Orman to me is just another opportunist who had the sense to grab onto an idea and run with it. It made her extremely wealthy, but for me to take her advice seriously...no. Sorry. She seems to just use the common sense we all should have (but often don't). I see nothing incredibly wonderful about her advice at all.
I think people who are reasonably well-versed in investing and financial planning have no reason to see much "wonderful" about her advice.
In many ways she's like Dave Ramsey in that both generally are talking to the "lowest common denominator" when it comes to money management, and they often have to be spoken to in "absolutes" which make little sense for someone who's good with their money. The last thing they want to do is admit there are exceptions, lest all the "lowest common denominator" assume they are one when they probably aren't.
Ramsey's target audience may be those people with a history of problems with debt. Just as you'd tell an alcoholic not to even have one drink because they have trouble handling it, you tell a "debtaholic" to not any more debt or credit cards *at all*.
To someone more discerning and more advanced in money skills, you might say "why NOT charge regular expenses on a 2% cash back credit card if I can easily pay it off this month?"
But you've just identified yourself as NOT a part of the target audience and so, in a manner consistent with speaking to the target audience, he waves his hand and makes excuses about how it's never, never, *never* a good idea. I suspect many of us who have successfully used cash back and rewards credit cards responsibly for years would disagree, just as someone who isn't an alcoholic wouldn't see a need to NEVER have a drink or two.
So it is with Orman. Her advice tends to be simplistic, one-size-fits-all, and sometimes too idealistic. (You can usually tell when they use words like "always" and "never" in their advice.) Most of us on this board are beyond that stage in our understanding of financial planning. But for someone clueless about cash, there's actually some useful stuff in there.
