In case you missed it Suze Orman was on the Oprah show yesterday trying to give people tips on how to have a better financial management plan in 2009.

She gave a few tips that we PF bloggers talk about all the time such as having a plan to pay off your credit card debt. Suze noted that in today’s economy the best way to get rid of credit card debt was to pay the higher interest card first. She gave the following scenario:

line up credit cards in order of  highest interest first

pay the minimum on all cards

find extra money to pay to the highest interest card first

when that card is paid off move to the next highest interest card

We call this the snowball method and many personal finance bloggers swear by it. This method really works and it helps you to pay less interest in the long run.

creditcard.jpgOne thing Suze said that I thought was interesting was that you should not have a savings account until all the credit card debt was fully paid off. Generally it is a good idea to start building an emergency fund or at least have some kind of savings but Suze thinks that today’s economy is more geared towards getting the cards paid off.

Suze Orman told a couple that they should not have placed their emergency fund in the stock market. Now while you would think this is common sense…since an emergency fund needs to be easily accessed in case of EMERGENCY …it seems a lot of people had been doing that. Their emergency funds were now worth MUCH less than when they were started and these people have lost money because of the fluctuations in the stock market.

I was able to follow along with most of what Suze was saying because I had already learned it from reading other personal finance blogs. It seems we are on the right track here with this personal finance blogging and I want to thank everyone who has influenced me and contributed to me continuing this blog.

I think Suze needs to speak to some of US!!!!!!!

The main thing she wanted everyone to do was to agree to an action plan for the year. This was a list of three things that everyone should do in order to make 2009 better than 2008 in terms of financial well being.

do not spend money for one day

do not use credit cards for one week

do not eat at restaurants for one month

Now if those are the only three things we need to do I am in good shape or bad shape depending on how you look it it. I can say I am in good shape because I have already been doing those three things, especially since I cut down my WalMart trips to twice a week.

I am in bad shape because I have already been doing those three things so I am not going to see any change in my finances like the people who were not already on the plan.

What do you plan to take from Suze’s show to implement in your financial life this year?