Podcast Episode - The Key to a Wealthy Life

On this Ask Suze & KT Anything episode, KT asks Suze your questions about avoiding the stress of downsizing, is it too late to invest in the stock market, when to stop contributing to an HSA and so much more.

Listen to Podcast Episode:

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Podcast Transcript:

Suze: September 11, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast,

KT: and Everyone Smart Enough to Listen.

Suze: Today is KT and Ask Suze Anything. And so for those of you who want to write in and ask a question, and if KT chooses it, it will be on the podcast, please send those questions to asksuzepodcast@gmail.com.

September 11th, 24 years ago today, KT—

KT: we never, ever, ever will forget,

Suze: nor will anybody else ever forget. So to all of us who will never forget, we always send blessings, prayers, and hope for all. All right. Anything else you want to say there?

KT: No, I think that's good, Suze.

Suze: That's good. All right, sweetheart, so what do you got?

KT: OK...

Suze: Did you have a good anniversary with me?

KT: Yeah, we had our wedding anniversary, not our meeting anniversary.

Suze: I actually like celebrating—

KT: The meeting anniversary—

Suze: 25 years ago because 15 just doesn't sound like long enough. And I remember, I just want to tell you this. I remember when I first met you, I always thought, please let me get to double digits.

KT: You did?

Suze: I did. Let me get to double digits. Then we got to 10 years and I was like, yeah. Then at 15 years we got married. Then here we are about 25 years from when we were—

KT: What are we going to do to celebrate that?

Suze: Our 25th, yeah, yeah, probably nothing. All right, go on.

KT: OK, here's my first question. I love listening to your show in part because even when I think the topic doesn't apply to me, I find that I gain so much from it anyway. I've got a question about a problem that's a good problem, but it's causing great anxiety and indecision. OK, remember those two words, everybody — anxiety, indecision.

Now here's the question. My father recently died and left me with $1.2 million—

Suze: That can cause anxiety, believe it or not.

KT: In mostly non-taxable funds. This was never and not expected. My wife and I are 76 and 67 respectively, with two adult children adopted who each have disabilities.

Before this inheritance, we planned to downsize and sell the house and move into a condo that would cost no more than about half a million dollars. This price range in Minneapolis area would limit us slightly. There are some amazing options in the $700,000 to $850,000 range that we did not consider.

I'm wondering if at this point we can afford the more expensive condo options. The HOA fees are similar to the less expensive option. But I'm extremely anxious about somehow losing what seems like a huge amount of money that was just plopped in our laps. We have no debt, but I worry that now I suddenly have this unexpected inheritance. I'm feeling like I don't want to spend any of it, and it scares me to consider a more expensive downsized condo...

Suze: What was the word?

KT: It scares me. Which would not really be downsizing at all because it might cost close to what we would sell our house for. On the one hand, I think we should go ahead and buy the nicer condo and we would still be no worse off than we were before this sudden influx of money.

Suze: But the question is, on the other hand... Right. Should she keep, what should she do? Essentially, that's what she wants to—

KT: What should she do, Suze?

Suze: What hand should she look at? Here's the answer to this dilemma.

I've always told all of you the following: when do you buy what you need versus what you can afford? When you can afford more than what you need. Because the key to creating more and more wealth, to making more money out of your money, is not to buy what you can afford, but to buy what you need.

And in this case, what's sad about this is that with Sharon, what's happening here is they were fine. They were going to downsize. Everything was perfect — until they got this $1.2 million unexpectedly, and now she's full of anxiety.

KT: She's scared.

Suze: She's scared. She doesn't know what to do. Well, I'll tell you what to do. It's not, oh, now you have this extra money so you can buy something more. No, you're going to continue according to plan. You're going to continue to buy the one in the $500,000 arena. That's what you wanted.

And you're just going to either save this money, invest this money, give some away to charity — I don't know what you're going to do with it — but you're not going to spend a gift and have it create an intense situation for you where you have anxiety and you are scared.

Remember, what is the goal of money? It is for you to be secure. You were secure before you got this money. Now you don't know what to do. Well, I'll tell you what not to do. Don't buy more just because you can afford it. Buy what you need versus what you can afford, no matter how wealthy you get.

And believe it or not, everybody, that is still to this day exactly how KT and I live our lives.

KT: That's for sure. Sometimes I say to Suze, let's spend a little money. She says, Why? And I can never answer. All right, so next is from Linda.

She said, Hi, Suze and KT. I'm 74 years old and have been listening to your podcast for almost two years now. I'm a retired teacher and my net income is about $4,500 a month through my pension program and a little bit of Social Security.

We love teachers, don't we? My question is, should I try investing in the stock market? My goal is to save enough money in case I need more money for long-term care in another 10 years or so. At my age, long-term care insurance is too expensive, so I think I'd be better off saving than pouring that money into an insurance policy.

I own my home. It may not be paid off in my lifetime. I do have approximately $175,000 equity in my home, and I owe about $150,000 more. Also, my interest rate is only 2.75%. Should I try putting $1,000 in the Vanguard VOO, now just to get familiar with it, or just stay with CDs?

Suze: Let me see that.

KT: Go with the VOO. Let her try it.

Suze: Is that what you would tell her? Yeah, so this is your quizzy. You would say, because she's fine, she has good income and all. She has about 48... I'm reading this now, she has about $48,000 in CDs and checking. All right. She is 74. And you would say, take that $1,000 extra dollars and see what you can do with it...

KT: With the VOO...

Suze: You would, would you? Why not? Because I'm going to show you how a great financial advisor — I'm very serious, which I am — would look at this problem here and tell her how to solve it.

You know, it's funny, everybody, I look at all of your money like it's a chess game. If I make one move, how does that affect everything else? And what is the smartest move that I can make so that you can have checkmate? You can always win, no matter what.

So here, my dear Linda, is what I want you to think about. You say—

Suze: You say you have $175,000 of equity in your home, and you owe about $150,000, and you have a 2.75% interest rate. That means you bought it a few years ago, and your mortgage payments are probably about $612 a month. OK, great.

What if, because obviously you have a 30-year mortgage, right? It's obvious that that's what you have. So listen to me closely, Linda. You have a $612 a month mortgage, but you still probably owe about 27 years on this mortgage, and you're already 74 years of age. So you're probably never going to have it paid off in your lifetime.

All right. However, what if you were to take that $1,000 and put it towards your mortgage, so that rather than $612 a month, you're now paying $1,612 a month towards this mortgage? Do you know if you did that, you would own this house outright in seven years and about four months.

KT: I love that.

Suze: All right, so now you have a home that's worth $325,000 — maybe $350,000 at that time or more — that you could either sell, do a reverse mortgage on, but you now have also lowered your expenses by $1,600 a month because you were able to pay it for a mortgage. Now you don't have that anymore.

Now what would happen if you took that $1,000 and you invested it, let's say in VOO. Now, even though I know VOO has averaged about 15% over the past five years or so, let's just be conservative where it averages about 10%, because that's on average what it should make. So what that would mean is that in 7.4 years, at about a 10% average annual rate of return, you would have $124,000.

But you would still owe $118,000 on your mortgage. Now I have a lot of money invested in the known versus the unknown.

If you put $1,000 a month into the house, we know in 7.4 years you're going to get rid of $150,000 and own your home outright. We actually don't know what's going to happen in the stock market. We don't know that we could say that $1,000 over the next 7.4 years is going to make 10%. It could lose 10%. We have no idea.

Therefore, what you are going to do is you're going to invest in yourself, in your security, and the known versus the unknown, and you are going to put that extra $1,000 towards the principal payment of your mortgage, and that's exactly what you are going to do with it. You are not going to invest it. There you go, KT.

How was that?

KT: That's why you're Suze Orman. I'm not.

Suze: Pretty good. I can pull numbers like that...

KT: You always could.

KT: OK, my next question is from a man. I love these — from Randy. He said, Hi, Suze and KT. Thanks for taking my question. I'm one of the guys from Ohio that is smart enough to listen.

Suze: There's a clue for all of you men out there. That's all you have to say. I'm one of the men smart enough to listen, and I have a feeling Ms. Travis will pick it.

KT: I will always pick it, always put you on top of the list. My question concerns maximizing my HSA contribution as I approach age 70. I'm a June baby—

Suze: He's like you, Suze. Yeah, little Gemini baby.

KT: I'm a June baby and trying to maximize my annual contribution in my 70th year before I draw SSA checks and still avoid a federal six-month look-back penalty. Does it make any sense for me in my 70th year to make a January HSA contribution and then delay SSA checks by a month? I appreciate your feedback. This is way out of my league.

Suze: Do you even know what we're talking about?

KT: No, I do not. Way out of my league, Randy.

Suze: Randy has a Health Savings Account, which is attached to a high-deductible health insurance plan, and he's allowed to put money in every single year up to a max, and he can take that money and invest it in the HSA mutual fund that they offer. Once he turns 65 or older, he can use that money for any qualified medical expense that he may have, and he doesn't pay taxes on it when he takes it out — and it was a tax deduction when he put it in. So big deal, if you ask me.

When you file for Social Security, you're automatically — once you're 65 or older — enrolled in Medicare Part A. But it's retroactive for up to six months, so that retroactive Medicare coverage makes HSA contributions for those months ineligible. And if they're ineligible and Randy were to put money in during that period, he could face tax penalties.

So I know this sounds complicated, but in essence he's saying, can he postpone it for a month? Because if Randy's 70th birthday is in June, Social Security — now listen to this, everybody — is going to consider him to have reached age 70 in May. They use the month before your birth month, Randy. So if you file to start benefits in May, Medicare Part A would be retroactive back to November of the prior year, which wipes out HSA eligibility for contributions to that point.

Here's the bottom line, sweetheart. Is it worth it? I just don't think it is worth it for you to contribute one month extra of an HSA contribution and give up one month of Social Security income. I just can't see it making sense. So therefore, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it.

KT: So this is my next question, Suze. I have a Roth quizzy. This is from Liz. Liz is 58 years old. She has a $90,000 IRA from previous employment. She would like to gradually convert that to a Roth. I understand the five-year timeline, so she's asking if she starts to convert with a small amount, when she converts more money, does the five-year rule kick in for each conversion? Does it start a new timeline for every conversion? She has conflicting information.

Suze: You should see KT's face.

KT: I think that the five-year rule — the number is 59 and a half — and that's when the penalty goes away. I'm... no, I... I know my stuff. So I think that's all you need to worry about.

Suze: That's not all you need to worry about. Liz, there is a lot of conflicting information out there. And the answer has a lot to do with: do you already have a Roth that met the five-year rule, or do you not? The age, all kinds of things. So therefore this Sunday, in honor of you, Ms. Travis, I'm going to give a Suze School once again on this particular topic.

KT: And I'm joining her. I'm going to join you. I'm going to help everybody. Because I... wait till they hear how much I learned about Roth.

Suze: KT, they don't care what you've learned about Roth. They care about what they need to learn about a Roth.

KT: I'll be there, everybody. I'll be there Sunday.

Suze: You are not going to be at my Suze School with me.

KT: I'm gonna be there.

Suze: All right, anyway, so that's what we're gonna do. So Liz, make sure you tune in, because I think my answer's going to surprise a lot of you — because you're really getting it wrong. All right, go on, OK.

KT: OK, next question is from Judy. Judy said, I'm a 64-year-old single woman who has been retired three years thanks partly to your advice. Thank you, Suze, she said. I have a quick question about AI. I want to dabble with some of the money I can risk, and I wanted to know what ETFs and or stocks you suggest that I can start with for my AI investment. Thanks for everything, and she said hello to KT.

So Judy, this is the first time I read this where people have money to risk. That doesn't sit well with Suze.

Suze: KT, what did you hear me do the other day on the phone? I said, this is risk money, buy this.

You absolutely—

KT: Not with my money.

Suze: No, you don't like risk.

KT: I never—

Suze: I don't care if you have money to risk. I want you to have money to risk. Why would I want that?

KT: So answer her question. What does she do? What does she invest in with AI?

Suze: What you didn't tell me is how much money you have to risk. Therefore, the number one ETF that I would be telling you to buy if you're really interested in artificial intelligence is the ETF with the letters SMH.

So that's what I would tell you to buy. That's what I've been telling everybody to buy for a long time right now because it actually has all of the AI stocks and the stocks in that category. Obviously my favorite AI stocks are Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD, and I can go on and on like that. However, I think the best way to start to dabble would be with SMH. And by the way, Apple — you've got to be invested in Apple. All right, KT, next question.

KT: I'm invested in Apple, everybody.

Suze: You've been invested in Apple a long, long— since I've known you.

KT: I got lots of apples. OK, ready. Next question is from Betty. Hi, Suze and KT. My brother-in-law recently passed and left my sister-in-law a million-dollar life insurance benefit.

Suze: Love that.

KT: After making a budget, she'll be short $3,300 a month. Her CPA and financial advisor recommend she takes out a $518,000 lump sum immediate annuity that will provide the income for life. And if she dies, ready for this, it'll pay her beneficiaries for up to 10 years from starting the annuity. She's 73 years old, in good health, does not own a home. The million dollars is all she has. The advisor said there's no fees, surrender charges, and everything is built in — whatever that means. She also wants to take out a life insurance policy with a long-term care benefit for $150,000 that would provide $370,000 in long-term care for up to four years. The commission on investments is about 1.05%, which sounds reasonable to me.

I'm nervous for her to spend half of what she has in a lump sum to provide only $3,300 in income, but I know my sister-in-law would also feel secured with guaranteed income. Betty wants to know, Suze, what do you think? Can I tell everyone what your face looks like?

Suze: Yeah. Like always. I'll tell you what upsets me.

KT: These CPAs and financial advisors.

Suze: How old is Betty?

KT: She's in good health. She's, um, 73.

Suze: She's in good health. She doesn't own a home. Here's the scoop, everybody. I think this is horrific advice. Horrific advice. When somebody says there's no fees, there's no commissions, there's no anything in it—

KT: It's built in.

Suze: And it's built in. Well, why the hell would they want to do it then? Who's paying them to do that? They get 1.05% for other investment advice they're going to give this person, but they don't make any money on this? Are you kidding me? They're probably going to get — on an immediate annuity — could be anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000 or $40,000. They're going to get a lot of money if she does this.

That's number one. Number two, just let me explain to everybody how this annuity works. It's what's known as a 10-year certain annuity. So KT, she's the same age as you. She's 73 and she's in good health. So if anything were to happen between the day that she buys it and 10 years from now, what's left in that 10-year time period — so if in five years from now she's killed in a car crash, her beneficiaries get that $3,300 a month for another five years. Once she lives past 10 years and she dies, her beneficiaries don't get anything.

So the first question has to be, does she have any beneficiaries that she cares about? Because the truth of the matter is she could get the exact same income right now, not touch her principal. She could actually get more income and still have $518,000 to leave to her loved ones. I mean, I want you all to think about this, so it's just not something that she should be doing at this period in time.

Suze: In terms of the long-term care, all right, if I were all of you — and I want you to listen to me closely — I do not get a penny for saying this, never have and never will. If you are interested in buying a long-term care insurance policy of any kind, that's fine, but I would not buy it before I consulted with Phyllis Shelton, who, in my opinion, is one of the experts in long-term care in the entire United States.

She has a whole staff that is so knowledgeable I cannot tell you. If you went to the Women and Money community app and you look where all those little boxes are when you first sign on, you will see long-term care insurance. Click there and it will tell you how you contact her.

Right? I would do that, Betty. I would have your sister-in-law do this before she purchases anything from these people.

The other thing here that I don't like is that you have both a financial advisor and an accountant — a CPA — both saying to do this. Now I'd like to know, does that CPA get a referral fee for referring it to a financial advisor and therefore they both are going to benefit?

I would never, ever, ever do business with somebody who gets a referral fee. Like I just said right now with Phyllis Shelton, I don't get a referral fee. There is no way she can benefit me in any possible way. The only thing she can do is help you when you need help in picking out the right solution for you. You don't have to go with her if you don't want, but there's no fees to do so.

So there you go. That's my answer. But Betty, I won't touch this annuity with a 10-foot pole.

What I would touch, however, with a 10-foot pole is the podcast on Sunday where all of you are going to learn something you all need to know. I'll be there. Don't you hate that saying — be there, be square? Anyway, that's beside the point.

There's only one thing we want you all to remember when it comes to your money. And what is that, Ms. Travis?

KT: It is people first, then money, then things, and you stay safe, and I'll see you Sunday.

Suze: There we go. Bye-bye, everybody.