# Classic Suze School: The Keys to a Successful Relationship

An episode of [Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439621652), 24 Sep 2026, 18 min.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2df1102a-5761-4c99-b489-aabd0161f8fe/44e0936e-923c-43c7-9e2a-aade00edf4d3/5cc61bb9-d6b2-4602-aeb1-b4ce01807a25/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=4e05fb00-5a5b-4ed9-b353-aade00edf4dd

On this Classic Suze School, KT and Suze shared their keys to making a relationship successful, not just with each other but with their money as well. Learn more about the Ultimate Scam Protection here: SuzeOrman.com Watch Suze’s YouTube Channel Jumpstart financial wellness for your employees: https://bit.ly/SecureSave Protect your financial future with the Must Have Docs: https://bit.ly/3Vq1V3G Help with the Must Have Docs: • Email:support@musthavedocuments.zendesk.com • Phone: 888-510-0510 Get your savings going with Alliant Credit Union: https://bit.ly/3rg0Yio 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 the podcast. Download the app by following one of these links: CLICK HERE FOR APPLE: https://apple.co/2KcAHbH CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE PLAY: https://bit.ly/3curfMI See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:08] Robert: September 24th, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast,
[0:12] Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen, Robert, the
[0:16] Robert: producer here, and for today's classic Suze School. We're gonna
[0:20] Robert: go back a couple of years for part of an
[0:22] Robert: episode that originally dropped on Suze and KT's wedding anniversary.
[0:27] Robert: You'll hear their keys to making a successful relationship, not
[0:31] Robert: only with each other, but with their money as well.
[0:34] Robert: And just as a reminder, we'll have a brand new
[0:36] Robert: podcast for you this coming Sunday, and now, here's Suze.
[0:46] Suze: I gave a seminar to about 200 people, and there
[0:51] Suze: was one question that seemed to strike a chord with
[0:55] Suze: the audience more than really any question that I was asked,
[1:00] Suze: and the question was:
[1:02] Suze: "Suze, how do you deal with a relationship, when maybe
[1:08] Suze: you're the saver, your spouse or partner is not? How
[1:11] Suze: do you deal with it with kids?" But it seemed
[1:14] Suze: like that was when the audience really, really perked up.
[1:19] Suze: How do you have a successful relationship when it comes
[1:25] Suze: to finances?
[1:27] Suze: Miss Travis is sitting in the room with us right now.
[1:34] Suze: KT, what makes our relationship successful, financially speaking?
[1:41] Suze: What do you think that is, and what advice...
[1:45] KT: Well, the first is so easy, Suze. We both have 100%
[1:51] KT: transparency and communication with each other. We have never ever
[1:56] KT: hidden or not disclosed or we're afraid to talk about
[2:01] KT: money with each other ever. And for me speaking about
[2:05] KT: money has always been extremely easy, very easy, which makes
[2:09] KT: me the perfect partner for Suze Orman.
[2:12] KT: But I think that is the key is communication, communication, communication.
[2:17] Suze: Besides communication, because obviously everybody, it is really, really important
[2:22] Suze: to get out your little Suze notebooks. What is the
[2:26] Suze: key or keys to a successful relationship financially speaking, because
[2:33] Suze: if you can't be successful financially speaking, trust me, you
[2:39] Suze: are not gonna be successful on any other level. You're
[2:41] Suze: just not. Remember, one out of two people who get married,
[2:46] Suze: get divorced... couples. That's the number one reason for divorce is
[2:50] Suze: arguments over money.
[2:52] KT: What's the number two for you?
[2:54] Suze: Number two for me, truthfully, is to, yes, we're totally
[2:59] Suze: one with our love, our communication, our relationship.
[3:05] Suze: But also you are one with your money.
[3:09] KT: Oh totally.
[3:09] Suze: With your money. I am one with my money, even
[3:13] Suze: though we know your money and my money is our money.
[3:18] Suze: You have total autonomy over the money that is in
[3:22] Suze: your name. You are not dependent upon me in terms
[3:26] Suze: of how to invest it. You have your own relationship
[3:30] Suze: with the brokerage firm, that you're totally independent with it.
[3:34] Suze: You look at your statements, you look at my statements.
[3:38] Suze: I don't look at statements because I look at them online,
[3:41] Suze: and I'm looking at it every single day.
[3:44] Suze: But I think the key, everybody, for our success is
[3:48] Suze: that KT has power over her own money.
