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Financial Feminist

272. What to Do If You’re 35+ and Feel Financially Behind with Jean Chatzky

Financial Feminist

Her First $100K

How To, Business, Education, Self-improvement

4.76.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you’re over 35 and constantly feeling like you’re behind financially, you’re not alone. In today’s episode, I’m joined by Jean Chatzky––longtime financial journalist, bestselling author, and founder of HerMoney––whose work has shaped generations of women’s financial literacy, including my own. Jean opens up about starting over at 40 after divorce, job loss, and losing a parent. She shares exactly what she learned about saving, investing, and rebuilding confidence when time feels limited. We talk about why so many women feel behind no matter their age, the biggest money mistakes women 35+ make, how to course-correct without panic, and how to use tools like retirement accounts, HSAs, and investing strategies to build a future that still works, even if you didn’t start early. Jean’s links: Investing Club: https://join.investingfixx.com/  Website: https://hermoney.com/  HerMoney Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hermoney-with-jean-chatzky/id1098802558 How She Does It Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-she-does-it/id1691787429  Visit ⁠https://herfirst100k.com/ffpod⁠ to stay up to date and find any resources mentioned on our show! 00:00 Intro: Never too late to save 00:42 What "owning your money" means 02:00 Jean's story: Starting over at 40 03:49 What to prepare for & do differently 06:36 Biggest mistake: Too much cash, not enough invested 10:56 Why Gen X women feel behind 16:32 Financial boundaries with aging parents & adult children 21:06 HSAs as investing vehicles 27:15 Why "feeling behind" is universal 34:20 Quick-fire Q&A 42:29 Advice for women feeling paralyzed 45:51 Where to find Jean Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you've had the feeling in your 40s and 50s that it's too late for you to save money,

0:03.5

too late to prioritize your retirement, this episode is for you. Because the truth, almost every woman,

0:09.0

no matter her age, feels behind. I'm joined by the legendary Gene Chatsky, long-time financial

0:13.9

journalist, best-selling author, founder of her money, and a woman whose work has shaped an

0:18.3

entire generation of women's financial literacy, including my own.

0:21.7

Gina's helped millions understand money more clearly, and today's episode she opens up about her own story,

0:26.6

starting over at 40 after a divorce, job loss, and the death of a parent, all in the same year.

0:32.3

And she talks candidly about what she wishes she'd known earlier, what she's glad she prepared for,

0:37.3

and why every woman

0:38.1

needs to feel empowered to ask questions even when the answers feel overwhelming.

0:43.2

But first, a word from our sponsors.

0:45.9

You all have heard me say that my partner signed his first client with his business, his brand new

0:50.0

business, and literally talked to him the other day, he is in talks about landing his second big

0:54.9

client. And all of that happened because of his Squarespace website. Squarespace is so easy to use.

0:59.9

I literally built him his website in a weekend. I don't know how to code. I don't know anything,

1:04.7

but I can drag and drop and you can drag and drop too. So if you're trying to design a beautiful

1:09.2

website, Squarespace is the place to be.

1:11.3

The other thing he's doing on Squarespace is that he can send emails to anybody that signs up who's

1:16.2

interested through their email campaign tool. And he can also take payments directly through

1:21.2

Squarespace. So he doesn't have to use and pay for like another payment processing service.

1:26.8

It's already baked into Squarespace.

1:28.8

Head on over to Squarespace.com slash FFPod for a free trial.

...

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