E-mail a friendSuze Orman
airdate March 5, 2007
Suze Orman wants to change the way America thinks about money. Her books are best sellers, and she's a contributing editor to Oprah's O magazine. Orman shares her holistic approach to nuts-and-bolts economics on the lecture circuit throughout the U.S. She also hosts her own TV show on CNBC's financial network and has a free online guide series, 'Money Matters,' on Yahoo.com. Called a "one-woman financial-advice powerhouse" by USA Today, Orman has written, co-produced and hosted several PBS specials.
Suze Orman
Tavis: Now, though, I'm pleased to welcome Suze Orman back to this program. She is, of course, the host of the "Suze Orman Show" on CNBC, and the "Financial Freedom" hour on QVC. Her latest book is sure to be another "New York Times" best seller. The book is called "Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny." She comes to us tonight from Atlanta. Suze Orman, let me say congratulations now on a number one "New York Times" best seller in advance.
Suze Orman: Oh, let me pray that what you're saying (laughter) goes from your lips to God's ear, Mr. Tavis.
Tavis: I'm sure it will happen, as it does with all of your texts. Tell me - before I get into the book - what you make of this massive drop in the market last week. Everybody's been talking about it, and I've been dying to ask you how you read that drop in the Dow last week.
Orman: Well truthfully, I read it as a lot of traders not understanding what was happening. 'Cause I'm watching the thing happen, we're down, like, 200 some-odd points in two seconds? I'm going "No, no, no, no, this has to be a technical error. There's no way this could have happened. There is too much volume, they were tracking too large of a volume, I think, for everybody to take it." So, here you are, you watch this happen.
And then everybody freaks out, they start selling so they sell into this. So I didn’t take it that seriously. What I haven’t liked, though, is the ups, the downs, the ups and downs. And it feels like this is a momentum thing - that once it starts, like a snowball, it's rolling down, and people are getting on it, because technically, I don't quite see it yet.
So I'm not that worried about it at this point, but you'd better have your money in good quality mutual funds, good individual stocks, and you'd better have time on your side. 'Cause this - if you need your money in the next week or two, you'd better be careful here. This is not an easy market to be in now.
Tavis: What does this say, Suze, about how connected we really are to this global economy? This ends up being a response to what happens in China, in some regards. What does it say about no matter what we do, how our money is impacted by what happens in places around the world?
Orman: Yeah, it's obvious that we're a global economy. Now I'm not so sure it has a lot more to do with China than - I'm not sure that it has that much to do with China, I'm sorry to say, Tavis. Does it have to do with the (word) of money, and what's going on with the subprime lending going down the drain, with possible midsize loans going down the drain?
Yeah, I think it has a lot to do with that, but it also has to do with the mere fact that for how long has this market been going up and up and up? It's kind of like the real estate market. Nobody ever thought it would end. So it's good that it's pulling back. And again I just have to say this: for those of you who have money in a 401K plan, you're putting your money in every single month, and you're not gonna need this money for 10, 15, 20 years?
You should be praying that the market goes down. You should be praying, 'cause when the market goes down, the price of the shares go down. When you put money in, your money buys more shares. And in the long run, you make more money. So you have to be clear on what you're doing and why you're invested in this market before you get freaked out.
Tavis: All right, so now to the book, "Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny." I must confess to you, as an African American male, that I figured out some time ago that money does have race difference factored in. But you're educating me now to the fact that money also has gender difference factored in, yes?
Orman: Yes. And it has serious difference for an African American woman, even more so over a White woman, Tavis. Because it is in that culture that every single penny that comes in is for who? Your mother, your sister, your family. Good luck keeping a penny for yourself, good luck wanting to take care of yourself. That isn't the culture. And then we have problems, because whether you are an African American woman or a White woman, actuarially speaking, men die before we do, and we are left alone.
And when we are alone later on in life, if we don't have money to take care of us, then we live a life that we wished we weren’t living. So it is now, right here and now, that women, for the first time ever, have got to get a grip on their money. And I'm not talking about how they invest it. Women have all the intelligence in the world to invest money, but the way women look at the money that they take in is very different than you, Tavis.
Very different than a man. Women, like I said, when they bring in money, they will think that their money is for everybody else before it is for them, and that has got to change. And that's what this book is all about.