[3:53] Suze: And I think we've set up our relationship in such
[3:56] Suze: a way that KT has trust that the power in
[4:01] Suze: this relationship is not because maybe I make more money
[4:05] Suze: than KT.
[4:06] KT: Always have. She's always had far more money than me,
[4:11] KT: but that doesn't matter..
[4:12] Suze: Who's really the powerful one in this relationship?
[4:15] KT: KT.
[4:16] Suze: And why do you think that is?
[4:17] KT: I, I know it is.
[4:19] Suze: But why? Because so many times, KT, seriously, people get
[4:24] Suze: into when they're in a relationship that the person who
[4:28] Suze: has the most money, the person who makes the most money,
[4:32] Suze: has the most power in the relationship. So why is that?
[4:38] Suze: That really in our relationship and everybody knows this to
[4:41] Suze: be true, you have the most power.
[4:44] KT: I make decisions.
[4:45] Suze: And I don't?
[4:47] KT: You, you weigh in. You're a Gemini. She's a Gemini,
[4:52] KT: which means that she weighs in. She changes her mind.
[4:55] KT: She's not sure. She goes back, she analyzes things. I
[4:58] KT: can make a decision, flat out. Whether it's right or wrong is
[5:03] KT: another podcast, but I do make decisions and I stick
[5:07] KT: by them, and I have incredible confidence in my decisions.
[5:11] Suze: And because she has confidence in her decisions and because
[5:16] Suze: she has power and knowledge of who she is in life.
[5:21] Suze: When she decides something, even if I disagree with it,
[5:25] Suze: I say yes, do it, because my job in this
[5:30] Suze: relationship isn't always to be right, isn't to be the
[5:33] Suze: one that makes decisions and do da da da da. No.
[5:36] Suze: The key in this relationship, everybody, is for me to
[5:40] Suze: make sure that KT feels mutually respected.
[5:46] Suze: Admired, honored that when she says something, I say, OK,
[5:53] Suze: that I don't put her decisions down, that I do
[5:56] Suze: come to her and I ask that we have equal power.
[6:03] KT: Yeah, I think Suze, it's respect, it's trust, it's communication.
[6:08] KT: It's not even equal power. It's not the word power.
[6:11] KT: It's more the word um. you know, sharing, we're kind
[6:15] KT: of in it together. We're in it together, and I
[6:19] KT: think that we have very, very uniquely different roles, but
[6:23] KT: we respect each other's roles, and one role isn't more
[6:27] KT: important than the other.
[6:28] Suze: But we're talking about finances now, KT. So when we
[6:33] Suze: first met.
[6:35] Suze: Because a lot of people say, "Suze, my spouse is
[6:38] Suze: so horrible with money," or "Suze, my spouse doesn't understand money.
[6:42] Suze: I do. They don't wanna learn about money." Whatever it
[6:46] Suze: may be.
[6:47] KT: When Suze and I met, which was very, well, we
[6:50] KT: were 50 when we met each other.
[6:53] Suze: Actually when we met, we were, we were about, you
[6:55] Suze: were 48. I was 49.
[6:57] KT: So, and we were both, I was a baby millionaire
[7:00] KT: and Suze was a very big millionaire, so we already
[7:04] KT: met each other with significant wallets, let's put it that way.
[7:08] Suze: But you knew nothing about that wallet.
[7:09] KT: I knew nothing about finances. I was always extremely responsible
[7:17] KT: and good with the money I had. I wish I
[7:20] KT: knew Suze a lot earlier. I did not know anything
[7:24] KT: about finances, investments, things like that, but I was very responsible,
[7:29] KT: not in debt, never in debt.
[7:31] Suze: Never in debt. So that's a big key, everybody, when
[7:34] Suze: you get in a relationship, you better know is your
[7:37] Suze: spouse to be or partner to be in debt? What
[7:41] Suze: do you know about them financially speaking?
[7:44] Suze: Write this down. You need to be as intimate financially
[7:48] Suze: speaking as you are personally with your spouse or your partner.
[7:54] Suze: Don't be afraid to talk about money. So when KT
[7:59] Suze: and I first met, and this is the main reason
[8:03] Suze: I wanted you on today, KT. When we first met...
[8:08] Suze: I wasn't afraid to ask KT serious questions about how
[8:14] Suze: much money do you have, what do you owe on
[8:17] Suze: your home, if anything? Do you have a car? Are
[8:20] Suze: you leasing it? What do you have? and what's going
[8:24] Suze: on in your finances? When KT answered, the truth of
[8:30] Suze: the matter is what KT?
