2009
ACTION PLAN
Suze Ormand
New York
2009
Th is book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information
about personal fi nances. Neither the author nor the
publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional
services by publishing this book. If any such assistance is
required, the services of a qualifi ed fi nancial professional should
be sought. Th e author and publisher will not be responsible for any
liability , loss, or risk incurred as a result of the use and application
of any of the information contained in this book.
While the author has made every eff ort to provide accurate telephone
numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication,
neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility
for errors or for changes that occur aft er publication.
A Certifi ed Financial Planner® is a federally registered mark
owned by the Certifi ed Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.
Copyright © 2008 by Suze Orman, a Trustee of the
Suze Orman Revocable Trust
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint
of Th e Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York
www.spiegelandgrau.com
SPIEGEL & GRAU is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Book design by Chris Welch
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on fi le with
the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-385-53093-4
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
First Edition
CONTENTS
1 2009: The New Reality 1
2 A Brief History of How We Got Here 8
3 Action Plan: Credit 21
■ Falling credit lines
■ Rising interest rates
■ FICO scores under pressure
■ Repayment plan
■ Debt consolidation
■ Borrowing from 401(k)
■ Borrowing from home equity line
of credit
■ Bankruptcy
■ Collection agencies
4 Action Plan: Retirement Investing 45
■ The case for stocks
■ Allocation strategies
■ 401(k) loan/early withdrawal
■ IRA rollover
■ Retiree income strategy
■ Roth IRA conversion
5 Action Plan: Saving 84
■ FDIC insurance
■ Money market deposits
■ Eight-month emergency fund
■ Credit squeeze
6 Action Plan: Spending 101
■ Expense/income worksheet
■ Finding ways to save
■ Needs vs. wants
■ Insurance saving tips
■ Car loans
■ Diffi cult choices
■ A challenge from Suze for 2009
7 Action Plan: Real Estate 126
■ Mortgage-modifi cation options
■ Short sales
■ Foreclosure
■ Home equity line of credit
■ Home values
■ First-time-buying tips
■ Pre-retirement strategy
■ Vacation homes
8 Action Plan: Paying for College 160
■ 529 allocation strategy
■ What you can afford
■ Federal loan strategy
■ Stafford student loans
■ PLUS parent loans
■ HELOC loans/401(k) loans
■ Private student loans
■ Repayment
■ Consolidation
9 Action Plan: Protecting Your Family and
Yourself 185
■ Job-loss strategies
■ Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
■ Health insurance
■ Life insurance
10 The Road Ahead 207
SUZE
ORMAN’S
1
1
2009:
The New Reality
I bet you are scared. Angry, too. And confused.
These are absolutely rational and appropriate responses
to the global credit crisis that erupted
in 2008 and continues to send tremors through
every household in America. And I do mean every
household. No matter how conscientious you have
bee n with managing your money, the events of
2008 have battered us all.
The one in 10 homeowners who are at risk of
facing foreclosure on their homes are obviously
scared, but so too are the 9 out of 10 homeowners
who can afford their mortgage but are watching
plummeting home values jeopardize their financial
security.
It’s not just the overreaching Wall Street firms
who are paying the price for those risky investments.
Every U.S. taxpayer is now on the hook for
2 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
a massive bailout—a bailout engineered by the
same players in the federal government that had
turned their back on regulating the very practices
at the root of today’s financial crisis. Angry? You
should be.
But wait—it gets worse: The colossal miscalculations
on Wall Street have contributed to a massive
decline in the value of your 401(k) and IRA.
Years of diligent saving have bee n wiped out, and
you are afraid that your retirement accounts will
never fully recover.
Early predictions that the fallout in the consumer
credit markets would be limited to subprime
lending to borrowers with low credit scores
proved terribly wrong. The truth is that credit
lines are being reeled in and home equity lines of
credit are being rescinded across the board as
banks worry that their clients—even those with
solid payment histories—won’t be able to keep
up with the bills if the current crisis turns into a
deep recession. A sparkling FICO credit score is
no longer a guarantee that you will land a mortgage
or car loan with decent terms. Right now
lenders are more interested in keeping any available
cash on their books, rather than out on loan.
There is also a growing sense that repercussion
from the credit crisis will turn what might have
been a moderate economic slowdown in 2009 into
an especially deep recession. If that scenario plays
out, businesses will likely announce more and bigger
2009: The New Reality 3
layoff s than we saw in 2008, when unemployment
rose from 4.9 % to 6.5 % at the end of October.
In 2009, your job may be on the line as your employer,
or your own business, struggles with the
fallout from the credit crisis.
That’s a daunting platter of problems to contend
with. Did I say daunting? What I meant was overwhelming.
As the economic outlook grew more troubling,
I came to the realization that I had to write this
book and get it published quickly. You want to do
what’s right, but it’s no longer clear what right is
anymore. Or perhaps you are someone who always
figured you had time to deal with the money
issues in your life later. The credit crisis has woken
you up; later is now—but where do you start?
This book’s title is a promise. This is my Action
Plan for every important financial move you nee d
to make in 2009. Follow the advice here and you
will know exactly what you nee d to do to adapt to
the new post-meltdown reality . Just as important,
you will know what not to do. In times of great
stress, it is natural to react by making decisions
and taking actions that bring instant relief. When
it comes to financial matters, oft en the decisions
that calm us amid tumult are actions that can imperil
our long-term security . In the pages that follow,
I will tell you when to act and when to leave it
be—which will, in some cases, require a little bit
of faith and nerves of steel, but I promise I will
4 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
never stee r you wrong or put your dreams of a secure
future in peril. You can count on me.
Accent on Action
I want to be very clear about something that is
central to my Action Plan: You must commit to
actually taking action. Th is is not a book to be
read and pondered. Or fi led away under “Nice to
know; I’ll get to it.” If you care about fi nancial
security for yourself and your family, if you want
to do everything in your power to protect yourself
and your future, you will not get there with
wishful thinking or procrastination. You cannot
sit this one out, hoping that the storm will pass
and everything will be just fi ne. If you do nothing,
I am sorry to say you may be in even dee per trouble
in 2010. Th e fact is, the new reality requires new
strategies. Th ey will not necessarily be wholesale
changes in every aspect of your fi nancial life, but
tactical actions to make sure you do not let the
credit crisis knock you off course.
Some of the most crucial actions require pushing
yourself to stay committ ed to all the smart
moves you have already made but may now be
questioning. I know many of you are thinking
there is no point in continuing to invest for retirement
as long as the markets are down. Big, big
mistake. Now is an incredibly smart time to invest
for retirement, because the markets are down—
2009: The New Reality 5
assuming, of course, you have at least 10 years
until you will nee d that money. Same goes for your
529 college savings plan for a young child.
Th ere is to be no curling up in a fetal position on
the couch in 2009 hoping that when you emerge
the crisis will have passed. No assuming that there
is a government bailout or Wall Stree t rally right
around the corner that will fi x everything for you
without any eff ort on your part. You will have to
get off the couch and take control of your fi nancial
life in 2009. Make that commitment this year
and you will build a solid fi nancial foundation that
you can stand on when everything around you is
crumbling and that you can build on when the
good times return.
We Will Survive
As we continue to claw our way out of the credit
crisis while contending with an economic recession,
I nee d you to be able to see the big picture:
Th ough these are rocky times, our economy will
be fi ne. Our markets will recover. We will all survive.
Th at said, I want to be very clear: Th e recovery
is not going to be quick or easy.
Our economy is like a patient who was rushed
to the hospital in critical condition. Aft er months
of aggressive intervention (by the Federal Reserve,
the Department of Treasury, and Congress), the
patient is still in the Intensive Care Unit, but the
6 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
prognosis is that eventually there will be a full recovery.
In time, the patient will move into a rehabilitation
facility and start to get back on his or her
fee t. Before too long, the patient will be stable
enough to go home, though it might be years before
he or she is back to full health.
When exactly will that be? That’s impossible to
say with any certainty . My sense is that we could
be in for a long, slow period of recovery and it
will be 2014 or 2015 before the economy is back
in robust good health. Between now and then, we
could see parts of our economy get better faster
than others, and certainly some regions will start
their housing rebound before others. I also expect
there could be large market rallies throughout
a rocky recovery. It is also important to
understand that the stock market is very different
than the economy. Just because the market rallies,
it doesn’t mean the economy is healthy. But in
terms of when we will see a lasting and consistent
return to growth, well, I wouldn’t be surprised if
that takes five years or more.
So if we’re not going to see a quick turnaround
of the economy in 2009, why am I insisting that
you take action? Precisely because we are in for
tough times. You nee d to protect what you have.
Protect your family. And protect your chances
of still reaching your long-term goals. Let’s face
it, in the past you didn’t really have to work too
hard at building financial security . You plowed
2009: The New Reality 7
money into your 401(k) and IRA in the 1990s and
you watched the market post an annualized gain
of 18 %. At that rate, you figured early retirement
was a distinct possibility . Then, in 2000, the real
estate bubble began and you got used to annual
price gains of 10 % or more. It was easy to fee l like
you had it made.
And yet here we are. The major stock market
benchmark indexes have fallen back to where they
were in 1998. Home values, on average, have already
slid back to their 2004 levels, and I expect
we have more downside to get through before
real estate stabilizes. My point is, you just can’t
show up and expect easy market gains to get you
where you want to go. The days of easy money are
long gone.
But, my friends, haven’t I always said that
when it comes to your money, it’s not about doing
what’s easy—it’s about doing what’s right? The
plan in this book is going to help you do what’s
right. You can read this book cover to cover, go
directly to the topic that worries you the most, or
skip around as you see fit. No matter how you
approach it, the goal is for you to make the right
moves in 2009 to alleviate the stress, fear, and
anger you’re fee ling and replace it with the secure
sense that you have done what it takes to protect
yourself, the money you have worked so hard for,
and the ones you love.
8
2
A Brief History
of How We Got Here
By now you probably have some sense that
back in 2007 the financial crisis began because
a sizable number of homeowners
started to fall behind on their mortgage payments.
But you may be wondering how it is that a relatively
small portion of people who failed to make
their mortgage payments could bring the global
economy to its knee s.
The short answer, in my opinion, is greed. Too
many people were more interested in making a
quick buck than making sound financial decisions.
Mortgage lenders stopped caring whether borrowers
were actually qualified to buy a home and gave
out loans to practically anyone who applied. Wall
Street banks and hedge funds stoked the lenders
to give out those loans so they could then turn
around and make tons of money off of them with
A Brief History of How We Got Here 9
newfangled investing schemes. And while some
borrowers were indee d too confused or clueless to
understand their mortgages, others knew exactly
what they were doing and didn’t care that they
were buying homes they couldn’t afford. Plenty of
greed to go around.
It wasn’t always this way. Not all that long ago,
if you wanted to get a mortgage you showed up at
the bank armed with a few years of tax records
and pay stubs to verify your income, as well as
proof that you had enough savings to make a down
payment of 20 %. The lender then took time to review
your finances carefully, making sure there
was indeed plenty of income to comfortably cover
the mortgage, property tax, and insurance, and
that you were not overly burdened with other debt
payments. The only choice you had was a 15-year
fixed-rate mortgage or a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.
There was no guesswork about what would
happen to your interest rate in the future, no such
thing as an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM); if
a lender agree d to give you a mortgage, you both
knew what your payments would be for the life of
that loan. If the loan was approved, the bank was
betting that you would have the ability to repay
it on time for the duration of the mortgage. If a
lender didn’t think you were likely to keep paying
the mortgage for 30 years (or until you sold the
home), you were denied the mortgage. It was that
simple. Th is protected the bank, and it protected
10 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
the borrower from taking debt they could not
afford.
The relationship between the bank and the borrower
began its seismic shift in the early 1980s.
Th is is where Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac come
into our story. Fannie was created in 1938 and
Freddie followed in 1970; both were government
Sponsored enterprises (GSEs)—they weren’t full-blown
federal agencies, but they had the aura
of being government-backed. Both GSEs had a
straightforward mandate: to increase the amount
of money available for mortgages. They did this
by buying mortgages from lenders so the lenders
would then have more money to lend. Fannie and
Freddie packaged loans that they held in their own
portfolios, as well as guaranteeing mortgages that
Wall Street could then package and sell to investors.
This entire process is what spurred home buying,
because the lenders had more money to lend
to potential homebuyers, which allowed more and
more people to buy homes.
At this point it became increasingly likely
that the original lender would not hold on to the
mortgage, but would instead sell it to a loan packager
such as Fannie or Freddie (or their less-well known
Cousin, Ginny Mae) and Wall Street firms.
Still, mortgage-backed securities had a very good
Reputation—they were new income products that
were backed by solid mortgages. Lenders were
still careful to make loans only to borrowers who
A Brief History of How We Got Here 11
could meet their high standards. It is important to
note that the business of packaging mortgages—
what’s known as securitization—in itself is not
bad. It is, in fact, an important and positive innovation
for financial markets. The problem began
around the beginning of the twenty -first century,
when Wall Street and greedy lenders cooked up a
scheme that took a good idea and turned it into a
toxic time bomb, with a major assist from the Federal
Reserve.
Once the technology stock bubble began to deflate in early 2000,
Federal Reserve chairman
Alan Greenspan attempted to keep the economy
from slipping into a severe recession by slashing
the Federal Funds Rate. From 2000 to 2004, the rate fell
from above 6 % to 1%. In such a low-rate
environment, Wall Street set out to create an investment
that was perceived to be safe and would
offer higher yields than basic bank CDs and
money markets were offering. The too-smart-for our-
own-good minds of the financial sector set
their sights on the quiet and somewhat staid world
of mortgage-backed securities. Rather than only
packaging plain-vanilla mortgages that had bee n
taken out by well-qualified borrowers, they realized
there was a lot more money to be made by
expanding the market to include mortgages that
had bee n made to people who were not well qualified.
Mortgages made to people without good
credit were known as subprime mortgages. Wall
12 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
Stree t insisted it had come up with a way to package
subprime mortgages with solid mortgages that
would give investors a higher yield, but with no
added risk. Wall Stree t bundled the prime and subprime
mortgages together in one investment, called
a Credit Default Obligation (CDO). Mortgagebacked
CDOs were supposed to be low-risk because
of how they pooled and divided the risk of
the underlying mortgages.
But Wall Stree t wasn’t done with its great
mortgage-backed money grab. It also started
churning out massive amounts of Credit Default
Swaps (CDS) tied to mortgages. Th e CDS were
insurance that promised investors in mortgagebacked
securities that they would be paid even if
an underlying investment (your mortgage) went
into default. Wall Stree t was also able to make
massive bets on mortgages using CDS.
Now I nee d to take a quick detour and mention
another important player in this crisis: leverage.
Not only was Wall Stree t allowed to create these
credit default swaps and other so-called safe investments,
they also were allowed to leverage
those investments to create more and more money
for themselves. When you leverage, you are borrowing
money in order to have more money to invest.
Here’s an example: Say you have $1 of your
own, but someone gives you $2 so you have $3 to
invest. If your investment pans out, you simply return
the $2 with interest, but you get to kee p all
A Brief History of How We Got Here 13
the profi ts fr om your $3 investment. Th at’s a lot
more profi t than if you had just invested $1. Wall
Stree t has used leverage for years, but during this
mortgage craziness, it talked federal regulators
into allowing it to borrow up to $30 or more for
every dollar it actually owned. And Wall Stree t
fi rms leveraged themselves to the hilt to make big
bets on mortgage-backed securities and all sorts
of schemes, including credit default swaps.
With their ingenious moneymaking scheme in
place, the only remaining obstacle for Wall Stree t
and the lenders was how to ramp up the numbers
of subprime borrowers. Th is is when we started
see ing an array of unconventional mortgages, such
as interest-only mortgages, negative-amortization
mortgages, payment-option ARMs, and 1-year
ARMs with artifi cially low initial payments.
(Interest-only mortgages and payment-option
mortgages, tw o of the riskiest and insane ty pes of
ARMs, grew fr om 2 % of the mortgage market in
2003 to 20 % in 2005.) And all you nee ded to qualify
was a heartbeat. No down payment? No problem.
Nor did borrowers nee d to cough up tax
returns or pay stubs to verify their income. Th at
was so tw entieth century; this was the new world
where NINJA loans ruled. No Income, No Job,
No Assets. No problem, you still qualify !
Mortgage lenders were happy to make these
risky loans, because they knew it wouldn’t be
their problem if the borrower eventually ran into
14 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
trouble kee ping up with the payments. Why? Because
these loans would quickly be sold off to investors,
and the investors were happy to do the
deal because they were being told that they had
“insurance” against mortgage defaults fr om the
credit default swaps. Oh, happy days.
Lenders couldn’t lend money fast enough to
satisfy the appetite of Wall Stree t investors and
borrowers were encouraged to take out the biggest
mortgage possible. Everyone wanted their
piece of the American Dream as home values sky -
rocketed.
But the cracks began to appear in late 2006
and early 2007. Borrowers who had taken out an
adjustable-rate mortgage a few years earlier faced
their fi rst rate adjustment. Many were shocked by
new payments that were far beyond what they
could aff ord. Refi nancing into a more aff ordable
mortgage wasn’t an option for many people, because
the Federal Reserve at that time had now
bee n raising the Federal Funds Rate, which by
mid-2006 was above 5 %. Th is meant that adjustable-
rate mortgages—many of which are aff ected
by changes in the Federal Funds Rate—would be
more expensive now that the rate was so much
higher. At the same time, real estate values started
to stagnate in many areas, and many ARM borrowers
simply didn’t have enough equity built up
in their homes to be able to refi nance, no matt er
what the interest rate. Remember, too, that many
A Brief History of How We Got Here 15
people were able to buy a home for no money
down so they never had equity to begin with.
By 2007, there were suddenly a whole lot of
homeowners who couldn’t aff ord their mortgages,
couldn’t refi nance, and couldn’t sell at a price that
would cover their mortgage because real estate
prices had begun to slide. And lenders were in no
mood to strike any deals. Th at’s when the foreclosure
rate started to rise. Far fr om being a problem
confi ned to subprime borrowers in over their
heads, foreclosures soon sent home values plummeting
everywhere. If your neighbor’s home was
in foreclosure, that was bad news for you too.
Since the 2006 peak, home values have dropped
more than 20 % on average, and tw ice as much in
some markets that were once considered to be
among the hott est. Many people owe more on
their homes than what they could sell them for today.
In fact, as I write this an estimated one in six
homeowners have a mortgage that excee ds the
value of their home in today’s market—a situation
that is known as being under water.
As foreclosures began to spread—Moody’s
Economy.com estimates nearly 2.5 million homes
were lost in 2007 and 2008 and another 3.5 million
could be lost in 2009 and 2010—the damage
hit Wall Stree t. Th is is where leverage ree nters the
picture. Remember all that borrowing I mentioned
earlier? Well, a lot of it was used to invest in all
sorts of mortgage-related securities. When those
16 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
investments began to fall apart because so many
of the underlying mortgages that were the basis of
those bets were now in foreclosure, investors faced
the ugly downside of leverage: Th ey had borrowed
a lot of money and now had no money to pay it
back. At 30:1 leverage, a Wall Stree t player could
make bets with a value of $300 million even if it
had just $10 million of its own money backing that
bet. If the bet didn’t pay off , the bank or hedge
fund had no way to make good on the $300 million.
And the supposed “insurance” fr om CDS was
just an empty promise. No one had the money to
make good on those deals.
To review: We had lenders making loans that
borrowers couldn’t aff ord, borrowers happy to get
a mortgage they couldn’t aff ord, and Wall Stree t,
egging on lenders and borrowers, telling us that it
was all okay because they insisted they had a brilliant
way to insulate investors (and their own trading
operations) against the risk in making highly
leveraged bets, because in the unlikely event borrowers
actually fell into trouble, the credit default
swaps would save the day.
Th at, of course, is a very basic explanation, and
there are many, many other elements that came
into play. But I want to cut to the real issue here:
We are in trouble today because everyone was happy
to lie, or happy to believe lies that any sane person
could see right through.
A Brief History of How We Got Here 17
I cannot overstate my wrath at mortgage lenders
that pushed toxic loans on borrowers, knowing
there was litt le chance they could honestly
aff ord those loans. While some borrowers were
simply too confused to understand what they
were gett ing into, I cannot absolve those who
chose to drink the Kool-Aid that they could buy
a $350,000 house on an income that could realistically
pay for only a $150,000 one. Nor do I have
much patience for borrowers who tell me the problem
is that real estate prices stopped going up, so
they got stuck without enough equity to refi nance
or sell. Buying a house based on the expectation
that price gains were a given and would continue
to rise at an annual pace that was double
and triple the historical norm is not just foolish,
it’s gree dy! Borrowers chose to believe what they
wanted to believe.
And don’t get me started on the levels of dishonesty
perpetrated by the banks and hedge funds
that came up with this can’t-miss scheme and the
government policy that did litt le to provide the
regulation that might prevent a meltdown. Or the
fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also got in
on the act and lowered their underwriting standards
so they could participate in the booming
loan market.
It was a wild, drunken party of dishonesty and
gree d on a national scale.
18 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
The Honest Way Out
While the mortgage crisis is the most vivid example
of how dishonesty and gree d leads to fi nancial
destruction, it is by no means the only example. If
you have a credit card balance that will remain
unpaid at the end of this month, you are participating
in your own brand of dishonesty because
you are living beyond your means. If you have no
emergency savings fund, you are not being honest
about considering and preparing for all the possibilities
life may throw at you. Leasing a car rather
than buying a car that is aff ordably fi nanced with
a standard three -year loan is, in my opinion, a
form of fi nancial deception. Th inking you didn’t
nee d to invest in your 401(k) or IRA because you
could count on stee p appreciation in your home
to fund a comfortable retirement is irresponsible,
wishful thinking. If you kee p spending like crazy
on the kids because, well, they expect you to, even
though you have unpaid bills, that’s a huge slice of
dishonesty . If you are tapping your home equity to
pay for vacations you can’t really aff ord, you are
cheating yourself out of fi nancial security .
Th e lies nee d to stop. Just think about where
all this dishonesty leaves you. In credit card debt.
Without a savings safety net if something goes
wrong. With no security .
You know that I have never thought this behavior
made any sense. Th ose of you who have bee n
A Brief History of How We Got Here 19
watching Th e Suze Orman Show on CNBC, or following
my advice elsewhere, know that I have forever
advised against these acts of dishonesty . I fi nd
it incredibly gratify ing to have helped so many of
you change course. But I also know there are many
more people who have yet to mend their ways or
fi gured they had time to turn over a new leaf. Well,
your time is up. If you don’t get your act together
in 2009, you will be in more trouble than you can
imagine.
Th e reality you nee d to grasp is that the rules
have changed. Credit card companies once giddy
to help you pour on debt are now going to penalize
you harshly if you are in debt or look like you
might overload soon. A loan, be it a mortgage, car
loan, or student loan, is much harder (and more
expensive) to come by now. Nor can you rely on
a credit line or HELOC in the event you are laid
off in 2009 and nee d cash to kee p your household
running; the odds are that if you tap either
credit source you will trigger a series of unintended
consequences that can put you in even
worse fi nancial shape.
Th ere is a way out: Honesty . With yourself.
With your partner. With your children. If you are
ready to face up to what you can honestly aff ord, if
you are willing to live within your means, not
within your dreams, you can turn this around. If
you are ready to commit to an action plan that
makes sure there is enough money left over at the
20 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
end of the month to pay every bill and save money
too, you are on your way to living a life of fi nancial
security .
But you have to be willing to get honest about
every facet of your fi nancial life.
My 2009 Action Plan gives you every honest
answer you will nee d to navigate the treacherous
fi nancial situation we face today, but even more
important, it will put you and your family on the
path to safety and security , this year and every
year.
21
3
ACTION PLAN
Credit
The New Reality
The banking industry is running scared. Th ey
think you won’t be able to kee p up with your
credit card payments in 2009 as the nation
continues to work its way through this economic
meltdown. Of course, that’s a justifi able concern
whenever the economy slows down, jobs are lost,
and unemployment rises. But what’s diff erent in
2009 is that banks are already ree ling fr om the
mortgage-default crisis that has triggered bank
failures and shotgun marriages betw ee n weak
banks and less-weak banks. Banks aren’t exactly
in great shape these days and they are painfully
aware of a Category 3 hurricane about to bear
down on them: National credit card debt is at a
staggering $970 billion, 50 % higher than when
the last economic slowdown hit in 2000. Th at’s
22 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
what happens in an era of “easy” money where
banks irresponsibly hand out multiple credit cards
to anyone with a pulse, regardless of income, and
consumers are all too eager to play along.
Th e game, however, is up, my fr iends. Credit
card companies have reversed course. Th ey are
now looking for ways to lend less money, especially
on accounts they dee m risky : consumers
with high unpaid balances and poor FICO credit
scores. Reducing credit card limits, closing down
accounts with no warning, and abruptly increasing
interest rates are just some of the aggressive
tactics the card companies are implementing right
now to shore up their business. Th at means serious
repercussions for you throughout 2009. Your
FICO score may drop—not because you changed
your fi nancial behavior, but because the credit
card companies changed the rules on you.
Th e best way to insulate yourself is to get out of
credit card debt once and for all. If you pay off
your balance, you don’t have to worry about the
interest rate on your card. If you pay off your balance,
you are less likely to have your credit card
limit reduced; and even if it is reduced, it will not
have a negative impact on your FICO score.
If you pay off your credit card balance, you
can focus on building an emergency savings fund.
Th at’s especially important in 2009. Th e days of
using your credit card as a de facto emergency
fund are over. If you tap too much of your credit
ACTION PLAN: Credit 23
card line, it is likely you will see the line reduced,
your interest rate rise, and, yes, potentially have
your card closed down—and there goes your
FICO score. Unpaid balances in 2009 will put you
in the middle of a vicious cycle. You must get out
of card debt now. It is the number one action to
take in 2009.
What you must do in 2009
■ Make it a priority to pay off your credit card
balances.
■ Read every statement and all correspondence
from your credit card company to make sure you
are aware of any changes to your account, such
as skyrocketing interest rates.
■ Work to get your FICO credit score above 720.
■ Be very careful where you turn to for help with
credit card debt. Debt consolidators are often a
very bad deal. The National Foundation for Credit
Counseling is a smarter choice.
■ Resist the temptation to use retirement savings
or a home equity line of credit to pay off credit
card debt.
Your 2009 Action Plan: Credit
SITUATION: You always pay the minimum amount
due on your credit card bill and are never late, but
your credit card limit was just reduced.
24 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: Paying the minimum in 2009 is not
good enough. Credit card companies are anticipating
that as the recession plays out, consumers
will be hard-pressed to kee p up with their bills.
So even if you have paid on time in the past, they
are worried about what will happen in the future.
And the fact that you pay just the minimum is a
huge warning signal to your credit card company.
It’s a tip-off that you may already be on shaky
ground.
Paying just the monthly minimum due signifi es
to a credit card company that you may fall behind
on payments in a severe recession and that you are
also more likely to let your balance grow if you hit
hard times. And that’s the last thing they want in
2009. To kee p you fr om doing just that, they cut
your credit limit.
SITUATION: You are worried that a lower credit limit
will hurt your FICO credit score.
ACTION: Pay off your balance every month and
your FICO credit score will not be aff ected. Your
FICO credit score is based on a series of calculations
that measure how good a credit risk you are.
