The Chris Cuomo Project - Suze Orman’s Guide to Surviving Trump Tariffs and Holiday Pressure

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

Suze Orman (financial expert and host, “Women & Money” podcast) joins Chris Cuomo to discuss Trump’s proposed tariffs and their potential to drive up prices and strain household budgets. Orman explains how these policies could impact everyday Americans and shares practical strategies for staying financially secure in uncertain times. The conversation also tackles holiday spending pressures, offering advice on avoiding debt, teaching kids smart money habits, and managing expectations during the festive season. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Support our sponsors: Everyday Dose Head over to everydaydose.com/chris for 25% off plus 5 free gifts with your first order including a USB rechargeable frother, Every month after you get additional amazing free gifts with your order. Shopify Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Untuckit uses. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/chrisc AG1 So this new year, try AG1 for yourself – it’s the perfect time to start a new healthy habit. And that’s why I’ve been partnering with AG1 for so long! And AG1 is offering new subscribers a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit, a bottle of D3K2 AND 5 free travel packs in your first box. So make sure to check out DrinkAG1.com/ccp to get this offer! Cozy Earth Want your Cozy Earth pajamas by Christmas? Order by December 13 for free shipping! Missed it? You can still get expedited shipping until December 20 to ensure it arrives in time. Head to cozyearth.com/CHRIS now and use my exclusive code CHRIS for up to 40% off. Factor Head to factormeals.com/50cuomo and use code 50cuomo to get 50% off your first box plus free shipping while your subscription is active. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Ho, ho, hold up. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project here as we enter the gifting season. I don't care what your tradition is. I don't care what your faith is. We all know what this is about, balancing needs and wants and how we show people that we love them

and how we show understanding. And look, I'm no different than you. I often default to just paying my way and how we show understanding. And look, I'm no different than you. I often default to just paying my way through the season and hoping that made everybody happy. And you know what? I know it's a mistake. And I'm among those who can afford that mistake.

But what if you're not? Okay, here's another topic. What if you keep hearing the word tariff, but you're not really sure what it's gonna mean and whether it's a good thing or a bad thing? Ah, these are two very vexing issues. And I have one guest who can satisfy both. Susie Orman, you know the name.

Have you been checking out her podcast about women and money? Oh boy, I'll tell you what. I gotta sneak in there myself every once in a while. It's such smart ideas about how to empower. We all know Susie, she's a brand in and of herself because of her ability to remind us what we need to know and how we need to be.

Susie Orman, on what's coming in terms of political economic policy and what better not be coming with you and yours this holiday season. Susie Orman, you are a Christmas gift to myself. Thank you very much for joining me on the podcast once again. Oh, I love you so much. And I know people can see you, but I love how buff you are these days. Just love it. Thank you very much.

Must be this special compression gear that holds all the muscles sewed into it. So I want to- I have to get some of that gear. Nah, you look great. You look great. You're known for looking good. So I want you to help me with your economics and politics hat,

and then I want you to put on your therapist hat and help me figure out how we're supposed to manage our finances at the time of year that pulls us to spend the most. So first, everybody has used the word tariff as a buzzword, okay? And if you're against President-elect Trump, tariff means all our prices are going up.

And if you're for President Trump, it means that he's gonna kick China's ass. For President Trump, it means that he's going to kick China's ass. How do you understand the use or abuse of tariffs and what do people need to know about whatever is to come? Well, truthfully, when you're dealing with President Trump, you can't just expect normal results. Because we don't really know, Chris, why he's using that, what he's really going to do. And this is not a typical situation. Typically, yeah, you put tariffs on prices go up for everybody. But is he doing it as a political ploy to get them to give him something else? Who knows at this point what he's doing.

So I think given the fact that it is now President-elect Trump, and that is absolutely what the United States of America wanted, then we should be willing to wait to see what he is actually going to put on and how it's going to affect everything. But I think it's very silly for all of us to be debating, well, it's going to increase this and it's going to do that. In normal situations, tariffs are not friendly to the consumer because in my opinion, there's not one major corporation or anybody who's transporting, importing, whatever it is.

