Living in a van, then advising millions

Suze Orman studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1973, after leaving the university, she and some friends bought a 1970 Ford Econoline van and drove west to California. The interview in Emmy magazine does not describe her as homeless, but it does say plainly where they lived on arrival: in the van. The group settled in Berkeley, and they stayed in the van for three or four months, taking whatever work they could find.

Her way out of that situation came through an ordinary job. At the Buttercup Bakery, the staff asked her whether she wanted to work. She became a waitress there, and she stayed from 1973 to 1980, earning 400 dollars a month. The article does not say exactly when the group stopped living in the van, and it gives no direct quotes from Orman about that time, although it records the bakery's own offer: hey, want to work?

Her seven years of waiting tables led to a plan of her own. She asked her parents for 20,000 dollars to open a restaurant and was turned down. A longtime customer, Fred Hasbrook, then helped her raise about 50,000 dollars, pledged in checks and commitments, with a napkin note asking to be repaid in ten years with no interest, if she could.

The money was lost. Her broker lost the whole 50,000 dollars in options trading within three months. In 1980 she joined the Oakland office of Merrill Lynch, which had no women stockbrokers at the time. She later sued and recovered her losses plus 18 percent interest. Orman went on to become a financial adviser, a best-selling author and an Emmy-winning host of a personal finance television show.