Jean Chatzky blog :: The Difference :: Personal finance, debt, and money advice » Books & More

Not Your Parents’ Money Book

Jean — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:00:15 +0000

I believe knowing how to manage our money is one of the most important life skills for adults — and even more important to pass on to our kids. My newest book is intended to help tackle that tricky topic. Not Your Parents’ Money Book: Making, Spending, and Saving Your Own Money is for the next generation of our nation’s spenders and savers, who need to know where money comes from, how they can earn it, and what they can do with it once it’s in their pocket.

It’s the product of a lot of research, done over the span of a year, with kids across the country. (I have teens of my own, so I know what happens with books that bore them: I find them gathering dust under the bed!) So I conducted a series of informal focus groups, asking middle schoolers what they already know about money and what they want to know — and then wrote the book to meet their needs. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to look at my new book, and then take a few more minutes to sit down and talk to your kids about money (have the National Money Night Talk). It’ll be one of the most rewarding conversations you’ve had with your kids yet.

Buy on Amazon

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JeanChatzky Score Builder

Jean — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:52:05 +0000

Whether you like it or not, credit scores are important. They come into play when you want to finance a car, take out a mortgage, or get a credit card. Many landlords will check your credit score before renting you an apartment, and, believe it or not, more and more employers are running checks as part of the hiring process. They want to see how responsible and organized you are, and your credit score is one reflection of that.

Unfortunately, the recession has hit credit scores pretty hard. Scores that were great a few years ago are now just good, and those that used to be acceptable are now not good at all. You need a higher score than ever before if you want to get the best interest rates. That’s why I decided to launch the JeanChatzky Score Builder, which will help you increase your credit score in only 120 days.

Developed in conjunction with my friends at SmartCredit.com, this application will help you make sense of credit scores. Together, we’ll go through the positives and negatives that are affecting your score, then I’ll show you how to clean up the negatives one by one. By pushing a single button, you’ll be able contact your creditors directly through the program and ask that a negative be removed, updated or paid off. All the while, Score Builder will keep track of creditors’ responses – and your credit score’s improvement.

I invite you to check out the Score Builder application by signing up for a five-day free trial of SmartCredit.com. If you like the service, a basic membership is only $19.95 a month. And if you’re already a member of SmartCredit.com? Score Builder is included in that membership, free of charge.

Pay it Down!, powered by DebtGoal

Jean — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:51:48 +0000

By now, you may be familiar with The Debt Diet, the program I developed to help you find $10 a day to pay off your debt. If you’re already a member, you’ve likely gone through the exercises, made changes in your budget, maybe refinanced a loan or two. And if you’re not a member? Well, you may want to reconsider, because I’ve developed a new component to The Debt Diet that’s going to make paying off your debt all the more easier.

It’s called Pay it Down!, and it’s an application I developed with DebtGoal, the leader in debt acceleration programs. It answers a simple question that I get all the time: Once you have your $10 a day, what’s the most effective way to apply it to your debt?

The Pay It Down! app takes a close look at the debt you’re carrying, then creates a customized repayment plan to help you pay off your balances in the most efficient way possible. Not only will you be out of debt faster, but you’ll save hundreds – even thousands – of dollars in interest. And, if you choose to upgrade to the standard version, the app can keep track of your balances and payments for you, so you can say goodbye to disorganized paperwork or confusing spreadsheets.

Perhaps the best part, though, is that the basic version of the Pay it Down! app, is available at no additional fee to members of The Debt Diet. Read more about The Debt Diet here, and click on the Sign Up box on the right to sign up.

Money 911

Jean — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:51:55 +0000

You have money questions. I know you do, because they pop up in my inbox throughout the day. And I answer many of them, either through my syndicated newspaper column or with a panel of colleagues on our weekly Money 911 segment on NBC’s Today.

But it’s still not good enough, especially in these economic times, when many of your questions have likely become – or are on the verge of becoming – emergencies. So I came up with the idea for a book, also called Money 911, that answers every question I’ve ever been asked, and then some.

This book is a bit different from my others, in that it is intended to be a reference guide, and has been carefully indexed so you can flip to the section you need and absorb the information. Trying to decide whether to refinance your mortgage? Turn to page 184. Want to learn the best way to negotiate the price on that new television? Page 121 has the answer. Looking for life insurance? You’ll find all you need to know to select the best policy for you on page 255. All in all, you’ll find the answers to well over 300 questions, along with resources – other books, organizations, web sites and government agencies – that I’ve carefully vetted, in case you need to learn even more.

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Barnes & Noble

Pay it Down!

Jean — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:03:49 +0000

Six years ago, during more pleasant financial times, I wrote Pay it Down!, the Rx for getting out of debt. It helped hundreds of thousands of readers, as well as the million people who participated in the Debt Diet on The Oprah Winfrey Show (based largely on the information in the book). But as the economy twisted and turned, some of the rules of the road did too, and this year, I decided to update that go-to guide for paying off your debt. The fact is, whether you’re trying to negotiate with your creditors, modify your mortgage, bring up your credit score or manage your student loans, you need different strategies than you needed a scant half-decade ago. And in this new version of Pay it Down! , I give them to you in straightforward, easy-to-understand terms. Follow my plan, and in three years, you’ll be credit-card free. In five years, you’ll have a safety net, so you don’t have to reach for a credit card when the furnace blows or the dog gets sick. And in ten years, you’ll have a healthy nest egg for retirement.

Even in these troubled times, you can pay down your debt with only $10 a day. You can find the money. I’ll show you how.

