HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

Latest Episodes:

Ep 544: Is the 4% Rule Dead? Jean Chatzky on Building a Paycheck That Never Runs Out Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

We've gotten really good at teaching people how to save for retirement. But almost nobody teaches you what to do the day you stop earning and have to start spending. That's the gap Jean set out to close in her new book, The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less and Never Run Out of Money, and on this episode, HerMoney Chief Content Officer Kathryn Tuggle turns the mic around and interviews Jean about it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

What a "forever paycheck" actually is, and how it fills the gap between Social Security and what your life will cost
The surprising research on why retirees with a pension spend twice as much as those with the same money in a 401(k)
How much of her own portfolio Jean is annuitizing, and how she decided on that number
The one exercise Jean says is the best way to get comfortable with spending in retirement

And if you've already read The Forever Paycheck, leave a review on Amazon and send Jean a screenshot at mailbag@hermoney.com; you'll be entered to win a signed copy.

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The Secret To Building Wealth As A Normal Person Sep 04, 2026

Show notes

Do you feel like you're middle class? You might not be. Pew Research shows the U.S. middle class has shrunk from 61% of households in 1971 to closer to half today. So what does building wealth actually look like for regular people right now?

This week, Jean sits down with Joel Larsgaard, co-host of the How To Moneypodcast, to talk about building wealth as a normal person, no finance degree or trust fund required. Joel opens up about the money struggles that shaped his childhood and led him into personal finance, then breaks down his "craft beer equivalent" philosophy: identifying the handful of things worth spending real money on, so you can cut back guilt-free everywhere else.

In this episode:

Why fewer Americans are middle class than they think
Joel's "craft beer equivalent" approach to spending
How to handle "funflation" without going into debt
Simple, specific investing advice for DIY investors

We're giving away signed copies of Jean’s new book, The Forever Paycheck! Leave HerMoney a review on Apple Podcasts, screenshot it, and email it to mailbag@hermoney.com to be entered to win.

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Remembering Gloria Steinem: Money, Power & Feminism (2017 Interview) Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

Gloria Steinem died today at 92, and we're revisiting a conversation that's stayed with Jean for almost a decade. Recorded live at the Paley Center in 2017 at an event called Winning Plays: Black Women, Feminism, and Empowerment, this episode brings together Gloria Steinem and financial journalist Stacey Tisdale for a wide-ranging conversation on money, power, and freedom.

It's a conversation about resilience, self-worth, and what it really means to bet on yourself financially at any age.

More from Stacey Tisdale:

Stacey's site, Mind Money Media: mindmoneymedia.com

Winning Play$, Stacey's financial literacy nonprofit for students: winningplays.org

Got a question about The Forever Paycheck, retirement, Social Security, or annuities? Send it to mailbag@hermoney.com, and Jean may tackle it in an upcoming mailbag episode.

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Ep 543: Is This Stock Market Too Good to Be True? Karen Finerman's Honest Take Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

The S&P 500 is on pace for a fourth straight year of double-digit gains, something that's only happened once before since 1928, and that last time ended with the dot-com crash. So naturally, a lot of us are wondering: is this too good to be true?

Jean sits down with friend of the show Karen Finerman, co-founder and CEO of Metropolitan Capital Advisors and longtime panelist on CNBC's Fast Money, to talk through what this run really means, and what (if anything) you should be doing about it.

They get into:

What even counts as a "good" economy when companies are growing by doing more with fewer people
Why Karen refuses to try to time the market
The stocks and sectors she's excited about right now
Her simple, no-frills advice for anyone just trying to keep their 401(k) on track

Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, send a screenshot to mailbag@hermoney.com, and you’ll be entered to win a signed copy of Jean's new book, The Forever Paycheck!

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The Simple Framework for Planning the Retirement You Actually Want Aug 28, 2026

Show notes

Most of us pictured our lives as a straight line: high school, college, a job, marriage, a house, kids…one milestone after another. Then life happened. A divorce. A layoff. A move. A pandemic.

This week, Jean Chatzky goes solo to make the case that a messy, non-linear life isn't a failure; it's just what a normal life actually looks like.

In this episode, you'll learn:

The "5 Ws and an H": six questions to ask before you retire
How to apply design thinking to your own retirement plan
Why the real risk in retirement isn't running out of money, but never spending the money you worked so hard to save

Want a signed copy of The Forever Paycheck? Leave HerMoney a review on Apple Podcasts, screenshot it, and email it to ⁠mailbag@hermoney.com⁠ to enter.

