# Classic Suze School: A Different Way To Think About Your Net Worth

An episode of [Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439621652), 15 Oct 2026, 27 min.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2df1102a-5761-4c99-b489-aabd0161f8fe/44e0936e-923c-43c7-9e2a-aade00edf4d3/f4abea56-b99f-4f6e-857e-b4e300eea25f/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=4e05fb00-5a5b-4ed9-b353-aade00edf4dd

Today’s Classic Suze School podcast features a lesson on how to figure out your real net worth. What happens if a disaster strikes and your home is lost? Suze walks through steps you can take now, so you can be a financial warrior! 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

[0:07] Robert: October 15th, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast
[0:11] Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi there, Robert,
[0:14] Robert: the producer here. Today's classic Suze School is from about
[0:18] Robert: three years ago, and I want you to keep that
[0:21] Robert: in mind when Suze refers to certain natural and other disasters.
[0:25] Robert: The main message on what you need to do to
[0:28] Robert: protect yourself financially is very relevant today and still very,
[0:33] Robert: very important.
[0:34] Robert: We'll have a brand new Ask KT and Suze Anything
[0:36] Robert: for you this coming Sunday, but for now, here's Suze.
[0:44] Suze: The topic of this Suze School is, How do you
[0:50] Suze: calculate your net worth.
[0:53] Suze: Because if you calculate it incorrectly, you could end up
[0:59] Suze: in a whole lot of trouble.
[1:03] Suze: So recently, I got an email from a couple who
[1:07] Suze: lived where? In Ohio.
[1:12] Suze: And they wrote me and they said the following, Suze,
[1:18] Suze: we have listened to you now ever since you went
[1:21] Suze: on the air. We've read every single book. We've done
[1:24] Suze: every single thing that you wanted us to do. We've
[1:28] Suze: followed you in every possible way.
[1:32] Suze: We have enough money saved for retirement. The person who
[1:37] Suze: wrote this and my spouse has just retired, and we
[1:41] Suze: were so excited because we were going to sell our house,
[1:45] Suze: we were going to move, and everything was fabulous.
[1:50] Suze: And then the train wreck happened. And now our home,
[1:57] Suze: that was totally paid off, Suze. We listened to you.
[2:01] Suze: We paid off the mortgage of our home, so we
[2:04] Suze: didn't even have a mortgage, and we were going to
[2:07] Suze: use the proceeds of the sale of that house because
[2:10] Suze: we knew we were going to get all of it.
[2:13] Suze: To buy another house outright and we were going to
[2:18] Suze: be great.
[2:21] Suze: And now we can't sell our house because our house
[2:25] Suze: isn't worth anything.
[2:29] Suze: We can't even get a loan because the banks here
[2:34] Suze: are not loaning.
[2:36] Suze: And when we talk about getting money back from the
[2:41] Suze: lawsuits and everything, the lawyers are telling us it's probably
[2:45] Suze: going to be 30 years.
[2:49] Suze: And this couple was absolutely devastated because they now did
[2:56] Suze: not know what to do, because they owned a home outright.
[3:02] Suze: That had a lot of value to it.
[3:05] Suze: And now it's absolutely worthless.
[3:11] Suze: And I started to think about that, about how we
[3:17] Suze: count on something.
[3:19] Suze: That maybe a natural disaster could really easily just take
[3:26] Suze: away from us.
[3:28] Suze: And when it's a major disaster, then sometimes the insurance
[3:33] Suze: companies will take a long time to settle if you're
[3:37] Suze: even covered. I decided to call this couple because they
[3:42] Suze: were so heartbroken.
[3:45] Suze: And I did give them many ideas of what they
[3:48] Suze: could do and how we could possibly make it better
[3:51] Suze: than it is, but I asked them the question, which was,
[3:56] Suze: does your insurance policy cover hazardous materials?
[4:03] Suze: And they said to me, we have no idea.
[4:07] Suze: So I then started to think about things and then
[4:11] Suze: a week later there was another train accident. This one, however,
[4:16] Suze: didn't have any chemicals aboard. And then recently there was
[4:21] Suze: another one.
[4:23] Suze: And there are all kinds of accidents happening everywhere.
[4:29] Suze: Then I started to get emails as well from people
[4:32] Suze: who live in the Bay Area in California who are
[4:36] Suze: writing me saying, Susie, my house that had all my
[4:41] Suze: net worth in it.
