talk 767

"Car sky car earth"
Hot lips of personal finance
C21

You must have seen this woman on TV before. She has short blond hair, and is of indeterminable age. When she walks out on the stage, she is immediately greeted by a tremendously enthusiastic applause from the audience. She begins to speak, raises her voice slowly and eventually screams at her audience at full blast. She ends with a deafening tongue-slashing of her audience with thundering ferocity as if the end is near. Repent ! Repent now ! The almost entirely female audience loves her, worships her. They think she is the second coming of Christ of personal finance.
Who is she ? Suze Orman, of course.

" Time " magazine has a feature article on her in this current issue. It is interesting reading about someone, whom I have watched on PBS from time to time, especially during membership and fund raising time.

Orman, 57, came from the south side of Chicago, her father operated a deli, thus, making her definitely a working class kid. Her "preaching" often reflects her background. But then more 90% Americans are working class, her no-nonsense approach is just what the Americans need to know. Every time Hot-lips Suze speaks, it is $80k a pop, about the annual salary of a freshly graduated engineer with a BS degree, but still small compared to other high-profiled speakers.

The Orman Commandments are simple and few :
1.Thou shall pay down your credit cards.
2.Thou shall have homeownership.
3.Thou shall save.
That is it, no more, no less, not in so many words. These commandants do not seem to help the Lighters much.

Orman is said to worth about 25 millions, quite modest for a nationally known financial adviser, lives in San Francisco with her partner. Most of her money is in municipal bonds, only about 1 mil in stocks. You see, she is not hurting too badly with the current market meltdown, owns 5 houses, not too bad for a kid from south Chicago.

Here is what I want to tell you, in case you still have some dough around.
She said:
1. If you are in cash, stay in cash a little longer.
2. If you are in the market, you've got to continue to buy by dollar cost-averaging or invest a fixed amount on a regular schedule.

When will the market come back ? Well, she thinks in 2015.

Oh, nuts, 2015? Hotlips Suze's lips just turn cold, I dare say.

Buy shoe boxes, start saving pennies in them. Wait for 2015.
Good luck, fellow Lighters.

On second thought, let us not repent and spend it all while we can.

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Hot-lips is a character in the 1970 movie " M*A*S*H ". Sally Kellerman played Hot-lips, and the famous line that led to the nick name was ... well, Lighters , let us not be too explicit.