September 21, 2025.

Welcome everybody to the Women and Money podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen, in today's Suze School, so simply get out your Suze notebooks.

I know you're going to be sad.

KT's not here with me.

KT's actually out with Colo wahooing, believe it or not.

You always do it very first thing in the morning.

And so anyway, I hear they've already caught three, but that is besides the point.

KT on Thursday said Suzie, do a Suze School on real estate, and I was like, really?

And then I thought, OK, she's always right, so what could I tell you about real estate that would make sense to you and really help you?

And real estate obviously in most cases also come with a mortgage, and a lot of you are hearing, all right, interest rates may go down.

You have been waiting for interest rates to go down to buy.

You've also been waiting for interest rates to go down to possibly sell what you have because you want to buy another piece of real estate, but you don't want to go from a 2 or 3% mortgage rate to a 5 or 6%, so you're still waiting.

Everybody's waiting for interest rates to come down, but there's more to buying a home than just the interest rate on the mortgage.

So I'm gonna get to that in one second, however.

I have to talk about the stock market.

Stock market's doing exactly what we wanted it to do.

We didn't know if it was going to go up, was it going to go down, what was going to do, but we said overall...

the market will probably be good next year.

It should be even better.

So hopefully you are investing again if you don't know what to invest in, just simply dollar cost average into the ETF VOO, and that is the Standard and Poor's 500 index ETF.

And yes, I still like VTI and spiders, but right now I'm favoring, VOO.

It doesn't mean you have to switch to it.

Just know that.

Also, I'm sure many of you are incredibly over the top when it comes to two stocks, IONQ and Palantir, and you're probably all wondering.

Have they gone too high?

Should I continue to dollar cost averaging to them?

What should I do?

Well, I went to Mister Keith Fitz-Gerald, and I went, Keith, do you think they're too high?

Do you think that people shouldn't be buying in?

And Keith Fitz-Gerald said, No, Suze, are you crazy?

I really, really think that over the years, maybe 5 years from now, could see Palantir at 500.

Also, you could see IONQ that's right around 70 easily at 121 in some period of time, so Keith does not think they're at their high and therefore you should, in his opinion, continue to dollar cost average into them.

So I'm sure if you bought them you are really, really happy.

But you're also probably really happy if you bought any AI stock.

And again, take a look at Apple.

I know a lot of you don't like Apple.

A lot of you think, Oh, I don't like their iPhones.

Just take a look, and if it happens to drop, you might want to start to add that to your list as well of purchases.

With that said, Bitcoin is still just fine, gold is just fine still, and interest rates on bonds, you are starting to see them come down, which is also fine.

Let's go to Suze School now and talk about real estate and refinancing.

Do you have your notebooks out?

OK, cause here we go.

Just last week, the Feds lowered the Fed funds rate 25 basis points from 425 - 450, which is where they were, to 4 to 425, and that was their first cut since December of 2024, and they expect to do two more cuts.

So the Fed funds rate will affect the interest rate that you're getting paid on money market accounts, savings accounts, it will affect what the interest that you're paying on credit cards, those should start to come down little by little, OK, but when it comes to real estate, mortgages are not attached to the Fed funds rate.

They are attached to the 10 year Treasury.

The 10 year Treasury right now is about 4.133%, let's just say 4.2%, OK.

And normally what happens is mortgage rates are anywhere from 1.5% to 2% above, they can be even more, but on average 1.5% to 2% above the 10 year Treasury.

So that is how they figure it out.

So right now, given that you're probably looking at interest rate on a 30-year mortgage of about 6.25% right in there.

Write that down.

Now, if it is a projection that the Fed funds rate is going to be cut two more times this year, and let's just say they're 25 basis points or more.

That may also cause the 10 year Treasury to come down.

We'll see what happens there.

So mortgage rates could very easily, as this goes on, land about 5.5%.

So you have to think really carefully before you refinance.

You don't have to rush to refinance right now, and you actually don't have to rush to buy a home right now.

So you may be asking, all right, so I don't have to rush into buying something, but Suze, why do they attach it to the 10 year Treasury?

Well, I'll tell you why, because most of you, whether you know it or not.

You most likely will only stay in the house that you have just bought unless you're a lot older.

