Suze Orman Fan Club Blog Community

Hi all!  It’s hard to believe that one week has already passed.  With that, you know what it means… another recap of the Suze Orman Show…

OPENING REMARKS
Suze discusses how to go about funding an IRA.  She goes on to say to invest in ETFs that pay high dividend yields (DVY).  I am a bit confused by all of it.  Basically, she is kind of saying that you should not panic so much about the markets going up and down because you will still get a dividend and this is the perfect time to pick up some cheap stocks.  She also suggests using “Dollar Cost Averaging” with ETFs so that you don’t have to buy an ETF every single month and be out a bunch of money on commissions.

GUEST
Candice used to put lots of gifts on credit cards but is getting priorities straight this year.  She will not use credit this year to purchase gifts.  She even thinks about scaling back on giving gifts.  She is concerned about being perceived as a cheapskate and insensitive.  Suze sets Candice straight by telling her that it’s probably true that no one in her family is doing well financially so she shouldn’t feel worried about this.  Suze tells the girl to “GET HONEST!” and make the family communicate with one another as far as gift giving will go this year.  Whether that be giving cheaper gifts or exchanging items that they already own.

PHONE CALLS
Lisa
I was a bit confused by her concern.  I think she was saying that there is some concern about her employees not working at 100% efficiency and she wants them to do this in order to survive during these difficult economic conditions.

Amanda
She wants to move out of her home because she is thinking of going to school somewhere else.  Suze tells her that she really should just stay in the house because the reality is that Amanda “owns the home” so she should live there and go to school somewhere nearby.  Suze just keeps saying to stay where she is and wait this one out because it’s a bad idea to sell in this current market.

Michelle
Her husband and her have a difference in opinion on what to do with an inherited IRA that is declining in its value.  Suze says to look at the investments inside the IRA and see if they are giving a dividend yield.  If they are, then you can have a piece of mind that you are being paid to save, paid to wait.  Yes, markets may go down, but as long as you are being paid to wait, it’s a better strategy with staying in the market than having no strategy at all.

Carlton
Wants to know what makes a prime rate increase or decrease with HELOCs.  Suze says: Fed Funds rate is the base and the prime is ALWAYS 3% above the Fed Funds rate.  When the economy isn’t doing well, they will keep Fed Funds rate lower in order to stimulate the economy.

CAN I AFFORD IT?

*Flight home for Christmas for $900 — APPROVED! (because of the whole “People First” thing; I still don’t get it because the woman is going to put it on a credit card and not pay it off in 100%)

*Space 1999 Spaceship for $800 — APPROVED! (kind of an odd item, if you ask me)

*Holiday gifts for her son for $3000 — DENIED! (the woman cracks me up… she wanted to “jump start the economy” but that would mean she wouldn’t have an 8 month Emergency Fund)

*Scottish Fold Kitten for $750 — APPROVED!  (I don’t really remember this one much)

*Dallas Cowboy Stadium Seats for $650 — DENIED! (because he had $3000 in credit card debt)

CAN I AFFORD IT NOW! 
A new segment— Suze has a guest who was denied call her back to see if she is able to afford it now.

*Lorraine, 52: Hermes Birkin Bag for $8900—  APPROVED!  because the woman did a lot of work in the past two years and will have her pensions cover her entire monthly expenses.

PHONE CALLS

Tim
His wife and him have a difference in opinion about “living within their means.”  Suze’s definition of living beyond your means is that if you have any credit card debt then you are living beyond your means (only exception is if it was for a medical emergency).

Dorie
She is living with her fiance and wants to know what paperwork to fill out to be protected in case something happens to him.  Suze talked about a “Life Estate” and spoke about it really fast, so this leads us to…

BEYOND THE BASICS
A life estate allows someone else to live in their home for as long as they want.  Geez, she just spoke so fast about this too.  I couldn’t keep up with her.  I think what she said was that the life estate is a legal document that lets someone live in your home if you pass away and you are not married or inherit the home.

EMAIL
Suze thanks Lou for doing the emails (I guess he’s been doing it for a year now).  The writer asks has a refund and wants to know what to do with it—pay down student loans or pay back his 401K Loan.  Suze says to pay back the 401K because if you have more money in the 401K, that money can be invested in the markets which are so low right now.  Also, we are in hard economic times so the writer might lose his job.  It’s better to not pay the student loan since it’s at a low interest rate and the ramifications for not paying back 401K are larger than not paying into the student loan.

CLOSING WORDS
Happy holidays.  People first.  Then money.  Then things.

That’s all for tonight all!  Hope you enjoyed it.  I had a hard time following it tonight for some reason, must be the paint fumes since I painted just before the show :-/  Anyway, I will NOT be doing a recap next week since I will be having a holiday party and do not have a working VCR at the moment.  Hopefully, someone else can take over for next week… otherwise, I am sure I will catch it on rerun the following weekend.  I hope that everyone has a great holiday!

Peace, -Kev

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