Don’t Make a Money Move Without Checking This | Suze Orman Show Full Episode

Coming up on the Suzy Orman Show. It's all about the gut check. Stopping mistakes when it comes to your money before they happen. And this so-called financial advisor told you to stop putting money into this so that you could give up a 100% guaranteed return on your money, because he had something better than that? Yes. Really? And you asked me, can I afford it? I would like to buy high-definition eyeglasses, but this includes the frames also. All right, but these are more fashion statements in terms of lenses that you want as well, right? Yes. I knew it. Hi everybody, I'm Suzy Orman, and you are watching the Suzy Orman Show. Let's talk tonight about something that I am calling your gut check. You know, in life, when it comes to money, many, many people are going to tell you what to do with money. Many television personalities, many financial advisors, many relatives, many so-called friends, everybody is going to offer you an opinion as to what you should do with your money. But in the end, what happens to your money only affects the quality of your life. If you make a mistake with your money, it's not going to affect the quality of your financial advisor's life, your banker's life, your insurance agent's life, my life, anybody else's life, really, except for you and your immediate family and your really close loved ones. So how do you make a decision in a world that can be so confusing, when you don't know what to do, you don't know what the numbers mean, you don't know this, you don't know that? Well, this is when you rely on what I am calling your gut check. Where does the gut live? The gut lives right around here. You know, it's what happens when somebody's talking to you or you're about to do something, you get this little feeling right around here in your gut that says, oh, don't do it, oh, you better think twice, or you get some feeling that's just uneasy, you don't know what it means, but it just kind of feels as if something isn't right. You listen to me and you listen to me now. When your gut starts to tell you something isn't right, you better listen to it. There has never been a time in the 30 years that I have been doing this, actually a little bit more than that right now, but anyway, in the 30 years that I've been doing this, when somebody has made a mistake and I have asked them what did their gut say, they have never said really when it's truly their gut. There's a difference between what your mind is telling you to do and what your gut is saying. There isn't a time when they have said, I knew I shouldn't have done it, I felt it in my stomach, but I did it anyway. Now, many of you are gonna be afraid to listen to your gut. You're gonna be afraid that your financial advisor or somebody telling you to do something, they're not gonna like you, they're gonna think bad of you, they're gonna think you're a wimp. Susie Orman would say, I don't care what other people think about me. You shouldn't care about what other people think about you. All you should care about in your life is what you think and feel about yourself. Are you doing what's right for you? Can you feel it in your gut? I promise you, if you just do what feels right to you, you won't make mistakes. But if you don't listen to your gut, chances are one day you're going to wish you had especially when it comes to your money. Let's go to Washington. Sherry, what can I do for you tonight? Well, I would really love to get your advice. My husband just started a new job after being laid off of work for over three years. During this time, I've done everything possible to keep our household afloat and I've cut back on all expenses. Of course, he's a spender and I'm the needs only person. And now, of course, he wants to get cable, TV, cell phone, a new computer, yada, yada, yada. And I want to get our emergency fund built back up and pay off our $3,300 worth of credit card debt, which is what we incurred after the three years of unemployment. The problem is, is he feels I'm controlling him. And my gut instinct is saying that after all of this hard work we've done, that the spending is just gonna get out of control. And my question to you is, how can I show him that we cannot over-extend ourselves while we're trying to heal financially? Yeah, you need to trust your gut, number one, on this one, because in my opinion, you are absolutely correct. But here's the other thing, what my gut is telling me you need to do with your so-called adult, childish husband. After three years, after three years of not being able to get a job, now all sanity has gone away because now he has a paycheck coming in again. So you are not to go to him and try to convince him that financially speaking, you need to do this. You need to go to him with your own power, girlfriend. And what I would do is I would say, listen to me, sir. I'm the one who kept this family afloat. I'm the one who made sure everything stayed the way it should be because we cut back, we didn't lose everything, and you, sir, are not going to jeopardize our future because you wanna act like a financial child at this point in our life. It's not happening, I'm