I watched Oprah, the first time ever actually, to see the special. I have been a very big advocate of personal financial responsibility in this mess and I am really glad that someone like Oprah with a huge viewership is highlighting our personal financial problems. I always thought that the average credit card debt of under $2k was not accurate, and i think the numbers from the show more accurately reflect the real debt.

225 people of Oprah’s audience who stated they have credit card debt owe more than $2.295 million on those credit cards, which is more than $10k per person. I think that there were probably a few percentage where people understated their debt and a few percentage that didn’t admit to having credit card debt.

a common theme seem to be that people simply did not have any idea of their financial positions. one couple estimated they had around $60k in cc debt, but in reality had over $95k. how do you not know how much cc debt you have, other than you just ignore it and don’t want to face up to reality?

anyways, basic stuff, but americans really need to learn or relearn the basics of personal finances, so i applaud both suze and oprah in bringing about awareness. the only problem, though, was some explanations were cut short and didn’t provide people with all the information. one guy asked about why not to close credit cards, and suze missed the big point about credit utilization ratio and credit age. she just said that decreasing limit decreases fico score.

what was funny and sad was a girl probably in her early 20s saying that she can’t stop going to restaurants for a month. you could see both suze and oprah trying to be polite, and i think suze probably wanted to ring her neck and ask her you can’t or you won’t.

anyways, thanks for posting the link, i’m surprised oprah didn’t mention the free download on the tv show. 200 pages.

It is not just you–I had problems downloading it on my computer, but then I tried to do it with my husband’s laptop (it’s newer and nicer), and it worked fine. It’s very frustrating that I couldn’t get it to work on mine! Maybe you could try a different computer??

Thanks, J.D., for the link to Suze’s book! I’ve been following your blog for about two years now, but I’ve never posted a comment before. Thanks for the insightful, well-written articles.

Keep up the great content J.D.

I’m not sure how I had the incorrect date there. I’ve fixed the problem. Thanks everyone!

So glad I checked my reader when I did. THANKS A TON JD!

Thanks for the great link! I’m downloading this right now.