Podcast Episode - Ask KT & Suze Anything: Hope For Those Who Feel Hopeless

On this Ask KT and Suze Anything, Suze answers questions about helping an older parent manage their money, starting to save your money, Medicare and so much more.

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Podcast Transcript:

Suze: November 21, 2024. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast, as well as everybody smart enough to listen. We're back.

KT: A week away. Are we a week from Thanksgiving? We are.

Suze: Wait, before you jump forward a week to Thanksgiving.

Suze: We have to jump back a week because we've been gone a week and people are emailing us where were you last Thursday, last Sunday, but we're not gonna tella you anybody.

KT: No, I'm not gonna tell anybody.

Suze: No, it's our... even Robert didn't know.

KT: We took a vacation we finally, but we're finally not telling, not telling you nothing, mutton,

Suze: Nothing. All right, anyway, but we had a great time. We're happy to be back and actually we've been back since Monday and KT has been a wild fishing fishing woman. I've never seen anything like it.

KT: Yeah, we've been having great catches and, and enjoying and giving the whole island all this fish. Everyone's loving us and Jimmy Buffett's daughter Savannah happens to be visiting us, which we just love, and she went out fishing with KT last Tuesday, just a few days ago, and wow, it was so great.

KT: I'll post some photos.

Suze: You will, will you? Yeah, she doesn't like that.

KT: OK, we won't post that right now. All right, so...

Suze: Wait, before you start a week

KT: ...from Thanksgiving, right?

Suze: No, I don't care about Thanksgiving. We'll get to Thanksgiving, right, but right now.

Suze: I had posted KT a pic a few days ago of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire where one of the questions on the game show was about Suze Orman and what does Suze Orman write books about, and there were like 4 categories obviously one of them was finances, and he kind of looked down and I did a poll.

Suze: Uh, not, well, not an official poll, but this thing on the women and money community

KT: Whether he got it right or not...

Suze: and a lot of people said he doesn't look like he got it right, but there's a reason that I also posted that.

Suze: Is because yes, he got it right.

KT: Oh he did.

Suze: He did. And not only that, he went on to win $1 million. But wait, there's a story to this. I got a story. See what happens when you're not on for a whole week? You just want to talk and talk and talk anyway.

Suze: Because he won a million dollars and my question was part of it, they had him on the Today Show with me. This is years ago now, and this was before... these were reruns, KT, all of these shows that was an old rerun with Regis years and years ago, like 2005, something like that.

Suze: And they had him on the Today show for me to tell him what to do with the million dollars.

Suze: And I said, whatever you do, keep it safe and sound.

Suze: That you have to remember you won a million when it's after taxes, maybe you're going to have 600,000, but if I were you, I would not be investing it in the stock market or real estate at this point in time.

Suze: Well, the hate mail, KT, that I got from some of the viewers of the Today Show, that is the worst advice I've ever heard. The markets are skyrocketing. Real estate is skyrocketing. I can't believe it that Suze Orman doesn't want him to invest in the stock market.

Suze: Do y'all remember what happened in 2006 and 2007?

KT: Oh yeah.

Suze: Markets crashed. Real estate crashed, and if he listened to me, that little $600,000 that he kept safe and sound is probably worth another million dollars today because he didn't go in the stock market or real estate at that time. All right, I just thought I'd tell you the story.

Suze: Is that a bad story?

KT: I'm gonna look him up now.

Suze: All right, you can.

KT: Find out what he's doing what he's got now. Hope he keeps listening.

Suze: All right, so this is the Ask KT and Suze anything edition. You've been pondering all the questions.

KT: Yeah, we're almost at Thanksgiving.

Suze: Will you stop it. Tell everybody who's going to be with us this Thanksgiving.

KT: Colo.

Suze: There you go.

KT: OK, Suze makes the best turkey, best Thanksgiving.

Suze: I know, I've given you my stuffing recipe like how many times now,

KT: Ready. Actually, I don't have a question to start with. I have a love letter.

