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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. January 11, 2026. Welcome, everybody, to the Women in Money podcast and everybody smart enough to listen. Susie O here. And today is Susie School. And this is the podcast that many of you have been waiting for. You have wanted to hear about what's going to happen to money. What should you be investing in? Where is the economy going? You have been waiting and waiting because it's a new year, so everybody's making new projections. But I opened up this year not making new projections. I opened it up with telling you things that I really wanted you to know that had nothing to do really with if the stock market went up or the stock market went down. It had to do with how you make more money out of the money you already have, which is really the focus of the Women and Money podcast. This isn't a podcast, everybody, if you're just joining us for the first time, where all we talk about is what you should invest in, what you should be buying, you should be selling the economy. We talk about you. It's personal finance. It's what do you personally need to know to make your life better? The things that nobody really wants to deal with. A trust, a will, what kind of retirement account? Should you refinance your house? Should you even buy a house? Not is real estate going up? Is real estate going down? No, of course we talk about some of those things, but not everything that has to do with you being financially successful is about buying and selling stocks. So just know that. The other day I was interviewed by Kiplinger's magazine. I don't know when it's coming out, but that's all right. And they asked me something to the effect of what is it that I would want everybody to know? Something like that. I don't remember the exact phrasing. And I said, the most important thing everybody should know is that you can never fix a financial problem with money. And so many of you think that your problem out there is all about not having as much money as you need or want or knowing what to do with your money or whatever it may be. You and your money are one. I've said this before. I'll Say it forever. So if your money is a financial chaotic mess, it means you are a chaotic mess because you're the one who controls your money. The other thing that I found a little bit fascinating is that as I was reading some of the posts on the Women and Money podcast wall. So there is a community app called Women and Money and you can download it by going to Apple Apps or Google Play. And there's little boxes that you can search the podcast. You can do all kinds of things. But there's a wall where many people post and I was reading a few of them and people were saying, susie, can you make this more for retired people? I feel like everything is still for people who are just working. And I'm now getting older. Don't talk to me about getting older. I'm going to be 75, right? But that I'm getting older and I need advice. What do I do now that I'm no longer working, now that I'm in my retirement years, what should I do? Listen to me very closely, everybody. What you do with money is not based simply on age. It's based on your economic situation. There are many, many people in retirement that don't worry about money because they've done everything I ever asked them to do over 30 or 40 years and now they have a lot of money, their home is paid off, everything is fine. Now they just kind of want to know, how do they keep it safe? What do they do? Things like that. We talk about that all the time. If you think about it, maybe you're 33 and other 33 year olds are doing really great and you're trying to keep up with them. I don't know. But you're a different 33 year old based on your economic situation because maybe you haven't been able to find a job or whatever it is. So stop feeling like I'm in retirement. You need to talk to retirement people more than you're talking to others. And some of you on the actual app agreed with everybody. Yeah. I want to hear more about what should I do now with my money than I'm in retirement. I was like, can you tell I got a little aggravated at all of you. I wanted to say, really? Do you think I haven't been talking directly to all of you? Of course I have. But if you are in your retirement years and you've done everything that I've ever asked you to do, you would be investing then like a 45 year old, a 55 year old. You wouldn't be investing because you were older if all your bases were covered. So depends on your individual situation, what you need to know. And there's so much you need to know. There are basic rules. Own your home outright if you're going to stay in it forever by the time you retire, make sure that you're totally out of debt. Downsize to decrease your expenses so that you can afford things. Cut out things if you don't have enough money. Maybe look into getting a guaranteed income source through an immediate annuity. There are so many things, and especially for you, for Those of you 50 and older, my book, the Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50 Plus. I wrote an entire book for all of you. Are you kidding me? By the way, I think if you go on the Women in Money app and you look at the Suzy shop, I think that book is there still for $10 and that includes shipping. Might want to check