not gonna let you do it, and you are not even to bring it up again to me because otherwise I have to question why would I wanna even stay in a relationship with somebody that is that financially immature. Let's go to Ohio, Barbara, second to me, girlfriend. Hi, Susie. Listen, my question is is my husband's 51 years old and he's getting ready to retire and he's offered a survivorship, 50, 75, or 100%. He wants to take the full pension and not leave a survivorship, but my gut is telling me that I'm not sure if that's the right decision. It is not the right decision because first of all, actually, well, let me just stop here for a second because everybody's going, huh, what did Barbara just say? I don't get this, what's 50, 75, 100%, what is a joint benefit, dah, dah, dah, because not many corporations offer pensions anymore, so let me just give you an example, everybody. Barbara's husband might be entitled to $2,000 a month every month for the rest of his life. If he takes a no joint benefit, he dies, the $2,000 a month goes away, which means Barbara does not get one penny upon his death, but if he wants to leave money to Barbara, and let's say he wants to leave 100% of what he's getting, that $2,000 a month might go down to $1,500 a month, so he gets $1,500 a month every month for the rest of his life, he dies, Barbara gets $1,500 a month, that's 100% of what he was getting. If it's 50%, Barbara would only get half of whatever he's getting, but there's a cost there, because in essence, it's like an insurance policy. So Barbara, I have to ask this, does he want to take the no joint benefit, but buy a life insurance policy so that you're okay if something happens to him with the difference? Yes, he does. And what kind of policy does he want to buy, a term policy? Yes, he wants to buy a term policy for 20 to 30 years, $500,000 term policy. All right, and I just have, do you know the amount of money that he would be getting every single month? I do. How much? Well, if he took the whole benefit? Yeah. It's $6,000 a month. Six, all right, can you just listen to me here for a second? $6,000 a month times 12 is $72,000 a year. He dies, and he wants to leave you $72,000 a year in terms of an insurance policy. It would need to be about a $3 million policy or a $2 million policy, two to two and a half to $3 million, because at 3% of essentially $3 million, that's like $90,000 a year. Do you see what I mean of income to you? Number one, and that could be taxable income. Do you see? So $500,000 isn't going to do you any good, number one. Number two, 20 or 30 years, are you kidding me? He's 51. What happens if in 30 years from now, he's still alive? You're still alive, and now you have no insurance on you whatsoever, and at the time in your life when you need the income the most, it's gone. So if he took the 100% joint and survivor benefit, how much would he get per month? He would get $5,324. Is he out of his mind? Just have him buy the 100% joint and survivor benefit through his company, and he will be smart. Erin, ask me your question. Hi, Suzy. I wanted to ask you a question in regards to retirement and also short-term investment. All right. I recently spoke with a financial advisor, and he was saying that in order for me to see the true benefit of long-term investment and the short-term investment, I should stop contributing to my 401k, which I currently contribute 6% of my income, and then he said I should take the monthly amount that I'm contributing to my 401k and then put it into a GIUL account that his company has, and he was saying that the GIUL account is better than the 401k, but my gut's telling me that something doesn't sound quite right about that, and I just need somebody to help. The 401k plan that you are contributing to, you're contributing 6%. Is that because your company matches 6% of your base pay? Yes. And so you put in a dollar, and how much do they give you? 6%, so they'll give me a portion of that. So do they give you 50 cents on every dollar that you put in, 25 cents, or a dollar on every dollar that you put in, up to 6%? Oh, a dollar. Yeah, a dollar up to 6%, yep. All right, I can barely speak. Are you telling me that for every dollar that you put into your 401k, up to 6% of your base pay, they give you a dollar? Yes. So that is a 100% return on your money with no risk whatsoever, correct? Correct, correct. And this so-called financial advisor told you to stop putting money into this so that you could give up a 100% guaranteed return on your money, because he had something better than that? Yes. Really? Do I need to even say anything more? That may be, out of all the years that I've been on The Susie Orman Show, out of all the shows I've ever done in my entire life on TV, radio, as guest appearances, that just may be, in fact, that isn't maybe, that is the stupidest, illogical, ridiculous advice I have ever heard in my life. Girlfriend, don't you ever go back to that so-called financial advisor again. Who matches today a dollar for every dollar? Most corporations give you 25 cents, 50 cents, but her corporation is so great, they're giving her a dollar for every dollar, and her financial advisor is saying to her, sorry, I