Suze Orman isn’t just a great resource for people looking to learn a bit more about how to be better with money, but she’s also immensely entertaining, even funny to tune into. Though I do think she tends to be overly cautious regarding financial milestones and capital allocation strategies, I’m certainly not completely against the advice she may give to a caller.
At the end of the day, nobody is going to get the answer absolutely right in all cases, especially when put on the spot! In any case, Suze Orman is a respected name in the personal finance scene, and she has a lot of value to share with her listeners. Despite this, it’s all right to disagree with certain viewpoints she may have.
After all, it’s more about starting that initial conversation and meeting up with a financial pro (a certified advisor or a wealth planner) to keep things moving along smoothly. After all, conversations about money are among the hardest to have. To some, it’s a taboo topic to bring up at the dinner table. But it really shouldn’t be. How else can you take steps to improve yourself financially if you don’t discuss the matter and ponder things carefully?
Orman is no fan of timing markets.
One piece of advice that I believe Orman is spot-on with is when she says that pulling cash out of the stock market over some hunch that a financial meltdown, correction, or plunge is around the corner. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best investor on Earth; you will not be able to tell where stocks are heading next month, next quarter, next year, or even the next five years.
That’s why timing your exit from stocks at what you believe (and hope) will be the top is such a potentially costly move that could cause you to miss out on appreciation while feeling the full bite of inflation on your precious purchasing power!
Smart investors may sell stocks at times of perceived overvaluation and excess optimism on the part of investors, but they seldom throw in the towel on the asset class! There’s a difference between trimming your exposure to stocks to have more cash on hand to buy the dips that may come and hoarding cash with the expectation a recession (and market plunge) is coming.
In fact, Orman has recently clarified her stance for 2026, distinguishing between “panic hoarding” and “strategic safety.” For those in or near retirement, she now suggests a cash cushion of two to three years of living expenses. This isn’t about timing the market; it’s about ensuring you never have to sell stocks during a downturn just to pay your bills.
Selling out of stocks based on fear can set you back big time.
These past two years have been profoundly rewarding for investors of all sorts. Driven largely by the massive expansion of Artificial Intelligence infrastructure, the S&P 500 has climbed roughly 40% between May 2024 and May 2026, recently crossing the 7,400 mark. And if you may remember, we had no shortage of recession fears in the years leading up to this remarkable win streak!
It seems like such a long time ago, but back in 2022, investors were panicked as the yield curve inverted—an ominous indicator that typically points to a recession. However, by May 2026, the yield curve has officially re-steepened. With the 10-Year Treasury yielding around 4.37% and the 3-Month Bill at 3.69%, the curve is upward-sloping once again.
Four years after that initial “recession signal” and no recession has struck. In fact, if you sold the moment the yield curve inverted in 2022, you missed out on one of the most explosive rallies in market history. Those who sold would have had to buy back at significantly higher prices or miss out entirely on the AI-driven gains that propelled the index to its current highs.
This goes to show that there’s no magic signal—including the inverted yield curve—that can predict with certainty that a crash and recession will arrive on a specific schedule.
The bottom line
If you’re looking to time the markets, you’re risking a lot more than you think. Instead, stick with Orman, who urges investors not to make moves based on their emotions (in the case of selling out of stocks, it’s fear). For those who are overweight stocks, a bit of trimming to build that two-to-three-year cash safety net won’t hurt. In any case, investing is all about the long-term game and preparing to ride out the bumpy roads as they come rather than looking to avoid them.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks