Thus Spake Suze Orman

[marko]

Members here are not Suze's target audience but maybe their siblings without a dime are.

Sweet!

 

[scrabbler1]

Now I have another reason to dislike Orman. The first reason is her outright dislike of bond funds and how she tells everyone to avoid them. Sheesh, I am living off bond funds and have been enjoying a comfy ER for the last 9 years thanks to bond funds.

 

[jazz4cash]

Shame on me. I thought this was going to be about Suze front running her advice to buy and sell gold on twitter. I couldn't bear to read it but there didn't appear to be any kind of advise on how to figure how much you need. So Suze says work until your 70s and you'll be OK regardless of anything else? Some with DB pensions are penalized for not starting by 65.

 

[grasshopper]

Shhhhh... we need these people to keep working and paying into the Social Security Trust Fund!

+1

 

[Bestwifeever]

Members here are not Suze's target audience but maybe their siblings without a dime are.

Yes. If Suze's is the only financial advice they hear (and she is mainstream, so very likely), that imo is better than none.

 

[Dash man]

Suzie, Dave and Money magazine got me thinking about getting out of debt, saving for the future, living below my means, and investing. They may have gotten rich themselves, but they got me on the right track.

 

[calmloki]

I read in Orman's article much that gets trotted out here and lauded. We have plenty and every year that goes by we stand to need less - yet our NW keeps going up by more than any inflation number I care to use. 70 is fast approaching and yet we still hold the rentals and keep making loans and scheming because why not? I doubt I'll see 100, but I'd rather be overprepared. Maybe if there was a pension and I could convince myself to count on the company or country that guaranteed it I'd feel better. Maybe if I thought health insurance or senior care or inflation wouldn't go wonky I'd quit preparing for worst case - but I doubt it - I trust me most of all. Suze delivers a message the majority of people need to keep getting hammered into their heads - most will ignore it.

 

[athena53]

Suzie, Dave and Money magazine got me thinking about getting out of debt, saving for the future, living below my means, and investing. They may have gotten rich themselves, but they got me on the right track.

I agree- while their "always" and "never" pontifications don't always mesh with my philosophies (DR is big on real estate investing and I don't want the hassle; he also thinks all credit cards are pretty much evil and I use mine for everything and never pay interest), they have some solid values. Save early, save often. Live on less than you make. Don't go crazy buying stuff. Pay down your credit card debt and don't run up any more. Don't count on SS alone to support you in old age. They're preaching to the choir here but the general population needs to hear it again and again.

As for Money Magazine- when I was married to the spendthrift Ex and trying to get his cc bills paid down (and he kept running them up again), I couldn't stand to read Money. All those smug couples with a paid-for house and their toddlers' future college education fully funded and $400K in retirement savings, and I was married to a guy who considered any credit line left in his credit cards or his bank overdraft account money that could be spent. Glad those days are behind me.

 

[bclover]

Suzie is high

 

[Ready]

I don't see anything wrong with the article. As Walt said, it is not written for this audience, but we are clearly outliers.

I think what she is saying is likely accurate for the majority of the population, as sad as that may sound to all of us here. So let's be grateful this article does not apply to us and not be overly critical of advice that is meant for the masses.

 

[Scuba]

OOPS! Too late Suze! I guess we will just muddle through, somehow.

Ha ha, my thoughts exactly!

 

[travelover]

Suzie is high

That's why people look up to her.

 

[Hermit]

The late DW was a mortgage loan officer. She loved working with people that wanted to buy a house but did not have a good enough credit rating. Some she worked with for more than two years. What she really did for them was credit counseling. More than once, we went in to a book store and bought all the copies of a Suz Orman book. She gave away a bunch of those books. Those people had no information about finances. Suz Orman was someone they were comfortable with and someone they could trust. The counseling and books worked for the ones that really wanted a house that they could afford and could make the payments. This was before the housing crash when liar's loans were rampant and anyone could get a house loan. That was not DW's style.

 

[zedd]

The late DW was a mortgage loan officer. She loved working with people that wanted to buy a house but did not have a good enough credit rating. Some she worked with for more than two years. What she really did for them was credit counseling. More than once, we went in to a book store and bought all the copies of a Suz Orman book. She gave away a bunch of those books. Those people had no information about finances. Suz Orman was someone they were comfortable with and someone they could trust. The counseling and books worked for the ones that really wanted a house that they could afford and could make the payments. This was before the housing crash when liar's loans were rampant and anyone could get a house loan. That was not DW's style.