have something better than that? Oh, please. Don't you think a true friend would say, let's just go slow here, girlfriend, you've been through a lot, 23 years of marriage, this is a lot of money for you for the first time for you to be handling, but that's not what she did, did she? No. And later, in Wanting Something, ask me, can I afford it? I want to get a Chanel Classic 2.55 handbag for $4,900. I always want it because I feel like I worked really hard the past few years, so I feel like I want it. Of course you do, at the age of 29, you poor thing, you. Welcome back, everybody. I'm talking about trusting your gut tonight. My one-on-one is with Lisa. She's coming to us from Boston. Now, Lisa is 55 years old. She's recently divorced after 23 years of marriage. She has two children, ages 22 and 19, and she does work part-time as a dental hygienist and also teaches dental hygiene. Now, Lisa received a large amount of money from her divorce, and she's getting financial advice left and right. She's feeling pressured and stressed and is here for a gut check. Lisa, welcome to the Suzy Orman Show. What do you think of my teeth, since you're a hygienist? Are they good? Yeah, you look like you floss a lot, yeah. I don't floss at all, but please don't tell my person that. All right, anyway, tell everybody what's happening and what's happened to you. Well, here's my story. I recently got divorced. I have a quadro with some money that I need to invest. For a second, everybody, her ex-husband had money in a retirement account. The judge determines that, by a qualified order, that X amount of money in that retirement account has to go over to Lisa's name in her retirement account somewhere. So that's what a quadro is. So that's good, because it was a court order. So go on. So with that being said, I have this money and I have a friend who's a financial planner, and she is guiding me to put it into a variable annuity, and I am totally beside myself, whether it's the right thing to do, and my gut says not, and there's really a lot of moving pieces that I don't understand, and this is why I've come to you, you being the expert. Now, how much money are we talking about here? $450,000. So $450,000 is, I'm assuming, 100% of what you were entitled to that was in your ex-husband's retirement account, correct? Correct, that was my lump sum for my retirement. Retirement. And she wants you, your financial advisor, wants you to take 100% of what you were getting and put it all in one variable annuity, am I correct? You are correct. And when you tell her that your gut says not to do it, what does she say? Well, she keeps telling me that there's pieces we're gonna go over, and we're gonna sit down and talk about it, and so we're gonna sit down and talk about it, but I haven't done that yet because I wanna figure it out on my own somewhat, and I wanted to come to you for help. And when she tells you to do this, has she been rushing you? Has she been putting pressure on you? Tell me all about that. Yeah, well, in April, I had a phone call saying that I should put in some money now so that in May, it was gonna change. The contract was gonna change in the sense that it was going to double my money in 10 years, but if I didn't do it by the end of April, then it was gonna double my money by the time I reach 70, which I would be losing five years. And the interest rate would go from 5 1⁄4 to 5.1%. So from 5 1⁄4 to 5.1%, at a time when who's getting 5% anywhere today when it comes to their money? You can get money for 4% or 5% on dividends on stocks, but when it comes to just safe money, can somebody just tell me where anybody can get more than one or two or at max 3% today? But she wanted you to rush because it was going from 5.2 to 5.1%, correct? Correct. Did she tell you how much money she was going to make if you put in $450,000? No, no, she didn't. This is the problem with working with friends. No, she didn't tell me that, which is unsettling to me in some sense. Chances are, on a $450,000 deposit, her commission on that will be about $25,000 to $30,000. Okay. Got that? Yeah. That's a lot of money, isn't it? Yeah. Number one. Number two, did she tell you about the surrender fees? No. You cannot touch your money more than 10% a year without incurring an 8% surrender charge the first year, 7% the second, 6% the third, 6% the fourth. In a regular IRA or whatever you may do, whatever investment you're in, you should be able to sell it, get in it, get out of it anytime you want without a surrender charge, but that's not true in this variable annuity. Next, we sent you a fee table schedule, and this fee table schedule, which is something you should have seen because it's part of the prospectus, outlines the surrender charges along with the fact right here that you are going to be paid 1.60% per year in fees, annual expenses, on this account alone. Did she tell you that? No, I never saw any of the prospectus. I didn't see that. And so these are things that she should have told you. And it's not just the expenses that this company is going to charge you, it's also the individual expenses that all the mutual funds within this variable annuity are going to charge you. So it could