that out. Just know if you're needing something, I'll eventually get to it because I do cover everything you need to know sooner than later when it comes to money, regardless of your age. But today I do want to give you an overview of what I think is happening in the economy and also kind of tell you why I just wanted to wait and not come out of the gate 11 days ago with this is what I think. Here's your new forecast for the year. I just wanted to see what was going to happen. I just did. I wanted to see would we be affected by Venezuela? Because it was obvious that was going to happen. What was going to happen with ice? What was going to happen if something went wrong? And it did. So I just wanted to see how would it affect the markets? Were the markets going up? Were they going down? What were they doing? What was AI doing? I just wanted to see things get a hold for me to be able to then say, okay, this is what I think and now I'm going to share it with you. So I want all of you to listen to me now. I just said it, but I'm going to say it again. There is so much noise right now about the markets, about politics, about interest rates, about what should I do? What shouldn't I do? AI Oil prices, elections, headlines. And in my opinion, they are all designed to scare you. And they scare you so badly you don't even want to open your statements. You become this little thing that sticks their head in the sand and goes, I can't deal with anything. I can't watch tv. I don't want to see the news. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do it. I just don't want to know. And you turn on hgtv. That's what KT says. Can we just watch htv? Can we just stop watching the news? So here is the truth though, that I want you to hear loud and clear from me. I personally believe that the foundation of this market remains strong and that the trends that matter most are still, in my opinion, we working in your favor. I want to talk about the United States of America for a second because a lot of people are emailing saying, susie, don't you think we should invest overseas? Don't you think you should be recommending because you never have some global investments and things like that. And the answer to that is no, I don't think so. I think that the United States is still the place of the most extraordinary opportunity out there and it has nothing to do with politics. You have got to leave politics out of the decisions that you make with money. Have I not said to you that anger is the number one internal obstacle to wealth? When you are angry, when you are afraid, when you are ashamed, you buy at the wrong time, you sell at the wrong time, your emotions rule you versus you ruling your emotions and therefore you ruling your money. So I personally believe that right here in the United States of America, when it comes to investing, I'm going to keep my money at home. Just that simple. There's a lot going right in the markets and in companies, but there's a lot going wrong for many, many people out there. It is true that many of you are losing your jobs, you're losing your health insurance, you're losing all kinds of things. I get that. And I'm sorry to say that's not what this podcast today is about because those are serious, serious problems that I don't know how they're going to fix. But sometimes what goes on broad based doesn't necessarily, believe it or not, reflect in the market. So the economy is one thing, the stock market is another. How you live, I'm repeating this now, how you are affected by what's going on and how you live and how it's affecting your personal lives is, is different for every single one of you. So I want you to keep in mind before I now go on to tell you what I think about just the stock market, about investments, I want you to keep in mind I so get how hard it is on many of you, but again, I'm just talking about the markets here, number one. Number two, anything that you hear me say obviously can change if things in the world change because we're living in a very volatile time. When I tell you I like an ETF or a stock or something like that, rule of thumb is you are not to go out and rush and buy it. You are to throughout this entire year, dollar cost average into everything, little by little, and it's just that simple. So when you hear me say I like such and such over this, I like this over that, which I'm going to say in a little bit, that doesn't mean tomorrow you go out and you just buy, buy, buy. You are to wait till these stocks go down to the ETFs go down because this market is not going to go straight up. This market is still going to be a serious roller coaster. So when I give you pricing and things like that, I'm talking about probably by the end of the year, this is where many of those things will be. But they will not be there next week or two weeks from now. So if you are going to be investing in these markets, just know, bottom line, they will go up and down. They're going to go in and out, they're going to go all over the place. We still have to deal with tariffs, they still have an effect on everything. So all of that has to be dealt with. But overall, this is what I want to tell you. I have noticed and I think will probably happen with certain areas of the market over the next year. And the number one rule of investing is you only invest with money that you do not need for