Suze Orman at the Apollo: Women and Money, Part 1

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0:39Hi, it's Ashley from OWN. So we have been renovating our garage and it has been such an exciting project. We took the garage door down and installed large, beautiful sliding glass doors. We quickly realized we needed curtains for privacy and I found the perfect ones on Wayfair. Shipping was incredibly fast and customer service was helpful with getting us a replacement as I initially ordered the wrong length. It has completely elevated the space and is becoming our favorite place to unwind. Wayfair helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, and trusted reviews.

1:13Wayfair verified products are hand-vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection. More than 20 million verified five-star reviews help shoppers buy with confidence. Plus, Wayfair Rewards members 5 % back on every purchase. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase. Head to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. The information in this program is for your general knowledge and is not a substitute for financial or legal advice.

1:54I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time. Taking time to be more fully present. Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right now. A pallah!

2:26Sit down.

2:32So, I have arrived at the pinnacle of my career. And I mean that everybody. You know, you have dreams. You have dreams, maybe you'll win an Emmy. Maybe you'll have a number one New York Times bestseller. Maybe you'll do this and that, all that I've done. but I've had one really, really big dream, and that is to stand on the Apollo stage and talk money to all of you. Now, here's what I find fascinating about all of you. It is 15 minutes late from the start time, and I've been standing over there for 15 minutes, and all of you or some of you were out there drinking and you didn't want to stop drinking before you came in here and do you know what I was told I was told you were scared the topic was about money you had to be drunk to sit in an audience Suzy Orman.

3:47Listen, I love talking to women, an entire audience of women, and the men smart enough to come as well.

4:02Yeah, you have to think about it. It takes courage as a man to come to a show called Women and Money. See, I've got to give them credit, right? But I love talking to women more about money than anything else. And here's the reason why. The future is female.

4:34And this is the year. this is the year that all of you need to have a financial voice. I understand very well what's been happening with the Me Too and the Time's Up movement. And I just want to talk about that for just a second here. I want us all to think about why as women, why would we, and every one of us has experienced this, why would we put ourselves in a situation that wasn't respectful to ourselves why would we say yes okay when we're thinking no I don't want to do this I don't like you you're ugly whatever it is but well when you think about what never mind I won't go there right but but when you think about it why would we do that who said that girlfriend got it right did you hear what she said she needed the money we need the money you need the job you need the promotion you need the part you need whatever because you need money and what do you need money for ladies to take care of your families And you know and I know that a woman will do anything to take care of her family.

6:03Anything.

6:07So it's not enough just for this movement to say, no, I'm not going to do it. And for all of us to support one another in it. It's not enough. What is enough is when you have power over the money that you have. What's enough is when you don't have to say yes because you don't care if you don't get that job. You don't care if you don't get that part. You don't care because why? You have enough money to be able to be secure. So what is the goal of money, ladies? how many of you in this room feel secure right here and right now oh a few of you but not all of you it needs to be every single one of you in this room because if you're not secure then what are you you're insecure and when you're insecure that means you are afraid And when you are afraid, you have rendered yourself powerless.

7:17And when you are powerless, the number one law of money kicks into place. Open up your notebooks and start to take notes. Because this isn't a night, everybody, just to entertain you. This is an amateur night at the Apollo. not this is in my opinion the most important night the most important hour and a half that you have ever spent in your lives because this night is about you it's about empowering you it's about telling you what to do with your money it's about telling you what not to do with your money it's It's about telling you that it's okay when your relatives say to you, give me some of your money because I don't have any money, that you say no.

8:20Oh. You say no out of love for yourselves versus yes out of fear of what everybody else will think about you. Any of you relate to that in this audience? Do any of you have the courage when your brother or your sister, very different by the way, when it's your parents. I have this belief that when it's your parents, you have to do anything you can to help them. They gave you birth. They're your mom. They're your dad. Okay? There are exceptions to every rule, obviously. But overall, parents, yes. But here you are. You make money. You put some away for yourself. And all of a sudden, your sister comes to you who hasn't worked in I don't know how long.

9:23she already borrowed$5 ,000 from you a few years ago and never paid you back and she comes to you and she says I really need$2 ,000 please and you're thinking I'm not giving you that$2 ,000 and you're feeling are you kidding me you don't work I work so hard what are you talking about and yet what do you do you go and you either write her a check if you even write checks anymore or somehow you give her two thousand dollars why is that women why do you do that because women do not do what they think they do not say what they are feeling they make sure that everybody else is okay before they are you will take care of your mother your father your brother your sister your uncles your aunts your neighbors your employers your employees before you will take care of yourselves tonight that is going to change tonight Tonight, my dream for all of you is that you start to give to yourselves as much as you give of yourselves.

10:48So do you have a goal here tonight? What is your goal? To be what? Secure. To be what? Strong. To be what? Smart. Those are the three S's coming from the one S on the stage that I would like all of you to do. So this is your evening, but you know, I never plan a talk, so I really have no idea where to go from here. But that's when I always ask you a question. Why did you come? why did you come here tonight i want to hear it from you why did you come shout it out

11:39wait wait wait wait that didn't go over very good because i didn't i can't hear a damn thing that you're saying right right raise your hands right raise your hands why did you come why did you come because she's broke why did you come she came because of the mistakes she's made in the past right why did you come to learn more about retirement a few more you oh she does not want her daughters to make the same mistakes as she did. Stand up daughters. All right daughters, can you tell me the mistakes that your mother has made?

12:33I'm serious. Don't worry, only a few million people are gonna see this. We don't know your mama's name. Yeah, if you duck down maybe they won't recognize you, although the cameras are zoomed right in on your girlfriend. And it's you, the whole world now. I want to hear from you the mistakes that you think your mother has made. I don't really know. She likes Marshalls a lot. Uh-huh. She sent me to Catholic high school for one year, and then I transferred out, so that probably was a waste of money. Uh-huh. I think just spending money that you don't have. So you feel that your mama spends money that she doesn't have?

13:17Not anymore. Not anymore. So she stopped that. But when you were little, you used to see that she did that. Speak up and have a voice, woman. You've got to be a powerful woman in life. You cannot be a wimp. Yes. Yes. All right. I was just curious. Okay, you can sit down now. All right. Now, why did I do that? You can give them applause.

13:45So, why did I just do that? Because I didn't know what else to do. No. Because it's very important that all of you understand if the future is female. What you do is what your children see. They don't care what you say. They do not listen to what you say. They do what you do. And if it is our responsibility, which I believe that it is, to raise strong, smart, and secure children, especially little girls, then they need a role model. And they don't have role models at school. You can't ask a teacher who we undervalue and we pay absolutely no money to. with the most important job in the world, teaching your children to be able to teach your children prosperity and being powerful when she or he themselves are totally coming from poverty.

14:55They don't have enough money to even buy all the materials for the classroom, and they themselves are powerless in most cases. It is impossible. So then who is going to teach your children to be like you want them to be. This woman does not want her children to be like she was. I find that very sad. And I find that sad because you need to be the role model for those kids. It's you that needs to say, I want my kids to do exactly what I do. I want my kids to be exactly like I am. I want all of you in this room to feel the power over their money that I feel. Because it's not just about having a lot of money.

15:52Having a lot of money doesn't mean that you're not going to get yourself in a situation where you're going to say no, but yet you say yes. it's having power over the money that you have. There's a lot of wealthy women out there who have been violated. A lot of wealthy women. And why did that happen to them? In my opinion, it's not just about having money. It's about having power over your money. So earlier tonight, the makeup artist arrives. She did pretty good if you ask me. Right? Right? And I immediately start talking to her about her money. And she's like, no, I know about my money. I know where it is.

16:45I'm doing good with my money. I have no credit card debt. I have an eight-month emergency fund. I have a retirement account. What are you invested in? I don't know. Some mutual fund. Well, how do you know? How did that get invested? Oh, I gave it to a financial advisor, and this woman is just doing it for me. That is not power, ladies. Yeah, you may be investing your money, but you need to know what you're investing your money in. You need to know what type of life insurance policies you have. You need to know how long do you have left on your mortgage. What interest rate is your student loan.

17:24You need to know about your car loans. You need to know every single thing about your money. But you don't want to get involved in that. You only care about your household expenses. Have you noticed that? You're fine paying the bills. And you know why that is? Because your house holds your children. Your house holds everybody that you love. You don't care that you work 20, 40, 80, 100 hours a week. That money you don't care about. You don't care about bill, buck, and penny. That was funny, and you didn't laugh. I thought that was pretty funny. But you don't care about your financial children, do you?

18:12And you need to. So I started to tell you about the number one law of money. And the number one law of money is power attracts money, and powerlessness repels it. Write it down.

18:36Why is that true? You heard me say that money will teach you more about yourself than anything else. Money is simply a physical manifestation of who you are. Listen to me closely now. You're the ones who go out and you earn a paycheck. You're the ones who get a paycheck and you decide, are you going to save it? Are you going to spend it? Are you going to invest it? money cannot do anything without you nothing if I dropped a$20 bill right here it could not say Susie pick me up you know when you're walking in the streets and you see a dollar bill or you see 25 cents or whatever it is somebody lost that money they didn't even know money is just lying there it can't do anything.

19:39So people control money. You got that so far? If people control money, have you ever noticed in life that when you are powerful, everybody is attracted to you? Everybody wants to either hire you or be with you or go out with you or do whatever because people are attracted to power. People want to be around people that make them feel powerful when they feel so powerless, so they plug in to power. If people control money and power attracts people, do you understand how therefore power attracts money? Do you understand that connection? But now let's look at the other side of it. Okay? You're powerless.

20:40Something's happened. You're in a relationship. You just broke up. You just gained the 20 pounds that you lost. Whatever it may be, when you are powerless, have you ever noticed that nobody wants to be around you? They just don't. You'll call them the first time, your best friend, and you'll tell them what went on and they'll listen to you. Call them again, they won't pick up. They'll never pick up because I don't want to be around powerlessness. So if powerlessness repels people and people control money, do you understand that when you are powerless, you repel people and you repel money? So what makes you the most powerless in life?

21:38Debt. Nothing makes you feel less than than when you have debt. Because when you have debt, you have bondage. And you will never have financial freedom if you're in bondage. You will never feel strong. You will never feel smart. and you will never feel secure. So here's the question that I have to ask for all of you right now. I want you to stand up and stay standing if you have credit card debt. Come on, Apollo.

22:23Stay standing. Good, Kathy. Stay standing. I want you to stand. If you have credit card debt, car loan debt, mortgage debt, 401k debt, stand. Student loan debt.

22:44Oh, that's 100%. All right, almost. Great. Now I want you to turn the person next to you, and I want you to tell them how much debt you have.

23:11Hi, it's Ashley from OWN. So we have been renovating our garage and it has been such an exciting project. We took the garage door down and installed large, beautiful sliding glass doors. We quickly realized we needed curtains for privacy and I found the perfect ones on Wayfair. Shipping was incredibly fast and customer service was helpful with getting us a replacement as I initially ordered the wrong length. It has completely elevated the space and is becoming our favorite place to unwind. Wayfair helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value, and trusted reviews.

23:46Wayfair verified products are hand-vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection. More than 20 million verified five-star reviews help shoppers buy with confidence. Plus, Wayfair Rewards members 5 % back on every purchase. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase. Head to Wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home.

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25:34All right. Come back to me, Apollo.

25:42I want you to sit down.

25:49Now, how did that feel? Horrible. They felt horrible. But want to know what's so great about it? All of you, just maybe for the first time in your lives, you stood in your truth. You stood in your truth.

26:18Because we don't make a habit of telling people what we don't have. We make a habit of showing people who we are by the clothes we wear, by the cars we drive, by the jewelry that you have on. And yes, these are still my only pair of earrings.

26:41I'll tell you a funny story, and I don't even know why I want to tell you this story. It was the last show that I was doing with Oprah. And I thought after 29 shows that if I wore a different pair of earrings, that she or anybody would notice. And nobody did. It was such a bummer, really, because anyway. But so you stood in your truth. Now, in the same way that it is important that we all have a voice and we all stick up for one another. We stick up for one another when another woman has either been violated or another woman something has happened to her or whatever and she doesn't have her own voice to be able to say something herself.

27:33It's up to us to speak for her and to help her and to be her companion that way and her hero. But in the same way, when you have debt, you have to have a financial voice where you are proud to say, I have$5 ,000 of credit card debt. I have$10 ,000 of credit card debt. Because the debt that you have does not define who you are. And so you can't be ashamed of it. And why? Why? Because fear, shame, and anger are the three internal obstacles to wealth. Why don't you have wealth in your life? The question becomes right back to all of you. What are you doing to become an obstacle in your own path to financial freedom?

28:26And then you'll say to me, that's easy for you to say, Susie. You're standing on that stage, a seriously wealthy woman. And I so am.

28:45So am. But it wasn't always that way. So if you don't know my story, I'm compelled to tell you. Because yesterday when I was at the Apollo, we were checking all the lights and everything. Every person that was in here, I said, do you know my story? They go, no. Do you know my story? They go, no. I go, how can you not know my story? My story is fabulous. Fabulous. And what's so fabulous about it is this. I was born on the south side of Chicago. There you go. There you are. The real South Side, the hood, 81st and Oglesby, right there where the shootings happen. There we go, right? And literally, my parents did not have money.

29:43My mother was a secretary and sold Avon. Thank God for Avon. Sold Avon. Oh, there we go. There we go. Avon, right? But really sold Avon on the side to pay the bills. My father had a very interesting story where he himself taught me a very interesting lesson. I was a teenager, and I drive up to his little chicken shack. It was 400 square feet. and I'm with my mom and I drive up and his building is totally on fire. And thank God he's standing outside and he's okay. And my mom says, oh my God, he's okay. Thank God, Susie, da, da, da. And then my father runs back into his little chicken shack because he remembers that every penny that he has to his name is in the cash register in this little chicken shack.

30:58And back then the cash registers were metal. And out comes my father carrying this scalding metal box. He throws it down, and with that, he sustained third-degree burns on his arms and his chest. That's when I learned, or I thought I had learned, that money was more important than life itself because I saw my father almost kill himself for the cash register. As time went on, I was never a good student. You know, I had a speech impediment. I couldn't pronounce my R's, S's, or T's, so words such as beautiful came out as boobital. Because I could not speak, I could not read, ladies and gentlemen.

32:02And because I could not read, in my school, which was Horseman, they sat you according to your reading score. And I had the lowest reading score in the class. So I sat in the last row, last seat, while my friends all were in the first row, first seats. I knew I was stupid. I knew I was dumb. I knew I would never amount to anything. Here I go through the University of Illinois, never getting more than a grade of a C. Had to work my way through people. My parents did not have the money. They had a lot of financial difficulties. And then I get into a Ford Econoline van that my brother gave me the money to buy, and I end up living on the streets for three months in Berkeley, California, until I landed my dream job as a waitress at the Buttercup Bakery.

33:09And that was 1973. And I was a waitress from 1973 till 1980, when I was then 29 years of age. All right? Now, all of you, I'm sure, are going to be trying to figure out how old does that make me i am 67 as i stand up here in front of you now i just have to say something there's something radically wrong about when people applaud for you because you're 67 years of age i don't know i had this experience today where you know the look when you only have on your socks and your underpants, right? And you're looking in the mirror, and I looked in the mirror and I went, Mom! Right? You know that look?

34:08It's always quite astonishing to me when that happens. But, so, there I am, almost 30 years of age, and I say to myself, I know I could be more than just a waitress. I can open my own restaurant. I call my mom and dad, ask for$20 ,000. They say, Susie, we don't have$20 ,000 to give you. To make a very long story short, all the customers that I have been waiting on for those seven years at the Buttercup Bakery where I was making$400 a month, people, for seven years, right, gave me$50 ,000 to open up my own restaurant. They gave it to me with a note. It was$500 from one,$100 from another,$2 ,000.

35:05None of these people had much money. And they gave me it with a note that said, this is for people like you to have your dreams come true, to be paid back with no interest in 10 years if you can. I said, all right, what do I do with this money? They told me to take it down to Merrill Lynch, a brokerage firm, and put it in a money market account. I didn't know what a Merrill Lynch was, and I didn't know what a money market account was. I went down, however, and I followed their instructions, and I was greeted by the broker of the day who gets all the new walk-ins. His name was Randy. and I told Randy what this money was for.

