# Classic Suze School: Financial Solutions if You’ve Lost Your Job

An episode of [Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439621652), 22 Oct 2026, 24 min.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2df1102a-5761-4c99-b489-aabd0161f8fe/44e0936e-923c-43c7-9e2a-aade00edf4d3/cf6a0fcd-7d46-42e0-b430-b4eb0012bb64/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=4e05fb00-5a5b-4ed9-b353-aade00edf4dd

Do you know how you will pay your mortgage, buy food and handle your other must pay expenses, if you lose your job? Make sure you have your Suze notebooks with you for this episode, as Suze gives you all the steps to take so you can survive and rise through this painful situation. 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: October 22, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast
[0:13] Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi there, Robert,
[0:17] Robert: the producer here. For today's classic Suze School, we're gonna
[0:21] Robert: hear highlights of an episode about what happens if you
[0:24] Robert: lose your job.
[0:26] Robert: It's a painful situation. I know I've been there, but
[0:29] Robert: if you follow what Suze says, you can survive and
[0:33] Robert: rise through it.
[0:35] Robert: And now, Suze.
[0:41] Suze: I would highly suggest, since today is Suze School, for
[0:46] Suze: you to take out your Suze notebooks. If you don't
[0:49] Suze: have one, I most certainly would take out paper and
[0:53] Suze: pen and write down the things that I'm going to
[0:56] Suze: talk to you about today.
[0:59] Suze: Let's first go to a Suze story.
[1:05] Suze: I want you to put yourself in this situation.
[1:09] Suze: You have worked for a company for the past 10, 15, 20,
[1:17] Suze: 25 years, maybe even longer.
[1:20] Suze: And you feel secure.
[1:23] Suze: You're solid in that company. You've given them everything that
[1:27] Suze: you have, and they've been good to you. They've provided
[1:30] Suze: you with a paycheck, a retirement account, all kinds of
[1:34] Suze: things that have allowed you to do what? Maybe buy
[1:38] Suze: a home, maybe buy a car.
[1:41] Suze: Be able to put money away in a 529 plan
[1:44] Suze: for your children to send them to college, or whatever
[1:48] Suze: it may be.
[1:50] Suze: And, of course, if you bought a home, most likely
[1:54] Suze: you still have a mortgage on that home, or you
[1:58] Suze: financed that car, cause very few people today, honestly, can
[2:04] Suze: buy anything outright.
[2:06] Suze: Even though you've been really trying hard to take my
[2:11] Suze: advice and get yourself an 8 to 12 month emergency fund,
[2:16] Suze: put money away, make sure if anything goes wrong, you
[2:19] Suze: have at least 8 to 12 months to get you by.
[2:24] Suze: Because if you do lose your job, it could easily
[2:27] Suze: take you 8 months to a year to get another one.
[2:31] Suze: But even though you've been trying to do so,
[2:36] Suze: You just have maybe managed to save a month or
[2:39] Suze: two of must-pay expenses.
[2:43] Suze: You have some credit card debt, but really not a
[2:47] Suze: whole lot.
[2:50] Suze: And here you are, happy, because you are just getting by. Yes, yes,
[2:55] Suze: it's true that the cost of food and everything, your
[2:59] Suze: insurance policies, all of that have gone up, so it's
[3:03] Suze: costing you more and more, making it even harder for
[3:06] Suze: you to put money in an emergency savings account, but
[3:09] Suze: you're still getting by. You're not behind on anything.
[3:14] Suze: Maybe you have a spouse, but it's true that your
[3:18] Suze: spouse is now working.
[3:20] Suze: And it takes both of your salaries to just get by.
[3:27] Suze: All right, everything's going along, and all of a sudden
[3:30] Suze: you get an email that says you're fired.
[3:33] Suze: You're like, what?
[3:35] Suze: Not me? Really? Fired?
[3:41] Suze: How am I gonna pay my mortgage payment? How am
[3:43] Suze: I gonna pay my car payment? How am I gonna
[3:45] Suze: feed my family? What are we gonna do? Oh my God, Suze,
[3:48] Suze: cause you've been writing me. Help me, help me, help me.
[3:53] Suze: And I'm like, oh, here we go again.
