Ask KT & Suze Anything: Is My Daughter a Miser?

Summary

Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen) Episode: Ask KT & Suze Anything: Is My Daughter a Miser? Release Date: January 23, 2025

In this engaging episode of Suze Orman's acclaimed podcast, "Ask KT & Suze Anything," Suze Orman and her co-host KT tackle a range of listener-submitted questions, offering expert financial advice with their characteristic blend of wisdom and wit. This episode delves into topics from financial honesty in relationships to the intricacies of investment vehicles, providing listeners with actionable insights to enhance their financial well-being.

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1. Financial Dishonesty Leading to Positive Change

Listener: Kathy Timestamp: [03:13]

Kathy shares her experience from an appearance on Suze Orman's TV show 14-15 years prior, where she confronted her husband's poor financial habits, including using her engagement ring on a credit card. Despite his initial resistance, Suze's advice to consider divorce served as a catalyst for her husband's transformation.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [05:45]: "Sometimes you have to be smacked down in public, believe it or not, in order to pick yourself up."

Suze emphasizes the importance of honesty and accountability in financial matters, highlighting how confronting uncomfortable truths can lead to lasting positive changes.

2. Fixed Income Annuities and Roth IRAs

Listener: Giselle Timestamp: [06:43]

Giselle inquires about the viability of investing in fixed income annuities within her Roth IRA. Suze provides a thorough explanation of fixed income annuities, outlining their benefits and potential drawbacks, especially when paired with a Roth IRA.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [06:59]: "If you have a Roth IRA open somewhere already, why not do a 5-year treasury note or a 10-year treasury note and lock in that interest for that period of time and you're not going to pay taxes on it anyway."

Suze advises against combining annuities with Roth IRAs, suggesting alternative investment options like CDs or treasury notes that better align with the tax-advantaged nature of Roth accounts.

3. Callable CDs: Risk vs. Reward

Listener: Jennifer Timestamp: [10:15]

Jennifer seeks clarification on Suze's stance against callable CDs after purchasing a 2-year callable CD with a 4.6% interest rate, callable in six months. Suze explains the inherent risks associated with callable CDs, particularly the uncertainty of reinvestment rates if the CD is called early.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [11:21]: "You don't know that they're going to call it in six months. So it's callable. They can call it and explain what that means."

While acknowledging Jennifer's strategy to earn higher initial interest, Suze cautions against the unpredictability of callable CDs, recommending more stable investment vehicles for consistent returns.

4. Perceived Miserliness in a Financially Savvy Daughter

Listener: Julie Timestamp: [13:44]

Julie describes her concerns about her 23-year-old daughter, whom she perceives as miserly due to her rigorous saving habits and reluctance to spend money, despite the daughter's impressive financial portfolio. Suze offers compassionate advice, highlighting the daughter's responsible financial behavior and encouraging Julie to respect her choices.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [15:56]: "She is on the path of being far wealthier than both you and your husband. Just so you know."

Suze underscores the value of financial independence and the benefits of early saving, reassuring Julie that her daughter's prudence is a strength rather than a flaw.

5. Unauthorized Trades and Margin Accounts

Listener: Karen Timestamp: [18:42]

Karen expresses distress over an insurance agent moving her Roth IRA into a margin account without her understanding, resulting in significant losses. Suze strongly advises against margin accounts for the average investor and emphasizes the importance of controlling one's own investment decisions.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [19:13]: "99% of you out there should not ever, ever, ever have a margin account."

Suze highlights the dangers of margin trading, including the risk of margin calls and potential losses, urging listeners to avoid such high-risk strategies unless they have substantial financial expertise.

6. Clarifying Roth IRA Income Requirements

Listener: Sue Timestamp: [24:58]

Sue seeks confirmation on whether there are income requirements for contributing to a Roth account through her employer. Initially, KT mistakenly agrees there are none, but Suze corrects this misconception, elucidating the specific income thresholds for Roth IRA contributions.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [25:56]: "There are income requirements to qualify for a contributory Roth."

Suze clarifies that while Roth 401(k)s connected to employers have no income limits, Roth IRAs do have income caps—$150,000 for single filers and $236,000 for married couples filing jointly—preventing high earners from making full contributions directly.

