The Money Class Quotes

“Draw up a list of work-pay chores. Show the potential earnings for each job. Allow your children to choose their jobs—but make it clear that they have to work their way up from the smaller to the greater chores; they can’t just cut right to the higher-paying ones. And the job must be done well, not just done. Teach them that they must start with the lesser tasks and work their way up the ladder. I promise you, your kids will learn to work more quickly and efficiently to get to the higher-paying jobs—and they will look forward to working in order to earn more.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“I realize your intentions are good, but you need to distinguish between helping and enabling. People who are standing in the truth and need financial assistance deserve your help, if you can in fact afford to give financial help. People who are looking for your money to solve (probably temporarily) a problem of their own creation are not standing in their truth.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“I am going to challenge you not merely to live within your means, but to live below your means.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“If you want to own individual stocks your portfolio should have a minimum of 10 to 12 stocks. It is never smart to have a larger portion of your retirement funds invested in one stock. No matter how stable that stock looks, we can never be sure of its future. If the money you want to devote to stocks is not enough to buy that many individual shares, then I recommend you focus on dividend-paying ETFs.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Once more, let’s run down the major points of this class: • Consider paying off your mortgage before you retire. • Start planning for how you will be able to keep working well into your 60s. • Save more today so you will be okay if you can’t afford to save in your 60s. • Make it a goal to delay when you start drawing Social Security, so you can earn a benefit that could be 80% bigger than if you start early. • Make sure all your retirement accounts are invested to complement one another. • Decide no later than age 59 if long-term care insurance should be part of your retirement plan.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“• If you do not need to live off your pension and you want to leave this money to your heirs, you would be better off taking the lump sum and doing a rollover rather than opting for the annuity payment.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“you have less than $100,000 in a Roth IRA:”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“If you have less than $100,000 in your traditional IRA: Keep investing in your IRA, but once you get within 10 years of retirement, consider reducing your IRA contribution by 50% and use that money to pay down your mortgage. For example, let’s say you are contributing $500 a month to your IRA. My advice is to reduce that to $250 a month and then put the remaining $250 into accelerating your mortgage payments.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“If you contribute to a 401(k) up to the point of the match:”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Reduce your monthly expenses so you can add more to your mortgage payment.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“If you have more than eight months in your emergency fund:”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Accelerating your mortgage payments is something to be considered only if you are in good financial shape. That means: • You have an eight-month emergency savings fund. • You do not have any credit card debt. • You own your car outright, and you are saving for when you will need to purchase another car.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Every year the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) publishes its retirement readiness report; it’s a detailed statistical look at how many of us are on pace to have enough money in retirement to meet our basic living needs.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“you can invest through TreasuryDirect.gov. Just remember to stick with shorter-term issues—maturities of five years or less.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“A general rule of thumb worth considering is to subtract your age from 100. So if you are 35, consider a portfolio that has 65% or so in stocks.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“STEP 4. Save in a taxable account.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“STEP 3. Increase your 401(k) contributions.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“STEP 2. Contribute to a Roth IRA.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“STEP 1. Save in a 401(k) plan if your employer offers a matching contribution. Contribute enough to qualify for the maximum company match.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“At a minimum I want you to figure out a way to set aside 15% of your pre-tax salary each and every year, starting as early as possible. If you wait until your 40s and 50s to get serious about saving, you will need to set aside 25% or more of your gross salary.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“A Roth can also be a backup emergency fund. Because your contributions are made with after-tax dollars, you are free to withdraw them (though not the earnings on them) at any age without incurring taxes or penalties.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“If you have been following my advice for years, you are well aware that I think a Roth IRA is the best retirement account you can have.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“must double down on making yourself an absolutely essential piece of your firm’s success. That should be your goal at any time, but in these times of economic stress it is imperative. It is how you keep moving forward in a very competitive job market.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Your PITI and all other debts should not exceed 36% of your gross monthly income.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Your mortgage, property tax, and insurance (called PITI) should not exceed 25% of your gross (pre-tax) monthly income.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“by the time your child is a senior in high school you will want to have the bulk of your account in conservative investments; it is too risky to have your money invested in stocks when you know you will need that money in one to five years.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“The other problem is that UGMA and UTMA assets are treated differently than 529 assets when assessing your family’s application for financial aid. Less than 6% of assets held in a 529 plan owned by a parent (for the benefit of a child) are used to compute a family’s eligibility for aid. By comparison, 20% of assets owned by your child—such as an UGMA or UTMA—are factored into the calculation. In other words, money owned by a child will reduce your eligibility for financial aid, or the level of aid your family qualifies for.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Many of you have heard me say this repeatedly over the years: There is financial aid for college. There are loans for college. But there is no aid or loans to help you in retirement. There is no aid if you run into a rough patch and you do not have sufficient funds in an emergency savings account to navigate your way out of trouble.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Before you start to save one penny for a child’s future college costs, I insist that you have the following financial priorities taken care of: You do not have credit card debt. You have an eight-month emergency savings fund. You have a term life insurance policy. You are saving for retirement; aiming to set aside 15% of your gross salary. Until all of that is in place you are not to think about saving for college.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream

“Make payment a weekly ritual. Bring some formality to the process by setting a date and time for when you will review the work from the past week and make the payment. Maybe it’s Saturday morning when you are all around.”
― Suze Orman, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your New American Dream