For 7 to 10 years, most likely only 7 years, so they base that interest rate.

On the 10 year Treasury because it's right in there for when you're going to turn around and sell that house and therefore somebody else is going to buy that house and they want to know that when you do that they're getting the correct interest rate on the new mortgage.

Did that make sense to you?

Therefore, that's why they do the 10 year Treasury.

So now, however, I just want to give you an example, of what that means cause all of you are always so excited, Suze.

I know I can barely afford the mortgage payment.

But now I can take my principal, my interest, I can itemize it.

I can be great, and I could save money because of how much interest I'm going to be paying on that mortgage.

So that will make it so that I can afford the mortgage payments today, even though they're higher than I really want to pay.

Is that true or is that false?

Because a lot of you now are working on an assumption in many cases that just isn't true, especially because they have increased the standard deductions to $15,700 for single people and double that for married filing jointly to $31,400.

So are you just better off taking the standard deductions or itemizing?

Is your interest that you pay per year more than the standard deduction or less?

If you add in the property taxes that you can take off as well, if you do all of that, how much can you really save over a seven year period of time?

If...

Start writing down now.

Let's just say you bought a house for $375,000.

I know a lot of them are a whole lot more, a whole lot less, but just let's say that's true for now, and you put $75,000 down.

That means today if you get a 30 year mortgage, it's going to be a $300,000 mortgage at 6.25% interest, OK.

So on this 30 year mortgage at 6.25% interest, your monthly mortgage payment will be $1,847 write it down.

The interest on your loan is going to be $18,650 that very first year.

And your property taxes are going to be approximately $4,125 so your total potential deduction is going to be $22,775.

That's the very first year.

So let's look at this as if you are a single with $150,000 of income.

Given that you are going to be itemizing $22,775 you're going to have a tax deduction of $7,075 or you're going to be able to save in the 24% tax bracket, $1,698 in year one in taxes.

That's it.

Now, obviously you're going to itemize.

Because you are approximately $7,075 above the standard deduction.

So the very first year you're going to save approximately $1,700 in taxes.

Now that's for the single if you are married filing jointly.

However, you still would only be itemizing $22,775 which is actually less than the $31,400 in your standard deduction, so your tax savings are going to be zero.

If you then project this over.

A seven year period of time.

This single filer has saved anywhere between 1,500 to $1,700 per year in taxes or over seven years, $10,000.

The married couple, they have not saved anything more.

They did not beat the standard deduction, so owning a home gave them no tax savings whatsoever.

The point of this is you really need to figure out, is a home going to save you in taxes, or is it not?

So when you go to buy a home, do not, and I repeat, do not think to yourself, but the interest is a tax write-off, because let me just tell you one other thing here that has always driven me crazy.

After seven years of paying on this home, a $300,000 mortgage.

You have actually paid $125,229 of interest.

You have a mortgage balance of $270,142.

You have only paid down $30,000 of that mortgage, and maybe you saved $10,000 in this example.

Now, that is why, the mortgage companies love when you take out a 30 year mortgage because essentially they made $125,000 of interest on that loan because the big interest payments are all up front everybody.

They're all up front because they know you are going to sell the house and the longer you keep the house, the interest rate portion of your mortgage goes down and down and down.

So do you understand, everybody, why banks and financial institutions love to give you a long mortgage?

I just want to give you these numbers as well.

Do you know that just after 10 years, OK.

You have paid approximately $174,000 in interest.

After 20 years you've paid approximately $308,000 in interest.

After 30 years, the full length of the loan on a $300,000 loan you paid $364,975 just in interest.

But notice, in the first 10 years you have already paid over half the total lifetime of that loan in interest, and that is most likely when you will sell it between seven and 10 years.

The last 10 years only, you are paying about $57,000 in interest.

Which is why I always tell you, I want you to pay your home outright if you're going to keep it forever, especially if it's going to be your forever home.

By the time you retire, because there is no longer really any interest deduction.

Over the last 10 years it goes like from 5,000 to 4,000.

There's no true interest deduction, and it's obviously far below the standard deduction.

I just want you to think about all that when you're buying a home and take that all into consideration and do not use the excuse, but Suze, my mortgage payment is going to be a tax write-off.

Really?