35:52I'm going to open up my own restaurant. And Randy says to me, how would you like to make a quick$100 a month or a week or anything like that, Susie? I said, Randy, what do you think I can make a month? And he said, probably$500 to$1 ,000 a month. And I said, you can make me that much money? That's more than I make working. And he said, sign here on the bottom line. He was a financial advisor working for a reputable brokerage firm, which it is still, by the way, to this day. It's the brokers that aren't always reputable. And again, to make a long story short, he qualified me. He filled in the paperwork, made it look like I was a very wealthy woman.

36:38and within three months, because he qualified me to play the options market, all$50 ,000 was lost. Now, ladies, you just sighed. Because that happened to me, I stand on this stage in front of you today. You must always remember in life, every single no leads you closer to a yes. Every time you think you have sustained a loss, it is going to lead you to a gain. There is no way that anything doesn't always happen for the best. I believe from the bottom of my soul that God only knows how to give. He does not know how to take.

37:32So I thought, I know I can be a broker, they just make you broker. So I got dressed in my red and white striped Sassoon pants, tucked into my white cowboy boots with a blue silk shirt on. And I went to interview for a job at Merrill Lynch. Can you imagine? I thought I looked hot. Now, before I go on with this story, there's somebody in the audience that experienced this that I'm looking at. Yes, Woody, I see you. Woody, stand up for just one second. Woody washed dishes with me at the Buttercup Bakery.

38:28And I just have to ask you this. Do you remember that outfit? Do you? I was a size six back then. It was hot, wasn't it? I walked in as the American flag. And before I knew it, I was in the manager's office, and he's looking at me, and he says the following. Susie, women belong barefoot and pregnant. Oh, yes, right? His name was Peter Sansevero. I'm very aware that we're taping this for television. It's one of my favorite things to do in life is tell this story, right? And he said, and just looked at me, and I like, what? And all of a sudden, I'm realizing, oh, my God, There are no women working here in the Oakland office of Merrill Lynch.

39:26I'm going to be the first woman that they've hired. They need to fill their affirmative action quota. And I said to him, well, how much are you going to pay me to make me pregnant?

39:38And he said to me,$1 ,500 a month. He said, but I am going to fire you in six months. Didn't take me long to realize that 1 ,500 times six was$9 ,000. And that's what it would take me two years to make at the Buttercup Bakery. And I actually wanted to go back to the Buttercup Bakery because we had a good time there, didn't we? We loved the Buttercup Bakery. And so I said, fine. Now I'm working for Merrill Lynch. And again, to make a long story short, the operations manager who made sure that all the brokers stayed honest came up to me and told me that I need to see a lawyer because essentially what Randy the broker did was illegal because stockbrokers need to make sure that they invest your money according to your risk.

40:36So I got the attorney that he told me to get and I sued Merrill Lynch while I was working for them. Well, I don't know what's so funny about that. Because I sued them, they couldn't fire me. Don't you love that? I love that. And by the time the suit came to court, I was their number six producing broker. Peter went on to an actually hire job. I could tell you stories about Peter all day, people. A hire job. and the new manager came in and said, this is crazy. Give Susie back the$50 ,000 plus 18 % interest, which is what interest rates were back in 1981 and 82. And I was able to pay back all the people that gave me money.

41:36I didn't tell you that to impress you, although you so should be. I told you that to inspire you. Because there is not one of you in this room that has an excuse big enough to keep you from being more so that you can have more. Do you understand that? Because so many times you tell me, I can't do that. I don't have good grades. I can't do that. I come from poverty. I can't do that. I don't have the same opportunity. Oh, yes you do. Yes you do. If you go within, you will see why you are doing without. You will see that. So you have to stand in your truth. A lot of you said to me when we were asking why did you come, and you said, debt, retirement, I don't want to make mistakes anymore.

