Suze Orman Fan Club Blog Community

I’m watching the preview for tonight and it looks like the show got a huge face lift.  It looks a lot more professional and sentimental with the piano music.  I don’t know if that’s the right word for it or not, so whatever— Let’s jump right in!

Opening Remarks:
Suze welcomes us to the new set.  She has the 5 biggest mistakes to avoid in 2009:
1- DO NOT stop monthly investing in your retirement account
2- DO NOT take a loan from your 401K
3- DO NOT invest in bond mutual funds
4- DO NOT invest in a variable annuity
5- DO NOT miss a credit card payment

She obviously goes into further detail on each one of these, but there you have the list of things to watch out for in 2009.

One on One (GUEST):
Brad
Used a HELOC and Credit Cards to help support his small business… and he never told his wife about this.  Because of this, the wife divorced him and the kids have let him too.  Brad is hurting because he wants his wife back but she won’t take him back until he gets out of debt and acts more responsibly with finances.  Suze’s first question: “Why didn’t you tell her you took the money from the HELOC?”  Brad mentions that he was the financial man of the relationship and she entrusted him.  Basically, he felt confident enough that he would make this money back so quickly that he wouldn’t even need to tell his wife.  Suze stops him and asks if perhpas he was really afraid to tell her.  Brad says that is true.  There is a lot of back and forth between Brad and Suze with Suze trying to understand Brad’s actions.  This segment winds up with Suze telling Brad to stop spending on unnecessary items, use his savings to pay down the credit card debt, and save every penny to get the credit card paid off… this might take two years, but Suze says he must do it.  Homeboy starts crying because he is somewhat impatient and wants his wife right now, but Suze tells him to hang in there, deal with the debt with honor and integrity, and get his life back on the right track so he can be back with his wife.

Phone calls:
Keith
Has a difference of opinion with his wife on investing.  He is torn between investing in the stock market versus paying off his mortgage.  Suze questions his beliefs; apparently, Keith has faith that the market will do well while the real estate market will fail.  Suze recommends taking half of the monthly investment money: take 1/2 and put in a mutual fund or individual stock and then take the other 1/2 and put it in a safe place like a money market or savings account.

Lori
Something happened with her car, I don’t remember what she said… I missed it!  But i guess it had something to do with buying a car and this effecting her FICO score.  Suze told the woman to not worry about it because whatever happened was not going to affect her FICO score.

Can I Afford it?:
*Steven- $3000 to donate organs- DENIED! (too many student loans, and no emergency plans)
*Sarah- $4000 trip to Galapagos Islands- APPROVED! (I guess tourists won’t be allowed to visit these islands anymore and she is fiscally responsible)
*Brad- $60,000 for 1966 Austin Healey Convertible- DENIED! (LOL- “before you can buy a boy-toy, you must set aside money for your children’s college fund)
*Frank- $4500 for dental implant- APPROVED! (teeth are important + he has the money)
*Laura- $298 for Kate Spade Shoes- DENIED! (Suze wants the girl to stay out of trouble, despite the fact she could probably afford it)
*Samuel- $1600 for Optimus Maximus Keyboard- APPROVED! (he had the money to do it!)

More phone calls:
Michelle
Wants to set up a trust and put it in her sister and nieces/nephews’ name.  She wants to do this in a way where the husband has no claim to this because he is not a great guy.  Suze says that this is possible.  Suze recommends that she put the money in trust for her behalf, but put her brother as the trustee so that her sister would be protected.

Wow… that was fast.  The phone call was like 3 minutes and they already went to commercial.  Guess that’s what happens when the opening segment took 20 minutes.

EMAIL:
Suze can’t start an email segment without commenting on Lou’s t-shirt.  Haha…

The email is a very long one.  The gist is that the writer is worried about her mother’s financial independence.  The mother owns a condo and is having a hard time renting it out.  The mother’s new husband suggests that she get rid of the condo even though it would be a loss of $50,000.  Suze suggests that the mother just drop the rent price so she gets at least something and doesn’t trash her credit.

Lou pulls out Suze Orman’s new book: “The Suze Orman 2009 Action Plan ” This book is free on the Suze Orman site and you can get more information from the link embedded here.

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