Customer Reviews

The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life: Keep What You Have and Create What You Deserve

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Not only is Suze Orman the most listened to financial author today, she is also the most credible and widely trusted. In her newest book, "The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life Suze Orman explains not only the "how to's" of personal money management, but also the emotional issues that inevitably accompany any effort to get one's financial house in order.This is an excellent book and should be read in addition to "The Road to Wealth" and "9 Steps To Financial Freedom."You've read the rest, Suze is the best.

Suze's newest book The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life is different to say the least. In this book, Suze gets inside your head and uncovers the real reasons why you are not where you want to be financially.

Suze explains why your ideas about money and in particular, your feelings regarding your personal experiences with money play a major role in what you do with money in the future.

A lot of people got wallopped in the stock market over the last three years. This is unfortunate as there are strategies that could have helped these people make omney while the markets went down. Back to the point of Suzes book, many people are now gun shy of the markets and afriad to invest. Big mistake!

The same is true with other areas of personal finance. Some have gone over their heads in credit cards debt and now look at anything plastic with a phobic-like reaction. Others have lost their homes in foreclosure and many have gone bankrupt. Too many others are living high while investing less and less. Contributions to 401 (k) savings plans has decreased and only in January of 2004 has investing in stock mutual funds started to rise.

Too many people are missing out on opportunity. Suze's book will help break that phobia and achieve the results you want.

Fans of 1,000 page boring and out-of-date financial books written by financial authors may not like this book by Suze but I have a question for you: how is the advice that you recieved from that magazine author working for you? I rest my case!

Suze may not be the greatest writer in the world but she is the best financial advisor/author right now. She is genuinely passionate about personal finance and not just trying to catch the wave of personal finance interest and jump on the bandwagon of Venita Van Caspel, Charles Givens, Terry Savage, or now Suze Orman like another personal finance author.

The Laws of Money is a great book that can and will make a significant differnce in your financial life.

I have read al ot of praise for Suze's other books, in particular 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, The Courage to Be Rich and The Road To Wealth but I feel that this is undoubtably Suze's best work, even better tha 9 Steps and far better than The Road To Wealth.

Everytime Suze pumps out a new book she continues to surprise and impress me with her vast wealth of knowledge and easy writing sytle.

I bought The Laws of Money right along with The Automatic Millionaire, another great book.

Books by the financial savvy like Orman and Bach cannot be recommended highly enough. Be wary of financial books written by non financial people who are merely writers and have no real financial credentials to speak of.

This is yet another great book by Suze Orman.

I admire the fact that in her books, as in this book, she shares her relationship with money, and what compelled her to become someone for you to count upon, for your journey to money mastery.

In this book, Mr. Orman brings the human angle, if you will, to money.

So, what are the laws of money?

1. Truth Creates Money - Lies Destroy Money:
This means opening your bills, while you allow whatever negative emotion to well up from within you, as you allow yourself to compassionately respond to that emotion.

2. Look at What You Have - Not at What You Had:
If you always focus upon what you had, you will recreate every painful experience from your past. And you will repell money.

Write a gratitude journal. And anytime that you say to yourself, "I don't have ...," follow this with, "And I do have this," several times, as you breath full relaxed breaths. You will attract what you need and want.

3. Do What Is Right For You - Before You Do What Is Right For Your Money:
Don't allow debt, money, or other material symbols to control you. Create money to express your self-love.

4. Invest In The Known - Before The Unknown:
What are are you clear about? Why? Could you become curious, interested and therefore savvy on other potential investments?

Before you invest in the known, create a vision of yourself making and appreciating that investment.

5. Money Has No Power of Its Own - Unless You Give It Power Over Your Life:
When you decide that money has power over you, you will repell it. Money is just notes, with deceased people on each note. Money creates options, for you, and those who you believe in.

Fans of 1,000 page books written by female magazine writers will not like this book. But then again, how are the fans of those 1,000 page books written by journalists really doing financially? CASE CLOSED!

1 star reviewers are obvioulsy looking for something besides what really works. Keep in mind, Suze has a financial background and credentials to back up her advice. Journalists?

In my opinion, this is Suze's best book to date. "The Road to Wealth" is also excellent but needs to be updated at least once a year to keep up-to-date with new developments. I also recommend "9 Steps to Financial Freedom" to help develop your base.

I do not recommend overhyped books featuring 1,000+ pages of fluffy information and written by journalists that are at least 7 years out of date.

Suze is on top of her game and is passionate about personal finance. Many other writers are merely "me too" types trying to cash in on the naive.

Suze is the best.

Although this isn't a bad book, I think Orman's earlier books were much better, so I recommend you try those rather than this one. This book repeats a lot of that material and doesn't offer much that's new. And some of it is a little too touchy-feely. An occasional rah-rah pep talk is okay, but there's too much of it in this book.

Also, another problem, having taught people investing principles myself, and which isn't so much the fault of this book as the whole genre, is these books are geared more toward someone who already has money and needs to know how to manage it better. So most of the advice is about basic investing principles and wealth preservation such as avoiding unecessary risks and keeping diversified, developing a sensible, long-term investing strategy and wealth-building program, minimizing taxes and mutual fund and brokerage account expenses, and so on. There's very little help for the person of modest income or limited time who doesn't want to read a 400-page book to learn how to buy their first stock or mutual fund.