The Debt Diet

Jean — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:03:27 +0000

My new online program, The Debt Diet, is based on the principles behind Pay it Down, the best-selling book that helped hundreds of thousands of readers pay down their debt on just $10 a day. But The Debt Diet, developed with Dr. Jim Prochaska and his team at Pro-Change Behavior Systems, is interactive in the way a book cannot be.

Let me give you some background. Jim and his team at Pro-Change have spent years researching what I know to be true through working directly with people and their money: If you’re not ready to make a change, your new behavior is not going to stick.

So The Debt Diet evaluates your readiness to pay down your debt, and puts you on an interactive online program that caters to you. Whether you’ve already started paying your debt down, or you have no idea how much debt you have, this program will provide activities to help you find $10 a day to put toward your goal. You’ll learn where that money will go the furthest, how to lower your interest rates, and, once your debt is gone – or if you weren’t in any debt to begin with – how to build up an emergency cash cushion so an unexpected expense doesn’t have you reaching for the credit cards.

I hope you’ll check it out and sign up today. And if you like the program, you’ll no doubt benefit from the book. Read more about Pay it Down here.

The Difference

Jean — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:24:39 +0000

My latest book, The Difference, answers one burning question: Why is it that some people seem to move relatively easily from paycheck-to-paycheck into comfort or wealth, while others get stuck or – worse – fall back?

Not to toot my own horn, but this book couldn’t have come at a better time. These days, more than ever, you need to know how to make your own luck, how to zero in on the things you’re doing everyday – right and wrong – that have an affect on your bottom line. I’ll show you how to develop your intuition so you can recognize when to take a risk, help you increase your resilience in this bad economy, and tell you why it’s important to pinpoint your passion and make it your career (believe me, the money will follow).

All of this is based on a study I did with Merrill Lynch and Harris Interactive. We talked to more than 5,000 people from all walks of life. Three percent categorized themselves as wealthy; 27 percent said they are financially comfortable; 54 percent are living paycheck-to-paycheck and 15 percent are quickly spiraling further into debt. We dug deep to uncover the factors that made The Difference.

The good news? For the bulk of the people at the top of the financial ladder, wealth has come in the last ten years. Some had a brilliant idea that satisfied a need in the market and quickly blossomed into a multimillion dollar business (ever heard of Spanx? I talked to the founder, Sara Blakely, who started the company with $5,000). Some saved steadily over the years and are now enjoying the fruits of those labors. And others took risks that paid off in a big way.

Whether you want to be in the top three percent or the top 30 percent, you can do it.

FranklinCovey’s Jean Chatzky Collection

Jean — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:24:19 +0000

We’ve released a new round of products from FranklinCovey, updated a bit based on your feedback. The basics, though, remain the same – the products are stylish and functional, and can assist you in meeting not only your organizational needs, but your financial goals as well.

The new line features totes – I haven’t stopped carrying the leather tote since it came in. With a ton of well-designed pockets, it’s perfect for everything I have to schlep around, my laptop included. There are also leather wallets (pictured below) and card cases. The regular wallet includes a mirror, so you can check your lipstick, of course, but also so you can look yourself in the eyes before buying something you don’t need. In the wallets, you’ll find the five questions I think we should all ask ourselves before swiping our plastic, plus a place to keep your cards, cash, coins and ID.

You can view all available items and purchase everything at the Jean Chatzky Collection section on the FranklinCovey site.

Make Money, Not Excuses

Jean — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:11:04 +0000

A few years ago – after reporting on money for fifteen years – I finally cracked the code. If you want to get rich, you need only do four things:

1. Make a decent living
2. Spend less than you make
3. Invest the money you don’t spend
4. Protect the financial world you build so that a disaster doesn’t take it all away from you

Sounds easy, I know. So why, then, is it so hard, particularly for women?

Because women, more than men, make excuses. They tell themselves that they’re “just not good with money,” or that their husband “likes taking care of the finances.” They convince themselves that they deserve that new pair of shoes, or that they’re too disorganized to tackle the tower of financial paperwork on the desk.

These excuses are a pass: They allow you to believe that it’s okay to stay out of the game when it comes to money, or push off goals like saving for retirement for one more year. I understand this. In fact, I’ve said some of these things myself, believe it or not. But having a hand in your finances means, believe it or not, worrying less. You don’t have to wonder if you can afford those shoes, or if you need to push off the family vacation, because you know. You’ve seen the account balances with your very own eyes.

In this book, I take all of the excuses women make about money and turn them on their heads. I tell you how to decode the financial jargon to read your bank statements, how to save money (and where to put it) and why you – yes, you – are likely already a great investor.

The Ten Commandments of Financial Happiness

Jean — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:32:19 +0000

This was the first book where I used survey results to help people get a grip on their personal finances. In The Ten Commandments of Financial Happiness (which was published in hardcover as You Don’t Have to Be Rich), I analyzed the results of a unique survey in which we questioned 1,500 Americans about their financial attitudes and behaviors.

The goal was to see how much money people actually do need to guarantee a happy, comfortable life. We got down to the nitty-gritty, looking for specific behaviors that – if you really adopt them – can significantly improve a life. The results of this proprietary survey – conducted with the help of the Roper Center – were pretty remarkable.

I found that while a certain amount of money buys comfort, money can’t make you happy – at least not in the way most people believe it can. But it can make you miserable, if you’re managing it wrong.

The book explained how to “own your money” to create a happy and comfortable life. Outlining the financial habits of happy people shows how anyone can be a part of this group, no matter what they earn. Using real life examples, The Ten Commandments of Financial Happiness reaffirms that finances don’t have to be a source of stress and that living within your means can be extremely rewarding!