be very well that you are spending at least 2% a year on expenses. So that means if your account just stayed even, you would be down 2% in terms of expenses for the year. Because the truth of the matter is, Lisa, this recently just happened to you. So whether you wanted it or you didn't, don't you want to take this money and just settle in, not really have to do anything with it for a little while, and then make decisions little by little as to what you really want? Don't you think a true friend would say, let's just go slow here, girlfriend. You've been through a lot, 23 years of marriage. This is a lot of money for you for the first time for you to be handling. Let's just put it in an IRA rollover. You have 60 days to get it in there so you don't have to pay taxes on it. And let's just have it sit in cash within the rollover in a money market account until we can make decisions that you understand. But that's not what she did, did she? No, no. She said, you have to do this and you have to do this right away and you have to do it with 100%. What is stopping you from simply saying to her, I am not going to do this. I don't want to do this and I don't want you to pressure me. Have you told her that? No, but I'm going to tell her that now. There's all kinds of ways for you to invest right now, whether it's individual bonds or stocks that have good dividend yields or whatever it may be, but a variable annuity within an IRA, I don't think so. Listen, everything that we just saw here, in my opinion, are signs of a bad financial advisor. She was rushing her, she was pressuring her, she wasn't explaining things to her and on and on and on. So for a list of all those signs, I advise all of you to go to suzyorman.cnbc.com and check them out. Up next, you can't afford to miss, can I afford it? I want to buy a 10-week weight management program. The price is $1,000. My debt is a mortgage of $139,000, 30-year fixed at 5.5. Yeah, also. I'd like to buy a 2013 Disney Mediterranean cruise for my family. You know, they have cheaper ones out of Florida where you can go for the weekend and it's not even going to cost you close to $13,000. Did you know that? I did. What do you want to buy? Chanel closet canvas. 10-week weight management program. High-definition eyeglasses. Welcome back everybody to the can I afford it segment. This is where you call in, you tell me what it is that you want to buy and oh yeah, I tell you if you can afford it or not. Ready? Let's start. Jeff, what do you want to buy? Hey Suzy, it's great to talk to you. Thank you. You're amazing and I appreciate everything you do but your viewers know all of that already, so. So what do you want to buy, boyfriend? I'd like to buy a 2013 Disney Mediterranean cruise for my family. My wife and I are celebrating milestone birthdays this year. I turn 50 and my wife turns 40 and additionally, we just want to create some great memories for our kids. They're young kids, they're both under 10 and we want to create some really great memories for them and for the family as a family unit, so. You know, they have cheaper ones out of Florida where you can go for the weekend and it's not even going to cost you close to $13,000. Did you know that? I did and we've looked at those. My wife kind of has her heart set on this Mediterranean cruise. We're looking at those other ones as alternatives depending on how this phone call comes out, actually. All right, then show me the money, sweetheart. Okay, great. So we have combined monthly take-home income of $8,274. Yep. Expenses of $7,659. We've got a mortgage of $134,000. That's a 15-year fixed at 4.5%. We've got a $15,000 car loan at 0.9%. And our savings are, we've got $247,000 in liquid, $134,000 in investments, and $592,000 in retirement. But you are almost 50 years of age. Right. 50 years of age. Do you really think you have enough money in retirement at this point in your life to be spending this kind of money? Do you? I think we're headed in the right direction. It's a question as to whether we're there right now where we need to be and whether I need to be. All right, so here's what happens to Disneyland. You're approved, sweetheart. I looked at all of your finances. I think you're saving just fine. I think you've been responsible. I think as the years go on, you'll have enough money. Go for it, if you ask me. Annie, what do you want to buy? Hi, Suzy. Thanks for taking my call. Any time. My husband, Justin, and I watch your show all the time, and we love your show. Thank you, thank you. But what do you want to buy? Sure, I want to get a Chanel Classic 2.55 handbag for $4,900. But I have a feeling you might deny me, so I do have a backup option in mind that is a little bit more affordable for less than $3,000. But I'm just going to detail why I want to get the Chanel bag. But either way, you want to buy a $5,000 Close Enough Chanel bag. And you've been watching The Suzy Orman Show for a long time. Annie, show me the money. Sure. Well, I always wanted, because I feel like I work really hard the past few years. Of course you do. At the age of 29, of course you do. You poor thing, you. $5,000 for a bag. Like, really? I have visited the store many times, and I