World Famous Comics: The Courage to Be Rich: The Financial and Emotional Pathways to Material and Spiritual Abundance
The Courage to Be Rich: The Financial and Emotional Pathways to Material and Spiritual Abundance
From: Random House Audio Publisher: Random House Audio Average Rating: Binding: Audio Cassette Format: Audiobook, Unabridged Label: Random House Audio Number of Items: 8 Publication Date: March 09, 1999 Release Date: March 09, 1999
Product Description: Bestselling author and financial expert Suze Orman helped millions of Americans turn toward their money and embark on a true path to wealth with her #1 bestseller The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom and her national bestseller You've Earned It, Don't Lose It. Now she returns, with a book that goes beyond the fundamentals of her earlier work in challenging and inspiring us to realize our full financial potential, and to realize as well that the bottom line of life is comprised of much more than money.
Practical, spiritual, and above all soundly financial, The Courage Be Rich addresses the rites of passage we all must face-marriage, divorce, death; spending (and overspending) on life's necessities and luxuries; taking control of our financial tomorrows today. From the business of love to buying a home; from imparting proper values to our children to defining our own self-worth; from starting over to staking a claim to our future, Orman shows us how to find the clarity, conviction, and courage to meet the obstacles and opportunities of a lifetime.
Expressing her deep belief that only when we truly learn to value and respect money in the most expansive sense will we be able to change our financial destiny, Orman demonstrates-through exercises, examples and case studies-how to create a rich and abundant life, starting from what we have today. Finally, she takes on the seldom explored subject of money and grace-the rewards wealth bestows and the responsibilities if confers.
There is no more persuasive, compelling, and honest a financial teacher today than Suze Orman. Building on the rock-solid foundation of her earlier lessons, The Courage to Be Rich is, in every sense, higher education on matters of vital importance to us all.
Amazon.com: Talk about an audacious title! But Suze (pronounced "Suzie") Orman means business in this anecdote-rich compendium of tips on 401(k)s, marriage, homes, and happiness. The PBS star/financial adviser has made plenty of the mistakes she warns against, like getting a 30-year mortgage instead of a cheaper 15-year, using Visa cards as magic carpets to calamity, and losing $20,000 in borrowed bucks to bum investment advice. Then she became a Merrill Lynch broker and an author capable of selling 10,000 books in 12 minutes on QVC.
Orman's point--in this and her No. 1 bestseller The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom--is that you'd better face fiscal facts and avoid fear, denial, and the self-fulfilling low expectations the novelist William Wharton called "the Poverty Mind." America is a nation of check-bouncing, late-fee-incurring, guilty bad planners. How long will it take to pay off that $3,000 Visa bill with minimum payments? Thirty years, you poor, dear fool! What would you gain if you bought stocks instead of your daily latte for 30 years? $165,152! Her book might've been titled The Courage Not to Be a Self-Sabotaging Neurotic.
Orman is the Andrew Weil of money health--she yearns to enrich your life emotionally, too. If you can't stand discussions of the psychological origins of fiscal decisions, or self-help lingo like "money is attracted to people who are strong and powerful, respectful of it, and open to receiving it," you'll want a more nuts-and-bolts adviser. If you want pep talk, true tales of woe and makeovers, and a jolt of a true pop culture phenomenon, Suze is for you. --Tim Appelo
Great Book This is one of my favorite books and messages. I recommend it to everyone.
Suze's Common Sense about Money and Life! I won't say much but the book will help a lot of people who are lost about saving money or spend too much money. Suze's common sense is simple but it comes from personal experiences. I was surprised to learn that her father dropped out of law school to run the family chicken stand business. I knew about Suze's work at the Buttercup Bakery and her life after college. Of course, Suze does leave out her personal. It was only recently that she came out of the closet and announced her lesbianism and long-term committed relationship to her producer, Kathy Travis, known as K.T. Suze does not write about gays or lesbians at all in this book. She writes about mostly heterosexuals who have misplaced their own common sense about money. SHe writes about her own losses and mistakes along the way which has infused her with knowledge to correct herself and others from making the same mistakes. This book is to help and assist people in difficult situations. This book may help somebody out but it would be nice if she came out with her own autiobiography.
