If You Knew Suze Like We Know Suze
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If You Knew Suze Like We Know Suze
You wouldn’t listen to her advice.
Posted Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 10:56am
"Tell me what I need to know," people often say to me. "Here is what you need to know," I answer.
—Suze Orman, The Road to Wealth
How a bottle-blond former waitress and self-described "55-year-old virgin" with a taste for the good life became the financial messiah for millions of Americans might be a fun Lifetime original movie. Why the masses continue to invest their faith in Suze Orman in the wake of a financial meltdown she never saw coming is a more timely question. The answer is complicated.
If you've managed to avoid Orman over the past decade, you don't watch Oprah, CNBC, or PBS, and you've probably never entered an airport bookstore, where her toothy, cougarlike visage graces the covers of numerous best-sellers, the latest of which, 2009 Action Plan, has more than 1 million copies in print and has, according to her publisher, been downloaded 2.2 million times at www.suzeorman.com. There, you might also be convinced to open an Orman-sponsored TD Ameritrade brokerage account or buy one of the products that she also sells on QVC, including: the Suze Orman FICO Kit Platinum Version w/Action Planner ($47.70); the Suze Orman Identity Theft Protection Kit w/Anti-Spyware ($39.78); and Suze Orman's Organize and Protect Financial System ($66 plus S&H; Easy Pay! Installment plan available).
Orman is that most modern breed of capitalists, the human-industry, self-mythologizing. "Suze has a unique grasp of the role money plays in our lives, as well as the gift of timing: she tells us exactly what we need to know, precisely when we need to know it." So, at least, claims the jacket copy of one of her books. She addresses her fans either as "my friends" (learned from John McCain, perhaps?) or as "girlfriend." Although she published a comprehensive—and very useful—guide to personal finance in 2001, her first two best-sellers focused on the "emotional roadblocks" to financial freedom. Suze has a lot to say about emotional roadblocks, among other things: "Falling in love is simple—or so it often seems in retrospect"; "Tears are God's way of forgiving you"; "You will never achieve a sense of power over your life until you have power over your money"; and "The stock market is like a pot of soup."
She has less patience for statistics. Although study after study has shown that personal bankruptcies are caused primarily by catastrophic events like divorce, job loss, and, above all, medical bills and that most of us are struggling with a gap between our income growth and the soaring cost of necessities like housing, Suze tends toward psychological causes that invariably blame the victim. Who is struggling these days, according to Suze? "People who grew up without much money and later earn a comfortable living sometimes spend too much to make up for what they didn't get as children. ... People who feel entitled to the good life, or are unconsciously copying a mother or father who lived beyond her or his means. ... If you feel the need to impress people with what you have rather than with who you are, you are at high risk for credit card abuse." This from a woman who spends $500,000 a year chartering private jets and who sells "Cruise With Suze" packages on an Italian luxury liner. (She has also hawked for GM, claiming that leasing a luxury car—you know, the kind that people drive to impress others—is a terrific financial decision: "If you ask me, that's smart money!") No wonder she winks more than Sarah Palin, girlfriend.
But it is not Suze's hypocrisy or even her intellectual laziness that really bothers me; no, that would be something Suze "loves" called "dollar cost averaging," which involves buying the same stock over and over again as it falls. "It's a great opportunity for you when the value of the shares drops," claims Suze in the inaptly named The Road to Wealth, "because you can buy shares at ‘bargain' prices and average down your cost per share." Oh, where to begin? Maybe with the obvious: Since when does throwing good money after bad make you rich?
Comments
Nice Going Scurlock Sherlock!!!
Thanks to you 2.2 million copies will be downloaded again HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Jealous much?
