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Suze Orman's non-average spending habits: a defense

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I normally love Chuck Jaffe's columns for Marketwatch. I've mentioned them several times on BloggingStocks, and I think he provides some of the smartest commentary on investing, often exposing stuff that other journalists won't touch. However, I strongly disagree with his column about Suze Orman, which appeared Monday morning.

His comments come on the heels of Suze Orman's interview with the New York Times. In addition to coming out in the interview, she made some comments about her own personal financial situation which, admittedly, came across as arrogant:

Do you enjoy spending money? Oh, yes. My greatest pleasure is still flying private. I spend between $300,000 to $500,000, depending on my year, on flying private.

What do you do with the rest of your money? Save it and build it in municipal bonds. I buy zero-coupon municipal bonds, and all the bonds I buy are triple-A-rated and insured so that even if the city goes under, I get my money. I take a little lower interest rate to make sure my bonds are 100 percent safe and sound.

Do you play the stock market at all? I have a million dollars in the stock market, because if I lose a million dollars, I don't personally care.

While this may hurt her populist image (kind of like finding out about anti-global warming crusader Al Gore's sky-high electric bill), Chuck Jaffe takes it a step further. According to the headline on his piece: "The multimillionaire financial-advice star's investment plan may work for her -- but it wouldn't make sense for most of her devotees."

Well no kidding. But that's sort of like saying that people shouldn't take exercise tips from Kathy Smith because she's in better shape than they are. Suze Orman offers good advice on personal finance and the fact that her situation makes her financial goals different from the average person doesn't detract from the strength of her wisdom. With a book like The Money Book for Young, Fabulous, and Broke, Suze provided strong, down-to-earth advice for a group badly in need of it.

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Last updated: November 10, 2009: 03:22 PM

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