Suze: You love starting these with a love letter.

KT: Yes, I do like starting the podcast with a love letter, and this is from Alison. She said, I want to tell you both how grateful I am for you. I have only been listening for a year, and you've helped me conquer a lifetime fear of money. As a 52 year old freelance photographer, my financial status has always had huge swings. The highs are manic with irresponsible spending, and the lows are terrifying and depressing.

KT: Suze, you have helped me feel secure. You have given me a plan to ease these financial extremes. Finally, for the first time as an adult, I know that everything is going to be OK. You have taught me to save and to honor and be grateful for those savings, even if I wish there were more. The piece you have given me is invaluable. I hope you can feel the gratitude your listeners have for you, even if we are bad about letting you know. Much love to you both.

KT:  I, I picked this for another reason.

Suze: What was that?

KT: The word freelance. I started as a freelance illustrator back in 1972, 1971, 1972.

KT: And I'll tell you something, it's tough. The word freelance always attracts me to any question because it's a very difficult part of anyone's life if you're a freelancer.

Suze: That's why you chose it?

KT: Well, that's one of the reasons. It just attracted me. I know how difficult

Suze: I know why it is you chose it.

KT: Why?

Suze: Because one of the most important parts of the Women and Money podcast is the ability to create hope.

Suze: Hope for those who feel hopeless. Hope for those who feel like they're never going to get out of debt. Hope for those who have never experienced what it's like to have a savings account. Hope for those who have never owned a home, never owned a car, never owned a car outright, never thought they would be able to retire. Never thought that they would be able to do the things that they are doing after having listened for just a year.

Suze: Imagine 3 years. Imagine longer. Imagine the 20 years with the Suze Orman show and everything. Do you have any idea the hope that I know we have created in this world simply by telling the truth about money and people. Fabulous, OK. All right.

KT: All right, so this next question is from Sabrina.

KT: Hi KT and Suze. Hope you are both doing fantastic. I have a small issue I'm hoping you could help me with. My 85 year old mother has dementia. She loves going to the casino.

Suze: Uh oh.

KT: No, this made me smile too. Although she doesn't go as much as she used to, she always wants to go, and she will take any opportunity if it presents itself. She went with a group of people a couple of weeks ago and told my brother and I about it after the fact, well.

KT: Someone had to help her pull money from the ATM. It scared us. Can you imagine her and her brother listening to the mom tell me? She said it scared us because someone knows her pin, and she could have pulled way more than she did this time. Here's the second part of the issue. I fear I made a mistake of taking 25,000 from her account, leaving her only 5000.

KT: I had her permission, but now I don't know what I should do with this cashier's check. So my intent is a high yield savings account. I want to keep it liquid for her, but I don't want to pay taxes and have it added to my income if I put it in my name. Also, I was thinking a Roth IRA could earn interest tax free, but not sure of the rules at her age. 85 years old.

KT: She will eventually qualify for assisted living, and she'll need this money. Any help would be greatly appreciated. So, so Sabrina needs some advice about the money for her mom.

Suze: So first of all, don't fear that you made a mistake. If anything, I would have told you to probably take out even more than that. Leave her $1000 and if she goes and she wants more than that, she has to ask for it.

Suze: But you did not make a mistake number one. The real mistake would be cause you said later on in this email. Soon she's going to be in assisted living, and she will need this money. What if she had taken out all $25,000 and gambled it away? The good part is she obviously gets enjoyment out of doing that.

Suze: So what would also be interesting is maybe if she didn't have any money at all in her name, just listen to me tell her that she needs to be protected and that you give her an allowance, so to speak, like, believe it or not, remember KT, I used to do this with my mom. She got $1000 a month. I paid all the bills and everything, but she got $1000 a month.

Suze: And that is because she was kind of in the same situation. She didn't understand. She was now in her 90s. I took all of her checks that she had that she thought she could write checks on. There was absolutely nothing in the account, and everybody knew that if she sent them a check, that they should just thank her for sending money.