at least five years or longer. When I say investing, that means in the stock market. So this is long term. Even if we have a bad year this year, it's okay. Years from now, everything, if you keep dollar cost averaging and have the patience to just stick it out, you should be fine. So with that, let's begin. What's interesting about what is changing right now, if you look at the big picture, is that when I look at everything, I'm seeing a very broad based expansion in the market. What do I mean by that? I'm not just seeing that a handful of tech stocks are just pulling everything higher and higher and higher. And if you weren't invested in those seven stocks or whatever they were, you really didn't make as much money as you could have, which depressed a lot of you. But what's happening right now really matters, everybody. Because when growth spreads across financials, industrials, these are different areas of the market. All right, financials, industrials, consumer spending, what else? Material, maybe healthcare, small companies, value, stocks, that tells me something very important. It tells me that this is not a fragile market, but this actually is a healthy one. Now, the other day I went in and I have a CD somewhere and it came due. And the person that I like dealing with was saying to me, susie, do you want to renew for another three months, six months, one year, whatever it is? And I personally decided, all right, I'm going to renew for one for six months and then one for 12 months because it's possible interest rates are going to continue lower. Do I know if they're going to go lower or not? No. Do I understand anything about what the Feds are going to do? Who even controls the Feds? Do I understand any of that anymore? No. But when I don't know exactly, I split what I do. Six months, okay, gave me a little bit higher interest rate than a year. But if interest rates go down, at least I lock that money up for a year. And this was all very short term money. It was not long term, not for investment. It was just for me to see what's happening. Because as all of you know, we sold the island, so we have some money, more money to invest. So I just want to see what's really happening out there. So, yeah, lower interest rates, possibly lower mortgage rates, maybe a little bit lower gas prices, most likely a weaker dollar, probably. But all of that helps companies earn more money. And when companies earn more, guess what stock prices tend to follow. Now, this isn't me speculating. No, this is me just telling you what happens in history. Let's begin this investment outlook with the Standard and Poor's 500 index. The reason I like to start there is because out of all the indexes which are compiled of many, many stocks that are indicators of is this section going higher, how are we doing? I like the Standard and Poor's 500 index, and I really thought that last year it would finish at least between 7,000 and 7,400. If you remember, it almost got there, but not quite. On Friday, it closed, I think at 6966. Okay, so we were almost there, not quite. But I would not be surprised if in 2026, if we saw the Standard & Poor's 500 index hit at like 7,600 right in there. I would not be surprised if it even went as high as 8,000. However, only time will tell. Now, the reason that I like that is that the majority of you, if we're right, if that happens, and remember, it's going to go up, down, it's going to do its thing. A lot of you are invested in the Standard and Poor's 500 Index through a Standard and Poor's 500 Index ETF, whether it's Voo, SPLG, even VTI, which is even more expansive. You already are exposed to that. So I like that for you. And the reason that I told you over the past year or so wouldn't kill you to have 50% of your money in something like Voo, which is an ETF that invests in the standard, Poor's 500 index or SPLG, same thing. And then maybe go deeper into individual stocks that we named in the past and I'll go through those again before this session is over. I thought that would give you the biggest bang for your buck. So for me, I find this encouraging. And the reason that it makes me feel encouraged is because the Standard and Poor's 500 is going up without it relying on the Magnificent Seven. It means again that participation in this stock market is widening. And if it's widening in the stock market, it's because it's widening in the economy. And that means strength and is spreading. So when markets broaden like this, I take it as a very bullish signal. And again, for those of you who don't know, when it's a bull, the market tends to go up. When it's a bear, the market tends to go down because you get eaten. But I'm feeling positive about it. Just so you know, we all have to be very clear about something here. And I want to talk about technology and artificial intelligence. I'm going to say it over and over again, just like I do most things in life. Artificial intelligence is not a trend, it is a transformation. Do you hear that? The semiconductor sector, which is the backbone of AI, it's those little chips and think that run everything. They remain essential. So these companies are no longer optional. They are the infrastructure of everything that is happening out there. And as I said a minute ago, now that we're seeing this strength expand beyond just those biggest names into other things like