HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

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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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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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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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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