[3:57] Suze: And I say that because a few years ago I
[4:00] Suze: remember doing a podcast when the federal government had shut
[4:03] Suze: down and how are these people going to get by
[4:07] Suze: without a paycheck, but then it was a little bit
[4:10] Suze: different because they were still working for the government. We
[4:13] Suze: knew they would be going back sooner than later, so
[4:16] Suze: it wasn't quite the catastrophe as it is now when
[4:20] Suze: you are not going to go back and have that
[4:23] Suze: job anymore.
[4:24] Suze: And in many of the places, it's the only jobs
[4:28] Suze: that are available as to where you live that pay
[4:32] Suze: any decent wage whatsoever.
[4:35] Suze: All of these things, really, the tariffs, everything that is
[4:39] Suze: going on, you can see many major corporations are starting
[4:43] Suze: to have layoffs as well.
[4:46] Suze: If you think that the price of eggs and everything
[4:50] Suze: might not affect the fact that your bakery or the
[4:54] Suze: restaurant you work for, or whatever, may have to close down,
[4:57] Suze: cause they just can't afford the price of goods anymore,
[5:01] Suze: Well, you might be facing a reality there.
[5:05] Suze: So, all of these possibilities absolutely affect you. It's not
[5:12] Suze: just if you lose your job or whatever. What happens
[5:15] Suze: if you're in an accident, or you get sick, and
[5:17] Suze: you can't work.
[5:20] Suze: So, this podcast is for every single one of you listening,
[5:25] Suze: and all I can do is beg you to take
[5:29] Suze: it seriously, that anything can happen to you at any time.
[5:34] Suze: So you have got to take the steps today to
[5:38] Suze: protect your tomorrows in case it happens. All right, everybody,
[5:42] Suze: Suze School is now in session.
[5:46] Suze: Let's just imagine that this has happened to you.
[5:50] Suze: All right, what you really need to do is the
[5:54] Suze: very first thing is, you have to cut all your
[5:58] Suze: expenses down to nil.
[6:01] Suze: I know you've enjoyed going out to eat, you've enjoyed
[6:05] Suze: going on cruises, you've enjoyed taking a vacation here and there,
[6:09] Suze: you enjoy going shopping, buying clothes, buying all this, going
[6:13] Suze: to the movies, going everywhere. Those are not must pay expenses.
[6:19] Suze: Those at this point in time, when you're in this situation,
[6:24] Suze: they all have to go. They're gone.
[6:28] Suze: And I know you're going to say, but Suze, I
[6:30] Suze: really need to go to the gym. I need this
[6:32] Suze: massage once a week. I need these things. No, you don't.
[6:36] Suze: You want those things, and I understand how they play
[6:39] Suze: in your mental health and everything. What's gonna really affect
[6:43] Suze: your mental health is when you can't afford to pay
[6:46] Suze: your rent, or your mortgage, or anything like that. After
[6:50] Suze: you have cut all your expenses that are not must
[6:55] Suze: pay expenses, I need you to take an inventory of
[6:59] Suze: all your money.
[7:01] Suze: How much do you have in an investment account? How
[7:05] Suze: much do you have in a cash account? How much
[7:09] Suze: do you have, seriously, in retirement accounts, and you're to
[7:14] Suze: divide them between Roth retirement accounts and traditional retirement accounts.
[7:19] Suze: How much do you have in a 529 plan? How
[7:24] Suze: much do you have in an HSA savings account?
[7:28] Suze: I need you to take an inventory of everything that
[7:33] Suze: you have.
[7:35] Suze: Where is your money?
[7:39] Suze: Now, I need you to take an inventory of your
[7:42] Suze: must pay expenses, and the income that you will be
[7:47] Suze: having coming in, possibly from your spouse, possibly from rentals
[7:52] Suze: that you have, whatever it may be. What is your shortfall?
[7:59] Suze: How much income do you have coming in versus how
[8:02] Suze: much are your expenses that you must pay.
[8:07] Suze: And therefore, the difference between those two things is the
[8:11] Suze: amount of money that we need to find for you.
[8:16] Suze: The next decision comes from, where can you take it from,
[8:22] Suze: and in what order.
[8:25] Suze: So, you have to look at everything you have, and
[8:28] Suze: you have to remember what I'm about to tell you.
[8:32] Suze: Any money that you have in an IRA.
[8:37] Suze: Roth or traditional, any money that you have in an
[8:41] Suze: employer sponsored plan, a TSP for the federal government, a 401k,
[8:47] Suze: a 403B, Roth or traditional, is protected against bankruptcy.