memory, analog chips, equipment makers, all of that. Again, I'm going to go back to if you own broad based market funds such as the Standard and Poor's 500, which I already talked to you about, you already own this theme because the top holdings of the Standard and Poor's 500 are these stocks. And again, that's exactly how most of you should be invested. But a lot of you are saying, susie, how can this be true? I can't afford rent. I can't afford to buy a home. I can't afford to buy food. I can't afford to do all of these things. I understand that very well. And I understand that unemployment's a little crazy here. I understand inflation did not do what we wanted. I get this things are going up higher. I get that we don't even get as much for our money when we go out. Do you know I love Taco Bell? Listen, I just love Taco Bell, and I don't have any problems saying it. And my favorite thing when I do get to go to Taco Bell, because it's always a treat, is a bean burrito without cheese. So the other day we were out and I said, kt, let's go to Taco Bell. She said, okay, and we go to Taco Bell. I get my usual bean burrito without cheese, like I just told you. Now, I've been doing this for probably almost 40 years now, just so you know. And I know the size of a bean burrito, not only was it more expensive than normal, but the size of it was, I swear, 25% littler than what a normal one would have been. And I'm like, oh, well, that's great. You know, even if they're charging the same, they're giving less. So I understand very well that the struggle that many of you are going through personally, and that is also what we try to deal with on the Women in Money podcast. However, even if that is true, that doesn't mean that the markets aren't strong. Why is that? Because I have to tell you, regardless of how hard it is out there, what I don't understand is, if it is so hard on you, why is the consumer still spending? I don't know. I don't know where that money is coming from. Are they putting it on their credit cards? Probably. I don't quite get it. But they are still out there. So the American consumer has not disappeared. And what's interesting is I find that probably investing in consumer discretionary stocks or ETFs more than traditional consumer staples is probably the way to go. What is a consumer discretionary, everybody? It's when the consumer has money and they go out and they buy things that they don't absolutely need, it's at their discretion. A consumer staple is when you go out there and you have to buy toothpaste or whatever it is, it's something that you absolutely need. Now, there are incredibly strong consumer staple names like Procter and Gamble and Walmart and Costco. I don't have a problem if you own those. However, there are also incredibly strong consumer discretionary stocks like Amazon, Tesla, Home Depot, things like that. For those of you who like ETFs better, exchange traded funds better than individual stocks, all right, Consumer discretionary is xly. Consumer staples are xlp. Okay, if you even want to venture there, but that's something that's possible. So this isn't about chasing things. This is about recognizing where everything is shifting to. And believe it or not, that's where it's shifting financials. I said this before a little bit ago, but I have to tell you, I think banks are benefiting from AI, from all the scale, from efficiency of how they're doing everything. So therefore, is it possible that there's money to be made in buying the ETFs that invest in big banks, symbol BKX or regional symbol for the ETF? There is KRE very possible. So it's another area that's just a little bit of a diversification away from AI and things like that. You got to look at right now the industrials and the transportation stocks. Think about this, industrial stocks, what our industry here is made up of, transportation, how everything moves. All of those have hit new highs. And that tells me one thing, that economic activity is still moving. Just that simple. Next, let's talk about energy. Energy is very interesting here and a little bit difficult. However, I personally like utilities versus energy. While it's true that maybe we'll see oil and everything around 50, maybe even lower than some companies are going to benefit from it, just for an overall view, I'm favoring the ETF xlu. These are symbols that I'm giving you. Everybody over xle, which was the energy etf. And for a long time I liked the energy ETF xle. We started buying it, by the way, in March, I think it was of 2020 and we made a lot of money on that. But right now, if you're looking for other things to do, I'm just telling you I like utilities more than energy. But that's just me. Next, health care. Health care, believe it or not, is back. And listen to me everybody, because this matters to every one of you. Health care has quietly rebuilt itself. It's strong. Major health care indexes are approaching new highs. Big insurers, believe it or not, are stabilizing. And I told you this again before. Biotech. Yeah, biotech is beginning once again to show opportunity. And I told all of you to purchase the ETF xbi. And you know, it may be my favorite ETF of all Right now it just might be. So when it starts to dip the that is when you want to buy. Now let me just give you individual things because I know you're saying but Susie, do you still like