# Highlights from: How Can I Learn About Personal Finance?

An episode of [Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439621652), 2 Jul 2026, 23 min.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2df1102a-5761-4c99-b489-aabd0161f8fe/44e0936e-923c-43c7-9e2a-aade00edf4d3/5c8167d6-6a36-4148-8837-b47b00110fbb/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=4e05fb00-5a5b-4ed9-b353-aade00edf4dd

On this Ask KT & Suze Anything Summer Schedule highlight show, KT asks Suze your questions about what to do with money you don’t need for five years or longer, selling property, advice for getting young people educated about personal finance and more. Brand new podcast episodes come out on Sundays, during the summer. 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: July 2nd, 2026. Welcome to the Women and Money podcast
[0:11] Robert: as well as everyone smart enough to listen. Hi, everybody, Robert,
[0:15] Robert: the producer here. Now, if you listened to the last
[0:18] Robert: episode from Sunday, the 28th of June, then you heard
[0:21] Robert: Suze and KT announce their summer schedule. This is where
[0:24] Robert: they're going to be doing new podcasts only on Sunday.
[0:28] Robert: For those of you who didn't hear that episode and
[0:31] Robert: skipped right ahead to today, well, we didn't want you
[0:34] Robert: to be alarmed that there was nothing in your feed.
[0:37] Robert: So here I am, teeing up a highlight episode. Now,
[0:40] Robert: we may do these highlight episodes for the next few
[0:43] Robert: Thursdays just to help you ease into the summer schedule. Again,
[0:48] Robert: brand new podcast with Suze and KT will drop right
[0:52] Robert: here in this feed every Sunday.
[0:55] Robert: For now, we're gonna start this highlight episode with KT
[1:00] Robert: asking the first question. Please enjoy.
[1:06] KT: OK, so this is from Craig. I like this one
[1:10] KT: a lot, Suze. He says, Help me, help my son
[1:12] KT: get on the right track. My son is 18, has
[1:16] KT: a Schwab account, has 10,000 invested in ETFs and a
[1:21] KT: couple of stocks. He asked me recently what are some
[1:25] KT: good books or some people to read up on for learning.
[1:29] KT: I rave about your podcast, but what else can I
[1:32] KT: advocate for my son to get him off on the
[1:36] KT: right foot? Thank you both from another man smart enough
[1:40] KT: to listen for over 20 years. You go, Craig.
[1:46] Suze: I have to say, I know I'm being self-serving here,
[1:49] Suze: but I really think one of the best books for
[1:51] Suze: somebody like 18 years of age...
[1:55] Suze: is the book that I wrote many years ago now
[1:59] Suze: called The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke,
[2:02] Suze: and even though the numbers in there now have changed,
[2:05] Suze: like how much you can put in a Roth and everything,
[2:08] Suze: it will give him the basics seriously of what he
[2:12] Suze: needs to understand in a very simple and concise way.
[2:18] Suze: I love, love that book, number one New York Times bestseller.
[2:22] Suze: Other than that,
[2:24] Suze: I don't know. He's got $10,000 at 18. I think
[2:28] Suze: he's doing pretty good. I would actually also have him
[2:32] Suze: read Five with Fitz since it's free. Just get him
[2:39] Suze: used to what Keith Fitz-Gerald is talking about and things
[2:43] Suze: like that. Other than that, there's so many of them
[2:46] Suze: out there.
[2:47] Suze: So you know, I have to tell you one of
[2:49] Suze: the greatest books I think he could read is The
[2:52] Suze: Richest Man in Babylon. Just have him read that as well.
[2:57] Suze: All right, KT.
[2:59] KT: I forgot about that story, Suze. You did the forward,
[3:03] KT: forward for that book.
[3:04] Suze: Fabulous, fabulous book, because you know...
[3:06] KT: That's a classic.
[3:08] Suze: It's not just about what to invest in.
