Last fall I shared my thoughts about Dave Ramsey. The blog article brought in more comments than I usually get. I’ve had my eye on Suze Orman ever since I happened to catch her CNBC show over the holidays. James Scurlock has written an article over at Slate.com that puts Orman in a new light. Here’s an excerpt:
Although study after study has shown that personal bankruptcies are caused primarily by catastrophic events like divorce, job loss, and, above all, medical bills and that most of us are struggling with a gap between our income growth and the soaring cost of necessities like housing, Suze tends toward psychological causes that invariably blame the victim. Who is struggling these days, according to Suze? “People who grew up without much money and later earn a comfortable living sometimes spend too much to make up for what they didn’t get as children. … People who feel entitled to the good life, or are unconsciously copying a mother or father who lived beyond her or his means. … If you feel the need to impress people with what you have rather than with who you are, you are at high risk for credit card abuse.”
There’s more here. It’s a good read, but prepare your stomach for the shock and awe of what this financial guru thinks of people who struggle with debt while at the same time offering financial advice that makes me cringe.
I’ve had some limited exposure to Orman. I a CNBC show where callers ask for her blessing to buy expensive things: a camera, a trip with family, or in the particular show I watched, running stilts. After a quick drive-buy glance at some financial information, the caller then says “I really want these running stilts.” Then, the caller waits for either the blessing to buy it, or the chastisement for not knowing better to think otherwise.
I read the article, and decided to take a few minutes and spend some time on her website. The one thing that caught my eye was the promo for the Valentines Day CNBC show (9PM and Midnight ET, 2/14/2009) titled: “Marriage & Money.”
On this Valentines Day, the financial pluses to being married. Should a man pay down his fiancée’s Student loans? Viewers ask if they can afford a puppy, a trip to the 2010 Olympics.
Let me first start by saying that if you want to adopt a pet and can handle the responsibility, please do so.
With that said, why does the promo not say this: “Should you pay down your fiancée’s Student loans?” I can guess that the show’s demographic is primarily women. But still…even so, why shouldn’t the same question be posed to both parties who are planning a life together regardless of their gender? Perhaps I’ll have to watch the show to find out. And if I watch the show, I’ll probably have more to write about.
Lessons in Loan Modifications
Suze Orman is growing on me. Sort of. She often has sage advice for consumers, and lately she has been making regular appearances on CNN’s Larry King Live. I cannot say I completely agree with everything she says, but lately, she has been telling it like it is and when it comes to financial news and advice, it’s refreshing to see some honestly on TV. I have her suggest to consumers that if they are having problems with their mortgage, they should contact their lender (i.e., the workout or the loss mitigation department). A client recently told me he did just that, after hearing Orman suggest it sometime last year. He was falling behind on his mortgage, and decided to walk into his local bank to talk to them. It did not go quite the way he planned.
At the time, the client was not residing in Massachusetts, and his lender was a local bank. He sat down with the manager and explained his situation. Instead of extending an accommodation, or working with the client to help him keep his home, the manager basically said this: “sorry, but we have a lot of loans going delinquent and we need to cut our losses, so we’re going to start the foreclosure process now.” And so they did. The bank pretty much put the house into an accelerated foreclosure process.
Yikes.
That’s lesson number one: don’t go telling your lender that you’re having problems paying your mortgage unless you have some reasonable expectation as to what the response will be.
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Tags: American Bankruptcy Institute, Commentary - Legal, Modifications and Workouts, Mortgages and Foreclosures, Suze Orman
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