HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

The charitable giving landscape in 2024 is a tricky one. Because the truth is, Americans have become less generous in the last few years. Vox has gone so far as to say we’re in the middle of a “generosity crisis,” and fewer than half of us now give to charity on an annual basis. So, how can we make sure our favorite nonprofits continue to thrive? And how can we know what type of donations and phil...

In this inspiring throwback episode, we sit down with Kyle Taylor, founder of The Penny Hoarder, a personal finance blog turned multi-million-dollar media company. Kyle shares his journey from being $50,000 in debt to building a business he eventually sold for $100 million.  We discuss how to identify and monetize side hustles, maintain financial accountability, and avoid burnout while growing a b...

We are almost at the end of 2024, and many of us are looking to the New Year as a chance for a much-needed fresh start. Now is a great time to reflect on the past 12 months and set some big goals — financial and otherwise! — for the year to come. And if you’re looking for advice on how to get a new job, you aren’t alone. Erin McGoff, better known as “Advice with Erin” on TikTok shares her playbook...

Today we are bringing you a mailbag question about retirement benchmarks, you know the ones: You want to aim to have one times your salary by age 30, three times by age 40, six times by age 50, eight times by age 60, and 10 times by the time you retire. These benchmarks are fabulous, but they're also not personal.  Listener Tiffany joins us to ask how pensions, retiring early, and Social Security...

The holidays are right around the corner, which means the holiday “shopping season” is now in full swing. And while we love scoring a good bargain on just about everything, we score the best deal when we just don’t buy the thing in the first place.  Shira Gill, an expert on minimalism, intentional shopping, and living your values shares how to stop ourselves from buying the thing BEFORE we buy the...

Are you marking your calendars for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? So are we. It looks like shoppers are expected to spend more than ever this year — around $1,700 a person according to Deloitte.  We thought it would be fun to bring our pals Jill Sirianni and Jen Smith, cohosts of the Frugal Friends podcast, and the new book: Buy What You Love Without Going Broke: Transform Your Spending and Get Mo...

We’re so excited to reshare this episode with Leanne Brown, New York Times bestselling cookbook author of Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day ahead of Thanksgiving. We get into how it's possible to eat healthy while saving money and her favorite pantry and freezer winter recipes from everything toasts to hearty stews. Chapters: 00:00 Leanne Brown’s journey 06:19 “Good Enough” cooking 14:16 Favorite...

Thanks to modern medicine, the average life expectancy has been on the rise for decades now, and women now have as much as a 15% chance of making it to their 100th birthday. So while our parents may have planned for closer to 20 years in retirement, we need to save and invest for closer to three or even four decades. Deb Whitman, Chief Public Policy Officer at AARP and author of “The Second Fifty”...

It’s clear there’s one thing HerMoney listeners can’t get enough of — retirement. There’s truly an endless amount to explore with this topic because whether you’re 65 or 25, we know the best time to start strategizing is NOW.  And there’s one person that we turn to again and again for retirement advice, specifically when it comes to IRAs — Ed Slott. He's a CPA, a nationally recognized IRA distribu...

We’re revisiting one of our most popular conversations with author and human performance expert Brad Stulberg, exploring what it means to achieve success without compromising your well-being or personal values.  Brad explains how shifting from a traditional "if-then" mindset to a values-driven approach can help you find fulfillment, avoid burnout, and improve your life. Whether you’re aiming to ma...

What does the future of remote work really look like? Recently, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mandated that employees must return to the office 5 days a week. So did Elon Musk for employees of both Tesla and X, which made us wonder: Are our remote or hybrid roles going to go the way of the dodo sometime soon?  Nick Bloom, Stanford Professor of Economics weighs in on what the future holds for remote work,...

If you listened to this week's episode with Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist at the Washington Post, you know just how smart she can be about saving and investing, for her goals and for her family's long-term goals. You probably also won't be all that surprised to learn that a few years ago, she achieved something many of us can only dream of. She woke up one morning and she found t...