One of the biggest factors in your credit score—
accounting for about 30 % of your score—is how
much debt you have. Th ere are a few ways that
this specifi c calculation is done, but one of the
chief ways it’s determined is the debt-to-available-
ACTION PLAN: Credit 25
credit ratio. Debt is how much money you owe on
all your credit cards. Available credit is the sum of
all the credit lines that have bee n extended to you.
Th e higher your debt, the worse it is for your FICO
score. And your debt-to-credit ratio will look much
worse if your credit limit is cut.
Let’s say you have only one credit card that has
a $2,000 balance on it. Last year your credit limit
on that card was $10,000. So your debt-to-credit
ratio was 20 % ($2,000 is 20 % of $10,000). Now
you fi nd out that your credit card company has
reduced your credit line to $5,000. Th at means
your ratio shoots up to 40 % ($2,000 is 40 % of
$5,000). Th at will indee d have a negative impact
on your FICO score.
Th e only way to kee p your FICO score unaffected
by a credit-limit reduction is to get out of
credit card debt and pay off your bills in full each
month.
SITUATION: The credit card company canceled
your account. Do you still have to pay the remaining
balance?
ACTION: Of course you do! When your account is
canceled, it is because the credit card company
has labeled you a high-risk cardholder. What is
being canceled is your ability to use that card in
the future. But you are still responsible for every
penny of your existing balance.
26 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: Your credit card has been canceled
and you are worried it will hurt your FICO score.
ACTION: Focus on gett ing the balance paid off ;
the lower the balance, the less it will damage your
FICO score if your card is canceled.
Th ere are tw o issues that come up when a card is
canceled: how it aff ects your debt-to-credit-limit ratio
and what happens to the interest rate on your
unpaid balance. In most cases, when a card that has
a balance on it has bee n revoked or canceled, the
credit card company will immediately raise your interest
rate to about 30 %. When this happens, if you
continue to pay only the minimum monthly payment,
you may never get out of debt on that card.
SITUATION: You thought the interest rate on your
credit card was fi xed at 5%, but it just shot up to 30%!
ACTION: Th ere is no such thing as a permanent
fi xed interest rate on your credit card. Th e rate is
fi xed only until the credit card issuer decides it
isn’t. It’s a marketing ploy. And credit card companies
have all sorts of reasons (embedded in the
agree ment you accepted when you opened the
card) to raise your rate.
In 2009, you bett er believe more and more
credit card companies are going to jump to increase
a low rate on a credit card if you make
ACTION PLAN: Credit 27
them nervous in any way. And just to be clear: An
unpaid balance makes them nervous. Paying the
minimum makes them nervous. See ing you fall
behind on another debt payment or missing a payment
makes them nervous big-time.
If you want to stee r clear of being hit with a giant
rate hike, you have tw o options: don’t run up a
balance in the fi rst place; or, if you do have an unpaid
balance, get it paid off . When you have a zero
balance, what do you care about the interest rate?
SITUATION: You have a low-interest-rate credit
card you never use—it is just there in case of emergency.
Now you’re worried that if you have to use it,
your interest rate will go up.
ACTION: Build a real emergency savings account.
Relying on your credit card to bail you out of
emergencies is too dangerous in 2009. (See “Action
Plan: Saving” for advice on where to open a
savings account and “Action Plan: Spending” for
action steps on how to come up with more money
to put toward a savings fund.)
If you use a credit card for an emergency expense
in 2009 and you can’t pay off the balance,
you will set off a vicious cycle. An unpaid balance
where there once was none makes a credit card
company nervous. It can also make other credit
card companies you have accounts with nervous.
Th at could cause the credit limits on all your cards
28 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
to be cut. And if that causes your FICO credit
score to drop, then you can expect the interest
rate on your credit card to rise.
Th e only solution is to stop thinking of your
credit card as a safety net if you run into trouble.
Th e only true safety net is a savings account.
SITUATION: You have a FICO credit score above 720
but your interest rate just shot up. What’s the best
way to pay off your credit card debt?
ACTION: See if you can apply for a balance transfer
to a low-rate card. Because you have a high
FICO score, you may be in luck. But lenders aren’t
exactly rolling out the welcome mat right now, so
this may not be feasible.
Go to cardtrak.com and use the Search tool to
shop for balance-transfer off ers. Th e idea is to
move your money to a card with a low introductory
rate and then push yourself to get the balance
paid off before the low rate expires. Th is can be
tricky in 2009. You have the added risk that even
if you do everything right with your new card, you
could still have the introductory rate rescinded because
something out of your control happened on
one of your other accounts, such as having your
credit limit reduced. In “Action Plan: Spending,” I
explain how to reassess your family’s income and
expenses to fi nd more money to put toward paying
down credit card debt.
ACTION PLAN: Credit 29
SITUATION: You have a low FICO credit score, but
you are current on all your accounts. How should you
deal with your debt?
ACTION: Here’s how:
■ Pay the minimum amount due on every card
each month. That’s your only shot at keeping
your FICO score from falling further. It will also
lower the odds that your credit card company
will close your account.
■ Line up your cards and put the card that charges
the highest interest rate at the top of the pile.
That’s the card you focus on paying off fi rst.
Send in as much money as you can each month
to get that balance down to zero.
■ Once the fi rst card is paid off, focus on the second
card in your pile: the card with the nexthighest
interest rate.
■ Keep up with this system until you have all the
cards paid off.
Of course, the big challenge is fi nding extra
money every month to put toward paying off your
credit card debt. In “Action Plan: Spending,” I
have suggestions about how to “fi nd” more money
in your month by reducing your expenses.
30 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You are behind on your credit card payments,
but you want to know the best payment strategy
for improving your FICO score.
ACTION: Focus on paying the most you can on
accounts that are the least late. Th e longer unpaid
debt has bee n on your credit reports, the less effect
it has on your FICO score. So if you can make
current an account that is past due by only 60
days, it will help your FICO score far more than
paying off your balance on an account you have
bee n past due on for three years. I want you to
organize your credit card statements into tw o
piles: cards that are past due for less than one year
and those that are past due for more than one year.
Start with the fi rst pile: Pay off the account that is
closest to being current fi rst, then move to the next
card in that pile. Once you have paid off the cards
in the fi rst pile, I want you to use the strategy I
covered in the action step above for paying off
cards that you are more than one year behind on.
SITUATION: You want to use your HELOC to pay off
your credit card debt.
ACTION: Do not do this. Even if you still have
enough equity to kee p your HELOC open, this is
a dangerous mistake. You are putt ing your house
at risk. When you borrow fr om your HELOC,
ACTION PLAN: Credit 31
your home is the collateral. Let’s say you get laid
off in 2009—not exactly impossible, given the
way the economy is struggling—and suddenly you
can’t kee p up with the HELOC payments on top
of all your other bills. Fall behind on the payments
and you could lose your house.
As much as I want you to pay off your credit
card debt, you nee d to understand that credit card
debt is “unsecured” debt. Th ere is no collateral
that a credit card company can easily force you to
hand over to sett le your debt. So it makes no sense
to transfer your unsecured debt into a secured
debt—a HELOC—where you run the risk of losing
your home if you can’t make the payments.
SITUATION: You want to take out a loan from your
401(k) to pay off your credit card debt.
ACTION: Do not do this. I know it is tempting, but
it is such a dangerous move. Anyone who has bee n
listening to my advice over the years knows I have
never approved of 401(k) loans because you end
up paying tax tw ice on the money you borrow. But
I can understand that if you are staring at an interest
rate of 30 % on your credit card, you fi gure the
tax penalty is worth paying.
Given what has happened to the economy, I
once again must say no. First, we are in the midst
of a severe recession. Th at increases the possibility
that you will lose your job. I don’t care how valued
32 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
an employee you are. No one is safe when a company
is losing money, or can’t kee p operating because
the credit crisis makes it impossible for the
fi rm to do business. We are all vulnerable in times
like these. And if you have an outstanding loan
against your 401(k) when you are laid off , you ty pically
must pay off the loan within a short period of
time. Fail to do that and it becomes a withdrawal;
that means you owe tax on the entire amount immediately
and a 10 % early-withdrawal penalty if
you are under age 55 in the year you left service.
And tell me exactly where you will get the money
for that. Not your credit card, that’s for sure.
An even bigger issue is that you nee d your 401(k)
for tomorrow. Use it today and what will you have
in retirement? Can’t think about that right now?
Excuse me, you can’t aff ord not to think about that.
And that brings me to the issue of bankruptcy. I
certainly hope this never happens to you, but in
the event you must declare bankruptcy, one silver
lining is that any money you have in a 401(k) or
IRA is protected. Th at is, you will not be required
to use your retirement savings to sett le your debts.
It is a permanent asset for you. Don’t blow it by
using the money to pay off your credit card debt.
SITUATION: You have heard that credit card companies
may be willing to reach a settlement for a reduced
payment. Who’s a likely candidate?
ACTION PLAN: Credit 33
ACTION: You must be seriously behind in your
payments and have a sizable lump sum of cash at
the ready to have any shot at working out a sett lement
that reduces what you owe.
Th e only way the credit card company will forgive
a portion of your unpaid balance is if you can
make a lump-sum payment that covers some of
the money you owe. Let’s say you have $20,000 in
credit card debt that the credit card company is
willing to reduce to $10,000. You nee d to be able
to pay cold cash to cover the remaining $10,000
immediately. Th is is not about gett ing your balance
lowered and then promising to be a good Boy
Scout or Girl Scout who will stick to a monthly
repayment plan. To get a sett lement requires having
enough cash at the ready to pay off the entire
remaining (reduced) balance. If you don’t have
that money, you aren’t likely to be off ered a sett lement
deal.
SITUATION: You wonder if negotiating a settlement
will hurt your FICO credit score.
ACTION: If you don’t want your FICO score to go
down, do not ask for a sett lement. A sett lement
means you failed to live up to your obligation to
pay the full amount of debt you were responsible
for. It will indee d have a negative impact on your
credit score. Th at said, in certain rare instances—
if you’ve previously had a stellar record, have
34 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
suff ered a job loss or medical catastrophe, and the
outstanding debt isn’t huge—you may be able to
convince the card issuer not to report the sett lement.
Be prepared to document your case.
SITUATION: You just received a tax document from
the credit card company that says it reported the
amount of your settlement to the IRS.
ACTION: Be prepared to pay income tax on the
amount of the forgiven credit card debt.
By law, the credit card company is required to
send you and the IRS a 1099-C form that shows
the amount of the forgiven debt, which is indee d
money that you will owe income tax on. Sorry,
there is no tax break for credit card sett lements.
(An exception is if you are insolvent, meaning
the amount of all your liabilities is more than the
value of all your assets. If the forgiven debt is
reported to the IRS on a Form 1099, you should
att ach a note to your tax return explaining the insolvency—
otherwise, the IRS will likely initiate
an automatic audit, since the income reported on
the 1099 does not appear on your return. Be prepared
with good documentation to back up your
claim that at the time the debt was forgiven,
your liabilities excee ded the fair market value of
your assets. I recommend you work with a tax advisor
to help you navigate this situation.)
ACTION PLAN: Credit 35
SITUATION: You hold a credit card from a bank that
failed. What’s going to happen to your account?
ACTION: Th e best protection is a strong FICO
score. When one bank fails, another bank takes on
its existing credit card accounts. But you nee d to
realize that the new bank is not required to kee p
off ering you that card. It will investigate your account
and decide if you are a good credit risk. And
let’s be honest here: If your bank failed in part because
it was too lenient about extending credit, it
stands to reason that the acquiring bank may not
want to kee p your business. Bott om line: If you are
a credit risk, your credit card could be shut down.
If you have a strong FICO score, you will no doubt
be welcomed by the new bank with open arms.
SITUATION: You hold a credit card from a bank that
failed. Do you still need to pay off your balance?
ACTION: Of course you are still responsible for
the debt. People, there is no shortcut around personal
responsibility . You made the charges, so you
are responsible for the debt you ran up.
Kee p sending in your payments. Print a copy of
the canceled check or e-payment and kee p it in a
safe place. Chances are the transition to your new
bank will be seamless, but you never know. I think
it is wise to kee p a printed record for at least six
36 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
months aft er your bank has bee n taken over by
another bank.
SITUATION: You have a FICO credit score of 660,
but you were just turned down for a car loan.
ACTION: Improve your score to 720 if you want a
loan with decent terms.
Lenders are no longer eager to lend money to
people with just so-so credit. Th at’s true of any
ty pe of loan: mortgages, car loans, private student
loans. In the past (the days of irresponsible, subprime
lending, circa 2007 and earlier), it was fairly
easy for anyone to get a loan of any ty pe. If you had
a great FICO score over 720, you got the best
terms. But if you had a low FICO score, you could
still get a loan, though you’d pay a higher interest
rate and maybe higher fee s. Now a low score can
mean no loan. It’s the same issue we have bee n
talking about over and over: Lenders are running
for safety . Th ey are very cautious about whom they
will lend to. A FICO score below 700 is likely going
to make it very hard to qualify for a loan in
2009, or you will have to pay a stee p risk penalty :
much higher interest rates and fee s than you might
have paid with the same score tw o years ago.
SITUATION: You want to improve your FICO credit
score, but you aren’t sure what to do.
ACTION PLAN: Credit 37
ACTION: Know what matt ers to FICO and make
the necessary changes in your fi nancial life.
Fair Isaac is the parent company that is responsible
for the FICO credit score. You actually have
three FICO scores, one fr om each of the three
credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Trans-
Union. Credit scores range fr om 300 to 850. A
year ago, I would have told you that a score of 720
or bett er was all you nee ded to get the best loan
off ers. But the fallout fr om the credit crisis has
meant that the top tier has actually bee n pushed
higher; some mortgage lenders reserve their best
rates for individuals with FICO scores above 760.
Unless you plan on buying a house in 2009, I
wouldn’t worry as long as your score is at least
720. Th at’s still plenty good enough to kee p most
creditors happy.
If your score is below 720, here’s what you nee d
to do to make it bett er:
■ Pay bills on time. This accounts for 35% of your
credit score. If you are late on payments—not
just credit card payments, but bills of any kind,
it will pull down your score. Pay on time, even if
it is just the minimum due, and it will help your
score.
■ Reduce what you owe. We already covered this
earlier in the chapter. The less you owe on your
cards and other debt, the less “risky” you look
38 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
to potential lenders. How much you owe relative
to your available credit and other debts accounts
for 30% of your score.
■ Hold on to cards with a long credit history. The
longer your credit record, the more data FICO
has to assess whether you are a good credit risk.
This accounts for 15% of your score. Make sure
you keep your card with the longest history in
good shape; you don’t want it to be canceled.
■ Limit your credit applications. The more new
credit you ask for, the more nervous you make
lenders. New credit accounts for 10% of your
FICO score. If your record shows you have applied
for multiple credit cards and a new car loan
at the same time, it will pull down your score.
■ Aim for a mix of different types of credit. I know
this sounds crazy after explaining how you don’t
want to have too much credit, but lenders do in
fact like to see that you have a few different
types of credit. It’s a sign you have experience
juggling different obligations with different loan
terms. So having a credit card and a car loan is
actually better than having just a credit card.
That said, your credit mix accounts for just 10%
of your FICO score. And my advice for 2009 is to
ignore this factor. If you have only credit cards, I
am not going to suggest you sign up for a store
card or take on some other debt.
ACTION PLAN: Credit 39
SITUATION: You are considering hiring a debtconsolidation
company to help you with your credit
card debt.
ACTION: Don’t fall for the come-ons. Th ese off ers
are oft en rip-off s and can do serious damage to
your credit score and leave you in more debt than
you started with.
I know how tempting it sounds when you hear
an ad that tells you the Super Duper Debt Consolidation
Co. is standing by to make all your credit
card debt stress go away. What they don’t explain
is that they ty pically charge you 10 % or so of what
you owe to take on your case, and in the event they
work out a sett lement with your creditors, they are
going to want another 10 % or more of the amount
they “saved” you. And I promise you, these debtconsolidation
companies aren’t going to spend a lot
of time explaining to you that any sett lement they
negotiate for you will ruin your FICO credit score
and may end up costing you income tax on the
amount of debt that is forgiven.
Most troubling is the growing number of complaints
in 2008 that debt-consolidation fi rms collected
their initial fee and then did nothing for the
consumer. Not only were the clients out their fee ,
their FICO scores were hurt even more because
the debt-consolidation fi rm told them they were
40 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
taking care of the payments and the sett lement.
In reality , nothing was being done, so the amount
owed ballooned as interest rates were raised and
penalty fee s piled up.
Th ere is no easy way out of debt. Anyone promising
to magically make everything all bett er is
either lying to you or not explaining the fi nancial
and credit costs of what they are doing.
SITUATION: You don’t know where to turn for honest
help in dealing with your credit card debt.
ACTION: Contact the National Foundation for
Credit Counseling. Th is is a netw ork of nonprofi t
agencies with trained counselors who will help you
assess your situation and lay out the most logical
and realistic steps for you to follow. Th ey are not
miracle workers; as we just discussed, there are no
miracles to be had when it comes to your credit
card debt. But the NFCC are the “good guys” you
can trust. Go to nfcc.org or call 800-388-2227.
SITUATION: You visited an NFCC-network credit
counselor in 2008, but you still can’t afford a repayment
plan with credit card interest rates at 19%—and
higher.
ACTION: Don’t give up. In 2009, you may have
more options. As I write, the NFCC has bee n
working with the top ten card issuers on a plan to
ACTION PLAN: Credit 41
standardize a Debt Repayment Plan (DMP) by
March 31, 2009 that would off er interest rates low
enough so consumers could pay off their enrolled
balances (with a fi xed payment of 2 % or a hardship
payment of 1.75 %) within fi ve years. Check
my Web site or nfcc.org for updates.
SITUATION: You feel the walls caving in and fear
bankruptcy is your only option.
ACTION: Contact the NFCC and get honest help
in assessing your options. If you aren’t eligible for
a DMP, the counselor will try to fi nd a workable
alternative to bankruptcy. Only about 10 % of
their clients have ended up in bankruptcy.
Th at said, if in fact you owe more than what
you make; if you have tried every which way to
pay your bills, including working a second or even
a third job; if your debt kee ps growing and you are
being charged 32 % interest and you can’t see any
way out, then bankruptcy may, sadly, be an option
for you. Just remember that bankruptcy will destroy
your FICO credit score, but then again, if
you have bee n behind in payments your FICO
score is probably already pretty low. Bankruptcy
is really a last resort when you have tried everything
else. Th is drastic step requires the most
careful consideration. You will want to fi nd a reputable
att orney who can explain the current law,
the pros and cons of fi ling, and the diff erent kinds
42 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
of bankruptcy. For a good overview of the subject
visit the credit.com Web site at: www.credit.com/
slp/chapter8/Bankruptcy.jsp.
SITUATION: You keep getting calls saying that you
owe money on a credit card, but you have no idea
what the collection agency is talking about.
ACTION: First of all, verify the debt. Debt collection
agencies can pursue old debts that have never
bee n paid off , hoping you will pay money to stop
the calls. But plenty of times the debts are false—
the result of identity theft , clerical errors, or credit
reports that have not bee n updated. Sometimes
a debt is so old it’s passed the time period when a
debt collector could legally sue to collect (see below).
Within 30 days of being contacted, send the
collector a lett er (be sure to send it certifi ed mail,
return receipt requested) stating you do not owe
the money, and requesting proof the debt is valid
(such as a copy of the bill you supposedly owe). If
the collection agency doesn’t verify the debt within
30 days, it can no longer kee p contacting you and
cannot list the debt on your credit report. Remember
your best shot at avoiding these “zombie”
debts that erroneously resurface is by staying on
top of your credit report. In these credit-crunched
times, no one can aff ord a single inaccuracy that
could lower a credit score. Go to annualcredit
report.com to get your fr ee credit report. Each of
ACTION PLAN: Credit 43
the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and
Transunion, are required to provide you with one
fr ee report a year.
SITUATION: You haven’t been able to pay your
credit card bills for some time and your cards were
shut down fi ve years ago, but you are still getting
calls saying you owe money.
ACTION: Check out your state’s statute of limitations
on debt collection. In every state, the statue
of limitations for credit card debt begins to tick
fr om the date you failed to make a payment that
was due—as long as you never made another payment
on that credit card account. (You can fi nd
the list of state statutes at htt p://www.fair-debtcollection.
com/SOL-by-State.html#15.) One way
to prove the statute applies to your debts is to get
a copy of your credit report. It will list the dates
you were delinquent as reported by your creditors.
So if your state’s statute of limitations on credit
card debt is fi ve years, and your last payment was
due on April 12, the statute of limitations on that
debt will run out fi ve years fr om that April 12,
assuming you haven’t made another payment.
(Please note: statutes will vary for diff erent ty pes
of debt. Th e statutes of limitations are diff erent for
credit card accounts than for mortgages and auto
loans.) Also important to note: If you are contacted
by a collection agency and you make a
44 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
promise to send in a check or you actually do send
in a small amount of money, it is possible that the
statute of limitations starts all over again.
SITUATION: You are being harrassed at work by
calls from collection agencies.
ACTION: Th e Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
(FDCPA) restricts tactics that debt collection
agencies may use. Th ey cannot call you at work if
they know your employer prohibits such calls.
Once you tell them this, they have to stop the
calls; it’s wise to follow up with a lett er. Show you
know your rights by informing them that under
provision 15 of the U.S. Code, section 1692b-c,
the lett er constitutes formal notice to stop all
future communications with you except for the
reasons specifi cally set forth in the federal law.
Collectors also cannot phone your home so oft en
as to constitute harassment and they cannot call
before 8 A.M. or aft er 9 P.M. You can learn more
about your rights under the FDCPA at htt p://
www.credit.com/credit_information/credit_law/
Understanding-Your-Debt-Collection-Rights.jsp#2.
45
4
ACTION PLAN
Retirement
Investing
The New Reality
Aft er watching your 401(k) and IRA investments
lose 30 % or more last year, you are
consumed with fear and doubt. You fear
that your losses are so stee p you will never be able
to aff ord a comfortable retirement. And you doubt
that you will ever be able to recover those losses,
especially if you stick with stocks. I completely
understand why you would fee l that way.
But I have to tell you, the biggest risk to your
retirement security is giving in to your emotions.
When fear and doubt are in control, you may make
decisions that fee l “right” for 2009, but they will
hurt your long-term retirement strategy. Th at’s
46 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
what makes retirement investing so tough: You
nee d to have the resolve and confi dence to look
past what is happening this month, this quarter,
and this year, and focus instead on the correct
actions to take today that will serve you well in
retirement.
For many of you, the toughest thing I will ask
of you in 2009 is not to change a thing. As I will
explain, sticking to your long-term strategy in
2009 is more important—and has the potential to
have the greatest payoff down the line—than in
any other year.
At the same time, those of you who are within
10 years or so of retiring may nee d to make big
changes to your retirement strategy. I’ve heard
fr om so many near-retiree s, panicking now because
they had the bulk of their money invested in
stocks. As I will explain in detail in the Action
Plan that follows, that was never a good idea. As
you near retirement, you nee d to begin shift ing
greater and greater portions of your money into
bonds and stable-value accounts.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to be
careful about retirement investing in 2009. Rash
actions are not the right actions. Trust me, you
cannot aff ord to get this wrong. So please read
what follows carefully. Whether you are 25 or 65,
I have laid out the actions you nee d to take to stay
on course, starting now.
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 47
What You Must Do in 2009
■ Make sure you have the right mix of stocks
and bonds in your retirement accounts given
your age.
■ Do not make early withdrawals or take loans
from retirement accounts to pay for non-retirement
expenses.
■ Convert an old 401(k) to a rollover IRA so you can
invest in the best low-cost funds, ETFs, and
bonds.
■ If eligible in 2009, consider moving at least a portion
of a 401(k) rollover into a Roth IRA. Or wait
until 2010 to convert to a Roth, when everyone,
regardless of income, will be able to make this
move. Just be aware of the tax due at conversion.
Your 2009 Action Plan:
Retirement Investing
PLEASE NOTE: When I refer to 401(k)s throughout
this chapter, the advice is also applicable to
403(b)s and other tax-deferred accounts.
SITUATION: You don’t plan on retiring for at least
10 years, but after watching your retirement account
lose 30% in 2008 you’ve had it with stocks. You want
to stop investing in the stock market, at least until
you see stocks going up again.
48 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: Resist the temptation to stop investing
in stocks. If you have time on your side—and that
means at least 10 years, and preferably longer, before
you nee d money—you want to kee p a large
portion of your retirement money in stocks.
As noted above, the hardest part of retirement
investing is staying focused on your long-term
goal, rather than gett ing overwhelmed by what is
happening day-to-day. And if your goal is indee d
10, 20, or 30 years off in the future, then I have to
tell you that now looks like a great time to kee p
investing in stocks. I know that’s hard to fathom
when stock prices are so low, but it’s because they
are much lower that the long-term prospects are
for bett er performance. You remember the fi rst
commandment of investing—buy low, sell high?
Well, right now you can defi nitely buy at lower
prices. I am not suggesting that you will be able to
sell higher next year or even the year aft er. Th at’s
not likely. But it is also irrelevant, because we are
focusing on the opportunity to buy today and hold
for 10, 15, 20 years or more. Buy low today and
down the road it’s likely you will be able to sell at
much higher levels.
SITUATION: You keep hearing that the best thing
you can do is to keep investing in your 401(k), but it
just makes no sense to you, given that 2009 is supposed
to be a rocky year in the markets.
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 49
ACTION: Focus on how many shares you can buy
in 2009 and forget about the value of those shares.
If you have time on your side, and by that I
mean at least 10 years until you intend to tap your
retirement savings, your concern should not be so
much what your retirement accounts are worth
today but what they might be worth in the future.
I understand the desire to shift all your money
into a stable-value fund or money market fund offered
in your 401(k). But that is a short-term salve
that could leave you weaker in the long run. Why?
Because once you move your money out of stocks,
you give up any chance to make back your losses.
Sure, the stable-value fund will inch along with a
3 % to 4 % gain each year, but chances are that’s not
enough to help you reach your long-term investing
goals; the return of a stable-value fund will barely
kee p up with the rate of infl ation. If you told me
your account was already large enough that simply
kee ping pace with infl ation was all you nee ded,
then I would be the fi rst to say: Move everything
into the stable-value fund. But that’s not the situation
most people are in; they nee d larger gains over
time to build a big enough retirement pot to retire
comfortably. Only stocks off er the potential for infl
ation-beating gains over the long term.
As I write in mid-November 2008, many of the
major stock indexes are down 40 % over the past
year. While there could defi nitely be additional
losses as we work our way out of the credit mess
50 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
and economic recession, I believe we have probably
see n the worst of the damage. I do not expect
us to be down another 40 % fr om here.
SITUATION: You have more than 10 years before
retirement, but you just can’t stand to watch your
401(k) go down every month. You want to put your
monthly contributions in a safe place within your retirement
account.
ACTION: You have to understand that at today’s
lower prices, the money you continue to invest in
your 401(k) will buy more shares. And what you
want right now is to gather as many shares as you
can. Now, I am not a wishful thinker; I certainly
expect more instability in the markets in 2009 that
could push stock prices even lower. So why would
I tell you to kee p buying in 2009? Because it is going
to pay off for you in 2019 and 2029 and 2039.
Let’s walk through a simplifi ed hypothetical example.
Let’s say you invested $200 in your 401(k)’s
stock fund. Th e share price was $20, so your $200
bought 10 shares. One month later, let’s say that
the share price has fallen to $10 a share. Th at
means your $200 can buy you 20 shares.
