How can you resist a woman who says that although she was on "The View" the other day and was counseled by Barbara Walters that a woman "should never say how old she is or how much she makes," comes right out and says, give me a break - "I'm 56 and I make $5 - $6 million a year!"
It isn't easy to make dry financial advice fun and engaging, but Suze Orman managed to do just that at her Friday, June 15 session at eBay Live 2007. Titled "Own the Power to Control Your Financial Destiny," Orman led eBay sellers through a crash course on FICO scores, real estate investing, Roth IRAs and 401Ks, and living revocable trusts.
Introduced as a best-selling author and host of a CNBC TV show, when she got to the stage, Orman quipped "and Suze Orman loves to go on eBay and tells people it's a great way to make a living."
Suze said it's about making more out of what you already make. "The biggest problem is you want to impress people you don't even know or like" - live in huge homes, drive fancy cars. Everybody thinks these people are doing great - "but they're spending money they don't have to impress people they don't know."
Money will not define you; you've got to define your money, she said. "How do you make more out of less money?" Then you can think about how you can make more out of more money, she said.
Orman discussed the importance of a FICO score (which stands for the Fair Isaac Corporation, the private corporation creating the most-known and -widely used credit score model in the United States.). Your FICO score is "a 3-digit number that determines the interest rate you'll pay on car loans, if a landlord will rent to you, what a car insurance premium will be," etc. It runs from 300 to 850, and Suze quipped, "anything below 500, let me put it this way: You're FICO'd!"
Your goal, she said, should be to have a score of 760 or above. "The higher your FICO score, the lower your interest rate."
You have three FICO scores, she explained, because there are three credit reporting agencies ("Why there is not only one is beyond me," she said). Let's say you apply for a mortgage for $250K but you have a low FICO score in the 500 range - it will cost you $600 more per month, she said. That's almost $210,000 more for the exact same mortgage over 30 years!
To get a credit card with a low 2-4% interest rate, you need a high FICO score. For example, with $3000 in credit card debt, and a low FICO score, if all you do is pay the minimum, at some 18%, it will take you 22 years to pay that off. You'll pay $4100 in interest.
However, people make a mistake in thinking that after paying off a credit card in full they should close down that credit card. That's because they look at your debt-to-credit limit ratio.
So what should you do to make more with less? "If you have a 401K or 3B that matches," she said, "an automatic 25% return on your money, you can't pass up free money!" But only sign up to the maximum amount the employer contributes, and if the employer doesn't match, don't contribute to the 401K at all. Pay down your credit card instead.
She also advised eBay sellers to have an eight-month emergency fund.
But what's the best investment you can make? Owning a home. "Most homes appreciate 4-5% a year," she said. If you put $10,000 down on a $100,000 home, that's a 40% return" on your investment.
One of the final points Orman made was that rather than a will, what you need is a living revocable trust. Without it, you'd have to take the will of, say, your mother, to probate court, which in the state of California could take 6 months to 2 years and cost $10,300. What you want is a living revocable trust with an incapacity clause.
And one of the "biggest mistakes" you can make is to buy variable annuity insurance - the only type you should buy is term insurance, she said. And only "until your youngest child is 22-23 years of age."
Suze said her own mom is 92. And she is still active. In phone calls with her, Suze says to her, "where were you last night? Wait; I don't want to know." It seems that high energy runs in Suze's family. One can only hope eBay invites Orman back to eBay Live so eBayers can get energized about taking control of their own finances once again.
For more information on Suze Orman, visit http://www.suzeorman.com.
