Wait, isn't that the lady who is backed by credit card companies? I think I'll pass.

I thought she was giving away actual women and actual money. Color me disappointed.

Cool. Oprah finally does something I can get behind. I'll take all the women and money she's willing to throw my way.

How is she backed by the credit card companies?

I got this book last year and there was some sort of deal with ameritrade (so maybe that is what you mean?), anyhow, you open an account and put in 50 for one year and hten get a 100 dollar bonus plus whatever interest. I like 100 dollars.

Oprah the Pimp can pour me another glass of Hennessy

I was thinking about gift horses, too.

Nice headline.

That's Suze Orman who has a couple of software products to help you easily pull your credit score (it doesn't cost more than really going out to FICO and doing it yourself, but it has pretty packaging and other tools). She also has an 'important personal documents' kit (living will, etc).

She wrote a very good book called 'Young, Fabulous & Broke' a few years ago that was very helpful to me in giving me straight up advice on how to eliminate my debt, improve my credit and basically get my ass in gear.

I eliminated $30,000 in debt in 4 years (I now have no credit card debt and pay in full each month) with the help of her advice.

She may be commercial and the advice may be available everywhere you look, but it doesn't make the advice worth less and her target audience is going to pay attention. Paying attention is important.

I like her approach to financial planning... Not sure why it's targeted mainly towards women, but hey... What do I know?!

Orman is not the sort of person I want to take any advice from.

My book comes out next year. It summarizes every good financial advice book ever written. Here's a free preview of the entire book:

"Don't spend what you don't have."

Granted, there are plenty of folks who get into trouble due to circumstances beyond their control. (I'm thinking medical expenses.) But that advice should cover 90% of the audience.

I could use both.

She says some crazy things (save money by paying in dollar bills, don't use spare change, then you'll trick yourself into saving money?), but if you're as far gone as some people on Oprah are, you NEED HELP, and Orman is your gal.

Money for nothing and the chicks free...

@Tzepish: I wish gawker had edit post :-(

PDFs still exist?

@toddiot: Don't laugh, txt's are still around. :-P

@zouxou: I'm curious..What 'sort of person' would that be?

@zouxou: Yeah! What Missdonna said!
Seriously, if Orman is up to no good, please point us at the info.

LOL @ SHORTBUS.

THAT'S JUST SEXIST!

Where's my "Men and Money" version?!??!?!? *HARRUMPFF!*

@backbroken:
that book was already written by Chris Parnell of SNL:

[consumerist.com]

I sometimes wonder if Suze Orman uses that loud, preachy voice even in her private life, as I have never heard her without it, but her financial advice is pretty sound. She is sponsored by FICO, and probably spends too much time harping about improving your FICO score. I don't think that makes her a dreadful corporate shill.

So, if you're male, is a sex change the only way to take advantage of this great offer? Do women really spend that much differently than men? Maybe this book is just full of hot financial tips like "Invest your weekly savings into a high-yield savings account instead of spending it on breast implants or that Lifetime Movie DVD boxset you've been yearning for! You can also save big by foregoing that monthly visit to the salon and keeping the same hairstyle you've had since 1986. Just like me!"

I have enough complications with the women and money I've already got. Oprah can keep them.

Suze cut a deal with the FICO companies that paid her millions. You can see the details in a movie called "Maxed Out". She is a crook that gives bad advice to people only when it helps her pocket. Dont trust a word she says.

If you look closesly at the cover, I think her name has a bigger font size than the title. Talk about vanity.

She's too annoying to watch.

Her crazy-eyed gaze makes me want to kill.

Must fight the urge...

@DeltaPurser: This book is, but in general, she has books targeted to both sexes. Her last book was targeted at young people in general.

@backbroken: What about saving for retirement? Where to you put your money in your 401k? There's dozens of little things, like how much do I save for a rainy day? Is a home equity loan a good thing or bad? Etc, etc.

Of course what did I notice first? Something about Oprah? No. Something about what Suze Orman does? Not really. Something about the potential contents of the book? No. Something about it being free? No.
 
"They photoshopped out her oompa loompa tan!"
 
As for her general advice, I usually find her a bit spend-happy. That, if you can't afford it, you can't afford it; but if you can, screw needing it--spend!

Financial advice from Miss FICO? No thanks.

