Wednesday, October 8, 2008

The Economy - Simplified


Here is how Suze Orman breaks down the economic issues & how they affect YOU.

Highlights:
  • Financial expert Suze Orman says current situation was caused by greed
  • Switching to a cash economy means buying only what you can afford now
  • "Stop living the financial lies that you have been living," Orman says
What happened to the Stock Market:
"When you have stocks, you have individual companies that want to make money. And [CEOs] want to make more money because the more money they make, the more their compensation is, the more their stock price goes up." These companies made money by selling investments like mortgages to people who couldn't afford them, Suze says.

People & Debt:
"A lot of you have built your personal financial foundation on deceit and lies. You bought a home that you couldn't afford ... You spent money like it was going out of style and it wasn't your money to spend, because why? They were borrowing it"

What to do:
"If you don't have the money to pay for something, can you just not buy it? Can you wait? Can we start looking at keeping our cars for 10 years rather than getting a new one every three?" - NO MORE CREDIT CARDS OR LOANS

If you're 10 to 20 years away from retirement, Suze says there's no reason to panic. "As long as you are invested in good quality mutual funds, diversified across the board, as this all goes down, you're buying more shares," she says. "The more shares you buy, eventually, when it turns around ... the more money you'll make."

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