I read that she pushes stocks but has almost all of her money in bonds. Is this true and does it alter her opinion on how to invest?

Suze — why do you prefer exchange traded funds over low-cost, no load index funds? isn’t dollar cost averaging into a fund cheaper?

hhmm, Roth Ira, is there any guaranty that withdrawals won’t suddenly be subject to some sort of special new
“withdrawal service charge fee aka tax” in the future??

What does a retiree, age 60, do with money in stock mutual funds that has dropped nearly forty percent in value? (Besides go back to work and other things; I’m asking just about the assets in stock mutual funds). Take the loss now all at once and move it all into something else? dollar cost average out of it? Thanks.

Suze,

Do you think the market has hit bottom yet? If not, how much further do you think it may slide?

I see the necessity to save and am a big advocate, but how does Suzy feel about saving in US dollars that will be obliterated by inflation. Is gold a good idea?

Can my wife and I roll over her IRA into my Roth IRA so we both have one Roth IRA. We have a very manageable mortgage debt, an emergency fund and live frugally. She has a 401K, which she fully contributes too. No kids.

Suze,

I have a 401(k) from an old employer with about $75,000 in it. I’ve heard you recommend rolling over retirement accounts in order to simplify the payments you collect later in life, but with financial firms facing so many difficulties, does it make sense to keep my retirement savings spread out over a few different accounts managed by different firms? (I’m 34 and currently contributing to my ROTH IRA and a 401(k) with my new employer.)

Chris
Windham, NH

if i give money to Save Yourself do you profit from the interest over the 12 months? Isn’t there better ways (12 month CD) to guarantee not only the $100 but more?

How would you recommend to invest 250,000$ in todays market/economy? Travel, RE, Bonds, stocks? Kids college ED.

My question is, is it a mistake to be paying off our mortgage? My husband and I are 54, and we are lucky enough to be employed. Because we are seeing our retirement account dwindling, we thought it would be a good idea to pay off our house; but we’ve also heard that it could be a mistake because we would lose the tax write off in the future – any advice?

My wife and I had planned to retire next year. I’m 70 and she’s 61. We’ve lost a lot of our retirement funds, and so now plan to work for 5 more years if that is possible. We have savings, money market funds, and a home, but our stocks and SEPs have been hard hit. A year ago, we were advised to put more money into stocks. I didn’t but sat tight on the balance I had. Now, I think I should pull out of both the stocks (~20%) of my investments and commercial real estate investments (~20%) and put that money into more secure accounts. That locks in losses, but until there is evidence that things really are going to get better, that seems like the best thing to do. What do you think?

Tom,
Suze Orman has bamboozled the investing public for years and remarkably has been rewarded handsomely for it. Her contention that she somehow foresaw all of this and warned us is absolute nonsense. She’s merely a “network personality” who has regrettably never been taken to task over the bogus advice she routinely doles out!

I’m amazed that we have so many talking heads out there giving advices and predications.
I’m even more amazed that we have so many followers out there. Most of those folks spent more time researching which car to buy than which investment to make.

People seems to forget that these folks all try to sell something for their own gains.

When a person is really sick, do they go to the web or call a radio station to find out how to treat themselves. No, they need to see a doctor (if they can afford one). Similarily, people should see a financial doctor, like a Certified Financial Planner that is fee based and not affil. w/ a company (ie INDEPENDENT and with your interests in mind.) It is interesting that most folks are comfortable w/ paying legal fees but not “financial doctor” fees.

If those folks were so smart, they would be managing their own portfolio on their private yacht.

Give some help and start doing your homework. Your yacht is waiting for you.

I am not a financial person, but I think she is mostly an opportunist, a TV personality. (I am not impressed by anything here, although I don’t watch TV and have not read her books; my comments are based on this show only.) She has $25 million in the bank and $15 million in real estate and then pretty much told callers not to live life fully for fear of becoming even poorer. I do not like her anti-education atitude. Education (caller Emma) is something NO ONE can ever take away from you. If you want to go to school, go. Don’t stop living. And if Seattle beckons (another caller)why not? What’s so great about Providence?

Dear Tom,

Ms. Orman’s advice that prospective employees ask to work for free to demonstrate competence is in most places illegal. Note that this can be the case even if the hopeful employee-to-be suggests it. It is definitely illegal if the employer suggests or requires it.

