Suze School: Family Secrets Revealed

Summary

Podcast Summary: Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen) Episode: Suze School: Family Secrets Revealed
Release Date: December 8, 2024
Host/Author: Suze Orman Media

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Suze School: Family Secrets Revealed," Suze Orman, the renowned personal finance expert, delves into the profound financial lessons imparted within her own family. This episode shifts from the traditional "Suze School" format to a more intimate "Sisters School," where Suze, along with her sisters Kathy and Barbara, share personal anecdotes and insights on managing money, fostering financial responsibility, and nurturing integrity within familial relationships.

Meet the Guests

• Suze Orman – Host and financial advisor.
• Kathy – Suze's sister.
• Barbara Travis – Youngest sister, mother of Travis and Sophia.
• Sophia – Barbara's daughter.
• Travis & Don – Barbara's son and her husband.

Family Financial Lessons

Early Money Lessons with Sophia

Timestamp [03:44]
Sophia reminisces about learning the difference between needs and wants at a young age:
"I would have to stand in my own truth... if you follow your advice, it works, but you really have to be ready to receive it."
These lessons were foundational, teaching Sophia the importance of distinguishing essential expenses from desires.

Timestamp [05:07]
A memorable incident involved Sophia swallowing a penny:
"I went into Travis's little safe... I borrowed money and promised to pay it back."
This story illustrated the significance of understanding the value of money and the consequences of financial decisions, even for a child.

Pizza Incident and Borrowing Principles

Timestamp [06:28]
Sophia shares a moment when she had to order pizza without having cash:
"I went into Travis's little safe... I borrowed money... Travis tied the box around the leg of his bed to keep it secure."
This incident emphasized the importance of borrowing responsibly and maintaining trust within the family.

The $50 Gift Card Challenge

Timestamp [09:38]
Suze recounts a challenging dinner scenario:
"We bought a gift card for $50... if we went over that amount, we couldn't pay."
Travis, then in second grade, had to manage the math of ordering food within a strict budget, teaching the family practical budgeting skills.

Selling the House Before the Market Crash

Timestamp [15:25]
Sophia narrates a pivotal financial decision influenced by Suze:
"I asked Susie, should we sell our house? She told me to go home and sell immediately because the market was about to crash."
Acting on Suze's advice, Barbara sold her home just before the 2008 financial crisis, ensuring financial stability for her family.

Key Financial Principles Discussed

1. Integrity and Honesty with Money:
   Sophia highlights the importance of integrity in financial decisions:
   "Have integrity. Be purposeful with your decision-making... celebrate all parts and be grateful."

2. Purposeful Decision-Making:
   Suze emphasizes being deliberate and thoughtful in financial choices, ensuring that actions align with long-term goals.

3. Facing Financial Challenges with Strength and Faith:
   Suze encourages listeners to confront financial issues head-on, believing that every problem has a solution.

Notable Quotes

• Suze Orman [00:00]:
  "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."

• Sophia [20:23]:
  "I would say to have integrity. I would say to really, really, really be purposeful with what you're doing, your decision making."

• Suze Orman [24:04]:
  "If you can be a family with your money, if you can be honest with your money... you are unstoppable."

Emotional Reflections

As the episode progresses, the emotional depth of these financial lessons becomes evident. Kathy shares how revisiting these memories brings back powerful emotions, underscoring the lasting impact Suze's financial guidance has had on their lives.

Timestamp [21:05]
Kathy expresses:
"It makes me emotional that through time, so many things have Susie's helped so many."

Conclusion and Final Takeaways

Suze Orman wraps up the episode by urging listeners to internalize the financial wisdom shared through her family's experiences. She invites the audience to consider her as their own "Aunt Suze," offering unwavering support and guidance.

Timestamp [24:34]:
Suze concludes with an empowering message:
"If you can be a family with your money, if you can be honest with your money... you are unstoppable."

This episode serves as a testament to the profound influence that steadfast financial advice and familial support can have on an individual's financial well-being and personal growth.

