You are.
And have been for decades a big deal
in the world of personal
financial advice.
You've written ten
New York Times bestsellers.
You've had a series of TV
shows
and specials for more than 20 years.
Am I right that it's not so much
that you have had
some revolutionary idea,
but it's rather
the fervor of your message
about personal financial responsibility
and the practicality of your ideas
about how to achieve that.
It's actually more
than that, in my opinion.
I don't look like your typical
financial adviser.
Never wore pinstripe suits,
Never wore a suit.
Like, my outfits have always been leather
and cowboy boots and all of.
Well, I don't.
I'm not going to want
a financial adviser for their wardrobe.
But you're going to a financial advisor,
especially if you're a woman
that you can relate to.
So they can relate to me because I speak
Suzy, speak
a language that they can relate to.
I never make them feel bad
if they don't understand something.
And when they see me, they see hope.
If Susie can do it
starting at the age of 30, I can do it.
Look at her. Look at me.
She didn't grow up with money.
All the excuses
that people give themselves, I take away.
Let's take a look
at some of your greatest hits.
Over the years,
anybody who's ever watched a PBS
pledge week
has seen your ultimate retirement guide.
Here's a clip.
It should be
mandatory that if you own a home,
that you own it outright by the time
you retire, by your.
If you do not
and you plan especially to stay there.
You are making one
of the biggest mistakes
in my ultimate retirement play book.
All right.
Let me ask a question
and don't make me feel stupid.
You said you won't. Why?
Even if you're retired, wouldn't
you want to keep some mortgage
so you can get the.
Well, let me get it out
so you can get the tax deduction.
Here is
what most people don't understand.
The bank knows
the mortgage companies know
that maybe you'll keep your house
seven years.
So the greatest tax write offs
for that home
mortgage is within
the first seven or ten years.
Do you know
if you have a 30 year mortgage?
Let's just say it was for $200,000
that in the first 20 years
you've only paid down
a 100,000 of principal.
Why?
Because all of that money went
for interest.
Because if you then sell the home,
the mortgage company has got
their interest upfront,
as if you kept it for the entire
30 years.
So in the last year of a mortgage,
there is hardly any tax write off at all.
So once you rather and the
and the mortgage payments the same.
So wouldn't you rather pay off a mortgage
where it's not giving you
a tax write off anymore
and not have the mortgage payment?
I didn't know any of this.
I'm serious
that that's very useful information.
You were on CNBC for more than a decade
and one of your most powerful
popular segments was something called
Can I Afford It? Here you are.
Tom, what do you want to buy?
I want to clone my beautiful Great Dane,
and I'd like $100,000.
And how are you going to pay for this?
We would wipe out our savings.
You would, would you?
You are so denied.
It's not even funny.
Don't you dare buy this bag.
Are you kidding me? Denied.
One more time you are approved.
You have done
such a great job for somebody. 28.
Saving almost $100,000 already.
If you look at everything, boyfriend,
go and have a good time.
You know,
you really need to come out of your shell
whether you're such a shrinking flower.
But one of your biggest messages
is the difference
between what you call a need
and what you call a what.
But that's not I mean, the Gucci bag.
I got it. But
something is
aren't they a little bit fuzzy,
whether it's a need or want?
If you have all the money in the world,
you have a lot of savings.
You have no debt,
you're ready for retirement
and you want to
spend $100,000 to clone your dog.
I proved him, by the way.
I go ahead and do it.
I remember when I didn't
have a part to pee in
and all I wanted to
do was go out to eat
or do this or whatever it is.
Now I have all the money in the world
and wants to go out to eat.
I don't want to waste money.
So how would you define the difference
between a need and a want?
A want, for instance,
is going out to a restaurant.
A need is buying food
at a grocery store for you to eat.
Want is putting gasoline in your car
just so you can drive around and need
is putting putting gasoline in your car
so you can go to work.
A need is medicine
for, you
know, for your sick kid or you a want is
you go into a store,
you see something you weren't
even thinking about buying it.
