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The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying (Paperback)
by Suze Orman
| Category:
Personal finance, Self help |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
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¥ 158.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
You are worth far more than your money! This is the first personal finance book that gives you not only the knowledge of how to handle money, but also the will to break through all the barriers that hold you back. |
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Author: Suze Orman
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Pub. in: August, 2006
ISBN: 030734584X
Pages: 352
Measurements: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00984
Other information: 3 Rev Upd edition
ISBN-13: 978-0307345844
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- Awards & Credential -
Suze Orman is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers, The Courage to Be Rich and The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, and the national bestseller You've Earned It, Don't Lose It. |
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- MSL Picks -
A personal finance guide going beyond the nuts and bolts of managing money, to the heart of how sometimes money manages its spender. A glimpse at the psychological side of money matters and a ticket to personal freedom from financial fetters. Shows how managing money is far more than balancing a checkbook or making investments.
The book sets the premise that you never learn to deal with money successfully until you overcome your fear of money, of not having enough, and fear of taking action with your money. It's about how to make money work for you so you have more than enough because you learn to devote energy, time, and understanding, to money. The three ways of getting money in this world: (1) Work for it (2) inherit it (3) invest the money you save (the most powerful, respectful way to get money there is).
Here are the 9 steps to financial freedom:
1. Step back in time to see how your feelings about money can be traced to your past. We all have "money messages" passed down from generation to generation.
2. Face your money fears and create new, positive truths.
3. Be honest with yourself. Quit using plastic cards for money. They are addictive and destructive as drugs, giving you a quick fix by satisfying temporary desires.
4. Be responsible to those you love. Establish life insurance, wills, power of attorney, estate planning, etc.
5. Be respectful of yourself and your money. If you do what needs to be done with money, you will attract money to you.
6. You and your money must keep good company. Credit cards are never good company. Get out of debt. Respect yourself and your money by making every penny work for you.
7. Trust yourself more than you trust others. Find the "little voice" inside you; listen to what it has to say.
8. Be open to receive all you are meant to receive. When you are in control of your money and have enough to be generous, money flows to you.
9. Understand the ebb and flow of the money cycle. Money has natural cycles as it ebbs and flows through your life.
If you choose to entrust your money to someone else, and you really don't know how money works, unscrupulous people can take advantage of you. Further, you discover the thrill that comes from wanting to deal with your money instead of just having to deal with it. Get in touch with your money; delight in spending it as you did as a child, but enjoy choosing not to spend it too; take pleasure in putting some away for later.
Most of us need to spend our money differently. Not drastic action like getting by with one car. Unrealistic budget cuts, like diets, never work. Rather, decide to spend $25 to $30 less per month from fifteen or twenty of your spending categories; with each decision you make to spend less, you are gaining power over your money, and you will find creative ways to reduce your spending so you hardly notice. Rather than being dictated by a restriction, your actions are guided by the choices you make. This is the hardest step to financial freedom; you become honest with yourself about how you really stand.
Spend less by putting your money away before you see it. Pay yourself. It's not what you make, but what you keep. Time plays an essential role in building future wealth because the longer you contribute, the more you'll have and with time, the contributions you have already made, do more work for you. The thing that makes time so powerful is compounding. Money flows through our lives like water: plentiful at times, a trickle other times. These transitions are exciting or scary, but are all part of the natural cycles of money. There are two important reactions to these cycles: (1) You must take the long view of your financial future (2) you must believe that what happens is positive and let it be. The important thing is to understand the nature of money and take the right steps to make it work for you. Recognize true wealth. People can not be measured by their net worth. Money does not make you financially free; only you can make yourself financially free.
- From quoting James L. Grubb
Target readers:
General readers
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- Better with -
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Suze Orman is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers, The Courage to Be Rich and The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, and the national bestseller You've Earned It, Don't Lose It. Currently a contributing editor to O: The Oprah Magazine, Suze wrote, co-produced, and hosted two PBS pledge shows. A Certified Financial Planner professional, Suze has been featured in Newsweek, People, The New Yorker, and USA Today, and has appeared on Dateline, Larry King Live, CNN, CNBC, Good Morning America, and numerous times on NBC News' TODAY and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
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From the publisher
Suze Orman has transformed the concept of personal finance for millions by teaching us how to gain control of our money - so that money does not control us. She goes beyond the nuts and bolts of managing money to explore the psychological, even spiritual power money has in our lives. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom is the first personal finance book that gives you not only the knowledge of how to handle money, but also the will to break through all the barriers that hold you back.
Combining real-life recommendations with the motivation to overcome financial anxieties, Suze Orman offers the keys to providing for yourself and your family, including:
- seeing how your past holds the key to your financial future
- facing your fears and creating new truths
- trusting yourself more than you trust others
- being open to receiving all that you are meant to have
- understanding the lessons of the money cycle
The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom is useful advice and inspiration from the leading voice in personal finance. As Orman shows, managing money is far more than a matter of balancing your checkbook or picking the right investments. It's about redefining financial freedom - and realizing that you are worth far more than your money.