Palantir? Do you still like IonQ? Yes, of course I do. Palantir, long term, it's something you want a dollar cost average into and when it's taken down by the idiots out there, you might want to buy more. So I still like Palantir, I still like IonQ, I still like SMH, the ETF for SAL semis at 389. Like it, think it should be bought. I like those things a lot. I like Nvidia, I like almost everything that I've told you about. I even like Amazon, I really do. I also like the ETF QQQ at 626. Don't be surprised if it ended the year around 760. So these are all things that I really like. But here's what's really important. I would not be afraid right now. Do not let what's going on in this world scare you out of making your money. Make more money. I get it's not great when something goes down dramatically. But look at it as an opportunity versus a loss. You only lose when you've sold something. If you own something and you still like what they're doing, you like their earnings, you like the company company, you like where it can go in the future. Just hold on. So here's what I really want you all to remember. You do not need to trade to make money. You do not need to predict, you do not need to panic. Do you hear me? Here is what you need. You need diversification, you need patience and you need a long term plan that you can stick with, with. Because when the markets broaden like they're doing now, costs come down. And when costs come down, guess what happens? Everybody. Earnings improve. This isn't fear, this is opportunity. And as always, I've told you, you want to find the best financial advisor in the world. Look in the mirror. Because what happens to your money directly affects the quality of your life. Not a financial advisor's life, not my life, nobody's life, but your own. And this is everything that you can learn and know what to do. It's just that simple. Overall, just a few more things, which is real estate. I do think depending on where you live, real estate prices might go up a little bit. I don't think you're going to see that total escalation as you saw in the past years. So it's starting to be more of a buyer's market in my opinion. But mortgage rates very possibly will come down to around 5.9%. And many of the people who have been hanging on to their homes simply because they have a 2 or 3% interest rate may realize they're never going to see 2 or 3% again. So they may start to move rents. Because many places are building more and more rental things, rents could probably be negotiated. Something for you to think about if you're renewing a lease where you are renting Bitcoin. Bitcoin up, down, just hold on for dear life. Its future is there. It's not quite there yet, but just if you're doing it, hold on again. I like buying bitcoin through the etf. Ibit. Ibit. A lot of people buy it directly. There's all kinds of ways to buy it. It's a way that you can participate. If you want gold and silver, I don't know, I don't know. They've gone up dramatically here. Maybe they'll go up more, maybe not. Again, if you want a little bit of your portfolio in there, okay, I favor bitcoin, by the way, over gold or silver. But it's just if you're going to buy gold, can you just do me a favor? Don't buy the actual commodity itself. Once you own the actual commodity, somebody can steal it. If you go to sell it, can you just tell me how you're going to sell it? You have to go have it reassayed to make sure that you didn't drill out the middle of the bar. It's not that easy. You want to buy a few coins, okay. But if you really want to do it, then buy an etf, GLD or whatever it may be. Just know I think there's better money to be made elsewhere. I personally still love dividend paying stock that will pay you income. I think as time goes on, the way, especially if you are in retirement years, is not to necessarily buy bonds. And that's how you invest when you get older. No, as time goes on and you are older and you're looking for income, dividend paying stocks that are good quality, that pay you a good dividend along with some of your money invested purely for growth. And that will be your key to be able to sustain yourself when it comes to retirement. So there are so many more things that I can talk to you about, but that's why we have another year of the Women in Money podcast. And I don't have to do it all at once. All right, so until Thursday when Ms. Travis joins us again. And tonight is another episode of LAN Man. In fact, it's probably on right now. If you haven't watched that series, you might want to watch it. One of our favorite things that we have seen. Okay, until next Thursday. There's only one thing that I want you to remember, and it is this. People first, then money, then things. Now you stay safe. Bye. Bye. We are strong, we are wise we will not apologize we are here we will thrive Together we will rise we're the faith and everything it takes we are strong, we are wise Together we will rise. Hi, everybody. Suzie O here. And I have to tell all of you, there is one benefit that I know all of you need and your corporations need to offer. And it comes from a company that I helped co found over 5 years ago by the name of Secure Save. So whether you're an employee or an employer, I want you to go to securesave.com Suzie S U Z E and take a look at what I have for you there. I promise you, you're gonna like.