If, however, you decided to give up on the stock
market aft er that one month of investing and put
your $200 contribution into a stable-value fund,
you would still own your 10 shares and have $200
in cash in your 401(k).
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 51
On the other hand, if you decided to kee p investing
your $200 contribution that month into
the stock fund at $10 a share, you would now have
30 shares—the 10 you bought the fi rst month and
the 20 you bought the second.
Now, for the purposes of this exercise, let’s assume
that the stock fund went back up to $20 a
share one month aft er you did this.
In the fi rst example, where you stopped investing
in the stock market, your 10 shares at $20
would now be worth $200 and you would still
have $200 in the stable-value fund. So in total
you would have $400 in your account. You
broke even.
In the second scenario, if you kept investing,
you would now have 30 shares of the stock fund in
your 401(k) that is now worth $20 a share. You
would now have $600 in your account—a gain of
$200 over what you invested.
In the fi rst example, you are just back to where
you started. In the second, you are up 50 % on your
money.
I realize this is an extreme example—there is
no chance your stock investments will completely
rebound in one month—but I wanted to make the
point clearly that the right action to take over time
is invest, invest, invest. As long as you have at least
10 years until you nee d this money, I am telling
you to try to relax and have a long-term perspective
when you open your statement and the value
52 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
of your account has gone down. Th e more it goes
down, the more shares you get to buy; the more
shares you buy now, the bigger the payoff when
the market goes back up. Please do not stop investing
now. Don’t change your strategy—just change
your point of view.
SITUATION: Your plan is to get out of stocks while
they continue to go down, then shift your money
back to stocks when things get better.
ACTION: What you are trying to do is “market
timing.” In the short term, you may fee l as if you
are doing the right thing, but it will backfi re on
you over the long term. And retirement investing
is all about the long term.
Th e big problem with market timing is that if
you are out of the stock market, you run the very
real risk that you will not be back in the market
when it rallies; there is no way you will ever make
up for your losses if you miss those rallies.
Listen, I get where you’re coming fr om: It would
be so great if we could sell before the markets go
down and buy before the markets go back up, but
it is nearly impossible to have perfect timing because
there is no telling when the big rallies will
come. For example, one day in an extremely wild
period in October 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average lost nearly 700 points. Let’s say you got
out of stocks that day because you had had enough.
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 53
Well, tw o trading days later the Dow Jones Industrial
Average sky rocketed more than 900 points.
So you missed the rally that wiped out the losses
fr om a few days earlier. Of course, that is a very
rare and dramatic example; it’s not oft en we get
such huge swings in the space of a few trading
days. But the point is clear: If you try to time the
markets, you risk missing out on rallies.
I know it is not fun or easy, but a long-term buyand-
hold strategy in a diversifi ed mutual fund or
exchange-traded fund (ETF) is what works best.
Here’s some evidence to consider:
Let’s say you invested $1,000 in 1950 and then
had perfect market timing and managed to miss
the 20 worst months betw ee n 1950 and June 2008.
Your $1,000 would have grown to more than
$800,000, according to Toreador Research &
Trading. But it’s not as if there is some public calendar
that tells us exactly when to get in and out.
So let’s take a look at what happens if you missed
the 20 best months for stocks during that stretch—
that is, you were in cash when the market rallied.
Well, your $1,000 would have grown to just
$11,500. If, instead, you had invested your $1,000
and left it in the market through good and bad
times, you would have ended up with more than
$73,000. Sure, that’s a lot less than $800,000. But
it’s also a lot more than $11,500. Granted, none of
us think in terms of a 57-year time horizon, but
please know that myriad studies similar to this
54 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
one come to the same conclusion over shorter time
spans too. Buy and hold is the swee t spot betw ee n
elusive perfect market timing and tragic poor
market timing.
SITUATION: You have time on your side, but you
still don’t trust history this time. You just can’t shake
the feeling that this time is different, that buy-andhold
investing is not the way to go.
ACTION: Push yourself to kee p the faith. But if at
the end of the day you can’t function because you
are so worried, then perhaps it is best for you to
get out of stocks. However, you nee d to understand
the serious trade-off you will make.
Let’s start by stripping away your emotions for
a moment. My best fi nancial advice is for you to
stay invested. I know what we are going through
right now is incredibly scary. But we have had
scary times before.
On the next page are the 10 most recent
bear markets (periods of major losses when the
stock market indexes go down at least 20 %) prior
to 2008.
So this is not the fi rst (or last) scary time. What’s
crucial to understand is that despite all those bad
times, patient investors did fi ne. More than fi ne,
actually. From 1950 through 2007, the annualized
gain for the S&P 500 stock index was more than
10 %. Th e big takeaway: Th ere are bad times and
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 55
there are good times, and history tells us that over
time, the good times outw eigh the bad.
So now you know my best fi nancial advice: Stay
the course. Th at is what I would do if it were my
money. But it’s not my money. It’s your money.
And no one will ever care about your money as
much as you do. So if you know that the only way
you can get through these tough times is to pull
your money out of stocks and into a stable-value
fund or a money market, then you nee d to do that.
I just ask that you consider everything you read in
this Action Plan. From a fi nancial point of view,
you are putt ing yourself at the risk of never making
up the losses and not making big enough gains
BEAR MARKET LOSS
August 1956–October 1957 –21.6%
December 1961–June 1962 –28%
February 1966–October 1966 –22%
November 1968–May 1970 –36%
January 1973–October 1974 –48.2%
September 1976–March 1978 –19.4%
January 1981–August 1982 –25.85
August 1987–December 1987 –33.5%
July 1990–October 1990 –19.9%
March 2000–October 2002 –49.1%
Source: The Vanguard Group; Standard & Poor’s
56 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
to beat infl ation. Perhaps you can strike a compromise
with yourself: How about you move a small
percentage of your money out of stocks and into a
stable-value fund? Th at will make it easier to get
through the rocky times, but it will kee p a portion
of your retirement funds invested in stocks.
I respect the emotional component of investing—
something that too many professionals dismiss.
All I ask of you in 2009 is to try as hard as
you can not to let your emotions completely derail
your long-term strategy. Compromise could be the
ticket for you: By moving a portion of your money
into a stable-value fund—say, no more than a
third or so—you should be able to slee p bett er today
without derailing your chances of slee ping
well in retirement too.
SITUATION: You want to stop contributing to your
401(k), even though your company matches your
contribution, so you will have more money to pay off
your credit card debt.
ACTION: Don’t do it. If you work for a company
that matches your contribution, I don’t care how
much credit card debt you have or how messy your
fi nancial life may be. You cannot aff ord to miss
out on a company match. Do you hear me?
When your employer matches a dollar of your
money with a 25-cent matching contribution or
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 57
gves you 50 cents for a dollar invested that is too
good a deal to pass up.
SITUATION: You want to stop contributing to your
401(k) after you reach the maximum employer match
so you will have more money to pay off your credit
card debt.
ACTION: Do it. Once you get to the point where
you have maxed out your employer’s matching
contribution (ask HR to help you fi gure out the
max you nee d to contribute to collect the full company
match), then you absolutely should stop contributing
so you have more money in your paycheck
to put toward paying off your credit cards. As I
explain in “Action Plan: Credit,” reducing your
credit card balances is not only smart in 2009, it is
necessary.
SITUATION: You plan on retiring in fi ve years and
are wondering if it makes more sense to keep contributing
to your 401(k) or use the money to pay off
your mortgage.
ACTION: If you intend to live in your home forever,
then I recommend you focus on paying off
the mortgage. With one big caveat: If you get a
company match on your 401(k), you must kee p
investing enough to qualify for the maximum em-
58 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ployer match. Th at is a great deal you are not to
pass up. But I wholeheartedly recommend scaling
back your contribution rate just to the point of the
match so that you’ll have more money in your paycheck
to put toward paying off your mortgage before
you retire. Yes, I realize this means you will
have less saved in your 401(k), but you will also
nee d a lot less because you will no longer have
a mortgage payment to deal with in retirement,
and for most retiree s that is the biggest income
worry.
SITUATION: You can’t afford your mortgage and
want to borrow or withdraw money from your 401(k)
to make the payments.
ACTION: Don’t do it. Too many people these days
are making this huge mistake. I understand that
you are desperate to hang on to your house and
will do anything to avoid foreclosure, but I defi -
nitely do not want you to take a withdrawal. You
will pay income tax and may also be hit with a
10 % penalty for money taken out before you are
59½. And then, six months later, you will fi nd
yourself back in the same hole: All the money fr om
your 401(k) will be gone and once again you will
fall behind on your mortgage.
A 401(k) loan carries a ton of risk, too. If you
are laid off , you ty pically must pay back the loan
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 59
within a few months. Th e current economic outlook
predicts a rise in layoff s in 2009. So if you
take out the loan, get laid off , and can’t pay the
money back ASAP, you will run into another tax
problem: Th e loan is treated as a withdrawal and
you’ll be stuck paying tax—and possibly a 10 %
early-withdrawal penalty . A loan is also dangerous
because the markets may rally during the time
you have taken out the loan, which means you will
have missed an important period to recoup some
of your losses.
It’s also important to know that money you
have in a 401(k) or IRA is protected if you ever
have to fi le for bankruptcy. You get to kee p that
money no matt er what.
My preference is that you scour every part of
your fi nancial life to fi nd other income sources for
covering your mortgage. See “Action Plan: Spending”
for advice on how to squee ze more savings
out of your current income.
SITUATION: Your credit card account was closed
down and your interest rate on the remaining balance
was increased to 32%. You want to take a 401(k)
loan to wipe out the credit card debt.
ACTION: As noted above, it is just too risky to
take out a loan fr om your 401(k) in 2009, given
the heightened possibility of layoff s. I understand
60 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
the damage a 32 % credit card interest rate can do,
but I want you to resist the temptation to raid your
401(k). Please review “Action Plan: Spending” for
my advice on how to seriously tackle your expenses
to fi nd savings you can then put toward
important fi nancial goals, such as paying off highrate
credit card debt.
SITUATION: You have been laid off and need the
money in your 401(k). Can you withdraw it without
paying the 10% penalty?
ACTION: Yes, if you are 55 years of age or older
in the year you were laid off . You will, however,
still have to pay ordinary income tax on what you
withdraw. I want to be clear: I am not recommending
that you take money out of your retirement
accounts at such a young age, but I recognize
that some of you are in a very tough situation. I’m
asking that you please do everything you can to
avoid tapping your retirement money today.
SITUATION: You are under 55 in the year you were
laid off. You desperately need the money in your retirement
account just to make ends meet. Is there a way
you can withdraw it without having to pay the 10%
penalty?
ACTION: Yes. But it is tricky . Look into sett ing up
a withdrawal plan that allows you to take out sub-
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 61
stantial and equal periodic payments (SEPP) fr om
your retirement account without paying the 10 %
penalty . Please check with your tax advisor so he
or she can tell you exactly how it works—it is covered
by Rule 72t in the IRS code—and make sure
your advisor is an expert in this area, because it is
very complicated. Th is applies to all kinds of retirement
accounts, not just 401(k)s and 403(b)s as
the situation above does. And I nee d to repeat what
I said above: Taking money out of your retirement
account at an early age is obviously not ideal. So
please do everything possible to leave your retirement
money untouched.
SITUATION: You are worried that your company
may go bankrupt and that you will lose all the money
in your 401(k).
ACTION: Confi rm that your money was sent fr om
your employer to your 401(k) plan and you have
nothing to worry about. Money you invest in a
401(k) is your money, not your employer’s. Your
employer hires a third party —ty pically a brokerage,
fund company, or insurance company—to
run the 401(k), and that company in turn segregates
your money in a separate account that is all
yours; even if that brokerage or fund company got
into trouble.
62 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You have employer matching contributions
that are not fully vested and you are concerned
that you may lose this money if your company goes
bankrupt.
ACTION: Th at could indee d happen. Money that
is not vested is not yet yours. So in the event your
company goes under, it is not legally obligated to
leave the unvested portion of your match in your
account. Th e money you contribute to your 401(k)
is always 100 % yours.
SITUATION: Your employer announced it will
suspend its 401(k) matching contributions in 2009.
Should you keep contributing to your 401(k)?
ACTION: Because you are not going to get the
matching contribution, you want to be strategic
about how best to use your money. If you have credit
card debt, suspend your 401(k) contributions so
you have more money in your paycheck to put toward
paying off your credit card balance. If you do
not have credit card debt but you do not have an
eight-month emergency fund, make sure you create
a savings fund before you do anything else. If
you have no credit card debt and you have an eightmonth
emergency fund, then I suggest you suspend
your 401(k) contributions in 2009 and instead—if
you qualify —invest in a Roth IRA account. If you
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 63
don’t qualify , invest in a traditional IRA. If you already
have funded your Roth or IRA, then just
kee p taking that extra money to pay down the
mortgage on your home if you plan to stay in that
home forever or kee p contributing to your 401(k);
even without the company match, it remains a
smart way to save tax-deferred for your retirement.
SITUATION: You have money in an old employer’s
401(k) and wonder if you should leave it where it is,
transfer it to your new employer’s plan, or do an IRA
rollover.
ACTION: Do an IRA rollover. Rather than be restricted
to the handful of mutual funds off ered in
your 401(k), you get to pick the funds, exchangetraded
funds (ETFs), and stocks or individual
bonds to invest in when you do an IRA rollover.
Th at puts you in total control and allows you to
choose the best low-cost investments for your retirement
money.
SITUATION: You want to do an IRA rollover, but you
don’t know how.
ACTION: Choose the fi nancial institution you
want to move your money to (that’s the rollover
part) and that company will help you switch the
money fr om the 401(k) into your new IRA account.
I believe kee ping your costs as low as pos-
64 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
sible is vitally important, so I recommend discount
brokerages or no-load fund companies that also
have a low-cost brokerage arm for your bond and
ETF investing. Once you pick the fi rm you want
to move your money to, all you will nee d to do is
complete an easy rollover application form and
choose the option for a direct rollover; that means
your new fi rm will contact your old 401(k) directly
and get your money moved. Once your IRA is in
place, set up an automated monthly investment
(fr om a bank account) for the growth portion of
your retirement portfolio. I highly recommend
making monthly investments rather than big,
once-a-year lump-sum investments. Periodic investments
are a way to dollar cost average, a smart
investment strategy for stock investing.
SITUATION: You want to do an IRA rollover but are
not sure if you should roll it over into a traditional IRA
or a Roth IRA.
ACTION: If you are eligible to roll over into a Roth
IRA in 2009, you have to consider it. Th ere is one
big caveat, though: When you convert any money
into a Roth IRA that was in either a 401(k) or a
traditional IRA, you will owe taxes. So you nee d
to consider carefully how you will come up with
the cash to cover a tax bill. One strategy is to convert
just a small portion at a time, so you aren’t hit
with a staggering tax bill. I also highly recommend
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 65
you consult a tax advisor with expertise in Roth
conversions to make sure you choose a strategy
that does not put you in a tax bind.
But here is what you nee d to understand: Th e
money in your 401(k) is, in most instances, taxdeferred.
Th at means when you eventually withdraw
money fr om it in retirement, it will be taxed
at your ordinary income tax rate. If you roll it over
into a traditional IRA, the system stays the same
for tax purposes.
A Roth IRA is diff erent: You invest money that
you have already paid tax on and then in retirement
you get to take out all the money in your
Roth without paying any tax on it. So the smart
thing to do with your 401(k) is to roll it over fi rst
into an IRA rollover. Th en, depending on how
much money you actually have in your IRA rollover,
you would either convert it to a Roth IRA
litt le by litt le or do it all at once. Remember, you
will owe taxes on whatever amount of money you
convert. But if you go through this eff ort there is a
nice payoff : Th e growth on the money in your
Roth IRA will be tax-fr ee if you leave it untouched
until you are 59½ and have owned the Roth for at
least fi ve years. You can learn more about Roth
conversions at htt p://www.fairmark.com/rothira.
SITUATION: You want to convert to a Roth IRA but
were told your income is too high.
66 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: Roll your 401(k) into a traditional IRA
in 2009 and then convert that IRA into a Roth
IRA in 2010, when everyone, regardless of income,
will be allowed to convert to a Roth.
In 2009, you must have modifi ed adjusted gross
income (MAGI) below $100,000 on your federal
tax return to be eligible for a Roth conversion.
Th at’s $100,000 whether you are single or you fi le
a joint tax return. But the income limit vanishes in
2010; everyone and anyone will be allowed to convert
their rollover 401(k) or traditional IRA into a
Roth IRA in 2010. A nice bonus of waiting until
2010 is that any tax due on your conversion can be
paid over tw o years.
SITUATION: You converted to a Roth IRA in 2008,
but you are kicking yourself now because your account
is down 20% and you owe tax on the amount
that was originally converted.
ACTION: Do a recharacterization. In a rare act of
leniency, the IRS allows for do-overs of IRA conversions.
If you convert a traditional IRA to a
Roth and then regret it, you get to reverse your
decision.
Th e advantage of doing this during a down market
is that you can then reconvert back into the
Roth IRA and your new tax bill will be based on
the current value of the account at the time of the
second conversion.
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 67
So let’s say you converted $20,000 in 2008.
Th en the market decline dropped the value to
$10,000. You owe tax on the $20,000, since that
was the value at the time of the conversion. If you
do a recharacterization, the money goes back into
the traditional IRA and you wipe out that tax bill.
You must then wait until the next tax year to reconvert
to a Roth. Let’s assume at that point your
IRA is still stuck at $10,000. You will owe tax on
that $10,000 conversion. Th at’s a lot bett er than
the 2008 tax bill that would be based on the
$20,000 original conversion.
SITUATION: You aren’t sure if you qualify for a Roth,
and how much you can contribute if you do.
ACTION: In 2009, the Roth contribution limit is
$5,000 if you are under 50 years old; if you are
above 50, you can invest up to $6,000. Individuals
with modifi ed adjusted gross income below
$105,000 and married couples fi ling a joint tax return
with income below $166,000 can invest up to
those maximums. Individuals with income betw
ee n $105,000 and $120,000 and married couples
with income betw ee n $166,000 and $176,000
can make reduced contributions. Any fi nancial
institution that off ers Roth IRAs will have an online
calculator or a customer-service representative
to help you determine your eligibility .
68 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You qualify for a Roth, but you wonder
why you should bother with one if you can just keep
contributing to your 401(k) after you exceed the company
match.
ACTION: It’s important to understand that all the
money you pull out of your 401(k) (or traditional
IRA, for that matt er) will be taxed at your ordinary
income-tax rate. And given the large defi cits
our country faces—to say nothing of the large
bills for various bailouts—there is every reason to
believe that tax rates are going to be higher in the
future, not lower. How do you protect yourself
fr om those higher tax rates? Invest your retirement
money in a Roth IRA. If the account has
bee n open for at least fi ve years and you are 59½
when you take it out, it will not be taxed, period. It
is far bett er to pay taxes on your money today so
you never have to pay them again. Also, it’s helpful
to know, especially in times like these, that you
can always withdraw any money you originally
contributed to your Roth at any time, without
taxes or penalties, regardless of your age. Only the
growth on your contributions must stay in your
Roth until you are 59½. At that point, and if the
account has bee n open for at least fi ve years, you’ll
be able to withdraw the growth tax-fr ee as well.
Another great benefi t of a Roth is that if you do
not nee d to make withdrawals, the IRS will not
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 69
force you to; you can just leave the money growing
and eventually pass it along to your heirs as an
amazing tax-fr ee inheritance. Th at’s quite diff erent
fr om a traditional IRA and 401(k): Th e IRS
insists you start making required minimum distributions
no later than the year you turn 70½.
SITUATION: Your income is too high to invest in a
Roth IRA.
ACTION: Invest in a traditional (nondeductible)
IRA; even if you can’t deduct your contribution,
the money you set aside will grow tax-deferred in
2009 and then you can convert to a Roth IRA
in 2010.
SITUATION: You don’t know how to invest the
money you have in your retirement account.
ACTION: You nee d a mix of stocks and bonds;
the mix is mostly a function of how many years
you have until you retire, but I also respect that
your “risk tolerance” might aff ect your decision
making. In the questions that follow, I tell you
what percentage of stocks and bonds you should
have if you are fi ve years fr om retirement, 10 to 15
years fr om retirement, or 20 or more years fr om
retirement.
EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS (ETFS)
AND NO-LOAD MUTUAL FUNDS: For your
70 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
stock holdings, I’d like you to focus on either noload
index mutual funds, ETFs, or high-yielding,
dividend-paying stocks . ETFs and no-load mutual
funds are the best way to build a diversifi ed portfolio.
Each mutual fund or ETF owns dozens and oft en
hundreds of stocks ; for those of you who do not have
large sums of money ($100,000 or more) to invest,
that is a safer way to go than if you put all your money
into a few individual stocks .
BONDS: I prefer you to invest in individual
bonds, rather than bond funds. I’ll explain below.
SITUATION: You don’t know which is better—a noload
mutual fund or an ETF?
ACTION: If your retirement account off ers them,
ETFs are the way to go.
Here’s what you nee d to understand: Mutual
funds and ETFs both charge what is known as an
annual expense ratio. Th is is an annual fee that everyone
pays, but it is sort of hidden in that you won’t
see it deducted fr om your account as a line-item
cost; instead, it is shaved off of your fund’s return.
Th ere are no-load index mutual funds that have
very low expense ratios—below 0.30 %. But ETFs
can be even bett er, with annual expense ratios of as
litt le as 0.07 %. I know that sounds like a very small
diff erence, but hey, every penny you kee p in your
account rather than pay as a fee is money that continues
to grow for your retirement. Th at’s just one
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 71
reason why I love ETFs. Th e one catch with ETFs is
that they trade on the stock markets as if they were
a stock, so that means you will have to pay a commission
to buy and sell ETF shares; when you buy a
no-load mutual fund you do not pay a commission.
Discount brokerages oft en charge $10 or so. Th at’s
not a big deal to pay a few times a year, but you sure
don’t want to pay that commission if you are making
investments every month with small amounts
of money (dollar cost averaging). If that’s the case,
you are bett er off putt ing money in your IRA every
month into a money market account and then purchasing
your ETFs every three months rather than
every month. Th at way you save on commissions.
SITUATION: You want to invest in stocks, but you’re
confused by all the choices. What’s a good long-term
strategy?
ACTION: A solid long-term strategy for the stock
portion of your portfolio is to put 90 % of your
stock money in a broad U.S. index fund or ETF
and 10 % in an international stock fund or ETF.
Th e Vanguard Total Stock Market Index fund
(VTSMX) and its ETF cousin, the Vanguard Total
Stock Market ETF (VTI), are good choices for
your U.S. investment. Now, if you are antsy about
stocks in 2009, I want you to be sure to check out
my advice later in this chapter for investing in
high-dividend funds or ETFs. I think they are a
72 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
great defensive way to invest in stocks in 2009,
and it is perfectly fi ne to use dividend funds/ETFs
instead of the U.S. index fund. For the international
portion, you can opt for the Vanguard Total
International Stock Index (VGTSX) or the iShares
MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA).
PLEASE NOTE: If you are currently invested in
cas h or bonds, and are ready to follow my strategy for
owning stocks , don’t rush to move all your money into
stocks in one lump sum. I recommend you use the
dollar-cost-averaging strategy explained in this chapter
and invest equal amounts each month over the
next year to move your money slowly into stocks .
SITUATION: You aren’t sure if the fi xed-income portion
of your money belongs in bonds or bond funds.
ACTION: Buy individual bonds if you can, not
bond funds.
I prefer bonds to bond funds because with a
high-quality bond you know you will get the
amount you invested back once the bond matures.
For example, if you invest $5,000 in a Treasury
note with a fi ve-year maturity , you will get the
$5,000 back aft er the note matures in fi ve years.
During the time you own the note, you will also
collect a fi xed interest for all of those fi ve years.
(By the way, a note works just like a bond; it’s just
that our Treasury likes to call them notes.) Th e
problem with bond funds is that they do not have a
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 73
maturity date and their interest rate is not fi xed. So
you may get back less than what you invested and
your interest rate could go down over the years.
I recommend kee ping the bond portion of your
account in Treasuries and/or CDs if you are in
a retirement account, and high-quality generalobligation
municipal bonds outside of a retirement
account. Because of what is going on in the economy,
I think it’s wise to stick with notes or bonds
that mature in fi ve years or less. In the coming
years, we may see higher interest rates, so I don’t
want you to lock up your money today for 10 years
or longer. Stick with shorter maturities so you
can reinvest at what I expect will be higher rates
in the future. (If your money is in a 401(k) and you
are fi ve years or less fr om retirement, I have to say
that in 2009 I think it is best to stick with the
stable-value fund or the money market option,
rather than the bond fund.)
SITUATION: You are fi ve years away from retirement
and you feel you cannot afford to lose one penny more
in your 401(k) plan. What should you do?
ACTION: Ideally, you don’t want to bail out of
stocks completely. Let’s review a few important issues.
First, any money you know you will nee d in
the next fi ve to 10 years to pay bills does not belong
in the stock market. Never has and never will.
But just because you are retiring in fi ve years, it
74 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
doesn’t mean you will nee d to use all that money
immediately, right? Some you will start to use,
and the rest you won’t touch for 10 or 20 or even
30 years, given our longer life spans. If that sounds
like your situation, I would ask you to think about
kee ping 25 % to 30 % of your money in stocks even
if you are just fi ve years fr om retirement.
If your issue is that you lost so much money you
worry you won’t have enough for retirement and
you want to kee p what you have safe, then you
nee d to face facts. Moving all your money into a
stable-value fund is not the solution. Here’s what
you nee d to do: Delay your retirement for another
three years or more. Th at will give your stocks
more time to recover fr om the recent losses. It will
also potentially give you more working years to
save more. And most important, it means you delay
when you start to nee d the money; every year
you can put off touching your retirement savings
is going to be a tremendous help to you.
Now, the one exception here is if in fact you
have determined that when you retire you want to
use all your Roth IRA money to pay off your mortgage.
In that case, you will indee d “nee d” all your
money sooner rather than later. And to repeat myself:
Money you know you nee d within fi ve to 10
years does not belong in stocks. Put it all in your
retirement plan’s stable-value fund or money market
account.
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 75
SITUATION: You are 10 years from retirement and
you don’t know how much should be invested in
stocks and how much should be in bonds or cash.
ACTION: Kee p at least 50 % of your money in individual
bonds, CDs, or stable-value funds or
money market accounts. Th e absolute best move
when you are nearing retirement is to reduce your
risk, and that means moving out of stocks and into
bonds. But this only makes sense if your stash at
the point you retire is big enough that you can get
by on it earning 4 % or so a year fr om bond interest.
You nee d to make sure you have a large enough
amount saved up and you have fi gured your costs
correctly to be able to move completely into bonds
and live comfortably. It’s also important to realize
that even if you retire at 60, there’s a very good
chance you will live to be 80 or even 90. So you are
asking your retirement fund to support you for 20
or 30 years. Th e simple math is that if you are
making withdrawals fr om your retirement account
each month and your remaining balance is
growing at just 4 % or so a year, you run the risk
that your money will not last 25 or 30 years. (Just
about every fi nancial institution has a fr ee online
retirement calculator that will estimate how long
your money will last. Or ty pe “retirement calculator”
into your search engine.) You nee d to balance
the growth potential of stocks with the fact that
76 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
you will soon be relying on your retirement account
to live. A 50-50 mix is a good target for balancing
those tw o diff erent nee ds.