Final Thoughts

"Suze School: Family Secrets Revealed" offers an intimate glimpse into how Suze Orman's financial philosophies are not just theoretical but are actively woven into the fabric of her family's daily life. Through heartfelt stories and practical lessons, listeners gain valuable insights into building a secure and intentional financial future.

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Note: The promotional segments and legal disclaimers present in the transcript have been omitted from this summary to focus solely on the core content of the episode.

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.

[Robert]

All right, Susie, kt, are you ready for today's podcast?

[Kathy]

Yeah, Robert, of course we're ready.

[Susie Orman]

Cuz we are unstoppable yeah yeah baby.

[Barbara]

I put my arm around show you how strong I am I put my armor on I'll show you that I yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm unstoppable I'm a P with no brakes I'm in invincible yeah I would never single way mine so powerful I don't need batteries to play I'm so confident yeah I'm.

[Susie Orman]

Unstoppable today, December 8th, 2024. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast, as well as everybody smart enough to listen. Today is supposedly always Susie's school, but instead today's going to be sisters school. What a family learns from one another when they grow up with Susie Orman. So, kt, take it away.

[Kathy]

Okay, so we have here in the studio, Barbara Travis Race, my youngest sister and the mother of Travis and Sophia. And you've heard Susie and I talk forever about our niece and nephew Travis and Sophia, who grew up with us and we had many, many life lessons with them. But Barbara, the mommy's here and we're going to have a little Susie school. To answer the big question that I read over and over again on the email, which is, if only I had a Susie Orman, if only I knew Susie 20 years ago, if only Susie was in my life to help me with my money when I didn't know anything. So here we are.

[Susie Orman]

And I always say, be careful what you wish for because it may be true. And so as easy as it may seem to have me there, because I simply tell you what to do and everything. Barbara, first of all, we love you so much.

[Sophia]

Oh, I love you.

[Susie Orman]

We're so, we're so happy you're here. But out of the 20 some odd years now, almost 24, 25 years that we've been together, love is something that every single person can give to a family member if they want to. But financially speaking, Ooh, ooh, ooh, baby, you're good.

[Kathy]

Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, ding.

[Susie Orman]

Right? And the financial lessons Truly, everybody started with Sophia when she was three, playing with her little doll with a cash.

[Sophia]

Register in her bedroom.

[Susie Orman]

In her bedroom. So as you think back on the 20 some odd years that we've been together, what is the hardest thing that you've had to face financially in your life because of me?

[Sophia]

I think that you have to stand in your own truth.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

When we ask for your advice, you better be ready to receive it.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

That's that. And the other thing too is I say if you follow your advice, it works, but you really have to be ready to receive it. And the other thing too is your aunt. You know, you're Susie Orman, but to my kids, you're Aunt Susie. And you, when you met Travis and Sophia, they were very, very young, you treated them with respect as adults and you gave them life lessons right off the bat. I'm not saying that they received it.

[Susie Orman]

But financial life lessons.

[Sophia]

Yes, from the get go. And I'll tell you the very first one what? And I'll tell you how it translates with a little three year old. Need versus want. Need versus want. And how that sometimes in the beginning would translate is that, you know, it was a repetition, repetition, repetition. And I remember Sophia, when she was in preschool, said, mommy and daddy, I don't need ice cream, but I really want ice cream. Another one that Kathy had mentioned, which is true, and this is where you just think it's kind of funny with kids, is that. Remember when Sophia swallowed the penny?

[Susie Orman]

Yeah. Tell the story, Barb.

[Kathy]

Wait, she was really.

[Sophia]

She was little.

[Kathy]

She could hardly.

[Susie Orman]

She was like five or six.

[Sophia]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Kathy]

She was like three or four.

[Sophia]

She was in preschool.

[Kathy]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

She was very young and she, Sophia swallowed a penny. She was so little. We were in the kitchen and she said, mommy, I swallowed a penny. And she said, can we call Aunt Su? And so we said, okay. So we picked up the phone, we called then Aunt Susie and Aunt Kathy always answer too, by the way, and she told them the story about how she swallowed a penny, which was. You were very, very cute about it. But that's a classic.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah, but what? I said to Sophia, I said, so you do realize you just wasted a penny. I wasn't freaked about it.