[3:10] Suze: It's about values and how he sees himself and what
[3:16] Suze: he thinks and how he feels and his whole interaction
[3:20] Suze: with money. So there's more to it than just what
[3:23] Suze: to invest in. All right.
[3:25] KT: OK, good. From Paula. hello, Suze and KT. I have
[3:29] KT: followed you since I was 32.
[3:32] KT: And now I will be 70 in a few months.
[3:36] Suze: I was just gonna say, oh, tell me she's gonna
[3:37] Suze: be 72 now, right?
[3:38] KT: I recently retired and filed for Social Security three months
[3:42] KT: prior to age 70 with my spouse already collecting SS
[3:47] KT: several years ago.
[3:49] KT: Between the two of us, our monthly expenses will be covered.
[3:53] KT: So my question is, should we open a CD with
[3:56] KT: the liquid capital, of course, less their emergency fund, or
[4:00] KT: what should we do with our excess cash? They have
[4:03] KT: about 300,000.
[4:05] KT: Just to give you a little backstory, Suze, they have
[4:08] KT: 525,000 in stocks and bonds, another 275,000 to 300,000 in metals,
[4:17] KT: and zero debt. Yay.
[4:22] Suze: So does metals, do you think mean gold?
[4:24] KT: I think so.
[4:26] Suze: So let me just answer this quickly, which is, and
[4:29] Suze: everybody listen to me carefully, I cannot...
[4:33] Suze: I cannot tell you what to do with money because
[4:37] Suze: I don't necessarily know enough about you. What are your expenses?
[4:43] Suze: What is your health? Do you need a new car?
[4:46] Suze: Does your house need a new roof? Do you have
[4:48] Suze: a trust? Do you have a will? Do you have
[4:50] Suze: all of that in place? It's more than what should
[4:54] Suze: you do with 300,000.
[4:57] Suze: Now, KT chose this, and here's what I want to
[5:01] Suze: say to you. Let's say you didn't come to me
[5:04] Suze: with this question. Let's say you walked into a brokerage firm,
[5:08] Suze: a financial adviser, and you say, Here, I have $300,000.
[5:13] Suze: What should I do with it? You now have set
[5:16] Suze: yourself up seriously, everybody, for the salesperson or possibly also
[5:22] Suze: known as a financial adviser to say, Buy this, buy that,
[5:26] Suze: do this, do that.
[5:28] Suze: A great financial advisor can never tell you what to
[5:32] Suze: do with $300,000 just because you already have $525,000 in stocks.
[5:38] Suze: You have like $300,000 in gold, no debt, not enough information.
[5:45] Suze: So don't go writing me saying what should I do
[5:49] Suze: with my money? What should I invest in? I cannot
[5:52] Suze: answer that question for you.
[5:55] Suze: Because I don't know enough about you. However, at the
[6:00] Suze: age of 70, if you feel that you have everything
[6:05] Suze: under control, do you have a long-term care insurance policy?
[6:09] Suze: What happens if one of you ends up where? In
[6:12] Suze: a nursing home, and now it's 100,000 to $20,000 a month?
[6:16] Suze: Have you really taken everything into consideration?
[6:20] Suze: So before you do anything with that $300,000 I want
[6:26] Suze: you to look at every possible thing that could go wrong.
[6:30] Suze: Your health, your caring for each other, your home that
[6:33] Suze: you live in does it need a new roof, all
[6:36] Suze: of that.
[6:37] Suze: What's ever left over and you're fine with everything, I
[6:41] Suze: don't know then at your age, if I were you,
[6:44] Suze: I would be dollar cost averaging whatever you can afford
[6:48] Suze: to put in the market wisely and take advantage of
[6:52] Suze: what's going to be happening with artificial intelligence. That's all
[6:56] Suze: I'm going to say here. But Paula, really, you've been
[7:00] Suze: listening to me for so many years.
[7:04] Suze: You know what can happen when you get older. I
[7:08] Suze: just wanna know before you invest anything. You've taken care
[7:12] Suze: of the what ifs of life. Next question, KT.
