Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228291 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-22
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Talk about an audacious title! But Suze (pronounced "Suzie") Orman means business in this anecdote-rich compendium of tips on marriage, homes and happiness. Orman has made plenty of the mistakes she warns against, like getting a 30-year mortgage instead of a cheaper 15-year one, using Visa cards as magic carpets to calamity and losing thousands in borrowed capital to bum investment advice. Then she became a Merrill Lynch broker and an author capable of selling 10,000 books in 12 minutes on QVC.

Orman's point--in this and her number one best-seller The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom--is that you had better face fiscal facts and avoid fear, denial and the self-fulfilling low expectations the novelist William Wharton called "the Poverty Mind". She comes from a nation of cheque-bouncing, late-fee-incurring, guilty bad planners. How long will it take to pay off that £3,000 Visa bill with minimum payments? Thirty years, you poor, dear fool! What would you gain if you bought stocks instead of your daily latte for 30 years? £165,152! Her book might have been titled The Courage Not to Be a Self-Sabotaging Neurotic.

Orman yearns to enrich your life emotionally, too. If you can't stand discussions of the psychological origins of fiscal decisions, or self-help lingo like "money is attracted to people who are strong and powerful, respectful of it, and open to receiving it", you will want a more nuts-and-bolts adviser. If you want pep talk, true tales of woe and makeovers, and a jolt of a true pop culture phenomenon, Suze is for you. --Tim Appelo

Synopsis
This guide takes you through the financial milestones of life and shows how money can be made to work for you. It deals with such matters as starting again after divorce or death, sorting out one's debts, home-buying, and investing for the future.

From the Publisher
Expanded and updated paperback edition of Suze Orman's groundbreaking bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Everything you think, say and do must be ONE!
If you think, becoming rich and having control over your financial destiny is rocket science and you dread talking, reading or dealing with money (on a daily basis or investing), you MUST read this book.

Suze's gripping observations and facts will help you gain control over your thoughts, emotions and finances and eventually lead you to the road of personal and financial riches.

Admittedly, a substantial amount of information in the book does apply to the U.S financial markets, but the underlying principles are universal i.e strive to educate yourself financially as opposed to plainly 'shoot in the dark' and make someone else rich.

The message of the book that made a big difference to me was 'Everything you think, say and do must be ONE!' It sums up commitment, integrity and courage.

I look forward to reading the new edited version.

Mental Gains for the Emotionally Impoverished
The Courage to Be Rich provides support for overcoming your stalled thinking about money. If you lack confidence about money, have money problems, or have bad feelings about your relationship to money, you will find this book helpful. I have graded the book from the perspective of people in this category.

On the other hand, if you have lots of money and feel good about what you are doing, you will hate this book. This is a self-help guide more along the lines of Unleash the Power Within than it is a financial guide. If you want to add to your perspectives about how to make more money, I suggest that you shift to Rich Dad, Poor Dad instead. For you, The Courage to Be Rich is a one star book.

I appreciate the care and consideration Ms. Orman shows to her readers who may be suffering from emotional overwhelm (such as often occurs during and after a divorce, after a loved one dies, or while buying a first home). Her lists will probably help these anguished souls.

Although money has a lot to do with math, Ms. Orman correctly perceives that it is all about emotion as well. Emotion and math do not mix well, and she provides many useful insights into how to make them work better together.

An experienced and credentialed psychological counselor she is not, however. I suspect this book would have been better with two co-authors, one who is an expert on emotions about money and the other who is an expert on money to supplement Ms. Orman's skill as a communicator.

Ms. Orman is neither, so th is book's treatment is pretty lightweight in both areas. But if it gets you started in dealing with your issues, all the better for you.

The only part that seemed totally inadequate was her writing off of tax issues: You will spend a lot of money on taxes in your life and your choices do have a large impact on how much you will spend. Her advice is to feel good about paying more taxes because your income is higher. By contrast, someone who really wants to be rich needs to compound as much money tax-free or tax-deferred as possible. This book does not begin to address that subject.