[Barbara]

No.

[Susie Orman]

I said, don't worry, it'll come out, everything will be okay. But you just wasted a penny. And she said something to the effect of, but Aunt Susie, it's just a penny.

[Sophia]

Sophia did.

[Susie Orman]

Yes. So, like, it's not a big deal. Do you remember what I made you do. After that, you had to go pay for everything in pennies. Sophia, they'd go to the store, they'd pay everything in pennies. Barbara would have to count it out. Finally, Sophia said, okay, I get it.

[Sophia]

Okay.

[Susie Orman]

I get it. All right.

[Sophia]

Do you remember this one? This is a big one. This is a big one. Mom. Travis was five. He was either in. He was in kindergarten. And Don, my husband, was out of town and Sophia was. They were really, really young. And I ordered pizza. I told Susie this, and she's like, oh, I got schooled so hard on this one. So I ordered a pizza and I didn't have any cash to pay. So I went into Travis's little safe that he has.

[Susie Orman]

Piggy bank.

[Sophia]

Yeah, his piggy bank. It was. No, it's like a little metal box. And I borrow. I said, travis, I'm going to borrow money. Oh, my gosh. That set off sirens with Susie. And I used that. And I said, I'll pay you back. Well, I went back into Travis's room and he had taken rope. And he. Remember that.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

At five. And he was really good at tying. And he roped his.

[Kathy]

He tied the box around the leg.

[Sophia]

The leg of his bed.

[Susie Orman]

I remember that.

[Kathy]

I remember that.

[Sophia]

And Susie said, don't. You. Don't ever do that. Because he lose trust.

[Susie Orman]

Did you ever pay him back?

[Sophia]

Of course.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah. At least you paid him back.

[Kathy]

But I love that Travis absolutely took ownership of that money. It was in money and it was in his safe. And I remember seeing that leg of the bed tied with all this string and rope like knots everywhere. And he felt this is the only way to keep it secure. Then there was another lesson after that.

[Sophia]

What?

[Kathy]

Aunt Susie at one point said, travis, to keep your money really safe, we need to bring it to the bank. Do you remember that?

[Susie Orman]

But he didn't want to.

[Sophia]

No, we wanted to keep it in the box.

[Susie Orman]

He didn't understand that. So what's important about that lesson, everybody is until a child is ready to relinquish their money and they understand, handing it over to a bank don't. Right. But it's. Eventually he was ready and he understood that. What I loved, mainly my favorite story about Travis was he was really into Power Rangers. Do you remember that?

[Sophia]

Yep.

[Susie Orman]

And that was driving me crazy because Power Rangers were expensive back then. So eventually he got to the point where he wasn't playing with those Power Rangers.

[Kathy]

He got older.

[Susie Orman]

He got older and they were just there. So I said, travis, go get me all of your Power Rangers. And I had cash and I think the Power rangers he had, four of them were $25 a piece. So I said, I put out $100 on the table. I said, so, Travis, tell me now, would you rather have the Power Rangers that you have or the $100 in cash? And he said, oh, no, Aunt Susie, I want the hundred dollars. And I swooped up the hundred dollars and I said, well, that's too bad, because you have the Power Rangers between.

[Sophia]

You and Kathy and just our families, we really talk. We learned to talk through things before. We would go to a store, for example, like, remember the restaurant? When we went to the restaurant, I tell that story. Oh, that was so funny. So was it 20?

[Susie Orman]

It was 50. It was $50 on a card.

[Sophia]

Oh, okay.

[Susie Orman]

So nobody was allowed to bring any cash with them.

[Kathy]

I need to explain things.

[Sophia]

We were in Florida.

[Kathy]

Yeah. Every summer, Barbara and Dawn, who lived in California and the kids would come to Florida and spend a good portion of the summer and especially in July with us.

[Susie Orman]

They lived with us in a tiny, in a little condo, tiny two bedroom condo.