As I explain later in this chapter, I think ETFs
that focus on dividend-paying stocks are a very
smart place for your stock investments today. Th e
income you receive fr om the dividend is a good
way to “get paid” today while still investing in
stocks for future gains. If you currently have a
50% stock investment and want to invest in dividend-
paying stocks, you can make the switch over.
If, however, you have a lot of money in bonds or
cash, please take your time moving money into a
stock ETF; rather than one lump-sum investment,
make smaller monthly investments—known as
dollar cost averaging—over the course of the
next year.
SITUATION: You don’t plan to touch your retirement
money for 10 to 15 years. How much should be
invested in stocks and how much should be in
bonds/cash?
ACTION: If you have 15 years until retirement,
have about 70 % in stocks and then scale that back
by 5 percentage points or so each year, so that
when you are 10 years fr om retirement you have
50 % in stocks.
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 77
SITUATION: You have 20 or more years until retirement
and you want to know how much should be
invested in stocks and how much should be in
bonds/cash.
ACTION: Aim for 100 % stocks. You are in a great
situation. You have so much time on your hands
that you can ride out this bear market and profi t
when the market rallies. As I said earlier, now may
prove to be a fantastic time to be investing in
stocks because you get to buy in at lower prices.
If you are afr aid to have all your money in the
market, there is nothing wrong with kee ping 20 %
or so in bonds/cash. With that mix, you are going
to do well when the stock markets rally and also
have a nice bond cushion to reduce your portfolio’s
losses when the stock market is falling. If that
helps you relax a bit and stay committ ed to a longterm
strategy, I think 20 % in bonds is just fi ne,
but I’d prefer to be in stocks 100 %.
SITUATION: You were planning on retiring in 2009,
but after taking these big losses in your account
you’re not sure you can still afford to.
ACTION: Focus on what the market loss will mean
to you in terms of monthly income.
Let’s say in 2007 you had a $250,000 retire-
78 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ment stash. Today it is $200,000. So what does
that mean to you in terms of retirement income?
Your intention at retirement was to have your
money invested mostly in bonds so your money
would be safe and you could count on a return of
approximately 4 % in 2009. Th e $50,000 you lost
would generate $2,000 in income at a 4 % rate. In
other words, your real monthly loss in income
comes to about $170 a month. So the question is,
does that loss of $170 a month mean you can no
longer retire? If the answer to that question is yes,
then the truth is you really were cutt ing it too
close to retire anyway.
SITUATION: You have an IRA at a brokerage fi rm,
but you’re worried that if the company goes under, as
Bear Stearns did, you will lose all your money.
ACTION: Stop worrying. Th e money you have invested
in your accounts at a brokerage or fund
company is completely separate fr om the operations
of the parent company. Th e brokerage or
fund company can’t use your money to pay its bills
and debt.
Even if a company goes under, what happens is
that you will transfer your money to another brokerage
or fund company. Or, more likely, the company
will be taken over and you become a client of
that new company.
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 79
And just so you know, if there is an irregularity
and a company uses your money fr audulently, you
may be able to recover up to $500,000 ($100,000
limit for cash accounts) fr om the Securities Investor
Protection Corp. Th is is not like federal insurance.
It’s a voluntary program of member fi rms
that kee ps a kitty around to sett le problems; at the
end of 2007, SIPC had about $1.5 billion in its
fund. Th is covers standard investment accounts
only; SIPC does not cover alternatives such as currency
and commodity investments. Check with
your brokerage or fund company to see if it belongs
to SIPC.
SITUATION: You have a variable annuity and are
worried that the insurance company will go under
and you will lose all your money.
ACTION: Money invested in a variable annuity is
ty pically in segregated subaccounts that are separate
fr om your insurer’s balance shee t. Even if the
insurer runs into trouble, your money should not
be aff ected. Now, that said, you do nee d to understand
that your variable annuity is susceptible to
market losses; that’s what the word “variable”
means. How much your account is worth is largely
a function of the performance of the subaccounts
(funds) you are invested in.
80 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You have a single-premium fi xed annuity
and are worried that the insurance company
will go under and you will lose your money.
ACTION: With a single-premium fi xed annuity
your payout is indee d a guarantee fr om your insurer,
so if your insurer goes under there is reason
to be concerned. Concerned, but not panicked.
First, in the unlikely event anything happens to
your insurer, there is a state guaranty fund that
will swoop in to cover annuity payments—up to
certain limits. In most states, the guarantee d payout
for an annuity is $100,000, though it can be
higher in some states. (Go to www.nohlga.com
and use the locator to fi nd your state’s insurance
department, where you can learn about your
state’s guaranty fund limits.)
If your annuity excee ds your state’s guaranty
limit, you nee d to weigh the cost of cashing out
carefully.
SITUATION: You are retired and need a higher income
payout than you can get from bank CDs today.
ACTION: Consider municipal bonds and dividendpaying
stock mutual funds or ETFs.
As I write this in November 2008, municipal
bonds are paying the highest yields I have see n in
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 81
many years, so take advantage of them. I want to
be clear: You never want to put money that is in an
IRA, 401(k), or other tax-deferred account in
municipals. Because your money is already taxdeferred,
you get no added benefi t fr om buying
munis. So I am talking about money you invest
outside of your IRA and 401(k). Now, I know that
earlier I told you that the bond portion of your
IRA and 401(k) should be kept in Treasuries with
short maturities, but I have a diff erent strategy
for municipal bonds. I think it is smart to invest
in municipal bonds with maturities of 10 to 20
years. As of November 2008, a 20-year generalobligation
municipal bond has a yield of 5.14 %.
For someone in the 28 % federal tax bracket,
that is the equivalent of a 7.1 % yield. Th at is a seriously
great return on your money. If you are in
a higher tax bracket, your return will be even
higher.
As much as I love municipal bonds, I want to
emphasize that this strategy only makes sense if
you have at least $100,000 to invest; that is how
much you nee d to be able to buy a diversifi ed portfolio
of fi ve to 10 diff erent bonds and not be hit
with outrageous fee s. (If you don’t have that much
money, stick with Treasury notes.)
Another strategy to generate more income in
2009 is to invest a portion of your money in highdividend
individual stocks or ETFs.
82 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
Because of the stee p market losses, some company
dividend payouts are now 5 % or even higher.
Th at’s a lot bett er than what you can get at the
bank.
However, you nee d to know that dividend
stocks of course have greater risk than a bank CD.
Even though you are receiving a nice steady dividend
payout, the underlying value of your shares
can indee d fall. And in today’s tough economy,
there is the possibility that some companies—such
as the hard-pressed fi nancial services industry—
might fi nd that they have to suspend or reduce
their dividend payout. You nee d to understand
that companies choose to pay dividends—they
are not required to do so. In the third quarter of
2008, more than 100 companies cut their dividends,
according to Standard & Poor’s.
So here’s my strategy for cautious dividend
investing:
■ Invest only money that you know you will not
need to cash in for at least the next 10 years. You
will earn income (the dividend payout) on the
money, but because these are stocks, you want
to know that if the share price declines you won’t
have to sell at a big loss.
■ Stick with low-cost ETFs. Owning individual
stocks increases your risk of suffering big losses
if there is an unexpected problem in that one
company or industry. It’s safer to invest in a di-
ACTION PLAN: Retirement Investing 83
versifi ed portfolio of dividend-paying stocks. I
like Vanguard High Dividend Yield (VYM) and
iShares Select Dividend Index (DVY) if you invest
in ETFs.
84
5
ACTION PLAN
Saving
The New Reality
Even safe havens can be risky during a credit
crisis. Th e high-profi le failure of IndyMac
bank in July 2008 resulted in some depositors
receiving an initial payment of just 50 cents
on the dollar for money they had at the bank that
excee ded Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)
coverage. Another jolt came in September 2008
when the Reserve, a money market mutual fund
company, announced that its Reserve Primary
Fund “broke the buck.” Money market mutual
funds are designed to always maintain a fi xed $1
value per share. Th eir sole purpose is to provide
safe savings through a low yield. But one of the
Reserve Primary Fund’s investments was a Lehman
Brothers security . When Lehman went under,
so did the value of that security .
ACTION PLAN: Saving 85
As I write this in November 2008, it is still not
clear how much Reserve shareholders will receive
when the fund is liquidated; it could be 97 cents
on the dollar. Another disturbing development is
that shareholders of 15 money market funds managed
by the Reserve have had their accounts fr ozen
for more than a month—meaning they have
no access to money that is supposed to be in the
most liquid of investment accounts.
Th e Reserve’s problems triggered massive
redemption requests fr om other money fund investors
at other companies; in September, the Department
of the Treasury had to step in and off er
a temporary insurance fund to stop an all-out run
on money market funds (more on this below).
Th e timing of the savings scare couldn’t be
worse. Never has having an emergency savings account
bee n more important. Th e weak economy
increases the odds that we will see rising layoff s in
2009; that’s why I want you to push as hard as you
can to fi nd a way to set aside at least eight months
of living expenses in an insured savings account.
As I explained in “Action Plan: Credit,” if you’ve
slid by in the past thinking you could always tap
your credit card in a pinch, that’s not going to
work this year. Credit lines are being reduced, and
even if you have bee n spared so far, I have news for
you: If you get laid off and start using your credit
card more, you bett er believe the credit card company
is going to think about cutt ing your credit
86 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
limit the minute they catch wind that your unpaid
balance kee ps growing. Nor is your home equity
line of credit (HELOC) a viable “emergency”
fund anymore. If you still have an open HELOC,
consider yourself lucky . With falling home prices
eroding equity throughout 2007 and 2008, banks
have bee n closing down HELOC accounts. And
HELOC closures may continue in 2009 as many
housing markets continue to struggle.
Bott om line: In 2009, everyone must have a
safe standard savings account that will cover eight
months of living costs. Rely on credit lines and
HELOCs and you put your family at extreme
risk.
What you must do in 2009
■ Make sure your bank or credit union is covered
by federal deposit insurance.
■ Check that what you have on deposit is eligible
for full insurance coverage in the unlikely event
your bank or credit union fails. Through December
31, 2009, the general limit has been raised
to $250,000 from its previous $100,000, but
you need to understand the ins and outs.
■ If your savings is in a money market mutual fund
sold through a brokerage or mutual fund fi rm,
consider moving your money into the Treasury
money market fund at that company.
■ Build up your savings to cover eight months of
living expenses.
ACTION PLAN: Saving 87
■ Move all money you need within the next fi ve to
10 years into savings. Money you need soon
does not belong in the stock market.
Your 2009 Savings Action Plan
SITUATION: You don’t know if your bank or credit
union is backed by federal insurance.
ACTION: Confi rm that your bank is part of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) program
or that your credit union is part of the National
Credit Union Administration’s insurance fund
(NCUA). You can check a recent statement or
swing by the bank or credit union. If you see
the FDIC or NCUA insurance logos displayed
anywhere on a statement or fr ont door, you are
halfway home. Another option is to go to www.
myfdicinsurance.gov or www.ncua.gov and use
the online tools to confi rm that where you save is
indee d backed by federal insurance.
SITUATION: You don’t know if all of your money
on deposit at the bank or credit union is covered by
insurance.
ACTION: Know the new insurance limits for 2009.
Prior to the credit crisis, each individual had a base
guarantee of up to $100,000 per bank. So if you
88 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
had a checking account, a CD, and a money market,
all the accounts were fully insured if their combined
total did not excee d $100,000. If you had a
joint account, you and the person you shared the
account with were eligible for another $100,000
each of coverage. (Th e same limits applied for federally
insured credit unions.)
For 2009, the limit for banks and credit unions
has bee n raised to $250,000 per person per bank/
credit union. Th e Treasury made this change in
October 2008 to stave off a run on banks fr om
depositors spooked by the continuing fallout fr om
the credit crisis. If you have less than $250,000 at
any single bank or credit union and that bank or
credit union is federally insured, stop worrying.
You are fi ne in 2009.
SITUATION: Given the new $250,000 limit, you
want to know if it is smart to invest $250,000 in a
high-rate fi ve-year CD your bank is offering.
ACTION: No. You have to understand that currently
the $250,000 insurance is good only through
December 31, 2009. It may be renewed past 2009,
but as of now, we do not know if it will be extended
or made permanent in 2010. For now you have to
act as if the limit will go back to $100,000 until you
hear diff erently. So do not lock up $250,000 at one
bank in case the limits are reduced; it might mean
you could have $150,000 in uninsured money.
ACTION PLAN: Saving 89
To be absolutely safe, limit the money you deposit
at any one bank to $100,000 or stick with a
CD that expires by December 31, 2009.
SITUATION: You already purchased a long-term CD
for more than $100,000 and now you’re worried
about what will happen if the limits are rolled back
after 2009.
ACTION: Don’t do anything yet. I don’t think you
nee d to rush to make any changes. Check with
your bank—or my Web site—by December to
fi nd out what’s going to happen in 2010. If the
limit is reduced to $100,000, you can still choose
to cash in your CD early. Most banks will dock
you with a penalty for an early withdrawal, but it
is ty pically limited to forfeiting some of your interest,
not principal. For now, sit tight and let’s see
what happens by the end of 2009.
WEB SITE ALERT: You have my promis e that
the minute the FDIC and NCUA announce any changes
in 2009, I will have an update at my Web site.
SITUATION: You have more than $250,000 at one
bank and are worried your money isn’t 100% covered
by FDIC insurance.
ACTION: You may still have full insurance coverage,
but you nee d to check that your accounts mee t
the obscure rules that extend your insurance past
90 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
the basic $250,000. Th e quickest and best way to
make sure your accounts are fully insured is to go
to www.myfdicinsurance.gov and plug your bank
info into the easy-to-use calculator. In just a few
simple steps you will have verifi cation straight
fr om the FDIC if all your accounts are fully
insured. (Credit union members should use the
NCUA Calculator at htt p://webapps.ncua.gov/
ins/). If you don’t have easy access to a computer, I
recommend marching down to your bank or credit
union and having them go online with you to verify
the level of coverage you have; don’t just take a
teller’s word for it. You want to see your account
information plugged into the EDIE tool (at a bank)
or the NCUA Calculator (for a credit union).
SITUATION: You worry that the FDIC or NCUA will
run out of money if things get really bad and there
are lots of failures. You fear the insurance really isn’t
going to be there if and when you need it.
ACTION: Rest assured your money is safe as long
as it is covered by federal insurance. Th at insurance
is backed by the full faith and credit of the
United States government. Please don’t get worked
up if you hear or read ominous stories that the insurance
funds are running short of money in 2009.
I certainly hope that doesn’t happen, and I am in
no way suggesting that it will. But these are diffi -
cult times and there may be more bank failures or
ACTION PLAN: Saving 91
credit union failures if our economy and the credit
markets continue to struggle. But here’s the big
picture to stay focused on: Th e FDIC and NCUA
can go directly to the Treasury to get any money
they nee d to fulfi ll their stated insurance promises.
And the Treasury will raise any extra money
it may nee d to cover losses that excee d what is already
set aside in the insurance funds. Th ere is
absolutely no way our government is going to let
depositors with insured accounts lose a penny.
Th at promise is one of the pillars of our fi nancial
system.
SITUATION: You worry that if your bank or credit
union fails, your account will be frozen and you won’t
be able to pay your bills or get cash out.
ACTION: Relax. Typically, when a bank or credit
union is taken over by regulators it occurs on a
Friday and by Monday everything is open and
running as if nothing happened. It is in the best
interests of the regulators to make sure depositors
have quick access to their money. Th at’s not only
“good business,” it is also how the regulators prevent
a panicked run on the banks.
SITUATION: Your money is at a credit union and
you are wondering if you should move it to an FDICinsured
bank.
92 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: As long as your credit union belongs to
the National Credit Administration’s insurance
fund (NCUA), your money is safe. Th e coverage
limits and government backing are the same as
those at an FDIC-insured bank. Th ere is no nee d
to move your money.
SITUATION: You have money deposited with an online
bank and wonder if it is safe.
ACTION: Check if the online bank says it is part
of the FDIC insurance program. Every bank that
is in the FDIC insurance program—whether online
or “bricks and mortar”—is safe. You can
check the home page of your online bank; all
banks that participate in the program will advertise
that fact boldly. But I think it is smart to double-
check directly with the FDIC; go to www.
myfdicinsurance.gov to verify you are protected,
and confi rm that every penny is in fact insured.
SITUATION: A stock mutual fund you bought at
your bank had a big loss in 2008. The bank is FDIC
insured, so you thought your money is safe.
ACTION: You nee d to understand that FDIC insurance
does not cover investments, such as a
stock fund. Federal insurance for banks and for
credit unions covers deposit accounts, not investment
accounts. A deposit account can be a check-
ACTION PLAN: Saving 93
ing, savings, CD, or money market account. But
banks are also allowed to sell investments. Mutual
funds are investments. Stocks and exchangetraded
funds (ETFs) you buy through a bank are
investments. And they have zero insurance. Zero.
When you opened the account you probably signed
some sort of acknowledgment that you understood
this, but those disclosures are easy to miss. And,
of course, there was no guarantee that your
fr iendly bank account manager who was excited
to have you make the investment took the time to
slowly and clearly spell things out.
When you invest in the stock market—whether
it be through a fund you buy at a bank, a credit
union, a brokerage, or a fund company—you have
no protection against bear market losses.
SITUATION: Last time I checked, my savings account
had an interest rate of 5%, but now it is below
2.5%. Should I move to a bank offering accounts with
higher yields?
ACTION: It is always smart to shop around for the
best-yielding savings accounts, but you nee d to understand
that 2008 was the year of the falling bank
rate. Banks peg the savings rate they off er consumers
to the Federal Reserve’s Federal Funds Rate.
And for more than a year the Federal Reserve has
bee n aggressively cutt ing the Federal Funds Rate.
In December 2007, the rate was at 4.25 %. In
94 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
November 2008, it was down to 1%, and as I write,
there is talk that it may go down to 0 %. So if you
are earning more than 1 % or so on a regular savings
account, that’s actually pretty good. I am all
for moving your money to the highest-yielding
bank accounts, and you can check Web sites such
as www.bankrate.com for banks that off er the
highest savings rates. But if you have a competitive
yield right where you are and it is FDIC insured, I
wouldn’t make it a huge priority in 2009 to hunt for
an extra 0.25 % in yield. But hey, if you have the
time and energy to shop around, go for it. Just remember:
Only put your money in a bank that is
FDIC insured or a federally insured credit union.
SITUATION: Your savings are in a money market
mutual fund your broker told you was safe, but you
wonder if it’s as safe as an account at an FDIC-insured
bank.
ACTION: Th e short answer is no. A money market
mutual fund (MMMF) sold by a brokerage fi rm
or a mutual fund fi rm is not backed by permanent
federal insurance. Only a money market deposit
account (MMDA) sold through a federally insured
bank or credit union, or a bank subsidiary of
a brokerage or mutual fund company, is eligible
for insurance.
I know, I know: MMDA, MMMF—why do
they have to make it all so confusing?
ACTION PLAN: Saving 95
So just to be sure you have it down straight:
MMDA: Sold at a bank or credit union, or through
a bank subsidiary of a brokerage or fund company.
Eligible for federal deposit insurance.
MMMF: Sold through a brokerage fi rm or mutual
fund company. No insurance.
Now, in normal times, an MMMF is considered
just as safe as an MMDA. But I don’t have to tell
you how not normal the times are for us right now.
And I don’t think you should rest easy with the
temporary insurance off ered by the emergency
Treasury action last September. It’s important to
understand that this Treasury plan is temporary
and voluntary. We don’t know how long the Treasury
will kee p off ering this deal to MMMFs;
Treasury is currently authorized to kee p the plan
through September 18, 2009, but it must reauthorize
the plan every three months betw ee n now and
then. Your brokerage fi rm or mutual fund fi rm
must choose to become part of the program (and
pay a fee to participate). So, at the very least, you
nee d to check with your brokerage or fund fi rm to
fi nd out if it is participating in this temporary insurance
program. But here’s the really important
caveat: Only deposits in MMMFs as of the close
of business September 19, 2008, are eligible for
the Treasury’s insurance.
Th at’s just too many question marks to deal with
if you ask me. Here’s my safe and sound MMMF
strategy for 2009: Kee p your money with the same
96 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
fi rm but move it into the Treasury MMMF (every
major brokerage and fund company has this option).
If your money is invested in U.S. Treasuries,
you have nothing to worry about. Your money is
backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
Th ere aren’t going to be any defaults in
that portfolio. And you don’t have to worry if the
Treasury Department eventually removes its current
MMMF insurance off er. If you don’t have a
Treasury MMMF option at your existing brokerage
or fund company, then I would consider moving
my money into an insured bank deposit in 2009,
or to a brokerage or fund company that off ers a
Treasury MMMF. (To be extra safe, I recommend
that money you nee d to pay bills, etc., be moved
into a bank or credit union MMDA account. We’ve
see n how the Reserve had to temporarily fr ee ze
some accounts; you nee d to make sure that money
you nee d quick access to is in fact available. Right
now the only way to ensure ready access is with an
insured bank or credit union account.)
SITUATION: You understand why it makes sense to
have eight months of living expenses set aside in an
emergency savings fund, but there is no way you can
ever save that much.
ACTION: I am well aware how stretched you are
fi nancially. I fully expect that many of you may
not be able to fl ip the switch and magically have a
ACTION PLAN: Saving 97
bank account that is stuff ed with enough money
to cover eight months of living expenses. But you
must start moving toward that goal. Month by
month you must build security for yourself and
your family. You may get to the eight-month goal
in six months of aggressive saving, or it may take
you a few years. Th at’s okay. Th e point is that you
are moving in the right direction. Every month
you will have more security , not less. Check out
“Action Plan: Spending” for steps on how to reduce
your expenses so you have more money to put toward
goals such as this one.
One of the best ways to get on a consistent savings
patt ern is to set up an automated deposit fr om
your checking account into a savings account.
Studies show that once you automate you tend to
stick with it; that’s true of bank savings accounts
and your 401(k) investing. As the saying goes, set
it and forget it.
Now, how much should you have deposited each
month? Here’s the goal for 2009. Decide how
much you can aff ord to deposit. Now add 20 % to
that amount. Don’t cheat here. If you were going
to set aside $100 a month, commit to $120. If you
were going to aim for $500 a month, it’s now $600
a month. Will that be hard? Yes. Will it take some
serious spending cuts? Probably. But in 2009 you
cannot aff ord to be laid back and do what is easy.
You must push yourself as hard as possible to build
your security as quickly as possible.
98 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You are retired and need safe income,
but you can’t live off of 2.5% interest in your bank
CDs. What are you supposed to do?
ACTION: Kee p some of your money in the bank;
no matt er how low the yield—safety fi rst. I know
the current market is especially hard for retiree s
who depend on interest income fr om their bank
deposits to help cover their monthly living costs.
Yields on savings accounts have dwindled as the
Federal Reserve aggressively lowered its Federal
Funds Rate fr om above 4 % in late 2007 to just over
1.0 % in late 2008. During the same stretch, the
cost of everything rose. Th e offi cial infl ation rate
hovered around 4 % in 2008, but out in the real
world, the price of basic necessities—food, medications—
increased at more than tw ice that offi -
cial rate of infl ation. I don’t have a lot of chee ry
news for savers in 2009. Th ough long-term bank
rates will rise, that may not happen in 2009, as the
Federal Reserve may be more preoccupied with
kee ping rates low to deal with a stuck credit market
and an economy in recession.
Th at said, you must kee p your savings safe, no
matt er how low the yield. Some relief is on the
way in 2009, as Social Security benefi ts increased
6.2% over what you received in 2008. Th at is the
largest infl ation adjustment since 1982. I also
recommend checking out municipal bonds; as I
ACTION PLAN: Saving 99
write, you can get yields of nearly 5 % on bonds
with fi ft ee n-year maturities. Th at’s a good deal
right now and it does not require you take on the
risk of investing in longer-term issues. And please
check out my dividend stock strategy in “Action
Plan: Retirement Investing.” It may be a smart
way for you to earn more income on a small portion
of your money that you’re comfortable investing
in the stock market.
SITUATION: You have a mortgage or a car loan with
a bank that failed and you wonder if you need to keep
paying it.
ACTION: You must kee p paying. A bank’s failure
does not excuse you fr om paying your loan.
Very soon aft er a bank failure, you should receive
notice of the bank that has taken over your
account. And if all goes well, you will just kee p
paying exactly as you have, with no disruption.
Now, that said, I want you to kee p very careful
records of all your payments. If you use online
banking, print out each payment for at least six
months and tuck them away in a safe place. As I
said, the transition should be seamless, but when
Bank A takes over Bank B, sometimes the wires
can get crossed in the back offi ce during the
switch over. So you want to have perfect records to
prove any problem is not because you fell behind
on payments. If you do receive a notice that you
100 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
haven’t paid, you have to not only deal with the
bank but check your credit reports (go to www.
annualcreditreport.com; you are entitled to one
fr ee credit report a year fr om each of the three
credit bureaus) to make sure the bank has not
mistakenly reported your loan payment as late
or delinquent. If it is showing up on your report,
you must ride the bank hard to correct the mistake.
At the same time, fi le a dispute with the
credit bureau. By law, they must look into the matter
and report back to you within 30 days. Don’t
take anyone’s word that they will take care of it.
You must stay on top of the issue and kee p checking
(and nudging) to make sure any mistake is
cleared up. As I discussed in “Action Plan: Credit,”
2009 is not a time to let your FICO credit score
drop. Especially when your bank is the one that
has tripped up.
101
6
ACTION PLAN
Spending
The New Reality
The fi nancial crisis has served as a deafening
wake-up call that will not stop ringing in
your ears. You know in the very core of your
being that you nee d to change how you run your
fi nancial life. Th ere’s no room anymore for just
gett ing by or putt ing off the hard decisions for tomorrow.
Tomorrow is here, and it requires a commitment
to taking the actions that put you and
your family on a lasting path to fi nancial security .
You know you nee d to pay down your credit card
debt to kee p your credit line intact and your FICO
score strong. You also know you can’t rely on having
easy access to a large credit card limit or HELOC
in 2009 to cover emergency expenses. You
know—or I hope you’re at least beginning to realize—
that you must come up with cash to put in a
102 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
savings account for emergency protection. You
have also woken up to the notion that you can’t rely
on huge home-price appreciation as your de facto
retirement account. You know you must contribute
more to your retirement savings because now is actually
a great time to be investing for the long term.
Th ere’s only one problem. You don’t know where
you will come up with the money for all this.
Th e truth is that the most eff ective cash-generating
action you nee d to take in 2009 is to spend
less. Th e less you spend, the more money you will
have aft er paying the monthly bills to put toward
reducing your credit card debt, building your emergency
savings, and increasing your retirement investing.
It’s not a news fl ash; it’s just a fact.
Th is year is all about making more by spending
less.
What you must do in 2009
■ Separate wants from needs.
■ Get over your guilt that you aren’t “providing”
for your kids.
■ Strike the word “deserve” from the conversation.
What you deserve is irrelevant; what you
can truly afford is all that counts.
■ Try to negotiate better terms on a car loan you
can’t keep up with.
■ Be very careful when asked to cosign any loan,
no matter how much you love the person who is
asking for your help.
ACTION PLAN: Spending 103
Your 2009 Spending Action Plan
SITUATION: You know your family needs to save
more, but you have no idea where to start.
ACTION: Get a grip on where your money is going.