7. Navigating Inherited Stock and Tax Implications

Listener: Sheila Timestamp: [28:10]

Sheila discusses her mother's plan to distribute shares of stock to her and her sister, contemplating whether to sell half the stock to invest in a broader market index fund. Suze advises on the tax implications of inherited stock, suggesting that inheriting through a trust could provide a step-up in cost basis, thereby reducing tax liabilities.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [29:02]: "If she gives it to you and you turn around and sell it, you're going to owe taxes on the difference between $10 which she bought it at and $100 of where it is possibly today."

Suze recommends strategic estate planning to minimize taxes and maximize the financial benefits of inherited assets, encouraging savvy investment choices based on individual financial goals.

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Conclusion and Closing Remarks

Timestamp: [31:04]

As the episode wraps up, Suze and KT share light-hearted banter, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and overcoming financial misconceptions. Suze announces a forthcoming in-depth discussion on Roth accounts, tailored to empower listeners with comprehensive knowledge.

Notable Quote:

Suze Orman [33:20]: "People first, then money, then things."

This credo encapsulates the episode's overarching theme: prioritizing personal well-being and relationships over financial pursuits, fostering a balanced and informed approach to money management.

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Throughout this episode, Suze Orman provides invaluable financial guidance, demystifying complex investment concepts and advocating for transparency and responsibility in personal finance. Whether addressing the pitfalls of high-risk investment strategies or validating the benefits of disciplined saving, Suze equips listeners with the tools to achieve financial security and independence.

Transcript

[Susie Orman]

Hi, everybody. Suzio here. Now, what is the goal of money? The goal of money is for you to be secure. And there is no better way for you to be secure than having an emergency savings account. It is essential for your financial foundation. So all of you should be participating in the ultimate opportunity savings account at Alliant Credit Union. Go to myalliant.com to find out more. And be secure. We are strong, we are wise we will not apologize we are here we will thrive Together we will rise we're the little bit of FAI and everything it takes we are strong we are wise Together we will rise. January 23, 2025 welcome, everybody, to the Women in Money podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen. Today is Ask KT and Susie anything. And this is where you can, if you want, write in a question to the asksusie s u z e podcastmail.com and if chosen, we will answer it on the podcast. Now, kt, did you notice what I just said?

[KT]

We.

[Susie Orman]

We're going to answer.

[KT]

All right, here's KT's first question to Susie. Who's going to win the Super Bowl?

[Susie Orman]

Well, truthfully, I hope the commanders are in from Washington. KT are part of the Super Bowl. Who's going to win? It will depend seriously on who wins between Kansas City and the Bills.

[KT]

I thought you want the Bills.

[Susie Orman]

I love Josh Allen.

[KT]

I think the most valuable player, baby.

[Susie Orman]

Well, he's up for it, right?

[KT]

He'll get it.

[Susie Orman]

We'll see. But the truth of the matter is, we'll have to see. They have to get by Kansas City. And I hate this because you know how much I love Kansas City.

[KT]

Her boyfriend.

[Susie Orman]

If I were a betting woman, I would not be betting against the Buffalo Bills.

[KT]

Yeah, the Bills. The Bills really want this.

[Susie Orman]

And they both want it.

[KT]

And they're good in cold weather. They were playing in snow. So I'm not a big football person, everybody, but I have to tell you, it was fun watching these guys slipping and sliding all over the snow. I felt bad, though. They were getting hurt pretty bad.

[Susie Orman]

All right, all right.

[KT]

So first question we have is from Kathy. She said, susie, I just discovered you had a podcast. She said, I was a caller on your TV show maybe 14 or 15 years ago. I've lost track of time. I must have been about 36 years old. I'm now 51. My husband was awful back then about finances. For example, I discovered he put my engagement ring on a credit card.

[Susie Orman]

Oh, I remember this.

[KT]

Yeah, this was a great show. I remember this, too.

[Susie Orman]

Did they get divorced.

[KT]

Wait, wait, wait. She said, I paid off the balance. He paid me back within a year. I called in because I suspected my husband was not paying his credit card and other bills on time.

[Susie Orman]

And she was right.

