Customer Reviews

Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought Suze's new 2009 Action Plan book and read it quickly. It is a small paperback book and it is one you'll have trouble putting down, once you start reading. The book's opening line of "I bet you are scared. Angry, too. And confused." probably describes most of America.
Before reading this book, I felt I had a pretty good understanding of the current financial crisis and how and why it happened. It turns out, I didn't understand it completely. After reading the 10 pages in chapter 2: A Brief History of How We Got Here - I really really get it now. Suze has the ability to explain years of history in a clear, concise manner. I am 100% certain my clearer understanding is going to allow me to make better financial decisions in the future.
I feel this book is a "must read" for everyone, whether you are young or old; have credit card debt or not; own a house or have recently had to let one go; have sizeable savings, 401k's, investments and such or little or none; have a secure job or are now unemployed, and so on.....the reality is that you HAVE TO HAVE A PLAN. This book is going to give you one. If you sit back and try and wait this financial storm out without a rock solid plan or continue to procrastinate even a little longer about making important financial decisions, your financial security is at risk. I believe that after you read this book, you'll feel like I do. You'll be inspired to take action and these actions will allow you to reach your long-term goals. Knowing that we are in for some tough times ahead and having a plan is going to be key.
Grab a cup of coffee, this book and set aside a few hours..you'll be amazed how much you learn and how good you will feel when you're done reading.

Suzie Orman offers financial advice for individuals based on personal accountability and sound money management. I support her approach and consider her advice indispensible to the average family rating her guidance very high.

The essence of her advice is found within the pages of this book in two outstanding quotes:

"Focus on what you can control" & "Always choose to do what's right, not what's easy"

Orman's books categorically will benefit the individual seeking financial direction; however, I rate this book dispassionately as there is little new content that is not already found among all her prior books (as well as website and talk show). If you are new to Suzie Orman, this book will offer value to you; if you are familiar with her guidance and in search of something new, you will be dissatisfied.

Orman discusses events over the last few decades that influenced the current economic turmoil. Her outline of events is enlightening, yet where was Orman two years ago warning us all of these dangers? Orman only came to the realization of these factors like most of us, in hindsight, softening the significance of her wisdom on the issue.

Orman spends a great deal of the book discussing credit cards, mortgages, and retirement planning. Intended to be a plan for 2009, Orman only offers brief comments regarding the lack of available credit in the marketplace to differentiate from all her prior advice. It is not obvious why an entire book was required to establish an awareness of diminishing available credit.

The structure of this book offers countless problem scenarios and answers them as if Orman is talking directly with you. This sort of Q&A approach enables anyone to focus in on their specific issues without the need of blasting through the entire book, with the added benefit of offering a versatile reference guide.

I find difficulty in giving Suzie Orman anything less than glowing reviews as her work and advice is an unquestionable benefit to society. Regrettably, I finished this book questioning its purpose, and contemplating if a full book was required considering the material presented. As a starter to Susie Orman, this book will be satisfactory; however, I highly recommend passing on this book and selecting one of her earlier works

I watch Suze Orman's show every week,and downloaded her new book,"Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan,"for FREE on Oprah's web site.(I did get a comment from someone who got a Virus when they downloaded the book,but I didn't)
There's alot of finacial help for ALL of us during these troubled times.I love the 3 things Suze wants everyone to do once a month,
#1 , DO not spend any money for 1 day a week,
#2,Do not charge for a month,
#3 Do not eat out for a month.
The biggest surprise was once you pay off a credit card,do not close out the card.Your hurting your fico score if you close the card out.
If you are interested,you can dowload the book for free on Oprah's web-site for 48hours.

This is a great little paperback (and very affordable) that will help you navigate the new financial obstacles you may be facing in 2009. Suze writes with her tough love approach, and is very candid about saying NO when you have to. The book has situations and actions--for example, Situation: your daughter is getting married and you thought you'd have a huge wedding for her. Action: how to realistically plan a wedding that doesn't sink you immediately and in the future.

This is like "Eat This, Not That" for finances.

If it is hard for you to say NO to yourself or your children, you can make Suze the "bad cop." This is a helpful reference book that will help you assess your current state, and move forward with a plan instead of fear or ignorance.

Get a copy for yourself and for giving away. Most of us will need this in 2009 and beyond.