You can’t move forward building an honest fi nancial
life if you don’t fi rst understand where you are
today. I want you to slowly and carefully fi ll out
the Household Cash Flow workshee t below. To do
this, you nee d to fi rst pull out a year’s worth of
bank statements and credit card statements. Th e
amount you put in the right-hand column should
be the average cost for the past 12 months.
WEB SITE ALERT: A more extensive version
of this works hee t is available for download on www.
suzeorman.com.
EXPENSES MONTHLY COST
HOME
MORTGAGE/RENT
HOME EQUITY LOAN
PROPERTY TAX
INSURANCE
MAINTENANCE
UTILITIES
Gas and Electric
104 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
EXPENSES MONTHLY COST
Heating
Water
Home Phone
Cell Phone
Cable/TV
Internet
MAINTENANCE
Repairs/Upgrades
Gardener
Snow Removal
TOTAL MONTHLY HOME EXPENSES: __________
FOOD
Groceries
Dining Out/Takeout
Coffee
TOTAL FOOD: __________
CAR/TRANSPORTATION
Car Loan #1
Car Loan #2
Gas
Maintenance
Tolls/Paid Parking
Car Insurance (total all cars)
ACTION PLAN: Spending 105
EXPENSES MONTHLY COST
Public Transportation
TOTAL CAR COSTS: __________
OTHER INSURANCE
Health Insurance*
Life Insurance*
Disability Insurance*
Long-Term-Care Insurance*
Dental Insurance*
TOTAL OTHER COSTS: __________
MISC. SPENDING
Child Care
Private School Tuition
Entertainment (Movies, DVD rentals,
Concerts, Sporting Events)
Hair/Manicures/Pedicures
Club Memberships
Computer Equipment and Games
Clothes
Gifts
Vacations
Medical Copays and Out-of-Pocket
Expenses
Pet (Food and Vet)
Media Subscriptions (Newspapers,
Magazines, Online)
106 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
EXPENSES MONTHLY COST
Charitable Contributions
Other
Other
Other
TOTAL MISC. SPENDING: __________
OTHER LOANS/DEBT
Credit Card 1
Credit Card 2
Credit Card 3
Student Loan
401(k) Loan
Bank/Personal Loan
TOTAL OTHER DEBTS: __________
MONTHLY SAVINGS/TAX PAYMENTS
Emergency Savings Account
401(k) Contribution*
IRA Contribution
College Savings Fund
Self-Employment Tax Payments
TOTAL SAVINGS/TAX PAYMENTS: __________
TOTAL EXPENSES (A): __________
*If these items are taken out of your paycheck, they do not need to be itemized
on this worksheet, which tallies expenses against take-home pay.
ACTION PLAN: Spending 107
INCOME MONTHLY AMT.
After-Tax Pay
Rental Income
Dividend/Interest Income
Social Security
Retirement Income (401(k),
IRA, and Pension)
TOTAL INCOME (B): __________
TOTAL INCOME–TOTAL EXPENSES
(B–A): _________
SITUATION: Your expenses are more than your
income.
ACTION: Circle every expense in your workshee t
that is a “want.” It is imperative to separate expenses
that are for true nee ds (health insurance,
the electricity bill) fr om those that are not crucial
for your family to function (gym membership,
new clothes, computer games, etc.).
If you do not have an eight-month emergency
savings fund, if you have credit card debt, and if
you are not saving for retirement, you have no
choice but to reduce and even eliminate many of
the “wants” your family is spending money on.
Th is is not supposed to be a comfortable or easy
exercise. Cutt ing down fr om four manicures a
108 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
month to three is not going to get you where you
nee d to go. Your fi nancial security is buried in
those expenses. Th e more you are willing to curtail
spending on those expenses, the more money
you have to protect your family. Th e $25 you don’t
mindlessly shell out to the kids every wee k when
they head out to spend time with fr iends is $100 a
month you have to put toward a term life insurance
policy that protects them if anything were to
happen to you. Th e $300 a month you don’t spend
on the second (or third) car your family can do
without is your future retirement security ; put
that much in a Roth IRA for 20 years and you will
have more than $157,000, assuming your money
grows at an annualized 7 % rate.
SITUATION: You feel guilty cutting back on what
you’ve always provided for your family.
ACTION: Decide once and for all if you want to
indulge or protect your family.
It really is that simple. If you have credit card
debt and no emergency savings, I have to tell you,
you do not care about your family’s safety and security
. All you care about is being the hero who
doesn’t say no, the bott omless ATM for every desire,
expectation, and wish your family has.
Th at is indulgent. And destructive. Let’s walk
through this together. You look at your expense
and income workshee t, get fr ustrated, and decide
ACTION PLAN: Spending 109
to just continue down the path of overspending.
You ignore the fact that your credit card balance
kee ps rising. You ignore the fact that you have no
emergency savings. You ignore the fact that you
have very litt le saved up for retirement. You ignore
the fact that you don’t have health insurance because
it is just too expensive.
And then you get laid off . Or you get sick. You
can’t pay the mortgage, and you have no savings
to help you in this time of emergency. So the
downward spiral begins. You might even lose your
home. All because you fee l as if you must always
give your kids everything they want—and right
now. How does that indulge your kids?
Or let’s look even further into the future. Twenty
years fr om now, your litt le ones are going to be
adults, working to make ends mee t for their own
families. Th en you come knocking on the door saying
you can’t aff ord to support yourself in retirement
because you never saved up enough during
your prime working years, the years when you
made the decision to give your kids everything they
wanted. How does that indulge your adult kids?
I appreciate that it may initially be hard to institute
new fi nancial priorities and habits in your
family. Change is always a process that takes getting
used to. But the real problem here is that you
think acting responsibly with your money will be
punishment for your kids. You think that by slowing
down the spending you are taking something
110 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
away fr om them. I couldn’t disagree more. I see it
as protecting them. When you make the commitment
to spend less, you will have more money to
put toward what your family nee ds: lasting fi nancial
security .
And I have to tell you: How receptive will your
kids be to the change comes down to how you sell
it. If you are moping, if they can fee l your guilt,
they are going to fee l lousy. Your kids don’t deserve
that.
Children are incredibly adaptable, and they are
going to take their cues fr om you. So don’t pitch
this as a scary time and don’t suggest that they are
in any way to blame for your problems. In an ageappropriate
manner, let them know that you are
all going to be fi ne, but you nee d to be extra careful
with spending and saving to make sure the
family is safe during these challenging times.
SITUATION: Even after removing the “wants,” you
still don’t have money to put toward paying off your
credit card debt and building savings.
ACTION: Look for ways to pay less for your nee ds.
You nee d a phone, but do you nee d a home phone
and a cell phone? Does your family nee d the superdeluxe
cell plan that lets everyone aimlessly text to
their heart’s delight, or might you be able to spend
$50 less a month with a scaled-back plan? Have
you really, seriously done everything to reduce your
ACTION PLAN: Spending 111
utility bills? I am talking about the low-hanging
fr uit of inexpensive insulation, unplugging unused
electronics, replacing burned-out bulbs with energy-
effi cient CFLs. I know you have heard all of
this before. But you sort of fi led it away under
“someday I really should.” Th at day is here. I bet
you can reduce what you spend on your family’s
nee ds by 10 % to 20 % if you put your heart into it.
Insure Big Savings
Health insurance, car insurance, and home insurance
(including renter’s insurance) are three of the
most important “needs” for every family. Without
question, they are necessary expenses. But there
are great ways to lower your insurance premiums.
You are not to reduce your level of coverage, but
rather, make sure you have taken advantage of every
deal and discount possible.
■ Raise your deductibles on all your policies. You
can save 10% or more if you agree to a deductible
of $500 or $1,000 rather than just $250.
There’s no need to keep a low deductible when
you have a solid emergency savings fund that
can cover any out-of-pocket expenses.
■ Keep your auto and homeowner’s/renter policies
with one insurance company. You will be
eligible for a 10%–20% “multiline” discount.
112 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
■ Designate one car as your “low mileage” car; if
you keep annual mileage below 7,500–10,000
miles, the premium discount can be 10% or so.
■ Keep your FICO credit score above 700. Some
insurers base the premium rate you are offered
on your credit score. The higher your score, the
more likely you are to get the best terms on all
your insurance.
SITUATION: Three years ago, you and your partner
agreed you would be a stay-at-home mom, but your
partner’s commission-based salary has fallen along
with the bad economy, so you are stuck putting some
expenses on your credit card, knowing you will not
be able to pay it off in full.
ACTION: Base your fi nancial decisions on what
you have today, not what you had in the past. If
your family can no longer aff ord to live on one income,
you must consider going back to work.
I say that with great understanding of how hard
this will be for you to consider. But remember,
2009 is about making the right and honest choices
to build a secure future. And what is right is not
always the same as what is easy. Going back to
work when you believe it is far more important to
be a stay-at-home parent is an emotionally charged
ACTION PLAN: Spending 113
and diffi cult step to contemplate, but in these
tough times, it just might be necessary.
You nee d to focus on what is best for your children.
I believe very strongly that fi nancial security
is what’s best for your children. And if you cannot
honestly kee p your family fi nancially secure—by
being out of credit card debt, having a heft y savings
fund, and kee ping your retirement savings on
track—you are not doing what is best for them.
Start by considering whether you (or your partner)
can take on part-time work to supplement
what is coming in fr om the one income. Th at may
be a way to make more without having to rely
completely on child care. But if that doesn’t close
the gap, you must think about taking on a bigger
job. If it nee ds to be full-time, it nee ds to be fulltime.
Maybe not forever, but for now. 2009: the
year you take action to build fi nancial security for
your family.
SITUATION: You can’t afford to pay private-school
tuition and invest the maximum in your retirement
accounts.
ACTION: It might be time to rethink whether
public school is the bett er move for your entire
family. Look, I know this is a huge issue, and I am
not suggesting you make a decision in the next 15
minutes about whether you can continue to send
114 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
your 10-year-old to private school. But I also think
it is shortsighted to presume that this expense is
untouchable. If you are shortchanging your retirement
savings, or if your emergency fund is nonexistent,
you really nee d to think through whether
you are doing the best for your child. If your issue
is that you do not think your local public schools
provide the quality education you want for your
children, I want you to take a dee p breath and
consider moving to a community with a strong
public school system. As I said, this is not a quick
or easy decision. And to be honest, 2009 is probably
not the best time to try to sell your home. But
I encourage you to at least start giving this serious
consideration. Will home values and property
taxes be higher in a town with high-quality
schools? Probably. But I seriously doubt it will cost
you the $30,000 or more a year it can take to send
tw o children to private school.
SITUATION: You lost your job and can no longer afford
to make the payments on your family’s second
car, but you owe more on the loan than you can get at
trade-in.
ACTION: Call up your lender and see if you can
get the loan terms modifi ed. Ideally, you don’t
want to extend the length of the loan (that will
increase your total cost over the life of the loan),
ACTION PLAN: Spending 115
but push to see if you can get the interest rate reduced.
Th at will lower your costs. Or perhaps the
lender will agree to a temporary period of reduced
payments.
Th ere’s a good chance lenders will be receptive
to playing “Let’s Make a New Deal.” Th e fi nancial
and credit crisis has bee n devastating for car lenders.
Th eir lots are already fi lled with repossessed
cars—overfl owing, in fact. At the same time, the
credit crunch has made it much harder for potential
buyers to get car loans for new cars. Th at has
caused a massive decline in sales that has jampacked
the same lot already stuff ed with repos,
with new cars that aren’t selling. Th is is a car
dealer’s worst nightmare, so that increases the
chance the lender may be willing to work out a
deal to kee p your car off his lot. Gett ing a reduced
payment fr om you is bett er than no payment—
especially if it means one less car on the lot.
SITUATION: You just want your car to be repossessed
already—you’re sick of trying to keep up with
the payments.
ACTION: If you know you can’t aff ord the car,
hand the car back to the lender rather than waiting
for repossession. By proactively contacting the
lender and giving the car back, you will avoid paying
fee s charged for repossession. And more im-
116 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
portant, you will avoid the trauma of having your
car towed away fr om your work or home. You
change the dynamic by making an embarrassing
act into an act of responsibility .
SITUATION: You turned the car back in—or it was
repossessed—but you were told you still owed the
lender money.
ACTION: You are responsible for the diff erence
betw ee n what you still owed on the loan and what
the lender can recoup by reselling the car. If you
can’t cover that payment, you did not live up to
your fi nancial obligation. Whether you turned in
the car or it was formally repossessed, failure to
pay the balance will stay on your credit report for
seven years.
SITUATION: You want to borrow from your 401(k) to
keep up with the car payments.
ACTION: Do not touch your retirement savings. If
you nee d to kee p the car or you want to avoid having
a repossession on your credit report, you must
fi nd other income sources to make the payment.
Go back and review the Household Cash Flow
workshee t at the beginning of this chapter. If you
nee d more cash, fi nd it fr om spending less. Th e absolute
worst move you can make is to pull money
out of your 401(k). As I explain in detail in “Ac-
ACTION PLAN: Spending 117
tion Plan: Retirement Investing,” it is never wise
to touch your retirement savings. And in 2009 it is
downright dangerous, given the increased possibility
of being laid off . Lose your job and your
401(k) loan will nee d to be repaid within a few
months. Where are you going to come up with
that money?
SITUATION: Your eldest child heads to college in
2010 and you’re feeling like this is the last chance to
take a long family vacation, even though it probably
means putting $4,000 on your credit card that you
won’t be able to pay off immediately.
ACTION: You will get no argument fr om me that
family time is a high priority . As you may have
heard me say, my mantra is “People First, Th en
Money, Th en Th ings.” But that doesn’t translate
to giving you carte blanche to spend whatever you
want to create those memories. Th ey are not priceless
memories. If you nee d to run up credit card
debt to fi nance the memories, they have a very
stee p cost: a 15 % interest rate, on average.
Th is is not about what you and your family deserve.
We all deserve vacations. But you have to
face up to what is going on in our economy right
now. I am not a pessimist; we will eventually move
past this fi nancial mess. But in the interim, what
you and your family nee d is to be safe. An unpaid
credit card balance is not safe. Not having an
118 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
emergency savings fund is not safe. Same goes for
no retirement savings. If you haven’t taken care of
those priorities, you can’t aff ord to take an expensive
vacation. Period. Th at doesn’t mean you can’t
spend time with your family and create lasting
memories. Take the vacation—just do it at home,
or closer to home, this year.
SITUATION: Your daughter is getting married. You
have all dreamed of a big wedding, but your investments
took a big hit last year and the only way you
can afford the wedding is to put it on your credit card.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime event, so it’s not like you
can just say no.
ACTION: You can, and must, say no. It is absolutely
unacceptable to take on any sort of debt to
pay for a wedding. No exceptions. I don’t care
what anyone dreamed of.
Do you dee p down, honestly, believe that what
you spend is a refl ection of your love for your
daughter? Do you honestly believe that it is bett er
to take on $20,000 in credit card debt to impress
your fr iends, rather than use that $20,000 for retirement
savings? Step back for a moment and put
this decision to the Nee d vs. Want test. What you
and your daughter want is a big expensive wedding.
But all that is really nee ded is an aff ordable wedding
that is full of love.
ACTION PLAN: Spending 119
SITUATION: You love giving gifts. It is important to
you and something your friends and family have
come to expect from you. You can’t imagine stopping
your gift-giving ways just to have more to save for
yourself.
ACTION: As wonderful as it is that you give gift s,
you and I both know that your fr iends and family
don’t love you because of the gift s. If you have yet
to build an emergency savings fund that can cover
eight months of living costs, you must curtail your
gift giving so you can give yourself something far
more important: security .
Besides, you are never, ever to buy gift s that
you can’t aff ord to pay for immediately. As I explained
in “Action Plan: Credit,” an unpaid credit
card balance in 2009 puts you at great risk of falling
into a costly vicious cycle you will fi nd it hard
to climb out of. Worried what your fr iends and
family will think if they don’t receive an expensive
gift this year? Come on. Do you really think anyone
who cares about you would fee l good if they
received a gift with an unspoken price tag that
said, Th is gift cost $50 that I couldn’t aff ord and
means I will not be able to pay off my credit card bill
this month?
120 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You are struggling to make ends meet,
but you don’t want to stop contributing to the charities
you have supported in the past.
ACTION: Can you give time rather than money
this year? I understand how important it is to help
those in nee d. But you have important nee ds this
year too. And it is not selfi sh to make your fi nancial
safety and security a priority . If you nee d to
reduce or suspend your contributions this year to
shore up your fi nances, that’s the right and honest
move for you to make.
I realize how hard this is, especially when charities
are also fee ling the pinch and are stepping up
their requests for donations. But you must give
only what you can honestly aff ord. If that means
no fi nancial contributions in 2009, that is okay. I
encourage you to donate your time—or more of
your time than you already give—to the causes
you support. Th at is a valuable contribution. And
to be honest, I think it can also have a great unintended
benefi t for you: In these very scary times,
it can be calming to focus on what you can do
through your actions to make the world a bett er
place.
Now, that said, I also know how upsett ing it
can be to curtail helping others in nee d. Take another
hard look at the Household Cash Flow
workshee t and see if there are any costs you could
ACTION PLAN: Spending 121
pare back to fr ee up a litt le money to contribute to
the causes most important to you. Challenge yourself:
“I want to cut $X a month in savings so I can
continue to make charitable contributions in
2009.” Oft en, having a specifi c goal makes it easier
to focus on “wants” that you can do without. If
only for 2009.
SITUATION: Your son graduates from college in a
few months and needs a car for work. He has asked
you to cosign for a car loan.
ACTION: If you cannot cover the payments yourself,
then you are never to cosign a loan. You nee d
to understand that cosigning makes you legally responsible
for the loan; in the event your child can’t
make the payment, you are expected to come up
with the payment. Failure to do so will hurt your
FICO score, not just your child’s.
And let me defi ne what it means to be able to
aff ord to cosign: You have no credit card debt
yourself. You are not struggling to make your
mortgage and car payments. Even if you can afford
to cover the payments, I want you to carefully
consider what you are doing. If your child can’t get
a car loan on his own, you nee d to ask yourself
why. Is he buying an expensive car when his budget
can aff ord only a moderate-priced car? Is he
focusing only on new cars for their “wow” factor,
rather than buying a safe, reliable older car that is
122 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
more aff ordable? Is there something the lender
knows about his credit score that you don’t—such
as the fact that he is already up to his ears in credit
card debt? Helping a child who is just gett ing
started is fi ne, but helping a child who has already
abused credit and has no clue how to be fi nancially
responsible is not acceptable.
If you decide to go ahead and cosign, I recommend
that you be in charge of making the payment.
I have see n too many parents cosign and
assume their kid is making the payments, only to
get a disturbing lett er fr om the lender that the
loan is delinquent and everyone’s FICO score has
bee n hurt. I know you are focused on your kid being
an independent adult, but if he or she nee ds
your help with a loan, you have every right to oversee
the payment.
SITUATION: You need a new car, but you don’t want
to overreach and end up like your neighbor who had
her car repossessed last year.
ACTION: Find out what you can aff ord with a
maximum loan term of three years. Th at’s what
you can aff ord. It makes no fi nancial sense to
stretch into a more expensive car if you nee d to
extend the loan term to four or fi ve years. Th at’s a
colossal waste of money. What you nee d to understand
is that a car is a lousy investment. It is guarantee
d to lose money; the trade-in value will never
ACTION PLAN: Spending 123
cover the purchase price or the interest payments
on a loan. Th erefore, you want to kee p your cost as
low as possible by limiting yourself to a three -year
loan. At www.bankrate.com, you can see what
ty pical car rates are in your area and use the fr ee
calculator to fi gure out your monthly costs.
And I want to be clear, I am talking about a
regular loan. No leases. Not now, not ever. With a
car loan, you will eventually own the car fr ee and
clear and can drive it for fi ve to seven more years
without having to worry about your monthly payment.
If you lease, you ty pically fall into a trap
where you just kee p rolling over into a new lease
every three years. So you are always making payments.
Given that we just discussed what a lousy
investment a car is, why would you ever choose a
never-ending cycle of car payments?
Before you start shopping, make sure your FICO
credit score is at least 720. Th ere are indee d great
deals to be had given all the unsold and repossessed
cars on dealer lots, but you nee d to have a high
credit score to get a loan with a reasonable rate. In
a slowing economy, where lenders are downright
scared to lend, they are going to off er reasonable
deals only to borrowers with sparkling credit. In
November 2008, a FICO score of 720 or bett er
would make you eligible for a 6.7 % car loan rate. If
your score was 620–660, the rate was 12 %.
I also recommend taking a look at certifi ed preowned
cars; these are used cars that come with a
124 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
limited warranty . Make sure the warranty is fr om
the manufacturer, not the dealership. Given the
huge inventory of repossessed cars, you may be
able to fi nd an especially good deal on a used car.
Sure, right now you might also be able to score a
great deal on a new car if you have a solid FICO
score. But please remember that the goal is to
spend the least amount of money for a car that is
safe and mee ts your commuting nee ds.
SILVER LINING: Th e federal sales-tax deduction
is reinstated for the 2008 and 2009 tax years. As
part of the big $700 billion bailout bill, Congress reinstated
an expired tax break that gives you the option of
deducting either your state income tax or the sales tax
you paid for the year. For residents of states with no (or
low) personal income-tax rates who made big-ticket
purchas es, you can save money on your federal return
if you itemize and claim the sales-tax deduction.
A Pledge for 2009
Throughout this book I have asked you in various
ways to change your actions, to think before acting,
to act in a manner that might go against your
instincts. I’m a fi rm believer that action is often
the only antidote for overcoming fear or doubt, for
burning through confusion, and for changing habits
that have become ingrained patterns in our lives.
ACTION PLAN: Spending 125
To that end, I am asking you to make the following
pledge.
Within a month of reading this book, I ask that
you:
■ Do not spend money for one day
■ Do not use your credit card for one week
■ Do not eat out at a restaurant for one month
I think you will be surprised by the changes these
resolutions bring about in you. In my own life I have
found that small, mindful acts can change your entire
worldview. Once you have fulfi lled these three
requests, I ask that you make a promise to yourself
to make it your absolute priority to eliminate your
outstanding credit card debt as soon as possible.
What may have once seemed overwhelming and
impossible, may suddenly seem like the right thing
to do—a very necessary action to take—in 2009.
126
7
ACTION PLAN
Real Estate
The New Reality
Fallout fr om the mortgage crisis has aff ected
every home in America. Th is is no longer a
problem confi ned to the subprime market of
reckless borrowers and the irresponsible lenders
who egged them on. No one was left untouched.
Even if you have a mortgage you can aff ord and
a home you love, the fact is your home is likely
worth less than it was just a few years ago, and
that puts a huge crimp in your fi nancial planning.
You convinced yourself that your home would continue
to appreciate at a double-digit annual rate
forever, with no possible downside. You baked
those high values into your future fi nancial plans
and that made you fee l richer than you actually
were. But your bubble-induced sense of security
led you to spend more and save less because you
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 127
were so sure your mountain of home equity would
pay for retirement or the kids’ college tuition or
the new room addition.
But it isn’t playing out the way you imagined.
Home values have plummeted back to 2004 levels
and are still falling as I write this in November
2008. Suddenly, you must face the fact that your
home is not going to fund all those capital expenses
you were planning. Th at not only aff ects
your long-term outlook, it could also endanger
your short-term security . Th e newest housing
trend swee ping the country is banks rescinding
home equity lines of credit because falling home
values make those open credit lines too risky . Any
family that has relied on a HELOC as an emergency
cash fund could be in trouble in 2009; your
bank may remove your safety net.
And let’s face it, 2009 is shaping up to be the
worst year in decades to sell a home, even if you
have equity . Th ere is a 10-month backlog of homes
on the market; that’s more than double the level
fi ve years ago. A fl ood of bank-foreclosed homes,
or homes up for a short sale (when what your home
sells for is less than your remaining mortgage balance,
and the bank forgives the diff erence), are a
big factor in the market glut, but so is the fr ozen
lending market. Banks do not want to lend money
right now; the only borrowers they will even consider
must jump through the highest qualify ing
hoops in more than a decade. Th at reduces the
128 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
pool of prospective buyers of your home—including
buyers who must turn around and sell their
home in the same fr ozen market.
Renters are not immune either. Tens of thousands
of renters have bee n kicked out of their
homes since 2007 as their landlords fell behind on
their mortgage payments and the bank foreclosed
on the property . Th ese were renters who wrote the
check on time every month and had no clue that
their home was at risk until they had an offi cial
note tacked to the fr ont door telling them they had
30 days to vacate.
Th ere will be no magical turnaround in 2009.
Th e best we can hope for is a slowing of homes that
fall into foreclosure. I have a moral problem with
bailing out homeowners and lenders who had no
right to do the deals they did. I certainly do not support
a bailout of people who bought a home that
was never aff ordable under any rational assessment,
but I do think we are obliged to help those who,
with moderate assistance today, can aff ord to stay
in their home. Kee ping those homeowners in their
homes is the most eff ective way to stabilize the
housing market. And let’s be clear: Th ere will be no
widespread stabilization in our fi nancial markets
until the housing markets stabilize; home foreclosures
are the epicenter of the credit crisis.
As I write, some major lenders have fi nally
stepped up their eff ort to modify loans for some
homeowners. And I expect we will see more and
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 129
greater eff ort by lenders and the federal government
to slow down the pace of foreclosures in
2009. Still, we should all expect that this year will
continue to be a very tough time for real estate.
WEB SITE ALERT: Th is book went to press in
November 2008. I will post updated information on
my Web site throughout the year whenever there are
new mortgage-relief programs to share with you. Go
to www.suzeorman.com.
What you need to do in 2009
■ Push for a “mortgage modifi cation” if your current
loan is too expensive.
■ Do not use credit cards or retirement funds to
pay for a too-expensive home.
■ Stay informed about new programs, from lenders
and the government, in the months ahead that
aim to keep more homeowners out of foreclosure.
■ Build a real savings fund; a HELOC should not be
your safety net in 2009.
■ Focus on your home’s long-term value, not its
price change from month to month.
Your 2009 Real Estate Action Plan
SITUATION: You can’t afford the cost of your adjustable
rate mortgage (ARM) since it reset, but you don’t
know what your options are.
130 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: Start by contacting your lender and asking
if there is any chance you can renegotiate (modify
) your mortgage so your payments are more
aff ordable. Please do this as soon as you think you’re
in trouble—over half of those whose homes are
foreclosed never speak to their lender prior to foreclosure,
according to the National Foundation for
Consumer Credit Counseling (NFCC). Th is was
far fr om easy throughout most of 2008, but as the
severity of the crisis dee pened, some lenders stepped
up their willingness to modify loans for borrowers
they dee med could aff ord their homes with a moderate
level of assistance. When you call, right away
ask for a loan-mitigation or workout specialist. Be
prepared to document your fi nancial hardship as
well as your ability to aff ord the modifi ed loan. You
can get advice about how to talk to your lender at
www.hud.gov. Click on “Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure.”
Bett er yet, the NFCC has HUD-approved
housing counselors who can advise you and will act
as an advocate with your lender for the best resolution
for your situation. Call 866-557-2227—you’ll
be automatically connected to the agency closest
to you—or visit their Homeowner Crisis Resource
Center at www.housinghelpnow.org.
SITUATION: You contacted your lender fi ve months
ago and were told there was no way the lender would
modify your loan to make it more affordable.
