Suze Orman - Oprah Today Re Loan Mods & Fin Advice

[Irish Gal]

Saw Suze O. on Oprah today re financial advice for current times. Her mortgage advice seems outdated and not much help for today's distressed homeowners. She also gave other $$$$ tips which I am sure most of you know. The one thing I wasn't aware of was the new (better) COBRA rules under Stimulus plan for newly laid-off folks. Big savings there. Her advice today:

Distressed homeowner advice:

gave rosy lender/Obama plan advice: same ole uninformed advice– call your lender who wants to help , and Obama’s plan will help those who need it ; a distressed homeowner couple was there to ask scripted loan mod question – they want to walk but Suze said ooooohhhhhhhhh nnnnnnoooooooo ! Your lender’s don’t want your home, and you need to call them, everyone wants to help , blah blah blah and Obama’s plan is going to help, call, call, call blah blah blah; she seems not in favor of anyone walking away if they can get that "magic" loan mod (even if it sucks ); she told the distressed homeowner (couple) they probably qualified for Obama plan and everyone clapped happily ; unfortunately there was no in-depth discussion or advice on the realities on how the gov't / lenders are not really helping anyone with decent, long-term mods.

Her other thoughts:

If 2 paycheck home: live off of 1; bank (I say credit union ) the other check (no and's, if's or but's);

If 1 paycheck home: live off of HALF of it; bank (I say credit union ) the other half (no and’s, if’s or but’s !);

This is good: COBRA health insurance (for those laid off since Sept 08): under new Stimulus plan, only have to pay 35% now (instead of 100%) toward COBRA insurance (for 9 mos?); have 60 days to apply with HR depts.;

Credit cards: only pay minimum now (she used to say pay off all cc debt but now says do not pay off as once you pay off, creditors will close the account down) - that’s already being done to many of us;

In a nutshell: scale your lifestyle down to the bare bones ! BARE BONES !!!! Do you hear me gyrlfriends / boyfriends !!!!!!

Suze predicts econ will go up and down, get worse through 2015. Hold on for the long haul .

Someone needs to clue Suze in on what's really going on re loan mod process with most lenders . I know, I know. It's just t.v. Not real life .

[kat10]

Irish,
Grins and giggles. Oh honey, What is her version of barebones? Mine is going from spending a day at Nordstrams to spending $10 at the local thrift store once a month. Trading an Iced,tall, triple white mocha at $4.30/ea to buying white mocha syrup, espresso cafe, milk and making my own for pennies each.
Dont even get me started with the lender part...if they were working with folks, we wouldn't be on this forum learning everything we can!
I find her voice just about as annoying as Martha Stewarts hands......
cheers!
k

[~Jess~]

Maybe I'm naive, but I'm still hopeful that Obama's plan will actually help ppl. I think it's too soon to tell though since most lenders are still reviewing the guidelines and working on getting their systems set up to put it into action. I applied with GMAC under the new plan and am fervently praying that we'll be approved. I called to followup yesterday and they said that they are literally receiving thousands of applications every day and are really bogged down. They said I should hear back early next week--fingers crossed.

[jcrangel]

I think all of us want to have hope but I watched her show where she said now not to pay the mortgage and where she told that one couple the man was cute . I wanted to see and hear real stories of families getting help how they had done the modify . Right now I 'am getting to the point I need to learn as much for us but also my family the other day a freind Latino has paid all his life his home well he got laid off and went and gave this people $1,500 to save his house he has another where he will lose they got fired too so he can get the payment on that home so he haded them $3,000 for two home now we all know they can not help him he is not working I'm right or wrong just venting Thanks

[Believe]

Originally Posted by Irish Gal

. . . she told the distressed homeowner (couple) they probably qualified for Obama plan and everyone clapped happily . . .

Oh my goodness, Irish Gal, just when I'm at the end of my rope, I read something like this and laugh uncontrollably. You're so damn funny! You should have been able to charm your lender into giving you your house for free! What happened? Thanks for the laugh!