[7:16] KT: OK, this is from Kyle. Kyle asks, Good morning, Suze.
[7:21] KT: Thank you for all that you do for the men
[7:24] KT: smart enough to listen.
[7:25] KT: I was reading about structured CDs with market linked returns.
[7:30] KT: What is your expert opinion about MLCDs and is there
[7:35] KT: a particular index aligned to the CD that you would
[7:39] KT: recommend if you recommended MLCDs?
[7:43] KT: Now just so you know, Suze, Kyle says he's a
[7:45] KT: year or two away from retirement. As an educator, I
[7:49] KT: do have a pension plan through PSERS. Do you see
[7:54] KT: these as viable options to limit risk in the market?
[7:59] Suze: So, I think I answered him, to tell you the truth,
[8:01] Suze: but that's besides the point, because that, I think was,
[8:04] Suze: I don't know when I did that, but I think
[8:05] Suze: I did it.
[8:06] KT: So tell people what MLCDs are first of all.
[8:08] Suze: MLCDs, the, the letters stand for Market Linked Certificate of Deposit.
[8:16] Suze: Now I just have to tell you, I'm not somebody
[8:19] Suze: who likes when investments are joined.
[8:24] Suze: Like, either you buy a CD and lock in an
[8:27] Suze: interest rate, and there you go, or you invest in
[8:30] Suze: the market by buying either ETFs or individual stocks and
[8:35] Suze: dollar cost averaging into them. I personally do not like
[8:39] Suze: when you combine those two. Why? Because when you have
[8:43] Suze: a market-linked certificate of deposit, you do get an interest rate,
[8:48] Suze: probably a lower interest rate on your certificate of deposit.
[8:53] Suze: But then you also get upward movement when the market
[8:59] Suze: moves up according to a specific index. You asked, Kyle,
[9:03] Suze: which index would I link one to? Well, if I
[9:05] Suze: bought one, which I wouldn't, but if I did...
[9:08] Suze: I would link it to the Standard and Poor's 500 index.
[9:12] Suze: I would not link it to any other index other
[9:15] Suze: than that. But the problem is, in my opinion, if
[9:18] Suze: that index really goes, you're only going to get a percent
[9:22] Suze: of that increase. You're not, if it goes up 10%,
[9:26] Suze: you're not gonna get 10%, you're only gonna get maybe 8%
[9:30] Suze: or 7%.
[9:32] Suze: And when it all comes down to it, I don't
[9:35] Suze: think you'll make as much money. You're being conservative, but
[9:40] Suze: put what you want in a CD
[9:43] Suze: and do that and then put what you want in
[9:46] Suze: the market. Don't keep them together, separate them. But listen,
[9:51] Suze: if you don't want to lose any money and you
[9:53] Suze: don't really care about your return that much, you can
[9:57] Suze: do it if you want. Would I be doing it? No.
[10:01] Suze: All right, why are you laughing?
[10:05] KT: She doesn't sugarcoat anything, does she?
[10:08] Suze: Well, you should know you've lived with me for 25
[10:11] Suze: years now.
[10:12] KT: Next question is from Monique. Hello ladies. What is a
[10:17] KT: cash value life insurance?
[10:19] Suze: It's one of the investments I hate the most.
[10:21] KT: Wait... She doesn't sugarcoat. I recently came into some money.
[10:26] KT: Is that an instrument that would be appropriate for me?
[10:29] KT: I'm a 63 year old nurse still employed. We love nurses, Monique.
[10:36] KT: Tell her why you don't like it.
[10:38] Suze: Listen, you say I'm a 63 year old nurse still employed.
[10:43] Suze: You didn't say I'm a 63-year-old nurse. My husband or
[10:47] Suze: my spouse is X, Y, and Z. You didn't say
[10:50] Suze: anything about your children. You would only buy insurance if
[10:54] Suze: and only if you need a life insurance policy, because
[10:58] Suze: if something happened to you, those who might be dependent
[11:02] Suze: upon you,
[11:03] Suze: would need that money at 63. I doubt highly that
[11:07] Suze: is true. So number one, you don't need life insurance,
[11:10] Suze: and you definitely don't want a cash value life insurance. Cash...