I just want to respond to the people critical of her on this board. If you watch her weekly tv show on cnbc or read her books, you’ll find her advice is remarkably consistent, and pretty simple. Don’t invest money in the stock market that you will need in the next ten years. How much do you spend each month to live – food, rent, heat, clothes, etc? Multiply by 10. Always have that much on in a savings account for emergencies. When hiring a financial advisor, hire someone who is paid hourly and not on commission, and don’t use someone who recommends things they earn commissions on. If it’s too good to be true, it is. Don’t buy whole life insurance. When investing in mutual funds, make sure to factor in loads and annual expenses, etc, etc.

Just plain sense stuff that should be taught in high school, but isn’t.

Please ask her about her ties to FICO. In the past she has promoted the manipulation of credit always focusing on the FICO score. It seems she has changed her tune to sell more books in this climate.

What a condescending rude person. I will find advice from someone else not tied to FICO.

Great advice Suze, altho, reading the commentators, its not going thru. Up till now I hadnt paid much attention but I see you have pretty good insight into financial matters, and I like your sassy attitude. Gotta borrow your books from the library. One kinda obvious mistake was, people 50 & over can only contribute $6000 per year to Roth IRA, as opposed to $60,000. Btw, if you need help to carry stuff, handout materials etc around the world, Im gonna be available in a couple of years, after early retirement…:-)

Dear Tom,

I appreciate to invitation Suse’s your program explanation very warning. She is feel mentally alert me. Thanks agan.

Mustafa SAN

Condescending and obnoxious television huckster. Far far too preachy. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be interviewed on the radio, she just belongs on the AM band along with the people who talk about UFOs.

Ms. Orman’s advice that prospective employees ask to work for free to demonstrate competence is in most places illegal. Note that this can be the case even if the hopeful employee-to-be suggests it. It is definitely illegal if the employer suggests or requires it.

Working for free is is illegal and it undermines the other people who work there. However if it was internship, which a lot of times are not paid then this is legal. Internships however are usually part of a college or university departments requirements and while they might be no pay involved the intern does get credit.

I have never heard of anyone doing an internship on their own. There are labor laws in the state of New York and I am sure working fro free is not allowed. The fact that this person managed to get a job out it is interesting and I wonder if these actions can result in a law suite if the coworkers find out.

I was distressed at Suze’s denunciation of the parents of today’s generation. Some took on excess debt, many of us didn’t. Ignoring that real wages have been decreasing since the seventies, pensions are not typical in companies formed after world war two, and health, education costs have outstripped inflation, I think she did a nice job of blaming the victim.

I forgot to add that Suze Orman has a deal with PBS, or so it seems to me as they have he show on when ever they are trying to raise money, which seems like every two months these days. PBS needs to stop with the awful programs during these fund raising events, they do not help.

From Orman’s show to that condescending man with the power of intention show.

That said Orman does have some common sense advice in some areas an she is completly off base in others, as Ellen eluded to in her post.

Tom and the On Point staff have played right into her hands and are promoting her, this I found to be a bit offensive, and her tone was equal to the task. Yeah she predicted this down turn, that’s interesting and a bit much.

Paul Krugman, the noble prize winning economist was saying we were heading into a financial abyss at least two years ago or more. He was very critical of the housing bubble and the wall street banking system and most people criticized him, including this show.

Oh my goodness, I had never heard her before. She is awful. I agree with whoever said she is condescending and unpleasant.

Everything.she.says.has.a.big.pause.after.it. Ugh.

You can get better financial advice from Elizabeth Warren, without the attitude and sales pitch.

I haven’t listened to this show yet but advice for surviving the meltdown probably would have been much more useful about 6 months ago.

Before reading anything by Orman, read books by Burton Malkiel (A Random Walk Down Wall Street) and John Bogle (The Little Book on Investing and Common Sense on Mutual Funds). I’m sure you will find Malkiel’s and Bogle’s books to be far better than anything written by Orman. (Malkiel is an economics professor at Princeton; Bogle founded the Vanguard Group.)

