Dammit Jim, she was on PBS tonight! I missed it. I love Ormon too.

her shtick about female empowerment through financial management chokes me up every time. She's been on for hours as part of PBS pledge drive week

I have a similar thing happen when they bring out 'Cousin Brucie' Morrow for the rock and roll specials at pledge time. This mainly because I'm moved to find out that he's not simply a head in a jar.

She had an interview in the NYTimes magazines the other week- it was interesting; she keeps almost all her money in government bonds. I respect her a little less for not practicing what she preaches-how can you encourage people to diversify and invest when you're basically hiding your money under your mattress?

I don't have time to read the interview, TPS, but in her books she talks about her strategy can be different now because she has already accumulated wealth sufficient to reach her goals and now wants to guard enough money to pass down in the form of programs and foundations. Maybe that's why she's in low-risk funds these days. SHe's a multi-gazillionaire - her goals for this lifetime are met - why continue to risk?

I guess she's allowed to.. but the way it's phrased in the interview (which you must read, it's one page long), she sounds totally paranoid about a huge market crash, the chances of which are extremely slim (and if something like that happens, we all have bigger problems, really). There's already enough fear about investing, I think it seems disgenuine for her to say, well, you poor people out there have to be rational, but I'm rich enough to be totally irrational with my money. If she wants to have money to do great things with, why not earn more in the ways she's teaching to others? By only investing money in the stock market that she "doesn't care if she loses", she's implying that it's a dumb thing to do, which I think is a dangerous message coming from someone teaching Americans how to save and invest.

Here's the Q & A. I really don't blame her! She's got a smart strategy for where she is in life.

I love how assertive she is -- how directly she talks to people. She puts the interviewer right on the spot. And she is definitely correct that women mismanage their money because of gender-role training.

I don't think it makes sense at all to invest the way someone else should. That goes against everything she says. She's a rich person! She shouldn't invest the way I do, or vice versa. She and I should have totally different strategies. She has achived financial independence, and I haven't. If I ever do, maybe I'll sock away all my gains in safer investments so I can set up a grantmaking foundation later in life. At her age, that makes sense. At my age, higher risk makes sense. In her books, she explains all the thinking behind this.

I also think the quick phrase "ven if the city goes under, I get my money" is tantamount to being "otally paranoid about a huge market crash." She's being flip to emphasize the security of this type of investment.

Her response to this is great:

Q: Are you married? I’m in a relationship with life. My life is just out there. I’m on the road every day. I love my life.

Also, I always thought she was probably gay. She's got a fearlessness about what people think of her. The interview clarifies that.

Altogether, she remains very cool to me. I've got nothing but admiration. Her writing has been making a big difference in my financial life for about 5 years now; I wouldn't trade that wisdom for anything.

nota bene: I am still poor, but less poor than I would have otherwise been.

er, HERE'S the Q & A.

Well when I'm rich, I'm keeping all my money in the stocks, and you can have some, Miko, just for being nice :-D

I don't listen to money talk, so I can't have an informed discussion here. I only know that she's one of those "Oh god, PBS is doing a pledge drive again" people.

What I do know, though, is that the NYT Q/A is where she came out, apparently.

But I guess Miko just discovered that.

Not to derail or anything and turn this into Lesbian Chat.

I wondered if that was her coming out. I read it (because I too love Suze) and thought, huh, i wonder if that's come up before.

Oh my god, I love Suze, too! She helped me stop being so petrified of money so that I could finally start getting my finances in order and under control.

That's her official coming out, according to E&P. But I know I heard this about her years ago. e.g.

btw, here's some professional criticism.

Yay, someone put it better than I did.

I'm more of a Chris Farrell guy when it comes to investing advice, but my company just did some work with Orman and everything went smoothly.

I got the impression that part of the reason for the low-risk investments was to make sure that her partner got the money she was entitled to, if Orman died? But I may have been reading too much into it.

There was also a great article on Boston.com a few days ago in which Orman was quoted, about how women consistently undervalue their labor (and therefore often get stuck with the housework, on the assumption that their male partner's time is more important than their own).

It's very odd, when I hear her talking, I feel like I *should* find her annoying, but she's so charming and sometimes silly that I've always liked her. And I only recently found out how strongly she's advocating for women in particular.

Go, Suze Orman! :)