[11:15] KT: Why?
[11:16] Suze: Why? What do you think I've been talking about all
[11:18] Suze: these years? Cash value life, KT ready... is whole life,
[11:25] Suze: universal life...
[11:26] KT: Ouch.
[11:27] Suze: Variable life.
[11:28] KT: Yikes.
[11:28] Suze: And what have I always told you about those three
[11:31] Suze: kinds of life insurance?
[11:34] Suze: What have I told you? I what them?
[11:36] KT: You hate them.
[11:38] Suze: That's right.
[11:39] KT: She doesn't hate a lot of anything, but she does
[11:42] KT: hate those.
[11:43] Suze: Now, a second ago I told Kyle, don't mix investments.
[11:48] Suze: You want a CD, buy a CD. You wanna buy
[11:52] Suze: an ETF or whatever in the market.
[11:56] Suze: Monique, you don't buy life insurance just because it has
[12:00] Suze: cash value. You buy life insurance again because somebody is
[12:05] Suze: going to need money in case you die. And in
[12:09] Suze: that case, the only kind of insurance you should be
[12:11] Suze: buying is term insurance, but at 63,
[12:15] Suze: it would be expensive, so no, you should not, and
[12:19] Suze: I repeat, you should not be doing this under any
[12:24] Suze: circumstance whatsoever. You just came into some money. If you
[12:28] Suze: have a mortgage, pay it off,
[12:30] Suze: if you're gonna stay in your house forever. Oh, you
[12:33] Suze: want some money in the stock market or whatever, Open
[12:36] Suze: up a Roth IRA and do it in there in
[12:38] Suze: an ETF, whatever you do, but do not, do not
[12:43] Suze: do cash value life insurance. All right.
[12:49] KT: There you go, Monique. OK. Next question is from, I know, Suze.
[12:55] KT: I know what these questions do to her. Here's a
[12:57] KT: good one. This is from Sokary. Thank you for what
[13:01] KT: you do for us. I'm a single mom, business owner,
[13:05] KT: renting with an
[13:06] KT: emergency fund and a 20% down payment for a house.
[13:11] KT: I heard about seller financing and I'm curious, two questions
[13:16] KT: do you think I should buy? If so, what are
[13:19] KT: your thoughts about seller financing as an alternative option?
[13:25] Suze: Here is a situation once again.
[13:29] Suze: That all you tell me is you're a single mom,
[13:32] Suze: you're a business owner, currently you're renting, you have an
[13:36] Suze: emergency fund and 20% down. Do you think I should buy,
[13:41] Suze: you say.
[13:44] Suze: How would I know? OK, she's really laughing now.
[13:49] KT: I picked these questions that have a whole lot of
[13:51] KT: blanks in them because it challenges her to figure out
[13:56] KT: what advice to give you.
[13:58] Suze: Here's the advice I'm going to give you.
[14:01] KT: Send me more information.
[14:02] Suze: No, don't, right? But here's the advice. Seriously, is your
[14:08] Suze: job secure?
[14:10] Suze: Right? Can you afford the monthly payments on a mortgage,
[14:15] Suze: plus the insurance, plus the property tax, plus maintenance? So,
[14:21] Suze: do you want to own a home, or is it
[14:24] Suze: better for you to continue just renting because maybe renting
[14:28] Suze: is far simpler for you. Where, what area are you
[14:32] Suze: talking about?
[14:33] Suze: Because in certain areas like Florida and maybe LA you
[14:37] Suze: can't even get insurance anymore in many of the areas
[14:41] Suze: to even cover your home in terms of property insurance.
[14:46] Suze: And if you're going to take out a mortgage, you
[14:48] Suze: need insurance. So have you figured out all of those?
[14:52] Suze: You're a business owner. What happens if you get sick?