42:43And you heard me say that debt is bondage. You saw all of you stand. Wouldn't you like it one day if you were out of debt, if you felt that power? So without going into debt much more than that, here's what I want to say to you. If you have credit card debt, you are paying for your present day desires, but your costs are going to be your future day needs, people. When you get older, you're going to need money to take care of yourself. You're going to need money to buy medicine. You're going to need money. You don't need the things that you are spending your money on now. So how do you get out of credit card debt?

43:39It's by these three rules. Number one, you are to live below your means but within your needs. I'll never forget when I first moved to New York, and it was after a book I had written called Nine Steps to Financial Freedom. hit the big time. And I had money. And I could have afforded to buy a million dollar apartment, a two, three million dollar apartment on park and da da da da, but I didn't need it. Instead, I bought a 700 or 800 square foot apartment on 57th Street that was like, even though it was expensive for everywhere else. For New York it was not. It was$240 ,000 at the time. And that's what I bought.

44:35And it was right on 57th Street next to Mr. Chow's. And I loved that apartment. I could afford more, but I didn't need it. So I was living below my means, but within my needs. So here's the question you all have to ask yourself. When do you buy what you need versus what you can afford when you can afford more than what you need? I could afford a more expensive apartment, but I did not need it. Got that? If you live your life with that one rule, your life will start to change. How do you start to live that rule? From this day forward, I would like you to make a vow to yourself that for the next six months, I would like you to only buy needs, not wants.

45:36What's a need? Need is food at a grocery store. What is a want? Want is food at a restaurant. Oh, so bad for New York, right? What the hell are you going to do on weekends? What are you going to do for lunch? Oh, my God. All right, if you can't try it for six months, since I knew you were going to have that reaction, can you try for 21 days? Because Dr. Oz says if you do something for 21 days, you will break your habits. Just can you try it? And the third thing is, can you get as much pleasure out of saving as you do spending? Can you just try that? Can you see what it feels like to put$100 a month away or$200 and everything like that?

46:38And let me tell you why that is so important. Time is the most important ingredient in any financial freedom recipe. You are 25 years of age. We have any 25-year-olds out there, my little daughters? I had a feeling, a few. You're 25 years of age, and you put$100 a month right here and right now into a Roth IRA. And if you don't know what one is, I'll explain it in a little bit to you. And you invest that$100 every month into a Standard & Poor's 500 Index Fund, which I'll also explain to you. And you do that every single month until you are 65 years of age. And over those 40 years, the money, sometimes the years you make 30%, sometimes you lose 20%.

47:36But over all those years, you average an annual percentage of 12%. Now, that is a little high. It could be 10 or 11, but I'm going to use 12 to make an example here because it is possible. Do you know that by the time you were 65, you would have$1 million at$100 a month? You could be a millionaire. Did you ever think you could be a millionaire? But you're young and you think, what difference does$100 a month make? It's$1 ,200 a year. In 10 years, that is$12 ,000. What difference does$12 ,000 make? If you start at 35 rather than 25, at 65, you would have what? $300 ,000. Those 10 years cost you$700 ,000, girlfriend.

48:43Right? I'm talking to you. Right? Because you're going, I can see it. That much? $700 ,000? $700 ,000, and that's at$100 a month. What if it were$200 a month? Or$300 a month? That's called compounding. Where you put money in, your money makes money, the money that your money makes, makes money, the money that your money makes, that your money makes, that your money makes, makes money. And before you know it, you are multimillionaires. So maybe we could change your habits here that you could get more pleasure out of saving knowing that every time you put that$100 in, every time you do something, you're on the path to becoming a millionaire.

49:38Do you think you could try that? Somebody over here wanted to know about retirement. And I recently just said a few seconds ago the best place to put that money would be a Roth IRA. Let's talk about retirement plans for a second here. A lot of you say to me, Susie, I cannot save for my retirement. I can barely, barely pay my bills now. So here's the question to all of you. If you can barely pay your bills today while you have a paycheck coming in, can you tell me how you are going to pay those exact same bills when you no longer have a paycheck coming in? How are you gonna do that? You're not gonna be able to.

50:32And if you think that you're going to be able to count on the government to save you, are you kidding me? You think they care about you? Really? Really? They can't care about you because, in my opinion, they have so much debt that they are creating$21 trillion to just keep this country running. They don't have the money to keep your lives running for you. So you're going to have to do it yourselves. And how do you do that? You start right here and right now. So out of all the retirement accounts that are out there that you can have, what should you be doing? If you work for a corporation that offers you a 401k plan that matches your contribution, I don't care if you don't have a pot to pee in.

