10 Questions for Suze Orman

You’ve created a new card. Does the world really need another credit card?

The world does not need another credit card. The world needs another vehicle to get people to pay in cash. People have got to learn, if they don’t have cookies in the cookie jar, they can’t eat cookies.

So yours is a debit card?

The real thing that I’m doing with my debit card is changing the system. People are being penalized for paying in cash and rewarded [with credit scores] for paying on credit. The Approved Card, which costs $3 a month, will share information with a major credit bureau, which will be evaluating that information to see if cash can predict creditworthiness. And if it does, Miss Orman here will have created a vehicle to change how scores are calculated, which affects everything else, like your insurance premiums.

For a while, you advised broke people to save instead of paying off their cards. Are you going to war with the industry?

I am taking on the industry. People were using all their money to pay down their credit-card debt, then the companies were either revoking the card or putting down the limit. Not on my watch.

In this era of low returns and stock-market volatility, where should we put our money?

That’s the key, girlfriend. They’re forcing you to put the money back into the stock market. Right now, given that I think inflation is going to come back, you need safety. I tell people to put their money into TIPS — Treasury inflation-protected securities. When you start hearing everybody telling you to do that, you might want to think of exiting. One of my predictions for 2012 is the 29-year-bond bull market will come to an end. I think you have to be very careful now. If you’re in a bond fund, you could really get hurt.

How would you answer critics who say your advice is too risk-averse for people to make money?

I would say they should’ve listened to me in 2007 when I was telling everybody to buy municipal bonds. They would have made money. In 2008 I said it will take till 2014 or 2015 for us to turn this situation around. People came down on me like I didn’t know what I was talking about. In 2012 we’re not even close to solving this problem.

So how much are you worth?

It fluctuates daily, but we’re worth about $25 million.

Can I, as a thousandaire, really expect you to understand my financial situation?

For seven years I was a waitress making $400 a month. Don’t think that I don’t remember what’s it’s like not to have a pot to pee in. Who would you want to be giving you advice? Somebody who doesn’t have any money?

What do you think of the Saturday Night Live parody of you?

Love it. Greatest honor of my life. When I was at the University of Illinois, my roommate had a boyfriend by the name of John Belushi. He lived with us. So SNL has always been close to my heart. Once, I was in the audience when Kristen Wiig did it, but I realized she was self-conscious.

Which is the worst profession at taking financial advice?

Doctors, hands down. They don’t listen. But doctors are different from dentists, and gynecologists are actually different from doctors.

What is the weirdest piece of advice you’ve been asked for?

Can I afford $6,000 for a sundeck for my pet iguana? Can I afford $100,000 to be able to clone my dog? What about $6,000 to go to Ireland to become an elf? I denied approval for the last one. The other two could afford it.

VIDEO AT TIME.COM

To see TIME’s interviews with Suze Orman and others, go to time.com/10questions