Do the math, everybody, right, but here we are.

We're now in a situation where mortgage rates may continue to go down.

And again, I think you might want to wait a little bit just before you rush out and buy.

Or maybe even sell if you know you're going to need to buy again with a new mortgage, OK, but a lot of you really want to refinance and get your mortgage interest rate down.

Let's just talk therefore about refinancing.

I only want you to refinance if your new rate is 0.75% to 1% or even more, lower than your current mortgage rate, and this is a big deal everybody, you're going to stay in that home long enough to recoup the closing costs.

So let me give you an example.

You have a loan, 300,000, 20 years left.

And you have a 7.25% mortgage payment for whatever reason, maybe at a low FICO score or whatever, and your mortgage payment is $2,400 a month.

You now decide to take out a new loan for 20 years because that is how you would do it, for 6.25% and your payment would be $2,200 a month.

However, it's going to cost you $5,500 in closing costs.

Your savings will be $200 a month, so you need to divide the $5,500 or whatever your closing costs are by your savings per month of your mortgage, in this case $200 a month.

So your break even would be 27 months.

You have got to know that you're going to be in this home for at least 27 months.

Now notice I said, that was the smart way to do it with 20 years left on the mortgage, you refinance for 20 years.

You never ever, ever want to make the mistake of restarting the clock.

If let's just say you had 20 years left on your mortgage and you refied into a 30 year mortgage, even at a lower payment.

You may end up paying tens of thousands of dollars more in interest if you keep the house all 30 years, so you want to always remember, match or shorten your term of your refinanced mortgage from the current mortgage that you already have.

Many of you are writing me and telling me that you plan on cashing out, some of the equity in your home in order to pay off or remodel or do certain things.

What you have to get is that if you're going to cash out with a refinance, you are never to take that money and do what with it?

Use it to pay off credit card debt, a car loan debt, and possibly even student loan debt.

You never want to go, especially with credit card debt if it's at a high interest rate.

You never want to go from unsecured debt, which credit card debt is, think about it, you can't pay that credit card off.

All right, there's nothing securing it.

You never want to trade unsecured debt for secured debt when cashing out a mortgage where it is secured by what?

The house you live in, do not make that mistake.

Also, you really can't ignore all the hidden terms of when you are refinancing.

Is it a 5 in 1 ARM?

Is it an adjustable?

What type of mortgage are you refinancing to.

As interest rates are going down, I would tell you to absolutely do a fixed rate mortgage if, however, you know that you're only going to be in the house for three years or five years and you are taking out a mortgage, maybe you want to look at an adjustable rate mortgage.

Like a 5 in 1, it's fixed for 5 years, but you're gonna sell in three or four, OK.

Right, but after that it adjusts annually.

And also, don't make the mistake of not shopping around.

Because you never ever know like there was somebody who wrote in.

And they had a mortgage with $4,000 of fees for 6.6% interest at their current mortgage rate and then they wrote me so upset because they found another lender.

at 6.4% with $1,000 less in fees, so I want you to get at least three quotes, compare APRs, not just the interest rate, the APRs, the annual percentage rate, because that includes all closing costs and everything, and then see if you can negotiate costs.

One last thing that I just want to say when it comes to buying a piece of real estate.

Buying real estate today is not like buying real estate five, 10, or 15 years ago.

Real estate today isn't about just the interest rate and what you're going to pay on the mortgage, and I've said this to you over and over again.

Buying real estate today or keeping real estate today is all about what is your property insurance going to be.

And don't be shocked if your property insurance payments are actually higher than your mortgage payments just depending on where you live.

Are you in a flood area, earthquake area, fire area?

Are you buying somewhere where they have had natural disasters and the insurance companies don't even want to insure there anymore?

Can you just look at that before you decide the only way to make money is by owning a home.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

It is mandatory that you have property insurance if you have a mortgage.

So you just have to know, that you can afford a tremendous increase, a doubling, possibly a tripling in your property insurance, before you buy a home, so you need to do that possibility.

All right, that's your Suze School today and until Thursday, when Miss Travis joins us again for Ask KT and Suze Anything, there's only one thing I want you to remember when it comes to your money and is this people first, then money, then things.

Now you stay safe.

Bye bye.