Suze Orman's Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen)
How To Make Wise Financial Decisions
18 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, everybody.
Chapter 2: What is the goal of money and why is it important?
Suzy O here. Now, what is the goal of money? The goal of money is for you to be secure. And there is no better way for you to be secure than having an emergency savings account. It is essential for your financial foundation.
Chapter 3: How can an emergency savings account enhance financial security?
So all of you should be participating in the ultimate opportunity savings account at Alliant Credit Union. Go to myalliant.com. to find out more and be secure. January 18, 2026. Welcome everybody to the Women in Money podcast and everybody's smart enough to listen. And today is Susie's school. That means you get me all to yourself. I know a lot of you are saying, but I miss KT. She's so sweet.
She's so cute. And trust me, I know how adorable she is. If you think she's adorable on the podcast, you should see her in real life. That vitality, that love, that spirit, I'm telling you, just shines through when she's just doing everything that she really wants to do.
On Thursday's podcast, last Thursday, we opened up the podcast with KT reading an email from a man by the name of David, who said that last Sunday's podcast, which was my market projection, was his favorite podcast out of 25 years, I think, of him listening to me. And KT just thought that was so great. And then I said, but those kinds of podcasts are not my favorite podcast.
And the real reason is that I could give you the best stocks to buy. I can give you the best forecast, the best this, the best that. But there's something that prevents you, not all of you, but many of you from doing that which I have told you to do. That's when I started to realize that why is it that you don't do what you know you should do?
And you would say, I'm afraid, I'm ashamed, I'm angry, whatever it is, the three internal obstacles to wealth. But the one internal obstacle to wealth that I really want to focus on today is fear. What will your fear do? And how does it show up in your finances? Okay, everybody? Now, that's number one.
Number two, many of you, and I mentioned this a little bit ago, wrote in and said, can you just do a podcast for us people who are in retirement, who are older and everything? And I kind of let you have it a And then I started to realize, no, they're right. I was wrong. There's a different element of fear involved when you are 60, 65, 70, even 80 or 90 than when you are 25, 35, 45, and even 50.
It is different. Today's podcast is especially for all of you who are 60, 65, 70, and 80. It is dedicated to you. However, if you're younger than that, this podcast can absolutely come to play in your life as well. So I ask you to listen with every molecule, atom, whatever else is in your body. So I want you to listen to this with what I call elephant ears.
As they say in India, listen carefully. Here's the scoop, everybody. When you're 60, 65, 70, 80, or 90, you have experienced and lived through multiple market crashes. And you think at this time that you're supposed to feel safe. But the history of living through all those market crashes, up, down, up, down, the 70s, the 80s, all of it,
here you are, you're supposed to feel safe, and yet you don't. And why is that most likely? It's because you're watching the markets move. And as I've said, you're going to see the markets go up, the markets go down. It's no longer going to be straight up, really, like it was back in 2025, especially with the technology and the AI stocks.
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Chapter 4: What internal obstacles prevent wise financial decisions?
Don't you all think this? Oh my God, Susie, if I invest in this now and it doesn't work, I don't have time to fix it. I'm just going to leave it safe. I'm coming out of the stock market because if it goes down, I can't fix it. And here is the bottom line. When you feel this fear, right, it changes, underline this everybody, it changes how the brain works. Do you hear me?
There is a biological system in your body that decides whether you feel calm or panicked long before logic kicks in. Now, how do I know this to be true? Because I experienced it big time. I experienced it starting five years ago in July of 2020 after I had that really complicated and life-threatening, lifestyle-altering surgery. And after it was all over...
And everybody told me how serious it was and how I would never recover 100%. I started to panic at little things. Is my left leg going to collapse and all of a sudden I'm going to fall? And when I tell you I started to panic, I honest to God started to panic. And it wasn't even logical. The things I was panicking about wasn't logical. And that's when I was talking to the doctors about it.
It's like, this can't be. I'm Susie Orman. I'm strong. I'm this. And they said, Susie, you've been through this. a very traumatic event. So it is logical.
Chapter 5: How does fear specifically impact financial choices for older adults?
But I want you to research something called the polyvagal system. And I said, the poly what? They said, Susie, we're going to give you information and you need to research it even more on your own. Something called the polyvagal system will
which is based on the work that somebody by the name of Stephan or Stephen Porges, I think it's P-O-R-G-E-S, I never did know how you pronounced his last name, what he created, because this is what is happening to you. And my main question when I was going through all of this, I had one question. And my question was, am I safe? Am I really safe?
And as time went on, right, I started to realize that if my body doesn't feel safe, my brain cannot make wise decisions. As time went on and I learned about this and I learned how to control it, by the way, everybody, I realized, oh my God, this just doesn't apply to my health. This applies to every single one of you if you don't feel safe with your money.
And even though for years I've been saying fear is the main internal obstacle to wealth, I never actually knew why it was the main internal obstacle to wealth. I just had put that together out of all those years of seeing my clients not being able to do what they needed to do with money, even though they were brain surgeons at the time. I'm going to make it all financial from this point on.
Okay, everybody. But if your body does not feel safe, your brain cannot make wise financial decisions. Now, how do I know that that's true currently? I know because again, you write me and you tell me this. You tell me, Susie, I know I'm totally diversified, but I'm still panicking. Susie, I know I don't need to sell, but yet I still feel desperate. I feel like I have to get out.
Or you write me and you say, I know we have the perfect plan. I know it. But all of a sudden, Susie, I want to blow it up. I want to get out. Why do you want to do those things? Because you don't feel safe. Do you hear me? So this is not a weakness. This is not you being bad with your money. This is not you being financially capable. This is not you.
This is biology that is within you that is ruling what you are doing. So here's what I can tell you that I have seriously learned and what I have taken from Stephen Porges or whatever his name is. Let's just call him Stephen. This is what I have learned about the systems and how they work when it comes to your money, okay? The first state is the calm state.
Because whenever I was calm, I felt safe. And when I was safe, I didn't panic. I didn't feel like, oh my God, I'm going to da-da-da-da. I felt safe. So when it comes to your finances, When you feel safe, you're calm. And then what do you do? Well, you stick to your plan. You understand the risk that you've taken. You ride out all the volatility of these stupid markets.
You make thoughtful choices by when the markets go down, you continue to dollar cost average. And when you are in the calm state, That means you're safe and this is where your wealth is protected. And why is it protected? It's because your brain is functioning and you are doing things that are intelligent versus from fear. The next state is called the fear state.
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