Her down-to-earth personality and accessible message has connected Orman with TV viewers on CNN, CNBC, and Fox After Breakfast. Now she makes her unique approach to controlling money available to readers with this non-traditional financial planning guide.
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What do you want from your money? College tuition for your kids? A bigger house and a new car? Security when you retire? Wouldn't it be great simply to have enough money so you don't have to worry?
The "enough money" part of that equation is easy. By the time you finish this book you will understand everything you need to know about managing and protecting your money and making it grow. The "so you don't have to worry" part is much more complex. It actually has nothing to do with how much money you have or how little. You can balance your checkbook until you're blue in the face, you can move money every day between your mutual funds, you can double your life insurance, you can buy lottery tickets - and none of it will do you any good until you get beyond the worry and fear. The fear of money, the fear of not having enough, the fear of having enough, the fear of taking action, the fear of inaction.
There isn't a part of our lives that money doesn't touch - it affects our relationships, the way we go about our everyday activities, our ability to make dreams reality, everything. Most of us, I think, have a core of anxiety that we carry around with us, though we may not admit it to ourselves. That is part of money's power over us.
From years as a financial planner I have learned that true financial freedom doesn't depend on how much money you have. Financial freedom is when you have power over your fears and anxieties instead of the other way around. That's why, in this book, we'll address first the fears, then the finances.
Whatever their circumstances - in debt, working, downsized, afraid of becoming downsized, retired, having just inherited money, having just lost money--my clients invariably arrive with a handful of financial papers and a heart full of anxieties. Like most certified financial planners, I started my practice to help other people with their money, but as time went on, I realized that it was far more than their money (or lack of it) that needed attention. Today new clients arrive expecting me to ask to see their papers. Instead I ask them first to share their fears.
It's never too soon to begin, and it's never too late, no matter how the bottom-line numbers read today on your particular handful of financial papers. This book presents a nine-step process that will take you back into the past, when your attitudes about money were born and began to grow. It will help you face the present honestly and clear the way for you to create a future you will love.
I know it works. As you read this book you will meet others who have taken the steps toward financial freedom - and finally made possible the lives they dreamed about.
You will also see that if I could do it against all odds, so can you. When I was very young I had already learned that the reason my parents seemed so unhappy wasn't that they didn't love each other; it was that they never had quite enough money even to pay the bills. In our house money meant tension, worry, and sorrow. When I was about thirteen my dad owned his own business, a tiny chicken shack where he sold take-out chicken, ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, and fries. One day the oil that the chicken was fried in caught fire. In a few minutes the whole place exploded in flames. My dad bolted from the store before the flames could engulf him. This was when my mom and I happened to arrive on the scene, and we all stood outside watching the fire burn away my dad's business.
All of a sudden my dad realized that he had left his money in the metal cash register inside the building, and I watched in disbelief as he ran back into the inferno, in the split second before anyone could stop him. He tried and tried to open the metal register, but the intense heat had already sealed the drawer shut. Knowing that every penny he had was locked in front of him, about to go up into flames, he literally picked up the scalding metal box and carried it outside. When he threw the register on the ground, the skin on his arms and chest came with it.
He had escaped the fire safely once, untouched. Then he voluntarily risked his life and was severely injured. The money was that important. That was when I learned that money is obviously more important than life itself.
From that point on, earning money, lots of money, not only became what drove me professionally, but also became my emotional priority. Money became, for me, not the means to a life rich in all kinds of ways; money became my singular goal.
Years later this kid from the South Side of Chicago was a broker with a huge investment firm. I was rich, richer than I could have imagined. And I realized I was profoundly unhappy; the money hadn't bought or brought me happiness. So if money wasn't the key to happiness, what was? It was then that I began a quest, which has taken me deep into the meaning of life - and the meaning of money.
I don't know if I have discovered the meaning of life, but I have learned a great deal about what money can and cannot do. And it can do a lot. Your money will work for you, and you will always have enough - more than enough - when you give it energy, time, and understanding. I have come to think that money is very much like a person, and it will respond when you treat it as you would a cherished friend - never fearing it, pushing it away, pretending it doesn't exist, or turning away from its needs, never clutching it so hard that it hurts. Sometimes it's fatter, sometimes it's skinnier, sometimes it doesn't feel so good and needs special nurturing. But if you tend it like the living entity it is, then it will flourish, grow, take care of you for as long as you need it, and look after the loved ones you leave behind.
Most of us already know at least some of the steps we could take to free ourselves from money anxieties--we could manage our debt better, arrange for our children's education, strategically plan now for later, protect what we've saved, save more. Yet most of us are paralyzed, too, when it comes to actually taking these steps, however wise they seem, however much we think we really want to take control.
What good will it do you to know what you should do, if you can't do it?
