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If you haven’t at least watched one Suze Orman show, you don’t know what you are missing. Although I don’t always agree with everything she says, she does provide good basic investment advice.
One of the more popular segments of the Suze Orman show is called “Can I afford it”. This segment is where callers phone in with items that they want to buy. Items can include anything from new cars, home renovations, Gucci handbags to big screen TVs. After the callers enthusiastically share what they want to buy, Suze then responds with her classic line, “Show me the money”. This is when the callers dispel their complete financial situation to include their current mortgage,balance and payment, credit card debt, amount in savings and amount saved for retirement. After sharing their financial background to Suze and the rest of the viewers, they wait for Suze’s “approved” or “denied” from the finance guru herself. It is funny when you watch this segment for the various items that people call in for that they have to have. Here are four ways that you can get approved by calling into the show.
1. Have substantial emergency funds.
Suze is big on having an emergency fund as part of your financial planning. She would recommend having at least eight months of savings and this is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. So if you want to be approved by Suze make sure you’ve got at least eight months worth of expenses saved up and you might have a fighting chance.
2. You better have no credit card debt.
I don’t care if you’ve got money in the bank and plenty in your retirement account, if you have any type of credit card debt, you better expect a big fat denied. There were many times where I’ve seen people that have plenty of emergency funds saved but for some reason they carry credit card debt where they are paying high interest rates. What’s the point of having it in savings when you can just pay it off? This is one of Suze’s pet peeves, so just don’t do it. Pay off the credit card before you call in.
3. You better be investing.
Whether you are 25 years old or 55 years old and if you are still employed, you better be putting money into your retirement account. If you are not, it doesn’t make Suze very happy. Make sure you are taking advantage of your 401(k) or Roth IRAs or just investing in a basic brokerage account, whatever it is, just invest. […]