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Ep 542: We Fact-Checked Social Media’s Worst Financial Advice With Jill Schlesinger Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

FinTok is full of people giving confident financial advice… and a lot of it is dead wrong.

This week, Jean sits down with CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger, and host of the new podcast Money Moves, to call out the worst financial trends going viral right now, answer real questions from HerMoney listeners, and share how to tell good financial advice from the bad.

In this episode:

Jean and Jill’s list of “5 things that are always worth the money”
Jill's top 3 worst pieces of financial advice circulating on TikTok right now, and what to do instead
Jill's simple test for vetting any piece of financial advice before you act on it

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"I'm 3 Months Into Early Retirement. How Do I Make the Money Last?" Aug 21, 2026

Show notes

You've heard of FIRE, Financial Independence, Retire Early. And maybe your first reaction is: those people are a little extreme. But what if you stripped away the extreme version? What if early retirement just meant leaving the workforce in your late 50s, or stepping back a few years before 65… on your own terms?

That's exactly what we're digging into in this special mailbag episode with the co-hosts of the Catching Up To FI podcast.

Together, Bill and Jackie answer your real questions, including:

How do you plan for health insurance before Medicare kicks in?
How much cash do you really need on hand when you retire early?
I've been financially independent for three months. How do I reallocate my portfolio now that I'm in drawdown mode?
How do you plan for FIRE when you're also caring for an aging parent?

📩 Send your questions to mailbag@hermoney.com

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Ep 541: Protected vs. Growing: The Split Your Portfolio Actually Needs Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

When's the last time you looked at your portfolio and felt genuinely confident it could weather a bad year? For most of us, the answer is some version of "I'm diversified — stocks for growth, bonds for safety — so I should be fine." But in 2022, stocks and bonds both posted double-digit losses at the same time, and the "safe" part of the plan turned out not to be so safe after all.

That gut-check sent researchers looking for a third option, one that doesn't make you choose between growth and protection, but blends the two. This episode, sponsored by LIMRA, digs into that research with Dr. Wade Pfau, a fellow with LIMRA's Retirement Income Institute and a leading voice in retirement research, and Brad Pistole, President and CEO of the Ozarks Retirement Group and host of Safe Money Radio.

We cover:

Why 2022 was the wake-up call that made people question the classic stock/bond mix
What "protection" actually means as its own asset class, and how fixed index annuities fit in
The tax advantages that can help protected assets outperform bonds on an after-tax basis
Why there's no universal "right" ratio for stocks vs. protected income, and how to find your own number

Ready to take the next step? Get up to speed on annuity solutions that can help you build a more secure retirement by using this guide from LIMRA.

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A Rejection Expert on How to Ask for What You Want (Even If The Answer Is No) Aug 14, 2026

Show notes

You know that feeling when you should ask for the raise, have the hard money conversation with your partner, or push back on a bad deal… and you just don't?

On today’s episode, Jean Chatzky sits down with Jia Jiang, the guy behind the viral "100 Days of Rejection" experiment, and author of the new book, Easy Discipline: An Unconventional Way to Achieve Ambitious Things.

Jia argues that lasting discipline comes from making hard things feel genuinely enjoyable, a lesson he learned firsthand while navigating undiagnosed ADHD.

In this episode, Jean and Jia cover:

Whether rejection therapy is actually a healthy way to build resilience
What it means to love the process instead of just chasing the result
The four principles of Easy Discipline — Enjoyment, Artistry, Systems, and Yourself — and how to apply them to your financial life

Jean’s new book, The Forever Paycheck, is now available for pre-order.

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Ep 540: The One Question That Will Change Your Relationship With Money Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

What if the secret to never worrying about money again isn't earning more or spending less?

Jesse Mecham, founder of the beloved budgeting app YNAB (You Need A Budget) and author of the new book Never Worry About Money Again By Answering One Question, is joins us to dig into why so many of us carry a constant low-grade hum of money anxiety — even when the numbers are fine — and how asking three simple words, "What's it for?", can change everything.

Then, Lacy Garcia, founder and CEO of Willow, joins Jean to discuss Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden, the book that has taken over book clubs, group chats, and DMs everywhere this year.

Willow is also hosting a follow-up webinar, Empowering Her Finances, August 25th at 12 ET: Register Here! You can find Lacy and the team at Willow at hermoney.com/findaadvisor.

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