A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a free download of Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan
The book is Suze Orman’s latest (see has also written other popular finance books such as The Road to Wealth
Orman outlines seven “action plans”: credit, retirement investing, saving, spending, real estate, paying for college, and protecting your family. The entire book is a little over 200 pages, and is a very easy read (I finished it over a couple of lunch breaks, and I’m a pretty slow reader). Within each action plan, Orman identifies several common situations/decisions and discusses the most prudent course of action for each. She does a great job in explaining the effects the current crisis is having on consumer credit and the need for families to build emergency funds and eliminate frivilous spending.
I would recommend this book for: those who know they need to get their finances in shape, but don’t know where to start. If you spend too much and save to little, and use debt to pay for it all, this would be an excellent read. It would also be good for those that may describe themselves as less financially literate, with many questions about the current financial situation and what to do next.
I wouldn’t recommend this book for: people who rightfully regard themselves as financially savvy. A lot of the material covered is pretty basic in nature (with the exception of the discussion of the effects on consumer credit, which I think would be enlightening to most readers), and regular readers of personal finance magazines will have likely already been exposed to the subject matter.