[Kathy]

And many lessons were learned. And I mean, life went on every morning. And every morning there'd be, you know, lessons with Aunt Susie and Aunt Kathy. In any event, Susie had this idea.

[Sophia]

No, no.

[Kathy]

All right, go ahead.

[Sophia]

We wanted to take, as a thank you, we wanted to take Kathy and Susie to dinner. And Susie. So remember the summer we're with you. We always cooked. We cooked all. We make our snacks, our breakfast, lunch.

[Susie Orman]

And dinner because we don't go out to eat. Yeah, go on.

[Sophia]

I mean, treat. We wanted, we wanted to thank you and take you out to dinner. And I mean, I'm being perfectly honest, you got so mad. You were like, no, no, no, no, we're not going to do it this way. But then you come up with this idea is we're going to take $50 and we're going to go to that restaurant, I forget the name of it. At the end of the street in Florida.

[Kathy]

JB's.

[Sophia]

JB's. It was the funniest thing.

[Susie Orman]

And we bought a gift card.

[Sophia]

Yeah, but remember, we're sitting around the table and this is Susie, so patient as a saint. We had, we, you know, none of.

[Susie Orman]

Us had any cash on us. Just one card, but it was Travis.

[Kathy]

Who was in charge.

[Susie Orman]

Wait, listen, it doesn't matter. Just one card for $50. So if we went over that amount, we couldn't have paid for it.

[Sophia]

And there were six of us and.

[Susie Orman]

Travis had to decide he was older. The math of it who's going to order what? Everybody had to decide so that we didn't go over $50, but that had to include the tip. So go on.

[Sophia]

He was probably like in second grade. So imagine a second grader doing the math. So what that meant is we had to have a meeting, like a pre production meeting. What are we going to drink? So we all remember, we all ordered water.

[Kathy]

We ordered water.

[Susie Orman]

Right. But at the end, guess what? We all ate.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Susie Orman]

We split meals.

[Kathy]

Very little.

[Sophia]

No, that was good. That was a good one.

[Susie Orman]

Right? But. All right, so the kids now fast forward are how old?

[Sophia]

Travis is 27 and Sophia is 25.

[Susie Orman]

So now let's fast forward to your and Don's life. Barbara as an adult living with Aunt Susie and you going through financial ups and financial downs. But as you got older and then you would come and visit and the kids now are in their 20s or whatever, you and Don would sit down with me and do you remember the day I gave you an F?

[Sophia]

Oh, oh, my God.

[Kathy]

Wait, let's. Let's go back, Go back and explain to everyone.

[Sophia]

She gave me an F. And I was on the phone, I was on the plane, you know, double fisting Tootsie Rolls. And I was like, I got an F. I've never, you know.

[Susie Orman]

All right, explain what that is.

[Sophia]

Let me explain.

[Kathy]

Let me explain. Okay, so Barbara received the lowest grade from Aunt Susie, the financial advisor, and.

[Sophia]

She physically gave me an F. Because.

[Kathy]

Barbara didn't know or have a clue about their families finances and what they.

[Susie Orman]

Were doing with money was not correct.

[Kathy]

And Don would come and sit. Every summer we get together and Don and Susie would be around the kitchen table towards the end of the trip, and he would say, well, you know, Aunt Susie, you think we can sit down and go through a few numbers? And Susie would advise and says, well, Barbara, do you know this? Do you know?

[Sophia]

She'd say no.

[Kathy]

And she'd be in the kitchen cooking. She had no interest or no clue. And Susie let her help. That was the first big Suzy smackdown for Barbara.

[Sophia]

So now she gives me an F, which is beyond devastating because as it's like she's Susie Orman, but also it's like, oh, my God, I'm never going to see my sisters again. I got an F. That's it. But then we were just talking about this this morning. Susie's like, I will always, you know, I always love you.

[Kathy]

And the kids would watch this and listen.

[Sophia]

We never sheltered them from anything.

[Susie Orman]

No. Right.