[KT]

Wait, she listened to this, everyone. She said. So I opened his mail and I was right. When I confronted him about this and told him his bad financial habits would prevent us from getting the best interest rates on car loans or mortgages and that he could be ruining both of our futures, he kept this up. And his only reaction. Listen to this, everyone. Her husband's only reaction was telling me that opening his mail was illegal. Wait. And then she said, so, Susie, your only advice, if I remember correctly, remember correctly, was to divorce him.

[Susie Orman]

Divorce, divorce, divorce.

[KT]

I have to admit, I was stunned and angry at you at the time.

[Susie Orman]

I'm sure you were right.

[KT]

Truth prevails. She didn't want to hear the truth.

[Susie Orman]

People don't.

[KT]

So then Kathy said, however, friends and family had also seen the episode and he was basically shamed into permanently changing his behavior. His credit card score is now consistently around 8:30. That's great. And while our net worth was around 600,000 when I was on your show, mostly in equity in our condo and retirement accounts, no real savings, it is now about 3.7 million. We bought a house in 2015. We'll probably have it paid off at the 15 year mark. We also hope to retire in our 50s. Watching your show started me on the path to financial responsibility and independence. And my husband being shamed on TV for his poor financial habits and, and behavior, and that they were grounds for divorce gave him a really big kick in the butt that he needed to change his ways. He is now obsessed with budgeting and knowing our investments, balances, returns, interest rates, et cetera. And then Kathy goes on to say, so Susie, thank you for that long ago encounter on your show. Do you love that?

[Susie Orman]

I love that. But it is true. So like Oprah would call it the Susie smackdown. And sometimes you have to be smacked down in public, believe it or not, in order to pick yourself up. Because as long as you are able to live a lie, as long as you're able to make others think something about you, you have the money, you can do this, you can put it on your credit, whatever, and they think that you're doing better than you're doing, you continue to deceive yourself. And as soon as others know the truth about you, guess what? It helps you stand in your own truth. Which is why kt, I always tell people who have credit card debt. Tell everybody you know. Yeah, tell everybody you know the truth about yourself. Because once you do that, it's hard to lie anymore.

[KT]

It's free.

[Susie Orman]

It's free. All right, next kt.

[KT]

So Giselle wrote in. Hi, Susie. I've recently learned about fixed income annuities. What are your thoughts on them and which, if any, do you think are worth investing in? I'm thinking about opening one up within my Roth ira.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah. So, Giselle, here's what you need to understand and everybody else as well. What is a fixed income annuity? Remember, an annuity is a contract with an insurance company. And because it's with an insurance company, even though you're not getting any insurance, the investments in an annuity are tax deferred. You do not pay taxes on them until you take the money out. But when you take it out, it's taxed to you as ordinary income. If you pass it down to your beneficiaries, they take it out. It's taxed to them as ordinary income. And there's usually a five, six or seven year surrender period where if you take the money out of the annuity before the surrender charge is up, it could cost you 4, 5 or 6%. And you have to be 59 and a half years of age to take out money from the annuity or you're going to get a penalty from the federal government. So annuities are usually for those people who are in retirement years. A fixed income annuity is where the interest rate is fixed. Now, it can be fixed for one year, three years, five years, seven years, but most of the time it's fixed for the first year to sucker you in. And then in years 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on, the surrender period years, it goes down and down to make up for that first year of high interest rates. So there are what's called CD fixed annuities where the interest rate is fixed like a CD for four years or five years or the amount of time of the surrender period, which are the ones that I happen to like if you want a fixed annuity. Now, I know I'm going into this kt, but I think people should know. Remember the interest that the annuity will pay you, you're not paying taxes on it because it's in the annuity. You, however, Giselle, want to put an annuity within a Roth ira, which a tax free account in most cases. Therefore, I would not be doing it within a Roth IRA. Why not just buy a CD at Alliant Credit Union with a Roth IRA or why not? If you have a Roth IRA open somewhere already, why not do a 5 year treasury note or a 10 year treasury note and lock in that interest for that period of time and you're not going to pay taxes on it anyway. So therefore I would not do an annuity within any type of retirement account. However, at your age, because Katie just gave me this, you're in your early 50s, why do you want an annuity? Why don't you want to take some of this money and dollar cost average into good paying dividend stocks that could pay you 4, 5 or 6% and also give you growth. So that's probably what I would be doing in my Roth IRA if I were you. All right, KT all right.

