Review: Suze Orman's The Money Book for the Young Fabulous and Broke
This week, I finally made it to the top of the list at the library and borrowed Suze Orman's The Money Book for the Young Fabulous and Broke. I've read two of her books in the past, but they were geared to folks around my mother's age. Some of the principle ideas were transferable to my generation, but largely, it wasn't applicable to my needs.
I mentioned in March that I went to one of her very first stops on her book tour at New York's Apple Store. I didn't buy the book then, because at $24.95, I'm too broke to afford it, without knowing for sure I'd like it. Even if I was going to buy it new, I'd get it from Amazon.com for less. At any rate, I chose the try-before-you-buy plan and signed up for the New York Public Library's hold list and, after 2 months, I scored my very own copy on loan.
To put it mildly, Suze's book lives up to the hype. It was very easy to read; I finished it in two days. The layout was very user-friendly, complete with a blue and green theme and bullet points. Each chapter focuses on the important things that make up a young person's financial sphere, like student loans, FICO scores, careers, retirement funds, home/car purchases, love & money, and others. It was the type of book that one could just read straight through, like I did, or skip directly to the relevant chapter(s).
I like that Suze is not at all stuffy in her language or approach. She says things like "get the loan paid off ASAP if you don't want your credit record to become mud" (page 271). At the same time, she's thorough in her advice and doesn't dumb it down. She has a direct Q&A nestled within the book, peppering her advice with relevant situations. Here's a sample from page 100, "Problem: The 21% interest rate on cash advances is crazy, but when I need the cash, what other options do I have? Solution: Charge more on your credit card so you don't need to take a cash advance." In addition to addressing the root of the underlying problem in other parts of the book, she addresses the short-term solution. Now that's real advice.
In The Money Book for the Young Fabulous and Broke, each chapter is followed with "quick playback" pages, where she summarizes what readers should have learned. My favorite part of the book is the glossary. Suze not only explains the term in question, but she gives you the YF&B advice right there, no need to flip through the pages! Right next to the definition of no-load mutual funds (mutual funds with no buy/sell commission), Suze says "YF&B advice: No-loads are the way to go. But you also want to make sure your no-load charges a low annual expense ratio." What a brilliant idea. All in all, even though I've already read the book, I know I will refer to sections of it later. I'm going to buy it.
I rate it a 5.
5-must buy
4-worth it, good reference guide
3-get it from the library or buy it used
2-okay, but nothing original
1-pass
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I think most of her advice is quite parochial for the average reader of this blog. But you are right, for the average person that has no idea how to use tax shelters and home equity to build wealth, this is a must read. She really has great advice for people: a) get your entire 401K match from your employer, b) max out your IRA, c) save up an emergency fund, d) save up for a down payment on a house and e) stuff the rest into your 401K. There is not a person that reads this blog that would not agree with that advice.
Thanks for your comment. Youre right. There were definitely no ah ha moments for me when it came to the basics. I forgot to add, that I felt there were times when Suze Orman gave just plain bad advice. On page 194, she suggests saving eight months worth of expenses, BEFORE opening a Roth IRA (page 194). I only have three months worth of expenses saved, but my Roth IRA doubles as an additional emergency fund because I can take the principal out at any time without penalty. If I followed that her advice I wouldnt have a Roth IRA at all.
She did however, give helpful advice that I can refer to when it comes to buying a car and love & money sections, as well as others. Plus, if I buy the book, hopefully my less financially savvy friends will pick it up and begin to apply the principles. They tend to believe it more when they see it in print. Again, thanks for bringing up that, for experienced readers, it might be too rudimentary. But, for the truly YF&B, this book is an excellent start.