That being the case, I thought I'd pass on a couple of things I've learned the hard way. I've read dozens of books on the stock market and finance by just about every important stock trader and investor out there and have done everything from very conservative to very risky investing strategies with both stocks and options, including such things as aggressive day-trading, shorting both stocks and options, trading in foreign stocks and markets (including such risky countries as India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentia, and Brazil), arbitraging short and long butterfly option spreads (which even most pros would not be comfortable with--I was lucky I didn't lose my ...), so I've done some pretty wild things, and I'll tell you the best secret I ever learned. It's actually very simple.

While we're on the subject, I should emphasize that although, as I said, I've done some pretty complex and sophisticated (not to mention risky) things, investing needn't be, and perhaps shouldn't be, rocket science. It's possible to do quite well in the market by following simple, tried and true investing strategies and without getting fancy.

If you can afford it, put $100 a month into a good mutual fund that will accept this as a monthly contribution. Not all of them do. Often they require an automatic deduction from your bank account, since usually this doesn't meet their minimum deposit. Another way to do it would be to buy the S & P Holder's Trust or mini-index, or a mutual fund that mirrors the overall market. The Vanguard group of funds has one that mirrors the Russell 5000 index. The rationale behind this is that the yearly return over the last 75 years in the stock market is 8%. That's enough for $100 a month to become 1 million dollars in 40 years.

However, over the last 25 years the average return (notwithstanding the last 3 years) has been 12 percent, which means the money will double even faster if that keeps up. I'm not confident that will happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if we return to the traditional 8% per year increase.

This is the beauty of compound investing. Also, it takes advantage of a strategy known as dollar cost averaging. During the down times when stocks are lower, you money buys more stock. During the up times when stocks are more expensive and therefore more risky, your $100 buys less. This helps to average out the ups and downs in the market.

The other coolest strategy I've found is to go long the Dow index whenever it crosses the 200-day moving average on the upside, or to short it whenever it crosses it going downward. This strategy has returned 18% over the last 50 years. But one must be comfortable on both the long and short side which most people aren't. This is a strategy for knowledgeble traders, and isn't so much an investing program.

Anyway, those are the two best ideas I've ever come across in terms of simplicity and results. If you can afford more than $100 a month, great. Also, I would recommend you just do that even if you are putting money into other stocks. That way you know you have a strategy that will work over the long term.

Just think if everybody did this starting in their 20s or 30s. Most working people can afford $100, and some mutual funds will take as little as $50 this way. I know people who spend that on beer and cigarets in a month. Just think if they put it into this instead.

Anyway, just a couple of hard-earned tips from an old, battle-scarred trader and investor. Hope this helps. Good luck and happy investing!

I know I'm smart and that's why it bothers me so much that my finances are always shipwrecked. So knowing that the problem couldn't possibly be me I bought just about every self help book on the market to find out the secret to abundance that was obviously avoiding me.

Then along came Suze with her baseball bat approach, no nonsence just plain sence, and somehow she hit a home run. It was me after all, not the world, not something I didn't know, just plain stupid lack of dicipline.

This is by far the best financial advice I have received from any person or book. I bought the audio CD so instead of listening to sports radio I listened to this on my commute. The Pat's lost, I think thanks to this I might finally win.

Thanks Suze

This book is great for people who are inexperienced in handling finances. Suze lays forth ideology that should be followed if you are interested in having a good retirement and being able to provide for your family in the future. Many of the ideas presented in this book she states over and over again on her CNBC program The Suze Orman Show.

Some of the thinking put forth is plain common sense - such as realizing the damage that could result from building a high credit card debt. Some parts cause you to think about the financial implications beyond the obvious - such as the additional costs of owning a home.

Suze's books are geared towards individuals unfamiliar with the world of finance; people who shy away from words like "investing" and "interest rates". If you are starting off your life and intend to plan a financially prosperous future, definitely read this book. It could save much hardship in the future by giving you something to follow when making a major purchase such as a home, car, or college. It will help you plan your retirement. I would not recommend this book if you are financially competent and want to take your investments to the next level, such as diving into the stock market.

The additional pages in the back for writing notes and completing "exercises" did not intrigue me. But overall, the book was well written and Suze was able to bring her own personal parables into the book, making it an interesting read.

Suze Orman has in all her books brought so much to us, in big ways and in small ways. First thing of all is that she has taught us that money is something we must deal with (and must want to deal with). There is financial advice everywhere, it's true, but Suze cloaks it in the emotions that also surround money. Here she presents five laws, simple on the surface, but resonant underneath. You cannot read these laws without having them echo in your head--and, more important, in your financial behavior, after you have read them. Even if just one law hits a home run for you, well, you are one step closer to your money, and to dealing with your money. This is financial goodness, truth, wisdom, precision, care, and generosity. I have turned to Suze many times, she has helped me every time, and saved me more than once. Worst case scenario. Let's say that only one of these laws rings true for you. (Three rang totally true for me.) That one law can change the way you deal with your money, which will change your life. Think of a prism turning, with all those angles and surfaces. Suze etches money wisdom onto every angle and surface,and I think every reader will find his or her angle, his or her surface, and be richer as a result. Thank you, Suze, for bringing money to life for me!

Essentially all the laws of money in this book revolve around one central idea - be true to yourself and express the truth about yourself through the way you handle finances - in short - don't spend more than you can afford to spend; stay within your budget instead of blowing money you don't have and with the money that you do have, do as you please, or rather, use it in a way that is meaningful to you, and plan your financial future accordingly.