The Courage to Be Rich is a better book for dealing with specific life traumas such as divorce, death, and so forth. This book would be a good gift to a friend who has such an event in his or her life.

Her stories are good, because they bring home the message of how crippling too much emotion can be, so we take this problem more seriously.

I think the biggest misconception people have about money is that they do not need to address their feelings about money. In that sense, Ms. Orman is doing a lot for us by reminding us that we have deeply held beliefs and attitudes that deserve being reexamined from time to time. I enjoyed reading the book, although it only added to stockpile of stories, rather than my knowledge.

Maybe the book's obvious appeal for general audiences can best be understood by thinking about the experience of watching a tear-jerker of a movie or television show -- you get a great feeling from knowing that the cataclysm is not happening to you.

If you have heard Ms. Orman speak at length on television (which she does a lot), you can probably safely skip this book.

To get a good return on your time with this review, I suggest that you pick one belief about money that you have where strong emotion comes into play. If that emotion does not serve you well, rephrase what you believe until it does serve you in the right way. Then, you'll have mastered a skill for having more!

Live with rich thoughts and warm emotions!

Mental Gains for the Emotionally Impoverished
The Courage to Be Rich provides support for overcoming your stalled thinking about money. If you lack confidence about money, have money problems, or have bad feelings about your relationship to money, you will find this book helpful. I have graded the book from the perspective of people in this category.

On the other hand, if you have lots of money and feel good about what you are doing, you will hate this book. This is a self-help guide more along the lines of Unleash the Power Within than it is a financial guide. If you want to add to your perspectives about how to make more money, I suggest that you shift to Rich Dad, Poor Dad instead. For you, The Courage to Be Rich is a one star book.

I appreciate the care and consideration Ms. Orman shows to her readers who may be suffering from emotional overwhelm (such as often occurs during and after a divorce, after a loved one dies, or while buying a first home). Her lists will probably help these anguished souls.

Although money has a lot to do with math, Ms. Orman correctly perceives that it is all about emotion as well. Emotion and math do not mix well, and she provides many useful insights into how to make them work better together.

An experienced and credentialed psychological counselor she is not, however. I suspect this book would have been better with two co-authors, one who is an expert on emotions about money and the other who is an expert on money to supplement Ms. Orman's skill as a communicator.

Ms. Orman is neither, so th is book's treatment is pretty lightweight in both areas. But if it gets you started in dealing with your issues, all the better for you.

The only part that seemed totally inadequate was her writing off of tax issues: You will spend a lot of money on taxes in your life and your choices do have a large impact on how much you will spend. Her advice is to feel good about paying more taxes because your income is higher. By contrast, someone who really wants to be rich needs to compound as much money tax-free or tax-deferred as possible. This book does not begin to address that subject.

The Courage to Be Rich is a better book for dealing with specific life traumas such as divorce, death, and so forth. This book would be a good gift to a friend who has such an event in his or her life.

Her stories are good, because they bring home the message of how crippling too much emotion can be, so we take this problem more seriously.

I think the biggest misconception people have about money is that they do not need to address their feelings about money. In that sense, Ms. Orman is doing a lot for us by reminding us that we have deeply held beliefs and attitudes that deserve being reexamined from time to time. I enjoyed reading the book, although it only added to stockpile of stories, rather than my knowledge.

Maybe the book's obvious appeal for general audiences can best be understood by thinking about the experience of watching a tear-jerker of a movie or television show -- you get a great feeling from knowing that the cataclysm is not happening to you.

If you have heard Ms. Orman speak at length on television (which she does a lot), you can probably safely skip this book.

To get a good return on your time with this review, I suggest that you pick one belief about money that you have where strong emotion comes into play. If that emotion does not serve you well, rephrase what you believe until it does serve you in the right way. Then, you'll have mastered a skill for having more!

Live with rich thoughts and warm emotions!