The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom: A Preview
The first steps of this book take you back to discover why you don't do the things you know you should do and bring you beyond that--to where you can take action. These steps will free you to open up a dialogue about money with your parents, your children, and, most important, yourself. The next three steps are the laws of managing money. These laws are must-do's. They cover everything from wills and trusts and what insurance you need (and don't need) to new ways to think about debt and your 401(k) or retirement plan to how to invest and what to invest in. They teach you why you must trust yourself more than you trust anyone else with your money.
The goal of these particular steps is to make you as independent from financial advisers as possible. Over the years, I have learned that it is in my clients' best interest for them to take control over their money, not to relinquish it, even to me. If, later on, they choose to entrust their money to someone else, with these steps they would no longer be able to be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous adviser - or by their unwillingness to face up to the facts and figures of their own finances. Once you take these steps, you will discover the exhilaration that comes from wanting to deal with your money, not just having to deal with it.
The last three steps take you beyond the realm of finances, to the wealth that money can't buy.
When it comes to money, freedom starts to happen when what you do, think, and say are one. You'll never be free if you say that you have more than enough, then act as if and think you don't. You'll never be free if you think you don't have enough, then act as if and say you do. You will have enough when you believe you will and take the actions to express that belief. And you'll have more than enough when you realize that you can be rich at any income because you are more than your money, you are more than your job or title, than the car you drive or the clothing you wear. Your own power and worth are not judged by what money can sell and what money can buy; true freedom cannot be bought or sold at any price. True freedom, true wealth, is that which can never be lost.
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| View all 10 comments |
carl breyers (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
Suze Orman is the premier financial author for the times. So much useful information. First, she gets you thinking right about money, then Suze shows you how to save and prosper.Suze says that the best financial planner you will ever find is the one that stares at you in the mirror and she is correct. Nobody is more concerned about your money than you are.I moved money out of my bank that was dead money sitting in savings, cd's and money market accounts and opened a money market mutual fund instead. This replaces my bank checking account as well.My investment capitol is now in mutuals (Vanguard 500 index) some blue chip stocks (GE, LRK) and I am using 5% of my portolio for buying options and write covered calls. With the market down, I recently added the Diamonds and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) exchange funds.Along with 9 Steps I also recommend Wall Street Money Machine by Wade Cook and Stock Split Secrets. Great book Suxe and congrats on your new position at CNBC. I look forward to listening to your words of wisdom. |
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
This was overall a pretty good book. A lot of the information I've heard before, but I like the author's writing style.
The advice is pretty standard: Pay off your credit cards, pay down your mortgage, invest for the long term. What I liked about this book is that it's readable. The examples make sense. It's easy to say "pay off your credit cards" but she shows in black and white just how much money credit cards are costing you. Her comparison of a 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage was quite compelling. I had no idea how much difference paying a little extra each month toward a mortgage makes. It's a lot more than I thought.
Can you become financially free reading this book? Yes, you can. But you have to follow the steps. You have to do it. Don't read this book and then put it away thinking it was great and wouldn't it be nice if I changed my lifestyle and habits. Do it. I have, and I can say it's worth it.
I'm giving this book 4 stars. I'm not giving it 5 because I've read much of the information elsewhere. This isn't the first financial book ever written. I give it a high rating because it's very readable. It's not dull at all. I felt like the author was talking to me like a human being. It's worth buying. I highly recommend it. I also highly recommend "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. His book has some similar concepts, but I found it even more readable. His book is about acquiring income producing assets as opposed to just paying down debt and acquiring paper assets. Buy both books. |
Harold McFarland (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
Suze Orman is a Certified Financial Planner who goes beyond the basic nuts and bolts of financial planning to help you change your concepts of money and wealth. While she gives good advice about the need for insurance, savings, and similar items that you would expect from a financial planner, she also looks at how your past affects your current situation. Your early experiences and the concepts of significant others affects your belief system and can free you to enjoy financial freedom or bind you into a position where you can't do what needs to be done. For an extreme example, I knew a person who had lived through the depression and lived in an older mobile home until he died. When he died they tore down the mobile home and found that he had over a million dollars in cash and bonds hidden in the trailer. He past experience with the depression had made him a slave to hoarding money.
The nine steps include understanding how your past affects your present, facing your past and creating new truths, being honest with yourself, being responsible to those who depend on you, understanding the flow of money and recognizing true wealth.
Many people will find this a book that frees them from financial slavery so that they can go forward and have a more fruitful life. |
Philip Scott (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
Suze is a very down to earth writer. She tells us about her real life experiences. At one pont in Suzes' life she was on top of the world, but lost everything by being too trusting to her co-employees. After a lot of soul searching and hard work Suze has been able to turn her life around and become even more successful than before. Sometimes failure teaches us how to come back stronger than ever. I believe anyone who buys this book and lives by it's teaching will be far ahead of the game of making money. Suze maps out what it takes to excel in finances. I would like to ask everyone out there to let Suze perform her magic in your lives. In good faith in can honestly recommend this book. Please buy it! You have nothing to loose and everything to gain. |
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