[4:43] Suze: Everything I had was in that house, Suze, just fell
[4:48] Suze: down a cliff because of the rain.
[4:52] Suze: The hill got too soggy and there went my house
[4:56] Suze: and the foundation. Then I get another email. Suze, we
[5:00] Suze: lived in a motor home that we owned outright.
[5:05] Suze: And that's where we were living, and even though we
[5:09] Suze: have other money in a 401k and everything, the reason
[5:15] Suze: we were able to retire is cause we thought our
[5:19] Suze: net worth was fine because we owned our motor home
[5:23] Suze: outright and everything like that, and now, Suze, guess what?
[5:28] Suze: That motor home got caught in a flash flood because
[5:33] Suze: of the rains in California and now it is gone.
[5:38] Suze: The bad news is we don't have a place to live.
[5:43] Suze: So it's going to cost us more money, and we
[5:46] Suze: don't even know if we're insured for this or not.
[5:52] Suze: Because you have to remember, everybody, insurance policies can be very,
[5:57] Suze: very tricky.
[5:59] Suze: It could be you're possibly insured for a hurricane.
[6:05] Suze: But all of a sudden what happens is that the
[6:08] Suze: hurricane breaches a dam, and now water comes rushing in,
[6:13] Suze: and now water floods you out.
[6:17] Suze: And now mold sets in. And maybe your insurance policy
[6:23] Suze: isn't going to cover that.
[6:27] Suze: So it's really, really important that number one, you know
[6:31] Suze: exactly what your insurance policy is going to cover.
[6:36] Suze: But given the fact that we are having more tornadoes
[6:41] Suze: in the Midwest, Mississippi for instance, than we know what
[6:46] Suze: to do with hurricanes that are absolutely, when they do come,
[6:53] Suze: number fives and tremendously damaging.
[6:58] Suze: And you have fires in California, now you have floods
[7:02] Suze: in California, now you have chemical disasters in Ohio, and
[7:07] Suze: so on and so forth.
[7:10] Suze: Are you really safe counting the equity that you have
[7:16] Suze: in your home as part of your net worth? Are you?
[7:23] Suze: And I can tell you by the number of emails
[7:25] Suze: that I've gotten, they thought they were, but it's not
[7:30] Suze: part of their net worth anymore.
[7:35] Suze: So, it is very dangerous when you think you have
[7:40] Suze: more money than what you actually have, cause when you
[7:45] Suze: feel like you have a whole lot of money, you
[7:48] Suze: then also feel that you can spend more then probably
[7:52] Suze: you should be.
[7:54] Suze: And that's exactly one of the things that was happening
[7:57] Suze: and is happening in the United States because the prices
[8:01] Suze: of real estate went up so much. A lot of
[8:05] Suze: you truthfully felt like, oh, we have all this equity
[8:08] Suze: in our house, so we could either take out a
[8:11] Suze: home equity line of credit and buy this or buy
[8:15] Suze: that or go on vacation or even use it to
[8:17] Suze: buy another home.
[8:20] Suze: And then all of a sudden we get in trouble
[8:22] Suze: when something happens.
[8:25] Suze: I'll never forget back to 2007 and 2008.
[8:31] Suze: And many of the people, cause I was still on
[8:34] Suze: the Oprah Winfrey Show all the time, many of the
[8:37] Suze: producers that worked for the Oprah Winfrey Show.
[8:41] Suze: They made a great salary. They were good with their money.
[8:46] Suze: But they had extra money, so a few of them
[8:49] Suze: bought homes in Tampa, Florida. And they bought homes for
[8:55] Suze: $700,000 approximately beautiful homes, and they could afford it.
[9:03] Suze: And they would put down $140,000 as a down payment.
[9:09] Suze: They put down 20%.
[9:12] Suze: And they could easily afford the mortgage. That wasn't a problem.
[9:18] Suze: But that's when the real estate market totally collapsed. And
[9:24] Suze: you had homes in Tampa that went from 700,000, 800,000, 900,000,
[9:32] Suze: down to $100,000.
[9:38] Suze: But yet my friends still owed on a mortgage of
[9:43] Suze: approximately 5 or 6 or $700,000 depending on their circumstance.
[9:51] Suze: And they had absolutely no equity in their homes whatsoever.
[9:57] Suze: So now their net worth went down considerably.
[10:03] Suze: But their debt went up.