[8:56] Suze: So one of the biggest mistakes that you can make.
[9:02] Suze: Especially if you don't have a lot of backup places
[9:06] Suze: to get money, is to use the money in a
[9:11] Suze: retirement account to just get by, and if you don't
[9:15] Suze: have a lot of money in that retirement account, possibly
[9:18] Suze: use it all up.
[9:20] Suze: Still then not being able to pay your expenses, and
[9:24] Suze: then end up having to claim bankruptcy, and now you
[9:28] Suze: have nothing.
[9:30] Suze: So, you need to look at the amount of money
[9:32] Suze: that you have in your retirement accounts, versus the amount
[9:37] Suze: of money that you need every single month to just
[9:41] Suze: get by.
[9:42] Suze: And how long will that money in the retirement account
[9:47] Suze: last you?
[9:48] Suze: If it's going to last you under 8 months, you
[9:53] Suze: are not to take the money from there, do you
[9:56] Suze: hear me? If it's going to last you two years,
[10:01] Suze: five years, whatever, you have a lot of money in there, OK,
[10:06] Suze: that may be a source of where you get the
[10:08] Suze: money from, but you have to think about it carefully,
[10:13] Suze: all right.
[10:14] Suze: If you have money in a retirement account,
[10:20] Suze: And that retirement account happens to be a traditional one,
[10:24] Suze: all pre-tax, cause you did not listen to Ms. Orman,
[10:28] Suze: you did not go the Roth retirement account route, you
[10:31] Suze: wanted your tax write-off at the time.
[10:35] Suze: All right, this is what you need to know.
[10:39] Suze: If you are 59 and a half years of age or older.
[10:44] Suze: Any money you take out of a traditional retirement account pre-tax,
[10:50] Suze: you will owe ordinary income tax on that money. You
[10:54] Suze: will not owe, however, a 10% penalty.
[10:59] Suze: In most cases, if you're under 59 and a half, and you withdraw
[11:06] Suze: money from a retirement account that's pre-taxed, of course, you
[11:10] Suze: will owe ordinary income tax, but you may also owe
[11:15] Suze: a 10% penalty.
[11:19] Suze: Unless your retirement account
[11:23] Suze: is an employer retirement account. It is a TSP, a 401k,
[11:30] Suze: or a 403B. Listen closely.
[11:34] Suze: And, you are under the age of 59 and a half,
[11:39] Suze: but you are 55 years of age or older in
[11:46] Suze: the year that you lost your job or you left service.
[11:51] Suze: Now what that means is, as you're listening to me,
[11:54] Suze: you may be 54 right now.
[11:56] Suze: But you will turn 55 before or on December 31st
[12:03] Suze: of this year, if that is true.
[12:07] Suze: Any money that you withdraw from your employer sponsored account,
[12:13] Suze: You will have to pay ordinary income tax on it,
[12:17] Suze: but you will not have to pay the 10% penalty.
[12:22] Suze: It only applies the 55 or older rule to money
[12:27] Suze: that you have in an employer sponsored plan. So, if
[12:32] Suze: you take money that is in your TSP 401k or 403B,
[12:39] Suze: and you do an IRA rollover with it.
[12:43] Suze: And you are going to be 55 years of age
[12:46] Suze: or older, you're not yet 59 and a half, but
[12:49] Suze: between those ages, and you do an IRA rollover with it,
[12:54] Suze: in most cases, you cannot touch that money, without the 10% penalty.
[13:02] Suze: Now, there are things that you can do if you
[13:05] Suze: did that, called separate and equal periodic payments, but trust me,
[13:09] Suze: you do not want to do that. All right, everybody,
[13:13] Suze: it is complicated, you could possibly get yourself in trouble,
[13:17] Suze: so it would be far easier for you. Just leave
[13:20] Suze: the amount of money that you know you wanna access
[13:24] Suze: from an employer sponsored plan in the employer sponsored plan.
[13:30] Suze: If you happen to have a lot of money in
[13:34] Suze: your employer sponsored plan, and you want to roll some
[13:38] Suze: of it to an IRA rollover, and you are going
[13:42] Suze: to be 55 or older this year, OK.
[13:46] Suze: But leave the amount of money that will at least
[13:49] Suze: last you for a year or longer in the employer
[13:54] Suze: sponsored plan. So that is a place that if you
[13:58] Suze: do withdraw, you're only going to pay income tax on it.
