Suze Orman thoughts on SAHP

[calv]

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000074008#eyJ2aWQiOiIzMDAwMDczOTg4IiwiZW5j VmlkIjoiNGUreWFkbkJ5Z1FWN1BMcERCdzF2dz09IiwidlRhYi I6InRyYW5zY3JpcHQiLCJ2UGFnZSI6IiIsImdOYXYiOlsiXHUw MGEwTGF0ZXN0IFZpZGVvIl0sImdTZWN0IjoiQUxMIiwiZ1BhZ2 UiOiIxIiwic3ltIjoiIiwic2VhcmNoIjoiIn0=

[katydid1971]

I saw this show the other night. Basically she said that if you are going to be a stay at home parent that you need to know how you are going to pay the bills. Do you have a problem with what she had to say?

[calv]

not at all. DH & I always say what she said "numbers don't lie"

Do you think it will be on repeat again? I'd love to see the entire show

[boolady]

Basically she said that if you are going to be a stay at home parent that you need to know how you are going to pay the bills.

Right. I saw some of it the other night, too. Her message= there are financial ramifications to staying home. Figure out if you can afford to stay home. Isn't this just common sense?

[katydid1971]

not at all. DH & I always say what she said "numbers don't lie"

Do you think it will be on repeat again? I'd love to see the entire show
I have Suze programmed onto my DVR and she has repeats at strange hours on the weekends, like 2 am on Friday. If you have a dvr you can set to record her and it should be replayed sometime next weekend. That's my experience at least.

[wellyes]

I think 85% of what she says is "don't be a fool". But obviously there is a need for that message, since she keeps getting paid to show up and say it! *(And a lot of us fail at it sometimes).

[calv]

Right. I saw some of it the other night, too. Her message= there are financial ramifications to staying home. Figure out if you can afford to stay home. Isn't this just common sense?

common sense that it's not great to be in credit card debt yet so many Americans always have debt.

I haven't watched her in a while but everything she says does makes a lot of sense. Like someone else said, I think a lot of her stuff is easier said than done.

[justlearning]

I saw the show when it aired, so I didn't rewatch this clip. I'm a SAHM and didn't have any problems with what she said. (I do think you need to be sure you can afford to stay home before quitting a job.) But I think she also said something in passing like if you can afford it, it's best for kids to have their mom at home. So perhaps you're wondering if WOHMs took offense to that part?

[calv]

I haven't seen the show and I'm interested in watching it. Watching something online now but not sure if it's the one because it's very short on the SAH topic.

something that a lot of people dont say or think about is to just qualify the mortgage on the working spouses salary. hence when the other salary drops you should be ok paying the mortgage.

[AnnieW625]

I would love to see that show. I don't watch her all of the time but I think she has some good things to say.


I think 85% of what she says is "don't be a fool". But obviously there is a need for that message, since she keeps getting paid to show up and say it! *(And a lot of us fail at it sometimes).

:yeahthat: I like that about her, except I don't agree with her in regards to having some credit card debt.

Some of the SAHMs I know and are crazy addicted shoppers say their DH pays the bills. If I were a SAHM I think I would want to be paying the bills.

[justlearning]

I haven't seen the show and I'm interested in watching it. Watching something online now but not sure if it's the one because it's very short on the SAH topic..

The show that I saw had just a short mention of it in the beginning of the show.

[niccig]

Right. I saw some of it the other night, too. Her message= there are financial ramifications to staying home. Figure out if you can afford to stay home. Isn't this just common sense?

Yes, but many people just look at salary bring in, and cost of daycare. I know I didn't consider 401K, promotions or the stress on DH being sole earner. It was easier when business was booming, but it's more difficult for DH now.

[sste]

I don't get suzy orman.

I don't she is either charismatic or particularly financially savvy!!

That this is one of her gems doesn't surprise me. Yes, given that we do not live in a welfare state and child support delinquency is at record highs and alimony has gone the way of the t-rex, it is a good idea to have a back-up plan. Can I be syndicated now? :)

[niccig]

That this is one of her gems doesn't surprise me. Yes, given that we do not live in a welfare state and child support delinquency is at record highs and alimony has gone the way of the t-rex, it is a good idea to have a back-up plan. Can I be syndicated now? :)

Not everyone understands this idea. I have a family member that decided to stay at home, not cut their expenses enough, and run up credit card debt instead. It was a deliberate, conscious decision to have credit card debt. That bit them when the husband was laid off for a year.

Some people need Suzie or someone else to tell them it's not a good idea.

[marymoo86]

Not everyone understands this idea. I have a family member that decided to stay at home, not cut their expenses enough, and run up credit card debt instead. It was a deliberate, conscious decision to have credit card debt. That bit them when the husband was laid off for a year.

Some people need Suzie or someone else to tell them it's not a good idea.

Is that they didn't understand or just chose to ignore it b/c it is easier to have the gratification of things we want now? At some point you have to know if you are not paying off your statement each month and carrying a balance that is growing, you headed for a problem.

