: You know, because so many of your elders, your mom, your father, gave you all that they had. And now they don't have anything. And they don't have what it takes to ask all of you young and ones for help. And you're still all thinking just about yourself and how you should be saving money, and how you're barely making it. I think it is every one of our duties

00:36:26

Suze: that if we have had responsible parents, they are responsible

00:36:31

Suze: and they don't just flitter all their money away, and they've gotten themselves into a horrible financial situation just because they have, not because they've gotten sick, but because they've done everything right, they've supported you, they've created a good family,

00:36:47

Suze: we need to take care of them. So a lot of times I do do this podcast and I gear it towards olders,

 00:36:54

Suze: especially since I am 71 and I know what it's been like for me the past two years, it has not been easy. I'm not afraid to say that

00:37:03

Suze: it's taken its toll seriously on me, on my health. It's taking its toll on KT emotionally because of what she's seen me go through and going through. You know, the operation that I did two years ago absolutely left damage on my left side.

00:37:19

Suze: So it's hard to be in pain 24 hours a day, but I'm gonna get through this and it's easier for me to get through this because I know I have money to support myself and KT and those we love. And that's what I want for all of you as well.

00:37:38

Suze: So these were just a few of the things that I want you to pay attention to.

00:37:46

Suze: I think this is a podcast that really deserves your listening to over, and over again.

00:37:53

Suze: Because it really addresses the things that you need to know right here and right now when it comes to buying a piece of property, selling a piece of property, what's gonna happen to mortgage rates? What's going to happen to your social security? What you should do with I bonds? What about Ethereum? What about the stock

00:38:11

Suze: market? And what about your plan? Just that simple everybody. So until Thursday, there's really only one thing that I want you to remember when it comes to your money and it is this. I want you all to be safe, strong and secure. See you soon. Bye bye.

---

To learn more about how you can help yourself and others, please visit: https:myalliant.com/good.

Take advantage of the Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account with Alliant Credit Union at: https://bit.ly/3vEUTZW

Get Suze’s special offers for podcast listeners at suzeorman.com/offer

Join Suze’s Women & Money Community for FREE and ASK SUZE your questions which may just end up on her podcast!

To ask Suze a question, download by following one of these links:

CLICK HERE FOR APPLE: https://apple.co/2KcAHbH

CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE PLAY: https://bit.ly/3curfMI