Suze Orman challenges Americans to 'dig deep' and make 2 massive money moves in 2027 — and the payoff could be enormous

Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.

Finance guru Suze Orman has some essential advice going into 2027.

In a LinkedIn post (1), the podcast host and best-selling author issued a challenge to all her readers, especially her younger audience.

Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one

A single line on your car insurance policy could be inflating your premium by up to 30% — here's what to change

Gold has overtaken U.S. Treasuries as central banks' top reserve asset. Get Goldco's 2026 Precious Metals IRA Playbook for free

Specifically, Orman is challenging everyone to '"dig deep" and make two moves next year:

Increase your 401(k) savings rate by one or two percentage points.

Try to max out Roth IRA contributions if you are eligible to contribute.

Orman believes making these changes in the coming year matters for a few key reasons.

First, it may only get harder to save as time passes. You may face new responsibilities like being forced to step in as a caregiver for aging parents or to help your adult children. Or your career may not go as planned — with Orman citing AI as a major disruptor.

These obstacles, or other unforeseen events, could make it harder to increase your retirement account contributions, even if your career develops and income improves as you grow older.

Investing as much as you can, starting as early as you can, will leave you better positioned if life throws you curveballs.

Increasing your retirement investments next year could also have another benefit, according to Orman.

The sooner you start investing, the more compounding helps grow your wealth. Compounding happens when your returns can be reinvested and earn more money. If you're making 7% on your investments each year, putting that margin back into your portfolio can pay off massively 30 years later as you gear up to retire. It is a powerful force.

In fact, it is because of compounding that making a small change like increasing 401(k) contributions by 1% to 2% can make such an outsized difference.

Say, for example, that your household income is around $87,460 (2), which was the real median household income in 2025. If all of the earners in your household contributed an extra 1% of income, or around $874 starting in 2027 and kept that up for 25 years, the extra $874 in contributions would give you just about $86,000 in extra savings in retirement, assuming a 10% average annual ROI.