Women And Money
     – By Suze Orman

A mere 21 words might not encapsulate everything that happened, however, so on we go.  And at this point, I’ll go ahead and share the fact that I’ve never watched more than 15 minutes of Oprah’s show, so a firsthand perspective on at least one part of this phenomenon will be a little difficult to provide.

Ah, well.  In any case, Hitwise’s Heather Dougherty writes, "[Suze] Orman’s latest book ‘Women and Money’ was available as a free download on Oprah.com for 33 hours.  The result?  A 36 month high in market share of visits to Oprah.com with a jump of 420% from the previous day.  Traffic remained strong on Feb. 14th while the download was still available and reached the 2nd highest level in the past 3 years."

So Oprah obviously got something out of the promotion, and for Orman, there was a huge amount of publicity.  Also, Orman’s book is currently ranked seventeenth in sales among Amazon’s books, so its brief price of "zero" doesn’t seem to have hurt her income much.

Whether you’re a site owner or a person with a product to peddle, it’s unlikely your influence approaches that of either Oprah or Orman.  Still, the results they achieved may be applicable in other situations, and in any case, the cult of Oprah has something new to cheer about.

Suze Orman At eBay Live!

"[People] are spending money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know or don’t even like," she said, prepping the crowd for a little financial wizardry.

Orman covered so many topics in the short time she spoke, we compiled a list of tips you can use a ready-reference for bettering your financial situation.

Orman’s Personal Financial Tips and Goals

Goal: Credit score above 760; If you are in credit card debt and your employer doesn’t match your 401(k), redirect that money toward paying off your credit cards. Your FICO score will rise and benefit you more in the long run.

Tip: Have at least a 6-8 month emergency plan fund to finance yourself during times of trouble.

Goal: Home ownership; Owning a home will be the best investment of your life. Most homes appreciate on average about 4% a year.

Tip: Add a revocable living trust (RLT) to your will.

Tip: Variable, universal, and whole life insurance are not good options. Look into term life insurance as you only need it until your youngest child is about 22 years old. Never leave a child under 18 as the beneficiary.

Tip: A Roth IRA is 10 times better than a 401(k) or any other type of plan out there.

Tip: If you don’t need money right away (10 years or so) invest in mutual funds instead of individual funds.