Suze: But you really have to protect your elders, you honest to God do not feel like you're taking their power away from them, but you have to protect them when dementia especially starts set in.

Suze: And so therefore don't worry about you having to pay tax on this. What you can do if you want, obviously you can open up a joint account with your mother so that it's in her name and your name. Maybe she could be taxed on it because that's the tax ID, but she doesn't know where it's at. You don't give her checks. You don't give her an ATM card, a debit card. She cannot access the money.

Suze: And you just simply tell her, Mom, I'm going to give you $250 a week for you to go and spend.

Suze: At the casino or $250 a month or whatever she can truthfully afford because you also don't want to take that joy out of her life. I mean, I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but the truth is my mother loved going where KT, with her driver Bill?

KT: Oh my God, Hooters, Hooters, Hooters.

Suze: She loved it.

KT: They'd go for lunch

Suze: Every day, and I would get a bill for $7000 a month.

KT: For the driver,

Suze: for the driver and Hooters every day, and she would treat.

KT: And they didn't drink. They just eat and

Suze: and Bill loved it there and my mother loved it there for some reason. And when I took that away from her, I said, Mom, I'm getting rid of Bill. Your full-time aid is going to drive you and you're not gonna go to Hooters anymore. She did not talk to me. She was depressed, did not talk to me. Now, eventually she got over it.

Suze: But you have to give them some joy and they're like, oh my God.

KT: Like Suze took her boyfriend away and Hooters, right?

Suze: And you know, it was like really everybody, so it's fine. Put it in a high yield savings account for her. Do it in a joint account with your name. So if anything happened to you, it goes back to her at least.

Suze: So she has access to that money if needed and leave instructions as to how somebody can tell her about it. In the meantime, who cares? Just do it and thank God you are. All right.

KT: Keep her happy.

KT: So next question is from Susan. What is your recommendation, Suze, regarding CTRE?

Suze: Do you know what that is, KT?

KT: No

Suze: I figured, so a long time ago, I don't even know how long ago.

Suze: One of the dividend paying stocks that happened to be a real estate investment trust that I recommended to everybody because it was paying about 5 or 6% at the time in dividends. Care Trust and what Care Trust, it's so funny that you're even bringing this up at this moment in time because this was a question on the Women and Money app.

Suze: Obviously somehow you got this, but anyway, here's what's important is that Care Trust is a real estate investment trust that invests in nursing homes. So interesting that you're choosing this right after we had the question that we just did, right, but what's the question?

KT: So the question is I have 103 shares of CTRE cost basis is $21.90. Should I keep or sell and put money into something else since the dividend was lowered?

Suze: Now what's interesting, KT and for all of those of you on the Women and Money podcast app. I actually answered this on the app, right, but KT liked the question and probably liked it before I even answered it. So let me answer it again for all of you. One of the big mistakes you make is if you were to look at CTRE, that's the symbol of it right now, it's at about $30 a share.

Suze: And if you were to look at it, it would be paying you about a 3.35% dividend, which is why Susan thinks her dividend has gone down. But the truth of the matter is, over the past few years, CTRE has actually increased the dividend from 26 cents a quarter to 29 cents a quarter in 2024.

Suze: So why does Susan keep thinking that the dividend is going down, because she's looking at what it's at if you bought it today at 30%. Susan is actually up 40% on her money since she bought it, number one.

Suze: And number 2, she's still earning on her purchase price at today's dividend rate 5.5% on her money. So you just keep it right there, girlfriend. Don't even think about selling it. All right.

KT: So next question is from Chambers. This is a funny question. You know how I like short and sweet, ready, everybody. This is it. Hey, how are you? I need to start saving my money.

KT: That's it. That's it. Hey, how are you? I need to start saving my money.

Suze: Well then, you need to do what so many people have done already. Go to myalliant.com, M Y A L L I A N T. Sign up for the ultimate opportunity savings account, put in at least $100 a month every month right after you have signed up, do it for 12 consecutive months. You'll earn about 3.10% on your money and at the end of 12 months, you will get $100 from Alliant Credit Union, which is about a 16 or 17% return on your money. That's a good way for you to start saving.