[10:07] Suze: Also to astronomical levels because they had to pay not
[10:12] Suze: only on the mortgage but they had to pay association
[10:16] Suze: dues which were a whole lot of money wherever they
[10:20] Suze: had bought.
[10:22] Suze: And they couldn't sell the house, cause nobody wanted to
[10:27] Suze: buy the homes, and therefore what happened to all of them.
[10:31] Suze: They had to sell it in a short sale just
[10:34] Suze: in case for those of you who don't know what
[10:36] Suze: a short sale is. A short sale is where the
[10:41] Suze: mortgage lender allows you to sell the house for less
[10:47] Suze: than what you owe them on the mortgage, so you
[10:51] Suze: are essentially short of the money that you owe them
[10:56] Suze: when you sell it.
[10:58] Suze: And the rest is history because for some of those
[11:02] Suze: short sales they owed taxes on the difference between what
[11:06] Suze: they sold it for.
[11:08] Suze: And what they owed the bank.
[11:13] Suze: So, I have to say we really live in a
[11:19] Suze: time and a place. Where the unpredictable has now become
[11:26] Suze: the predictable.
[11:29] Suze: So I am asking all of you, if you are
[11:33] Suze: calculating your net worth.
[11:36] Suze: I ask you to look at what your net worth
[11:39] Suze: is without the equity in your home.
[11:46] Suze: And I'm asking you to do that so that you
[11:50] Suze: get a realistic view as to what you really could
[11:56] Suze: afford if all of a sudden your home went away,
[12:01] Suze: and I know you think it will never happen to you.
[12:04] Suze: I know you think that, but it absolutely can.
[12:09] Suze: And if you prepare for the worst but hope for
[12:13] Suze: the best, you will never get yourself into the financial
[12:18] Suze: predicaments that so many of you are in right now
[12:24] Suze: or were in back in 2007 and 2008 and 2009.
[12:33] Suze: The other reason that I don't want you to necessarily
[12:37] Suze: include the equity you have in your home as part
[12:41] Suze: of your net worth is because for many of you
[12:46] Suze: you aren't going to sell that house you are going
[12:50] Suze: to live in that house hopefully for the rest of
[12:54] Suze: your life. That's what many of you tell me.
[12:58] Suze: But yet, when you calculate your net worth, when I
[13:02] Suze: ask you questions, you always include 100% of the equity
[13:08] Suze: that is in your home.
[13:12] Suze: But it's in your home. So you really can't look
[13:17] Suze: at that and figure out, well, I have this equity,
[13:22] Suze: maybe one day I'll sell.
[13:24] Suze: Maybe one day I can take out a home equity
[13:27] Suze: line of credit. That's what that couple in Ohio thought.
[13:32] Suze: They really thought that everybody. And now they can't, right
[13:37] Suze: at the time that they were planning to do so.
[13:42] Suze: So, if you live in a home that you're not
[13:46] Suze: going to sell, to make a decision if you can
[13:50] Suze: afford to retire.
[13:52] Suze: You have to be able to look at everything you
[13:56] Suze: have and make sure that what you have is enough
[14:00] Suze: at a very conservative interest rate.
[14:03] Suze: To generate the income that you will need to be
[14:07] Suze: able to retire or for one of you to be
[14:12] Suze: able to stop working.
[14:15] Suze: The sad part about the situation in Ohio with this
[14:20] Suze: couple is that even though they didn't have a mortgage
[14:25] Suze: payment because they owned their house outright.
[14:29] Suze: Now they can't stay in their home, but where do
[14:33] Suze: they move? And now if they move, all of a
[14:36] Suze: sudden they have to start paying rent again. Or if
[14:42] Suze: they buy another place, where do they get the money
[14:46] Suze: to do so? Most of their money is locked up
[14:51] Suze: in a 401k, a pre-tax one, as well as an
[14:56] Suze: IRA rollover.
[14:59] Suze: So, they can't take out a lump sum of money
[15:02] Suze: from there, cause that will be totally taxable to them,
[15:06] Suze: which is another reason why if they had it in
[15:10] Suze: a Roth retirement account.
[15:13] Suze: They could have taken a nice sum of money out
[15:16] Suze: of there tax free to just do what buy a
[15:20] Suze: condo or something outright when the time came.
[15:24] Suze: So do you understand how all kinds of scenarios can happen?
