The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom [VHS]

Suze Orman's seminar-format video offers a financial pep talk to accompany her book of the same title. Though a good deal of her nine steps are nothing new or revolutionary--plan for the future, cut your credit-card debt, organize your estate, respect money, and take charge of your own money--she makes a few noteworthy points. Using psychology to flush out attitudes about money, she asks the members of her audience to think about their earliest memories of money and how it shapes their relationship with it now. She recognizes the feelings of shame and guilt associated with money and tells us to get over it--that these feelings are the very ones that paralyze our path to financial freedom. Her basic formula of financial freedom seems difficult to achieve since it requires us to factor in self-esteem, organization, dedication, and feelings of entitlement. She also feels strongly that "stating your goal will make it happen, no matter how impossible it seems," which is reminiscent of the psychology behind the "Little Engine That Could"--a bit simplistic when it comes to the complicated but still accessible world of finances. Orman's target audience is both one that needs a financial pep talk and one that isn't necessarily well versed in financial jargon. A person of any age can find something useful in her helpful, if urgent-sounding, reminders. She uses some statistical scare tactics--such as mentioning that one in three people over the age of 65 will end up in a nursing home, so you'd better get long-term care insurance--to drive her points home but then buffers them with an "everything happens for the best" and "your self-worth is more important than your net worth"-type philosophy. Orman ends the lecture with an enlightening question-and-answer session that elaborates on points not covered by her speech, such as how to find a good financial planner and the differences between retirement funds. Those looking for a specific formula to financial freedom may have to look elsewhere, as Suze Orman's philosophy is that we ourselves can and should be our own best financial advisors since we know ourselves better than any financial writer or planner ever could. --Gilia Angell