HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

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 Money podcast, 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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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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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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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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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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