[15:31] Suze: And that, while I know it feels good to own
[15:34] Suze: a home outright, and to know you have that equity,
[15:37] Suze: and to know if you need to, you could sell
[15:39] Suze: it and everything.
[15:41] Suze: But remember this couple never thought that this was going
[15:46] Suze: to happen to them.
[15:49] Suze: They always thought that they were going to be able
[15:51] Suze: to sell it, buy another one, if they wanted to,
[15:53] Suze: they could have taken out a home equity line of credit,
[15:56] Suze: and purchased even another rental property, or done whatever.
[16:01] Suze: Now, I'm sure that many of you have just listened
[16:04] Suze: to all this and you're going, but what can I do?
[16:09] Suze: How do I think about everything now, Suze? Can't this
[16:12] Suze: also happen to my stocks in my 401k or wherever
[16:17] Suze: you're invested? And I want you to listen to me
[16:20] Suze: closely now.
[16:23] Suze: Stocks are always liquid. It's not like an event happens,
[16:29] Suze: and all of a sudden the house is gone, so
[16:31] Suze: you can't sell it. You then have to go to
[16:33] Suze: the insurance policies and companies and things like that. Stocks
[16:38] Suze: are liquid.
[16:40] Suze: And most stocks and stock markets, if they're good quality
[16:44] Suze: stocks especially, come back after 3 to 5 years. So
[16:49] Suze: very seldom have I ever met anybody that had been
[16:54] Suze: invested wisely where it was a total loss and it
[16:57] Suze: was all gone.
[16:59] Suze: The other thing you have to remember is, you do
[17:03] Suze: not live in the stock market, but you live in
[17:08] Suze: your home, so you have to know certain things about
[17:13] Suze: your home.
[17:15] Suze: So get out your little Suze notebooks, and let's now
[17:19] Suze: start to talk about what I want every single one
[17:23] Suze: of you to do.
[17:26] Suze: Besides the fact that I do want you to think
[17:29] Suze: about the equity in your home differently, all right, I
[17:33] Suze: also want you to take steps to protect the equity
[17:37] Suze: that's in your home.
[17:39] Suze: And I just want to say this here very quickly.
[17:42] Suze: This podcast was not about stop paying down your mortgage
[17:46] Suze: or anything like that. It was about just look at
[17:51] Suze: things realistically as to what can happen. I still want
[17:55] Suze: you to make it your number one priority if you
[17:59] Suze: are going to live in your home for the rest
[18:02] Suze: of your life or you intend to, to pay down
[18:05] Suze: the mortgage by the time you retire.
[18:08] Suze: Just let's get that straight right here.
[18:12] Suze: The other thing now that I want you to do
[18:15] Suze: is I want you to call your insurance agent.
[18:18] Suze: And I want you to ask every and any question
[18:24] Suze: that you have, and the questions are obviously, what doesn't
[18:31] Suze: my insurance policy cover me for? 'Cause most insurance policies
[18:36] Suze: do not cover floods, or earthquakes, or volcanoes, or war
[18:42] Suze: or nuclear hazards, or hurricanes, things like that.
[18:49] Suze: Surprisingly, many of them do cover for tornadoes, and it's
[18:55] Suze: also something interesting for you to know that, as I
[18:58] Suze: said earlier, you have a hurricane, and you're damaged, but
[19:02] Suze: the real damage is from the water that comes in
[19:05] Suze: after the hurricane, and causes mold and everything, not covered.
[19:10] Suze: In a tornado, a tornado blows out a window and
[19:14] Suze: then water comes in or something.
[19:17] Suze: Usually they cover it, but you have to know.
[19:22] Suze: You also have to ask this very important question.
[19:28] Suze: And the question is this, you bought your house maybe
[19:32] Suze: 1 year, 2, 3, 5 years ago.
[19:36] Suze: And real estate prices have gone up dramatically since then.
[19:41] Suze: Do you have adequate insurance? Are you insured for what
[19:46] Suze: your property is currently worth?
[19:50] Suze: And will your insurance company replace it at what it
[19:56] Suze: costs to replace it today versus just what it's valued at?
[20:01] Suze: 'Cause remember, we have inflation, everybody.
[20:06] Suze: So wood today is far more expensive than when maybe
[20:11] Suze: you insured it 3 years ago for a specific amount
[20:14] Suze: of money. So it may cost a whole lot more
[20:18] Suze: to rebuild that house.
