The View: Susie Orman & Ginger's advice

According to suzie orman (who I usually don’t listen too) there is no longer a middle class === WHAT??? Yes there is.
Now there were several things she said that I agree with:
· Don’t take out student loans (although she only attacked the private bank loans, not the federal ones)
· Don’t spend money unnecessarily (although not spending will force a recession)
· Charge as little as possible so you don’t have to pay the interest (this is very true, interest can double the cost of something by the time you’ve finished paying it off).
But then a couple of things that she said that shocked me:
· Go to a different college if you can’t afford university with out taking a loan (well that’s going to raise some elitist issues – cries of racism {even though economic disparities know no race}
· Its okay to charge groceries {if you don’t have money for groceries, how are you going to have money to pay off that bill right away?)
Okay lets get a bit of reality straight here.
· If you are going to use your credit card the best rule of thumb is – try not to put more on than you can pay off in two months.
· Always plan to pay before the ‘payment due’ date to cut down on finance charges.
· Learn how your cards charge … many charge by the day some by the month. If your card charges finances by the day, pay it off ASAP – even before the charge hits the card.
· If you get a raise at work … put the extra cash into your savings acct, not your checking – you will be less likely to spend it.
· Using direct deposit to put money into your savings every month … what you don’t see in your acct. you won’t miss.
· Start saving for college for your kids before you have them – education isn’t getting cheaper … but beware of systems that put the money into stocks – better to put it all into a savings acct.
Now a bit I learned from a friend who got divorced, but at the time I couldn’t see the benefit of it:
- When you can afford it … open an acct for each spouse in just their name and not the others – then put in enough money for living on for at least 3 months
Why?
Because if you have a shared acct. and something happens to one of you, the accts get frozen until probate is finished. By having enough to pay bills for 3 months this should allow you to survive until things are settled out. This is especially important if you are a single income family like mine.
Now whatever you do – don’t touch that money.
That’s your nest egg, you will have to live on it. Choose the right savings acct and you will earn interest too.

Invest in a home safe, one that will be difficult to remove from the home – fire/flood proof.
Keep all your important papers in there:
· past credit cards
· , at least one bill from each credit card company so you have the info for reporting a lost/stolen card if needed,
· some cash on hand in case of an emergency (pizza is not an emergency),
· birth/marriage cert. for everyone in the family in case you have to replace I.Ds,
· contracts,
· mortgage papers/apartment leases,
· title to your vehicles,
· receipts for anything worth value, etc.
· basically if you would need it in a court of law – put it in there.
In fact investing in a fire/flood proof file cabinet is probably a good choice as well.