Orman - The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom

ALSO BY SUZE ORMAN

Youve Earned It, Dont Lose It

Suze Ormans Financial Guidebook

The Courage to Be Rich

The Road to Wealth

The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life

The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke

Women & Money

Suze Ormans Action Plan

The Money Class

Look back over the past fifteen years and the one constant is change. Our personal lives, as well as the world we step out into each day, may bear very little resemblance to where we were, who we were, and what we thought back then. Change isnt just inevitable, the degree of evolution can at times be breathtaking.

And yet if there is one profound lesson I have learned over these past years, it is that deep down what you want from your life, and what you may be struggling to make of your life, has not changed at all. I didnt have a cable television show fifteen years ago, nor were you and I able to converse through Twitter. But the same questions I field today on my show, or when you send me a tweet or e-mail that I field on my iPhone and iPadtalk about two very big changes!are exactly the same questions my clients and I were working through together fifteen years ago when I was a certified financial planner and wrote this book.

To be sure, the investment vehicles or events that propel you to seek out my advice are very different. Back then we were just beginning to get comfortable with mutual funds; now we have next-generation exchange-traded funds. Back then many of you came to me for advice on how best to handle a pension distribution. Today very few of you working in the private sector have a pension; your retirement is instead going to rely on how well (and how much) you manage to save in your 401(k) and IRA accounts. Back then we had yet to experience the Internet bubble and the real estate bubble. And I doubt that any of us could have envisioned fifteen years ago the magnitude of the financial crisis that began in 2008 and will be reverberating through our lives for years to come.

But for all that change, you are still striving for the same elusive goal that brought so many to The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom all those years ago: You want to stop worrying about money. You want to know deep down in every molecule of your being that you are going to be okaythat you and your loved ones will not be weighed down by the pressure and anxiety of not having enough, or not being in control of your money.

Those are the very issues that compelled me to first write The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom. And though I have gone on to write eight more books in the intervening years, each of them overflowing with detailed financial advice, it is remarkable how The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom continues to resonate for me, both personally and as the touchstone for all the advice I give today.