have walked away from it for many times as well. And I actually discussed with my husband more than a few occasions. And I talked to my family member. But I have no conclusion. So that's why I want to just do a reality check and want to give you advice on it. Show me the money. Go on. You have $8,800 of income. Keep going. Sure. So we have a combined income of $8,860. And we have a combined monthly expense of $6,253. We have no debts, no credit card debts, no car debts. But we do have a mortgage of $301,030 a year fixed at 4.75% In terms of saving, we have $86,000 liquid, $125,000 investment, $185,000 retirement. How old is your husband? I'm sorry? How old is your husband? He is 31, so he's two years older. All right, so you're 31, 29 years of age. And you have more than enough liquid. You're saving money in investments. You're saving money in retirement. You are more than on track. This is killing me. This is about to kill me what I have to do. But this isn't about whether I think you should. This isn't about do I think you're intelligent. This is about can you afford it. And I have to tell you, you can. You have been approved. Oh my god. I just ask you to think twice about it. Are you kidding me? But can you afford it? Go on. I hope you don't take that advice. All right, anyway, Jeannie, what do you want to buy? Hi, Suzy. How are you tonight? I'm fabulous, sweetheart. What do you want to buy? I want to buy a 10-week weight management program. The price is $1,000. All right, so for 10 weeks, you want to buy a management program for $1,000. How come? It was recommended by two of my doctors. Right now, I'm having problems walking. My knees and my ankles are really sore. So both my orthopedic and my family doctors recommended it. And did they recommend the same management program or just any weight management program? They recommended the weight management program that I'm interested in. Got it. All right, show me the money. OK, my monthly take-home is $3,472. My expenses are $2,801. My debt is a mortgage of $139,000, 30-year fixed at 5.5. I have credit card debt of $4,500 at 2%. I have a 401k loan at $204 at 3%. My liquid saving is $9,000. My investment is $422. And my retirement is $126,000. Oh, God. So all right, Jeannie, I need you to listen to me. You have credit card debt of $4,500. You don't have enough money in savings. You don't have enough money in retirement. You aren't doing your money. You're doing your money as poorly as your weight, to tell you the truth. However, you are approved, not because you have the money for it, but because this is a matter. When you are overweight, and your ankles are having going, and your knees are going, and two doctors have said, yes, you need to do that, that's when people first, then money, come into play. Financially speaking, however, you better, and along with getting on this weight management program, you better, during these 10 weeks, start really paying attention to your money, as well, because it also is not good. Barbara, what do you want to buy? Hi, Suzy, thanks for taking my call. I would like to buy high definition eyeglasses. High, what's a high, what is that? Well, they're way clearer and sharper vision. So it's just a better glass within them, than plastic or something that you might get at a drugstore, or something like that, correct? Yes, correct. So, but normally what you're paying for, when you're paying $530, I know, I have a glass collection, are the frames even more than the lenses, correct? Correct, but this includes the frames, also. All right, but these are more fashion statements, in terms of lenses, that you want, as well, right? Yes. I knew it, show me the money. OK, my interim is $1,986. Yep. My expenses are $1,662. Yep. I have $65,000 left on a 30 year fixed mortgage. All right. Liquid savings, $91,000. My investments are $51,000, and I have $80,000 in retirement. So this one seems really easy, because you have $91,000 liquid, you only are asking for $535, right? Yes. And how are you going to pay for this? Liquid savings. All right, so again, very, very easy. You have been denied. Oh! And let me tell you why. You are 47 years of age. If you look at everything that you have combined, you are running short of what you need to have in totality for you to retire, even 10 years from now. So it's cases like this, that every single penny starts to count. Now, I've looked through your finances. You have a whole life insurance policy that you've been paying into. As you know, I hate whole life insurance policies. If you stop that, if you're healthy and you don't need it, or you get a term policy to replace it, you're going to have quite a few thousands of dollars in cash value there. If you get rid of that, then you can buy it with that amount of money, because you have a lot of money in there, but not the way it is right now. Want to be part of the Can I Afford It segment? All you have to do is go to suzyorman.com, and you will find the information that you need to know there, to come and play with me right here. Next, I tackle trending topics in Ask Suzy. In terms of taking money as a loan from a 401k plan to do what? Anything with? Are you kidding me? Welcome back, everybody. Here we are in the control room at CNBC headquarters. So many ways for you to get a hold of me. Take a look at your screen. You can send in an email. You can follow me on Facebook. You can even tweet me. Just make sure that you put hashtag Ask Suzy, and it will come right in here, and if we choose it, we will answer it on air. Let's see what's trending right now. All right, from mamalu063, question is, how does one get their husband to work on a financial plan with me after he has been doing it himself for years? Mamalu, he's never been doing it by himself for years. He's never truthfully had a financial plan. Maybe he's paying bills, or maybe he's investing money, or maybe he's doing something like that, but there is no way for him to have done a true financial plan if you're not part of the equation. Does he know what your needs are? Does he know how much money you're going to need if, God forbid, he dies? All these things need to be taken into consideration. Now, why isn't he doing it? You may think, he just won't include me. Nope, mamalu. It's because you don't demand that he include you. This is the year, right here and right now, that you are going to take your power. You aren't going to say, please include me. Please will you let me be part of this? You are going to demand it, and you are going to make sure that you do it. I don't care if that means you call up the financial advisor that maybe he's using. You take out the statements and you say, look, I don't understand this. You explain this to me right now. But if he really loves you, he'll, of course, want to say yes, and if he continues to just evade all of this, then you need to take your ground and say, sweetheart, you're making me feel like you do not love me. You're making me feel less than, and I want that to change right now. But mamalu, you're going to have to take your power for this to change. Let's go to our webcam. Becky in Minnesota, what can I do for you tonight? Hi, Susie. My husband and I want to take advantage of the low interest rates and buy a new house. We have about 10% in cash for the down payment, and we could get another 10% from our 401k so we could avoid the PMI. Should we just put the 10% down, or should we take the loan from the 401k? Or guess what, Becky? Possibly there's even a third option. You wait till you have saved another 10% to then put 20% down without touching your 401k and without having to pay PMI. Here's the problem. PMI, or private mortgage insurance, good luck getting it to go away. You will be paying it forever and ever, and if you have to pay it, number one, then it's not like you're getting a low interest rate because when you add the PMI onto your mortgage payment, the interest rate calculated is really a whole lot higher than it is right now. So even if you had to wait and interest rates went up a little bit, you would come out even. In terms of taking money as a loan from a 401k plan to do what? Anything with? Are you kidding me? That is so against Susie Orman's rules, it's not even funny. So you're not going to do that on any level. My opinion, just wait. Just wait, save more money, and then buy a home. All right, let's go back into the studio and here's what's coming up next. Dana asked me, Susie, how am I doing? Back in my 20s, I made some financial mistakes, but since discovering your show, I've been able to build some significant savings. I don't think you are being as efficient with your money as I think you can be. Welcome back, everybody. So here's the scoop. You call me, you email, you ask me on the street and you say to me, Susie, I need to know, I need to know right now. I go, what do you need to know? And you go, Susie, how am I doing? And that's what this segment is all about. You send me your financial facts and tell me your goal and I will reveal what you really have and you don't have because here's the problem. So many of you don't have a clue as to what's really going on in your life. And then I give you a grade and your way to an A. And tonight, Dana wants to know, Susie, how am I doing? Hi, Susie, I'm 46 and single. Back in my 20s, I made some financial mistakes, but since discovering your show, I've been able to build some significant savings. I plan on working to 67, but my immediate goal is to have my condo paid off in the next four years so I can catch up on my retirement. Susie, how am I doing? Boyfriend, how goes it tonight? Susie, it's great to talk to you. How are you? I'm great. Now, we're about to go through all your facts and figures. I've gone through them for you, but you know I love to play this little game, which is before I give you a grade, in order to attain your goal of being able to retire and everything in like 15 years right there, what grade would you give yourself given exactly what you're doing right now? Well, Susie, considering what I'm doing today, and I would say realistically, I think you may give me a B today. Let's show everybody and reveal to yourself as well how you are doing. You have $173,000 approximately in retirement, 31,000 in emergency funds, 6,200 in investments. Your home is worth 55,000. You have debt on it of about $54,000. No consumer debt whatsoever. So your total