Talking Money With Suze Orman

This was an original post for LA Moms Blog in March, 2010. I publish my archives on the occasional Friday, and since money is on my mind, I picked this one for today.

“I knew I was dumb, everyone I knew thought I was dumb.” –Suze Orman, Women and Money

When Suze Orman was a child, she had a speech impediment, which made people think she couldn’t read or score well on tests. She grew up not expecting much of herself, yet had a core of self esteem that blossomed and took over during her young adulthood. Working as a waitress, she was saving to start her own restaurant when she discovered that a shady broker had taken advantage of her, recommending risky investments that caused her to lose all of her money. By reading up on investing and studying the markets closely, Suze figured it all out on her own, and marched into Merrill Lynch to apply for a job.

And here we are today, when I cannot imagine a world without the Suze Smackdown. If you’re not familiar with her work, Suze Orman is a noted author, television personality, and public speaker whose specialty is personal finance. More specifically, women’s personal finance. Decades ago, as a successful financial advisor, she never imagined that she’d become the industry she is today.

Last month Suze was in town to shoot a set of videos that help explain her with TD Ameritrade. The latest product in her Save Yourself line, the retirement program is designed to coach the average investor into choosing the right retirement account and funding options for him or her. The program promises to be a simple and effective way to get you off your butt and into the market, because by God, as she often lectures callers on The Suze Orman Show about saving for retirement, if you don’t prepare for the future you are in big trouble.

Liz Peterson and to watch a bit of the filming and ask those burning questions we’ve always shouted out loud to the television but never had the patience or guts to call in to the show and ask. (That last part is probably just me.) I’ve been reading and watching Suze’s work for years, deferring to her website and her weekly MSNBC advice show to glean hints about what decisions I should make. Lately I’ve also been communicating with her on Twitter, which she uses with surprising regularity and actually replies to people (she DM’ed me a few times to tell me she loves my cowboy hat).

I’ve often thought of Suze as a role model for grown-ups: not just for women, although she is very motherly and protective of women and champions the idea that women should and must take control of their financial lives. Suze’s work applies to all people, and you often hear men calling into her show to ask serious questions. She’s genuinely interested in people and also protective – when Liz and I introduced ourselves as the visiting “mommy bloggers” she instantly said “And are you making any money with your blogging?” and gave us that all-knowing look with her piercing blue eyes.

As a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, an employee, and a philanthropist, I look up to Suze’s “People first, then money, then things” approach to life. I was eager and fascinated to hear what she had to say. Luckily, I caught most of it on camera, and since my editing tools and my free time are short, I present more of the interview in simple Q&A fashion:

Should married women, especially stay-at-home moms, focus on saving in their husbands’ 401(k)s if they have them, or set aside money in their own IRAs?

Married women have retirement savings options from Kim Prince on Vimeo.