 Welcome to the Dr. Gendry podcast. So right now, we're all focused on staying as healthy as possible and keeping our friends and family healthy too. But one thing some people may be overlooking is their financial health. Now sadly, many people all across the country and the world are beginning to experience the economic consequences of the coronavirus. Now aside from the obvious benefits, being secure in your financial health can help lower your stress levels. So you can stay physically healthy too. So to help you navigate this crazy time, I brought in a financial heavyweight. My guest today is none other than Suzy Orman, a world-renowned financial advisor, the author of 10 consecutive New York Times bestselling books, including her most recent book, The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50-plus, and the host of the popular Suzy Orman's Women and Money Podcast. She's going to help you make sense of everything that's been going on and give you the practical financial advice you need to get through this crisis. Boy, that's a tall order. And frankly, I'm absolutely over the moon and I've told her that to have her on the show today. Suzy, welcome to the Dr. Gendry podcast. Thank you, doctor. I'm so happy to be here. So money is on a lot of people's minds right now. What, okay, help me out. What's your take on the current economic situation? Well, I have to tell you at the time that we're creating this podcast, financially if we look at it, the markets are doing incredible. I mean, we're only about 6,000 points, 5,000 or 6,000 points below its high, the Dow Jones Industrial High. And so somehow we've made a tremendous comeback. Why that's been happening? I'm not exactly sure. Will it hold? I don't know. But here's what I can tell you. Financially speaking at this point in time, I still think we're far healthier than we were back in 2008 when it comes to the banks and the financial institutions and the foundation of our economy. So financially speaking, I think we're going to pull it out as long as the health crisis doesn't last longer or comes back and comes back even with more inventions than it is right now. That's great news. What's the number one thing that people should be doing right now to help with their financial situation? Well it depends. The answer to that depends. Are you somebody who still has a job and are you still investing? Do you still have income? Or are you somebody who is counting every single penny because you got laid off and you didn't have an emergency fund and you're barely making it? So do you want me to break those two down for you? Yeah, break those down because my listeners are in both of those groups, absolutely. I had a feeling. So let's start with those who still have an income coming in. They have money in a 401K plan or any retirement account and they have five, ten, fifteen years or longer till they're going to retire. For those people, what they should be doing is continue to be doing exactly what you hopefully have been doing which is do not sell out of your 401K or your retirement accounts assuming that you're invested in good quality stocks, good quality mutual funds or exchange traded funds. And assuming that you are, can you just continue and don't sell here, you never should have sold, continue to invest month in and month out and in the long run you will be so happy that you did one caveat. If you are somebody out there and you are one year where you need this money from whatever you need it, you're one year from retirement, two years from retirement, this is not money that ever belonged in the stock market. So for you, you should take advantage of the fact that these markets have come back from their lows of just a few weeks ago and you should get out of the market because you can't afford to take a risk. No money that you need within three years is money that ever belongs in the stock market. Other than that, everything should be okay. For those of you who are struggling, you are waiting for your stimulus check, you need your unemployment, you only have a few hundred dollars to your name. For you, you have to be warriors. You have to take action because the worst thing that can happen to you both financially as well as your health is that you are so riddled with fear that you have all this anxiety which then your immune system goes down and I'm sure the doctor will agree and then viruses and everything can enter. But for your financial health, I need you to be a warrior and you're going to face your fears and you're going to take action. I need you to pick up the phones or go online and call every single creditor that you have from your utility companies to every insurance company that you have, to your mortgage, to your landlord, to your whatever it may be, credit cards, student loans and I need you to have the courage to ask them to please postpone your payments. Now I know a lot of you have already but a lot of you have such fear, you haven't even opened the bills, you don't even know what creditors you have. So you need to take actions because I'm here to tell you that most financial institutions today will help you. They'll help you because they're in the financial situation where they can afford to help you and those that aren't willing to help you when things turn around, find a different credit card, find a different bank, find a different mortgage company. I don't care what it is but if they're not willing to help you now when this is