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Celebrity Interviews:
Jean Chatzky - from Working Woman to Money
Tools for Making Conscious Choices about Money
Jean is a talented, fabulous woman who is the best multi-tasker I've ever met! As you read this article, you'll see, she has found a way to be superwoman --- by establishing her priorities, focusing her attention and knowing how to get things done. Jean is a Super Teacher too! Read on....
by Liz Sterling ©2008
Jean Chatzky is a well known Personal Finance Expert. Her impressive career began when she was just out of college. “I worked as a personal finance journalist at Working Woman Magazine and was editorial assistant to the business editor.”
“It was a strange magazine,” she stretched her words, straining over the cacophony of traffic while fast walking to her Manhattan office on the morning we spoke. “Beauty, fashion and food were on one half of the floor and career, business and finance on the other. Fortunately I was in the business section. It was appropriate for me.”
“I always loved math, real people and real money so my introduction to business and journalism was great, but after a few years, the time came for me to graduate from Working Woman. I wanted to go into big business and finance magazines but had a hard time getting hired. No one thought Working Woman was a real magazine and I floundered for quite a while. I did some freelancing, I went to cooking school and eventually I landed a job on Wall Street doing equity research. It was a good fit for me given the skill sets I had developed. Equity research analysts do basically what business journalists do. They research, write reports, crunch numbers and learn to understand the financials. After a few years, I decided to try journalism again. I went to Forbes, then to Smart Money and then to Money magazine. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
I was extremely impressed with Jean’s focus. Here she was, talking with me on her cell phone, walking on Sixth Avenue in the Big Apple, pushing an aerobic heart rate of at least 125 and reflecting on the serendipitous events that led her to becoming editor-at-large for Money Magazine and AOL’s official Money Coach. She is also the financial editor for NBC’s Today Show and often hosts a series of money minutes, “Talking Money with Jean Chatzky,” on CNBC. There’s more: Jean is a columnist for Time magazine, New York Daily News, LIFE magazine and is the author of four books: Talking Money; PAY IT DOWN: From Debt to Wealth on $10 A Day; 10 Commandments to Financial Happiness; and the best seller, You Don’t Have to Be Rich. Her newest book Make Money, Not Excuses will be on the stands June 2006.
Picking up on her ability to focus, I segued to “balance” and queried her on how she manages her home, family and work. “I am the mother of two children. My daughter is 9 and my son is 11,” Chatzky said. “On a day-to-day basis, I don’t balance things very well. Maybe your readers have this experience. I wonder how it is for them. There are some days I am really great at work and there are some days I am really great at home, but there are very few days that I am really great at both. It’s really challenging and I say kudos to the women who manage it all. I take the good days with the bad days. I compartmentalize very well, so I can focus on a particular task and have incredible outcomes. There is something else I have discovered. Having kids has made me much more efficient. I used to work on my stories till all hours of the night. Once I had my children, I wanted to get out of the office at 5:00 or 5:30 in the evening. Not only that, I have noticed that my drafts come in cleaner and I do less over-reporting.”
We Don’t Have to be Wonder Woman
“Having things in my life that I value has allowed me to establish new priorities,” Jean surmised. “In the morning when I am home and putting everyone on the school bus, I want to go to work. At the end of the day, I want to go home. I wonder if other women have found this as well. And here are some big differences. I have learned when to say no. There are a lot of things people want me to do but I don’t have to do them. There are many causes I am asked to support. Now I take time to consider what really matters.”
I love the insights that Jean shared and know these are important for all working moms. Aren’t we looking to find that formula for success; the ability to manage our personal and professional lives; to learn how to give and how to receive and determine how to balance our spiritual and financial investments?
Guidelines for Money Management
I asked Jean to talk about money, and she responded by asking about our readers. She pondered what needs we may have and asked me a few questions on the demographics of our readership. “How about I offer some tools for making conscious choices about money? Would your readers like that?” she asked. “Sure,” I said, “that’s great.” “Well, let’s think about it,” Chatzky said. “What would that look like? We can design them now.”
In all my experience interviewing authors, I have yet to meet someone who while walking, talking and dodging traffic would take the time to create new steps for money management—specifically for us, the readers of Balance magazine. I loved being in the process of creation.
Jean implies that a lot of people don’t think about what they are doing with their money, so here are four areas where she suggests we become more conscious.
- Spending Cash: Most people have no idea how much cash they spend in a day or a week. Once you figure out where your cash is going you can decide consciously where you want to put the money. For example, if you are spending $50 per week on take-out sushi, you can decide to spend only $20 and put $30 of that on college savings. You don’t have to give it up. You are just looking for the less expensive solutions.
- I like people to pay their bills when they come in and not all at once. A lot of us get bills that are higher than we anticipate so going through the process in real time rather than 30 days later, we can adjust mentally. Open your bills as they come in and become conscious of your financial requirements.
- Make sure you are protecting the wealth you have built and the people who matter. You need a will, life insurance and/or disability where appropriate. You also should have an emergency amount of cash that can bail you out in a jam. If you are married and part of a two-income family, have 3 month’s, and if you’re single, 6 month’s money to tide you over.
- Have an open channel to talk about money and communication with your partner. Just because you are married doesn’t mean that you both have the same goals and ambitions. So of course, your partner will handle money in a different way. Their priorities are different. When you get married, you are not merging into one person. I think people assume marriage means becoming simpatico.
“I do a couple of things,” Chatzky told me. And she recommends we do the same.
Have a set time each week to talk about money. Make sure it’s not at a time when you are cranky or tired. If you have appointment TV together, like if you watch 24, then do it before or after. Allocate 10-15 minutes to catch up, discuss where you are and what has come up. Whether you have joint accounts or separate accounts, have a dollar amount in mind that makes financial sense in your life, and agree you are not going to spend or charge more than that amount without discussing it. It doesn’t mean you can’t get a plasma TV. It means you’ll discuss it first.
“There are now therapists that specialize in money issues,” Jean disclosed. “If you have a problem partner who is a spender, you can see an addictions counselor. It really is an addiction. It’s like an overeater. The overspending can be filling a gap. Your partner may be trying to make up for something they are lacking, or they may be compensating for something they believe their parent or their spouse feels is lacking in them.”
Comfortable Does Not Mean Extravagant
“The research I did for my book, The 10 Commandments of Happiness, indicates that people need to have enough money in order to feel like they can live a comfortable life. If they have that, it is enough to get over the anxiety of worrying about money. Comfortable means you can pay your bills, enjoy dinners out occasionally and maybe even travel a bit, but it is not about extravagance. Comfortable means getting your basic needs met.
“Interestingly enough, more money does not mean more happiness. What makes people happy is having more control over the money they do have. How you manage what you have directly translates to more happiness. Become conscious about your money and you’ll make what you have go a long way, baby!”
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