The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman Conclusion
This article is the conclusion to a multi-part review of The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman. If you missed the first parts of the review, you can read them here first:
- Suze Orman The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom Book Review Part 1
- Suze Orman The 9 Steps To Financial Freedom Book Review Part 2
- The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman Part 3
Orman begins the final section of the book with a quote from her grandfather. He said these words to her before he passed on:
Suze, listen. They can take your money, they can take your business, they can take your family, they can even take your mind. The one thing they can never take,” he would say, “is your heart. And you must grow up valuing your own heart. Love life for what you can give it, Suze, and don’t get bitter over what it will take from you.”
Who are they people in this life you truly love and cherish? What are the things you value most? What do you think, deep down inside is the key to your freedom? Do you really think the answer is something as simple as money?
It is definitely true that you can lose everything in life – your money, your home, your job, even, as Mrs. Orman’s grandfather says – your mind. You heart and your spirit though, they stay with you till the end. Life really is what you make of it, and the meaning of life certainly is not money.
Orman continues this section with the 7th step to financial freedom.
Step 7: Being Open to Receive All That You Are Meant To Have
This chapter was a little odd, but I did like the following excerpt:
What I learned from the parrot seller:
I was in Mexico once and there was a merchant at a market who had many parrots for sale. They were just sitting on perches. None of them in cages, none flying away. I was fascinated by the fact that none of them were even trying to escape. I asked the merchant, “Do these birds love you so much they have no desire to fly away?”
He laughed. “No,” he said. “I had to train them to think their perches mean safety and security. When they come to think this they naturally wrap their claws tightly around the perch and don’t want to release it. They keep themselves confined, as if they’ve forgotten they know how to fly.”
“Was this hard to do?” I asked.
“with the little birds it’s very hard, sometimes even impossible. It’s easy with the large birds. ”
Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head. We are, I thought, just like those poor parrots. We’ve all been taught to clutch our money as tightly as we can, as if our money is the perch of our safety and security. Justlike those parrots, we have all forgotten how free we really are – with or without the perch. The more afraid we are, the tighter we hold on, and the more we have trapped ourselves.
When I realized this, I asked the merchant how he would go about “Un-teaching” this behavior. “Easy,” he said. “You just show them how to release their grip, and then they can fly as free as they want.”
Easy for the parrots, maybe, but how, I wondered, do we go about releasing our own grip on money?
I do believe that the older we get, the more we tend to cling to our money as a form of security. We also cling to our homes, and our children. The hard truth is, there really is no security – as millions of pre-retirees who have just watched their portfolios plummet can attest. That’s one reason that diversification is so essential. You cannot really ensure anything. The best you can do is hedge your bets and understand that you have to “let go and fly” as Orman puts it.
We can “fly” an be successful in lean times, and times of plenty because it’s our spirit that picks up the tab. Move on and move up as the saying goes.
Orman goes on to talk about the life cycles of money and the necessity of making donations even in times when you have very little.
Money flows through our lives just like water – at times plentiful, at times a trickle. I believe that each one of us is, in effect, a glass, and that we can hold only so much; after that, the water -or the money – just goes down the drain. Some of us are larger glasses, some of us are smaller, but we all have the capacity to receive plenty more than we need if we allow it. When you make an offering the glass will be filled again and again and again.
I knew I always felt better right after I made an offering -stronger, worthier, more powerful. And after a while I began to believe that it was no coincidence that after I made such an offering, more money would always begin to flow my way.
I do believe that it is essential to donate money, though I am sometimes guilty of not doing it! I definitely agree with Orman tht I feel like a better person when I give. As soon as I donate anything – whether it’s one dollar or $100, I feel richer, and happier, and better.
Step 8: Understanding The Ebb and Flow of The Money Cycle
With the 8th step to financial freedom Orman continues her explanation of the greater cycles of money.
It is so important to learn to accept that your own money will always have it’s ups and downs. No matter how carefully you plan – even if you do every financial thing right – money, like every other living thing, isn’t always going to behave in ways you can predict.
Ok, I do have trouble visualizing money as a living breathing thing. This is a concept that Orman revisits several times throughout her book and I just disagree. My money is a tool, just like a shovel or a car. It’s whole purpose is to accomplish my goals. I do not think of it as my friend, and I do not personify it and give it a spirit.
Money does however, undeniable have cycles. Just like the stock market or the seasons. And those cycles can be predicted to a certain degree if you know what the signs are. (Got laid off?….it’s a sign you will have less money…Got a promotion? It’s a sign you will have more!)
Orman continues with a unique quote about why you should choose to always see the glass as half full.
Second – and for some people this may be more difficult to do than anything else I have told you so far – you must believe that everything that happens is positive, if you are willing to let it be.
I know some of you are going to say, “Suze, How can it be a positive thing if my husband leaves me and cleans out my bank account?” “How can it be a positive thing if I lose all my savings in a stock market crash?” Please understand, I am not saying such events won’t be tragic and painful; I have been through some of them myself, and I know how hard they can be. But I also have learned that they can, if we are open to them, teach us lessons and give us gifts that we would never have found at more comfortable times. Things that seem almost unbearable as they’re happening to you can even, in the long run, lead to riches you never imagined.
This is very true in my opinion. All of the difficulties in my life have had silver linings, sometimes I just had to look harder than others. Having Pollyana state of mind isn’t a bad thing, but it can be a bit unrealistic. I think that being able to look at things they way they actually are – good or bad – is what allows us to make the best decisions with out finances.
Step 9: Recognizing True Wealth
For the final section of the book, Orman spends some time talking about the true meaning of wealth. And, she concludes that it isn’t money.
Now it is time to answer the question, What is true wealth, true financial freedom? This question is the real bottom line of life and each one of us must address it, regardless of the bottom line that shows up each month on our bank statements. Why? Because the quality of our lives does not depend only on how we accumulate, save, and spend our money. True financial freedom lies in defining ourselves by who and what we are, not by what we do or do not have. You are the person you are right now. We cannot measure our self worth by our net worth.
Not measuring your self worth by your net worth is trite, but it is true. There is more to each of us than our money, and I don’t think there is a person out there who doesn’t know that.
Conclusion:
This book gets mixed reviews from me. I wish that I could wholeheartedly give it a thumbs up, but I can’t. The book as a whole is filled with so much pseudo-psychobabble that I wanted to tear it up on occasion. The case studies she gives are ludicrous and overblown. Orman is not a psychologist, but she is attempting to be one in this book. That’s the bad stuff.
I would however recommend ing this book (or better yet grabbing it from the library) simply because of the sections where she covers living wills, trusts, and how to begin investing for retirement. Those sections are worth the entire price of the book because they walk you through the topics step by step in plain language. I will use those sections as I work through my own estate planning later this year.
Also, the book at times is heartfelt. Especially when Orman is giving examples of her own life. I very much enjoyed reading those parts.
How about you? Have you read this book? Do you plan to read it? Tell me what you think in the comments below!
Have a question for us? Leave a comment below!
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