I also just bought this on CD. Suze is reading the book on CD--4.5 hours
on 4 CDs--great for long commutes.

UPDATE - April 2010 - I still think this book and/or her others and/or her TV shows are plenty without having to purchase the 2010 version of this book.

This is hands down Suze Orman's best book. Upon reading every word and turning every page I felt confident that I am on the right track. Following Suze's advise over the years has provided me with the education required to be prepared for what lies ahead. The Expenses breakdown chart is a very helpful tool to see where you can cut back. I also loved the format in which this book was written, it can be used as a reference tool and you can read based on your area of concern be it credit, 401k, retirement etc. I think everyone should not only read this, but live by it!

Here we go again.

This book by Suze Orman is well-done. I don't want to sound cynical nor condescending. But the self-anointed-financial-guru-advice industry deeps getting bigger and bigger with larger and larger profit margins, whether things are "booming" or going "bust."

What's sad but not surprising is that there's still so much demand and a market for....common sense. Suze Orman's "Action Plan" has prudent and solid advice. It's needed. Why so many Americans need this advice is what makes one wonder, because it's primarily based on plain and simple common sense.

Orman states that the current credit and financial and macro-economic crisis is some kind of unexpected surprise, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Over-extension of credit & borrowing (leveraging) and the coming downward slide has been discussed *publicly* for at least 4 years, dating back to 2004, and in esoteric financial circles well before the year 2004.

Either way, only a small number of people seem to change their behavior, unless it becomes absolutely necessary. In 2009, changing behavior is a necessity, as many people don't have don't have a choice now, and won't in the immediate future. For the long-term, we'll have to wait and see.

Do people need to spend money and time on a book that tells them to use common sense? Yes, because so many people still need it.

We are again told to "live within our means" and to "try to save," buy a pre-owned (used) car instead of a new one, eat out less, pay cash only, not use HELOCS, and keep a cash fund for 8 months for financial emergencies....Redundancy? 529 College Savings plans, 401Ks, IRAs, etc.

Parts of the book: Sound familiar?

I: 2009: The New Reality
II: How We Got Here

III: Action Plan: Credit
*Falling Credit Lines
*Rising Interest Rates
*FICO Scores Under Pressure
*Repayment Plan
*Debt Consolidation
*Borrowing from 401K
*Borrowing from Home Line of Credit
*Bankruptcy
*Collection Agencies

IV: Retirement Investing
V: Saving
VI: Spending
VII: Real Estate
VIII: Paying for College
IX: Protecting Your Family & Yourself
X: The Road Ahead

This is not Orman's fault for noting the obvious, as we should consider the consumers in this type of financial advice market the "Dummy Market."

Suze helps families with the following advice on Page 189. Note the vocabulary and sentence structure:

"I want to make sure that you are up to speed on the fact that you may not be able to tap your credit card or a home equity line of credit to pay your family's bills in the event that you are laid off. Lenders are not in the lending mood these days. I cannot be more emphatic: you must have saving set aside to be truly safe in 2009" (Page 189).

Thank you for this.

"Action Plan 2009" is an amalgamated regurgitation of what the US mainstream media has been telling the American public for the last few years. However, Suze Orman's advice is sorely needed. Are her words heeded?

Thanks to Suze Orman for the free copy. This book can can help many people.

I just finished reading her new "book". It's not an action plan so much as a bunch of one liners strong together. And quite frankly, some of her advice is just plain awful. As an example:

SITUATION: You just want your car to be repossessed
already-you're sick of trying to keep up with
the payments.
ACTION: If you know you can't afford the car,
hand the car back to the lender rather than waiting
for repossession.

Never hand the keys back to the lender. It is still a repo on you credit report and you lose control. The car will be auctioned off at a much lower price than you could have gotten by selling it yourself. You will still owe money, but at least it will be far less AND there will be no repo on your credit report.

She expects you to being paying down your debts, saving for retirement, building an 8 month emergency, and saving for your kids college all at the same time! Folks, it can't be done. If you could do all that, you wouldn't be reading her book...

And don't get me started about FICO scores, which are nothing more than "I Love Debt Scores". Question: If you are truly trying to get out of, than why would you be looking to take on new debt? If you are not looking for new debt, than who cares about your FICO score?