What a sweet spirit and and a blessing your DW was to those that really wanted to learn. Thank you for sharing.

You know I wish that back then there was someone with a gentle hand to guide me rather than I taking the lumps and learning the hard well. It's so easy to be smug now and take an I'm greater than thou attitude. Admittedly way back when I wasn't very teachable. Maybe therein lies the draw, the magic, the gifting whatever you want to call it, that SuzeO and DaveR have. They connect with people where ever they are now.

 

[l8_apex]

So I gotta go back to work for another 21 years? Even though my net worth is up from a year prior?

 

[DrRoy]

The Suzie advice probably applies to the many people who have saved very little. The statistics on mean retirement savings for those of middle age bear that out. Her advice does not apply to most of us on this forum, including yours truly who RE'd 6 months ago at 57.

 

[mystang52]

What a simplistic crock. First, the never-discussed elephant in the room is the difficulty in working until age 70.........even if you want to. Medical issues ay be one reason. Good ol' fashioned age discrimination is another. So many companies will loom to replace a long-term very highly paid employee with a lower paid one.
And any retirement is affordable or not based on expenses along with income. For Suze to make such an across the board edict is inane.

 

[Souschef]

Ah, perhaps not.

Bear in mind that this group is a bunch of outliers, as numerous other threads make clear. So to look at her pontifications though the lens of what is common knowledge and practice among the members here would be, I think, misleading and inaccurate.

The group she is addressing is no one on this board, but we've all met the members of that other group. Those are the ones who think "I can make the payments" = "affordable". Savings? They have a few grand at best and that's a minority. They have never in their lives paid cash for a car or a home, new or used. They have a wallet full of credit cards and routinely carry a balance on most if not all of them from month to month.

Those are the folks who don't have a pension, don't have employer-subsidized HI in retirement, and will be living off SS as their sole source of income when they stop working. I think that constitutes most of the working-age population in the U.S., and yeah, if they're able to, they should work until they're 70 or later.

So for that group, Suze is almost certainly dead on.

+1 We all know people in that group. We live in a +55 mobile home park, and a lot of the people are just scraping by.
Our NW is a total secret.

 

[bclover]

+1 We all know people in that group. We live in a +55 mobile home park, and a lot of the people are just scraping by.
Our NW is a total secret.

see I guess I must be the strange person. and I always admit my circle of friends is small.

I don't know anyone who is working at 70 or even plans too. Now I will admit a lot of my friends work in some type of government job, either local, state or federal so maybe it's the pension factor.

All my parents, aunts uncles whatever are all happily retired. sure they are not living la vida loca but they are not "scraping" by.. their houses are paid off, they live below their means, they have small savings and ss and pretty much just loving life.

my mil is 85, she worked for a short period of time at QVC, my late fil was a police officer and army vet. She's doing quite fine. condo paid off, doesn't have a car, takes day trips with her senior center. yada yada yada.

I think it's a bunch of crock. right up there with the "You know need 2 million to retire".

 

[rothlev]

I watched her TV show. I found most of her advice very extreme and often not logical. I.e. Roth IRA. S no matter the income in retirement clearly dropping and often won't even be taxable at all. She always recommended a roth over a traditional. She gave people low grades no matter their pensions and savings

 

[Teacher Terry]

When most people either have to or want to retire they will look at their income streams and what they spend and adjust down as needed. Many people have good lives without traveling much, etc. Also a lot of people hold their wealth in their homes so selling and relocating or downsizing will fund their retirement dreams.

 

[Ian S]

Members here are not Suze's target audience but maybe their siblings without a dime are.

Exactly. LOL!

 

[travelover]

see I guess I must be the strange person. and I always admit my circle of friends is small................

It is dangerous to extrapolate from anecdotal evidence. The people that frequent this forum are like the tiny tip of the tail on the distribution curve.

 

[Ian S]

It is dangerous to extrapolate from anecdotal evidence. The people that frequent this forum are like the tiny tip of the tail on the distribution curve.

We have friends in both situations but those that will be hard pressed to retire before 70 out number those who either have or will be able to retire before 70.