As Suze Orman gets us to the half way mark of OWN’s run of America’s Money Class, we are reminded of the BIG CASH PRIZE at the end of class  and for a few moments of how to spend $50,000 that would be in line with all of the lessons that Suze has taught us so far… Pulling myself back from the brief distraction, it was time to settle in to the night and to start taking in the lessons.  Ready or not, Suze’s going to give it to us straight.  The third day of lessons and notes are below for Suze Orman’s America’s Money Class.  They just may change your life…

Her are my classroom notes:

Case Study – Christine’s Story. Suze starts the 3rd class with Christine’s story.  In 2009, she found out that she had lost over $550,000 of her money with a man that her family had been investing with for many years. “Within 24 hours, I became pennyless,” she says.  Struggling to find her way in the world, she’s been shutting down and shutting off.  Her two daughters wrote to Suze to ask her for help.  Here are the questions that Suze proposes:  How do I start over when my life savings is stolen? How do I move on?  To Christing, it feels like she has lost her life because she lost her money.  But one of her girls tell Suze, “It feels like I lost my mom.  Here are Suze’s thoughts on handling a situation like this. 

• “Sometimes we have to suffer the loss of money to get the biggest gain of our life.” – Suze (Really, it can be used in any situation where money is the cause of anger or loss of who you are. Look for the lessons and don’t let it hold you back from living.)
• Suze tells Christine, “Choose family. You are not choosing your girls.  You are choosing to mourn the loss of your money and lose your girls at the same time.  You haven’t lost your house.  You haven’t been given the sentence that you have 6 months to live.  You haven’t lost the things that matter in life.  You’ve just lost your way.
• Don’t let the loss of money take more from you that just money.  
• No matter what your loss, you have to put yourself back together and move forward.  Get a plan and go through the motions until you get through it.  You CAN survive anything.
• Suze tells Christine, “To go to work, you need energy. To get energy, you need movement,” and prescribes her vigorous exercise 1 hour a day, 7 days a week.  “As soon as you get your energy back, you will get moving.  Your life will change.”  (THIS is a lesson for anyone feeling stuck!)
• “You have to forgive and move on with your life. You can’t go on in our lives holding on to what was.  You have to look forward.” – Suze Orman
• “I don’t believe in any of us being victim to our circumstances. I believe from the bottom of my heart that we create the circumstances that we are in. You have to take responsibility…you have to understand it’s just not him.”- Suze Orman
• Money Class Lessons on Setting Up Investment Accounts:   1.  You are never to make checks payable to anybody buy a major brokerage firm or bank.  That’s the first key that they are a con person.  2.  Go online and check your statement from the firm.  Not from an email link but to the firm’s URL.  Suggestion:  Do not work with anybody who is not connected to a major firm. 
• Exercise every single day.
• Stop letting other people take care of you. 
• Go out and find a job or create a job on  your own.
• Take control of your life.
• Find someone to keep you honest about how you are doing:  Talk every day with your girls on “how am i doing?”  Keep her honest and give her help.
• Action Plan:  Exercise. Get a Job. Take Control of your life.  Talk with your girls.

Case Study:  Erica. –  How do we stop spending everything that we make? This couple talks about not have savings, retirement, education funds for their kids.  They buy everything they want, need and don’t need and are not very different than many other people in the world.  Suze is here to help them get a reality check  of what they are doing to their lives and future. 

• Don’t spend more money than you bring in.
• Watch how much money you are spending when you go out to  eat.  You may be surprised.
• Kids – Just because you go to school doesn’t mean you will be able to get a job.  There are millions out there that have degrees and don’t have jobs.
• “Would you rather… have the stuff you don’t use or take the money?” – Suze
• “Only purchase needs…not wants.” – Suze
• “Things don’t make you.  You make the things.  You don’t need a whole lot of stuff.  Don’t let these things define you.” – Suze
• Action Plan – No shopping for 3 months.  No eating out for 1 month.  No manicures or pedicures for 2 months.  Only purchase needs not wants.

Case Study:  Suze introduces us to Daine, a single mom and military veteran who found herself coming back from deployment only to have her hours cut in half when she returned home because of budget cuts and in turn, losing half her income.  With a passion for photography, this mom is just looking for how she is going to survive.  As she looks for a full time job, she asks Suze, “How do i find a job?”

• If you want a job, you have to walk in that room and be powerful.  Know who you are and know why you should get it.
• To get money coming in,  you should persue your job. Remember…”A job is not a career. A career is a passion.” – Suze Orman. 
• Suze gives us a couple of important reminders…what do you do when you become unemployed? – “The most important thing to do when you lose your job is to cut back on every possible expense. You want your emergency fund to last you.” – Suze
• Don’t make this BIG mistake. – DO NOT take money from a retirement account. Money in your retirement account is protected from bankruptcy. DO NOT TOUCH THIS MONEY.
• Special Surprise:  Jerry Avenaim – World famous photographer in the audience who offered training to Diane.  “To do your passion you need training.  You have to know what you are doing. ” Suze and America’s Money Class set up with a 1:1 private instruction to give her the tools that she needs to pursue her passion.  Also, she gets to shadow him for the day on his next celebrity cover shoot…talk about getting hands on training!  Great luck to you Diane! 

Audience Q&A and the lessons from it:

• Suze asks kids…”What did you get last year for your birthday?”  None could remember. That tells me, go for the cheaper gift.  Seriously.
• Suze on Kids and Allowance:  “Do you give your children an allowance?”  Suze says that if you do, you are teaching your kids entitlement.   They are entitled to money, even if they don’t do anything for it.  Suze suggests that a better lesson to give them is “work pay.”  Here is how Suze’s Work Pay system works:  They should have to do some things and not get paid for it.  There are household chores that you do because you are part of the house.  You clean your room.  You help out with the housework.  Those are normal things you do and should NOT get paid for.  But…there are jobs that they could get paid to do.  Have a job board.  Put up jobs and how much they would get for each one.  $3 for mopping the kitchen.  $5 for doing the laundry.  $10 for washing the car….etc… Teach them that they can work to get money.  Like in the real world, they have to start with the $3 jobs…and work their way up to the higher priced items. You are to evaluate the work and decide if they can get paid for it. You are teaching them valuable lessons about how the world works and how to value their own work and what they do. Teach your kids a work ethic. They should earn “work-pay” not get an allowance.
• Suze on quitting your job because you don’t like it:  Suze asks, “Can you change your attitude before you change your job?  What can you do to change that around? Maybe you are powerful enough to change everything around you?”  Think twice before quitting a job…there are 14 million people who are unemployed who would love a job to hate.  Then…You cannot leave a job unless you have a 16 month emergency fund.  It may take 16 – 24 months to find another job in this market.  Apprecaite that you have a job and try to change how you feel about it before you leave the job.

This weeks Class Action Plans:

• Only make checks payable to a bank or financial institution.  Don’t make investment checks payable to a direct person. 
• Talk to your family about finances
• Download Suze Orman’s “Identy Theft Program” for free via www.Oprah.com
• Visit Suze’s Digital classroom. 

See you next Monday for class!  Bring your notebook…