What does it actually feel like to be on the cusp of retirement and wonder if you're doing it right? This week, Jean sits down with two listeners, Nancy and Melissa, who are both asking the same underlying question: How do I make sure I don't run out of money in retirement, while still actually enjoying my life?

First, Jean talks with Nancy, 68, a soon-to-be retired nurse with $850K saved, a pension, and Social Security on the way. Nancy wants to renovate her bathrooms before she stops working, but she's torn between using her HELOC or tapping her nest egg. 

Then Jean hears from Melissa, 53, who, along with her husband, has $1.2M+ saved across tax-deferred, Roth, brokerage, and treasury accounts, and wonders if she's taking on too much risk. Jean helps her zoom out, look at the full financial picture, and think through what a bucket strategy or annuity could mean for her peace of mind.

In this episode:

• HELOC vs. refinance vs. pulling from savings; how to think through home improvement financing in retirement
• The 4% rule and when it makes sense to use it
• RMDs, IRMAA penalties, and why timing your withdrawals matters more than you think
• What 72% stocks actually look like when you account for your entire net worth
• Why hybrid long-term care policies might be worth a look
• How guaranteed income can actually free you to invest more aggressively with the rest

Pre-order Jean's new book: If this episode got you thinking about how to make your money last in retirement, The Forever Paycheck is out September 9th.

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Did you know that claiming Social Security at 62 instead of 70 could mean locking in a permanent 30% cut to your monthly benefits for life? 

In this episode, Jean sits down with Marcia Mantell, founder of Mantell Retirement Consulting and author of Social Security: Lightly Toasted, Not Burnt, to talk about what's really going on with Social Security's solvency, why Congress will almost certainly act before the fund runs dry, and how to make the best claiming decision for you.

In this episode:

• The truth behind the "benefit cuts are coming" headlines, and what they get wrong
• Why the 2032 trust fund deadline isn't the catastrophe it sounds like
• What "popcorn careers" are doing to women's Social Security benefits
• The divorced spouse rules that could mean hundreds of extra dollars a month
• Survivor benefits: what every married woman needs to plan for now
• The real cost of claiming early

Pre-order Jean's new book: If this episode got you thinking about how to make your money last in retirement The Forever Paycheck is out September 9th. 

Create your my Social Security account: ssa.gov

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What does a real week of spending look like for a busy working mom who also happens to be a landlord? This week on A Week In Her Wallet, we're heading to Annapolis, Maryland, to follow Larisa, a 48-year-old HR Director with a combined household income of $375,000, two kids in competitive sports, a dog, and a rental condo she's owned since her twenties.

We talk through it all: how she keeps a separate checking account just for rental income and expenses, why she almost always orders ahead for pickups at Sam's Club, and how she thinks about the guilt that still creeps in when she spends money on herself. Plus… Bucky's. If you've never stopped at Bucky's on a road trip down I-95, Larisa will make you want to.

In this episode, we cover:

• The good, the bad, and the ugly of owning a rental property, and how she budgets for the unpredictable
• How she handles big annual bills (like a $1,200 water assessment) without breaking a sweat
• How she uses a dependent care spending account to offset summer camp costs
• How splitting costs with her sister makes family vacations feel easy and fun

Want to be featured in A Week In Her Wallet? Every woman has a money story worth telling, and we want to hear yours. Fill out this form to be considered. We’d love to hear from you. 

Pre-order Jean's new book, The Forever Paycheck, out September 9! Every pre-order helps get this book into more readers' hands — thank you for supporting the show and the book.

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You’ve planned for retirement. You’ve built your savings, mapped out your Social Security strategy, and thought through market risks. But what happens if one day, you can’t manage your money at all? It’s an uncomfortable question – and one many people avoid. Yet, research shows that cognitive decline can quietly undermine financial decision-making, often earlier than we expect, and with serious consequences. 

On this special episode of HerMoney, sponsored by LIMRA, Dr. Chris Heye, LIMRA Retirement Income Institute Fellow and CEO of Whealthcare Planning and Wealthcare Solutions, explains why health risks – especially cognitive decline – may be one of the biggest blind spots in retirement planning today. Then, Erin Gilmore Smith, Head of Estate Planning for Edelman Financial Engines, joins us to share practical steps you can take now to protect your finances, your family, and your future self. 

In this episode, they’ll highlight:

• Why health risks – and especially cognitive decline – might matter more than the markets
• How cognitive decline shows up in our finances, before we realize we have it
• Why women are more challenged when it comes to the risk of cognitive decline – and how we can protect ourselves
• Protected income can help create greater stability in retirement, especially in the face of potential cognitive decline.

If you’re curious and want to dig deeper, this resource from LIMRA can help:

Protect Your Retirement From Cognitive Decline: The Link Between Cognitive Health and Financial Security

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You saved diligently for your kids' education, and now that chapter is closing. So what happens to the money? Can you protect those tax benefits and roll the funds into something new? We're getting into it.

This week, Jean is joined by Lacy Garcia, founder and CEO of TrustWillow.com, a personalized advisor-matching platform that connects women and their families with vetted, fiduciary financial advisors who are legally required to act in your best interest, and who have been trained specifically in working with women's financial lives.

They dig into your mailbag questions from:

• Inge, who opened Coverdell ESAs for her kids 20 years ago, just got a notice that Vanguard is shutting down the program. What are her options for keeping that money tax-protected?
• An anonymous listener just paid off her husband's student loans and is officially done with daycare. Where should that newfound money go?
• Rebecca, who is recently divorced with a high school senior and a 529 that covers about one year of college. She wants to know: Are there financial planners who specialize in college planning?