Getting older is pretty incredible. And that’s not just our opinion — lately, on the HerMoney podcast, we’ve been talking to some amazing women who have shown us that getting old is actually a life-affirming experience.  We recently chatted with Tamsen Fadal on reinventing your career in your 50s. There was also Gwen Bounds, who took up Spartan Racing at age 47, and Bonnie Hammer who started a fam...

We are right on the eve of what is going to be a truly pivotal election. And this year, more than many others, it seems there's a unique urgency in the air. At least part of that is because each candidate has pledged to make changes to critical facets of American life — including to our personal finances.  Catherine Rampell, nationally syndicated opinion columnist at the Washington Post, joins us...

Every week on the HerMoney podcast, we talk about how to get control of your money, and in most cases, that means getting in control of your spending and knowing exactly where your money is going. Having this knowledge is so important because the truth is that many of us may be sabotaging ourselves financially.  Sarah Newcomb, applied behavioral scientist at Edward Jones, and the author of Loaded:...

If you listened to our episode with Sabrina Corlette, founder of the Center for Health Insurance Reforms, you are already armed with the information that you need to make a decision about which healthcare plan you want to choose when open enrollment rolls around. But no matter which one you choose, it's also inevitable that at some point you are very likely to receive a medical bill that you didn'...

It’s that time of the year again: yes, it’s spooky season, but it’s also time for open enrollment. This year, it’s absolutely essential that we do a thorough review of all our health insurance options, and make sure we’re choosing the best plan for us — without paying a penny more than necessary. Sabrina Corlette, research professor, founder, and co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Refor...

Today we are bringing you a mailbag with listener Amy. She’s in her early 40s and she is wondering if she should hit the brakes when it comes to saving for retirement because of the other things on her plate. She's working on paying down credit card debt and she wants to be able to afford to move into a nicer home.  So, what's the order of operations here? We’ll dive into some timely advice for he...

Every year during hurricane season, we see that many of you have questions about how to lower the cost of homeowner’s insurance. And we get it — it’s so difficult to know exactly which policies are right for your specific property.  Ben Keys, the Rowan Family Foundation Professor of Real Estate and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, shares how to know how much coverage we...

We know that aging is a privilege, but there is still so much negativity wrapped up with aging — particularly for women who are still thriving in their careers. There’s perhaps no greater blow than to be made to feel we’re “past our prime” just when we finally hit a point in life where we have more clarity and more to offer the world than ever.  Tamsen Fadal, "The Midlife Mentor" on Instagram, joi...

Today we're bringing you an extra special mailbag with friend of the show and Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning at Morningstar, Christine Benz. If you listened to our “New Rules for Retirement” episode, then you know all about Christine and why she thinks women need a new playbook for retirement.  We are going to tackle a few of the follow-up questions that came from our viewers...

Admit it: You’re overworked. We spend more time working in America than any other developed country. And maybe you think we’re working extra hours because we’re doing work that feels necessary and engaging and fulfilling — but no. We just don’t care about our jobs as much as we used to.  So, is there a way to ensure we’re doing productive work that we actually enjoy? Brigid Schulte, author of Over...

When was the last time you made a new friend? A real friend, not an online one, a friend that you can actually grab brunch with, or go for a walk with. Our guest today, Adam Smiley Pozwolsky, millennial workplace expert and author of Friendship in the Age of Loneliness: An Optimist’s Guide To Connection says the average American hasn't made a new friend in the last five years, and that 75 percent...

We know that our connections to our families, our friends, and our communities are SO important — so important that when we don’t maintain them, our health and our overall well-being can suffer.  Maintaining our connections in real life is essential, and perhaps nobody knows that better than our guest Danielle Bayard Jackson, known as “The Friendship Expert” on TikTok. Listen in to hear how societ...

Today we are bringing you two mailbag questions with our incredible listeners. First, we'll be talking to Beth. She is calling in from upstate New York. Beth is in her early 60s and her company's made the decision to terminate employee pensions, which has left her with some options: Should she take the lump sum? Should she roll it over? We'll dive into some timely advice for her. Then we'll be tal...