Wow she is nauseating. And her story from humble beginnings is odd. She had a “dream job” as a waitress, somehow got customers of the bakery cafe that she worked at the give her a $50,000 loan(very unlikely) to open her own place, then invested the loan and lost all the money (now the customers who lent her the money are seemingly screwed), and then decided to go work for the company that screwed her and was given the job with no experience? Seems very fairytale-ish and honestly doesn’t add up. I highly doubt it happened this way, mostly because she seems like a disingenuous person. Also, she actually refers to to herself as a “true American success story”, which is obnoxious and arrogant. This is the first instance when I actually had to turn off my podcast because I could no longer listen to the guest, despite the greatness of Tom.

I am very glad to hear that other listeners found Suze condescending. I did feel a little vindicated that she put responsibility on the Boomers for the mess we’re in; although it was the government, media and society that encouraged this consuming machine we all live in. I’m used to hearing that my generation (X/Yers I’d guess) are slackers who don’t work hard. We do work hard but for half the money and hardly any of the security generations before us were afforded! There is no meaning to our slog and I think that’s why many of us are trying to find another way. I also was disappointed in Tom’s questioning, when I usually find him to be so insightful and downright to the point. Am I wrong in feeling that with all these financially focused shows, there are hardly any solutions for those who don’t have 401Ks, investments and who go from paycheck to paycheck, hoping to save but ultimately falling short? What about REAL financial planning where we learn how to put together a budget and decide what percentage to save etc? That is truly a skill American schools have and do not impart upon the younger generations and it’s just as essential as basic math.

Come on folks don’t you see the tie in with her and PBS and NPR. She sells her wares through shows on GBH.

She is shrill and obnoxious and when she comes on I stop watching GBH. Message to the management of GBH, play old films instead of Orman and that fake guru guy.

It’s shocking to hear that federal and private student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. I did some research online and confirmed that this is true.

I am sorry Tom gave her a free pass when she claimed that people who bought houses at $600,00 which were now worth $200,000 should not continue to pay on their mortgages. Excuse me?! When I drive a car off the lot, it is already worth a fraction of what I paid, should I not continue to pay my loan? If I buy a stock and it goes down, do I somehow, in her world, not lose money? They were certainly happy to buy the house for $600,000 when they closed on it. No one forced them to buy. But trying to weasel out of a contract just because the resale price has gone down is wrong.

Well Sarah your right on principle but wrong in context to what is happening. I’m not opposed to people renegotiating new mortgages based on the new value with strict provisions.

Such as if the price goes up during the next 10 years and the owners want to sell they can only keep say 10% of the windfall with the rest going to help with the huge deficit we will incur from this financial crisis.

There are too many people foreclosing to let this situation to keep spiraling downward. This was done in the 30’s by FDR to help keep people in their homes. Housing prices plummeted from huge increases from a real estate bubble before the Great Depression. Sound familuar.

“This is the first instance when I actually had to turn off my podcast because I could no longer listen to the guest, despite the greatness of Tom.”

Sadly, this is not the first for me. The interview with the woman from Sex and the City elicited the same response. No dig at Tom and the staff – if I only disliked two hours of the show out of the last year, they are doing pretty awesome – but Orman is not the only obnoxious, impossible guest they have had. Again, Tom, I love you.

Guest has irksome cadence and tendency to say “united states of a merakuh/a miracle” – which is difficult to listen to.

Eh, but I did listen.

I admire On Point’s shaking things up and the ability to book such an popular (Oprah endorsed!) guest.

From my experience, it seems that, for the most part, when the uber famous appear on NPR programming, the segment disappoints. … e.g., Madonna or Lynne Cheney on Fresh Air, Candace Bushnell on this program.

Thing is, I keep showing up hopeful: maybe this one time the guest won’t be defensive, oddly-cadenced, or melt into their usual performance schtick. Maybe the guest will be like Tom Hanks on Wait Wait (actually FUN), engaging like Tim Curry on Fresh Air, or REALLY off the rails like Bill O’Reilly on Fresh Air.

In my heart of hearts, I guess I was hoping for Tom Ashbrook and Jack Beatty tag team, overwhelming Orman with some by-heart quoting of Galbraith or Herodotus. That would’ve rocked.

Hurrah for the girl from Chicago’s south side, & SSHS graduate. Thanks for all your help!