If their prices are raised, who do you think they're going to pass that down to? It always falls down to the consumer. Maybe it looks like more money is coming in for the economy, meaning the government and things like that, but it always falls down to all of us, in my opinion. But we'll see how he's going to use them. So people do say it's an indirect tax on the consumer. Now, here's how it could work, and it's been suggested by Trump in the past, not this time,

that it would work. Now, it didn't work this way the first time, but here was the pitch. China doesn't allow enough of our stuff into its markets. This tariff will make them do that. There will be an offset of manufacturing energy that will place products in China where now we can't and that will help all those people who are employing people in America

and they'll be able to hire more. And that will offset it. And he's going to tell China they have to absorb the tariff and can't pass it on. Otherwise, he'll make it even worse. And it worked the first time. That's why Biden kept the tariffs. So first of all, I feel like as you were saying all that,

I felt like, oh, here we go again. But is that like telling Mexico they're going to have to build a wall and they're going to pay, we're going to build it, but they're going to pay for it? I think that a lot comes to play now that wasn't necessarily in play his first term. And that's really what is happening out there with China, North Korea, South Korea, with Syria, with Ukraine, with Russia. Nowhere did we have the political warfare

that's going on between all of those countries. And sure, it's not, we can say we're gonna do this, and then all of a sudden China becomes really good friends with Russia. There's a lot of ramifications here that weren't there before. Do you agree with that? Yes, the dynamic is different

in terms of turmoil and players. Economically, I do still think that you have a one-off with China because China is more of an attractive Political target when it comes to economics than any of the other countries That you mentioned so we'll see again. I you know my specialty obviously is not Economics and all of these things, and will this cause that?

All I really look at, truthfully, Chris, is how are the everyday people doing today? And it is true. The economy is doing great. Real estate is doing great. The stock market is doing great. Gold is doing great. Bitcoin is really doing great. So everybody who has money, who owns a home, has the ability to buy a home right now.

They are so happy. They're looking at their 401K plans, and it has gone up tremendously. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index just for this year alone is up 30 percent, Chris. But how many people is that that get to do that? What part of the United States of America can't participate in the housing market? They can't afford it. And even if they were able at one time

to afford the price of a home, you know why now they're giving it up? Not because of their mortgage payment, not because of the interest on their mortgage, because they can no longer afford the property insurance rates that have skyrocketed. My own apartment in Florida used to be $4,000 or $5,000 a year to insure. It's only 2,100 square feet.

Do you know it is now $28,000 to insure? So in the state of Florida, even if you can get insurance now, many people are having to give up their home because they cannot afford a thousand percent or a five hundred percent or even a thirty percent increase in just insurance. So when you start to look at the real problems that we're facing in the United States, in my opinion, is what are you going to do about that? What are you going to do about medical insurance, really?

And I understand that there is Obamacare and everything like that is still out there. But there are still so many things. People have been going into Medicare Advantage, thinking that they're going to, especially when they're older, thinking that they're going to save money because they don't have to have their medical B, you know, their Medicare B premiums, any of that to die. And then all of a sudden they go and make a claim and Medicare Advantage won't pay.

And there are big problems out there, Chris, especially for those that don't have a retirement account, they don't really have savings, they really don't know if their job's gonna be replaced by artificial intelligence or not, and I can go on. So the mass people that maybe they'll be affected by tariffs and things like that, but the majority of people maybe don't even have the money to buy the thing with or without tariffs to

begin with. Yeah, we have an upside down situation here where the people who are driving the election are probably not going to be the beneficiaries of the coming policies. No, and that's what's so funny. Yeah, it's a weird populist movement. are probably not going to be the beneficiaries of the coming policies. No, and that's what's so funny. It's a weird populist movement. I just have to say this. The main thing is we're not going to tax Social Security.

Well, when you're not making any money. You're making under $35,000 or whatever it may be if you're married or single. You don't pay tax on Social Security anyway. So who's going to win? Me. I'm not going to have to pay tax on Social Security. That's a big deal since 85% of my almost $4,000 a month, which really is a travesty if you

think about it, is what is going to be now not taxed. And at my tax bracket, that's a huge saving for me, but what does it do to the Social Security Trust Fund, Chris? Right now, a lot of people who are paying taxes on Social Security goes in to support the Social Security Trust Fund, which makes it that we can last longer before it depletes itself.

So everything has a ramification, but I have to say I don't think that the people who really wanted change, they needed change, they felt like, oh my God, they don't have any money to do anything. I'm not sure that they're gonna feel the benefit of this administration, or maybe any administration for that matter. Yeah, I was talking to somebody about that dynamic, but boiled down to the tariffs,

because you gotta give it to Trump as a political win, that he's boiled down everything about what to do with the economy, the problem being inflation and then his solution is something that almost guarantees inflationary pressure. And the best pushback they have is, oh yeah, if it's so bad, then why did Biden keep the tariffs? And, you know, that's a good question. But, you know, they would have to answer it, right? Because they'd have to justify why they kept it.