🔗 Connect with a vetted fiduciary advisor at hermoney.com/findanadvisor

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Do you actually know where your money went last week? Not roughly...where it actually went. Every coffee, every impulse buy, every bill that hit all at once on a Monday morning when you were least expecting it.

A Week in Her Wallet is a HerMoney limited series where real women from our community track every single dollar they spend for one full week, and then sit down with Jean Chatzky to talk about what they learned. Because the way we spend says so much about what we value, what we're afraid of, and where we might want to make a change.

In this series, you'll hear from women like:

• Kortne, a 55-year-old tech director in Texas who meal preps every meal — even on race day at a half-marathon across the country — but didn't think twice about dropping $820 on Bruno Mars tickets for her daughter
• Kristen, a single woman in her 40s who travels constantly for work, owns her own home, and used her yard sale earnings to buy festival tickets for a night out with a friend
• Larisa, a Maryland mom juggling a rental property, two busy kids, a road trip to Florida, and a Sam's Club run that started with paper towels and ended with a bathing suit

Real women. Real numbers. Real life.

Subscribe to HerMoney on Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode, look for A Week In Her Wallet directly in your HerMoney podcast feed. And if you want to track your own spending with us, apply here to be featured.

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At HerMoney, we're always trying to make money a little less intimidating; breaking down the big, complicated stuff into things you can actually use in your real life. And when it comes to understanding the economy, nobody does that better than today's guest.

Alex Mayyasi is a contributor to Planet Money, the NPR podcast that has spent seventeen years making economics genuinely entertaining, and he and the team have just written a book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life. Alex also stuck around for a Mailbag, answering listener questions about tariffs, tax-loss harvesting, and why everything you buy seems to be getting more expensive but less high quality at the same time.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the economy feels so broken right now, even when GDP is growing, inflation is down, and wages are solid
• Baumol's Cost Disease: the simple but powerful concept that explains why childcare, healthcare, and college keep getting more expensive
• What the history of the ATM tells us about AI and whether it's really going to take your job
• Why it's nearly impossible to beat the market, and what a cute animal experiment reveals about how stocks actually work
• The one economic principle Alex has found most useful in his own life, and why it applies to way more than just your money

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Planet Money’s new book, Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life

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You've heard the rules. Subtract your age from 100. Go 60/40. Play it safer as you get older. But what if those long-held guidelines have been steering you wrong and costing you?

Yale finance professor James Choi returns to HerMoney to share groundbreaking research that could change the way you think about your investments forever. His new asset allocation formula goes far beyond the traditional rules of thumb, factoring in your income, your savings, your risk tolerance, and something most investment guidelines completely ignore: the future paychecks you haven't earned yet.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the "100 minus your age" rule and the classic 60/40 portfolio have a critical blind spot 
• The concept of "human capital" and why your future paychecks function like a bond in your overall wealth portfolio
• How the formula shifts dramatically for mid-career investors, and why the size of your nest egg matters more than you think
• What near-retirees and women already in retirement should really know about how much risk to take on

Resources mentioned in this episode:

James Choi's allocation spreadsheet calculator

The Wall Street Journal piece on James's research

Jean's new book, The Forever Paycheck (coming Sept 2026)

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Q1 2026 has been a lot. Tariffs. Oil above $100 a barrel. A war in the Middle East. Recession chatter. Stock market swings. And the creeping feeling that something has shifted in the economy… and not for the better.

This week, Jean Chatzky sits down with economist and fan-favorite guest Kathryn Edwards for a full Q1 economic report card and a roadmap for what Q2 might bring. 

In this episode:

• The K-shaped economy explained
• Why the White House's 4% growth projection was never realistic, and how we got from boom talk to recession odds so fast
• How long oil prices need to stay elevated before the economic damage becomes truly lasting
• Why Kathryn is still an optimist, and why she believes Americans are resilient to change

Links mentioned:

Follow Kathryn on socials: @kedseconomist

Subscribe to Optimist Economy wherever you get your podcasts

Join InvestingFixx — your first two classes are free!

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When was the last time you felt truly in control of your time? Not your calendar, not your to-do list…your time? If the answer is "I can't remember," this episode is for you.

Jean Chatzy is joined by Andy Hill, AFC, founder of Marriage, Kids, and Money, and author of Own Your Time: 10 Financial Steps to Put Your Family First and Escape the Corporate Grind. Together, they tackle your most pressing mailbag questions about the real tension so many of us are feeling right now: how do you balance saving aggressively for the future with actually enjoying your life today?

In this episode:

• A 41-year-old high earner wants to know what to do with extra money beyond maxing out her accounts
• A 54-year-old asks whether her financial advisor is right that fully funding her 401 (k) won't make much difference. 
• A 52-year-old is stretched thin between her career and caring for her aging mom and wonders: Is it financially irresponsible to step back during her peak-earning years?
• Andy also shares how he and his wife hit their Coast FIRE number, redesigned their lives around a 20-hour workweek, and what the first move looks like if you want to do the same.

Ready to make your money work harder so you don't have to? Join InvestingFixx and learn how to build a portfolio that buys back your time.

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You're earning more than you ever have. You're doing everything you were told to do. So why does it still feel like you can't get ahead?

This week, Jean sits down with Hanna Horvath, CFP, personal finance journalist, and writer behind the Substack Your Brain on Money, to talk about why so many women are struggling with money right now, and why it probably has a lot less to do with your choices than you think.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why GDP being up and your life feeling hard are not contradictory, and what's actually driving the disconnect
• The concept of mattering, and why losing your sense of economic contribution can feel like an identity crisis
• The four money behaviors that show up when economic anxiety takes hold
• Why community investment is one of the most underrated strategies for financial resilience
• The one question to ask yourself before every spending decision

Join InvestingFixx, our twice-monthly women-only investing club. Your first two classes are always free.

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