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 131
ACTION: Try again. Lenders who were saying no
for a long time are now soft ening up and agree ing
to modify loans. To be honest, this may be your best
shot, rather than the government programs in their
current forms. In October 2008, Bank of America
announced an agree ment with a group of state attorneys
general to modify up to 400,000 subprime
mortgages the bank acquired when it bought Countrywide
earlier in the year. Also in October, JP
Morgan Chase announced its intention to modify
as many as 400,000 mortgages to more aff ordable
terms in an eff ort to reduce foreclosures. And in
mid-November, Citigroup had announced it was
halting the foreclosure process for loans in its portfolio
and would try to modify terms for as many as
500,000 of its distressed borrowers.
WEB SITE ALERT: I anticipate we will see more
lender and government programs in 2009 to slow
down the pace of foreclosures; vis it www.suzeorman.
com for up-to-date information.
SITUATION: The banks and Wall Street are getting
help, but what programs exist to help homeowners?
ACTION: First of all, contact your lender; they
are best equipped to tell you what assistance you
may be eligible for. Th e pace of lenders off ering
their own programs is picking up (though the
banks were woefully slow to off er such assistance
through much of 2008).
132 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
You are supposed to be able to get government
assistance sizing up whether you are a good candidate
for a mortgage modifi cation by calling the
Hope Now alliance coordinated by the Department
of Housing and Urban Development. Call
888-995-HOPE, or get more information at www.
hopenow.com. Be prepared to be patient; though
you can reach a live operator with ease, you may
be told there is no counselor available and that you
will nee d to call back later. And don’t expect miracles;
this is merely to help you size up your situation.
Moreover, if the Hope Now counselor can’t
ascertain who actually owns your mortgage—an
all-too-common problem given the millions of
mortgages that were packaged with other mortgages
and sold off as securities—you aren’t going
to be able to get past fi rst base.
Given that lenders have bee n less than impressive
in stepping up to the plate to help people stay
in their homes, I want you to know what federal
programs are available. But please be aware that
these programs—limited and late in coming—
may change in both scope and detail once the new
administration is in place. Adding to the uncertainty
is the problem of consumers whose loans,
many of them subprime, have bee n sold in packages
to outside investors worldwide; there is still
disagree ment over whether mortgages sold into
these pools can be modifi ed. With such a fl uid
and evolving situation, please periodically check
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 133
my Web site for updates on the changes: www.
suzeorman.com.
Here are the programs in place as of mid-
November 2008:
Th e original FHASecure program, launched in
August 2007, was limited to helping homeowners
with good credit (translation: not subprime) refi -
nance into a fi xed-rate mortgage if they would be
unable to kee p up with the reset of their ARMs.
Th e one big catch was that you couldn’t already be
behind in your mortgage payments, thereby shutting
out the very people in nee d of help.
In July 2008, Congress passed the Housing and
Economic Recovery Act, which eff ectively made
FHASecure a viable option for subprime borrowers
too. You can be eligible for a mortgage refi -
nance as long as you have made at least 9 of your
past 12 mortgage payments on time. Th e goal of
the program is to help homeowners who are nearly
able to cover the cost of a fi xed-rate mortgage. It is
not meant to bail out homeowners who took out
an option-payment ARM that had an initial rate
that was 50 % less than what the fully amortizing
(regular) cost would have bee n without the insane
teaser rate. At most, the plan is expected to off er
refi nancing relief to 400,000 homeowners. Th at
sounds like a lot of help—until you realize that
Moody’s Economy.com forecasts that 3.5 million
homes may be lost to foreclosure and short sales in
2009 and 2010.
134 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
Th e big $700 billion bailout bill that passed in
October 2008 amended the federal program Hope
for Homeowners that was passed in July and put
into eff ect in October. Under this program, homeowners
who bought a house before 2008 and
have a monthly mortgage payment that excee ds
31 % of their gross income may be eligible to refi -
nance into a 30-year, fi xed-rate mortgage based
on 90 % or higher of the home’s current value,
thereby reducing the monthly mortgage payment.
In return for rewriting the mortgage, the FHA
agree s to insure the mortgage. Th e program is
currently scheduled to end on September 30, 2011.
Th ree big caveats: Lenders do not have to participate
in Hope for Homeowners, and it is not clear
if many will, given that the program requires
lenders to write down the value of modifi ed mortgages,
meaning they have to be willing to take a
big loss. Morever, borrowers will face heft y fee s
and charges. And only mortgages under $550,440
are eligible. Th e FHA in November 2008 was projecting
13,300 borrowers would be helped in its
fi rst year. Go to www.hud.gov and ty pe “Hope for
Homeowners” in the search box.
Another initiative scheduled to begin December
15, 2008, is the “Streamlined Modifi cation
Program,” aimed at mortgages owned or guarantee
d by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Homeowners
who have missed at least three loan payments,
are not in bankruptcy, and can prove a hardship
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 135
or change in fi nancial circumstances, could qualify
for a streamlined workout designed to reduce
monthly mortgage payments to 38 % of monthly
income. To get to that level, the lender can use one
or more of these options: extending the term of
the loan to 40 years; lowering the interest rate
temporarily or permanently; or excluding part of
the loan balance when calculating the monthly
payment—an option called “principal forbearance.”
It means the amount you owe won’t change,
but gets paid back when you sell or refi nance the
house. Participating servicers will send lett ers to
eligible borrowers; you can also call your servicer
to see if you qualify .
WEB SITE ALERT: Pleas e check www.suze
orman.com for the most up-to-date information on
government programs to as sis t homeowners with unaff
ordable mortgages. As this book went to press, the
FDIC was pushing for a more comprehensive mortgage
modifi cation program, but had not yet garnered
the backing of the Treas ury Department.
SITUATION: Your mortgage has become too expensive,
but you don’t want to lose your home and upset
your family.
ACTION: If you can’t negotiate a lower payment
with your lender and none of the programs mentioned
above can help you, then I am so sorry to
tell you that you must try to sell your home sooner
136 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
rather than later. I know it is excruciatingly painful
to consider, but it is also a simple decision. You
cannot stay in a home you cannot aff ord. Remember,
the right moves in 2009 are honest moves.
SITUATION: You’re thinking that if you can just hold
on to your home for another year, the market will recover
and you will be able to refi nance your mortgage.
ACTION: Do not base your decisions today on the
magical hope that somehow everything will work
out if you can just wait for the big rebound.
I have to tell you, it’s not coming. At least not in
2009. If you are in an area that has bee n hard hit,
I think it is far more likely you could see another
10 %–15 % drop in home values in 2009 than a
10 %–15 % rise.
My best-case scenario for home values in 2009
and probably into 2010 is that eff orts to address
the credit crisis and the wave of foreclosures begin
to take hold and that leads to a gradual stabilization
of real estate values. If you think graphically,
imagine the capital lett er L. Your home’s value
tw o years ago was at the top of the L. Since then it
has bee n sliding straight down in value. In 2009–
2010, you should be relieved if what we see is that
the downstroke stops and we move to the right—
that is, prices stop going down. I wish I could tell
you that home prices will be more like the lett er V:
Aft er the big fall, they will quickly bounce back to
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 137
where they were. But I, too, am committ ed to being
honest. And honestly, there is no chance we
will see that. In fact, in the hardest-hit markets it
could be years before we see a rebound that brings
prices close to their 2006 highs.
If the only way you can hang on depends on a
fast and dramatic rebound, your honest move in
2009 is to try and sell your home.
SITUATION: When you bought your home three
years ago, the lender steered you into an ARM and said
that you would be able to refi nance before the fi rst rate
adjustment. But now you’re being told you can’t refi -
nance because you have no equity in the home.
ACTION: Make sure to check in with the lender to
see if you can qualify for a loan modifi cation. As I
mentioned earlier, there is a growing eff ort by lenders
to help “qualifi ed” borrowers stay in their homes
rather than being foreclosed on. But if you are
turned down for a loan modifi cation and you will
not be able to aff ord the mortgage when your interest
rate resets, then I am so sorry to say it is bett er
to try to sell your home sooner rather than later.
SITUATION: To eke by and make the mortgage payment,
you have resorted to using your credit card to
cover more expenses. You credit card balance is now
ballooning out of control.
138 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: Again, push to see if your mortgage can
be modifi ed. If not, you must consider selling, because
using your credit card is not a good solution to
this diffi cult problem. You nee d to look a few months
into the future and realize that sooner rather than
later you will have reached your card’s credit limit.
Th en what? You will have a ton of credit card debt
and a mortgage you still can’t aff ord. All you have
done is delay the inevitable, and in the process you
have added thousands of dollars in credit card debt.
For those of you who are stubborn and want to
use your credit cards to help you stay in your house,
I nee d you to review what I explained in “Action
Plan: Credit.” I have never advocated piling on
credit card debt, but doing so in 2009 is doubly
dangerous. Credit card companies are dealing
with their own new reality : Th ey risk massive
losses if consumers fall on hard times during the
credit crisis and economic recession. Th ey are especially
wary of anyone who see ms to be heading
for trouble; a rising unpaid balance will set off
warning bells at the credit card company. It can
result in your credit limit being cut, your account
being shut down (you won’t be able to make new
charges, but you will still be responsible for your
existing balance), and your interest rate could sky -
rocket. Please don’t compound your mortgage
problem with a credit card problem.
I know this is hard to consider, but if you really
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 139
can’t aff ord the mortgage today, it is bett er to
move than to go dee per into debt trying to hold
on. Of course, I am assuming you have done absolutely
everything possible to come up with the
money to pay the mortgage. In “Action Plan:
Spending,” I have suggestions about how to cut
your expenses so you have more money left to pay
the mortgage or address other fi nancial goals.
SITUATION: You want to make a withdrawal from
your 401(k) and use the money to help you keep current
with your mortgage payments.
ACTION: Don’t do it. If you use up your retirement
money today, what will you live on in retirement?
I see so many people making this huge mistake
these days. I understand the thinking: You are
desperate to hang on to your house and will do
anything not to fall into foreclosure. So you empty
out your 401(k), paying income tax on the withdrawal
and may also be hit with a 10 % penalty for
money taken out before you are 59½. But then, six
months later, you fi nd yourself back in the same
hole: You have used up all the money you withdrew
fr om your 401(k) and you are once again
falling behind on your mortgage. So all you have
done is delay the inevitable: that you can’t really
aff ord this mortgage. But in the process you have
wiped out any retirement savings. For nothing.
140 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
It’s also important to know that money you have
in a 401(k) or IRA is protected if you ever have to
fi le bankruptcy. You get to kee p that money no
matt er what. Th is isn’t a pleasant scenario to ponder,
but let’s think about what happens in a really
dire situation: You have $20,000 in your 401(k)
that you withdraw. Aft er tax and the 10 % penalty ,
you are left with about $15,000. Th at helps pay the
bills for another few months, but once you have
used it up, you are back where you started: You
can’t aff ord the home. So you lose the home. And
now you have no retirement savings.
If instead you kept the $15,000 invested for another
10 years and it earned even a conservative
5 % return, you would have nearly $25,000 saved
up. And that money will never be taken away in a
bankruptcy.
SITUATION: You want to take a loan from your
401(k) and use the money to help you keep current
with your mortgage payments.
ACTION: A loan is no bett er than a withdrawal in
this situation. Don’t do it. You probably know I
am not a big fan of this move. Taking out a loan
means you end up being taxed tw ice on the money
you withdraw. And there’s the risk that if you are
laid off you ty pically must pay back the loan within
a few months. We all know that the current eco-
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 141
nomic weakness makes it likely that we could see
even more layoff s in 2009. So if you take out the
loan, get laid off , and can’t pay it back ASAP, you
will run into another tax problem: Th e loan is
treated as a withdrawal and you are stuck paying
the 10 % early-withdrawal penalty (if you are under
59½) as well as income tax.
SITUATION: You can’t afford your mortgage payments,
but what you owe on your mortgage is more
than the house will sell for.
ACTION: Push your lender to agree to a short sale.
In a short sale, the lender accepts whatever you
can sell your house for in today’s market, even if
that is less than the outstanding balance on your
mortgage. Th e lender is agree ing that once you hand
over all procee ds fr om the sale, your mortgage will
be considered sett led; any shortfall betw ee n the sale
price and your balance will be forgiven.
Lenders may be open to this arrangement if
they believe what they can get fr om the short sale
is more than the cost they will incur if they foreclose
on your home. Th at said, it is by no means
easy to get lenders to agree to a short sale. But it is
worth asking. Th e impact on your FICO credit
score is no diff erent fr om what it would be if you
went through foreclosure (see details below), but
it is a less traumatic way to walk away.
142 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You are worried a short sale will hurt
your FICO score.
ACTION: It will, but it is bett er to be honest now
than hang on and make your fi nancial life (and
credit score) even worse by trying to stay in an
unaff ordable home.
Th e mortgage you took out was a legal contract
in which you agree d to repay the amount you borrowed
(the principal) plus interest. In a short sale,
you are allowed to repay less than the amount you
borrowed. You did not live up to your end of the contract,
and that is going to hurt your FICO score. A
short sale will stay on your credit report for 7 years
(though you won’t see the term “short sale” on your
credit report; lenders use diff erent terms, sometimes
describing short sales as “sett led”), the same as a
foreclosure. Th e impact of a short sale (and foreclosure)
on your FICO score lessens as time goes by.
If you anticipate you will go through a short sale
in 2009, it becomes extra important to kee p your
credit card balances paid off . I know this is diffi cult,
given the fact that you are dealing with serious fi -
nancial issues, but you nee d to make this a priority ,
because once your FICO score drops because of
the short sale, your credit card company may get
nervous and that ty pically leads to raising your interest
rate. And the last thing you can aff ord is a
credit card balance with a 32 % interest rate.
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 143
SITUATION: You have heard that if you agree to a
short sale you will have a big tax bill from the IRS,
and you don’t have the money to pay for that.
ACTION: Relax. You will not owe income tax on
the amount of the debt that is forgiven, as long as
the short sale occurs before 2012. Originally, the
Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 waived the income-
tax rule on forgiven debt through 2009, but
it was extended to 2012 in the big $700 billion
bailout bill of 2008. Up to $2 million in forgiven
debt is shielded fr om income tax for married couples
fi ling a joint tax return ($1 million for individuals).
SITUATION: You were turned down for a short sale.
Is foreclosure your only option?
ACTION: Probably. Your only other option is a
“dee d in lieu of foreclosure,” where you hand over
the dee d to your home to the lender, who then
takes the house without going through the formal
foreclosure process. While this is an option, it is
not widely off ered by lenders. Short sale or foreclosure
is a more likely alternative if you cannot
agree to a loan modifi cation and nee d to let go of
the house.
144 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: Will you have to move out immediately
when the bank starts the foreclosure process?
ACTION: Foreclosure law varies by state. Lenders
will ty pically start the foreclosure process once
you are three months behind in payments.
In about half the states, foreclosures must go
through the court system; the other half use procedures
that don’t require judicial action. For example,
some states allow for what is known as a
“power of sale,” in which mortgage companies—
or whoever is empowered under the mortgage
document—can handle the foreclosure process.
In either ty pe of foreclosure, you will receive notifi
cation fr om the foreclosing party that the foreclosure
process has started; ty pically you will have
fr om a few wee ks to a few months (depending on
your state’s laws) to reinstate the loan by paying up
what you owe. (For a roundup of state’s foreclosure
statutes, see Stephen Elias’s Foreclosure Survival
Guide, Nolo Press, 2008; updates to the list will be
published in the legal updates area on nolo.com.)
If you do not get current on your mortgage in
the allott ed time, the foreclosure procee ds, and
your home is sold or the lender takes possession.
Th ough you have the right to remain in your home
until you are ordered out by a court aft er the foreclosure
sale, many lenders encourage foreclosed
owners to leave by making a “cash for keys” off er,
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 145
money paid for your leaving voluntarily instead of
requiring the new owner to obtain a court eviction
order. A good overview of the foreclosure process is
at htt p://www.credit.com/life_stages/overcoming/
Understanding-Foreclosure.jsp.
SITUATION: You’ve been contacted by a foreclosure
“rescue specialist” who promises to help you
avoid foreclosure for a fee.
ACTION: Don’t fall for this. Legitimate foreclosure
consultants do not see k you out; you go to
them. Th e huge number of at-risk borrowers has
created a whole new opportunity for scam artists
who can easily fi nd victims by scouting public records
for notices of default. Th e most common
ploy: Th ey’ll off er to negotiate a deal with your
lender if you pay the fee fi rst; once you pay, they’re
gone. An even nastier scam involves gett ing you to
sign documents for a new loan that will supposedly
make your existing mortgage current, but
instead you’ve bee n tricked into surrendering title
to the scammer in exchange for a “rescue” loan.
If you’re facing foreclosure, get help you can
trust. Start with the National Foundation for
Consumer Credit Counseling, which will put you
in touch with a housing counselor in your area:
call 866-557-2227. More information on foreclosure
scams is available at their Homeowner Crisis
Resource Center, housinghelpnow.org, and at the
146 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
FTC site, www.ft c.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/
credit/cre42.shtm. If you think you’ve bee n a victim
of foreclosure fr aud, contact the Federal Trade
Commission at ft c.gov or call 1-877-FTC-HELP,
or your state att orney general’s offi ce.
SITUATION: You are worried that going through a
foreclosure means you will never be able to buy another
house.
ACTION: You will be eligible to buy a house in the
future if you take steps today to start rebuilding
your FICO score. Th ere is no sugarcoating this: A
foreclosure, as well as a short sale, will be a big
negative mark on your FICO credit score. But it is
not a permanent stain. Th e foreclosure stays on
your credit report for seven years; each year its impact
on your FICO credit score lessens. Th is is no
diff erent fr om a short sale.
Because you will likely see your FICO score
drop, you want to do your best to reduce any unpaid
credit card balances if you anticipate going
through foreclosure in 2009. I know this is going
to be hard to pull off , given that you are obviously
dealing with some serious fi nancial challenges.
But please do your best to kee p your credit card
balance low. When your FICO score goes down in
2009, your credit card company may become nervous
that you are in trouble. Th at might result in
the card company’s lowering your credit line. And
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 147
as we discussed in “Action Plan: Credit,” that
starts a vicious cycle that can lead to a huge increase
in your interest rate.
SITUATION: With real estate prices falling, you are
wondering if it’s a good time to buy a home.
ACTION: I still believe that over time a home can
be one of the most satisfy ing investments you can
make, but you have to make sure you can aff ord it.
By “aff ord it” I mean not just being about to mee t
the monthly mortgage payments and expenses, but
you have to be able to make those payments for at
least eight months if you don’t have income coming
in. Why eight months? Because if by chance
you were to lose your job, it could take many
months to fi nd a new one. I certainly hope you
would fi nd a great new job quickly, but if we fi nd
ourselves in a dee p, slow recession, it could take
longer to fi nd a job than you anticipate. I want you
to be in a position to know you have savings set
aside to cover the mortgage while you job-hunt.
As for timing: I recommend buying in 2009
only if you intend to stay put for at least fi ve years.
I don’t care what sort of deal you think you can
get, it makes no sense to buy a home today if you
suspect you might move in a few years. Th is housing
recovery is going to be slow (remember the L
scenario I mentioned earlier). If you buy today,
prices may not go up much over the next few years;
148 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
in fact, in some areas they could still go down.
And it’s important to remember that when you go
to sell you will be responsible for paying an agent
a sales commission of 5 %–6 %. Th at could wipe
out any appreciation you might see over the next
year or tw o . . . or three , depending on how hard
hit your area is.
And don’t even think about buying if you have
yet to save up at least 10 % of the purchase price
for a down payment. Did I say 10 %? I should add
that 20 % is even bett er. Th ough there are some
government programs that require smaller down
payments, the new reality is that the only way
many homeowners will qualify for a regular mortgage
is if they can make a solid down payment.
Th e last requirement I have for potential buyers
is that you can buy your home with a standard 30-
year, fi xed-rate mortgage. Instead of “bett ing” on
an adjustable-rate loan, or that you will have
enough equity in three or fi ve years to refi nance, I
think it is smarter to stick with a 30-year fi xedrate
so you never have to worry about your payment
rising.
SILVER LINING: Th e Housing and Economic
Recovery Act (July 2008) gives a credit of up to $7,500
for fi rst-time buyers who purchas e a home betw ee n
April 9, 2008, and July 1, 2009. Individuals with income
below $75,000 and married couples with income
below $150,000 are eligible for this program.
Th e credit is actually an interest-fr ee loan. You claim
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 149
it on your federal tax return and then repay the
amount of your credit over a 15-year period.
SITUATION: You want to take advantage of the low
real estate prices in your area, but there’s no way you
can afford a 10% down payment.
ACTION: If you can’t aff ord a 10 % down payment,
then you probably can’t aff ord to buy in 2009.
Th ough there are some federal loan programs
that require down payments of less than 5 %, if
you want a conventional mortgage, lenders this
year are going to insist on down payments of 10 %,
and in many instances you will nee d to have 20 %
to be off ered the best interest rates.
Th e days of no-down-payment loans are gone,
and with any luck they will never return. You have
to realize that if the millions of homeowners who
bought a house with no down payment during the
housing boom had bee n required to make a down
payment, we would not be in this mess right now.
Without the down payment, those people would
not have bee n allowed to buy in the fi rst place.
And I have always said that if you can’t aff ord
to make a down payment, it’s a sign you can’t afford
a home.
SITUATION: You don’t know what purchase price
you can afford for a house.
150 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: First-time buyers must understand that
paying $1,000 in monthly rent does not mean you
can aff ord a mortgage of $1,000 a month. In addition
to the base mortgage, you will also have to pay
property tax, home insurance, and, if your down
payment is less than 20 %, private mortgage insurance.
You also have to be ready to pay for repairs
and maintenance costs—you’re the landlord now!
If you add up all those other non-mortgage costs,
your monthly bill can be 30 % to 40 % more than
the basic mortgage. So if you were to take on a
$1,000 mortgage, your monthly housing costs
could actually be closer to $1,300–$1,400 a month.
Yes, it is true that you will get a tax break as a homeowner;
the interest on your mortgage payments
is tax-deductible. Th at’s a help, but not a solution.
Th e best way to fi gure out how much you can
aff ord is to use an online calculator (go to www.
bankrate.com) to fi gure out the base mortgage
amount. Th en add at least 30 % to that amount
and ask yourself if you can honestly handle that
cost. If not, look to buy a less expensive home. Th e
goal is to aff ord a home comfortably, not to stretch
and gamble.
SITUATION: You bought your house 10 years ago
and have a lot of equity, but you wonder if you should
sell now and just rent.
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 151
ACTION: Your home is not a stock that you buy
and sell based on its short-term value. If you enjoy
your home, if you can aff ord your home, and if you
don’t nee d to sell right now, stay put.
I have to tell you, the time to sell was about
three years ago during the market peak. It’s no
diff erent fr om my advice for how to look at investing.
If you have time on your side, be patient. If
you will nee d cash fr om the sale within the next
year or tw o, then that’s a diff erent matt er. We
could indee d see prices fall farther fr om current
levels before the housing market stabilizes. Assuming
you don’t have to move, why move? Especially
when you consider that you’ll have to pay
the 6 % sales commission along with the cost and
hassle of the actual move.
SITUATION: Your son and daughter-in-law are in
mortgage trouble. You are retired and are considering
using some of your savings to help them through
this rough patch.
ACTION: If you can aff ord to help, then of course
help. But that’s a serious issue you nee d to carefully
ponder. If helping them out today in any way
puts your own retirement security at risk, then
you simply cannot aff ord to help. Th at’s not being
selfi sh, it’s actually looking out for your kids. You
nee d to think through how this could play out.
152 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
You help the kids out now, but that means your
retirement account runs dry in 15 years instead of
lasting the 25 or 30 years you were counting on.
And let’s say you have the good fortune of living a
very long life. Only problem is, you nee d to turn to
your kids for help because you no longer have any
money left .
You have the valuable assets in this situation.
You probably own your own home outright and
you have a nice retirement fund. Do not put those
at risk. If your kids are in a house they can’t aff ord,
it may be best for them to let go. If they live nearby,
you can off er to have them move in while they regroup.
Or if they are determined to stay in the
house, how about you off er to take a more active
role helping with the grandkids on the wee kends
so they can take on part-time work—or extra
projects at their job—to bring in the income they
nee d.
SITUATION: Two years ago, you took out a HELOC
that you never used but kept in case you ran into an
emergency. Your lender just told you it was revoking
your HELOC.
ACTION: You must have a regular savings account
funded with your own cash in 2009; you cannot
rely on either a HELOC or credit card line of
credit to be available in an emergency. Home equity
lines of credit are being rescinded (or reduced)
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 153
because of falling home values. With less equity in
your home, you suddenly look a lot riskier to your
HELOC lender.
SITUATION: You have an open HELOC and are wondering
if you should tap it now and put the money
into a savings account to serve as your emergency
savings fund.
ACTION: Fund a savings account fr om real savings,
not by increasing your debt. It is absurd to
take on more debt in 2009, given the likelihood
that in a recession you have an increased risk of
losing your job. Don’t tell me you will just use your
savings to cover the HELOC payment if you get
laid off . Wake up. You will nee d that money to pay
your basic living costs, so why would you want to
add to that monthly nut?
If you want to build a real, honest savings
account, check out my advice in “Action Plan:
Spending,” for ways to fi nd money to put toward
your most important goals in 2009.
SITUATION: You planned on using a HELOC to help
pay for your child’s college costs, but with home values
down so much you doubt you will be able to pay
for school with a HELOC.
ACTION: Be grateful market forces didn’t lure you
into this bad move. I have never liked it when fam-
154 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ilies increase their housing debt to pay for school.
It ty pically leaves parents severely in debt just at
the point when they should be focusing on paying
off their mortgage debt, not increasing it, to prepare
for retirement.
Don’t worry, you have solid loan options to
cover college costs. Please check out “Action Plan:
Paying for College.”
SITUATION: You were counting on booming home
prices to help pay for your retirement.
ACTION: Time to get serious about saving money
fr om your paycheck. As I stated earlier in this
chapter, I am still a big believer that your home is
a solid long-term investment. But that means it
will, on average, rise in value at a pace that is only
one percentage point or so ahead of infl ation.
Th at’s not going to fi ll your retirement nest egg.
If you are over 50, make it your goal to take
advantage of the extra “catch-up” amounts you
are allowed to invest in your 401(k) and IRA. In
2009, you can invest an extra $5,500 in your
401(k) if you are over 50, for a total maximum
contribution of $22,000. You can also contribute
an extra $1,000 to your IRA in 2009, for a total of
$6,000.
Can’t imagine where to come up with
extra cash? Make sure you read “Action Plan:
Spending.”
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 155
SITUATION: You can afford your home, but you
worry that you have made a lousy investment.
ACTION: Love your home for what it is. Yes, it is
an investment, but not one whose value you should
be charting on a monthly or annual basis. If you
can aff ord your home today, the best thing you
can do is not worry about the current turmoil in
the housing market.
Homes remain a solid long-term investment.
But let’s review what I mean by solid. Th e longterm
trend—and I am talking decades, not a few
years—is that homes on average rise in value at a
pace that is about one percentage point bett er
than infl ation. I think that when the real estate
market stabilizes—and yes, it is a matt er of when,
not if—it is certainly reasonable to expect that
housing will return to a more ty pical (lower) appreciation
rate. One way to look at the massive
bursting of the real estate bubble is that it is in
fact a painful correction that brings things back
to a level based on a more moderate rate of appreciation.