They took out a lot of other of Trump's executive actions. Why do you think they kept them? I don't know why they did anything that they did to tell you the truth. But here's the question. It's one thing to keep the policy going, as Biden did. But remember, it went from here to here, all right? I don't know exactly what happens when he goes from this level now and raises it 25% more. Now I don't know, do we have

an unbalance or do we not and what that causes. But I do think that the policy is going to be balanced. I think that the policy is going to be balanced. I think that the policy is

going to be balanced. I think that the policy is going to be balanced. 25% more. Now, I don't know, do we have an unbalance or do we not and what that causes. But I do think that right now it's like a political fighting match. Is it gonna work? Is it not gonna work? And here's the bottom line.

And you know this and I know this. He is going to do what he wants to do. Or he is going to do with what one of his cronies says for him to do. I'm never sure when it's directly from him or somebody that he takes his information from. Either way, it doesn't matter. It's then his decision.

So I think we're gonna have to wait to see really what does it do. If it were up to me, I would not be doing it. What do you make of the disconnect between the politics being a populist movement, but the policies benefiting people not in that populist group, that it will, the policies largely benefit the elites as they're called now Yeah, um, I feel really bad for them. I have to tell you because they voted with not really

understanding that President-elect Trump wanted to keep in the tax cuts that really Benefited people with a lot of money. Hopefully, he'll keep in the estate tax and not let it sunset, which is $13 million per person, which the majority of people out there aren't going to care about, but quite a few are. So I just don't think they understood really why they were suffering, why things were going up, what was really going on.

They didn't really understand, so they just kind of voted, in my opinion, as a rebellious vote that very well could backfire on them. I hope it doesn't backfire on them. Everybody has the same things. Why not add something new to the table? Lobster! Imagine sitting down at your meal. You got all the classics there, right? And then all of a sudden you look, and there is a fresh, sweet lobster from Get Maine Lobster, ready to crack! The rich, buttery taste of Maine in every bite,

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Lots of deals. We show love by giving. We are nervous about not having enough in our budgets, but we have all these great financing deals coming now. Don't pay anything for five months, six months, one year. That sounds great. People have been making some money. People have been under a lot of stress

if they haven't been making money. And you know what a great stress release is at the holiday times? Buying things for those you love. What is your advice heading into the gifting season? Yeah. The saddest thing for me always when I was seeing clients personally. We would work all year to get them out of debt because you're never in a state of feeling financially free if you have debt, especially credit card debt,

especially at these interest rates. And we would work so hard at it. And then came the holidays. And then all of a sudden they would go into the mall. And the people behind the counter would say, listen, whatever you buy today, you get 20% off. So even if they went in to just buy one item, in their minds, they thought, oh my God, I'm going to go out there and buy everything I can today because I want to take

advantage of the 20% off. Of course, the only reason they were able to do that is that knowing they would probably only pay the minimum payment due and then the department stores would be making 30 some odd percent on them. So of course they could afford to give 20% off. They're still, you know, in the black on them. So of course they could afford to give 20% off. They're still, you know, in the black on them. So I think it's really important that you ask yourself questions and that you stand in the truth and that you stand in the truth and limitless with yourself,

but with your family as well. Because if you have to buy something and put it on a credit card, knowing that when it comes due, you're only going to be able to pay the minimum payment due, you better double or triple the price of anything that you're buying to understand the true cost of it. So if it's $50, if you're only able to pay the minimum payment due and it's at a high interest rate, triple it and ask yourself the question, would I pay $150 for what I'm about to buy? And chances are the answer is going to be no. And you have to stand in your truth that if that is what you have to do by putting it on your credit card and paying the minimum payment due, you cannot afford what you are about to buy. So not only is it a burden on yourself, chances are you're not going to

be giving somebody a gift. They're going to feel guilty because they're probably going to have to do the same thing you're doing. Now both of you have gotten in debt to probably give you each other something that you don't even really like. So let's get honest. And in my family from day one, after I was with KT and her little sisters and everybody, they had children. From day one, we never bought a gift.

We made gifts. We made cookies. We made toffee. We made little. Cheap ass Susie Orman. That's what I'm hearing. Cheap ass Susie Orman. Big cheap ass, yeah. Cheap ass. Suzy Orman.

