I’m a huge fan of Suze Orman for obvious reasons, but most of all because she gives clear and practical advice when it comes to personal finance.  Today’s article deals with Suze Orman’s 5 Smart Money Moves and she introduces the “Save YourSelf Movement”.  Im a huge fan because I think now is the time to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and put your own plan in place.

Suze says:

“You have got to get on what I’m calling the ‘save yourself movement.’ Each and every one of you has to have your own personal financial stimulus action plan.”

1:  Live on Half

If you live in a two-income household, bank one paycheck. If there is just one income, put 50 percent in savings. By doing it now, you not only learn how to live on less, but also save a significant sum of money.

I plan to start doing this as of May 1st.  The only problem being that we committed to building a deck on our home and Im starting to rethink that plan.  Maybe it’s the thought of laying out cash for a deck during a recession but in the long run it does add value to the house.  But then again the cash could come in handy in building our savings.  We could start in June but you know, cash is king, NOW.  Decisions, decisions.

We’ve been living on my husband’s income well for the majority of our marriage so it shouldn’t be hard at all.   It’s all about discipline and we just have to shovel my checks straight to the savings account without thinking about it.

2: Stash Your Cash

Cash is king.  “If all you currently have is a very small emergency fund and you have unpaid credit card debt, …you are only to pay the minimum amount due on your credit cards,” she told Oprah. “Stash the cash till you have at least an eight-month emergency fund.” Meanwhile, don’t use the cards. Pay for everything in cash.

It’s funny how mindsets change with a recession in full gear.  Just 1-2 months ago I blogged about paying down ALL of our debt by June and I’ve since changed my mind about it.  Truthfully I’m not sure where to go with it.  If we pay down all of our debt with our savings then we will be with a very small EFund but debt free.  Still, what happens in case we lose our income?  Right now Im going to work on building towards  one year in our EFund and then pay everything down with the excess.

3: Make the Stimulus Package Work for You

If you’ve lost your job and qualify for COBRA health coverage, the federal government will subsidize your premium. For nine months, you pay just 35 percent of the monthly premium; however, after nine months, you must pay the full 100 percent of the premium. This coverage is available to anyone who was laid off between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 as long as your company provides COBRA.

If you’re a first-time homebuyer purchasing a house in 2009, you qualify for an $8,000 tax credit as long as you meet the income requirement of no more than $75,000 in adjusted gross income for singles and $150,000 in adjusted gross income for married couples who file jointly. That means if you owe $10,000 on your taxes, you’ll only pay $2,000.

None of this applies to us but take note if you’re a first time home buyer or lost your job recently and in need of health coverage.

4: Make Your Home Affordable

…the Home Affordable Modification program, helps families who are dangerously close to foreclosure so they can keep their homes and reduce their monthly payments.

The second part of the plan, the Home Affordable Refinance program is for people who are not in danger of losing their homes but want to refinance to lower their mortgage payments. If you qualify, you can refinance even if your home has lost value. To qualify, your mortgage must be backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. To see if you qualify for either of these programs, go to this Web site: MakingHomeAffordable.gov.

It would be nice to have lower mortgage payments, especially now so that we can stash more cash/and/or pay down debt.  This is something we have to look into in order to determine if we qualify.

5: Look at What You Have, Not What You Had

Thou shalt not covet what thou once had. Be grateful for what you have now and try not to look back on the life and wealth you have lost. “If you continuously look in the rearview mirror while you’re going forward, you’re going to get in an accident,” warns Orman. “And the victim of that accident is going to be you.  Being grateful; today is a blessing. “When you are grateful–when you can see what you have–you unlock blessings to flow in your life,” she told Oprah.

This is perhaps her best advice, especially now.  Many people have lost everything and/or their lifestyles have changed to accommodate less than ideal circumstances.  Still, take this time to realize what you do have and what lessons you can take from this time in your life.  There’s something about being grateful for the rain in the midst of the storm that makes the sunshine brighter when you emerge on the other side.  Dare to enjoy life and be thankful in spite of hardships.

What do you think of this Save Yourself Movement?  What are you doing to ensure that you’ll come out on top when we get to the other side of the recession?