Anyone else having trouble with that link to the PDF download page? Every time I try to load it Firefox crashes completely. I'm running the latest version (just got another update this morning in fact) and I don't have a bunch of custom plugins or anything. I don't think I've run into another webpage yet that crashes my browser so thoroughly.

I have this book. No, seriously. Back during the holidays, Michelangelo Signorile on Sirius OutQ was giving away book bundles for answering an easy trivia question. I was unable to get through to the book bundle on religion and the state (damn it), but I was easily the first caller for the women's book bundle, which included this one. (I wonder why nobody else called in ...) So, I won the book. Of course, I don't want it. But I don't want to throw it away. If anybody wants a free hard copy version, let me know.

@j3sX:

Though her explanation of the "8 qualities of a wealthy woman" (harmony, balance, courage, etc.) is more inspirational than practical...

I'm betting that's the part they don't expect men will want to read.

I'm running the latest version (just got another update this morning in fact) and I don't have a bunch of custom plugins or anything.

@jtheletter: I think you need a plugin to open a PDF in Firefox now if you have the latest version of Acrobat Reader.

[addons.mozilla.org]

@chiieddy: My impression from watching about 15 minutes of her on TV is that Orman does financial advice in soundbites, which is well and good for the unwashed masses who can't get the "don't spend what you don't have" concept.

If this book is more of the "Financial concepts for dummies" type of book, then I guess its a different audience than I anticipated.

I want men and money, you sexist annoying fatso!

@bdslack:

I'm sorry, I call bullshit. To someone highly educated about money, her advice may seem like common sense. But to an average person mired in debt, with parents that never taught them how to balance a checkbook, she is very compelling I'm sure. She puts financial jargon into words anyone can understand and makes it relate to the audience.

I have mad respect for Suze and I wish I could engineer a career the way she has.

@IrisMR: She's not sexist, she just prefers women. She came out of the closet last year.

@chiieddy: This might as well have been written by me. "Young, Fabulous & Broke" was a great asset in getting my ass in gear. Suze doesn't say anything revolutionary but repetition helps.

@bdslack: I met her in person at Fair Isaac's 2003 credit conference in San Diego. At that time she told the audience she "doesn't usually accept invitations" to keynote industry conferences as that may undermine her credibility. Yet, there she was...

Did anyone read the summary of the Oprah episode? What a downer on Valentine's Day: abusive douchebag husband controls every aspect of wife's life, buys a motorcycle instead of paying the mortgage, cancels their life insurance policy and then OFFS HIMSELF, only to have the wife and 4 kids find his body! Wow. Just wow. To paraphrase Eddie Izzard, it's a level of awfulness that's so over the top, you don't get enraged when you hear about; you just stand in awe.

@CPC24: I prefer men and it doesn't mean that I will shun women... All her stuff focus around women and make lots of guys look like bastards, it's pretty sexist to me.

I just hate Oprah, that's all. Thanks to her and her braindead cult of followers we're stuck with Dr. Phil.

@j3sX: she's wearing the standard-issue bulldyke 'do.

i enjoy her show, especially the "can i afford it?" segment.

I bought one of her earlier books, 9 Steps to Financial Freedom about 5 years ago (I bought it used), and since then I've gone from about $10,000 in low interest checking to about 10 times that net worth, and it grows every month. I credit this admittedly modest financial getting of my shit together to Suze Orman to a large extent. Yes the advice is very simple and the intended audience is broad (you don't make money on books for a narrow adudience) but it seems to work. No, it't not really for the kind of people who are regulars on Consumerist, but it is where savy earners/consumers START. However, I haven't bought another book by her. Instead I skim them in the bookstore because she re-hashes her advice for different niches each year or so, young people, women, etc.

But she is very inspiring and compelling. I think most importantly, she sees individuals with money problems as just that. People, with a problem that can be fixed.

@IrisMR: I generally like her and her ideas. But last year, I watched her Women and Money seminar on PBS. It seemed as if she was trying to hatch an escape plan for women in marriages. And while that might be necessary for some women, for other women it might be undermining. "Every women should have a savings account of her own, just in case.."

My marriage has an open-book policy when it comes to finances, besides 401(k) we don't have any private accounts. Other marriages may operate differently and that's a personal choice for each couple.