[8:33] KT: When I met her, I was so proud that I
[8:35] KT: had this whole life insurance policy sold to me while
[8:40] KT: I was working in Hong Kong, making a lot of money,
[8:44] KT: and this was sold to me under the guise that
[8:46] KT: this would be a great way to have a retirement
[8:49] KT: fund in my later years, and I was so excited.
[8:53] KT: I was real proud. I thought, oh, this is gonna
[8:55] KT: impress her, she's gonna love this.
[8:58] KT: Well, that's not exactly what happened.
[9:01] Suze: She put in $15,000 a year on her birthday into
[9:06] Suze: this for 10 years. She deposited $150,000 in this policy.
[9:17] Suze: Now you tell the rest, KT.
[9:19] KT: She looked at me. She said, OK, we're gonna cancel.
[9:21] KT: I said, What?
[9:22] Suze: And why are we gonna cancel? What was your cash value?
[9:25] KT: It was very little. It was $50,000.
[9:27] Suze: Now here's my question to you. During the time that
[9:29] Suze: you owned this investment, had you ever bothered to even
[9:33] Suze: look at what it was really worth?
[9:36] KT: No, not really, because I just trusted it was a
[9:39] KT: great thing I was doing every year by putting that
[9:42] KT: money in.
[9:43] Suze: This is very important. Whether you're in a relationship, you're
[9:47] Suze: not in a relationship, you cannot just do something every
[9:51] Suze: single year or month and not look at the results
[9:55] Suze: of what you are doing. KT had never bothered to
[9:59] Suze: look at what was that $15,000 a year doing.
[10:05] Suze: Well, I'll tell you what it was doing. It was
[10:07] Suze: making her insurance agent rich.
[10:10] KT: It was, yeah, he got a big, and I like,
[10:13] KT: I liked him so much, and I said, he sends
[10:16] KT: me a birthday card and, and holiday cards every year,
[10:19] KT: and she said, of course he does, KT.
[10:22] Suze: The point of the matter is I wasn't afraid when
[10:25] Suze: we first met to ask her about her money, look
[10:29] Suze: at her money, see that after all those years, 10
[10:33] Suze: years of doing something, she only had 50,000 in this investment.
[10:39] Suze: So we had open communication for her to listen, but
[10:43] Suze: not all of a sudden go, no, Suze...
[10:45] Suze: this was good and stand by it so that she
[10:49] Suze: didn't have to appear wrong. She immediately canceled it. So
[10:53] Suze: many of the things, truthfully, KT, that you were doing
[10:56] Suze: based on the advice of other financial people, whether it
[11:00] Suze: was with your home, your car, whatever it may be,
[11:04] Suze: they were all wrong. They were just wrong, but we
[11:10] Suze: had the open communication to make it right.
[11:15] Suze: So that's what's important is for you to be able
[11:19] Suze: to talk about everything. We knew each other's FICO scores.
[11:24] Suze: We looked into everything about both of our personal finances.
[11:29] Suze: Nothing was a secret between us. What's important is that
[11:35] Suze: during that time, KT, from then 'till now...
[11:40] Suze: It's amazing how you scour everything, right? The mail comes in.
[11:46] Suze: Obviously we own a lot of individual stocks, probably close
[11:51] Suze: to 70, believe it or not, and when you own
[11:55] Suze: an individual stock, you get these prospectuses. You get these
[11:59] Suze: annual reviews. KT, what do you do with everyone that
[12:03] Suze: comes in?
[12:03] KT: Every single one I look and, and you also get
[12:05] KT: an individual statement on the buy and sell call for
[12:09] KT: the stocks. I look at every single one, every one,
[12:14] KT: and if there's something that looks a little odd or
[12:16] KT: I don't understand a term.
[12:19] KT: I immediately either look it up or make a phone
[12:22] KT: call or ask Suze what does this mean.
[12:24] Suze: Right now, the reason that that is important is that
[12:29] Suze: KT went from knowing nothing about her money, even though
[12:34] Suze: she was good with saving her money.
[12:37] Suze: To now knowing every possible thing there is to know
[12:42] Suze: about her money except understanding inherited IRAs which she never
[12:49] Suze: wants to hear about that topic again as long as
[12:51] Suze: you live.
[12:52] KT: Tell them what I said after we did that podcast.
[12:54] KT: I said, Suze, I'd better die before you.
[12:58] KT: Because if I, if you die before me and I
[13:01] KT: have to deal with this thing and listen to this
[13:03] KT: podcast about inherited IRAs, I'm gonna go crazy.