[Sophia]

So, but that's another life lesson.

[Susie Orman]

But Your life changed now, not about the kids, but your life changed at that moment in time where you got involved with the money. You started to learn about the money. And we started to be very talking about what was true, what you could do, what you couldn't do. And you had to make some tough decisions. But they were honest decisions, right?

[Sophia]

They're honest decisions. But also I think for you is that you push yourself. You push us to be, in a way, like, more creative and also to be very realistic and life lesson and keep us on our toes.

[Susie Orman]

For sure.

[Sophia]

Yes.

[Kathy]

But biggest life lesson, Susie, was that both Barbara and Don had to be equally engaged and aware because of the what ifs in life? And what if something happened? And Barbara, do you know anything? And the answer was always no. Now it's yes.

[Susie Orman]

Tell them about the time you were in San Francisco visiting us.

[Sophia]

Oh, this is no exaggeration. No exaggeration. We live in the most, the perfect house that I love. My dream house, Pacific Palisades. And I'm sitting with Susie and Kathy in San Francisco at their dining room table. And Kathy said. Or Susie said, pretend you're on the Susie Orman Show. I'm like, I'm not. I'm with my sisters eating breakfast. You're like, pretend you're on the Susie Orman Show. And I said, susie, should we sell our house? And you said, I want you to go home right now and sell. Put your house up for sale. Because the market.

[Susie Orman]

And this was 2006, 2007.

[Sophia]

Yep, yep, yep.

[Susie Orman]

And I knew the markets were going to crash, but we.

[Sophia]

I didn't.

[Susie Orman]

Right.

[Sophia]

I literally stood up. I. I went home. I literally, that minute stood up, got a plane, went home. We put our house up for sale.

[Susie Orman]

Sold it one week later. Right.

[Sophia]

Well, I mean, I don't know if you.

[Susie Orman]

One week, two weeks, whatever it was.

[Sophia]

Two weeks later, we sold it.

[Susie Orman]

And the profit was at the top of the market. They sold it. Right.

[Sophia]

But you did some funny things. She kind of like, I don't want to say stalked us, but helicoptered us. She would be like. Because maybe we were still, you know, we're going through.

[Kathy]

They were on the fence about whether to do it or not.

[Sophia]

I'll never forget, you called us, you said, what are you doing? What's that noise? I said, oh, we're on our way to Home Depot. And you're like, why? And I said, we're putting up a fence in front of the house. And she said, put the supplies down. Go. Turn around and go home. Do not put One penny. We said, okay. So we didn't do that. Then another phone call. I don't know if you remember this. He said, what are you doing? He said, well, we think we're going to spruce up the kitchen. You're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that. So we followed it and I think literally within two weeks, we sold it.

[Susie Orman]

At a really great profit and money.

[Sophia]

Yeah.

[Susie Orman]

And then here they are with two kids. And what did you do? Do you remember this? Where did you move?

[Sophia]

Oh, this was funny. We sold it and we moved to a two bedroom apartment in la. In la. We put the piano in Travis's bedroom where the piano teacher had to sit. The kids took piano lessons. They still did. And sit in the. On the bed, which was also a rock climbing wall, which was also the garage.

[Susie Orman]

And they stayed in this tiny two bedroom apartment until the kids were finished with that year with school.

[Kathy]

Remember how Travis and begged his mommy.

[Sophia]

Although he called me, Travis called because.

[Susie Orman]

Then the decision was not to move. The decision was they were going to take that money and move to Denver where they could get more for their money and it would just made sense because they weren't going to pay California taxes and all these things. When Travis heard that every day, Barbara, I don't know if you know this.

[Sophia]

I don't.

[Susie Orman]

He called me every single night crying, please, Aunt Susie, I beg you, don't make us move to Denver. I'm begging you, Aunt Susie. And I said, travis, I will be here every single night for you. You can call me every night and you can cry for hours to me, but I am telling you, you are moving. And one day you're going to thank me for this. So you're just going to have to get that. And until you get it, you can cry. But you're moving.