all over and it will be over sooner than later, don't you dare make money for them by using them. You know I think that's a great point. Tony Robbins always says that when it looks like life is coming at you, it's actually offering you things and you've got to be the warrior to recognize that there are things that you can do. And so the first thing that you should do is to figure out are you going to get the stimulus check and if you are, when are you going to get it? So if you were to go to irs.gov and you will find, this is brand new now, you will find a thing that says get my payment and you'll be able to find out when are you going to get your stimulus check, they'll tell you. Also, if you don't have direct deposit registered with the IRS, from your past tax returns or whatever, this is a chance that you have now to put where do you want them to send directly? How do you want them to deposit it directly into your account so you don't have to wait possibly four or five months to get your stimulus check? Also for those of you who may be moved and your address, maybe you don't want them to direct deposit. All right, but you've moved and you had an address change. You can take care of that as well, irs.gov, get my payment. So how about all of our listeners who are small business owners and we hear on the news that all those loans have dried up or we can't even get a hold of the small business administration? Is there any got any hope for everybody? So what I think you should do is this, is just give it a little more time because I think you're going to see them add more money to that paycheck protection program. But you have to be very careful because remember, this is money for you to keep your employees working. And maybe they're going to give you enough to last four, two months. If this goes on longer than two months, then that will turn into a loan for you and then what are you going to do? So maybe, just maybe it's a blessing, believe it or not, that if you try to get this loan or this grant, whatever it may turn into, depending, and you didn't get it, I need you to just take a little time right now and really think clearly, will I be back in business full time in two months? Because if not, I need you to just think twice about really getting help that way. Can you go if you have money to a 401K or a retirement account that they're now allowing you to take up to $100,000 out without penalty if you're under the age of 59 and a half. And even though you'll have to owe taxes on that money, you have three years to pay those taxes and three years to do what? Pay the money back and then you want to owe the tax. So is it possible that that's actually a better place for you to get money from than because you have three years to possibly do that, get it back to them, then take a loan from the SBA? Well, that's a great piece of advice because you hear every night on all the talk shows that I can't get to the small business administration and they won't pick up the phone or I can't get to my bank. But so many, thankfully, small business owners have a decent 401K or some retirement plan and hopefully, and that you can, because of this new law, borrow safely from that as long as you pay it back without penalty. Is that what you're saying? Yes, but here's something to remember about taking money from any retirement account. 401Ks, 403Bs, TSPs, if you work for the federal government or the military, those accounts are protected against bankruptcy to any amount. It's unlimited. An IRA or a Roth IRA is protected against bankruptcy up to $1.3 million. So please don't go taking money out. Let's just say you don't have a large amount in a 401K or an IRA. All you have to your name is $20,000 and that's it. And you take the money out of there and you have nothing else and now that $20,000 is gone and now you end up possibly having to claim bankruptcy, you would have been better off never taking the money out to begin with because you would claim bankruptcy and still have $20,000. So please think about all of these things carefully before you do anything. Wow. Okay, so I have a number of well-to-do patients who use one example and he's a financial advisor and he's been telling his clients for the last two years, get liquidity, get money in your mattress because I knew that this was going to happen. And you mentioned when we started that banks right now are a whole lot different than they were in 2008. So should somebody say, oh boy, I got $2 million, I think I'm going to put it under my mattress because who knows what's going to happen? So maybe he's smart enough to have you as his doctor, but he's not giving, in my opinion, very intelligent financial advice on any level and why is that? Do you know that your insurance companies only ensure cash in your home or anywhere that you have it, the actual physical cash, which it would be if you put it in your mattress, up to $500. So now you have all of this cash in your home even if it's $10,000 or $20,000 and somebody robs you or your house catches fire or there's a mud slide or anything happens and there goes your home and your cash, your home may be insured, but your cash will not listen. The banks and credit unions are insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC and UCL, you know, they're all insured for you. It's not going to go under. So don't have more than $250,000 in one place if it's a bank or a credit union. However, you could put money in to Treasury