[13:06] Suze: The good news is though, KT, you're my spouse, so
[13:10] Suze: you don't have to think about a lot of that stuff.
[13:13] Suze: You just need to know you are an eligible designated beneficiary,
[13:18] Suze: and really, given that we're almost the same age, it
[13:21] Suze: will just go into your account. That's all you need
[13:24] Suze: to remember, all right? That's it. Simple, right?
[13:27] Suze: The next thing that you need to write down is
[13:31] Suze: that if you're in a relationship, you both need to
[13:36] Suze: take responsibility for everything.
[13:39] Suze: We both look at the bills that come in. We
[13:43] Suze: make sure that everything that we're charged for, whatever it is,
[13:47] Suze: that it is something that we purchased, that it is
[13:51] Suze: something that we have, we both look at it. It's
[13:55] Suze: just not KT's responsibility when it comes to our monthly
[13:58] Suze: expenses and everything. It is both of our responsibilities.
[14:04] Suze: So if you want a great personal relationship, you have
[14:08] Suze: to have a great financial relationship where you are both
[14:13] Suze: wanting to know everything about what's going on with your
[14:17] Suze: money every single month. So, you need to make a
[14:21] Suze: date once a month, that when everything comes in, you
[14:25] Suze: sit down and you look at it, but not like, oh,
[14:28] Suze: I have to look at it.
[14:30] Suze: You do it like we get to look at what
[14:34] Suze: our money that we have put all our efforts into
[14:37] Suze: earning is making for us. Oh, we get to look
[14:41] Suze: at how we are spending our money. Are we spending
[14:45] Suze: it wisely or are we wasting it? Oh, we get
[14:49] Suze: to cut expenses here, whether you have to cut expenses
[14:53] Suze: or not. You get enjoyment out of saving.
[14:58] Suze: True saving. And if you can start to do those
[15:02] Suze: things and be open, then you will have a successful
[15:07] Suze: personal relationship as well. How does this relate back to
[15:12] Suze: the topic that I started with?
[15:15] Suze: In the same way that when you get into a
[15:18] Suze: personal relationship with somebody, you enter it with the desire
[15:24] Suze: and the hope, that you're in it for the long term,
[15:29] Suze: in essence, 'till death do you part, that is part
[15:34] Suze: of the vows that many of you have taken.
[15:38] Suze: And as you know, my belief with money, is money
[15:43] Suze: is just a physical manifestation of who you are. You know, everybody,
[15:48] Suze: that I believe that. So the truth of the matter is,
[15:52] Suze: you are also in a long term relationship with your money,
[15:59] Suze: and when you invest, you invest your money just like
[16:04] Suze: you're investing in a personal relationship.
[16:08] Suze: You're investing in it for the long term. It is
[16:12] Suze: not short term. It's not five years, two years, it's
[16:17] Suze: long term, and just like in a personal relationship where
[16:21] Suze: there are ups, there are downs obviously there are fights.
[16:25] Suze: There are disagreements. KT and I have arguments. We have disagreements.
[16:30] Suze: We do things that we wish we hadn't or we
[16:33] Suze: say things that sometimes we wish we hadn't, but since
[16:36] Suze: we know we're in this for the long term...
[16:39] Suze: Our thoughts never go to, oh this is it, we're
[16:43] Suze: out of it. Same thing with money and your investments.
[16:48] Suze: There are times when it's up, times when it's down,
[16:52] Suze: but you cannot just think, no, I'm out of it.
[16:55] Suze: I'm selling. I'm gone. If it's a good quality investment portfolio,
[17:01] Suze: you are in it for the long term.
[17:04] Suze: So let the ups and downs happen, whether it's with
[17:09] Suze: your money, in your relationship, no matter what, but if
[17:14] Suze: you understand everything and the long-term goals that you have,
[17:20] Suze: Then in the long run, you too will be happy
[17:24] Suze: to watch KT celebrate your anniversary. What do you want
[17:29] Suze: to say, my love?
[17:30] KT: I love you.
[17:32] Suze: Do you love me more than I love you?
[17:35] KT: We love each other the same.
[17:36] Suze: There you go. So there's only one thing that we
[17:39] Suze: want you to remember, people first...
[17:42] KT: Then money.
[17:43] Suze: Then things, and respect each other, honor each other, love
[17:48] Suze: each other, and remember you're in it for the long term.
[17:53] Suze: Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay unstoppable.

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