I can't help but read this and think "sour grapes." I'm not a 100% believer in Orman, but you shouldn't believe in anything 100% besides yourself and hopefully your family. Orman offers good advice that can be divined by simple logic. Her show that advises to buy it or not, well sure it is cheese. But she's just like every other big financial advisor - she's trying to make a living. So she advised buying stocks. So did pretty much everyone else. No one saw coming what came and to make her out as a monster because she didn't is retarded. If you've got as much money as she has, perhaps erring on the side of caution with something as secure as treasuries or bonds is really wise council. Maybe those struggling to make a middle income an upper income would like to get there, and in the heyday of the stock market that's where the returns are. No one can argue otherwise. It's all in the mix and the objectives. If you read this article from the first paragraph and think to yourself, this author is jealous of Suze it reads differently and most arguments fall apart. Suze has good advice that's easily dissected. Why do we think it's good advice? Because after we hear it we think - ah! so true; it's got roots in logic. The author hits upon the emotional connection she's begun focusing on and seems to dismiss it outright. For some, it is a valid issue. But not for all - again don't blindly follow anyone. Advice on getting a will set up, preserving financial documents, an emergency fund - she's been sounding these things for years. Now they are even more true. That she enjoys the good life seems to stick in this author's craw. That just undermines his argument that she doesn't practice what she preaches that might have some validity but with such a prominent axe to grind his case falls apart. She's in this to make a living; her modus operandi is not greed, as was the case of those that misled us.
SUZE-WENCH AGAIN
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Apart from Suze's pop-psychology BS on money, she also has the audacity to advocate a way-of-life that she publicly refuses to follow. Not only is that hypocritical, but it also is just plain stupid. It says that the public is not entitled to live as well as her. This makes me despise her even more.
FINALLY! Somebody said it
I have to thank you for finally saying what a lot of other wish they could. Suze started off on the right track but sold her soul when she started endorsing products, doing advertisements and branding her own items. In my opinion, when you start doing this, you lose your objectivity and forget just whose side you are on. Suze slams Financial Advisers who sell "products" or charge commissions and she is now doing the exact same thing. You want objective financial advice? Then go to someone who charges for their time...not based on what they can sell you.
SUZE-WENCH
THANK-GOD someone finally has the guts to tell the world about that fraud Suze Orman! She preaches austerity, but lives the life of midas. She is totally worthless. People - quit buying anything Orman and then let's see how she fares.
pathetic
What are your credientials, James? Have you ever watched one episode of Suze's show? If you have you would know that she does not think leasing any type of car let alone a luxury car is a "terrific" idea. You sound like someone is holding a grudge, perhaps you should get your facts straight before you attempt to put a bunch of false statements into an article. Oh and my favorite: Many of us secretly admire Bernie Madoff?? Really, this is pathetic. Maybe you do, and i feel sorry for you. MSN is publishing this rubbish on its homepage?
Although I'm not a fan
Although I'm not a fan of Suze's, and would not have any reason to come to her defense, did this guy really just say that people who file for bankruptcy are "the victims"?? This attitude is part of the problem with our it's-always-someone-else's-fault society. I'm certain there are many people that end up in situations beyond their control and certainly medical catastrophes are no one's fault, however, I would guess with the savings rate in this country (or lack thereof), the vast majority of people live well beyond their means and are in complete control of their own financial destiny or demise as the case may be. Oh, and the fact that the author chooses to note Ms. Orman's background as a waitress in a derogatory way, I'm assuming to lessen her credibility, twice in the article, only lessens his own.
Jealous?
The dollar cost averaging method works fine if you are a beginning investor or do not want to waste much time or if you just plain don't have the time. I am currently using it, automatically investing a little in a mutual fund each month. It helped curtail my losses but of course it will probably curtail my gains when the market picks up again. Anyway, I have read other places that recommended that as well. This attack seems a bit over-the-top and unnecessary and makes the author look either sexist that a women made it higher than he did or that he is jealous of her success and the fact that she has built something of an empire around herself, and honestly, who wouldn't if they could? And when she has that much money, she has no need to invest in stocks. She doesn't need any more growth, only a safe haven. If you don't want to really grow your portfolio, then anyone is welcome to invest in bonds. Just don't complain about not getting rich.
Suze Orman article
I don't normally write in to comment on news articles, but I found this one too good and too funny not to - it's about time someone said what I'd guess many think.
It sounds like sour grapes.
It sounds like sour grapes. Are you jealous? Not only is he personally attacking Ms. Orman, but the republican party, John McCain and Sarah Palin. He'd like you to think they are all idiots. It's hard to take this article seriously and I don't even listen to her. So sad.