# What is The Point of Life?

An episode of [Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439621652), 10 May 2026, 18 min.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2df1102a-5761-4c99-b489-aabd0161f8fe/44e0936e-923c-43c7-9e2a-aade00edf4d3/30b5dd5a-27c7-4867-a730-b445014bcd47/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=4e05fb00-5a5b-4ed9-b353-aade00edf4dd

On this special Mother’s Day Suze School, Suze and KT read an email that really touched their hearts and talk about the special role mothers play in our lives. Learn more about the Ultimate Scam Protection program 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 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] Suze: May 10th, 2026. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money
[0:12] Suze: podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen. And
[0:16] Suze: today is Mommy's Day.
[0:20] KT: Happy Mother's Day, all the mommies out there,
[0:23] Suze: And so we're not mommies.
[0:25] Suze: Do you think we're mommies to millions of people, right?
[0:29] KT: You are, you're like the, the godmother of money.
[0:31] Suze: The financial mommy. But, but here's the thing, everybody, as
[0:36] Suze: you know, we're recording this before we left for Japan
[0:41] Suze: on May 5th.
[0:42] Suze: Just a few days ago actually, but I thought deeply
[0:48] Suze: about what message, what message do I really want to
[0:53] Suze: give all of you on Mother's Day.
[0:56] Suze: And then I realized that on March 6th of this year,
[1:00] Suze: not that long ago, I got an email from somebody
[1:05] Suze: that really touched my heart, and believe it or not,
[1:09] Suze: it's about her mom. And sometimes it's not just about
[1:15] Suze: us doing a podcast saying how great moms are, how
[1:18] Suze: everything like that goes, but the role that a mom
[1:23] Suze: can really play in our lives.
[1:25] Suze: And the role that if you are a mom, that
[1:29] Suze: you can play in your daughters' lives, because one day
[1:34] Suze: they may be moms as well. So, what we're going
[1:38] Suze: to do right now is, I want you all to
[1:41] Suze: sit down, because this is kind of long, and KT
[1:46] Suze: will be reading the email that this woman sent in.
[1:51] Suze: Then I will be reading you the answer that I
[1:56] Suze: sent to her.
[1:58] Suze: And then we'll go from there. All right, KT, are you ready?
[2:03] KT: OK, are you all ready? So this email is from
[2:06] KT: a woman by the name of Dani Brunello.
[2:10] KT: What is the point of life?
[2:12] Suze: And KT, I have to say, when I saw that
[2:15] Suze: what made me pick this email out of all the
[2:19] Suze: thousands that we get is I thought to myself, now
[2:23] Suze: that is the most profound question I've ever been asked.
[2:27] Suze: What is the point of life?
[2:31] Suze: It's all yours now.
[2:33] KT: OK, so hi, KT and Suze. What is the point
[2:37] KT: of life? I know this is a big question to ask,
[2:41] KT: but if anyone could answer it, I thought Suze could.
[2:45] KT: I would also love your opinion and kindness, KT. I
[2:50] KT: am a 37-year-old woman with a supportive husband, two young girls,
[2:55] KT: 3 and 5, mom, dad, sister, and a large and
[3:00] KT: loving
[3:01] KT: Jersey Italian family. Me and my cousins all grew up
[3:05] KT: in the same small town. My mom is and was
[3:10] KT: always in charge of my family's finances growing up. She
[3:14] KT: worked as a teller in a bank, a bookkeeper, and
[3:18] KT: now as an accountant without a college degree for a
[3:22] KT: large company. When I was a kid, my mom and
[3:26] KT: I would watch Suze on Oprah together. My mom instilled
[3:30] KT: a
[3:30] KT: a lot of the principles Suze taught about money in me,
[3:35] KT: including working hard, paying down my student loan debt, investing
[3:40] KT: and saving into retirement accounts early because time is one
[3:45] KT: of the best assets we have for our money. Yes,
[3:49] KT: I max out contributions to my Roth IRA. My mom
[3:54] KT: is 65 and my dad is about to turn 67.