[Sophia]

Boyfriend Travis looked at me and he said he was so little and he said, mom, I have a pain in my heart that I've never felt before. Oh, my God. As a mother, you're like, oh.

[Susie Orman]

And now, Travis, love doesn't want to leave, would never leave. So if you had a sum up the lessons that you've learned because you were with Aunt Susie that people listening to the podcast could get. Because you don't have to have an Aunt Susie living with you and on you all the time. You just need to listen to the podcast, read the books, think about what I'm saying to you. Standing in your truth, being ethical. Don't have shame, don't be afraid to tell people you're broke. Live in the moment and be proud of everything. If you were to sum up the greatest lessons that you learned, not because I'm Aunt Susie, but because Susie's advice has been in your life, what would you say that was?

[Sophia]

I would say to have integrity. I would say to really, really, really be purposeful with what you're doing, your decision making. Being scared is okay.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

I mean, that's part of it.

[Susie Orman]

Yeah.

[Sophia]

And you should. Susie's always taught us almost to celebrate that, you know, you have to celebrate all the parts. You have to be really happy with all the parts and grateful that it's easier said than done, but you have to do it right.

[Susie Orman]

Kt, what do you want to say? You've been quiet this time.

[Kathy]

I know. I love listening because it's like yesterday that I know that the memories come back and the images and the experiences. It's like yesterday. And it makes me emotional.

[Susie Orman]

Oh, now they're both cried.

[Kathy]

God, it makes me emotional that through time, so many things have Susie's helped so many.

[Sophia]

Oh, amazing.

[Susie Orman]

Now don't make me cry.

[Barbara]

She is.

[Sophia]

Look at that. It's true.

[Kathy]

It's getting teary, too. I wish Susie, that Aunt Susie would never end.

[Susie Orman]

Thank you. Right. But the main thing that I hope all of you really take away from this in my own way, I hope you consider me your own Aunt Susie. I hope you truly consider me and all the love that I've given throughout this podcast, KT has given throughout this podcast, that in my own way, in our own way, we are there for all of you. This is not just a financial podcast. This is a podcast filled with love, with sharing, with desire that all of you grow and can benefit from our knowledge and our experiences and that you never, ever, ever forget that you mean just as much, especially to me, as Barbara, as KT does, as Sophia, Travis, Don Lynn, our other sister, all our relatives, Tom, everybody, that you mean as much to me and to kt because you really are family. So with that, there's only one thing we want you to remember when it comes to your money, and that's this. If you can be a family with your money, if you can be honest with your money, if you can walk towards your money rather than away from it, if you can just simply know that every. Every problem can be solved and that there is always a way up. It's not always just down. And if you can do it with strength and faith that everything happens for the best, we all promise you, you are unstoppable.

[Barbara]

I'm invincible that I win every single day Minds are powerful I don't need batteries to play I'm so confident yeah I'm unstoppable today Unstoppable today Unstoppable today Unstoppable today I'm un.

[Susie Orman]

Hi everybody. Suzy O Here now. If you are looking for a way to start saving to get the most out of your money, I want you to go to myalliant.com that's M y a l l I a n t dot com and look into opening an Ultimate Opportunity Savings Account. Put in at least a hundred dollars a month every single month for 12 consecutive months. Earn 3.10% interest on your money right now and get $100 at the end. Are you kidding me? It's the best deal out there. Start saving right now.

[Robert]

Neither Susie Orman Media nor Susie Orman is acting as a Certified Financial Planner Advisor, a Certified Financial Analyst, an economist, CPA, accountant, or lawyer. Neither Susie Orman Media nor Susie Orman make any recommendations as to any specific securities or investments. All content contained in this podcast is for informational and general purposes only and does not constitute financial accounting or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and financial advisors regarding your particular situation. Neither Susie Orman Media nor Susie Orman accepts any responsibility for any losses which may arise from accessing or reliance on information in this podcast and to the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all liability for loss. Damages, direct or indirect, are arising from the use of this information. The must have documents discussed in this podcast are legal documents created by a lawyer and distributed by Hay House.