Wonderful information in this CD! In Suze Orman's book / CD there is tons of excellent information. Listening to this CD and reading her book has helped me very much. I encourage anyone to buy this and study it throughly!
It helped me! I'm a little sorry to see all of the negative reviews this book has gotten, since I found it to be one of the most eye-opening things I've ever read and, by following some of its advice, have gotten my finances into better shape than they have been in years.
Let me clarify some things. This is not a book for the financially advanced, for professionial money managers or financial advisors, or for stock brokers. The intended audience here is the "Average Person" who works at something else every day but wants to better understand how to handle their money. This person probably has credit card debt, spotty savings, and some bad financial habits. I had none of those things when I picked up this book and I still learned tons from reading it.
The principal message here is that being rich begins with your thoughts. They way we think about money determines to a huge degree what we do with it, how we invest it, and how we spend it. I think no one will deny that fundamental truth, but Suze's gift is finding the ways to connect our thoughts with practical advice to change bad habits for the better. Many people could make a few simple changes in their lives and end up with a lot more money, and over time, that could mean real wealth.
It is true that some of the conclusions here will seem obvious to the financially savvy. But I question the idea that this is all "repackaged common knowledge." It isn't. Her messages are of the kind that bear repeating. How many people still buy a $3.50 latte every morning, stick thousands of dollars in a bank savings account at .2% interest, and have credit card debt well beyond what they can afford? If it were so obvious that these are unwise things to do with money, fewer people would do them! Suze shows that it's not enough just to recognize financially unhealthy behavior, you must also understand your personal history with money, the way you have been taught to think about it and value it, and understand how that history influences your financial decisions. Her recognition of the emotional value of money gives her the edge over other financial how-to books, which typically assume that money is a raw numbers game. It's much more than that, and Suze is right on insisting so.
Her most controversial advice is that you, and not a financial planner, must ultimately be responsible for your money, and I think a lot of the one-star ratings below are from frightened financial planners who know that Suze is onto their game. She does not, for the record, say that you should never work with one, but simply acknowledges that the ultimate responsibility for your money is with YOU and not someone you pay to organize your investments. I think she's right, and with all of the online resources available today, there's no reason to be ignorant about how money works in our society. A little more attention from you can mean a lot more peace with your money, and being responsible makes it much easier to make money grow.
One of the best sections of this book comes at the end, when she talks about the importance of giving. I just loved her discussion of how important it is to give and wish everybody would read it! In our greedy world, it's a message that needs to be heard.
I found this book lifechanging and hope others can too.
Repackaged Common Knowledge Suze Orman's Book is well written and thoughtful, that being said, she doesn't provide anything beyond common sense and basic knowledge: Stop accruing debt, live within your means, pay off those high interest credit cards, distinguish between good and bad loans, save money, INVEST YOUR MONEY. All this is the same material you will find in every beginning personal finance book, and online for free. The problem is that after peddling all these little trinkets of knowledge, with an over indulgent helping of self-pity, she doesn't help you make a plan or answer some fundamental questions. Like...HOW? This book does not provide the basic mechanics of how to do what she says, and gives no details on how (in financial basics) she got where she is. How do I redistribute my debt so I can pay it off (what is a good time horizon), how should I save money so I don't get burned out by saving, how do I mentally control my spending, and most importantly how do I invest the darn money? If you tel people to save and invest, you need to give them a hint of a plan (e.g., save 10% of every paycheck, but no more, so you grow to hate saving money) or maybe also just a single chapter on where to invest the money beyond, use your 401(k). Maybe one on why being too risk averse is bad. Ultimately, this book simply provides abstract goals, that require you to go out and get another book to help you get perspective on getting there. So just skip it, and get the next book.