[3:58] KT: The last two years my mom has been laser focused
[4:02] KT: on maximizing their retirement savings and getting my dad ready
[4:08] KT: to start collecting his Social Security. My dad has worked
[4:12] KT: his whole life in the second and third shift at
[4:15] KT: a print press, a job he's hated.
[4:18] KT: We grew up lower middle class, but even so, my
[4:22] KT: mom always saved for their future, for their retirement, to
[4:27] KT: get those golden years. My dad made it to retirement
[4:31] KT: 10 whole days, and then my mom was diagnosed with
[4:36] KT: stage 4
[4:38] KT: Endometrial cancer. It has been less than a month since
[4:43] KT: her diagnosis, and her health has spiraled downward dramatically. The
[4:50] KT: Saturday before Super Bowl, she was babysitting my children. Now
[4:55] KT: she cannot even walk to the bathroom, navigate stairs, read
[5:00] KT: books or texts. It's been absolutely devastating to me and
[5:05] KT: my whole family.
[5:07] KT: Her prognosis is poor.
[5:14] KT: I'm trying my best to give her everything I can
[5:17] KT: so she can suffer less. My big family has all
[5:21] KT: stepped up. We are coming together to help each other
[5:26] KT: out during this difficult time. Well, give me a minute, everybody.
[5:32] KT: This has rocked my world in so many ways, but
[5:35] KT: truthfully it's disrupted my entire philosophy of life.
[5:40] Suze: You can do it KT. You're just reading somebody's story.
[5:44] Suze: Go on.
[5:46] KT: I read too many of these stories.
[5:49] Suze: OK.
[5:49] KT: Work hard, save hard, love hard, be a good person,
[5:53] KT: then ride off into the sunset during your golden years.
[5:59] KT: I saw my mom and my whole life live by
[6:02] KT: this principle, and I can't help to think she had
[6:06] KT: it all wrong. What is the point of life? Why
[6:10] KT: am I saving for a future that may never come?
[6:13] KT: It is easy to say live for the now, but
[6:16] KT: I know in my heart you will need to save
[6:19] KT: for your future. I don't have the money to travel
[6:23] KT: to all the places I want to. I need to
[6:25] KT: save for that.
[6:26] KT: I don't have the money for the pool, literally and metaphorically, KT.
[6:33] KT: She knows me and my pool that I always wanted.
[6:37] KT: I would blow through all my savings right now to
[6:40] KT: do that, but what if that future never comes for me,
[6:43] KT: my family? I may never get my pool. I love
[6:48] KT: my mom so much. I thought she would help me
[6:50] KT: raise my kids and had all those plans for her.
[6:54] KT: With me and my kids during her retirement, I wanted
[6:58] KT: her Grammy years to be her best years, and now
[7:02] KT: my youngest daughter won't even remember her. If you have
[7:06] KT: any perspective, wise words, or even just a kind word
[7:11] KT: to give me, Suze, I could use all or any
[7:14] KT: of that right now.
[7:17] KT: Danny.
[7:19] KT: So Suze, you already answered her, didn't you? You wrote
[7:22] KT: to her?
[7:23] Suze: Of course I did.
[7:24] KT: Will you share that with everyone?
[7:26] Suze: Yeah, so that's what I had planned to do today.
[7:28] Suze: That's what I was saying at the beginning of the podcast, KT,
[7:31] Suze: that I would have you read it. I know that
[7:34] Suze: wasn't easy for you because of how much you loved
[7:37] Suze: your mother, and you know, for us, everybody, I just
[7:41] Suze: want to say this when we read emails like this
[7:45] Suze: and you have no idea.
[7:48] Suze: How many emails like this very similar to loss we
[7:53] Suze: read and they're devastating, which is why we actually do
[7:58] Suze: this podcast, believe it or not, not necessarily just to
[8:02] Suze: tell all of you about money and things like that.
