Women in Finance (books) Week: Suze Orman

Recently I've been reading finance books by and for women. I've been doing this for a few reasons:

1. I honestly enjoy business books, which is weird, because I have no business sense or skills whatsoever.
2. I've been looking for anything that can explain to me how people actually make money in the stock market. I just don't get it.
and
3. I am a woman.

The first thing you learn about finance books for women is that they must have pink or purple covers. (More on this later in the week.) The second thing you learn is that there are a lot of them. One of the best-known authors in this field is Suze Orman.*

Suze Orman is one of those people who, if I'm flipping through channels and find her on PBS or a news program, I can't look away. I think that's largely because she is a spectacular public speaker. (I'm interested in public speaking and how best to do it as well.) She's always immaculately dressed and made up. She uses her hands emphatically while she talks, and when she moves across the stage, she moves deliberately. She makes good eye contact, varies her pitch and tone, and when she answers questions from audience members, you can tell they feel like they're the only person in the room with her, just having a conversation. It's always a performance. But I digress. I also enjoy watching Orman because, although I don't usually learn anything new from her, most of what she says makes sense to me.

Her new book is titled The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream, which is a genius title, when you think about it. The "new American dream," of course, has more to do with making do with less, etc., although Orman spins this with a genius tagline: "live below your means but within your needs." This one is for investors at a very basic stage in their lives**: those who are trying to use their credit cards less and still need to figure out how to have an emergency fund and save up for big purchases. For better or worse, I'm beyond that stage. (Well, not really in that I have any money, but I do know I have to pay off my credit card balance every month, and have known that since I got a credit card all those millennia ago.)

But I will still read her chapters on 529s and saving for college, because she does have a knack for making things pretty understandable. I'll peruse her chapters on retirement planning. But for the most part her books are for people just starting to think about their finances; her chapters here include tips for renting vs. owning your home, how to talk about finances with your kids, and how to start retirement planning and saving.

The bottom line: I get a kick out of ol' Suze (Mr. CR and I like to look at our pay stubs and crack "live below your means, but within your needs" to each other, and then laugh, bitterly), but she's not really offering a lot of high-level investing tips.

*And thankfully most of Suze's books do NOT have pink or purple covers.

**The first subheading in her "Advice for the Unemployed" chapter is "Cut your spending immediately." Really? Do people really need to be told this?

Comments

[Venta]

I used to watch her show regularly, and I remember a couple who lived WAAAAAAY beyond their means in Orange County. They had very little income coming in anymore, but the couple just relandscaped the yard of their mansion and the wife continued to spend tens of thousand of dollars on jewelry. Their financial situation was so bad that Suze Orman told them they had to sell everything and start over beginning by renting an apartment. The wife, who had a child, said she didn't know if she could do it. It was crazy.

Interestingly, Orman tells couples/parents that the first priority is saving for retirement and then begin saving for kids' college education. She says there are ways kids can get money for college, but once one reaches retirement age, the ways to save become limited.

I also find her fascinating. I love it when she goes after credit card companies. A while back one bank wanted to charge people who did NOT use their credit card each month. Suze went nuts. It was funny, and it's nice to hear people speak out for the consumer. She even suggested that we should be sympathetic to everyone whose homes were foreclosed even when they obviously were buying a house too expensive.

My husband gives me her books as gifts. I think he's trying to tell me something!

[Sarah]

** Yes.

She still lives in a tiny NYC apartment even though she is a millionaire.

She is also correct about parents not sacrificing their retirement for kids' college education.

I should have realized myself that, while I enjoyed reading about business, it didn't mean I should quit my job and go to business school. But I did.

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
Hilarious that your husband gives you Suze books. Gee honey, what are you trying to say? :) I can see why he does--she's a popular name, and a lot of readers like/recommend her.
And good for her going nuts on the credit card companies, they need to take a little heat.

Sarah,
**Sad.
Well, by rights, even an apartment in NYC these days probably requires you to be a millionaire. And I'll tell CRjr his education only comes after I have planned a cushy retirement for myself. Ha! (As if I'll ever be in the same room as a cushy retirement.) We're hoping CRjr takes his mother's advice and marries rich.
Oh my, business school. I salute you. I wouldn't last two days in business school.

[Sarah]

It wasn't until much later that I realized I had been horribly depressed throughout the whole thing. But there were some interesting intellectual exercises . . .