[14:56] Suze: And you can't run your business anymore. Then what are
[15:00] Suze: you going to do? And there's so many things to consider,
[15:04] Suze: so I don't have a clue what you should do.
[15:07] Suze: Do you all understand? It's not just as simple as,
[15:11] Suze: Should I buy a home, Suze?
[15:14] Suze: It's not just as simple as I have $300,000. What
[15:17] Suze: should I do with it? You have to think more
[15:21] Suze: deeply about your entire situation.
[15:25] Suze: And you have to make these decisions on your own,
[15:29] Suze: 'cause otherwise you're gonna meet up with possibly a real
[15:32] Suze: estate agent, and they're gonna say, oh yeah, buy this.
[15:36] Suze: You're gonna go and see possibly a financial advisor that
[15:39] Suze: will say, oh, 300,000, I don't care what else you have,
[15:42] Suze: buy this. Now, maybe you'll meet up with an honest
[15:45] Suze: one and a good one, possibly.
[15:49] Suze: So therefore you have to start thinking more deeply about
[15:54] Suze: your own individual situations and what could go wrong. And
[15:58] Suze: if you know you can cover everything, if it goes wrong,
[16:02] Suze: then it's right for you to do something with your
[16:04] Suze: money that you wanna do. KT!
[16:07] KT: I, I wanna give them one more piece of advice
[16:10] KT: I'll never forget. Suze's brother looked at us once when
[16:13] KT: we were buying our condo in Florida, and he said, Girls,
[16:17] KT: remember one thing: Condo fees never go down.
[16:22] Suze: Yes, he forgot to tell us about assessments as well.
[16:25] Suze: All right, go on.
[16:26] KT: OK. Next question is Jessica. We have a significant amount
[16:30] KT: of money in CDs, approximately 300,000. We have slowly been
[16:35] KT: learning about mutual funds and stocks. Over time we have
[16:39] KT: accumulated
[16:40] KT: $130,000 in mutual funds and individual stocks. They are doing
[16:46] KT: quite well. How much money should remain liquid and how
[16:51] KT: much should we invest? We have no debt. Our home
[16:55] KT: is paid off. We are 50 and 52, and retirement
[17:00] KT: is on the horizon but a few years away.
[17:03] KT: And Suze, I'll just give you real quick, they have
[17:06] KT: two kids. One gets a, they're in college. One is
[17:09] KT: a free ride. The other one needs to be paid for.
[17:12] KT: We have a small 529 plan. Our retirement 401k is
[17:17] KT: 2 million combined plus I will have a fixed pension
[17:21] KT: of 7,000 monthly. So there's a little more information for you.
[17:27] KT: I think they're doing pretty well.
[17:28] Suze: They're doing pretty well, but you're really doing really bad
[17:33] Suze: on one thing, you are 50 and 52 years of age.
[17:38] Suze: How is it possible that you haven't listened to me
[17:42] Suze: for all these years and you now have $2 million
[17:47] Suze: in a pre-tax retirement account and not in a Roth?
[17:51] Suze: That means later on when you go to take money out,
[17:56] Suze: you are going to pay ordinary income tax on it,
[17:58] Suze: you know, your two kids.
[18:01] Suze: All right, you die and leave it to them. They're
[18:03] Suze: going to pay ordinary income tax on it. You add
[18:06] Suze: that to your $7,000 a month pension plus Social Security
[18:11] Suze: and everything else. Oh, now you're in a seriously high
[18:15] Suze: income tax bracket, and you have made Uncle Sam so
[18:18] Suze: happy I can't even tell you.
[18:21] Suze: I don't care about what you should be doing with
[18:24] Suze: new money, how much you should keep safe, how much,
[18:27] Suze: I don't care about that right now. I care about
[18:30] Suze: you better figure out how to get that $2 million
[18:34] Suze: little by little into your Roth 401k,
[18:38] Suze: so that by the time you actually retire, it is
[18:42] Suze: all there and a new contribution should be going to
[18:45] Suze: a Roth 401k and if you can figure it out,
[18:49] Suze: a Roth IRA as well, period. That is the move, Jessica,
[18:55] Suze: that you really need to start thinking about because you
[18:58] Suze: are just so, so wrong with having so much money
[19:03] Suze: in a 401k pre-tax. What are you looking at me?
[19:08] KT: Because you don't have to give her a slap down
[19:10] KT: so hard.
[19:11] Suze: I, but I'm telling you, KT, for how many years
[19:14] Suze: now have I been telling people don't do pre-tax account,
[19:20] Suze: and yet you all still are doing them.
[19:23] Suze: And even if you're doing them, are you doing what
[19:26] Suze: it takes to convert little by little into a Roth?
[19:30] Suze: And you're thinking, oh, but I'm gonna owe taxes and this,
[19:33] Suze: the biggest mistake I am telling you, in my opinion,
[19:37] Suze: you are making is to have a whole lot of
[19:41] Suze: money in a traditional 401k or IRA.
[19:47] Suze: All right, one more, KT.
[19:48] KT: OK, this is from Regina. It said Roth converting: Is
[19:53] KT: it too late? I am 60 years young.
[19:57] Suze: No.
[19:57] KT: And then, wait, Regina said, I have one more question.
[20:00] KT: Is there such a thing of being over diversified? I
[20:03] KT: have about 14 investments in ETFs and stocks.
[20:08] Suze: Yes.
[20:10] Suze: All right, there you go. But, but very serious, listen,
[20:14] Suze: I want all of you to get this. I want
[20:17] Suze: all of you to get this more than you ever
[20:19] Suze: gotten anything I have ever said in the 40 years
[20:22] Suze: I've been doing this.
[20:24] Suze: In most cases you are not too old to be
[20:28] Suze: converting money to a Roth, especially if you're not going
[20:32] Suze: to be needing that money. If you have money in
[20:35] Suze: a traditional retirement account, and you are retired and you
[20:39] Suze: actually need to withdraw money for you to live on,
[20:42] Suze: then it doesn't make any sense to convert. But if
[20:45] Suze: you're not going to need that money, or you're still young,
[20:49] Suze: like 60.
[20:51] Suze: You should absolutely be converting. Can you please, please get that?
[20:58] Suze: I promise you, years from now you're going to love
[21:02] Suze: me for it, but you should love me right now,
[21:06] Suze: even without it. But that's besides the point. In terms of,
[21:10] Suze: is there such a thing of being over diversified? Oh,
[21:13] Suze: you bet there is. I was looking at somebody's portfolio
[21:18] Suze: a little bit ago.
[21:20] Suze: Their financial advisor, and I may have told you this,
[21:24] Suze: have them in possibly like 30 different exchange traded funds
[21:29] Suze: and mutual funds, maybe even more than that, and if
[21:34] Suze: they looked at the holdings of each of those ETFs
[21:37] Suze: and mutual funds, they're invested almost in the same thing.
[21:42] Suze: So, yes, you can be over diversified. Truthfully, if I
[21:47] Suze: were going to be investing and I didn't really know
[21:50] Suze: what to do...
[21:52] Suze: and I had at least 5, 1015 years till I
[21:54] Suze: needed this money. I would take whatever money I had,
[21:59] Suze: and I would put half of it, 50% into VOO, VOO,
[22:04] Suze: and the other 50% I would probably put into stocks
[22:08] Suze: like possibly Tesla, Microsoft, any of the ones that I
[22:14] Suze: have been mentioning, and that's what I would be doing
[22:18] Suze: if I were you anyway.
[22:21] Suze: Is that that?
[22:22] KT: That's a wrap, Suze.
[22:24] Suze: All right, there's really only one thing we want you
[22:27] Suze: to know.
[22:28] KT: People first, then money, then things.
[22:30] Suze: Oh, so good, KT.
[22:31] KT: Now you stay safe...
[22:34] Suze: And healthy and secure. See you soon. We love you. Bye-bye.

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