[8:06] KT: But we, we wanna share life. We wanna share life.
[8:10] Suze: ... Life, and that's what we're doing here. So now
[8:14] Suze: I will read to all of you what I wrote
[8:17] Suze: back to Dani. First, I wanna say something very clearly.
[8:23] Suze: What you are feeling right now is completely normal. When
[8:27] Suze: something this unfair and painful happens, it shakes the very
[8:31] Suze: foundation of how we think life is supposed to work.
[8:35] Suze: There is nothing wrong with you for asking this question.
[8:38] Suze: In fact, the question, what is the point of life?
[8:42] Suze: usually comes when someone loves deeply.
[8:45] Suze: And has just been reminded how fragile everything really is.
[8:50] Suze: Your mother sounds like an extraordinary woman, a woman who
[8:54] Suze: worked hard, took care of her family, saved, planned, and
[8:59] Suze: taught you values that are now living inside of you.
[9:03] Suze: And the cruel part, the part that feels impossible to accept,
[9:07] Suze: is that life sometimes does not follow the timeline we
[9:11] Suze: thought we were building towards. But here is something very
[9:15] Suze: important to understand. Your mom did not get it wrong.
[9:20] Suze: The purpose of saving, working, planning for the future is
[9:24] Suze: not just about reaching some magical golden years. It's about
[9:29] Suze: creating stability.
[9:31] Suze: Dignity and freedom for the people you love because of
[9:36] Suze: the choices she made. Your parents likely have more security
[9:40] Suze: now than they would have had otherwise, even in this
[9:45] Suze: painful moment that matters more than you may realize.
[9:50] Suze: But here's the other truth that your mom's story is
[9:54] Suze: revealing to you.
[9:56] Suze: Life is not meant to be lived only for some day.
[10:00] Suze: It is meant to be lived in both directions at
[10:03] Suze: the same time responsibly towards the future, gratefully in the present,
[10:10] Suze: not one or the other, but both.
[10:15] Suze: Saving for retirement isn't a bet that the future is guaranteed.
[10:19] Suze: It's simply an act of protection, a way of giving
[10:23] Suze: your future self options if life allows it.
[10:27] Suze: But the meaning of life is never found in the
[10:30] Suze: retirement account at the end of the road. It's found
[10:34] Suze: in what you already described your village, your daughters, your
[10:39] Suze: Jersey Italian family around the table, your mom babysitting your
[10:44] Suze: girls the week before the Super Bowl. Those moments were
[10:49] Suze: the point, not the someday.
[10:52] Suze: Your mom already lived a full life of meaning because
[10:56] Suze: she raised you.
[10:58] Suze: She taught you values. She created a family that is
[11:04] Suze: now surrounding her with love, that is not a life
[11:08] Suze: wasted waiting for retirement. This is a life that worked
[11:13] Suze: exactly the way a meaningful life is supposed to work,
[11:18] Suze: and there is one more thing I want you to
[11:20] Suze: think about.
[11:22] Suze: Your daughters may be 3 and 5. They may not
[11:26] Suze: remember every detail about their grandmother, but they will grow
[11:31] Suze: up inside the culture your mother created. They will hear
[11:36] Suze: stories about her. They will see the way you handle money.
[11:40] Suze: They will feel the way your family shows up for
[11:43] Suze: each other.
[11:44] Suze: Your mom is already living on through that. That is
[11:48] Suze: her legacy, not the retirement years. It's love that keeps
[11:54] Suze: echoing through generations. Right now you are in the middle
[11:59] Suze: of grief, anticipatory grief, fear, and heartbreak all at once.
[12:05] Suze: I get it. It's overwhelming. But if there is one
[12:09] Suze: gentle perspective I would like to offer you, it's this.
[12:14] Suze: Life is not about reaching the pool.
[12:17] Suze: Life is about the people who would jump in it
[12:20] Suze: with you.
[12:22] Suze: So keep saving for the future because protecting your family matters.
[12:27] Suze: But also hold your girls tighter. Sit with your mom.