bills or things like that that are guaranteed by the Taxing Authority of the United States government. So if you have millions of dollars that you want to be safe and sound, put it in Treasury bills. That's what I've done with mine, right? So the money that I want safe and sound, I don't leave it in a money market account. I don't have it in. I put it in Treasury bills and I don't care that it's not paying me any interest at all. I just wanted to know the money is safe and sound and I'm protected there. That's what this financial advisor should be telling his clients. Great advice. And hopefully he'll listen to me and his clients won't listen to him. But what the heck? Now, there's another option. Should we be thinking about borrowing money right now? Yeah, I would not be borrowing money. I would not be buying a home right now. I would not be buying a car right now because I know everybody thinks whether they're wealthy, whether they're not, that I can get some good bargains right now. So let's divide our people up again. Those that have money, those that don't have money. If you don't have money, this isn't the time to go ahead with a purchase. You've lost your job, you don't have the income. This is the time where every dollar that comes in through unemployment, through the stimulus check, through anything that you can get, you need to cherish it like it was solid gold. Do not go paying off your credit card bills in full because you need cash. Use your credit cards, max them out, and pay the minimum payment due because many entities, possibly your landlord, for instance, won't take a credit card. So keep as much cash on hand as you can. For those of you who do have money, I just need you to think about what's happening right now. What's happening right now is this. I know interest rates are low. But if you think interest rates are going anywhere in the next six months, years or so, I got news for you. They're going to be low for a long, long time. They cannot afford to go up. They have got to stay low to keep the economy solid here or as solid as it can possibly be. Real estate, do you know how many people are going to be forfeiting on their mortgages? Do you know how many homes are going to be foreclosed upon? Even if you think you have a multi-multi-billionaire living next door to you, you have no idea. Did they just lose their company? What happened to them? Your home is only worth as much as the neighborhood. The houses on your block are worth. If somebody next door from you claims bankruptcy, sells their house for 50% off what it is now, guess what your house is going to be valued at? So just wait. This is not the time to be borrowing money, borrowing money to do what? Nothing. This is not the time to be buying a home. You're going to have plenty of chances, in my opinion, to buy a home if you want to for far less than what it is right now. Cars, the industry is down 25% right now. You'll have a chance. But right now, can you just stay solid? Can you just stay healthy and wealthy or as much money as you possibly can have? This is not the time to be buying anything. Great advice. So I think people, because of credit card crises in the past, have been very wary about maxing out their credit card. But you're saying this may be the time to make that exception. This is a very different time than it was in 2008 when you did have credit cards that were what, paying you $300 to close your credit card, that were decreasing your credit limits from $5,000 down to $1,000, because they didn't want you to use your credit cards. That's not currently happening, and that happened very quickly back in 2008. And here's the scoop, everybody. If you do max out your credit cards right away, and they did want to decrease your credit limit, who cares? You've already maxed out your credit cards. You've outsmarted them. And you should still be calling them and saying, could you please help me? Could you lower my interest rate to 0% and can you give me a postponement for three months? So that is why just in case they want to lower your credit card limits, like they did in 2008, you've already maxed them out. So you're ahead of them. What do you tell our listeners if hard times have hit a lot of people? What if their friends or family come to them asking for a short-term loan? Yeah, never give anybody a loan. If somebody comes to you and they really need money and you have the money to give them, what does that mean? It means you have an eight-month emergency fund, you don't have any credit card debt, you're not behind on your mortgage payments or anything because you're just fine. And they come to you and you can last this for a long time. You can go, you could get sick. A death could happen and your family would still be fine and now they come to you and you want to help them, give them the money, give it to them. But because if you loan it to them, it's going to ruin your relationship because if you've lent it to them and they don't have the ability to ever pay you back, every time they see you, they're going to feel bad about it. Every time you see them, you're going to say, what do you mean you just took a vacation? You owe me that money. So if you really want to be gracious at a time when the world needs for everybody to be gracious and generous and kind, just give it to them. Just give it to them and hope that they're okay. Great advice as well. All right, so interest rates are so low, it's hilarious. Who should