[KT]

On the same top of CDs, I just want this next question from Jennifer is good. I want you to clarify it. She said, I've heard you be quite emphatic about never buying a callable cd.

[Susie Orman]

Wait, kt can you imagine me being emphatic about anything?

[KT]

What am I missing in this scenario? She said, I bought a 2 year callable CD via Vanguard with a major bank. The rate is 4.6. It's callable in 6 months. If I just bought the 6 month CD, it would have only been 4.2. So even if the bank calls the CD in 6 months, I've earned more than I put in the 6 month or kept the money in my settlement fund.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah, so.

[KT]

And now she's saying clearly, if my intent with the money is not long term retirement saving but a more short term saving in my brokerage account. Is this such a. No, no. I still get the interest on the first six months it was held. Right. She must be missing something.

[Susie Orman]

What she said, well, here's the thing. You don't know that they're going to call it in six months. Right. So it's callable. So they can call it and explain what that means. All right everybody, so first of all, what is a callable cd? Obviously you all know a certificate of deposit. You put money in and the certificate, a deposit has a maturity date and for that entire maturity date it is fixed at the interest rate that you bought it at. So you know, for like two years. If it's a two year CD for all two years you're going to get that interest rate. A callable CD simply says we'll give you this interest, but we can call it anytime we want or in the first six months or after that or for the entire period. Because if interest rates happen to go down, then we can call it back from you because we don't want to pay you a higher interest rate when interest rates have already gone down. So if interest rates then go down and the CD is called from you, then it's difficult to reinvest that money at a higher interest rate if interest rates have gone down. That's what a callable CD is versus a fixed rate. You're not missing anything, Jennifer. You can do that if you want. But you also could have simply put your money in a money market account, gotten that kind of interest rate, maybe in a Treasury, so you didn't have to pay interest on it in terms of the state bracket you may be in. So you can do that if you want for short periods of time. Now, I'm assuming that it's callable in six months, meaning that they can't call it for six months, but can they call it after six months? So if this CD goes on for, let's say a year and a half and now they decide to call it when interest rates have gone down significantly, then were you going to reinvest that money at that rate? So I still don't like callable CDs. I just don't. Why not lock in for the period that you want and not play with it? That's just my opinion, but you can do that if you want.

[KT]

All right, my next question. It's not even a question, it's a. I picked this because the subject line said, have we created a monster? So it grabbed my attention. And this is from Julie, who's a mom. She said, dear Susie and kt, we've been living below our means our whole married lives and now have a net worth of over 6 million. My husband constantly stresses to my adult daughters the necessity of saving and investing early. My 23 year old daughter is a full time graduate student and has a Roth IRA and non retirement investments of over $250,000. She has accumulated this through jobs she's had for years as well as our annual gift of a match to what she contributes to her Roth, in my opinion. Ready for this everyone? This is from Mom. In my opinion, she has a toxic attitude towards money. She constantly says she cannot afford things and never offers to pay for anything when she's on a date with her boyfriend or when she's with friends or family. She studies very hard, always looking for ways to make more money. And even though she's stressed with her schoolwork, what can we do to shift her miserly ways? Mom thinks her daughter's A miser.

[Susie Orman]

This is your quizzy, all right.

[KT]

Oh, this is my quizzy.

[Susie Orman]

Poop. Quizzy.

[KT]

Oh. So what's the. What's the quizzy here?

[Susie Orman]

The quizzy is what should she do to.

[KT]

I wouldn't do a thing. I wouldn't do a thing, Mom. I don't think she's miserly. I just think she's super conscious of wanting to accumulate savings and have a very secure lifestyle and future. I don't think she's miserly at all. But I do think that maybe, you know, it seems like I'm saying she's.

[Susie Orman]

Miserly because she never, Never pays for anything. Anything. Because she doesn't think she can afford it.

[KT]

Yeah.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah. So what do you think about that?

[KT]

I think the daughter's 23 years old. Any kid that's 23 that wants to work and earn money and save money and accumulate money is a good thing. I don't think she's miserly. But maybe, mom, you ought to say, okay, we're all going out and everyone's chipping in, and if you can't afford it, don't come with us.

