Suze Orman

Suze Orman was born on June 5, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father worked in a chicken factory while her mother worked as a secretary for a local rabbi. Her family constantly struggled with the financial issues while she was growing up.

Orman had a bit of a difficult childhood, mostly owing to her speech impediment. She studied social work at University of Illinois but did not finish her studies and instead went on a tour of America with her friends.

She worked for seven years at the Buttercup Bakery in California and dreamt about owning a restaurant. Some of the customers there at the bakery helped Orman to save up money for her restaurant.

In 1980, Orman’s longtime customer, Fred Hasbrook, gave her a check for $2000, contributing money towards her dream of opening a restaurant of her own. Not only this, he asked other customers to do the same and she saved $50,000.

Orman did not know much about managing finances and she ended up taking her money to Merrill Lynch. A broker convinced her that she should opt for making easy money and she ended up losing all her finances.

The incident affected Orman in a way that she started to study finance by reading Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. She applied for the job of a broker in the same company, Merrill Lynch.

While getting trained, she got to know that the broker who dealt with her before broke some of company laws and she sued Merrill Lynch. The company decided to compensate her and settled the case outside the court.

She left Merrill Lynch after a few years and joined Prudential Bache Securities. In 1987, she started her own company, Suze Orman Financial Group, in California. She remained at the directorial position in the firm for good 10 years.

Orman is most famous for her show ‘The Suze Orman Show’ which aired in 2003 and made her a household name. She became so popular with the show that she got opportunities to appear on other major shows on TV and radio.