Book review: The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman
Book: The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, Practical & Spiritual Steps so you can stop Worrying
Author: Suze Orman
My review: Some good information but not a great book
I heard of this book while I was a student in some of the money management presentations I attended. During my last semester one of the students raved about the book but in my opinion after reading the book, I think this student never read it. To save money I borrowed the book in my local library and it was a great decision.
The first part of the book was a full waste of time and dealt with the spiritual steps. Basically Mrs. Orman is saying that if you treat your money respectfully taking good care of it then money will grow and bring positive outcome. I do agree with Mrs. Orman’s opinion that to be successful financially you need a good attitude and control with money. If you just don’t care for it don’t keep track of it then you will end-up spending more than what you have and you will struggle financially. Though I don’t think there is a need to spend 40 pages talking on the subject. She does mention to create a sort of budget but just spends one page talking on it. She also explained that trough her life she noticed a significant difference between those who just invest the matching contribution of their company to the 401K plan they offer, compared to those who max it out. While I do agree with her that it is always better to save as much money as possible for the future, maxing out your 401K contribution may not be the best strategy.
The second part was the most interesting part of the book and started at step 4. This part of the book dealt with planning your inheritance. I found a lot of great information on wills, trusts and life insurances. I knew already the information regarding life insurances but learned a lot of things about wills and how the inheritance process works in the U.S. For this reason I think that everybody should read the book or at least this part.
The last part of the book deals with investing. Most of the advice is correct but very superficial and also feels outdated. I find this part irrelevant because it’s considering you have something like $50,000 to invest while most people who are seeking financial management information are either broke or will want more specific information to invest their fortune.
As a summary, this book is not oriented for somebody who wants to learn about money management. Though I recommend to everybody to borrow the book in a library and read Step 4. I also recommend skimming over the remaining steps to find some good advice that may be relevant to your situation. But for money management I would advise looking somewhere else.
