Are you struggling to make ends meet? Is the personal financial advice that you hear from experts making you depressed?
Suze Orman has a television show that offers you personal finance advice. People are invited to call in and ask her the proverbial question, “Can I afford to buy this item?”
Some things that people want to buy seem to make perfect sense. They may however, be outrageous to Suze. She’s definitely on the conservative side of spending. You need to have a gazillion dollars saved to be able to afford to purchase an item under ten thousand dollars.
Powerful, forceful, decisive and intimidating, Suze will tell you the good or bad news about whether you should make a purchase or not. She always says, “Show me your money!” You will be asked to list your current income, your savings, your retirement savings and the amount of debt you have accumulated.
After watching a few hours of this show, you may look at your own situation and feel like a total failure and that you’ll never measure up to the standards you “should” meet. You may have been through a job loss, a divorce or a medical catastrophe and not have the assets you see other people having.
The ironic thing about this show is that a few experiences in Suze Orman’s past may actually make you feel better. Recently on Oprah’s website, Suze revealed that as a young woman, she had been lured into the rich lifestyle and the feeling she needed to own things to impress other people. She frankly admitted, “I, Suze Orman, took money out of my 401(k) to pay for that pricey Cartier watch. And when I ran through all my money, I started using the bank’s. I eventually had more than $60,000 in credit card debt.” So she has been in trouble financially and knows what kind of misery it brings.
Dave Ramsey, popular author, radio show host and personal finance advisor had a similar brush with disaster. By the time he was 26 years old, he had a net worth of $1 million dollars. That sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? However, he ran into some problems with borrowing money. Soon, one of his creditors demanded that he pay his short-term notes totaling $1.2 million. On top of that he had only 90 days to do this. He was sued, foreclosed on and with a wife and baby added to the mix, the Ramsey’s were finally bankrupt.
It is just this type of experience that led him to develop his expertise on financial advice. He sought out every type of financial advice out there. He read everything he could get his hands on. Now he has helped thousands of people to achieve financial security. He took to heart the admonitions of F. Scott Fitzgerald, considered to be one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers.
“One should … be able to see things as hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.”
If you are struggling financially, become determined to make things different. You can learn your money lessons by paying careful attention to getting out of debt, building an emergency fund, and living on a reasonable budget.