Suze Orman's Master "Class" in Managing Family Finances: Interview

When it comes to educating people about personal and family finance and responsible money management, Suze Orman is in a class by herself. The “one-woman financial advice powerhouse” (as USA Today dubbed her) is a New York Times bestselling author, a two-time Emmy-winner and twice-named on “Time” magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people, the host of the weekly “Suze Orman Show” on CNBC and XM and Sirius radio. Her PBS specials are pledge break bonanzas, and, perhaps most famously, she is Oprah Winfrey’s “go-to gal” to talk about money and family finances (she appeared on Winfrey’s talk show some 30 times and is a contributing editor for her magazine).

Now Orman has a new classroom on Winfrey’s OWN network. In “America’s Money Class,” airing Monday nights for six weeks, Orman engages with a studio audience about a wide range of personal and family finance topics and issues, including the most common money mistakes, learning how to have family discussions about money matters, how to take control of spending, investing, climbing out of debt, retirement planning, unemployment, and surviving what she calls “financial infidelity” between couples.

Pay attention; there will be a test later. Seriously. There will be a test later, and a passing grade could put you in the running for a $50,000 prize.

Tonight’s episode, “Family and Money,” will address such family finance issues as affording parenthood, saving for college, protecting your family and managing retirement funds.

The straight-talking Orman is not one to grade on a curve. How does she assess America’s financial literacy? “C- or D,” she said in an interview with Millionaire Corner. “People are getting better educated, but they are so easily fooled into thinking that they have something great when they don’t, whether it’s an investment or a banking relationship. They don’t read the small print, they do not like to open their statements to see what they’re really being charged for something, and they don’t like to read legal documents.”

Anointment by Oprah can be a career-maker, but Orman has long been an integral part of the Winfrey universe. “It never dawned on me that I wouldn’t be on OWN,” she joked. Oprah’s mandate to her in developing “Money Class” was “to serve the people, to give them what they need,” Orman said. And what they need is “a voice they can trust, tools they can use that will not gouge them and answers to their questions so they can deal honestly with their financial issues so they can experience hope again. They do not need to be kicked down the road anymore.”

Orman has been down that road. Growing up in Chicago, she said, her father had a successful company, Michigan Poultry. “You’d come in, pick out a live chicken, they would pluck it for you, and you’d bring it home. But then supermarkets came along and everything started to change. We went from a middle class upbringing to losing everything. My mother had to go back to work as a secretary and sell Avon, and this was the late 1950s and early ‘60s when women still didn’t really work. You grow up thinking you have what you need because you don’t know what else there is.”

From this, Orman said, came her own tireless work ethic that she credits with making her what she is today.

The TV series grew out of her most recent bestseller, The Money Class: Learn to Create Your Own American Dream. In each episode, people share their financial issues for which Orman offers a step-by-step Action Plan. The series will also feature an online companion class on Oprah.com/MoneyClass with financial resources, interactive opportunities with other students and Orman’s financial kits as free giveaways. 

TThe American Dream of previous generations needs to be re-imagined in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, Orman said. “People always wanted to buy a home and retire when they were 60. Now, millions find themselves in homes that are underwater and the dream is to simply get out of the house on which they owe more money than it is worth. Their dream is really to just be able to sleep at night because they are so freaked about how they are going to feed themselves the next day. For many, the American Dream has really changed to, ‘Let me be okay.’”

About that test: Orman does not typically have trouble getting an audience’s attention, but she’s raising the stakes with “America’s Money Class.”  At miniseries ‘end, she will offer an online final exam comprised of 15 multiple choice questions and an essay question. Those who pass will be entered into a sweepstakes with a $50,000 first prize as well as $5,000 for the next five runners-up.