Suze Orman The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom Book Review Part 2
Last Sunday I reviewed the first part of The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman. This week I am continuing that review with the next set of chapters.
Chapter 3: Being Honest With Yourself
Right off the bat Orman suggests something that I completely agree with – she suggests beginning to use cash again.
Orman believes that one reason it is so easy for us to spend money without thinking is because we don’t every actually touch our money. She gives the following example:
May of us do the following things on a regular basis:
- Buy something on sale that doesn’t quite fit us, wear it once, and eventually throw it out
- Throw away five dollars worth of food that we didn’t eat (Ouch, I do this regularly!)
- Throw away a magazine that we paid for but never got around to reading
So, clearly that is wastefulness, even if we don’t think about it at the time. What Orman says next is interesting though. She asks you to consider ripping up a dollar bill. I don’t know about you, but while I may not bat an eye at stopping for a $3 cup of coffee, or throwing out food that I didn’t eat, it would be very difficult for me to simply rip up a dollar!
So maybe there is something to the tactile sensation of actually holding money in your hand before you spend it. I know that when I take cash to the grocery store I never go over budget – but when I take my debit card instead I frequently run ten to twenty dollars over what I planned. So again, there may be something to the theory that swiping plastic doesn’t reach our conscious minds in quite the same way that physical cash does.
At this point, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom starts to get really good! Prior to chapter three there were quite a few (mostly sappy) case studies that dealt with childhood money trauma and fears about money. While they were interesting, they didn’t really shed any light on how to actually fix your finances. With this chapter though, Orman comes out swinging.
She encourages you to sit down (separate from your spouse if you have one) and write down how much you think it costs you to live each month. Invariably (according to Orman anyway) we all need about a thousand dollars more a month to live on than we think we do. She says this is because we frequently deceive ourselves about our finances.
We don’t factor in things that we pay yearly, holiday or birthday expenses, etc. By this I think Orman means that if I pay $200 a year for a gym membership I should be breaking that down into a monthly total of $17 rounded, and saving that $17 each month.
That makes sense to me – it’s why I use YNAB. It’s a budgeting program that let’s me do exactly that – break down those yearly expenses and factor them into my monthly income. When I started using a budgeting program that way my finances really did start turning around. It’s difficult to be disciplined enough to do – but it makes all the difference in the world. So I was very, very glad to see Orman give this advice early on within the book. It was the single biggest thing that turned my own financial situation around, and I believe it’s excellent advice.
Orman also advises factoring in seasonal expenses – and not just holiday presents. Things like an increased electric bill when you have the air conditioner running, or Christmas lights up. She includes vet visits for pets, summer camp for your children, lawn and garden maintenance and new clothing.
I think she’s really getting down to the dirt of the matter here – even though personally, having the examples being thrown at me all at once became a little overwhelming. Orman is trying to say that we sabotage ourselves by letting those expenses sneak up on us suddenly, without planning for them.
The rest of the chapter is dedicated to helping us establish a budget. She asks all the right questions, and it’s a pretty simple thing to sit down with the book, answer the questions, and get a good handle on how much money you have coming in, and going out each month.
The next few chapters of the book were even better. They begin a new section of the book – one that focuses on the steps that you need to take to really gain control of your finances. Orman starts with The Big Issue…the one that most of us avoid universally – Being financially responsible to those you love.
Chapter 4: Being Responsible To Those You Love
Ouch, ok, here’s a quote directly from the book:
Have you ever arrived at the scene of an accident on the highway and thought, Oh, God, I’ve really got to get around to doing my will?
Yeah, I told you it was The Big Issue! I don’t know a person alive who looks forward to doing their will, planning their funeral, or setting things up so that their family can go forward without them.
But, the truth is, it’s scary, it’s ugly, and it is 100% absolutely, completely necessary…
I also loved this quote from The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom:
It is not ok when you get sick, or when you die, to leave financial chaos behind you for everyone else to clean up.
That is the ultimate statement of personal responsibility, and I actually wrote it down to refer to it later.
Orman does an excellent job covering what a will is. More importantly she explains the court process that happens after you die – the process of verifying the will, and she explains how property and money is transferred.
Honestly, this book is worth ing just for this chapter. I don’t know about you, but I never really had a problem figuring out how to get a will. The big question for me was, what exactly will happen after I die? How can I be certain that my wishes are carried out the way I want them to be?
Orman also takes an in-dept look at trusts. What they are, how they work, and how they can benefit you. Let’s take a quick look at that:
What is a revocable living trust?
A revocable living trust is a set of documents stating who will control your assets while you are alive and what will happen to them when you are gone.
While a will says where you want your assets to go after your death, with a revocable living trust you take the steps while you are alive to sign the title of your property over to the trust for your own use and benefit while you are alive.
The property is held in the name of the trust – for you while you are alive, and for your beneficiaries, after you’re gone.
When you die the trust passes your property directly to the people you want to have it. The trust lives on even after you’re gone, carrying out your wishes.
Most important, with a trust there is no probate (the verification process that a will has to fo through). The courts are not involved in the transfer of your estate.
Orman also highlights the case study of a man who lost his wife to breast cancer. His wife did have a will, but after she passed he ended up losing their house (which was in her name), deep in medical and credit card debt, and feeling like he had no way out. The credit and medical debt were caused by her cancer treatments, but he lost his house because of problems with her will.
Orman takes the time to walk you through the steps of creating a living trust. She explains the terminology, literally everything that you need to know.
That’s it for this week’s review of The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom. I’d love it if you came back next week when I review further chapter from the book.
While I was not very impressed with the first few chapters of this book, this section has more than made up for that by dealing directly with the major financial issues that we all need to tackle. I like that Orman takes me through the steps one at a time. She doesn’t assume that I know anything about these topics, but I don’t feel as though I’m being talked down to either. So far, I would say that this is a book I am enjoying and would recommend.
What about you have you read this book? Do you have questions about it? Leave me a comment below!
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