[Susie Orman]

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

[KT]

That's what I would do.

[Susie Orman]

So here's the thing, Julie, is these younger years of your daughter in their 20s, anybody that's in their 20s, these are the financial foundation years that you cannot pass up. Because these are her compounding years, which means for every dollar she saves over the next 40 years, when she's in her 60s, is going to multiply so much because of compounding, the growth of the money at 23 gets to earn money. The earning money on the growth of the money gets to earn money. And it compounds to magnificent amounts of money far beyond your $6 million that I think you say you have a net worth of. Your daughter is on the path of being far wealthier than both you and your husband. Just so you know. That's number one. Number two, don't try to change her. You have to let her change herself. Somewhere she picked up the desire to want to have money, to be secure. I don't know where she learned that from. It doesn't even matter. The whys do not matter. You need to respect her decision and not make her feel that it is miserly. Her boyfriend. Her boyfriend has the ability to say, listen, girlfriend, you're going to pay this time. Let them decide that between themselves. But if I were you, truthfully, I wouldn't try to. I'd reward her. But here's how I would reward her. Stop matching her money. Yeah, obviously she has enough. Obviously you've helped her do whatever so you don't have to match her anymore because you can simply say, you know what, you're doing so great, we're not going to match you anymore. You're on your own and doing it and, and we're going to keep that money for ourselves. So she can at least feel what it's like not to be given money by mom and dad. And let's just see what that does to her. Does that make her even more miserly? I don't know. But now let her be on her own. And you have not created a monster, you have created a money maven, if you ask me.

[KT]

That's a good one, Susie. Next question is from Karen. She said, Susie, I'm 55 years old, single woman with two grown kids and one 12 year old son. I used to have money in a couple Roth iras. But an insurance agent was trying to help me with retirement. He had put my money in a margin account. I don't understand anything about it. And I have authorized him to make trades for me.

[Susie Orman]

Stop for one second.

[KT]

Yeah, tell everyone. What the heck is that? A margin of.

[Susie Orman]

Should that be your quizzy?

[KT]

No, it sounds like he was able to trade her money. No, I don't know what a margin expansion.

[Susie Orman]

There we go. That's the truth. Now I already knew that, but that's besides the point, right? Which is first of all, before we even go on with this email, 99% of you out there should not ever, ever, ever have a margin account. Kt, you and I have never in our lives traded on margin. What does that mean? That means that let's say you have $100,000 in an account and you're on margin, they'll allow you to borrow from the brokerage firm like $50,000 or some amount of money so that you actually can invest more money than you have than you have. If the stock starts to go down, they can have what's called a margin call, which means you have to come up with that money that it's gone down. If it goes up, all right, you can make more money because you bought on a loan, so to speak, but it is seriously, seriously dangerous. And I don't ever want to hear any of you be on margin. And you are to never let a financial advisor or so called insurance agent tell you that trading on margin makes sense. All right, go on.

[KT]

Well then Karen, you're going to get a big slap down.

[Susie Orman]

Did I also hear you say there that she authorized him to make trades for her.

[KT]

It said, I don't understand anything about it. I have authorized him to make trades for me. And then she said, it's only about $50,000. That's the part I don't like. Karen was a victim of the loss. She said, around five months ago, I guess it took a huge plunge. And he said, all accounts did. It went super low. And slowly it's making its way back up. My question is, this trading stuff seems awfully risky, but he said, I can make a really good return to greatly multiplying my money by the time I retire. She's 55. I wonder if I should just move it to a Roth ira, please. What is your advice? So listen up, everybody. Susie's going to tell Karen the truth of what she should do.

[Susie Orman]

Listen, the first truth is you should never have done a margin account. Second truth is, you are never, ever, ever to give somebody authorization to make trades for you without your permission. So there's something called a discretionary account, where a financial advisor, a broker, can buy and sell at their own discretion. Do not do it. Do not do it. Do not do it. Even our accounts, kt. If John, who is our financial advisor and who I talk to every single.

[KT]

Day, Susie advises him every single day.

[Susie Orman]

That's besides the point, right? But even when he has an idea that he wants to discuss with me, he doesn't just buy it. He has to get my permission.

