Ode to Suze Orman

So I ran into #SuzeOrman’s wisdom in my early thirties – after having made a few financial mistakes.

However, through good health and strength and a pretty good Executive Management Career, I was able to follow the Guru’s advice and build up that 6 to 8 month cushion and then some, never thinking I would actually need it since I was pretty stable in my career.

Enter Coronavirus/ Covid-19/#2020yearof the lockdown!

I was one of the earliest casualties being in the Retail sector, suddenly finding myself without any income whatsoever and in an impossible situation as a single mother with a special needs teenage boy. This situation was so sudden that it left me reeling for a couple weeks.

Breathe….Pray…..

Time to take stock…ok. I have savings…damn, but the savings was not for this….to pay rent and utilities and the food bill…but for how long?? I worked out my basic expenses…thanks to the lockdown, all the other social expenses normally incurred disappeared and my home cooking abilities brought our food bill down to bare minimum.

Suze Orman’s words rang in my ear. Ok. You are more than ok for 6 to 8 months.

Another piece of Wisdom which was timed impeccably thank to the Grace of God, was a recent nugget about questioning whether a mortgage is the right choice for me.

For a little over 2 years, I had been re-evaluating the “real estate is the best investment” argument as the economy slowly chugged downhill and the “gurus” pontificated on market cycles and other debates that didn’t change the price of bread for me.

Enter an episode of Suze Orman where she answered a viewer’s question about whether it was better to rent or take on a mortgage. The factors she based the decision on created my AHA!!! Moment.

While taking on a mortgage to create an appreciable asset was the Gold Standard, the burst of the Housing bubble left so many home owners under water that recovery was impossible. For the average middle class earner, investing in a mortgage vs renting depended on the answers to questions such as:

Do you envision a long term family home

Will you live in the same place virtually forever (this way the equity will build long term)

Or Do you like to move around and change location/ residence?

Do you intend to move overseas at any point in the future

Is it cheaper for you to rent than to service a mortgage? (allowing you to have more disposable cash to save/ invest)

Well, seeing that it’s been only myself and my son for the last 15 years, and my penchant for wanderlust, my internal evaluation answered my years of burning doubts. I promptly placed my house on the market in 2019, and closed on a sale at the end of January 2020….Just as Covid-19 reared its head. Impeccable timing??? Definitely a God given miracle and a touch of Suze Orman!

So Covid-19 is not nearly over yet, but thanks to Suze Orman whose golden nuggets of advice spoke to me a real person, I am able to continue making my way through this “New Normal” and carving out a path that will take my son and I into the next 5 years.

Stay tuned for “How Covid-19 changed my special needs teen’s approach to learning…and why he will never turn back!”

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