In the meantime, your home is where you live.
It is a refuge, a place where you and your family
build memories. It is also a fi ne tax break.
156 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
SITUATION: You are near retirement age and
planned on paying off your mortgage ahead of schedule.
You’re not sure that still makes sense.
ACTION: If you are in a home you plan to live in
forever, I think 2009 is a fabulous time to accelerate
your mortgage payments. Th e only caveat: If
you have credit card debt to pay off , make that
your priority in 2009. And always make sure you
invest enough in your 401(k) to receive the company
match.
If you have all that taken care of, then paying
down your mortgage makes plenty of sense. I have
always bee n a proponent of gett ing rid of mortgage
debt before you retire. Th e best way to ensure
that you will be able to aff ord your home in retirement
is to know you own it fr ee and clear and have
to use retirement funds only for property tax and
maintenance costs.
If you own your home fr ee and clear, you also
have the option of borrowing money through a reverse
mortgage if you fi nd you nee d extra income
in retirement.
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 157
SITUATION: You rent a home and have always paid
your landlord on time, but you just found out you
have to move out because the landlord did not pay
the mortgage and the bank is foreclosing on the
home.
ACTION: You nee d to push very hard for your
rights. While there was increased awareness as
2008 progressed that renters were innocent victims
of the foreclosure crisis, the solutions to date
are not ironclad laws that ensure every renter is
safe. Th e $700 billion bailout bill included a provision
that “where permissible” will allow renters
who are current on their rent to remain in a property
that is taken over by one of the federal bailout
plans. But that’s only if the loan becomes part of
the federal bailout and it doesn’t run afoul of existing
state laws. Th ere is also some vague language
in the same bill that says the Treasury Department
can lean on lenders see king federal assistance
to not evict renters who are on time with
their payments.
I encourage you to be very aggressive and relentless
in pushing to stay in your home. Th e National
Low Income Housing Coalition has an online chart
of what protections exist for tenants in the various
states; its evolving research is available at htt p://
www.nlihc.org/doc/State-Foreclosure-Chart.pdf. I
wish there were somewhere I could send you for the
158 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
best local resources, but alas, none exists. So you
nee d to start calling and e-mailing like crazy to fi nd
out what is going on in your state and county . Start
with a local government or nonprofi t tenant advocacy
organization. If you have a local legal aid offi
ce or a housing assistance program, check in with
them. Th e bott om line, unfortunately, is that you
nee d to be your own most vocal advocate. But in
the down market of 2009, there may be some opportunity
to convince a lender to honor a lease, so
the rental unit remains occupied.
SITUATION: You are in good shape fi nancially, with
enough money to put down 20%. You wonder if 2009
is the right time to get a good deal on a vacation
home so you can rent it out and make some money.
ACTION: Be very careful here. Many of you looking
to buy vacation homes or investment real estate
may not be looking at the big picture, and
that could get you in trouble. If you nee d to rent
out this property in order to make the mortgage
payments, then I would say do not touch this “opportunity
” with a 10-foot pole. Why? Because if
something happens and your tenants cannot pay
the rent, how are you going to pay the mortgage?
You nee d to know that you can aff ord the payments
month in and month out, regardless of
rental income. Remember, too, that in times like
these more vacation-home owners are apt to want
ACTION PLAN: Real Estate 159
to rent out their properties, and that’s bad for you.
More competition, that is, for fewer potential
renters.
And at the risk of repeating myself, let me say
yet again: If you have one penny of credit card
debt, if you do not have retirement savings, if you
do not have an emergency savings fund that can
cover your living costs for at least eight months, if
you are still paying off your primary mortgage or
have an outstanding HELOC balance, you cannot
aff ord a vacation home. In 2009 or any year.
Denied!
160
8
ACTION PLAN
Paying for College
The New Reality
Gone are the days when all you had to do to
save money for your kids’ education was to
put money every single month into a 529
plan, sit back, and watch it grow. Also gone are
the days when you could consider taking out a
home equity line of credit or taking a loan fr om
your 401(k) to cover college costs when a litt le extra
help was nee ded.
So what exactly happened that makes all these
options obsolete? Simple: Real estate and stock
values have decreased dramatically in a very short
period of time, leaving many of you high and dry
when it comes to paying for college. But that’s not
all. While the real estate and stock markets were
in turmoil, the United States economy was also
experiencing a credit crisis.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 161
While this crisis had and is still having a devastating
eff ect on the world’s economy, resulting in a
series of Treasury bailouts capped by the $700 billion
rescue plan, it is also having a tremendous effect
on you, the individual. Suddenly, money you
were going to use to pay for college just isn’t there,
and the credit crunch has you worried you won’t
be able to take out college loans to make up for
your shortfall. But I am here to tell you that sometimes
even an economic crisis of this magnitude
comes with a silver lining.
Th e good news that came out of this credit
crunch is that Congress passed emergency legislation
in May 2008 that got the student loan market
fl owing again. Th is new legislation includes signifi -
cant changes that increase the amounts students
can borrow fr om the federal government and ease
the terms of repaying these loans. So out of all the
bad economic news comes this piece of great news:
In 2009, most families will be able to bypass expensive
and risky private loans altogether and pay for
college using loans fr om the federal government.
However, how to procee d is not quite so simple.
Your plan of action depends on a variety of factors,
including your age and the age of your children
and how much, if any, money you have to put toward
a college education. As you read on below
and devise your own 2009 college fund Action
Plan, I ask that you be ruthlessly honest about
what you can and cannot aff ord.
162 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
What you must do in 2009
■ If your child is heading to college within four
years and your college savings are in the stock
market, you should begin to phase it out of the
market, so that you are 100% out by the time he
or she is 17.
■ If you have a child who will enter college in
2009–2010, look into getting a Stafford loan.
■ If Stafford loans are not enough, parents should
consider a PLUS loan. Signifi cant changes to
this program last year make this a viable option
for many more families.
■ Stay away from private student loans at all
costs.
■ If you are graduating from college in 2009 with
student loan debt, know your repayment options.
Your 2009 Action Plan:
Paying for College
SITUATION: Your child is set to go to college next
year. Given the shaky state of the stock market,
you want to stop putting money in your 401(k) and
use those funds to pay for your child’s education.
Should you?
ACTION: No, no, no. Your retirement account
must come fi rst.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 163
Th is year, there is nothing—and I mean nothing—
that takes precedence over locking in shortterm
security (in the form of an eight-month
emergency savings account) and providing for
long-term security by continuing to invest for your
retirement.
I am not insensitive to the importance you place
on providing the opportunity for your children to
achieve and realize their greatest potential in life.
And I am aware that it is not an easy thing to do to
ask that your children share the cost of college by
taking out student loans. But it is necessary—
especially now. It could be years before the stock
market fully recovers. Your 401(k) has taken a
beating, but as counterintuitive as it may see m, I
am asking you to kee p buying shares of the investments
that you have in your 401(k) plan. I am
assuming that your money is invested in goodquality
funds and that you are diversifi ed. I’m also
assuming that you have 10 years or longer until
retirement. Here’s why it makes sense to kee p
contributing to your plan: Th e more the market
goes down, the more shares you will be able to buy
of the mutual funds you are invested in, and the
more money you will make when the stock market
comes back.
Most important to kee p in mind is that you
nee d that money waiting for you in retirement. If
it’s not there, you could end up being a fi nancial
burden for your kids. If you fail to save today, what
164 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
will you have to live on in retirement? Now, don’t
worry, I am not suggesting you leave your kids
high and dry. As I explain in the following pages,
both your child and you can take out federal loans
to help pay for school.
SITUATION: Your college savings fund took such a
hit, you want to borrow from your 401(k) to cover the
college bills.
ACTION: Don’t you dare. It is never smart to touch
your retirement savings to pay for another expense.
And in 2009 it is doubly risky , given the possibility
of increasing layoff s; if that happens, any outstanding
loan must be repaid within a few months
or the loan is considered a withdrawal. Th at will
trigger income tax on the entire amount you withdrew
and ty pically a 10 % early-withdrawal penalty
if you are not 55 or older when you are laid off .
If you nee d to come up with money for college,
federal loans are the best option.
SITUATION: You want to use IRA savings to pay for
your child’s college tuition.
ACTION: As I said earlier, raiding your retirement
funds to pay for college is not ideal. What will you
live on in retirement? Another potential problem
is that taking an early distribution fr om an IRA
can aff ect your child’s fi nancial aid eligibility ; the
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 165
withdrawal will be treated as parental income,
and that is a major factor in determining aid. My
advice: Don’t touch your IRA to pay for college.
For those of you who refuse to follow this advice,
I do want to point out that if you withdraw
money early fr om your IRA to pay for college
costs you will not owe the 10 % early withdrawal
penalty ty pically charged by the IRS on withdrawals
made before age 59½. You may, however, owe
income tax on the withdrawn money. Withdrawals
of money you contributed to a Roth IRA will
not be taxed, though earnings may be taxed.
Money withdrawn fr om a traditional IRA may be
subject to income tax.
SITUATION: You told your child you would send her
to a private college, but you lost your job and now
you can’t afford it.
ACTION: Times have changed and so must you.
You have to be more realistic and honest with your
kids than ever before. I want all parents to seriously
rethink what they can aff ord to spend on
college, be it through loans or out-of-pocket savings.
Th e best school for your child is one that provides
a solid education and doesn’t put the family
$150,000 to $200,000 in debt. I have no patience
for anyone who tells me “cost is not the issue—a
quality education is more important.” People, cost
is a huge is sue. You can’t aff ord to take on debt that
166 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
kee ps you fr om being able to pay your bills or to
save for your retirement. Nor does it make sense
to let your child pile up $100,000 in private student
loans. Student loan debt, in most cases, is not
forgiven in bankruptcy. It is the Velcro of debt;
you cannot shake loose fr om it. Student loan debt
will make it that much harder for your children to
build their own fi nancial security aft er they graduate.
When you have a lot of student loan debt, it
makes it harder to qualify for a mortgage or a car
loan. And I cannot tell you how many smart, wellintentioned
young adults tell me they had no idea
how much their monthly payments would be and
they cannot aff ord to pay them at all.
Kee p an open mind: Look for aff ordable schools,
starting, of course, with your in-state college system.
A quality education is not dependent on price.
You can fi nd a great fi t for your child and your fi -
nances if you make it a priority . Go to Kiplinger.
com and under “Your Money” click on “Best College
Values.”
SITUATION: You have no credit card debt and your
retirement savings is on track, so you want to start a
college savings fund, but you are not sure about the
best way to invest.
ACTION: A 529 Savings Plan is one of the easiest
and smartest ways to save for future college costs.
Money you invest in a plan grows tax-deferred,
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 167
and eventual withdrawals will be tax-fr ee if they
are used for “qualifi ed” college costs. Th ere is also
no income-eligibility requirement; all families can
set up a 529, and contributions can come fr om
parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, fr iends. In
addition to 529 plans, there are indee d other savings
options, such as Coverdell Educational Savings
Accounts and U.S. savings bonds. I highly
recommend you check out the Web site www.
savingforcollege.com; it is hands-down the most
informative site for parents who want to save for
their kids’ future college costs.
SITUATION: You have been putting money into a
529 plan every month since your little one was born.
The stock market scares you these days, so you’re
thinking you should move your money out of your
plan’s stock fund choice and into bonds or cash offered
by the 529 plan. Good idea?
ACTION: Nooo. If you have at least 10 years until
you nee d your money, you have time on your side
to ride out volatility in the stock market. You don’t
want to stop investing in stocks, or pull out of
stocks when you have time on your side; the smart
move is to invest more in your 529 plan’s stock
fund in 2009. Your money will buy more shares of
that fund when prices are low (as they are now).
Th e more shares you accumulate now, the more
money you will make when stocks rebound. If
168 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
your child is fi ve years old, you have time on your
side to wait for that rebound.
SITUATION: Big losses in your 529 have you so
worried you want to quit the 529 and move all the
money into a safe bank account.
ACTION: Do not do this, because it can have signifi
cant tax consequences. Money you leave in a
529 that is eventually used to pay for college expenses
is fr ee of federal tax and state income tax
too (except in Alabama, should you use a non-
Alabama 529). But if you pull the money out, you
can be hit with a 10 % penalty tax on any earnings
on that account. Below you will fi nd my recommendations
for the right mix of stocks and bonds
in your 529, based on your child’s age. If you fee l
you simply can’t stand to remain invested in stocks,
then shift the money into a stable-value account
within the 529.
Th at said, I recognize some of you may still fee l
compelled to close the account and withdraw the
money. If you’ve had a heft y loss, there may be a
way for you to deduct nearly all of that fr om your
taxable income, but you will want a trusted tax
advisor guiding you on this. Th e tax break involves
deducting your 529 losses as a miscellaneous itemized
deduction on your income tax return—but
you can deduct those only to the extent that they
excee d 2 percent of your adjusted gross income.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 169
Because of the complexity involved in doing this—
especially if your state allowed partial or full income
tax deductions on your contributions, and
the workings of the alternative minimum tax—I
can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get
good advice if you choose to go this route.
SITUATION: Your child starts college in two years
and your 529 is 100% in stocks, so it has taken a big
hit. You don’t know if you should move out of stocks
now to avoid further losses.
ACTION: You should have started moving out of
stocks a few years ago. When your child is within
a year or tw o of fr eshman year, you no longer have
time on your side. You are going to have to start
using that money sooner rather than later, so you
nee d to make sure your money is safe and sound
in the 529 plan’s bond or money market fund. My
recommendation is that you slowly shift money
out of stocks and into bonds starting at age 14.
You goal should be that you are completely out of
stocks by the time your child is fi ve years fr om
senior year in college—ty pically, that is age 17.
Under age 14: 100 % stocks
Age 14: 75 % stocks
Age 15: 50 % stocks
Age 16: 25 % stocks
Age 17: 0 % stocks
170 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
If your current allocation excee ds those targets,
I recommend you rebalance your portfolio ASAP.
I wish I could tell you to wait for a nice big rebound
in your portfolio, but you do not have time
on your side. Th ere is no guarantee that the rebound
will come betw ee n now and when you have
to begin writing the checks for college.
Th ose of you who have opted for a fund in your
529 plan that automatically changes its allocation
as your child gets closer to college still nee d to pay
att ention and understand how much you will have
invested in stocks when your child hits 14, 15, 16,
17, and 18. I have see n plans with up to 50 % in
stocks a year or tw o before the child will enter
school. Th at’s unacceptable at any time, and it is
especially risky in 2009, when we have to anticipate
more market volatility .
If you fi nd your target fund overloads on stocks
close to college, I recommend moving out of the
target option, fi nding the best low-cost stock and
bond fund options off ered by the plan, and putt ing
your money in both those funds according to the
strategy above.
SITUATION: You have time on your side, but after
watching your child’s college fund plummet, you just
can’t stomach keeping the entire portfolio invested
in stocks.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 171
ACTION: It’s fi ne to move up to 20 % into bonds. A
small amount of bonds will reduce your portfolio’s
overall loss in a bear market, and if that helps you
stay committ ed to investing and helps you slee p
bett er, then it is the right move for you.
SITUATION: You tried to move money out of your
529 plan’s stock fund and into the bond fund option,
but you were told you had to wait until next year.
ACTION: Understand that an IRS rule requires
529 plans to limit participants to rebalancing their
portfolio just once a year. Th e reasoning is that
you can’t be trusted to be a patient long-term investor,
so this rule was meant to kee p you fr om
day-trading your kid’s college fund. As if.
So if you have already rebalanced your portfolio
for 2009, you may have to wait until 2010 to
make your switch out of stocks. Because of this
rule, it is imperative to get your asset allocation
right so you don’t nee d to make any midyear corrections.
As I explain above, once your child is 14
you nee d to start dialing down how much of your
college fund is invested in stocks.
SITUATION: Your family doesn’t qualify for fi nancial
aid (or the aid package isn’t as much as you expected),
but you don’t have money to pay the college
bills this year.
172 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: First, you nee d to take a dee p breath. I
know it is stressful. I know it is upsett ing. But you
do have options. One of the great misconceptions
is that federal loans are only for students and families
that mee t certain income-eligibility rules.
Th at is absolutely incorrect. In addition to the
many forms of aid and loans that are incomebased,
there are also aff ordable loans available for
students and parents regardless of family wealth
or income. If you fi nd that your school’s fi nancial
aid package for 2009–2010 is not enough to cover
all your costs, you can supplement that aid with
non-income-based loans.
Th e fi rst step is for your child, the student, to
apply for both subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford
loans. Yes, your child borrows fi rst, not you.
Staff ords are the cheapest loan options. If you
want to make a side agree ment with your child
that you will help with the repayment of the Staffords,
that’s fi ne. But please get over any concern
or guilt about having your child borrow fi rst.
If you mee t income-eligibility rules, your child
may qualify for a subsidized Staff ord loan. (It is
ty pically part of a fi nancial aid package you receive
fr om the school.) Subsidized means the federal
government pays the interest on the loan
while your kid is in school. Th e interest rate for a
subsidized loan is 6 % for the 2008–2009 school
year and 5.6 % for the 2009–2010 school year. But
here’s what so many people fail to understand:
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 173
Anyone, regardless of income, can apply for an unsubsidized
Staff ord. Th e interest rate is fi xed at
6.8 % and interest payments are the responsibility
of the student. Th e student can opt to not pay interest
while in school and have it added to the loan
balance. Here’s a suggestion: If Grandma and
Grandpa want to know how they can help with
school, ask them to cover the Staff ord interest
payments so their grandchild can graduate with a
lower loan balance. If that’s not an option, your
child can work during school and make the interest
payments him- or herself.
SITUATION: How much can you borrow on a Stafford
loan in 2009?
ACTION: Th anks to the emergency federal legislation
mentioned earlier, the amount you can borrow
on a Staff ord (combined subsidized and
unsubsidized) has bee n increased by $2,000 a
year beginning in the 2008–2009 academic year.
Freshmen can now borrow $5,500; sophomores
$6,500; and juniors and seniors $7,500. Children
who are not claimed as dependents by their parents
are eligible for higher amounts.
SITUATION: Your child qualifi es for a subsidized
loan, but you need more money.
ACTION: Make sure your child applies for an un-
174 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
subsidized Staff ord, too. Aft er maxing out on the
subsidized loan, your child is eligible for up to another
$2,000 a year in an unsubsidized Staff ord.
Your school’s fi nancial aid offi ce should automatically
alert you to this, but the sad fact is that many
families leave Staff ord money on the table every
year because they don’t understand the rules about
unsubsidized loans.
SITUATION: What do you have to do to apply for
Stafford loans?
ACTION: Th ere is one big requirement for Staff ord
loans (and school fi nancial aid): You must complete
the Free Application for Federal Student
Aid (FAFSA). No FAFSA, no Staff ords. It is not
a fun form to fi ll out, but spending a few hours
wading through all the fi nancial disclosure is
worth it, trust me. Check with the school’s fi nancial
aid offi ce; they are set up to help you navigate
this process.
SITUATION: You have applied for subsidized and
unsubsidized Stafford loans, but you need even more
money.
ACTION: Apply for a Parental PLUS loan, another
federal loan program. Th e parent, not the student,
is the borrower. Th ere is no income limit, and you
can borrow up to the full amount of college costs
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 175
minus any aid and other loans. Th e interest rate is
a fi xed 8.5 % for most borrowers. (It is 7.9 % if the
school is part of a program that has you borrow
directly fr om the federal government, rather than
using a third-party lender. Only 20 % or so of
schools are part of the Federal Direct Loan program.)
But I want to be clear: You apply for a
PLUS only aft er your child has maxed out on the
Staff ords. A PLUS is a very good deal, but Staff ords
are even bett er given their lower interest rates.
Staff ords fi rst. PLUS second.
SITUATION: You applied for a PLUS loan in 2007,
but you were turned down. Should you apply again?
ACTION: Yes! If you investigated a PLUS loan a
few years ago and didn’t like the terms—or if you
were turned down—I encourage you to take a
fr esh look for 2009. Th e emergency legislation in
May 2008 brought about some very big changes
designed to make PLUS loans a more viable and
aff ordable option.
Th rough December 31, 2009, parents will be
eligible for a PLUS loan as long as they are no
more than 180 days delinquent on a mortgage
payment on their primary residence or medical
bill payments. Previously, the limit was 90 days or
more late on any debt.
Th ere is no FICO credit check per se to obtain a
PLUS loan, but your credit history is reviewed to
176 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
check for any “adverse” actions on your credit profi
le. Families that have declared bankruptcy in the
past fi ve years are not eligible for a PLUS loan. In
the past, you also nee ded to be “current” on your
other debt payments (not including mortgage and
medical bills), but recognizing the stress families
are under to juggle expenses in this rough economy,
the emergency legislation gives PLUS lenders more
lee way in forgiving debt-payment slipups. Another
reason I prefer PLUS loans over private loans is
that in the event the parent dies or is permanently
disabled, the debt is forgiven; private lenders are
not required to forgive debt.
SITUATION: You want to take out a PLUS loan, but
you know you can’t afford to pay it back immediately.
ACTION: Don’t worry—you don’t have to. Another
helpful piece of the 2008 legislation is that
parents no longer have to start repaying a PLUS
loan within 60 days of receiving the money. You
can now defer repayment until your child graduates.
Th at means you won’t have to make loan
payments during the four years when you are most
likely using some of your monthly income to pay
for school costs. Th e delay also means that families
can make repayment of the PLUS a family
aff air: Legally, the parent is responsible for repayment
of the loan, but having your child help with
repayment will ease the burden.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 177
SITUATION: You want to help with a PLUS loan, but
you are worried about handling the payments over
the long term.
ACTION: Before you agree to take out a PLUS
loan, you must have a serious talk with your child
about how much you expect them to contribute to
the eventual repayment of the PLUS. Th at is an
important and honest conversation to have ahead
of school. It may spur your child to push extra
hard to earn the most money possible during the
summer (or work part time during school) to build
up some reserves. It might also put the cost for
spring break in Cabo—defi nitely a “want,” not a
“nee d”—into perspective.
SITUATION: Your child wants you to cosign a private
student loan.
ACTION: Forget private loans and use a PLUS if
you plan to help your kid pay for school.
As a result of the credit crisis, student loan lenders
have become a lot tighter with their money.
Th is is the same issue we discussed in “Action
Plan: Credit.” Lenders are now focused on reducing
their risk. So while it used to be easy for students
to take on tens of thousands of dollars in
private student loan debt with litt le (or no) credit
check by lenders, that no longer works. In 2009
178 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
(and for the foresee able future), students who
want a private student loan nee d to have a FICO
score of at least 680. Few tee nagers have a FICO
score. So lenders are now insisting that the student
get a cosigner on the loan, and that person
nee ds to have a strong FICO score.
Rather than cosign a private loan, you are far
bett er off applying for a Parental PLUS loan and
making it clear to your child that she is expected
to repay some or all of the loan once she graduates.
Part of my reason for relying on the PLUS program
is a simple practical matt er: Private loans
will not be easily available in 2009 if lenders continue
to have a hard time raising money in the
troubled credit markets. But even if the storm
passes, the private loan skies part, and lenders
start plying your kids with off ers for easy private
loans, I want you to say no. PLUS loans are usually
a bett er choice over private loans. Private student
loans have variable rates, and those rates can
be 1 % to 10 % more than a benchmark index. Even
if you initially qualify for a competitive interest
rate (you’ll nee d a FICO score above 720 to even
have a shot), you run the risk of future rate hikes.
I’ll take the 8.5 % fi xed rate on the PLUS loan,
thank you very much.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 179
SITUATION: You just lost your job and you are in no
position to help your kids with their college tuition.
What do you do?
ACTION: Contact the fi nancial aid offi ce at each
school immediately and let them know about the
layoff . Th ere may be more money—aid or loans—
based on your changed fi nancial status. But I want
to be clear: No school is a bott omless pit, and the
sad fact is that many schools—especially public
universities—are fee ling the economic pinch too.
But chances are you may get some extra help fr om
the school. And just to reiterate: Please make sure
your child has maxed out on all available Staff ord
loans. At a maximum fi xed rate of 6.8 %, it is an
aff ordable way to borrow for school.
You can also obtain a PLUS loan, assuming you
are current on your bills, and you can defer payment
until your child graduates. By then you
should be back at work and your child can also
contribute to the PLUS repayment. But I want to
be very clear here: You must limit what you borrow
to what you can truly aff ord. I encourage you
to go to the College Board’s Web site and use its
online calculator to see what PLUS loans you take
out today will cost to repay: htt p://apps.collegeboard.
com/fi ncalc/parpay.jsp It is crucial that you
go through this exercise with your newfound com-
180 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
mitment to honesty fr ont and center. If you will
not be able to handle the repayment, do not take
out the loan.
If not taking on debt is honestly what is best for
you, you must not beat yourself up that you cannot
continue to pay for school. I wish I could tell you
to “do whatever is necessary” to kee p your kid in
school right now. But I don’t traffi c in wishful
thinking; I am focused on the realistic actions you
must take to ensure your long-term fi nancial security
. So here’s the bott om line during this very
tough economic time: You may nee d to tell your
kids you can’t kee p paying for school now that
your personal economic situation has changed. If
that means your child nee ds to transfer to a less
expensive school or take a year off to earn money
to cover the costs himself, that is what nee ds to
happen.
I understand how diffi cult that is to consider,
but hard times require making hard choices. Taking
on debt you can’t aff ord is never smart; in today’s
world, with the economic outlook so bleak,
you must not take on more than you can realistically
handle.
SITUATION: You’re about to graduate and you
doubt you’ll get a job that will pay enough to cover
your student loan payments.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 181
ACTION: If you have federal loans, there are a variety
of programs you may qualify for that can
make repayment more aff ordable. And beginning
in July 2009, there is also a new repayment plan
for federal student loans (though not PLUS loans):
Th e Income-Based Repayment Plan will make repayment
aff ordable for graduates who pursue caree
rs in traditionally lower-paying fi elds such as
teaching and public service. Th e best move you
can make is to show up for the exit interview
with your fi nancial aid offi ce and learn about
your options.
Th e worst thing any recent graduate can do is
assume they can “hide” or “ignore” their student
loan debt until they get sett led into a job and have
the cash fl ow to handle payments. Big, big mistake.
Fall behind on your student loans and you
will ruin your credit profi le. You nee d to understand
that student loans are debt, and if you don’t
pay your debts it gets reported to the credit bureaus.
Faster than you can say, “Wow, I am so
screwed,” you have a FICO score below 700. In
my book, it’s never okay to have a low FICO score,
but in 2009 it is fl at-out dumb. Yes, dumb. In the
past, even if you had a lousy FICO score you could
still get what you wanted. Th e only hassle is that
you would have to pay more for everything—a
higher deposit for the cell phone, for example, or a
higher rate for a car loan. But in 2009, a lousy
182 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
FICO score means big trouble. Lenders, landlords,
and even employers simply won’t want to do business
with you. In a world where everyone is trying
to reduce their risk, a lousy FICO score brands
you as a high risk.
And just to drive home this point: Even if you
declare bankruptcy, your student loan debt in
most cases will not be forgiven. Th is is debt you
can’t outrun.
SITUATION: The job market is terrible and you can’t
fi nd a job, even with your brand-new degree. You
have no clue how you will be able to start repaying
your student loans.
