Financial advisor to millions, Suze Orman, has an important message for every family in the country—she says a financial catastrophe is looming because American families are living too far beyond their means.

"The credit card companies, the mortgage companies, the banks, lenders, they are making their future off of enticing all of us with offers that we feel are too good to pass up," Suze says. "So we don't understand the true ramifications of when we take out a loan, when we charge something on a credit card, when we do a student loan, we don't get it."

Although there are many money programs and magazines available, Suze says people aren't listening to the lessons they can teach. "People are so busy watching reality shows, getting so lost in everybody else's mess, that they're not even looking at their own financial reality show that's going on," she says. "When they take a mortgage that's interest-only and it's an adjustable rate mortgage, they don't understand what that means. All they see is they're going to get to have a house like everybody else. … But they don't understand the true cost of it."