[KT]

Wait, I have to tell everybody something funny. Susie talks to John every day or twice a day.

[Susie Orman]

Three times a day?

[KT]

Yeah, a couple times a day. And then he. He might come up with something. And she says, oh, that sounds really great. Let's do it. Let's put in X amount of money. And then on the background, I hear him say on the speaker, what about KT? Meaning what about KT's account money? And Susie said, no, just leave it.

[Susie Orman]

No, what I say, because Susie knows.

[KT]

I do not like to lose a penny, right?

[Susie Orman]

But what I do say is, this is a good idea, but you have to call KT and talk to kt.

[KT]

He always says to sue, but Susie's my personal finance advisor.

[Susie Orman]

He personally needs her permission. Even if I like the idea, he can't do it because I'm not authorized, nor is he, to make a trade in KT's account, buy or sell anything without KT's permission. So that's, first of all. Second of all, when you say it's only about $50,000, $50,000 on margin could be gone before you even know it. And if he was an astute financial person over these past few months, rather than it slowly making its way back, you would be up a fortune right now if he had invested on margin in the correct stocks. I don't like this person's advice. I don't like this person telling you to do these things. I want you to cut, just like I did with that person. Divorce him, and then look what happened. I want you to divorce this financial person or insurance agent. An insurance agent should not be telling you what to do with anything other than insurance. It is incredibly risky. Now, whether you can move it all to a Roth IRA or not, I doubt, because I don't know if this money is in a retirement account or not. So can you convert it? But I would put it out of his hands right now and just put it either in a money market account or somewhere just to make sure that you are okay. All right.

[KT]

All right, next question is from Sue. She said, susie, I've been listening to you and watching you for over 20 years, and I am shocked that I did not get this very important point about Roths. Please. And KT probably didn't get it either. So don't feel alone. Sue, please confirm and share with all, since others may need this information. Is it correct there are no income requirements when contributing to a Roth account when it is connected to your job?

[Susie Orman]

Another pop quizzy.

[KT]

Oh, okay. So I don't think there is any. I don't think there is any.

[Susie Orman]

Any.

[KT]

What income requirements?

[Susie Orman]

You're positive on that?

[KT]

I'm not positive, but I think with a Roth, you know, you can. I think I'm okay with that.

[Susie Orman]

There's no income requirements with a Roth and an employer.

[KT]

Yeah. When it's connected to your job.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah, yeah. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. So again, everybody got that one right? And then after I answer this, I'm going to yell at you for a second here, Ms. Travis.

[KT]

Okay.

[Susie Orman]

Are you ready for it?

[KT]

Yeah.

[Susie Orman]

Are you sure?

[KT]

Yeah.

[Susie Orman]

I can shame you in front of everybody.

[KT]

I'm never shamed.

[Susie Orman]

All right, so. But here's.

[KT]

I'm wrong, but I'm never shamed.

[Susie Orman]

But here's the thing, everybody, which is this. There are income requirements to qualify for a contributory Roth. So to do a full contribution into a Roth IRA that you contribute seven or eight thousand dollars a year to, depending on your age, you cannot make over $150,000 a year if you're single, of modified adjusted gross income to put the max in, or if you're married, finally jointly, 236,000 a year of modified adjusted gross. Gross income. When you have a Roth 401K, 403B, or TSP, there are no income limitations at all. So, sue, you missed it, but now you understand it.

[KT]

But, kt, what did I do wrong?

[Susie Orman]

I don't ever want to hear again in the year 2025. And beyond that you don't get Roths, that you don't understand them. I think you have placed it in your mind that you don't have the ability to understand them or how they work when you are one of the sharpest, shrewdest, most intelligent women I have ever met in my life. And therefore, you have the ability. You're going to understand them. You do understand them. And I never want you to think again that you can't, because you are actually convincing yourself when you see the word Roth, it's beyond you.

[KT]

So that's my New Year's resolution. I'm gonna conquer the rock.

[Susie Orman]

It is now your life. You have conquered it. You're gonna do like.

[KT]

I'm gonna conquer the Roth, everybody. I'm gonna learn. Front door, back door side.

