'Debt makes you powerless'

To an audience accustomed to thinking in the sky, famed financial guru Suze Orman gave grounding advice Sunday during a special program at Beale Air Force Base.

"You do it with perfection," she told the 300 people at the base's theater, referring to the airmen and reserve airmen's skill at maintaining, flying and directing military aircraft. "But you don't give that same kind of attention and involvement to your finances."

Consumers — in the military or otherwise — need to focus on reducing their debt, putting money away for retirement, and having a financial reserve that would last eight months in an emergency, she said.

The program, which lasted about an hour, mostly consisted of questions from attendees on financial topics such as annuities, mortgages and credit cards.

Orman, known both for her appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show and her own financial advice show on CNBC, did not take media questions during the appearance.

To her audience, she repeatedly emph sized the need for people to get what she called financial freedom: no debt, and secure for the future.

"The law of money goes like this: Power attracts money. Powerlessness repels it," she said. "Debt makes you powerless."

Clad in a black bomber jacket, Orman wasn't afraid to use a sharp tongue, at various points suggesting far more people in the audience had made foolish financial decisions than were willing to admit it.

Plumas Lake resident Senior Airman Marques Moore, 22, said before the program he thought Orman's advice would be useful for an enlistee, civilian or reserve like him.

"Everyone has to be aware of their own financial situation," Moore said. "You have to be aware of the stock market and credit cards, because that's all important."

Moore himself was put on the spot, when he stood up after Orman asked if any soldiers had recently reduced what they paid into their military life insurance policy to save about $15 a month — a penny-wise, pound-foolish move, she declared, because the insurance payout would be far less.

He explained that he had no beneficiaries who would be destitute if he died.

"Here's the thing: he's correct," Orman said after Moore explained his situation. "He doesn't need it. If he dies, big deal."

On other financial topics, Orman took a more strident tone. Anyone living in California should have both a will and a living revocable trust with an incapacity clause, she said, to avoid probate court and unforeseen problems.

And for those worried about their real estate's value, or buying in, Orman said a shrewd assessment of reality has to be a factor.

Home values are unlikely to reach the levels they did just a few years ago anytime soon, she said, citing the example of homeowners in Tampa who have $700,000 mortgages on $125,000 homes.

"They need you more than you need them," she said of real estate brokers trying to sell homes. And because values are so depressed, she said, a short sell or foreclosure is a viable option in some cases.

Orman, who waived her speaking fee for Sunday's event, said she'd spoke at many air bases because of a long friendship she'd had with someone currently stationed at Beale.

"If you have what it takes to protect this world, which you do, don't tell me you don't have what it takes to take care of your own finances," Orman said at the end of her program.

Master Sgt. Steve Moulton, a Yuba City native who lives in Citrus Heights, said he learned a lot in Orman's discussion.

"The part about the living trusts was huge," he said. "It's too bad her time was so short."

Shortly before she ended, Orman she'd have spoke longer. "But you know military time," she said, to knowing laughs.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@ appealdemocrat.com.