HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

This week, we're talking with Mika Brzezinski, co-host of Morning Joe and founder of Know Your Value, and Daniela Pierre-Bravo, her Morning Joe producer. The two discuss their book, “EARN IT! Know Your Value and Grow Your Career, in Your 20s and Beyond,” inspired by Daniela's journey from DACA recipient/DREAMer, struggling to pay her way through college, to NYC success. It involves Greyhound busses, resume fibs, and great advice for positioning yourself to rise in any career. In Mailbag: Can you put a price on happiness and Roth 401(k)s? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Questions on the documentation needed for purchasing a home and the decision to tap into an IRA before retirement. Also, how to find the right financial planner, how to approach paying off six-figure student debt and when to pull money from your savings for your investments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you anticipate other’s needs before your own? Does your brain house the master to-do list for your entire family? You're a queen of emotional labor — the unpaid and unnoticed work that many women do to keep their loved ones happy. Gemma Hartley, author of "Women Aren’t Nags; We’re Just Fed Up," tells us all how we can cut back, and stand up for ourselves. In Mailbag, how to invest in Roth IRAs, prioritize saving versus investing, plus the dos and don’ts for downsizing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Esther Wojcicki, a leading American educator and mother who raised three superstar daughters, offers advice for raising successful people. Her daughters? Susan, the CEO of YouTube, Janet, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Francisco and Anne, co-founder and CEO of 23andMe. In Mailbag, where you can get the biggest returns on your savings and negotiating credit card interest rates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Money is a leading cause of stress in relationships, and, consequently, a leading cause of divorce. But not for the McNeely’s. Talaat and Tai McNeely, the couple behind His and Her Money, paid down one partner’s $30,000 credit card debt—and a $330,000 mortgage—together. They tell us how, and, get this: They never fight about money. Yes, we asked for all the secrets. In Mailbag, one listener questions whether achieving a perfect credit score of 850 is actually possible. It is. (It’s not easy, but it is.) We go over how to boost your score, how to build credit for new college grads and how to work through decision fatigue when it comes to your finances. Plus: Venmo recently changed its user agreement to indicate that it may “engage in collection and other efforts” to recover lost monies. Will you be receiving a Venmo from them? We know, very meta. Find out in Thrive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Life isn’t about winning. Life is about a journey. Life is about finding your happiness with whatever that genius is that you have." So says Amy Errett, founder and CEO of Madison Reed, the beauty brand that’s challenging industry titans in the hair color space. She walks us through her career highlights and lowlights (ba-dum-bum!), including an unexpected firing that changed her entire perspective on work, family, happiness...and life. Plus, as a VC, she shares her take on the elements that create a successful business. In Mailbag, we discuss what you can do with your 401(k) if you’re leaving your job—and budgeting for charitable giving with donor advised funds. In Thrive, if we’ve learned anything in the past month, it’s that there’s a right way and a wrong way to get your kid into college. But just because you aren’t out there bribing coaches doesn’t mean you might not be making a few mistakes of your own. We discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that one in two LGBTQ adults associate money with anxiety, which is significantly more than straight, cisgender people who do? That was just one of our important takeaways from the 2019 LGBTQ Money Matters Survey, which was driven by this week's guests, Tobin Low and Kathy Tu, hosts of the Nancy podcast and special series, Queer Money Matters. We discuss their findings, their stories and solutions for the increased costs the LGBTQ community often face when it comes to careers, parenthood, marriage, healthcare and more. In Mailbag, we discuss a hierarchy of how to use your tax return money with debt, emergency savings, retirement savings and family planning all in mind. Plus: Tax filing exemptions for expats. In Thrive, we’re talking about the “Failure to Launch” effect. In other words, what to do when parents are financially supporting their adult children for much longer than they thought they’d be...we discuss! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember our recent listener survey? (Thank you to everyone who weighed in!) One major finding: You want more Mailbag. Message received. In this bonus show, we discuss: the tax differences between Traditional and Roth IRAs, the best places to save and grow money for short-term goals, the pros and cons of reverse mortgages, the considerations for one listener who might get a home equity loan to help her daughter pay down debt and why freezing your credit is still a must. Have a question for the show? Email them to us at mailbag@hermoney.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many of the female founders we’ve featured on the show, either personal problems or macro pain points served as inspiration for their companies. For Heidi Zak, ThirdLove, was no different. Nearly seven years ago, the co-founder and co-CEO set out to change the dismal relationship she, and—as it turns out—millions of other women (including the HerMoney team) have with their bras. “Every woman has a bra story,” she says, and this week we hear hers, discuss ours, and learn the best practices for buying, maintaining and even donating bras. (If you’re like us, you're doing it wrong!) Plus: Heidi gets honest about her experience in building and scaling a company that’s unapologetically for women. In Mailbag, we answer your questions on consolidating 401(k)s, picking a retirement plan when your company doesn’t offer one and using company stock for making a down payment on a first home. We end the show with some important news on finding love in the digital age: “Romance scams” are costing people more money than any other form of fraud, according to the FTC. Looking to donate your bras? Here are two options: -https://isupportthegirls.org/ -https://brarecyclingagency.com/ And if you know of any others, please email us at contact@hermoney.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re at HerMoney headquarters this week, because when Carl Richards flies nearly 9,000 miles from New Zealand to New York City, has time to record and your studio is temporarily unavailable, you make it work. Carl is a CFP, an author, The Sketch Guy for The New York Times and the creator of a new workshop geared towards helping couples talk about money called “Talking About Money”—and that’s exactly what we do this week. Carl teaches us why talking about money with our partners and spouses can be tricky and how we can become better communicators. We lose the shame, we lose the blame and we learn to take “time outs.” It’s a must-listen. In Mailbag, we discuss closing credit cards without lowering your credit score, and why you might want to consider investing in a Roth IRA over a Traditional IRA after contributing the max to your employer’s plan. And, inspired by our conversation with Carl, in Thrive, we talk about first impressions and why your nonverbal expressions matter when making connections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices