HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

$100,000 used to mean you'd made it. Today, in some cities, it barely covers groceries — and there's a real reason that gap feels so wide. This week, Jean sits down with Mark Hamrick, Chief Economic Analyst and writer of The Hamrick Brief, to unpack why the official numbers so often miss how people actually feel about their money.

Mark recently built his own economic measure, HAPI (the Hamrick American Prosperity Index), designed to answer one question: are people actually getting ahead, or just running in place? Plus, Mark shares the one economic "skill" he believes matters most in this moment of nonstop change — and how to build it, even if it doesn't come naturally.

In this episode, you'll learn:

What HAPI measures, and why Mark built it as the mirror image of the Misery Index

Why real wage growth — not just unemployment — is the number that actually predicts how "ahead" people feel

The real odds of a recession in the next 12 months, according to economists

Want to make sure you never run out of money, no matter what’s happening in the economy? Pre-order Jean's new book, The Forever Paycheck.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You saved. You invested. You did everything right. So why does spending your own money in retirement feel so terrifying?

This week, Jean sits down with Terri Fiedler, President of Retirement Services at Corebridge Financial, to dig into why the spending side of retirement is so much harder than saving, and what you can do about it right now.

They cover:

The "retirement paradox": why 60% of retirees whose assets have grown still can't bring themselves to spend

Why guaranteed lifetime income is the single biggest confidence booster for retirees

The three questions everyone should be asking five to ten years before they retire

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Corebridge Financial's decumulation research: corebridgefinancial.com/decumulation

Jean's new book: The Forever Paycheck

HerMoney's conversation with Dana Anspach: The Retirement Phase Nobody Talks About

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know that feeling when you're staring at two versions of the same appliance and have absolutely no idea which one is actually worth it? Today we're getting some answers.

Jean Chatzky sits down with Tanya Christian, Senior Home and Appliance Writer at Consumer Reports, for a special mailbag episode answering your real questions about the stuff you actually want to buy, or are wondering if you should.

In this episode:

Is a Vitamix actually worth $600? (And when to buy one if you want it)

Should you ever buy an extended warranty?

What actually matters when choosing a mattress

The truth about "cooling" pillows and sheets

Links mentioned:

Subscribe to Bread and Butter by Consumer Reports.

Send your mailbag questions to: mailbag@hermoney.com

Pre-order Jean's new book, The Forever Paycheck
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every few weeks, another tech titan promises to hand us our time back. Jamie Dimon says a shorter workweek is coming. Elon Musk says AI will make work optional. Bill Gates is predicting two-day workweeks. Sounds amazing, except we don't actually need AI to get there. The research proving a shorter workweek works has been sitting in front of us for over a decade.

This week, bestselling author and veteran journalist Joanne Lipman joins Jean Chatzky to unpack the gap between what these executives are promising in public and what they're actually demanding from their employees in private.

In this episode, Jean and Joanne cover:

Why the same executives predicting an AI-powered leisure future are also the most insistent on five-day, in-office weeks

What over a decade of four-day workweek research shows about productivity, revenue, and burnout

Why new technology almost never reduces our workload

Preorder Jean's new book: The Forever Paycheck is your guide to building a secure, steady income stream in retirement.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have enough? And how do you even know?

In the third and final episode of HerMoney's series with AARP, From First Paycheck to Forever Paycheck, Jean Chatzky and her roundtable tackle the biggest question in personal finance — what does financial security actually feel like, and how do you build something that doesn't just sustain you, but actually gives you peace?

Hannah Williams sold her business and walked away with a life-changing payout, and has never been more stressed.

Viviana Vazquez recently hit $100,000 in investments and says she already feels like she has enough.

Ashley Parker thinks about what would happen if she suddenly had to make it on her own, and making sure she always could.

And Carly Roszkowski shares the AARP data that keeps her up at night: 65% of women 50 and older don't feel confident about retirement, and nearly half of those still working have less than $50,000 saved.

Jean also introduces a concept that changes everything: decumulation.

This is the third and final episode of From First Paycheck to Forever Paycheck, a three-part series in collaboration with AARP exploring women's financial lives across generations, from your first job to retirement and the legacy you leave behind. If you haven't listened to episodes one and two yet, go back and start there; this conversation builds on everything we've covered.

Jean Chatzky's new book, The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less, and Never Run Out of Money, is available for pre-order now and publishes September 8, 2026.

Whether you're looking to save money, manage debt, or prepare for retirement, AARP has resources and tools to help you prepare for your financial future to reach your goals. Get started at www.aarp.org/retirementreadiness.

Want to calculate your FIRE number? We recommend this calculator from our friends at NerdWallet.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices