Podcast Episode - Take The Courage Challenge

Today’s Suze School challenges you to break the habit of financial fear.  Suze explains how even making one small positive change can build up your confidence and help you realize your own power.

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Podcast Transcript:

Suze: December 14th, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen. And yes, today is another Suze School, and we're almost coming down to the end of another year. Last Sunday, I did a Suze School about a woman that we decided to call Susan and what happened to her in terms of her very good friend asking her to take her money from a successful financial adviser where she was making money and give it to this woman's son who was a brand new financial adviser just so he could look like he was doing well and attracting big clients and cause her son was only going to charge her 1% versus this extraordinary adviser that was charging her 1.5%. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back to last Sunday and listen to it.

Well, I have to tell you that podcast generated more email. In a way that I didn't expect. So many of you wrote and said, Suze, that happens to me all the time, not necessarily about me transferring my account, but I just get so afraid. One friend tells me to do this, another friend tells me to do that. My spouse tells me to do this. I'm just so afraid. And what can you tell me about being afraid?

So, what's interesting is that I hear from so many women, you would imagine that, the Women in Money podcast, and everybody smart enough to listen. But what I love so much about this podcast is that really the majority of people that are listening are 50, 60, 70, 80, and so on.

I love that, because there's not another podcast out there that specializes in getting financially mature, financially older, the decisions you have to make and face when you are ill, when you are old, you can't work anymore. And I remember when I was 45 years of age and my first book was "You've Earned It, Don't Lose It, Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make When You Retire." But what did I know about retirement, really? I was 45.

Now I am 30 years older than that, and I know a lot about retirement. I know about getting ill. I know about making mistakes. I know certain things. So I love that I have my elderly community, and I love the ones that are young enough, 25, 30, that are enjoying it as well.

But what is still true from so many women is this: regardless of your age, regardless of your income level, even your background, all of your stories sound the same.

That you're earning more than ever before, you're saving, you're investing, you're doing everything that I've told you to do over all these years, but deep down you are all still afraid.

And I got two or three emails about three weeks ago, and these women were so accomplished, and the two of you know who you are, because I wrote you back significant long emails to help you and raise you up, not so much from your finances, but out of your fear and out of your self-doubt.

But all of you, you're still scared, you're scared that the market's gonna crash. You're scared that you're gonna make just one mistake and you're gonna lose it all. You're scared that somehow it's going to all slip away.

You know, I used to call it that we all have this bag lady syndrome that we imagined ourselves, not me, by the way, that we imagined ourselves being powerless and penniless and living on the streets.

And the only way that could ever happen is if you're powerless, because remember you and your money are one and when you are powerless you tend to make mistakes with your money but when you're powerful you always tend to do the right thing and I just have to be honest, you know, cause it's starting to get to me, for I can teach you what to invest in but I have to tell you, everybody, that's just not enough.

But I also need to teach you about fear because you can have money and still not have peace, and that, my dear friends is not the way to live life. Remember, as I just said a second ago, you and your money are one. So if you fear your money, you in essence are fearing yourself.

So, here is what I need you to get once again, and I have told you this before, but since this is Suze School, how about if we take out our Suze notebooks and we write this down.

Money doesn't erase fear. Do you remember me telling you this? Courage does.

Courage, one of the eight qualities of a wealthy woman.

Actually, the third quality, just so you know, courage is what shows up when you finally stop running from your finances and start standing in your power, when you stop running from self-doubt.

My 2nd book that I ever wrote was "The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom" and truthfully, in my opinion, the best book I ever wrote.

And I would always say, if you can just take one step towards your money, which means taking one step towards yourself, since you and your money are one.

You and your money will take nine steps back towards you.

But you know, the truth is I've seen it over and over again.

Women who are brilliant.

Women who are responsible, hardworking.

Yet for some reason they carry this quiet anxiety about money.

And a lot of the women that I've been writing back and forth with, not like they're only making 10,000 a year, they're making 100,000 a year, 150,000, one's making 350,000, and she's still scared to death.

So what do they do?

They check their accounts constantly. They second guess every decision. They feel guilty for spending and worried about not saving enough.

And here's the truth, the fear isn't about numbers. It's about trust.

Trusting yourself, trusting that you know what's right for you, trusting that you can handle everything and whatever comes next.

And when you build everybody that kind of trust with yourself.

That's when your relationship with money and who you are transforms, because fear can't survive where confidence lives, you know, I just want to say this a little and then I'll go on with this. I have a sister-in-law, KT's twin sister, and Lynn, I know you're gonna hear this, and I'm so proud of her.

And I may have told you this again a little bit ago because I never know what I say or I don't because I just kind of speak in the microphone and I never remember what I've said after I said it, so excuse me if I already told you this, but I'm so proud of her and her husband Tom, by the way, and Lynn is starting to really learn about stocks and feeling confident enough about deciding what stocks she wants to buy with their money.

I love that. I love that. I love that.

But here's the truth. What I find fascinating is that, do you know that women today, women, women control nearly 1/3 of all the wealth in this country? Can you just imagine that? And that number is growing every single year.

But still, most women say they don't feel confident making financial decisions, really, everybody?

Really?

But, you know what's so funny, when women do invest, studies show that they all outperform men, because women are steady, they're thoughtful, and they think long term.

So maybe we need to stop calling this and where everybody says, Suze, I wanna be risk averse. Please, I don't want to invest my money. I wanna be risk averse, and I keep telling them that's not what you wanna be, you wanna be what I call risk aware.

Write it down. Where you are aware of the risk that you are taking. Is it a big risk? Is it a small risk? It is a risk to do absolutely nothing. I want you to be risk aware, and that's exactly what will build wealth that lasts you forever. Awareness, preparation, and courage. That's the real power trio, everybody.

Those are the three things I want you to be now in this coming year. I want you to be aware. I want you to prepare, and I want you to have courage.

But let's be honest, and let me go back a second here.

Because fear has been following women and money for generations, which is why I wrote the book Women and Money, maybe the second greatest book I ever wrote.

Cause you know, women, it's true, and if you think that we're not socialized to think this, you are wrong because I know when I'm in a room with people and I just freely talk about money, you know, how much was that? How much do you make? How much did you spend? What's your real estate commission, all of that. They look at me like I am nuts, and that's because women.

We were taught that talking about money was impolite, that asking questions made us difficult, that wanting independence made us selfish. But I got news for you, everybody. Starting with this podcast, those days are over. Financial fear is not your inheritance, do you hear me? It's a habit, and habits can be broken.

And the way you break it is with knowledge. You learn to plan. You take small actions, and before you know it, you have built confidence. And when confidence shows up, I'm here to tell you everybody, fear packs up and leaves.

So, here's your courage challenge for the week, and I may have given this to you before.

But if I have, you need to still do it.

Step one, I want you to name the fear. What are you afraid of? And I want you to write it down, and I don't want you to sugarcoat it.

Then, I want you to just face the facts. I want you to look at your numbers. You can't change what you won't confront. And the reason that I want you to do that is, given the women that I've been doing plans with who have written me that touched my heart, so I answered them personally, once they saw the numbers really.

They weren't afraid any more. They weren't afraid cause they saw the truth, the truth that they weren't willing to look at.

And step three, can you just make one small move, just one.

Whether it's increase your automatic savings, or maybe you're adjusting your investment allocation up to you, or maybe you're asking one financial question you've been afraid to ask.

But just take one small move and step four, rinse and repeat.

Because courage isn't built in a moment, it's not. It's built in motion.

And here again is what I want you to remember from this podcast.

Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's the decision to move forward despite it. Did you hear me? Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's the decision to move forward despite it. Remember, you don't need permission to be powerful cause you already are. You know I've said this before, that in China they say women hold up half the sky.

And I've always said, but in the United States of America, women hold up the entire sky. I believe from the bottom of my heart that you have more power in your little finger women than everybody else, and I'll let you decide who that is, have in both of their hands.

So don't wait for the right time. I don't want you to wait for the right market. I don't want you to wait for someone to come and rescue you. You've got the money, now it's time to get the courage.

All right, a very short podcast, just 10 days from the holiday season.

However, there's only one thing that I want you to remember when it comes to your money, and it is this: people first, then money, then things. Now you stay safe. Bye bye.