refinance right now? Anybody? Yeah, yeah. Everybody, if you can qualify for a refinance loan, only however, if the interest rate that you're going to get, the refinance is 1% under what you have right now. Only if you have, let's say, a 30-year mortgage and you've been paying it for eight years, you have 22 years left, only refinance, if you can refinance and afford the payment on a 20-year mortgage, never refinance and extend back to the original time that your mortgage was set for. Only refinance, if your closing costs are going to be a few thousand dollars and you're gonna be living in that house long enough with the savings that you're going to get to repay the closing costs. And so you might want to, if you have a 30-year mortgage, now interest rates have gone down. If you could refinance for a 15-year mortgage, do you know that interest rates on 15-year mortgages are a half a percent less to begin with than a 30-year mortgage? So you could really save a whole lot of money and many of you have been paying your mortgage for a long time. So you're going to be really tempted to say, well, I took out a $300,000 mortgage, I only owe 100,000 on it and if I refinance for another 30 years, it's gonna save me $1,000 maybe a month. Don't fall into that trap. The key to wealth is to having your home paid for it, especially by the time you retire. So the smaller in length, the less in length of your mortgage, the more your payments will be, but they'll still probably be less or equal to what you're paying right now. Huh, so always shorten your mortgage period if you can when you're refinancing. Absolutely, and if you could absolutely shorten it to at least a 15-year mortgage, you'll pay half a percent less than what your original 30-year mortgage was at. If you got a 30-year mortgage today and you got a 15-year mortgage today, the 15-year mortgage would be half a percent less in interest than a 30 today. Ooh, big deal, that's a big deal. And do financial advisors do mortgage brokers? Do they advise you to do this, or is it for them to make you do a 30-year mortgage? Well, a lot of people want you to do a 30-year mortgage because if they're a financial advisor, because the less money that you're putting out every single month, the more money they have to invest for you. My whole goal, my whole goal in life has always been number one, to make you as independent from financial advisors as possible, because the truth of the matter is, you'll never be powerful in life until you're powerful over your own money, how you think about it, how you feel about it, and how you invest it. And investing is not that difficult. It really isn't, I know it seems like it is, but everybody, you know, doctor wants you to think that it's difficult. Being a doctor is difficult. Being somebody who manages your money, it's not that hard, honest to God. So most financial advisors, not all, but most financial advisors, the way they make their living is off of you giving them your money to invest. So a lot of times they will tell you to do things that are in their best interest and not necessarily yours, I'm so sorry to say. You know, one thing you used to say on your TV show, people first, then money, then things. Has this crisis brought that back into focus? Have we lost sight of that message? Well, you know, what's so funny is when I used to say that every night or every Saturday night, people used to think that I meant be generous, take care of everybody, you know, and then, you know, your money and then things, and that's not how I meant it. When I said people first, I meant you. Take care of yourself first, because if you could take care of yourself first, then you have the strength to take care of your money and other people around you and the things that you wanna buy with your money. So one of the reasons that we're in a situation right now where so many people don't, do you know 60% of the people in the United States today have less than $400 to their name, Liquid? So the reason that they are so stressed right now and they're like, I have to get unemployment, I need that stimulus check, oh my God, and they're going to food banks. People today are going to food banks that never in a million years you would have thought that they were gonna go to food banks. Are you kidding? And so it's because they took care of other people around them. They also put things before money. They put a vacation in front of putting that money in an eight month emergency fund. Their priorities were screwed up totally. So hopefully this whole thing that's just happened, I'm really hoping that people really put their priorities in order right now and they don't forget what it feels like to be in a food line. They don't forget what it feels like to have to negotiate with their credit card companies, their insurance companies, their landlords, right? And make it your number one priority to put yourself first this time. The needs of yourself, the needs of your family and put every extra penny you can when all this goes back into where at least an eight month emergency fund. So does that, is this current crisis throw out all kind of long-term planning ideas right now? Or I mean, what do we do? Yeah, it's funny, I have to tell you as I sit here in front of you I'm gonna be in a month or two, 69 years of age. And I've been doing this a long time over 35 years. I would never have told people years ago, get a lifetime annuity, never. I would have told people as I