Max's investment rules

1) Never trust anyone who claims to have a normal name, except when you look at it it's missing letters.
Susie != Suze.

2) Never, EVER take investment advice from anyone wearing gold lined zebra print.

3) Plastics, my son. Plastics.

If this turns out like some of the things Oprah's promoted recently, in a year's time she'll be apologizing for telling everyone to sink their life-savings into time-shares.

@m4ximusprim3: Also, It's not free if it causes you to lose money.

Everything I know about Suze Orman I learned from Kristen Wiig.

Honestly, a lot of what Suze Orman is selling is what you can get reading a few good postings from Consumerist or by browsing Get Rich Slowly or even personal finance bits from The Big Money from Slate. I think it's important to know what's going on in the economy (not just that it's in the dumps) in order to make the most informed decisions on personal finance. Suze Orman seems kind of like a shortcut in that you can read her books and glean all the advice, but you still need to be the one to implement it, and while Orman's books might show you how, it's still up to that person to get the nerve to do it.

Lets hope she dosent breed with Jim Kramer from Mad Money. Help us jeebuzz

Freebies are always good.

@m4ximusprim3:

4) Become a stripper, befriend an executive, do some insider trading.

[query.nytimes.com]

Invest all your money in patterned jackets.

@toddiot: -- Was it an intentional editorial choice to use a photo of Wiig's parody of Suze here rather than a picture of Suze herself?

href="#c9915316">Ben Popken: My-New-Jacket!

@Cliff_Donner: absolutely

@se7a7n7: intentional

@missdona: whoops-- this belongs to Ben..

@Ben Popken: As I mistakenly said upthread--
My-New-Jacket!

Honestly I just read Women and Money and it was really helpful. The first couple chapters are cheesy, inspirational garbage, but the actual investment material was easy to understand even for me (a woman!). I had been trying to decide if I should open a Roth IRA with my 401(k) and she made it clear what to do and how to do it. She also goes over trusts and different documents that you should have that I never would have thought of before age 60.

I read her new Action Plan book today and it was clear and gave a good explanation of what the hell is going on in the economy (which most of Consumerist readers understand, but not Oprah fans most likely). It was a really quick read (It is in Q&A format so you can skip what does not apply to you), but it made me feel more confident about the actions that I am taking. I would recommend checking it out -- it is free! However, it did just have a lot of the same information that I had just read in Women and Money.

@qwijybo: Probably dont have to worry about that since she has a girlfriend :-)

@toddiot: Agreed. Well, that and shelving her books in the personal finance section of the bookstore I work at, with her face beaming out. Well, I haven't really learned anything there except that someone must be buying her books for her to keep churning them out.

@se7a7n7: OK -- "absolutely" "intentional."

Sory, I still don't get it. Is this Consumerist post meant to endorse Orman's book, or mock it?

'Little help here?

suze's real tips
lesson 1
be pretty

lesson 2
give advice for money

lesson 3
be pretty

I come from a family that never had a problem talking about money. My father owned his own business (as do I) so keeping an eye on finances was always part of our "normal" family discussion. To this day, they regularly quiz me on my credit card debt, mortgage payments, and taxes.

I'm always amazed though by the number of people who never, ever discuss money with their parents -- it's a topic more uncomfortable than discussing sex.

It's not that people are stupid with money -- it's just that they've never read the owners' manual.

To this end, I say the more Suze the better.

The low-hanging jokes aside, she's an articulate and passionate consultant who values common sense more than stock tips.

I think Suze gives pretty good advice plus she is frank and entertaining. My opinion is that the only upside of the down turn is more people are paying attention to how they spend, debt, budgets, etc.

We followed Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and I enjoy his show as well (on Fox Money) but he gets a bit too preachy some times.

She is just as unqualified as the rest of the financial "experts" out there writing books and talking at you from their cable shows. I caught her on CNN predicting that the Dow would bottom at 8200. Anyone taking her advice would be in the same boat as those listening to Jim Cramer saying that Bear Stearns is fine. These self-proclaimed experts don't know when to keep their mouths shut.

That picture looks quite different from the annoying woman I see blathering about saving money on the TV all the time. Did she pull a Greta Van Susteren and get some sort of massive plastic surgery overhaul?

@AtomicPlayboy:

That's a photo of Kristin Wiig's parody of Suze and not Suze herself.

see: [www.nbc.com]

@emjay: Ah! Now I also understand why Sarah Palin looked different in all those press conferences she gave on Saturday nights :)

I'm a big fan of her Young, Fabulous & Broke book - introduced me to the snowball method of debt repayment, which is working out very well. I got lured in by the promise of 'no silly advice on cutting out lattes' and she delivered. A very solid starting point for personal finance.