[egoldber]

I think that a HUGE number of people have a fundamental lack of understanding of the basic properties of finance, including how things like the compound interest of their credit cards works. They also do not understand how being out of the workforce can effect their potential for loss of retirement income from 401Ks, etc.

[wellyes]

The anecdote she tells is of a woman who miscalculated her spouse's salary in order to make staying at home seem ok - willful blindness, mostly. But there are pushes from the other direction too. Calculators that encourage people to do what they want based on the same kind of willfully blindness. They tell women to calculate how much they'll save on dry cleaning without working - without factoring in stuff like the loss of compound interest from 401k contributions plus employer match. Size balances that.

[Kindra178]

The anecdote she tells is of a woman who miscalculated her spouse's salary in order to make staying at home seem ok - willful blindness, mostly. But there are pushes from the other direction too. Calculators that encourage people to do what they want based on the same kind of willfully blindness. They tell women to calculate how much they'll save on dry cleaning without working - without factoring in stuff like the loss of compound interest from 401k contributions plus employer match. Size balances that.

That is really funny. I have never heard of that. Dry cleaning? Is that like $40 - $50 week or something? For those interested in this topic, I really enjoyed Feminine Mistake.

http://www.amazon.com/Feminine-Mistake-Are-Giving-Much/dp/1401303064

[niccig]

Is that they didn't understand or just chose to ignore it b/c it is easier to have the gratification of things we want now? At some point you have to know if you are not paying off your statement each month and carrying a balance that is growing, you headed for a problem.

I think chose to ignore it. It was compounded by buying a house a long-term friend who's a realtor told them was overpriced. Other family members think she wanted the life she had grown up with, and turned a blind eye to reality of their situation. I don't think she would have listened to Suze Orman, she would have changed the channel instead.

[niccig]

Calculators that encourage people to do what they want based on the same kind of willfully blindness. They tell women to calculate how much they'll save on dry cleaning without working - without factoring in stuff like the loss of compound interest from 401k contributions plus employer match. Size balances that.

I fully admit we did not calculate loss of 401K when I stopped working. I hated my job, loathed it, so that was more a factor of me staying home. But now 7 years later, looking at the numbers, ouch to our retirement. I do have a 401K in Australia that I've had since 15, so that does help. I'm back in school, and once done, I will be working for a LONG time to make as much of it up as I can.

[zoestargrove]

Yes, but many people just look at salary bring in, and cost of daycare. I know I didn't consider 401K, promotions or the stress on DH being sole earner. It was easier when business was booming, but it's more difficult for DH now.

I was going to mention the above too. There is definitely more to consider outside of wherther you can make ends meet month to month.

[m448]

I agree with her in examining all aspects of a financial decision as most have already posted in this thread. However when it comes to deciding on staying at home or not you have added intangible factors to consider on both sides. On the side of staying at home there was a great amount of weight on the factor of having a parent stay at home with our kids, as well as a parent who is homeschooling the children. I'm sure that others who chose to work out of the home had intangibles on the side of working outside the home that did not just have to do with money and were factors in their decision.

So yes, while we have less in our 401K than if I had continued to work, it's a decision that DH and I made knowing the cost of having a parent stay with our children and offering a greater quality education than is currently available in our local schools. No one wishes for things like the death of a spouse, illness or divorce - however I cannot plan my immediate future based on tragedies. I can however confront them if they were to happen. There are plenty of tragedies that can still happen were I to have continued working and I'd still have to confront those as well.

eta: This is also not the only choice that our family has made that to others make not make financial sense but there are intangible factors that weigh more heavily than the $$$$. I'm okay with that.

[janine]

I am a WOHM but sometimes I wonder the reverse, the financial cost to working. Not drycleaning, but yes childcare is HUGE and also commuting costs are enormous where we live (just increased 25% to make up for their budget shortfall). Benefit costs are increasing far faster than inflation (not uncommon to have received zero raise this year)as corporations pass costs of healthcare plan onto employees. Then there is the tax hit - the government looks at combined income as if it is one huge income, meanwhile does not take into account cost of living for where one might live and the fact that it is TWO incomes. Then there is the non-financial costs. I had a nice raise last year which made it worth it to continue working, but it is getting tougher to rationalize in an environment where working people are getting hit in the pocket book more and more.

Kind of a tangent though, sorry. SuzyOrman does use common sense - that is part of the appeal. As for credit card debt - I have never had any (other than due to timing of billing cycle). But i know those who do .. and use one CC to pay off the other. As long as they carry a salary, they do not care and their jobs have been secure so far. It's infuriarating to watch especially as they keep buying and attempting one-upmanship.

[Calmegja2]

I don't get suzy orman.

I don't she is either charismatic or particularly financially savvy!!

That this is one of her gems doesn't surprise me. Yes, given that we do not live in a welfare state and child support delinquency is at record highs and alimony has gone the way of the t-rex, it is a good idea to have a back-up plan. Can I be syndicated now? :)

LOL! Exactly!

[niccig]

However when it comes to deciding on staying at home or not you have added intangible factors to consider on both sides.

This is true. My dislike for my job was a very large intangible factor.