If you are looking for a real plan to get out of debt, save for retirement and college. And more importantly build real wealth (the way most millionaires do), then go ahead and purchase Dave Ramey's "Total Money Make Over". It can be had for $13.49. I can tell you that I have been following his advice for nearly 4 years, and the plan works.

Suze starts off by saying you need a new action plan for 2009. Dave's plan was working before 2009 and will continue to work after 2009. That is how good his plan (which is truly a step by step plan) really is.

The link is here: [...]

Good luck in 2009 and beyond...

I just finished reading Suze's new doom and gloom guide. You can easily read/skim through this book in an hour or two. It is obvious that this book was put together rather quickly as there is a lot of repetition. I think $9.95 is a fair price although Amazon could certainly offer some sort of discount. Overall, I found some useful tips here and there in the book but I am giving it 3 stars. The book is organized into the following chapters:

Credit
Retirement Investing
Saving
Spending
Real Estate
Paying for College
Protecting Family and Self

Within each chapter, Suze present various scenarios and what action to take with each (Q&A style). So in that regard, the title of her book is a little misleading since it is not truly a plan but rather a collection of various scenarios that you might encounter and what to do for each. Within each, you will find lots of repetition amongst her favorite topics including paying off credit cards, 8 month emergency plan, 401K, auto, home and FICO. A lot of this stuff is common sense and shouldn't just be something special to deal with now. And she spends way too much time on all the FICO stuff. In this book, Suze is really planning for worse-case scenario in that she expects this economic downtown to last 2-5 years versus many others who are a little more optimistic. That's fine, but some of her recommendations are rather drastic so don't plan to go out and kill your pet just yet. Probably the best part of the book is the chapter on Retirement Investing as this has some good general investment recommendations that don't just apply to retirement, although I would still see your investment specialist versus blindly taking Suze's advice on specifics to invest in.

BTW, the single best piece of advice in the whole book is to convert your existing retirement funds (Traditional IRA, SEP IRA, Rollover IRA, 401K, etc.) to a Roth IRA this year or next. I had already done this prior to reading her book. With the market down 40%+ this past year, many of us will have significant tax write-offs to offset most if not all potential taxes due to the conversion. Additionally, these taxes are significantly lower now because the value of these investments are way down.

I have spent a lot of time studying the techniques and advice of Ms. Orman as well as another well-known financial media celeb, Dave Ramsey. Both essentially focus on target audiences who for the most part have trouble managing their money and have gotten themselves into a heap of debt. The primary focus of both is to pay off those credit cards and establish an emergency fund you can live off of for the better part of a year should you lose your job. Suze has no problems with Credit Cards as long as you pay them off monthly whereas Dave doesn't believe in them (nor does he care about or even claim to know his FICO score). Like money, credit cards by themselves are NOT bad, but when they are abused then you can get in a lot of trouble. But you can also get into trouble carrying around envelopes of cash as Dave suggests (my friend lost over $1000 of his holiday cash set aside for gift shopping this way). And anyone who seriously thinks Dave's claim that a 12% long-term annual investment return in mutual funds over the long run can be expected, is just setting themselves up for trouble. Not even Warren Buffett would make such a claim. The bottom-line is that both Suze and Dave are very opportunistic individuals who offer generally good advice, but as always it is buyer beware. Don't be a lemming and don't always drink the kool-aid.

There was nothing special about this book. I used to be a big fan of Suze, but now realize she just repeats the same advice over and over. I would not buy this book if you have read anything else she has written. It is the same rehash of the same info. The same info is available for free on the internet. Save your money!

Suze hit it big with this book for many people. She wrote a precise book on how to handle 2009 proactively with specific "what to do" situations and how to assess financial challenges into correct decisions. Picking this book on Borders out of curiosity, I learn a lot from security precautions you should take from local banks. That alone pays the trip and the well deserved $10 I paid over a Dolce Latte over the quick read.

This book has excellent advice and includes certain law regulations that you should know about. In my country, they apply. Be careful where you have your money, great book that caught my eye by surprise.

Suze reminds me of my mother when she talks about money. When it comes to marriage advice I skip her show channel, but for financial advice she is definitely worth the read and your time. She walks, the talk and she deserves a well deserved perfect rating for this book. Great $10 investment. Will definitely pass this quick read to one of my friends!

Excellent start Suze!