do in the book you need a three year cushion, never. But today because interest rates are almost at 0%. Because it's almost as if you are being forced to go into the stock market to get any type of guaranteed, well it's not a guaranteed return, it's a dividend return on dividend stocks or bonds or things like that. All that could cut their dividend, all that their interest can go, you're in danger. So as you're getting older, you have to know now how to plan, how to seriously plan for the what ifs of life like this. And the book had planned for this. So what was so, yeah, you have to plan for the long run but you now have to know that it's different today than it's ever been before. So let's suppose I'm 40 years old, I don't have to worry about that yet. That's for 50 plus, what say you, Suzy? So what I say at 40 years of age, at 30 years of age, at 20 years of age, these are your compounding years. These years are more vital to you than any years of your life when it comes to what investing? Because do you know for the past 10 years, if you had been invested in the Standard and Poor's 500 index from the, you know, 2009 to 2019, you would have averaged 14.73% on your money annually. So let's just look at this for one quick second. You are 25 years of age. You put $100 a month, every month into a Roth IRA, which is my favorite type of retirement account. And you do that every single month until you are what, 65 for 40 years. Do you know at just a 12% annual average rate of return, which is 2% under what you would have gotten for the past 10 years, but just let's say that, just for an example, you'd have $1 million. You wait until you're 35 and you think, oh, what difference can $100 a month make? That's 1,200 a year, that's only $12,000. If you start at 35, rather than 25, you would have only $300,000 at the age of 65. Those 10 years cost you what? $700,000, $700,000 at $100 a month. So for a 20 year old, a 30 year old, a 40 year old, you should be taking your money and putting it every single month into a good index fund or an exchange traded fund or whatever it is you need to be investing now, month in and month out. And that should be the very first bill that you pay bar none, people first, then money, then things. You, if you just invest, month in and month out, max out your Roth IRA every year if you qualify, you will be so happy I can't even tell you. Do you think that's a bright side of this current crisis to maybe refocus our attention on where it needs to be? You know, I'll forever think that everything happens for the best. I have to think that, because otherwise, how do you go through life and explain things that happen to some people and don't you, so do I think that this is a blessing? I know you're all gonna find this strange, but I do. I think it's a blessing number one for the world and the climate out there and the waters and the air that we're breathing because breathing is one of the most important things you can do to number just stay alive. But most of you are breathing and I'm talking worldwide now air that's polluted and the air is really clearing up now. A lot of you are learning and you're going to learn that you're a lot stronger than you have any idea that you can really do this and you're gonna learn a new part of yourself that you never had time for before. And a lot of you are spending time with your families for the first time that you always said, I wish I had more time with my kids. I wish I had more time with my family, whether it's with your together or you're just socializing on FaceTime or whatever it may be. And I hope I can only pray that this time everybody will learn that you need to have money. You need to have an emergency fund. You need to have money in the stock market when it's appropriate and you need to not have money in the stock market when it's not appropriate because you don't have the time and that you'll learn what's really important in life a fancy car, a fancy house, a fancy vacation, none of that matters and you need to write that down right now. Write down what you're going through and what you've done with money versus what you did do with the money that you had. Wow, powerful. Great advice. So I hope everyone who's listening can get out the piece of paper, write it down, post it someplace because you're absolutely right on that. What's the old saying? You never see a U-Haul following a hearse. Which is so true. Yeah, you never see a Brinks truck at a funeral. That's true as well. So, I think the other thing that I have urged people to focus on, this is a phenomenal opportunity as I see it to if you've ever thought about changing your career for something that you really want to do or you're stuck in a job that you hate and it was just, yeah, you needed the income and I hear so many of my listeners already talking about, oh my gosh, this was the best thing that ever happened to me. I've always wanted to do this and now I have the time and I've started this small business in my house and my husband or my wife is helping me and even the kids are pitching in. Is this a great time to do what you always wanted to do? Listen, a lot of you may be forced in to doing something different because maybe your jobs aren't going to come back or you really hated what you were doing, you hated it. And so this is the time for you to examine your life and to go inside really and to sit quietly and go, you know what, if I hated my job and I was simply doing it for