money smart in 2009

With all of the headlines swirling around daily, it’s very difficult to ignore this year’s biggest topic of conversation: money. In our household, we’re getting ready for the big tax filing challenge (itemizing for the first time), and adjusting savings and accounts for our new spending habits and tax breaks. This all needed to be done in 2009 anyhow, but the urgency of the task has never been so great.

Taking that into mind, Suze Orman is on Oprah today with her new book — and it’s free until January 15th to all who choose to download it. I quickly flipped through the PDF and it had some great advice for people, especially about keeping your investments going in a down cycle. And she bumped up the 6-month emergency fund to 8-months… which, while it’s an incredibly lofty goal, is something admirable to try and attain.

So if you’d like to calm your mind a bit about financial worries, I’d download the book and open it when you have a chance to refresh your ways with money. In the end, you may find out that you’ve been doing the right thing all along!