Jean Chatzky Quotes

Those carrying a credit card balance should scale back to making the minimum payment each month so they have more money to put into savings.

If you are worried about job security and do not have an adequate emergency fund (ideally eight months' worth of living expenses stashed away in a federally insured bank or credit union), you need to focus more on saving money than paying down the balance on your credit cards.

I have always advocated doing everything possible to pay off credit card balances; it's good financial management and the ticket to a strong FICO credit score.

Since Social Security faces a large gap between what it promises younger workers and what it can afford to pay them, private savings will likely need to play a larger role in retirement planning for younger workers.

Anybody with a reasonable income can become financially independent in a lifetime.

Do not leave yourself or your family unprotected against financial storms... Build up savings.

Your goal should be to pay off your credit card bills in full at the end of each month and set aside money toward your emergency savings.

If the only way you can build an emergency fund is to pay the minimum due on your credit card, that is what you need to do.

Conversations about money certainly are not sexy, but they should give each of you some clarity and enable you to enter into your marriage with a better understanding of each other and what is important. Work and home responsibilities, joint or separate accounts, budgets, etc. are all subjects which should be discussed.

While conventional wisdom has traditionally sided against borrowing from retirement savings, sentiment has shifted toward borrowing from one's own assets with the realization that other forms of credit come at a much higher cost and often are not even available to borrowers with limited means and urgent needs.

Whether we are working to pay off student loans, credit card debt, paying for elder or childcare, or even trying to save for retirement, the idea of the American dream still remains just that - a dream.

To the hard-working people who set a little bit aside each month, to provide for their children, or to fund their own retirement, I say: you should be rewarded not punished.

Many people focus on the 4 percent rule, which essentially says that as long as you withdraw no more than 4 percent from your retirement accounts each year, the money should last you 30 years.

Remember that credit is money.

The only way you will ever permanently take control of your financial life is to dig deep and fix the root problem.

Savings is an important tool because it can help the poor deal with the ups and downs of irregular earnings and help them build reserves for a rainy day.

I have a nest egg, and I don't buy above my means.

Smart financial planning - such as budgeting, saving for emergencies, and preparing for retirement - can help households enjoy better lives while weathering financial shocks. Financial education can play a key role in getting to these outcomes.

I don't know if the money I've earned is going to need to last me for the next few weeks or the rest of my life.

I worked for twenty-some years with no capital, so I never had any liquidity. Managing my loans alone wouldn't do it, and working hard twenty-four hours a day seven days a week alone wouldn't do it. You have to be properly capitalized.

Youth should be a savings bank.

I never saved my money. Whenever I worked in the past, I would spend it on my family or my husbands.

You don't need credit.

I get so frustrated when people tell me it's unrealistic to create an eight-month emergency savings fund, or have money saved for a home down payment, or pay off their $5,000 credit card balance.

It's not surprising so many people end up with credit-card debts. Saving for your retirement and buying a house are difficult things, and we don't educate people about them at all.