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Suze Orman's net worth:
As of May 6, 2025, Suze Orman’s net worth is estimated to be $75 million.1
Well-known television personality, podcast host and author Suze Orman has made a fortune teaching the average person how to manage their finances. The media-savvy financial advisor became one of the most listened-to personal finance voices in America, building a brand that’s estimated to be worth $75 million.2
How did Suze Orman make her fortune?
Suze Orman made millions turning her financial expertise into a brand. At the beginning of 1998, Orman, a then little-known financial advisor with a passion for helping ordinary people and a book called “You’ve Earned It, Don’t Lose It: Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make When You Retire,” appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the spiritual side of divorce. Her appearance was a huge hit.3 Orman’s charisma and relatability resonated with the audience, marking the beginning of a wildly successful career in the media as a personal finance expert.
Orman leveraged her newfound popularity, launching nine consecutive New York Times bestsellers and a television career, the launch of online courses, a podcast, and branded products she regularly endorses, and speaking engagements at universities, conferences, and events.4
Over the years, Orman’s efforts to cash in on her popularity as a trusted personal finance expert continued to boost her public profile and produce lucrative regular income streams. This income, together with a portfolio of property, turned her into a multimillionaire.
Suze Orman’s holdings
Suze Orman doesn’t publicly disclose her investment portfolio, presumably because doing so would be considered unethical and hinder her reputation for providing impartial financial advice. That said, she has mentioned several investments and sectors she likes, which give us a rough idea of the kind of assets she rates and potentially owns herself.
Orman particularly seems to value dividend stocks. On several occasions, she spoke of her appreciation for big-name companies with strong brand recognition that offer stability during market fluctuations and regularly share their reliable profits with shareholders. Examples she used in the past include Pfizer and Whirlpool.5
Orman has also mentioned her preference for cheap exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that seek to replicate the performance of a large segment of the stock market over mutual funds that try to beat the market by picking a handful of stocks in it.6
Her personal recommendations include:
- The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, which invests in the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.
- The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which invests more broadly in the entire U.S. stock market.7
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Salary info
Suze Orman doesn’t receive a traditional salary, and instead generates her income from various sources. These include:
- Book royalties
- Advertising from her popular Women & Money podcast
- Products such as the Will and Trust Kit and Identity Theft Kit
- Online courses
- Endorsing other companies’ products
- Contracts to appear on television and in the media
- Income and value appreciation from personal investments, including real estate
- Offering personalized financial advice through her financial advisory website, suzeorman.com
- Speaking engagements, which reportedly fetch anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 per event
While Orman’s income isn’t publicly available, her opinions, financial strategies and appearances are highly sought-after, suggesting solid earnings of her own.
Key milestones in career
Orman’s path to success started as a slow journey that led her through plenty of highs as well as some lows. Here are some of the most noteworthy moments in her career.
- 1. Bad luck piqued her interest in finance. In 1980 while working as a waitress, Orman decided she wanted to open a restaurant. She borrowed money from friends toward this goal, but a stockbroker lost it with a series of bad investments. This unfortunate experience piqued Orman’s interest in finance and managing money.8
- 2. Building expertise as a financial advisor. Orman entered a Merrill Lynch stockbroker training program and stood out for seeking to help ordinary people rather than the wealthy, getting to know clients and what makes them tick before making recommendations. In these years, she built the expertise that would later make her famous.9
- 3. The Oprah Effect. In January 1998, Orman appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and won over millions of Americans with her relatable personality, no-nonsense approach to saving and spending, and on-screen charisma.10
- 4. Leveraging her newfound fame. Orman recognized that her straightforward and relatable style of offering financial advice resonated with the nation and capitalized by writing books, building a career in television, hosting a podcast, and finding various other ways to grow her popularity and monetize it.11
Investment strategies
Orman’s investment philosophy is fairly conventional. She’s a big believer in buying and holding, spreading risk across numerous investments, and dollar-cost averaging, which involves automatically investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals.12
According to Orman, you shouldn’t invest money you’ll need within the next five to 10 years. Any money invested should be treated as untouchable for at least that time frame. Her belief is that time in the market is the best way to build wealth. Generally speaking, investments should be identified at the onset and then consistently funded for many years unless the original reason for buying or the investor’s needs change.13
Which kind of investments does she advise buying? Orman prefers portfolio diversification: spreading investments across sectors and assets rather than chasing big gains. That means owning a mixture of stocks, bonds, and cash, with the exact breakdown depending on the investors’ age, appetite for risk, and goals.14
Like many other experts in the field, Orman also advises against buying individual stocks. Her preferred approach is to take advantage of the fact that asset prices tend to rise over time and that few succeed in beating the market by investing in broad, low-cost index funds.
About Suze Orman: Personal life and history
- Age: 73.
- Title: Financial advisor, author, speaker, podcast host, and television personality.
- Income source: Financial advice, book sales, television appearances, speaking engagements, financial products and endorsements, podcasts, investments and courses.
- Location: The Bahamas.
Orman was born June 5, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois, to Jewish parents of Russian and Romanian origin with limited economic means.
It took her a while to find her calling in finance. She initially got a degree in social work, then moved to California, became a waitress, and dreamed of opening a restaurant. Had the stockbroker she entrusted to help her fund the restaurant not made a series of bad investments, she might still be in the hospitality industry today.16
Orman’s financial advice is based on her personal experiences. She went from being broke to wealthy and strives to help people from similar backgrounds, which has helped increase her popularity.
While Orman draws on personal experiences when giving advice, she likes to keep her personal affairs out of the spotlight. Little is known about her personal life other than claims that she practices what she preaches, which means not eating out and living lavishly, is married to Kathy Travis, and lives on a private island in the Bahamas.
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Daniel Liberto
Freelance contributor
Daniel Liberto is a financial journalist with over 10 years of experience covering markets, investing, and the economy. He writes for global publications and specializes in making complex financial topics clear and accessible to all readers.
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