Suze Orman
American Investment Advisor (1951 - )
- || At The Bottom
1981 -- Suze Orman tried to wrap her mind around the fact that she had just lost $50,000 of someone else's money. The child of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Orman had grown up in a working-class Chicago neighborhood without much exposure to real wealth and where many people -- her parents included -- had constant financial troubles. Making matters worse, as a child Orman had a speech impediment that injured her confidence and convinced many of her teachers that she was not a bright student. As she remembered years later, she always "secretly felt dumb" and was surprised when the University of Illinois admitted her as an undergraduate.50 With only a few credits to go before completing her social work degree, Orman left Illinois and moved to California with some of her friends in 1973. A few years later, as she approached her 30th birthday, Suze Orman was making $400 a month as a waitress at the Buttercup Bakery in Berkeley, California. She hoped to follow in her parents' footsteps and own her own small restaurant, but though she had plenty of ideas, she had no savings and no investors. When a longtime customer heard of Orman's dreams, he offered her $50,000 to get started. Orman knew almost nothing about investing and turned the entire sum over to a broker who managed to squander it all within four months. "I didn't know what to do," she wrote years later. "I knew I owed a lot of money, and I knew I had no way to pay it back.
- || At The Top
2009 -- Ranked at #18 on Forbes' list of "Most Influential Women in Media," Suze Orman has become one of the most popular financial experts in the United States. Her mini-empire of television shows, books, DVD and CD-ROM packages have turned a $400/month waitress into a popular financial guru with a net worth of about $25 million. In addition to her television show on CNBC (The Suze Orman Show) and her numerous specials produced for public television, Orman is the author of six books on personal finance, including The Road to Wealth and Women and Money, all of which have proven to be best-sellers. Orman is especially popular with women between the ages of 18 and 49, who come from modest economic backgrounds and might be struggling to manage debt of one kind or another. Orman's fans credit her with being able to put the complexities of personal finance into plain language that provides clear direction and encouragement.
- || The Comeback
Orman's dream of owning a bakery may have been shattered, but she was determined to pay back her debt. Moreover, she wanted to learn how to avoid a similar catastrophe in the future. Returning to the Merrill Lynch office where her broker worked, Orman applied for a job. Before she knew it, she was on her way toward being a broker herself. . As a broker, Orman built a strong reputation quickly. "My clients made out like bandits," Orman explained once, "and I was propelled pretty quickly to become one of the top brokers." Having learned a painful lesson from experience, she paid attention to her clients' needs and vowed never to deceive them. From Merrill Lynch, she moved to Prudential Bache before striking out and founding her own firm in 1987. Orman paid special attention to the problem of investing for retirement, and the seminars she led on the topic became quite popular in Northern California. Before long, a mid-sized publisher (Newmarket Press) caught wind of her and asked her to publish a book based on her retirement planning seminars. The book, You Earned It, Don't Lose It, came out in 1995 and has sold nearly 3 million copies. The book introduced Orman to a national audience that has continued to grow.
