I once saw Suze Orman lecture live, at a women’s event in California. She was very loud and sometimes condescing, and, on occasion, saying things I disagreed with, but, all in all, this is sound financial advice for the average woman.
And now she’s giving it away for free.
The entirety of her new book, Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan, is available on Oprah’s site, for free download.
I have now completed my reading of page one, and I already want to smack Suze Orman up-side the head but only after (and before) I vomit.
In the first paragraph of the book she talks to me like I’m an idiot.
And then the rest of the book she uses words that I don’t know.
This woman’s appeal eludes me. But it’s nice, I guess, that she’s trying to make this financial world palatable for women. We’re such fragile silly creatures who can’t possibly be expected, as adults, to know how to manage our finances responsibly. Actually, I think I’ve nailed it. I think this is why Suze Orman bothers me. Because she speaks to these adult women who haven’t a clue about how to make a financially responsible decision. And maybe what I’m angry at is the education system that handed high-school diplomas to these now-adult 18-year-olds with absolutely no grasp on the credit markets in the U.S. economy or how one should best save and invest their money. Like, would it be okay if our high schools replaced the section on the literature of the Middle Ages with, say, this stuff? Because, like, yes, it’s important to have a broad liberal arts education, but it’s also important to, ya know, have a populace who can side-step things like the enormous La Brea Tar Pit of our current economy.
Anyway.
Book’s worth a read. Some good stuff in there. And it’s free.
Don’t worry, though, she’ll be doing speaking engagements all over the country after this, and those won’t be quite so free.
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