[14:01] Suze: But remember, you've lost your job, so your income taxes
[14:05] Suze: aren't going to be that high this year, because even
[14:09] Suze: if you are with spouse who's earning money, your income
[14:13] Suze: has gone down considerably.
[14:17] Suze: So just something for you to think about.
[14:21] Suze: For those of you who only have a little bit
[14:25] Suze: of money within those retirement accounts, whether it's your IRA
[14:29] Suze: or not, before you use any cash, before you take
[14:36] Suze: money out of any retirement account, I would like to
[14:41] Suze: see you, I know you're gonna think I've lost it here.
[14:44] Suze: I'd like to see you put any expenses you can
[14:47] Suze: on your credit card.
[14:50] Suze: And only pay the minimum payment due when the bill
[14:55] Suze: comes in.
[14:57] Suze: Remember, credit cards can be discharged in bankruptcy if you
[15:03] Suze: need to claim bankruptcy.
[15:07] Suze: You do not want to take money from a retirement account,
[15:11] Suze: cause if you claim bankruptcy, and you've taken it, again,
[15:14] Suze: I'm repeating this, that money's gone and you have nothing.
[15:18] Suze: You wanna maintain any cash that you have, just in case. So,
[15:25] Suze: this is a case where Ms. Orman is saying, all right,
[15:28] Suze: let's just use your credit cards for now, and let's
[15:32] Suze: see how it goes.
[15:35] Suze: Another place that even before you touch retirement accounts, regardless
[15:42] Suze: of how much you have in retirement accounts, where you
[15:45] Suze: might want to get the money from, would be if
[15:48] Suze: you have an investment account. So, besides your retirement accounts,
[15:54] Suze: you opened up an account at a brokerage firm, and
[15:57] Suze: you've been buying stock or whatever it is, ETFs or
[16:00] Suze: whatever that may be.
[16:03] Suze: Especially because there isn't a 10% penalty there, there isn't
[16:09] Suze: ordinary income tax there, if you've owned your investments for
[16:13] Suze: over a year, that would probably be one of the
[16:18] Suze: first places I would go, if you're lucky enough to
[16:21] Suze: have an investment account, to get money.
[16:25] Suze: In choosing what you should do, I would be consulting
[16:31] Suze: an accountant or a CPA to look at your situation,
[16:34] Suze: look at your taxes, what you have going on, really,
[16:38] Suze: and make your choice from there.
[16:43] Suze: I know you're not gonna like this next one, if
[16:45] Suze: you don't have any of that, but you happen to
[16:48] Suze: put some money in a 529 plan for your kid.
[16:53] Suze: And your kid is still years away from college, or
[16:57] Suze: even if they're not.
[16:59] Suze: You could take money from the 529 plan, and obviously,
[17:04] Suze: you're gonna pay a 10% penalty on earnings from that account,
[17:09] Suze: and you're gonna pay tax on the earnings as well.
[17:13] Suze: But depending on what you have in there, and your
[17:15] Suze: current tax bracket, cause you don't have income possibly coming in.
[17:19] Suze: That might not be a bad idea, and in fact,
[17:22] Suze: that probably would be a better idea, really, than draining
[17:27] Suze: money from a retirement account.
[17:31] Suze: A lot of you have cash in an HSA account,
[17:35] Suze: a health savings account.
[17:37] Suze: That is the one place I would most likely tell
[17:41] Suze: you not to take money from. That is because if
[17:45] Suze: you're under the age of 65, not only will you
[17:50] Suze: pay ordinary income tax on it, since it's not going
[17:52] Suze: to be for a qualified medical expense, but you're going
[17:56] Suze: to pay a 20% penalty on it as well. If
[18:01] Suze: you're 65 or older.
[18:03] Suze: All right, you're not gonna pay the 20% penalty, but
[18:07] Suze: you will pay for non-qualified medical expenses, ordinary income tax.
[18:13] Suze: Those are some of your options.
[18:17] Suze: Now, for those of you who were lucky enough to
[18:22] Suze: listen to me...
[18:24] Suze: And you actually opened up a Roth TSP, a Roth 401k,
[18:30] Suze: or a Roth 403B, and now you have lost your job.
[18:35] Suze: Listen to me closely now. I just want you to
[18:39] Suze: see an example of what you can do to help yourself.
[18:44] Suze: Write this down, everybody. Let's just say you have $50,000
[18:50] Suze: in your Roth TSP.