You want that?
I don't think so.
But Suzy,
let me show you a headline
recently from The Wall Street Journal.
Take a look at this.
Americans are still spending
like there's no tomorrow.
We are spending more on luxury goods
and what are called experiences
like travel and entertainment.
Are we crazy?
Thank you.
Financial pandemic there
because of the stimulus checks,
because we didn't have to make student
loan payments till now.
We didn't have to make mortgage payments
till now.
We didn't have to pay for anything.
We got to stay home.
We didn't have to spend money
to get to work.
We got paid to stay home.
Then the pandemic goes away.
We have more money in our savings
account than ever before.
Now we go out and spend it.
Now we've spent it all,
but we've got used to spending it
so now we have $1,000,000,000,000
of credit card debt.
And very shortly
you're going to see, in my opinion,
people are going to be able
to pay their payments
on that credit card
debt up will go bankruptcies
and everything else.
So people are spending because they think
they Let's end this with some
practical advice.
What percentage of Americans
would you say are financially illiterate?
Truthfully, probably 95%.
What is financial illiteracy
in India
means that maybe you're interested
in retiring one day
and I tell you to do something
and you're I have a clue
what I'm talking about.
I tell somebody to do a Roth IRA.
They don't have a clue
what I'm talking about.
I ask somebody,
what's in your retirement account?
They go, Well,
it's in traditional retirement.
Don't have a clue.
They don't have a will.
They don't have a trust.
They don't have a durable power
of attorney for health care
or advance directive.
They don't know what a 529 plan is.
They don't understand the.
Now you're just getting personally
hurtful to me as long as I
some of these things
I realize I don't know.
Should financial literacy
be taught in school?
Yes, Yes, Yes.
It should be mandatory
that you can't graduate high school
and not understand
how student loans work.
It should be mandatory
that you understand
what compounding interest means
and how your youth contributes
to millions of dollars in the long run.
How should you decide
whether to buy or to lease a car?
You should never lease a car, right?
Leasing a car is the biggest
waste of money out there.
You only get to drive at 12,000 miles.
You have to have a lease gap insurance.
Why don't you do what I do?
I bought a car. Even tried.
You have to finance it.
Finance a car
after it's paid for in full.
Keep it.
My car is going on 12 years old.
I lose a car.
So what?
Heidi,
I know what you're going to tell me
because it's a tax write off, Suzy.
No, I just.
I think that I want to not have to deal
with an older car
and I can lease it for a few years.
It's cheaper. I don't drive it very much.
I don't go over the limit
and I can turn it in
and get a brand new car in three years.
So you're renting a car?
Do you own a home? Yes.
Why don't you rent an apartment?
Because.
Well, no, that's different.
Because real estate goes up
and the value of my home
has increased a lot.
But a car is a depreciating asset,
as you just said.
Yes, but if you keep it the entire time
and you look at
what's the entire time,
the life of it,
if you take good care of it,
like my car is going to be good. Okay.
I think it's better to buy
whole life or term insurance term.
Whole life
is the biggest waste of money possible.
Got it. I, i,
i get term insurance.
So and
this is probably the
most important question I'm going to ask.
You talk about people
living paycheck to paycheck,
and we're now in an inflationary period.
How do you save?
Well, make sure your boss gets secure.
Saved, right.
You save by automatically
having some amount of money
taken from a check
every single month
and putting it somewhere
like a savings account.
You have a paycheck of $3,000.
You're going to spend every penny
you have a paycheck for 20 $500.
The 500 has gone to savings.
You'll make it on 2500.
If you do save some money and you got it,
where should you invest it
now rather than investing?
The first thing you have to do
is make sure you're out of credit
card debt. Right.
Because at these interest rates,
with the Fed raising interest rates
so high,
many of you are paying in your 20%.
So you first get out of credit card debt.
Okay.
Next,
any money market
fund, any credit union,
any savings account
that's paying you now 4%, 5%.
Right. Whatever it may be.
That's where you would
be saving it right now.