money and now I don't have money or whatever it is, I have some money, now is the time that you should realize, don't ever do anything that you hate, that this is the time just as you heard the doc say that there are other things you can do, there are other avenues you can go into, but be very careful because a lot of you will also find yourself saying, you know what, I wanna do something else, maybe I'll go back to school and I'll figure it out. No, you either know what you wanna do or you don't know what you wanna do. Don't go back to school where you have to take out student loans that in most cases are not dischargeable in bankruptcy to try to figure this out now. So if you can do something and not go into severe debt to do it, this could be the greatest thing of your life because you know, finding out who you are, who you are is the most precious and priceless lesson that you'll ever have about yourself because once you know who you are, you can create anything that your heart desires. Well, I think we're gonna end it on that as the best advice that anybody can get. Well, Susie, it's been amazing having you on the podcast today and I thank you so much at this time for agreeing to come on the show. It's been so useful. Where can listeners turn to for your advice right now? Yeah, the best thing that all of you can do and it's really the price is right is my Women in Money podcast and the Men Smart Enough to Listen, which is also the title of the podcast because I would never wanna segregate anybody. Trust me, you gotta come together as a family unit. I drop a new podcast every Thursday and Sunday and if you had been listening over the past month or actually the past year, you would have been prepared for this and I'm giving you advice on what to do, how to do it and creating a big community and it's not just about money. It's about emotions and your fears and I answer your questions and we're creating a new app. So if you go on Apple apps or you go on to Google apps, you will see my Women in Money community app. It will launch on a day or so. So we can form a true community to help one another and one more thing, Doc, if I can, right, is this. I love my new book, The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50 Plus, Winning Strategies to Make Your Money Last a Lifetime. But I'm also very aware that many of you that need the information in this book, you can't even afford a book right now. So if you go to susieormonaudio.com, you can stream 12 hours and 30 minutes of the New York Times bestseller, it's still on the list everybody, absolutely free. Because then you can learn about it and I go off the book, I tell you stories, it's actually better than the book, but don't tell anybody, okay? And you'll learn so much. So that's where they can find me. Oh, great and thank you for doing that. As you know, I always sign off, always looking out for you and I know you're always looking out for your listeners as well. And again, thank you so much for being on the program. Thanks, Doc, see you soon. All right, stay safe. And now it's time for our audience question. Alex Topic on YouTube asks, I have heard that garlic should not be used as an everyday food only as a medicine. I was thinking that this might be because garlic is antibacterial and gut bacteria are integral to supporting your life. So anything that kills them is therefore negative. But does garlic actually kill gut bacteria? Would love to know, thanks. Hey, that is a great question, Alex. Turns out, you will find in my next book, The Energy Paradox, that garlic may be one of the most important compounds that you should consume almost daily to support your health and to actually give your bacteria the substrates they need to produce messages to every one of your cells, to your blood vessels, to your brain that they're really having a great time down in your gut. And you're gonna be shocked with how garlic does that. So all I can say is no, eat your garlic. I personally take aged garlic capsules twice a day and I have it for the last 20 years after I learned about their miraculous effect. And believe it or not, we didn't know why there were so miraculous back then, but we do know now and you're gonna find out in just a few months on the new The Energy Paradox. Great question. And now it's time for review of the week. Ronald Dorvack on YouTube wrote, I wish everyone would listen to what you have to say. Thank you for the advice on what to do and what to ignore. Well, thanks a lot. I wish everybody would listen, but I'm biased. But thank you for listening. And again, everyone who's listening in, I'm always trying to give you the best information I have. And if you've read my books or listened to me through the years, you know I will change my mind when given new important information. And I'm not gonna give you the same old spiel that somebody has done for the last 20 years. When something's new and important, you're gonna find about it. And I'm gonna tell you why my mind changed on that very subject. You know, I always appreciate hearing from listeners. No, so keep the comments coming wherever you find this podcast. And if you listen on iTunes or Apple podcasts, please be sure to rate and review us. We love getting your feedback and I might be answering one of your questions or reading one of your comments. Again, thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. Before you go, I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you.