Everybody wants gifts. You look in the faces of those kids, your loved ones, and you, if they give them the gift, you see that you've done something right. And you are saying, don't do that just because of money. You only live once and everybody lives on expensive credit in America. This is how we do it. Well, think about the lesson you're teaching your kids. That when they grow up and they don't have the money to do it, they're going to keep repeating the same mistake. You know, recently on the Women and Money podcast just a little bit ago, we had Barbara, Katie's little sister, and she talked about what it was like growing up with Aunt Susie and the lessons that we put those kids through. And here those kids are 25 and 27 now,

so incredible with money, saving, they don't care about the latest iPhone. They don't care about any of that. They care about saying to me, Aunt Susie, I have a 12-month emergency fund. Susie, I have fully funded my Roth IRA this year. Susie, I don't have any credit card debt. What are you gonna make somebody for Christmas?

Oh, well, this year, I've made them a little sweater that I sewn and I knitted myself. And they take such pride in that. One of them just is buying a house and they're doing all the work themselves to fix it up. Even though one of them, the other person that they're doing this with, they have the money to just hire somebody, but no. So you can go on and think that, oh, you have to buy them this. You have to do that. But a gift, Chris, is truly generous when it's a gift not just for the person you're

giving it to, but for yourself as well. And if you're going to financially suffer because of that, that's not true generosity. In your own way, you are being a financial liar. One quick story, which is Oprah. How many Oprah shows did I do? 30. How many houses did she have me go in to fix the financial problems of people who looked like they had a lot of money?

And I would go in their closets and we would take out the stuff in their closets that were all stuffed with things and go, what is all this stuff? Oh, well, this was a Christmas present from Uncle Joe. Oh, this was a birthday present from that. And I go, and why are they in here? Because I don't like them.

And then could they afford it? Here's what you should do right now. I'll tell you what everybody should do right now. Go and ask your kids what they got last year for Christmas or Hanukkah or any holiday. Go on the streets and just stop a little kid and say, Do you remember what you got last year for Christmas? Or better yet, do you remember what you got last year for Christmas? Do you really?

I did that and I did that with the Today Show cameras. Everyone we stopped walking up Fifth Avenue, they go, you know who did remember? This one person whose wife gave him a foot massage, a little ticket that said, you get a foot massage. Chris, what did you get last year for Christmas? Do you remember? Bills.

Bills. I pay for everybody. I am Santa. That's why my face is so red. Right, so, but think about that. Ask your kids, ask your grandkids, ask kids. Because once you become adults, usually all they want is money.

Yeah. Like, give me $50, usually all they want is money. Yeah. Like, give me $50, give me $100, okay. But I do not have a place in my financial heart to justify giving gifts, buying gifts when you cannot afford it. I feel like every one of those gifts represents a financial lie. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from cozy earth. Look, I use the bedding, okay? I even have a set of the jammies.

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I know it sounds scroogey to some because we have the imagery of the boxes and the bows and the transactions of emotional satisfaction of what the kids open and see and parents wanna give that to them. But, you know, to your point, when you talk to parents about what they want for their kids, it's about giving them the life

that they wish they had or opportunities that they think their kids need. They never talk about material things, safety, security, happiness, opportunities to succeed or fail on their own merits. material things, safety, security, happiness, opportunities to succeed or fail on their own merits. And I think that's what we lose sight of. But it's also cultural.

I didn't grow up like that. I grew up with parents who were depression babies, right? So, and my father was like allergic to wealth. He was like the original organic anti-elitist. He was like, you know, my father would do anything for anybody as long as they didn't offer to pay him. And he would often say, when you'd be like, Pop, what do you want for Christmas?

He would say, what do I need? If I want something, I get it. What do I need from you? Be good to your wife. Be good to your mom. Be good to your sister. Come here, give me a hug. And I used to think that he was being falsely modest

until I became a parent and got a little older. And it always helps to go through some shit. Anybody who has any kind of health issue never wants anything material ever again. That's right, right? And all of a sudden, all cliches apply the older you get, right, Suzy? So if you don't have your health, you don't have any... Everybody rolls their eyes at that shit until they get one bad blood test back. Yeah, it's? You know, Barbara, KT's little sister is here, right? And she said, so what is it that you want? What's one thing that you really want?

And I said, I'll tell you not only what I want, I'll tell you what I need, and that's my health. Yeah. Doesn't matter how much money I have. You know this, Chris. It doesn't matter when something happens and you have a chance really of not living. I've experienced this.