[18:53] Suze: And that $50,000 is made up of $30,000 that you
[18:59] Suze: put in.
[19:01] Suze: $20,000 of earnings when you withdraw money from a Roth TSP,
[19:10] Suze: it does not work like a Roth IRA. Any money
[19:15] Suze: you originally contribute to a Roth IRA, you can take
[19:20] Suze: out at any time without taxes or penalties regardless of
[19:24] Suze: your age. In a Roth TSP, they don't do it
[19:28] Suze: that way.
[19:30] Suze: They do a combination and prorate how much of your
[19:34] Suze: distribution is made up of your original contributions and of
[19:40] Suze: your earnings. So, let's just say, of this $50,000 that's
[19:46] Suze: in there, where you put in the original $30,000 and
[19:52] Suze: let's just say you want to take out $20,000 the
[19:56] Suze: way that it would work is this.
[20:00] Suze: You would divide 30,000 by 50,000, your original contributions, which
[20:07] Suze: is 60%.
[20:09] Suze: You would divide 20,000, which is your earnings, by 50,000,
[20:15] Suze: the total that you have in the account, and that
[20:18] Suze: would be 40%.
[20:21] Suze: So, you want to take out $20,000. 60% of that
[20:28] Suze: is considered your contributions. You're not gonna owe taxes, penalty
[20:32] Suze: on it, nothing, $12,000. However, 40% of that $20,000 is
[20:39] Suze: gonna be considered your earnings. That is $8,000.
[20:44] Suze: So if you take this from your Roth TSP and
[20:49] Suze: you are not 59 and a half years of age or older or
[20:52] Suze: possibly 55 or older in the year you left service,
[20:56] Suze: you are going to owe ordinary income taxes no matter
[20:59] Suze: what on the $8,000 and possibly a 10% penalty. However,
[21:06] Suze: let's just say you were smart and you decided to
[21:10] Suze: roll over all $50,000 into a Roth IRA.
[21:16] Suze: Two things. If your Roth IRA has been opened for
[21:21] Suze: five years or longer, or however long it's been open,
[21:24] Suze: the money that you're rolling in there takes on the
[21:28] Suze: time period of that Roth IRA. Let's say you don't
[21:32] Suze: have a Roth IRA and you are opening it for
[21:35] Suze: the first time. When you roll it over.
[21:41] Suze: All 50,000, 30,000 is going to be contributions, 20,000 is
[21:47] Suze: going to be earnings.
[21:49] Suze: You can take out without taxes or penalties, anything up
[21:54] Suze: to that $30,000. It's the $20,000 that has to stay
[21:59] Suze: in that account for at least five years and until
[22:02] Suze: you're 59 and a half to access it without 10% penalty and taxes.
[22:07] Suze: So in that case, if you wanted $20,000 you could
[22:11] Suze: withdraw it.
[22:13] Suze: Without any taxes or penalties versus the other situation, if
[22:19] Suze: you took it from your Roth TSP you are going
[22:23] Suze: to owe ordinary income taxes on that $8,000 plus possibly
[22:30] Suze: a 10% penalty. So to save yourself that tax money
[22:36] Suze: and penalty, if you just simply do a Roth IRA
[22:40] Suze: rollover with your Roth TSP 401k or 403B, you've lost
[22:46] Suze: your job now, you want to save every penny you can.
[22:50] Suze: This is something that you should look into doing.
[22:53] Suze: Obviously, check it with the CPA, just to make sure
[22:57] Suze: that I'm correct. So, there are things that you can do,
[23:01] Suze: what all of you should be doing now, however, if
[23:04] Suze: you don't already have a Roth IRA, if you qualify
[23:08] Suze: for it, you should open a Roth IRA, even if
[23:11] Suze: you just deposit $1 in it. Now the clock is ticking,
[23:18] Suze: because if you did have a Roth IRA that was
[23:23] Suze: open for five years and you did this and you
[23:26] Suze: happen to be over 59 and a half, oh, you could take all $50,000
[23:31] Suze: out without any taxes or penalties whatsoever. Think about it.
[23:36] Suze: All right, everybody, until KT joins us again, there's only
[23:40] Suze: one thing that I want you to remember when it
[23:42] Suze: comes to your money, and it is this, people first,
[23:45] Suze: then money, then things. Now you stay safe. Bye-bye.

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