[Susie Orman]

I'll go on to the next question. I'll rascal you, but you know, I'm not joking.

[KT]

I'll do it. I can do it.

[Susie Orman]

And all of you out there, you are never to tell you.

[KT]

We'll do a podcast in about six months where you can all write into KT and ask me questions about a Roth. Let's try that.

[Susie Orman]

Let's try that in two months, everybody.

[KT]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Susie Orman]

You're giving me too much time.

[KT]

No, I need six months.

[Susie Orman]

No, you don't See the excuses you all give yourself? You're just like Katie, everybody. You're just like her.

[KT]

All right, I'll try in three months.

[Susie Orman]

What?

[KT]

All right, so next is from Sheila. She said, my mother's distributing shares of stock to my sister and me. I am inclined to sell approximately half of the stock she's giving me and reinvested in a broader market index fund. I do not need the money. It's part of my retirement fund. Please let me know if you have any thoughts of what to do with the stock.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah, well, here's the thing.

[KT]

So it's a single stock, I guess, and she wants to put it in.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah, but here's the thing, Sheila, which is I don't know how old your mother is, and I don't know how long she's held the stock that, in fact, she wants to give you, but by giving it to you, Listen to me closely. She is giving you her cost basis on that stock. So let's say she bought this stock 20 years ago at $10 a share. Let's just say that's true. And now it's at $100 a share. If she gives it to you and you turn around and sell it, you're going to owe taxes on the difference between $10 which she bought it at and $100 of where it is possibly today. If she's older and you don't need the money and it is a good quality stock, you might ask her to just keep it and let you inherit it. Because if you inherit it from her via a trust, for instance, so there's no probate fees on it, then what will happen there is, you will get a step up in cost basis. So if she bought it at 10, it's worth $200 when she dies and gives it to you. That $200 will be tax free to you if you turn around and sell it. So that's what I would be doing. Since you don't need the money and it's kind of part of your retirement fund. If it's a good quality stock, maybe your mama, depending how old she is in her health, should absolutely keep it and leave it to you via her trust.

[KT]

Kt, that's great advice.

[Susie Orman]

Well, kt, that's a wrap.

[KT]

So I did my quizzy.

[Susie Orman]

You did two.

[KT]

I did a couple quizzes, everybody. All right, good. Well, that was a nice mix up of lessons.

[Susie Orman]

Let me just give you a little piece of news here, Katie. Whether people write in or not, I myself, she's going to do a roth, a roth quizzy just for you, a whole podcast that I have asked you, everything that I want you to to know and for you to get. And I am going to be testing you to see in two months how you do on that quizzy. So very shortly, in two months, everybody, we're going to have an ask KT Anything.

[KT]

I can do it.

[Susie Orman]

I love that.

[KT]

I can do it.

[Susie Orman]

You're so cute.

[KT]

I can do it.

[Susie Orman]

We both got haircuts yesterday, everybody. How's, how's how they look?

[KT]

Yours doesn't look like you got much cut, but mine is kind of curly. I have very curly hair in this weather. It's kind of in between weather. It's like winter and summer in Florida, winter and spring.

[Susie Orman]

What you all don't know is that we're in Florida right now and we sit in front of this big mirror, huge wall mirror.

[KT]

We look at each other's hair. I sometimes look at her teeth and wake up while we're talking. If we were on the camera, it would hysterical for you to see us, right? But Susie has on her pajamas still. And I got dressed a long time ago. It's like really early. And I got dressed because I was cold. So I have on a fleece and.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah, I've been running hot. Susie has running.

[KT]

Susie is on her, like, little sleep. Sleep shirt.

[Susie Orman]

My little sleep shirt. Anyway. All right, everybody. So until Sunday, when we will have another Susie school, I have no idea what it will be about. However, there's really only one thing that we want you to remember now. There's many, many ways kt, that we have been ending our podcasts. We've gone from long endings to short.

[KT]

Endings to Susie, you know, no matter what, I always like your very original credo in life, which is people first, then money, then things.

[Susie Orman]

And if you do that, everybody, then together we will rise we are strong, we are wise we will not apologize we are here, we will thrive Together we will rise we're the little benefit, anything it takes. We are strong, we are wise Together we will rise.