More advice from Suze Orman to help you through the economic crisis

Suze Orman is one of the most trusted financial experts in the country and has advice to help you through this economic crisis.  I had a chance to sit down with Suze this week.  

HOUSTON - Suze Orman is one of the most trusted financial experts in the country and has advice to help you through this economic crisis. I had a chance to sit down with Suze this week. Here is part III of our interview with her.

Heather: What would you tell people who have lost their jobs and are really struggling right now?

Suze: "It's very hard to go back and correct past actions, and make your present and future financially speaking financially easier. So I think it's important, Heather, that we all learn the lesson from our past. Because things like this are obviously going to happen again. Not a pandemic, but other things. It happened in 2008.

So the best thing to help us right here and right now is to really think about every penny that we spend. The key to any solid financial foundation is to have at least an 8-month emergency fund. An 8-month emergency fund means you have 8-months of money that you have when all other income has stopped for you to be able to pay your rent or your mortgage or your car payment so you don't have to be afraid."

Heather: We started seeing people taking out a lot of home equity lines of credit and personal loans when this crisis began. What are your thoughts on that?

Suze: "If you were smart and while you had income coming in and you took out a home equity line of credit but you didn’t use it, you were just waiting to see if you ever needed it, then if you need to use for some extra cash and things like that, I don’t have a problem with that at all."

Heather: What do you suggest people be mindful of as we go through this crisis?

Suze: "Not everybody is in a situation where they’re unemployed and they don’t have money. Many are, but many aren't. I just want to say this. Just remember the stock market and economy are very different. The economy is going through a rough time and will continue to. The stock market, if I were you, I would be dollar cost averaging into it. I never would have you sell out of the market as long as you didn’t need it in 5-10 years. So don’t be afraid of the market if you have 5-15 years until you need your money. All of you can do this. You have restraint. You just have to believe.

You can listen to Suze's podcast "Women & Money" here: https://www.suzeorman.com/podcast

Her latest book is The Ultimate Retirement Guide for 50+.