51:33You have got to contribute to your 401k plan up to the point of that match. What kind of 401k plan should you all be invested in? It should be a Roth 401k if your company offers it. If your company does not offer it, you should walk yourselves into your HR department or whoever deals with that for your company, and you should demand that they carry a Roth 401k, a Roth 403b, or a Roth TSP if you're in the military or a teacher. You should demand that you have a Roth. Why? A Roth account is an account that is in a retirement account where you invest with money that you have already paid taxes on.

52:27Because you have already paid taxes on that money, while the money is in that count, it will grow, it will earn for you, and later on in life when you go to take it out, you will take it out 100 % tax-free. You die, and it goes to your children. They get to take it out 100 % tax-free. All of you think, oh, I need to invest in a retirement account today and get a tax write-off for that money because I don't want to pay as much in taxes, so I'm going to do a traditional 401k or a traditional IRA. Big, big mistake. And the reason that this is a mistake is there is another law of money and it is called invest in the known versus the unknown.

53:31What do you know right now? You know what tax bracket you are in. And truthfully, all of us are in the lowest tax brackets of history at this point in time. Do you know that not that many years ago, tax brackets were at 90%, then 70%, then 50%. When I first started, tax brackets were 50%. So when you're paying what you are paying right now, relatively speaking, even though it may seem high, it is low. What is unknown? Unknown is what tax brackets are going to be 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years from now when you need to withdraw this money. Wouldn't you rather just pay the taxes right now? Now it's out of the way.

54:25And now you have all of this money in an account. So what you see is what you get. If you get older and you see that there's 500 ,000 or a million dollars in a retirement account. If you needed to take out a billion dollars in a Roth 401k, you could take a million dollars out, no taxes. You take a million dollars out from a traditional 401k, you're going to lose at least 50 % of that to taxes. So what you see in a traditional 401k is not what you get. Do all of you understand that. Next, this is your opportunity to stand with me in your truths and ask questions. So if you have questions about anything that I am talking about, you need to raise your hands and you need to ask it.

55:22A woman should not have to keep quiet to ask a question or to say anything that she wants to say. When she wants to say something, she needs to stand up and say it. Do you hear me? Oh, we have questions. I need mics. Let's get them to these women. All right. Yes, ma 'am. Stand up and say your name. Hi, Susie. My name is Jessica Ortiz. I'm from Washington, D.C., and I'd love to know your thoughts on life insurance retirement plan, LERPs. All right. So first, what I want you to do, I want questions right now on retirement accounts, if that's all right, and then I'll get to life insurance. I promise you.

55:59Who has questions on what I just said about retirement accounts? Stand up. Yes. Hi, Susie. Delina here. Is there a salary limit to qualify for a Roth IRA? So you have a Roth. So good question because there is. You have, but I'm going to tell you how to get around it. Legally. When you have a Roth 401k, obviously that's with your employer, but besides a Roth 401k or a 401k, you can also have an IRA or a Roth IRA. You can have both, just so you know. If you have an employer that matches your contributions, I personally would be contributing to my Roth 401k up to the point of the match with my employer.

56:55And if I was struggling for money, but I still wanted to invest a little more, I would not invest more in the Roth 401k with my employer. I would open up a Roth IRA. Why? Out of all the retirement accounts that are out there, bar none, I am in love with a Roth IRA. I would marry it if I could. Seriously, here is the reason why. Within a Roth IRA, and it is the only account that this is true for when it comes to a retirement account, when you put money in, any money that you put in, your original contributions, you can take out at any time without taxes or penalties regardless of your age or how long that money has been in there.

57:56Got that? You are 38 years of age and you put$5 ,000 this year into a Roth IRA,$5 ,000 next year,$5 ,000 the year after. You have$15 ,000 in there and it's grown to$16 ,000. Now your car breaks down. You need a new air conditioner. Something happens. you can take out any amount of money that you want up to that$15 ,000 that you originally put in without taxes or penalties, ladies. It's the$1 ,000 that it earned that has to stay in there until you're at least 59 and a half, and the account has to be open for at least five years to take that out. Got that? Do you understand why I love that? Because all of you don't want to put money into a retirement account because you're afraid you're going to need money.