Tavis: All right, before I get to the plan that you’ve laid out here, which is a wonderful plan, a five-month plan I wanna walk through right quick, tell me what women, you think - I hear your point now about how women view, how they perceive the money they come in, and what it ought to take care of first. Beyond that, what are the greatest myths that women have about how to control their destiny vis-à-vis their money?
Orman: They think that if they spend their money on their children, if they take money out of a retirement account to fund a child's college education, if they take a home equity line of credit out of their home to pay for the wedding of their daughter, that they are actually helping their children. That everything is being great because that's the role of the woman, especially a mother.
And I'm here to say to you, that is a myth. If you really wanna help your children, if you really wanna help your parents, everybody else, you have got to save yourself first. I have to say this again, this is not a man thing versus a women thing. It has nothing to do with men. Tavis, men didn’t do this to us. We are voluntarily committing financial suicide.
We are doing it to ourselves under the guise that what a woman does is she gives. It is her nature to nurture, and she leaves herself out of the equation.
Tavis: But Suze, when you say - respectfully, though, when you say men haven’t done this to us, that is to say women, we do live in a sexist world. Women have to work twice as hard for the same amount of money. They don't get paid the same amount of money. It costs more to get your blouses cleaned than it does to get my shirt cleaned. That's sexism, Suze.
Orman: That is sexism. However, it is women on their own, when they earn money, that make a decision what should they do with the money that they make? Should they invest it, should they save it? Should they invest it for themselves, or should they spend it on their child? It is in those decisions, in the personal finance decisions that we make on our own, Tavis. And that's what's taking us in the wrong direction.
'Cause we're afraid if we do something for ourselves, how it will be perceived. Every time you get on an airplane and you hear the thing, when the oxygen mask falls down, you better put it on your mouth first and then your children’s' mouth? I'm telling you that's for women. Because it would be the nature of a woman to take that oxygen mask and put it on the kid's face. She won't even think about herself. Men aren't like that, Tavis. You think about yourself, believe it or not.
Tavis: Yeah, well, I'm putting the mask on first, let me guarantee you that. (Laughs)
Orman: See? So I'm telling you - I know you will. I got that one.
Tavis: All right. Let me try to get - I can't do it all. Let me try to pick a few of these months out that you’ve laid out. So Suze's laid out a five-month plan saying to women that you need to concentrate on one item, one issue, a couple of days a month for five months. Month number one, Suze wants you to concentrate on your checking and savings accounts, yes, Suze?
Orman: Yes. Here's what I really want every single woman and man out there to do. I want all of us, right here on this show, to join what I'm calling the Save Yourself movement. Tavis, I want to change the savings rate of the United States of America. And to that end, I want everybody to go to SaveYourself.com. There is a code in the book, you can open up what's called a Save Yourself account; it is with TD Ameritrade.
"Barrons" right now is naming them for this year right now the number one online trading company in the United States. However, if you put in at least $50 a month every single month for 12 consecutive months, it's going to earn you a competitive interest rate, it will be held in a money market deposit account that's FDIC insured. No fees, anything like that on the money market deposit account. In the thirteenth month, are you ready, Tavis?
TD Ameritrade is going to give you $100. So we have created what's called a Save Yourself account where you will be paid, everybody, to save. Can you imagine? For every 10,000 people that do this successfully, TD Ameritrade will be giving up one million dollars. Think about that.
Tavis: Talk to me right quick, Suze, in about 30 seconds - you're talking about checking and savings - right quick about credit cards. You can't talk about women without mentioning credit cards.
Orman: You can't talk about anybody today without talking about credit cards. Here's the key. In month number two here, you have to know how does your FICO score play? What's gonna happen to you? What happens when your interest rates are high versus low with credit card debt? But here's the scoop. Credit card debt is bondage.
You will never have financial freedom if you have bondage. So you have to get out of credit card debt. And this whole book, it really is about the relationship women have with themselves, with their money, and with everybody in their life that matters.
Tavis: Month three, retirement investing; month four, must-have documents. Documents you have to have. Month five, protecting your family and your home. Suze's plan, found in the new book "Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny." Should be, again, a "New York Times" number one best seller. Suze, I love you, nice to have you on.
Orman: Thank you, Tavis. Everybody go to Yahoo! And surf Suze Orman, and find out where I'm coming at a place near you.
Tavis: Gotta love Suze Orman, she knows how to do this. That's our show for tonight. (Laughs) Catch me weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Access our radio podcast through PBS.org. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.
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