ACTION: With federal loans, you can apply for
an unemployment deferment; if you are working
less than 30 hours a wee k, you will not have to
start repayment. But again, you must apply for
this deferment. If you simply don’t pay, it is going
to start showing up on your credit reports as a delinquency.
If you have a subsidized federal loan,
interest will not continue to build up during this
deferment. If your loan is unsubsidized, interest
does accrue. Your fi nancial aid offi ce can walk
you through all your federal loan repayment options.
You can also can get help at the fi naid.org
Web site.
ACTION PLAN: Paying for College 183
SITUATION: You graduated with debt from various
student loans and you wonder if you should consolidate
or not.
ACTION: Consolidating your federal loans is
smart. Th e main advantage is that you can pile together
all your loans fr om the four years of school
into one mega-loan that requires just one monthly
payment. Th is will likely kee p your FICO score in
good shape, because you will fi nd it easier to stay
on top of things with a single payment.
Th e fi xed consolidation rate for all Staff ord
loans issued aft er July 1, 2006, is 6.8 %.
SITUATION: You graduated with private student
loans. Can you consolidate them and defer payments?
ACTION: With private student loans you have
limited options. You are basically at the mercy of
your lender’s repayment policy, and they are not
required to grant any deferments. It’s completely
at their discretion. Moreover, the credit crisis has
all but shut down the private-loan consolidation
market. Right now, that market is all but closed
for private borrowers.
SILVER LINING: Th e $700 billion bailout bill
Congress pas sed in October 2008 restored a college
184 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
tax break that had expired. Th rough 2009, you can
deduct up to $4,000 in college tuition and fee s if your
income is below $65,000 for single fi lers (you can receive
a $2,000 deduction if your income is betw ee n
$65,000 and $80,000) and $130,000 for those married
and fi ling jointly (you get the $2,000 deduction
at incomes betw ee n $130,000 and $160,000). You
can claim this deduction even if you do not fi le an
itemized return.
185
9
ACTION PLAN
Protecting Your
Family and Yourself
The New Reality
Your job is at risk. Th is has nothing to do with
how talented and well-respected you are, or
the fact that your past three reviews have
bee n gold star. You are at risk for reasons that have
nothing to do with you. Th e double whammy of
the credit crisis and an economic recession increases
the likelihood that businesses will be forced
to cut back on costs, and that could mean reducing
staff . In this environment, just hoping you will be
spared is not the right action. You must take active
steps today to make sure your family is safe no
matt er what happens jobwise in 2009. Th at means
making sure you have savings to pay the bills instead
of running up credit card debt or raiding your
186 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
retirement accounts. It also means having health
insurance no matt er what and a game plan for
landing your next job.
It’s important to understand that even if the
credit crisis hadn’t occurred, 2009 was shaping up
to be a tough year for the economy. Our economy is
cyclical in nature—there are periods of strong
growth and periods of slower growth. Slowdowns
are always part of the equation. Th ere is no avoiding
them altogether; rather, the goal is that when they
do hit, it is with a soft punch rather than a knockout.
In an economist’s perfect world, what we experience
is an orderly winding down fr om a period of
faster growth to slower growth that soon transitions
into a new period of even stronger growth. But
sometimes real life is less than ideal. If instead the
economy slows down with a thud—known, in fact,
as a hard landing—we can fi nd ourselves in a recession:
a period where the economy doesn’t just shift
to slower growth, it actually contracts. When that
happens, job losses can be very high as companies
cut positions to reduce costs.
Th e continuing problems caused by the credit
crisis appear to have ruined our chances of a soft
landing in 2009. Unless banks start lending again,
companies that were already girding for a slowdown
in business are going to be in even bigger
trouble. Every business, fr om the 10-person small
company to General Electric, relies on credit.
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 187
Short-term credit helps businesses pay the bills
and kee ps supplies fl owing while waiting for
clients to pay their bills, as well as enabling fi rms
to fi nance longer-term expansion projects. Longterm
credit is another vital way businesses borrow
to grow. If you want to build a new plant or expand
your business line, you nee d money to pay
for your expansion before you can expect to earn
any money fr om that new business. When businesses
can’t borrow money it greatly reduces their
ability to expand. Without short-term or longterm
credit, a business is going to fi nd it doubly
tough to get through the economic slowdown. I
am not saying we are guarantee d to have a dee p
and hard landing in 2009. But it is defi nitely a possibility
if businesses can’t get credit. And let’s face
it: 2009 is not going to be a great year for consumer
spending; that’s driven much of our economic
growth in past years, but you and I both know
that you are focusing on spending less and saving
more in 2009.
What I do know for sure is that in times like
these, my saying “hope for the best, prepare for
the worst” could not be more apt. You can’t kee p
the bad times fr om happening, but you can kee p
them fr om decimating your fi nancial security .
Th ere are actions you nee d to take now to make
sure that no matt er what happens “out there” this
year, your family will be protected.
188 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
What you need to do in 2009
■ Build a substantial savings account today so
you will be okay if you are laid off.
■ Do not—repeat, do not—go without health
insurance.
■ Shop for private health insurance if you are laid
off; it is often less expensive than COBRA.
■ Purchase an affordable term life insurance policy
if anyone is dependent on your income.
■ Make sure you have all your estate-planning
documents in order.
Your 2009 Action Plan:
Protecting Your Family and Yourself
SITUATION: You are worried you may lose your job
in 2009.
ACTION: Prepare for it. As I write, the unemployment
rate has already crept up fr om less than 5 %
in 2007 to 6.5 % in October 2008. If we in fact fall
into a hard landing, I would not be surprised to see
unemployment rise to 8 % or even 9 %.
Th e best way to protect your family is to know
that you will still be able to pay the bills while you
look for a new job. Because of the weak economy,
that could take longer than you may think. Th at is
why it is imperative that you build an emergency
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 189
savings account that can cover your family’s living
expenses for eight months. I know that is a lot, but
you have got to start saving as much as you can
right now. In “Action Plan: Spending,” I review
the steps you and your family can take to rein in
your spending today so you have more money to
put into a safe savings account.
And if you fl ew past the Action Plans for credit
and real estate, I want to make sure you are up to
spee d on the fact that you may not be able to tap
your credit card or a home equity line of credit to
pay your family’s bills in the event you are laid off .
Lenders are not in the lending mood these days. I
cannot be more emphatic: You must have savings
set aside to be truly safe in 2009.
You also want to start your job hunt right now—
while you still have your current job. Netw ork like
crazy, show up at industry conferences, and take a
look at job postings in your fi eld. If there is any
specifi c skill mentioned that you are not up to
spee d on, get yourself schooled on it ASAP. In a
slow economy, employers won’t hire someone who
mee ts 80 % of their nee ds; they have such a large
pool to choose fr om that they can fi nd the person
who mee ts 100 % of their nee ds. Make sure that
person is you.
SITUATION: You fi gure you will get by on unemployment
benefi ts if you are laid off.
190 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ACTION: You will still nee d to supplement that
money with your own savings. Th e reality is that
your maximum unemployment benefi t ty pically
will replace less than 50 % of your lost wages.
Th ere is also a time limit to those payouts; 26
wee ks is the standard amount of time you are eligible
to collect unemployment. In harsh economic
times, Congress can vote to extend the benefi t period
for an additional 13 wee ks. (Unemployment
is handled by your state, based on general standards
set by federal law.)
To fi nd out your state’s rules, go to www.servicelocator.
org and click on the “Find Unemployment
Insurance Filing Assistance” link on the left
side of the page.
SITUATION: You plan to use your credit card or
HELOC to cover your expenses if you lose your job.
ACTION: You must have money set aside in a regular
bank savings account or money market account
in 2009. Th e lines of credit you have relied
on in the past may not be available this year; without
your own savings set aside, you could face a
serious cash crunch if you are laid off and have no
way to pay the bills.
Here’s what you nee d to understand: Lenders
are one step ahead of you. Th ey, too, are worried
that you will lose your job in 2009, and they are
not fools. Th ey know if that happens you will then
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 191
use your credit card or HELOC to cover your bills,
and because you don’t have a job, that increases
the likelihood that you won’t be able to kee p up
with the payments on that borrowed money. Th at’s
very bad for their business, and let’s just say they
are extra sensitive right now given the bad shape
they are already in. So, to head off this problem,
lenders have bee n cutt ing back on what they allow
customers to borrow. Credit card lines are being
reduced, as are HELOCs.
If you haven’t see n your credit lines change yet,
don’t think you can skate through because you
have a sparking FICO score and a solid credit history.
If you suddenly start to run up a balance on
your credit card or tap a HELOC line you opened
three years ago, that is going to set off warning
bells for the lender, and you could very well see
your credit lines disappear—just when you nee d
them the most. Th e only safe alternative in 2009
is to have cash set aside in a savings account.
SITUATION: You plan to make early withdrawals
from your 401(k) if you are laid off and can’t pay your
bills.
ACTION: Try as hard as you can not to touch your
retirement savings. What see ms like a reasonable
action to help you get through problems today will
devastate your long-term security . You nee d that
money for retirement; spend it today and you will
192 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
have less tomorrow. And don’t tell me you will
worry about that later, or you will boost your savings
when you get another job. Even the best of
intentions to make up for the withdrawals can run
into harsh realities: Your next job may not pay
enough to allow you to save to make up for your
early withdrawal. (Th at said, if you fee l you are
out of options and nee d to raid your retirement
funds to get by, please review my advice in “Action
Plan: Retirement Investing” about how you
may be able to take money out of your 401(k)
without having to pay the ty pical 10 % early withdrawal
penalty .)
Th ere is one important action I want you to
take with your 401(k) if you are laid off in 2009:
Roll over the money into an IRA at a brokerage or
mutual fund company. As I explain in “Action
Plan: Retirement Investing,” rolling your money
into an IRA gives you access to the best low-cost
mutual funds and ETFs, rather than limiting
yourself to the investment choices in your 401(k).
And because of the stee p market declines, if you
qualify to roll over your money into a Roth IRA in
2009 you will get a great tax break.
SITUATION: You don’t have money to set aside in
savings.
ACTION: Get serious about fi nding ways to come
up with real savings—right now. Th is is non-ne-
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 193
gotiable: You must build up a savings reserve. In
“Action Plan: Spending,” I explain how you and
your family can (and must) adjust to the new realities
of 2009 to fi nd ways to reduce your expenses—
or increase your income—so you have
money to put toward important fi nancial goals.
And in 2009, there is nothing more important
than building an emergency savings fund that can
carry your family for eight months.
SITUATION: You dropped health insurance coverage
through your employer in 2009 because it was
too expensive and you are healthy.
ACTION: Get insurance now. If you can’t get it
fr om your employer, shop for your own policy. I
don’t care how healthy you are today. It’s tomorrow
I am worried about, and you and I both know
a serious accident or sudden illness is always a
possibility . Remember: Hope for the best, prepare
for the worst. You nee d to understand that many
of the families that end up fi ling for bankruptcy
did so because they had unexpected medical bills
that were impossible to pay off . Having health insurance
reduces your fi nancial burden if anyone
in your family becomes severely ill or injured.
Now, the truth is, insurance doesn’t absolutely
protect you fr om bankruptcy. Th e sad fact is that
even people with insurance end up in bankruptcy
because of high copays and costs that aren’t cov-
194 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
ered. But the point is that insurance off ers you
some protection, whereas without insurance you
have no protection.
I appreciate how expensive it is. Employers have
bee n increasing charges to employee s for their coverage;
that can mean higher premiums, higher copays,
or reductions in the scope of coverage. Th is is
happening because health insurance costs kee p
rising at a rapid rate and companies are hardpressed
to shoulder the cost, and also because
businesses fee l the pressure to boost earnings (or
minimize losses). Shift ing more benefi t costs onto
employee s helps the corporate bott om line.
Regardless of cost, you must have some insurance.
If your old plan is too expensive, you should
have shopped around for less expensive options
within the plan. Th e reality is that because you
turned down coverage during the open-enrollment
period, ty pically in the fall, you may be shut out
fr om restarting your coverage until the next enrollment
period. (Certain exceptions apply for
new employee s and employee s with life-changing
events, such as a divorce or job change; check with
your human resources department.) If that’s the
case, I am asking you to get short-term coverage
through a private plan until you are eligible to get
back on your company’s plan.
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 195
SITUATION: You want to wait to see what options
you may have if Washington passes health care reform
in 2009.
ACTION: Don’t wait for Washington to save you.
You nee d protection right now. It could be months
or years before any meaningful legislation is
passed, assuming anything is passed. Moreover, it
is unlikely that any swee ping reform would go into
eff ect immediately. Typically, there is a transition
period of many months. In the interim, you nee d
insurance. You can always drop it if and when we
have reform. Th at’s one nice thing about health
insurance: You pay your premium monthly, rather
than annually. So you can drop the coverage
whenever you want.
SITUATION: You don’t know where to fi nd affordable
health insurance.
ACTION: Go to ehealthinsurance.com, the largest
online resource for health insurance. If you prefer
to work with an agent, the National Association
of Health Underwriters (nahu.org) has an online
search tool to give you leads on agents who help
clients fi nd individual health insurance policies.
As you shop, realize that the group plan at your
old job probably included a full menu of broad
196 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
coverage—including mental health and maternity
benefi ts, prescription drug coverage, and so on—
that you may not nee d. Shop for a policy that provides
only the specifi c coverage you nee d to kee p
your premium cost as low as possible.
SITUATION: You were laid off and can’t afford the
COBRA rate for your company’s health insurance.
ACTION: Shop for less expensive health insurance.
But do not—repeat, do not—go without health
insurance. You can’t aff ord to be uninsured. What
if someone in your family becomes ill or is in a
serious accident in 2009? Ehealthinsurance.com
has created a Web site specifi cally for people who
have bee n laid off ; it includes a calculator to help
you see what alternatives to COBRA might cost:
www.ehealthinsurance.com/ehi/healthinsurance/
cobra-learning-center.html.
SITUATION: You wonder whether you should keep
the health insurance from your former employer or
shop for a private plan.
ACTION: In many cases, a private plan will be less
expensive than staying on your company plan.
Here’s what you nee d to know: Every employer
with more than 20 employee s that off ers health
insurance is required by the federal COBRA regulation
to allow employee s who’ve bee n laid off to
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 197
stay on the company plan for 18 months, with one
very big catch: Th e employee is responsible for
100 % of the cost of the plan, as well as an extra
2 % to cover administration costs. Th at is not just
100 % of your normal premium when you were an
employee , but 100 % of the total cost, including
what your employer used to pay on your behalf. So
that can be a lot more than you were paying as an
employee .
SITUATION: You were let go and you have a preexisting
health condition. You worry that you will not
qualify for a private plan or it will be too expensive.
ACTION: Stay on the company plan through COBRA,
but get a private insurance plan for your
family. Assuming your family is in good health,
the cost of a private insurance plan for them will
be less than continuing their coverage through
COBRA.
At the same time, fi nd a health insurance broker
with extensive experience working with clients
with pree xisting conditions. (Go to nahu.org
to fi nd a list of agents in your area.) Diff erent insurers
have diff erent policies; you want to work
with someone who will shop around to locate a
plan that may work for you. If you can’t secure a
private policy, you may have to opt for coverage
off ered through your state. Th is can oft en be very
costly, so it is defi nitely to be used as a last resort.
198 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
You can fi nd links to your state insurance department
at naic.org (National Association of Insurance
Commissioners).
SITUATION: You were told your state doesn’t offer
coverage to all residents.
ACTION: Stay on COBRA for as long as possible
and lean on lawmakers for health care reform. I
am sorry to say that there are indee d many states
that do not have any last-resort coverage available
for residents who can’t qualify for an individual
private policy. Just fi ve states—Maine, Massachusett
s, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont—
have programs in place that off er guarantee d
insurance at all times and to all residents. In
Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Virginia (and
in some instances Pennsylvania), you may be able
to get last-resort coverage if you have bee n turned
down for private policies. Contact your state
health insurance commissioner’s offi ce to fi nd out
what’s off ered where you live; or look up your
state’s health insurance options on www.coverageforall.
org.
SITUATION: You lost your job and the only new job
you have been offered doesn’t come with health
benefi ts.
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 199
ACTION: Do not base your job search on health
benefi ts. Take the job and shop for your own individual
policy or continue on your old employer’s
plan through COBRA. But you nee d to choose
COBRA coverage within 60 days of being notifi
ed you were COBRA-eligible; if more time has
already passed, you have lost your right to stay on
your old employer’s plan.
SITUATION: You were laid off and want to go back
to school so you can change careers.
ACTION: Get a job; school can wait. I am all for
changing caree rs—hey, I spent my fi rst seven
years aft er college working as a waitress—but I
am always suspicious when I hear someone tell me
they want to go back to school right aft er they
were laid off . It becomes this nice safety blanket to
wrap yourself in, rather than dealing with a tough
job market. But if you haven’t really thought
through what your new caree r is and you haven’t
fi gured out a fi nancial plan for how you will pay
for school, then it becomes a lousy idea. What are
you going to live on while you go back to school?
Don’t think you can touch your emergency savings
plan. Th at’s for emergencies. Going back to
school is not an emergency. It is a choice. Plan on
taking out loans? Okay, but again, what are you
going to live on while you are in school? Credit
200 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
cards? Th at’s never a good idea, and as I explain in
“Action Plan: Credit,” it may not even be possible
in 2009.
A caree r change can be the best move you will
ever make, but it requires careful planning. I say
focus on gett ing another job right now, even if it’s
just for a year or so, while you carefully plan your
new caree r and build up your savings so you can
aff ord to go back to school.
SITUATION: You were laid off after 20 years with
the same company. You are having a hard time fi nding
a new job at the same salary and level of responsibility.
ACTION: Be realistic. What you made at your last
job is somewhat irrelevant. What employers are
willing to pay today for the job they have today is
what really matt ers. For people who have spent a
lot of time at one company, this is a tough concept
to accept. But it is vitally important, especially
when we can expect a tough job market in 2009.
People who have bee n with the same company
for many years may have developed special skills
particular to that company or industry, and they
may have bee n well compensated for that expertise.
But there is no guarantee your next employer
nee ds those very skills or values them as much as
your former employer did. Th ese are not boom
times; you can’t set your price and then wait pa-
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 201
tiently for the right off er to come around. In tough
times, you take the best off er available and appreciate
that you have a job that allows you to support
your family. If that means your family nee ds
to get by on less income, well, that’s just another
reality to face in 2009. In “Action Plan: Spending,”
I have advice on how families can make more out
of less.
SITUATION: You received a four-month severance
package and plan on taking two months off to relax
and regroup before beginning your job hunt.
ACTION: I wouldn’t do it. Sure, take a few wee ks
to decompress and refr esh. But given the slowdown
in the economy, you nee d to start the job
hunt sooner rather than later. It could very well
take a lot longer than you expect.
SITUATION: You have life insurance through your
employer. What happens to it if you are laid off?
ACTION: Whether you’re laid off or not, I want
you to get your own coverage. I have never recommended
relying on employer-provided life insurance.
If your employer provides coverage for fr ee ,
chances are you are woefully uninsured; employerprovided
life insurance is ty pically equal to one or
tw o times your annual salary. I recommend 10 to
20 times to fully protect your family. Even if you
202 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
buy extra insurance through your employer, it can
oft en be more expensive than what you can get on
your own; that’s because you are paying a group
rate based on all employee s—young, old, healthy,
not so healthy.
Another problem is that when you are laid off
you eventually (within 18 months) nee d to convert
to your own policy. And there is no guarantee the
insurer who off ered you group coverage will off er
you an individual policy or one that is the least
costly.
SITUATION: You haven’t bought life insurance because
you can’t afford to.
ACTION: If there are people in your life who are
dependent in any way on the income you earn,
then you can’t aff ord not to have life insurance.
Seriously, what will happen to them if you die prematurely?
Be it young kids, older parents who require
fi nancial assistance, or a sibling you help
out—if you do not have suffi cient assets your dependents
can live off of, you nee d life insurance.
I think you will also be surprised by how remarkably
aff ordable term life insurance is. A $1
million 20-year term policy for a healthy 45-yearold
woman can cost less than $125 a month.
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 203
SITUATION: You’re not sure if you should get term
insurance or whole-life insurance.
ACTION: For the vast majority of us, term insurance
is all that is nee ded.
As its name implies, term insurance is a policy
for a specifi c period of time, the term. If you die
during the term, your benefi ciaries receive the
death benefi t (payout) fr om the insurer. And here’s
what you nee d to know: Chances are you have
only a temporary nee d for life insurance. You
nee d insurance while your kids are young and
dependent on you; once they are adults, they
will be fi nancially independent. You nee d life insurance
if you have yet to build up other assets
(home equity , retirement investments) that will
support your dependents when you die. Once you
have those assets in place, it is less likely your surviving
spouse or partner would nee d income fr om
a life insurance policy in the event you pass away
fi rst.
Many insurance agents will tell you term is not
enough. Th ey will tell you that you want a permanent
policy that never expires. Permanent policies
come in a few diff erent fl avors: whole life, universal
life, and variable life. I want to repeat: If your
nee d for insurance is temporary—say, just until
your youngest is through college—you absolutely
do not nee d a permanent policy. And you will
204 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
nee dlessly spend tens of thousands of dollars more
for a permanent policy than a term policy.
SITUATION: You don’t know how to shop for term
insurance.
ACTION: You can shop online; selectquote.com
and accuquote.com specialize in working with individuals
who nee d term insurance. You will be
asked to fi ll out a comprehensive workshee t of
your income and assets as well as your expenses
and debt. How much life insurance you nee d depends
on those factors. If you want to be absolutely
sure your family will be fi nancially well off
if you die prematurely, I would consider buying a
policy with a death benefi t equal to 20 times your
family’s annual income nee ds. Full disclosure:
Th at is more than double what many insurance
agents may recommend. You can indee d help your
family tremendously with a smaller amount of
coverage, but I am asking you to consider 20× for
absolute peace of mind. If your death benefi t is
20× your family’s annual nee ds, they can take the
payout and invest in conservative bonds (such as
insured municipal bonds) and live off the principal
amount. If your death benefi t is smaller, they will
eventually nee d to dip into the principal and it
could sharply reduce how long the money lasts.
ACTION PLAN: Protecting Your Family . . . 205
SITUATION: You have a term life insurance policy,
but you’re worried your insurer will go out of business.
ACTION: Know that your state insurance department
will be looking out for you. Th e insurance
department oversee s a state guaranty association
that provides coverage (up to the limits spelled out
by state law) for policyholders of insurers licensed
to do business in their state. In the case of life insurance,
the guaranty association and state insurance
commissioner will aim to have a healthy
company take over the policies, so you will not see
a change. You can fi nd out how the guaranty system
safety net operates in your state by visiting
the National Organization of Life & Health Insurance
Guaranty Associations’ Web site: htt p://
www.nolhga.com/policyholderinfo/main.cfm.
SITUATION: You can’t sleep at night because you
are so worried about what the world will look like for
your children.
ACTION: Focus on what is in your control; make
sure you have truly protected your family by having
all essential estate-planning documents in place.
I know these are scary times, and it is sobering
to wonder how long it will take for America and
the global economy to work their way back to fi -
nancial health. But I remain confi dent that with
206 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
time we will get back on our fee t. To invoke the
analogy I made in the fi rst chapter of this book,
we are in the ICU right now, but with time we will
make a full recovery.
What always amazes me is that oft en people
who worry about the fate of our economy fail to
protect their own family. I have to tell you, the
bigger risk to your family is not what happens
with GDP growth over the next tw o quarters; it is
how well you have prepared your family in the
event you become ill or die.
SITUATION: You aren’t sure what estate-planning
documents you need.
ACTION: You nee d a revocable living trust with
an incapacity clause, as well as a will. Read that
again. A will is not enough. I want you to also have
a revocable living trust. And you nee d tw o durable
powers of att orney—one for health care and one
for fi nances. A power of att orney designates someone
you trust to carry out your aff airs in the event
you become unable to handle matt ers on your own.
Your health care power of att orney will be your
“voice” in medical decisions if you are unable to
speak for yourself, and the fi nancial power of attorney
can handle your bills and fi nancial aff airs.
You also nee d an advance directive that spells out
your wishes for the level of medical care you want
should you become too ill to speak for yourself.
207
10
The Road Ahead
I began this book with the recognition that it is
absolutely understandable for you to fee l fear,
anger, and confusion as you struggle with the
repercussions of the global fi nancial crisis.
However, I believe that the very severity of the
crisis means that we will choose to make lasting
changes that will put us on a path to a healthier
and more vibrant future. Crises force us to take a
clear-eyed view of what went wrong and compel
us to make necessary adjustments to avoid the
same pain and suff ering again.
Th e period of refl ection we are in right now has
forced us to focus on a diffi cult reworking of our
relationship with money. Th e era of living beyond
our means is giving way to an age of living a more
meaningful life based on fi nancial honesty .
As painful as this transition period is, please
208 SUZE ORMAN’S 2009 ACTION PLAN
know that what awaits us is a very bright future.
Our economy is suff ering fr om a credit crisis, not
a crisis of talent or drive. From the innovation that
will continue to spill out of Silicon Valley to the
reinvention now being discussed to transform our
energy sources, I remain convinced that this is
still a nation of unwavering discovery and achievement.
Short term we have to survive the credit crisis
and recession; long term we will prevail and we
will thrive again.
Your job right now is to do the right thing when
it comes to your money—to make a plan, to stick
to it, to become a saver not a spender, to set a goal
to live a debt-fr ee life. I ask that you never forget
the painful lessons that 2008 taught us. I ask
you to remember these three things:
When it comes to money, if it sounds too good to be
true, it is .
If you cannot aff ord it, do not buy it.
Always choose to do what’s right, not what’s eas y.
My hope is that reading this book has given you
an understanding that you are a huge part of the
solution to your current problems. Despite the
turmoil, despite the adversity , you have to recognize
just how much is within your control. A secure
fi nancial future is in large part going to be a function
of how willing you are to take action today. It
won’t appear out of thin air, it won’t be legislated
The Road Ahead 209
for you by Washington. It will grow out of the actions
you take each and every day for the rest of
your life.
Are you ready to make change happen in your
own life? If you are, I hope this book becomes your
guide. Here’s to making your life, this precious
time, the best it can be.
Suze Orman
November 19, 2008
About the Author
Suze Orman has bee n called “a force in the world of personal
fi nance” and a “one-woman fi nancial advice powerhouse”
by USA Today. A tw o-time Emmy Award-winning
television host, # 1 New York Times bestselling author,
magazine and online columnist, writer/producer, and
one of the top motivational speakers in the world today,
Orman is undeniably America’s most recognized expert
on personal fi nance.
Orman has writt en six consecutive New York Times
bestsellers and has writt en, co-produced, and hosted six
PBS specials based on her books. She is the host of the
award-winning Suze Orman Show, which airs on CNBC
and XM and Sirius radio, and a contributing editor to O,
Th e Oprah Magazine.
In 2008, Orman was named one of Time magazine’s
“Time 100,” the world’s most infl uential people, and was
the recipient of the National Equality Award fr om the
Human Rights Campaign. In 2009 she will receive an
honorary doctor of humane lett ers degree fr om the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Orman, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional,
directed the Suze Orman Financial Group fr om
1987 to 1997, served as Vice President-Investments for
Prudential-Bache Securities fr om 1983 to 1987, and was
an Account Executive at Merrill Lynch fr om 1980 to 1983.
Prior to that, she worked as a waitress at the Butt ercup
Bakery in Berkeley, California, fr om 1973 to 1980.
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Figure C 