58:49And you're afraid that if you need money, you're not going to be able to get that money without penalty. So you don't do it at all. Now you can put it into a retirement account and get your original contributions anytime you want. That is a big deal. But because it's such a big deal, there are qualifications on income, because not everybody qualifies for it. So who qualifies? If you are an individual and not married, right? You can put in your full contribution of your 5 ,000, your 5 ,500, it just will depend as the years change here. Right? If you make under$120 ,000 a year of adjusted gross income.

59:40Once you make$135 ,000 a year of adjusted gross income, you no longer legally qualify for a Roth. If you are married finally jointly, it's$189 ,000 to$199 ,000. And after$199 ,000, you no longer qualify. However, if you want to get money into a Roth and you make more than that, all you have to do is to put money into a non-deductible IRA and convert it to a Roth. So a non-deductible IRA is an IRA that you do not take the deduction for it when you put it in, and then you can convert any amount of money into a Roth because there are no income limitations to do that. Make sure you check with your CPA before you do that because if you have other retirement accounts, it may affect if you can do that or not.

1:00:47If you're self-employed, you can put money into a SEP IRA, a lot of money, and convert that into a Roth. That is another way. Any more questions on whatever? All right, who has a mic? A few more. Just to clarify, you had mentioned$100 a month into a Roth IRA and then$100 a month into a standard and core index fund. When it comes to retirement, would the Roth be more beneficial in the long run? Fabulous question, because these are the type of questions you need to be able to ask. A Roth IRA is a retirement house that holds your money. within that house you buy investments so you put the hundred dollars into the house and once it's in the house now you're going to buy some furniture for that house and the furniture that you're going to buy for that house is a standard and pours 500 index fund you can either buy an exchange traded fund with the initials spy which is a spider or a regular mutual fund that's a Standard & Poor's 500 fund.

1:01:57Now, a lot of you are looking at me and you're going, I don't know anything of this terminology. I don't get it. I'm just going to say this to you now. When you all leave tonight, you will be getting another bag. And in that bag, you will have a copy of my new book called Women and Money.

1:02:22and and it's in that book that you will find a financial empowerment plan that will tell you do this do this do this I will take your hand all the way through buying a car buying a house doing a will, doing a trust, everything that you need to do in the chapter called Financial Empowerment Plan. In there, I also explain to you what an index fund is, an exchange traded fund is. I tell you all of that. Now, if that's not enough for you, just before I go on here, I have a course and the course is a fabulous course it is online it has seven different sections to it and it does sell for$54 but you're not going to spend$54 because if you go to SuzyU.com.

1:03:26Alright? And you enter the gift code women. You will be able to take that course for free.

1:03:39And it's in that course that you see videos and there's tests and there's all kinds of things that you can interact with right there to teach you about money. because I have to tell you I want to be your teacher I want to be the one that all of you come to to get your financial information because I don't have anything to sell you but I sure have a whole lot to give you I have over 35 years now of financial information working with people's money knowing your emotions, understanding you. I doubt very highly that there is another finance person in this entire world that has talked to more people than I have over the past 14 years.

1:04:32So my job isn't to get you to buy something. My job is to educate you. It's to educate you so that you can have financial freedom. You can have power. And I can stop getting emails that break my heart because there comes a time in life, ladies, when it is too late. I used to stand on this stage and I would say, never too soon to begin, it's never too late to start. That is not true. There comes a time when it is too late. So you should share that code with as many people as you want. You should put it on the Internet. You should put it every social media place that you have. You should spread it far and wide so that those that aren't here today can also participate.

1:05:29And after you have read your book, and I know you're going to love that book, share it with another woman, lift up another woman, help educate another woman, and make this world a better place. Our conversation will continue in the next episode. You can listen by downloading part two. I'm Oprah Winfrey, and you've been listening to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. You can follow Super Soul on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you haven't yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. Join me next week for another Super Soul Conversation. Thank you for listening.

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