[12:32] Suze: Take pictures. Ask her stories. Let her tell you things
[12:37] Suze: about her childhood you never asked before. Those moments are
[12:43] Suze: the answers to your question, What is the point of life?
[12:49] Suze: And let me tell you something. Your mom did something beautiful.
[12:55] Suze: She raised a daughter who cares enough about life to
[12:59] Suze: ask this question.
[13:02] Suze: That alone tells me she succeeded. You and your family
[13:08] Suze: are in my heart.
[13:10] Suze: So, that's what I wrote to her. Now, many of you,
[13:16] Suze: I'm sure, are like, OK, how did that sit with her?
[13:20] Suze: How did she take it? What did she think about that?
[13:24] Suze: Because what we don't always do on the podcast is
[13:27] Suze: do a follow up of what somebody responded, but Dani
[13:33] Suze: happened to respond to me. So I would just like
[13:37] Suze: KT now to read
[13:40] Suze: the email that she sent back and this is actually
[13:44] Suze: dated remember I got her original email on March 6th.
[13:49] Suze: I wrote her back on March 6th and the date
[13:53] Suze: of this email back was March 10th so this is
[13:57] Suze: in a four day period of time. All right, this
[14:02] Suze: is easier to read, KT.
[14:04] KT: OK, again she responds with Suze,
[14:07] KT: Thank you deeply for this incredible thoughtful response.
[14:12] KT: And it was, it was Suze. I thank you too.
[14:17] KT: It is clear to me you took time to format
[14:20] KT: such a beautifully written and helpful answer to my question.
[14:25] KT: I read your response to my sister tearfully and sent
[14:29] KT: it to friends and clients that have all become part
[14:32] KT: of my mother's care and my own care during this time.
[14:37] KT: Everyone is impressed by how insightful and kind you were
[14:41] KT: to me.
[14:42] KT: You truly gave me tangible advice that I will reference
[14:47] KT: now and when I need a reminder in the future.
[14:50] KT: I'm sure you hear this all the time by the
[14:53] KT: thousands of people you have helped individually, like in my
[14:58] KT: case or generally throughout your career and now with your podcast.
[15:05] KT: I appreciate you and this so much. Please don't ever
[15:10] KT: become numb
[15:11] KT: to how much you have helped people.
[15:14] KT: Real people helped me.
[15:19] Suze: Why are you crying?
[15:20] KT: Because that's all you do.
[15:22] KT: That's all Suze does, everybody.
[15:25] KT: She helps so many people. Wait, let me finish this.
[15:28] Suze: All right.
[15:29] KT: My sister and I agree this will be something we
[15:32] KT: share with my mom. It will be something that I
[15:35] KT: can do for her that is special. We all have
[15:39] KT: looked up to you, and it will mean a lot
[15:42] KT: to her.
[15:44] Suze: Now, I just want to say something.
[15:47] Suze: I wrote Dani and I told her that on Mother's Day,
[15:52] Suze: we would be doing this podcast.
[15:55] Suze: And Dani wrote back and said, Oh, Suze, my mother
[16:00] Suze: Lynn will love this. Let me just say from my heart,
[16:06] Suze: from KT's heart to hers.
[16:09] Suze: Lynn, you are a great mother.
[16:14] Suze: And we wish you a very happy Mother's Day because
[16:21] Suze: you should be happy because you raised a daughter, a
[16:25] Suze: family that loves you more than life itself. So to
[16:31] Suze: all the mothers out there.
[16:33] Suze: I hope you take this Mother's Day message with heart.
[16:38] Suze: To know that the point of life is really about
[16:42] Suze: loving one another, respecting one another, always being honest with
[16:47] Suze: one another and supporting each other in the best way possible.
[16:54] Suze: So until next time, there's only one thing that we
[16:57] Suze: want you to remember, and it's this people first, then money,
[17:03] Suze: then things, and once again.
[17:05] Suze: Happy happy Mother's Day.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.