‘Your Knowledge of Money and How It Works Is Nil’: Suze Orman to 62-Year-Old Who Nearly Locked His Wife Into $605 a Month

A 50% survivor annuity would halve Ed's wife's monthly income to $605 and eliminate one Social Security check the moment he dies.

Orman recommended an IRA rollover, projecting the $200,000 grows to $300,000 in 8 years, with the full balance passing to Ed's wife.

Ed's wife is 8 years younger and statistically likely to outlive him by 15-20 years, making delaying Social Security until 70 critical.

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On the August 6 episode of her Women & Money podcast, Suze Orman read an email from a 62-year-old listener named Ed who had just retired against his wife's wishes and was about to pick the wrong payout on his employer annuity. Her response was blunt: "The naivete, the bare fact that you ask questions like 'can I open up a Roth IRA?', shows that innocently, your knowledge of money and how it works is nil. But the knowledge of your spouse is absolutely extraordinary."

If Ed had signed the paperwork he was leaning toward, his wife's income after his death would have been cut roughly in half, and Social Security would take another chunk on top of that. This trap springs on surviving spouses every year.

Ed had $200,000 in an employer annuity with three options: a lifetime payment with a 50% survivor benefit, a period-certain payout, or an IRA rollover. The lifetime option paid $1,211 a month while Ed was alive.

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