All that you care about is your health and from that day on, you watch what you eat, you watch everything and you don't gain weight. You're healthy in every possible way. And you're even healthy how you spend money. So it's not healthy to spend money that you don't have. It's not healthy, people. And it's not really showing somebody that you care about them because if you're upside down on something

or you're paying an exorbitant amount, you know there's another kind of gifter. It's different than the people you focus on, Susie, but you know a lot of these people that I'm about to talk about. You've got the money, and you spend exorbitantly on gifts that really are gifts to yourself of demonstrations of your opulence.

Because nobody gives a shit that you just bought them this watch that was this much money. They could have bought it themselves maybe or they don't value it that way. And it was just you doing what they call these days flexing. And that's not a good look either. And I always tell people if they have a lot of money when they say things, you know, like,

oh, boy, let me know what I can do for you. I always would joke with them and say like, oh yeah, I wanna do something, yeah. Why don't you pay for their kids' college? If you wanna go big, go big. Otherwise- I go big or go home. That's right.

Or just do what Susie, you're telling people to do, which is also remember the reason for the season, right? Of course, we haven't even mentioned that. Everybody's hyping their religion these days. Every time I get beat up on social media, the person seems to have a crucifix next to their name as a statement of what they're about. The reason for the season is to remember

what really matters in life and what really is transcendent. And it's certainly not what's in your closet. Well, think about that. It's, you have, in some of the movies of Jesus is all of a sudden going and he sees everybody worshiping the golden calves and everybody again and boom, right? Or Moses, whatever.

And so, cause I get all of it mixed up. What can you expect from me? But anyway. Hanukkah is the same thing. The ability to keep a candle burning when it shouldn't have anymore, you know, of exceeding what was seen as possible, that goes to what has real value and what you really have to account for in life as well. So no matter the tradition, you wind up in the same place, that it is not what you have,

it's what you give of yourself. And don't think that your kids don't know it. I'll never forget that I took the CNBC cameras and we went to, because I was on CNBC at the time, to this very exclusive kids' school in a suburb of Chicago, where one of my friends was the teacher. It was like $10,000 a year to go there. This was years ago for little kids, five years old, seven,

little ones, okay. So I go there with the cameras and they're all there. Everybody has signed releases. And I say to the kids, so you know you can be anything you want. It's like, how do you feel about money? And this little five-year-old said, I don't know, I think I'm going to end up in the poor house. I said, what? Five years old. And I said, why in the world do you think you're going to end up in the poorhouse? And he says to me, well, almost every night before mommy and daddy go to bed, mommy is

screaming at daddy, if you don't stop buying these gadgets, we're going to end up in the poorhouse. So now I'm thinking, all right, this was an isolated example, not a big deal. And there were like 20 kids, five years old, six years old. And I said, kids, do any of you relate to this? Chris, every one of them had a story like that. Every one of them. So if you think that a temporary gift at a holiday is going to swelch what they feel about money and you, when they hear you upset about money, crying about not money, whatever it may be, you know, all of that, if you think that you could do that with a gift that you can't afford and your kids don't know it in the long run, I'm here to tell you they absolutely do.

It's temporary. It's a temporary satisfaction of a desire to open up something. And try giving them something they don't want and watch how much they appreciate it. Really? Uh huh. I know that. I got three little test labs in my own home.

They're not that little anymore, but they're still test labs. Cost centers, as I call them. Susie, you have been a gift to me. You were there whenever I need you and I appreciate that more than you may know, and I am always a call away for you for whatever you need because of the gift of your friendship. Thank you very much, and I wish you the best for this season.

And me to you, Chris, really. You know, I think the world of you and all that matters in my life is how I feel and think about somebody, not how everybody else does. Well, good, because otherwise it would be very hard to think anything nice about me. But that's what I sign up for when you decide to be taken on controversy. All the best to you and KT.

I wish you all good things. Thank you for being part of my life. Thanks my dear. See you soon. Take care, Susie. I love Susie. I got to be honest. Why?

She does stand in her truth. And it's time tested. She's been so successful so many times over by just telling people the real. And we don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna hear, I didn't even wanna hear it. And I got a lot of problems, but whether or not to buy a Christmas present

isn't one of them, but whether or not to do it and how to do it and what it means and what it is to give and what we're really about. And the idea of waiting to see what somebody actually does before you judge it. These are all important considerations and I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. I'm Chris Cuomo.

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