Jennifer L | Blue Wave Studio

The other day I was browsing some deal sites and found out about a free financial book download coming this week. It’s Suze Orman’s new book, "2009 Action Plan: Keeping Your Money Safe & Sound", offered by Oprah. Along with the free book, Suze offered some advice on the Oprah show as part of the Best Life Series. This is the second Suze Orman book Oprah has made available (the previous, "Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny").

The book includes action plans for credit, retirement investing, saving, spending, real estate, paying for college, and protecting your family. I browsed through the first part of the book and there’s some good advice in there.

You can download the free book here until 1:59 p.m. CT on Thursday, January 15.

You can also register for a live webcast with Suze Orman on Thursday, January 15 9pm/8pm Central.

Since I started watching her show, I recorded her appearance on Oprah with my TiVo to see what she had to say. Her tips…

Credit Card Payment Plan

• Line up your cards from the highest interest rate to the lowest
• Pay the minimum on each card
• Pay any extra money to the card with the highest interest rate
• Once the first card is paid off, roll that money over to the next card
• Continue this system until all cards are paid off

(Though JD from Get Rich Slowly recommends the reverse approach called the Debt Snowball method)

Steps to Improve Your Credit Rating

• Pay more than the minimum payment on each card
• Pay credit card bills on time
• Never go over your credit limit

Spending Action Plan

• Sit down with your expenses and separate ‘WANTS’ from ‘NEEDS’
• Circle all expenses that are ‘WANTS’
• If you have debt or no savigs, eliminate the ‘WANTS’

(Basically know your limits)

Retirement Action Plan

• Don’t panic when the market goes down
• Keep investing monthly in your 401k or IRA
• If you need the money within 5 years, take it out of the stock market

(Yes, don’t panic!)

2009 Action Plan Pledge

• Don’t spend money for one day
• Don’t use your credit card for one week
• Don’t eat at restaurants for one month

(Similar to Ramit/I Will Teach You To Be Rich’s suggestions to Create a “No Spending” day once a week, Go cash-only for 15 to 30 days, and Pack lunches for the rest of the week from his Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge)

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