Jean Chatzky Tells The Stories Of Numbers

By Christopher Reardon
​Jean Chatzky knew she wanted to be a journalist when writing for the school newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania. Then she began her post-college career as an editorial assistant at Working Woman magazine, where she was assigned to the financial editor. “She taught me that numbers could play an important role in telling a story,” she recently said. Chatzky has been telling the stories of numbers ever since and today is a best-selling author and columnist and serves as the financial editor of NBC’s TODAY show, AARP’s personal finance ambassador and founder and CEO of the multimedia company HerMoney. 

In 2015 she partnered with Time for Kids and The PwC Charitable Foundation to launch Your $, a financial literacy magazine reaching two million schoolchildren each month. Chatzky was the keynote speaker at a recent luncheon hosted by the Women in Business Program of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce, held at the Westin Governor Morris in Morristown. Chatting with Susan Cohen of Diversity Marketing and Communications in an interview format, Chatzky shared with the audience her five keys for financial success:

1. Earn a decent wage
2. Spend less than you make – save 15 percent of everything you earn
3. Invest what you save
4. Protect your financial life by planning
5. Figure out how to give back

​Regarding investing what you save, Chatzky said there is a difference between hiring a guide and needing guidance. “Sometimes you just need advice,” she said, noting there are plenty of online resources offering investment advice, including her own, HerMoney.com. “I’m a big fan of getting started while you’re still learning,” she said. “If you wait to invest until you know everything, you’ll never invest…If you can’t see it, if you can’t touch it, you won’t spend it.” Women tend to be overly cautious about investing, focusing on safety, stability and savings, according to Chatzky.

“The irony is that this stands in the way of our  financial success,” she said. “Women have more money  in the bank than we should,” saying they would be better served investing that money. Women also do not plan on living as long as they do, she added. Chatzky was asked what advice she would give her younger self. Education, she answered. She recalled when she left a job early in her career, she cashed in what she was owed. “I got a check and didn’t know about a rollover,” she said. “I just went shopping.” She said the best advice she can give young people is to save. She also advised that paying off a low-interest student loan instead investing in a retirement plan such  as a 401(k) is not a good idea.

“Whenever there is free money available, we want to grab it, (such as) those matching dollars in a 401(k) program,” she said. Chatzky also shared some thoughts about finances for business owners.
“Our business is not our retirement plan,” she said. “If you are working for yourself and you do not have a 401(k), make sure you have…an IRA.” Chatzky also was asked how she wears so many hats and gets everything done, including her personal life. “This conversation we have on balance drives me crazy,” she answered. “I think the idea of balance is a total crock…There are days when I’m very good at my job and I’m a lousy mother. There are days when I’m a wonderful mother but I’m not very good at my job. We have to stop setting these unrealistic ideals.