Jean Chatzky

Jean Chatzky Speaker Biography

Financial Editor of NBC’s TODAY Show, Award-Winning Personal Finance Journalist & Host of the “HerMoney” Podcast

Jean Chatzky, the financial editor for NBC’s Today Show, is an award-winning personal finance journalist, AARP’s personal finance ambassador, and the host of Money Matters with Jean Chatzky on RLTV. She is a longtime magazine columnist and the best-selling author, the latest of which is Women with Money: The Judgment-Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (and Yes, Rich) Life You Deserve. She believes that knowing how to manage money is one of the most important life skills for people at every age and has made it her mission to help simplify money matters by increasing financial literacy. To that end, she launched Jean Chatzky’s Money School—online classes on crucial financial topics like saving, budgeting, getting out of debt, and planning for retirement.

Books

Chatzky’s books include the New York Times bestsellers Women with Money: The Judgment-Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (and Yes, Rich) Life You Deserve, Money Rules: The Simple Path to Lifelong Security, and Money 911: Your Most Pressing Money Questions Answered, Your Money Emergencies Solved. Her book The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even the Toughest Times received the 2009 Books for a Better Life Award in the personal finance category. She is also the author of the New York Times and Business Week bestseller Pay It Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day, which was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show’s successful “debt diet” series.

Media

Chatzky is a sought-after motivational speaker and a respected consultant to businesses and company executives. She regularly shares her advice and opinions as a guest on popular television shows such as The View, The Talk, and Morning Joe and made regular appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Awards

In 2009, the Consumer Federation of America awarded her the Betty Furness Consumer Media Service Award for her nearly two decades of pioneering personal finance education. She has also received the Clarion Award for magazine columns from the Association of Women in Communications and a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television. The Chicago Tribune named her one of the country’s best magazine columnists.

Affiliations

In addition to her professional work, Jean Chatzky serves on the board of the Children’s Heart Foundation and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she is also a member of the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women and on the board of the Kelly Writers House.

Jean Chatzky Speaking Topics

The Difference: How Anyone Can Prosper in Even the Toughest Times

Can you really start from nothing and become truly secure financially? In this fascinating and interactive keynote, Jean Chatzky asks the questions: What’s the difference between you and Warren Buffett? Between you and your boss? Or between you and your successful neighbor? What do the financially comfortable have that you don’t? And how do you get it? Based on her most recent book that includes groundbreaking research on the self-made wealthy, Jean reveals the traits and habits of those who have moved from the lowest economic strata to the highest. Then she helps audiences take a look at where they are now and offers simple strategies for helping them get to where they want to go. In this optimistic and empowering presentation, she helps people see that they themselves have the power to determine their own financial future and find freedom in even the most difficult of economic times.

Money 911: Your Top 10 Money Emergencies Solved

After 20 years covering the world of real people and their real money, Jean Chatzky knows there are some universal (and nagging) questions audiences have about their money. Do I pay for college or retirement? What do I do about my older parents? How do I rebuild a sagging portfolio? Is it possible to raise kids who will be financially independent? And what in heaven’s name can I do about that credit score? In this presentation that can be tailored specifically for the needs of your group—and the questions of the day—Jean will answer the questions she knows you have then conduct a Q&A that can include a money makeover or two for a member of your audience.

What's a Hedge Fund, Mom? Financial Literacy and Raising Money-Smart Kids

As a mother of two teens, Jean Chatzky knows what parents want—kids who grow up to earn their own money and live independently (i.e., not on the family couch)! After conducting a dozen focus groups with middle-schoolers around the country for her upcoming Not Your Parents’ Money book (September 2010), she also knows what skills kids need in order to get there. In this fun and lively presentation, Chatzky shows how teaching responsibility, setting limits and living by financial example can all combine to put your kids on the path to personal financial success.

Recession Busting 101

Americans are looking for perspective on how the current financial climate impacts them personally. NBC Financial Editor and a Contributor to the Oprah Winfrey Show, Jean Chatzky shares her insights on the current economic challenges and how to maneuver through the myriad of financial responsibilities that we all face including 401(k)s, mortgages and interest rates. With plenty of time built in for question and answer the sought after financial consultant Chatzky, based on her popular XM Satellite radio show, helps audiences understand the big picture, how it applies to their personal finances and plan appropriately in light of the current economic times.

Make Money, Not Excuses

Why aren't we making more money? Doesn't everyone want the financial security that more money provides? Then why aren't we making smarter decisions about our money? The answers to these questions are often more complicated than the questions themselves. Jean Chatzky, author of Make Money, Not Excuses, believes that the reason most people aren't wealthier is that we tend to get in our own way, setting up roadblocks or relying on excuses that thwart us on the way towards achieving our financial goals. These patterns prevent us from earning more, saving and investing for the future and protecting what we've built. In an illuminating discussion about the nature of money and wealth, Chatzky locates the real reasons why people especially women rely on these excuses. She also provides strategies for ridding ourselves of these success-blocking excuses, putting audiences on the path towards real wealth, real financial security and peace of mind.

Pay It Down: Debt Free on $10 a Day

What's the number one enemy of building wealth? Debt. And getting out of it - cutting debt, changing bad spending habits, saving money - are difficult if you don't understand the basics of personal finance. In this presentation, based on her best-selling book Pay It Down, Jean Chatzky shows you how to eliminate debt from your life, once and for all. Providing an easy to understand, jargon-free blueprint for debt reduction, Chatzky also introduces a simple plan - the idea of saving just $10 dollars a day - as a way to eliminate debt and create capital for saving and investing. Audience are not only shown strategies for locating $10 a day, even in tight budgets, but also come to understand the potential for freedom and peace of mind that comes with finally being out of debt.