Suze: Right, my fisher lady, what you got?

KT: From Gloria: greetings Suze and KT. My sister died in 2021, leaving me as the beneficiary to her traditional IRA. She was withdrawing required RMDs per the secure act since I was 9 years younger than my sister, am I considered an exception to the tenure rule which would allow me to withdraw RMDs over my life expectancy. So Suze, I went back to your podcast regarding this secure act which indicated I may just have 10 years to withdraw, and I would need to do the first RMD in 2025.

KT: So this is the part that she's confused about. She said it took 2 years to get her account at Wells Fargo transferred to my Schwab account, so I did not do RMD until the 2023 tax year. What a mess. Not sure what to do.

KT: So there you go.

Suze: There's really nothing to do, my dear one, in the fact that you are qualified to take it out over your entire life expectancy based on your life expectancy. You don't have to wipe the account clean in 10 years because you are what is considered an eligible designated beneficiary because you were less than 10 years younger than your sister.

KT: All right, great. Good to know.

Suze: And you don't have to worry about any penalties because really you don't have to start paying it until 2025, the RMDs and your life expectancy, but you've been doing it since 23, so don't worry about it.

KT: OK, next question. Hi Katie and Susie, first time ask her.

KT: I'll attempt to keep this succinct but really need your advice from me and my wife. She's going to be 58 next year and 48 for me. Combined, we bring in 217,000 pre-tax that comes to about 10,000 net monthly. Recently, I calculated our total net worth, and it's just over $170,000. Not much I know considering our ages.

KT: We both didn't earn much until a few years ago and recently started getting serious about saving for retirement. We are under the CA California rent control, CA, right?

Suze: That's pretty great.

KT: All right, no house, no kids, no debt.

Suze: What that means, just so you know, is they live in a rental unit that's worth a whole lot more than if they moved out the owner of that rental unit could absolutely charge a fortune probably for it, but under rent control they got a deal of their lifetime and hopefully they should stay right there. But anyway, go on.

KT: So we, this is interesting then according to what you just said, we own our one vehicle purchased in 2017. Both have stellar credit, have your must have docs, term life insurance, and she's going to wait until 70 to claim Social Security as she earns triple my salary. We realized to gain, this is the part that I need your advice too. We realized to gain any real net worth, we have to purchase a home.

Suze: Where'd she get that?

KT: I have no idea, she said one day maybe we could sell it and actually be able to afford to retire. Ready.

KT: And then it goes on to say everything they do with, you know, their credit cards. They have no debt. In all honesty, I'm scared of doing it with a mortgage, property taxes, repairs, maintenance, and the insane state of the insurance industry especially in California, although I know so many do live this American dream of owning a home, of course. I've never been one to follow the traditional path.

KT: All right, so Suze, what are you going to say? They want to have a home in order to live the American dream of owning a home, and that's going to give them the ability to retire. I don't think so. What do you think, Suze?

Suze: So here's the thing, girlfriends, and it's really quite simple.

Suze: I've told you time and time again that the goal of money is for you to be secure.

Suze: And you tell me in this email that you're scared to death to do this. First of all, can we get a clue about California? Get a clue about the floods, the earthquakes, the fires? Get a clue about the cost of insurance going so high because of the natural disasters that many people have a higher insurance premium than they do a mortgage payment.

Suze: Get a clue that interest rates are still relatively high.

Suze: And I don't think are going to come down that much. And in the meantime, let's get a clue that you are living in a rent controlled apartment. Where did you get this idea really where that the American dream is to own a home and you own a home and then you sell it so you can retire? No.

Suze: You accumulate money by your 401ks, by your Roths and things like that. You invest it in equities. You keep your expenses low. You stay out of debt. You make sure that when the time does come.

Suze: That your Social Security, the interest on your retirement accounts, and everything else pays for your expenses. And if your expenses are simply a rent controlled apartment or something like that, fine, but I know many, many really wealthy people who have never owned a home. They never wanted to own a home.

Suze: So don't be like everybody else right now cause you don't know what's going to happen in the real estate market, nor does anybody else. What you do know is you're making a nice living. You're putting as much away possible in your retirement accounts. You are totally out of debt. You have a car that you purchased a while ago that you own outright. You're doing everything right.

Suze: So as long as you compare yourself to what other people are doing, you are making the biggest mistake in life. There are a million people out there that would love to be in your situation, girlfriend, so stop wanting to be somebody other than who you are and know one day you will realize your retirement dream. 

Suze: All right, KT.

KT: All right, this next one you did answer.

KT: This is important. I want to share this with everyone because I saw that Suze did answer Susan King, and Susan, I have to tell you, when I first read your question to Suze, it just made my stomach turn.

KT: My Humana Medicare Advantage plan is terminating my coverage end of 2024. I had breast cancer in 2023 and suspect I'm being dropped for that reason. I don't know where to start to getting a new plan or if they'll accept me now. Suze, please advise.

Suze: Everybody what you all need to know...

Suze: Is that a Medicare Advantage plan cannot drop you because of health challenges. It's against the law. They can't do it, so you first have to understand Humana Medicare Advantage did not terminate you because you have breast cancer. Medicare Advantage plans are not allowed to do that based on preexisting conditions including cancer. So I really want you all to get that, all right?

Suze: The termination of your plan is likely due to other reasons such as the plan being discontinued in your area. There are many, many areas and hospitals now where Medicare Advantage is being discontinued for whatever reason.

Suze: But that is happening, so what should you do? You have to find a new plan, and since your plan is ending at the close of this year, you have two main opportunities to enroll in a new plan, girlfriend, so you don't have to worry about it. First of all, fall enrollment, is running through December 7th of 2024 and it's during this time that you can join a new Medicare Advantage plan or if you really want to switch to original Medicare. Now because your plan is ending, you actually have a special enrollment period.

Suze: And your special enrollment period doesn't end like everybody else December 7th in 2024. It actually goes from December 8, 2024 till February 28th of 2025 that you have to change your Medicare health and drug coverage. 

Suze: So yes, there are preexisting conditions obviously, but for all of you that may be in that situation, which is why I'm spending a little time on this, the good news is, is that Medicare Advantage plans cannot reject your enrollment or charge you more due to preexisting conditions, and that, my dear Susan, includes your history of breast cancer.

Suze: So this means you should be able to enroll in a new plan without facing discrimination based on your health. So there you go, you know, and you can do Medicare plan, finder tools, all these things to find a new plan. I could go on and on about this, which I did in the email that I sent to you, but for all of you, that's what you need to know. All right.

KT: All right, I, this next question was very confusing for me, so I hope you clarify it.

KT: Says hi KT or Suze.

KT: So let's say this is to KT. Quick question, I got an email from Treasury Direct reminding me to deliver my gift bonds.

Suze: Yes.

KT: OK, this is just to KT. I bought them 3 years ago. Is there a time limit on when they must be delivered?

Suze: Yeah, you're picking all the ones that I've answered personally.

KT: Yeah, but, but answer it for me. Do you have to deliver this on a certain time? And what does it mean deliver it?

Suze: Deliver it means deliver it to the person that you're gifting it to, so it's now in their account. Now here's what you all need to know.

Suze: Right. First of all, I told this person, Tammy, that she should absolutely gift them immediately.

Suze: And the reason is that I don't get what's going on with gifting bonds and Treasury Direct, but eventually every single person is going to get an email, KT they did it in tranches. They're going to get an email that says if you have gift bonds. Let me remind you that you should be gifting them and things like that. So I don't know at this point what changes they're going to make. I do know though that you might want to call up Treasury Direct and ask them, that let's say over the years you gifted maybe $20,000 or $30,000 or $40,000 to somebody that you've never delivered.

Suze: And delivered means they're in your gift box and that you want now to start changing them over to the person's account whose name you want them to be in, but the problem is if they have already invested $10,000 in a Series I bond in their account this year.

Suze: Then under normal circumstances you can't gift them another 10,000, but for some reason some people are writing and they say that they have actually called Treasury Direct and they say it doesn't matter. Just start gifting it that even if you have $20,000 in a gift box, you can gift it all at once. Now I do not know if that is true or not.

Suze: But enough of you have written that have said you called because you were confused when you got this email and that they're not going to penalize you if you do that. You need to check it out because I don't know one way or the other. So if I were you, I would call the Treasury direct people directly and just double check on this.

Suze: And if you do have gift bonds, you should start gifting them. Don't ask me why they're doing this, but they are all right, kind of confusing, right?

KT: Very confusing.

Suze: What are they up to?

KT: I don't know.

Suze: I don't know

KT: sounds suspicious. Yeah, OK, quizzy time.

Suze: What's that mean? It's I have a quizzy for you.

KT: You're not doing a quizzy, Suze. I'm doing a quizzy.

Suze: You have been giving me quizzys this entire half hour or whatever it's been.

KT: No, no, no, no, no, this is my quizzy to you, Suze, and everyone listening wants the same quizzy to you. None of you have to guess this. This is Suze alone. You want one and only Suze.

Suze: All right, girlfriend.

KT: All right, so Christine is the one that initiated this. She said, hoping to hear from you.

KT: When will you be announcing the date of the launch of Keith's program. Suze, it's November. You keep promising. Wait, wait a minute, Christina, it's not just you. She keeps promising me. I said, when are we doing this? What's going on?

Suze: So

KT: just wait, here's the answer. We're close. We're close, we're close. KT, I promise.

Suze: So I happened to talk to Keith last Sunday night about it. Good.

KT: What did he say?

Suze: He said, I have no idea. No, he said they are in the final testing of this program. Now I know I've told you that before.

Suze: But this is a seriously complicated program on the back end with hundreds of thousands of computations so that on your end, you have very little to do.

Suze: You're told what to do, when to do it, very simple for you, but very complicated for the behind the scenes because of all the hundreds of thousands of people that will sign up for this, and it's individualized for each one of you. So just imagine that, but he is, he promises me he's almost done 1, #2.

Suze: I actually suggested, I said, you know, Keith, these markets are pretty high right now. It is probable that maybe these markets are going to pull back. Maybe what we should do is we should maybe wait. Maybe we wait till the beginning of January. I know you're going to look at me, KT, but maybe we start the year off fresh.

Suze: Where we know everything works, the market has worked out all this stuff with the election and the Fed funds rate and everything, and we let that just settle so that when we start something we're not starting possibly with everything through the roof and immediately it goes down. So if you could just be a little more patient.

Suze: Just a little more patient, I have a feeling starting January, maybe before, but most likely January, and that was at my request, everybody.

Suze: Cause he really said he would be ready to go in December, and I said, no, no, let's just wait till January so I know everything is buttoned up. I have time to go through it and test it with every possibility...

KT: So, she's gonna taste it. It's in the testing kitchen. And he's perfecting his recipe and...

Suze: No, the recipe is perfected

KT: But it's in the testing kitchen.

Suze: No, it's making sure that the recipe works the way that it should, that the cake tastes rises and

KT: it tastes the way it tastes delicious,

Suze: whatever she tastes anyway. Did I answer the quizzy for you?

KT: Yeah...

Suze: Well, where's my ding ding ding?

KT: Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.

Suze: All right, everybody, that brings us to the end of an Ask Suze and KT anything. I will be doing a Suze school on Sunday. Promise, promise, promise, but until then there's only one thing that we want you to remember when it comes to your money. And what is it, KT?

KT: People first, then money, then things.

Suze: And if you do that, stay safe and healthy, we promise you you will be unstoppable.