assets minus your total debt gives you a net worth of $211,000. First of all, is that what you thought your net worth was? Did you think you had more or less? Where do we stand there? I thought it was right around there. All right, so that's good with you. Now, here's something, though, that might surprise you. As I went over all of your incomes versus your expenses, here's what I found. You are spending about $3,328 every single month, including savings. So even though I know it seems like there was a lot of extra money there, you're only in excess after savings of $8 a month, and everybody listening to me right now, you have got to include the money that you save as an expense. You have to make it as if you have to spend it every single month, even if you're spending it to save it. So some of you aren't doing as well as you think, but okay, now, as I look at everything that you have going on for you, it is true, you got it right on the point there, boyfriend, I would give you a B. And the reason that I would give you a B is I don't think you are being as efficient with your money as I think you can be. Now, you are currently spending, along with your mortgage and the extra money, $1,179 a month so that you own your house outright in just four years. Now, in four years, how old are you gonna be? 50. So at 50, you now own your home outright. Correct. But you've been postponing saving and having as much as you need liquid, so here's what I would do, and here is your way to an A, according to me. Currently, your interest that you are paying on your home is relatively high, it's about 5.5%, correct? Correct. Why not refinance your house right now? Refinance for 15 years, listen to me, and lock in about a 3.08% interest rate. Now, that 3.08% is going to be tax deductible. Your mortgage payment will be about $380 per month or $800 less than what you're currently paying right now. Got it? Are you following me so far? Yes. Now, I get very well that you're going to be paying that for another 15 years, but here's what I think. I think in a few years from now, you're going to see interest rates go up and up and up, and when those interest rates go up and you have locked in a interest rate of about 3% on a mortgage that's tax deductible, you're going to be able to make money simply by letting money sit in a savings account without any risk whatsoever. If you then took that $800 a month and you added it to the $2,200 a month that you're currently saving with everything, at the age of 61, you're gonna have about $900,000 in investments, your home will be paid off, your expenses are only gonna be about $2,000 or $3,000 a month at that time, and you will have far more than enough money than you need. By the way, if you just worked till you were 67, you'd have about $1.6 million. That $1.6 million will generate for you about $80,000 a year plus Social Security. Are you kidding me? Boyfriend, you are doing great. Up next, one more thing that I want you to know. Sometimes when you go to see a financial advisor or an insurance agent or somebody, they show you a picture with me with them, saying, look, we're friends, look, she does business with me, so should you. Warning, warning, and trust your gut here. Welcome back to The Suze Orman Show. All right, so that's almost a wrap for The Suze Orman Show, but before we go, there's still one more thing that I want you to know. You know, I'm a really friendly person, and when I'm out and about, I'm in a speaking engagement or I'm somewhere signing books, or even on the street sometimes, people come up to me and say, Suze, I love you. Can I take a picture with you? And we put our arms around each other or we pose for the camera and they snap. Now, that's great, but I don't always know who those people are, and sometimes when you go to see a financial advisor or an insurance agent or somebody, they show you a picture with me with them, saying, look, we're friends, look, she does business with me, so should you. Warning, warning, and trust your gut here. If you see any advertisement with my picture in it, if you see anybody using my picture, that does not mean that I really know the person, and it definitely doesn't mean that I am backing that advertisement. You know it is legitimate, when in fact, if you see an ad saying, Suze Orman loves this, if you go to my website, suzeorman.com, and it is there that you will see something somewhere that relates to the company that says I'm endorsing them or that they're using my picture, you'll see them on my website. If they are not on my website, then I'm here to tell you that it is somebody who is using that information simply to get you to buy something from them because you think I approve of it, when in essence, I most likely, I do not. So trust your gut, do your homework, and don't get suckered in, all right, everybody? Now you know. And there's still one more thing that I want you to know. Tonight is a very, very special night. Tonight is the 60th birthday of the love of my life, Katie, and her twin sister. So from all of us here at CNBC, and especially me, my loves, happy, happy birthday. And remember, people first, then money, then things. Now you stay safe, bye-bye.