[20:21] Suze: Than what you thought it was going to, so does
[20:25] Suze: your insurance policy cover you for replacement value or only
[20:31] Suze: what it's insured for? You have to ask those questions also.
[20:39] Suze: You have to ask. All right, my entire neighborhood was destroyed.
[20:45] Suze: There is nothing here anymore, and I actually don't want
[20:49] Suze: to live here any more. Do you have to rebuild?
[20:55] Suze: In the exact place that you own that home, or
[21:00] Suze: will your insurance company allow you to use your insurance
[21:05] Suze: money to rebuild or buy somewhere else?
[21:10] Suze: You have to think like that, and you have to know.
[21:15] Suze: The other thing that I want you to do is
[21:18] Suze: I want you today.
[21:20] Suze: Not tomorrow, not the next day. I want you right now.
[21:25] Suze: If you can, of course, I want you to go
[21:30] Suze: through your home and write down and take pictures of
[21:34] Suze: absolutely every single thing that you have in that house.
[21:40] Suze: Open up boxes. Open up cupboards. Open up everything and
[21:46] Suze: take pictures of it and write down a value of
[21:49] Suze: what it is worth, 'cause I promise you.
[21:53] Suze: If a tornado comes through, and everything is gone.
[21:59] Suze: You will not remember. Remember, I lived in the Oakland
[22:04] Suze: Hills when that huge fire destroyed 3,000 homes and that
[22:11] Suze: fire stopped 1 mile from my house.
[22:16] Suze: And afterwards I drove through those hills. There was nothing
[22:21] Suze: but ash. There was nothing left, a chimney here and there,
[22:29] Suze: but no cars. Everything cause the fire was so hot
[22:34] Suze: it melted everything.
[22:38] Suze: So as I was going through those hills, I'll never
[22:41] Suze: forget this, I was stopping to help friends who were
[22:45] Suze: sifting through the ashes looking for anything they could find,
[22:51] Suze: and I remember saying that to them, Well, do you
[22:53] Suze: have a list of everything that was in this house?
[22:57] Suze: And every single one of them said to me, no.
[23:02] Suze: So, imagine right now that everything that's in your house
[23:08] Suze: has turned to ash. There's no remnants of anything but ash.
[23:14] Suze: Could you really remember everything that's in there? And the
[23:19] Suze: answer to that question is, you absolutely could not.
[23:25] Suze: So, it is your job today.
[23:29] Suze: Or whenever you can really to protect yourself and everything
[23:35] Suze: within your house because your insurance policy will most likely
[23:39] Suze: cover that.
[23:42] Suze: But only if you can tell them what was in there. Also,
[23:46] Suze: you have to ask the question.
[23:49] Suze: Will it cover the replacement value of what it will
[23:53] Suze: cost you to replace the TV today, or do they
[23:56] Suze: only give you the value depreciated of what your TV
[24:01] Suze: was that you bought 5 years ago?
[24:04] Suze: These are questions that are really important for you to
[24:08] Suze: not only ask but for you to absolutely have an
[24:15] Suze: answer to.
[24:16] Suze: So again, this is not about depressing you.
[24:21] Suze: This is about making you a financial warrior where you
[24:26] Suze: are prepared for anything and everything that could possibly happen,
[24:31] Suze: because when you are prepared, when you know the possibilities
[24:37] Suze: or maybe even in certain circumstances now the probabilities.
[24:43] Suze: Then you feel secure because you are prepared, and what
[24:49] Suze: is the goal, the true goal, not only of money,
[24:53] Suze: but of the Women and Money podcast? It's to make
[24:58] Suze: you feel secure.
[25:01] Suze: So, again, I didn't do this podcast to disrupt your security.
[25:08] Suze: I did this podcast to go from false security to
[25:12] Suze: true security, to actions that I want you to take today,
[25:18] Suze: and just a new mindset of how to think about
[25:23] Suze: the equity that you have in your home when it
[25:26] Suze: comes to calculating your net worth.
[25:31] Suze: There's only one thing that I want you to say
[25:34] Suze: every single day, so say it with me, everybody, today,
[25:40] Suze: wherever I go, I will create a more joyful, peaceful,
[25:46] Suze: and loving world and my own way. That's what I
[25:51] Suze: was trying to do today with all of you. And
[25:55] Suze: if you do that, then I promise you you will
[25:59] Suze: be unstoppable.

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