A Week In Her Wallet: How One Woman Saves 36% of Her Income While Living in Chicago

HerMoney with Jean Chatzky

Jean Chatzky Her Money

Investing, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of A Week In Her Wallet, we head to Chicago to meet Zoe M., a 29-year-old accountant who tracks every dollar with care, not just to budget, but to live in full alignment with her values. Zoe opens up about what it really means to spend with intention, how she and her boyfriend use a shared Google doc to manage finances together, and why she prioritizes saving 36% of her income each month — all while living in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Tune in to hear: How Zoe manages shared expenses in her relationship with fairness and flexibility Her strategies for avoiding impulse purchases Why spending money on values-aligned experiences is always worth it What it looks like to balance short-term joy and long-term goals If more financial confidence sounds good to you, then you might want to try… ⁠4-Week Coaching Program⁠: Identify and understand your spending, build a strategic plan, and take control of your money. ⁠6-Week Pre-Retirement Program⁠: We’ll help you prepare financially and emotionally for this exciting milestone. 📈⁠InvestingFixx⁠: Learn, connect, and start investing—your first month is completely free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Where do you find a clear signal in a world of static?
0:03.2	In a time of rapid change cut through the noise,
0:06.2	the economist goes beyond the headlines to decode the forces shaping today and defining tomorrow.
0:12.7	Get the full story.
0:14.1	It's more than news.
0:15.4	It's a trusted global perspective.
0:17.7	The economist know which way is up.
0:23.0	Hey everyone, welcome back to her money. I'm Gene Chatsky, and today we are continuing our
0:31.2	series a week in her wallet. Each week we follow a real woman as she tracks her spending for seven days. Yep,
0:40.4	every swipe, every bill, every skip, and reflects on not just what she bought, but why she
0:48.7	bought it. Behind every dollar is a decision and behind every decision we learn more about our priorities,
0:58.6	our values, and sometimes the little negotiations that we carry on with ourselves. Today we are
1:05.7	spending the week with Zoe. Zoe lives in Chicago with her boyfriend. She works as an accountant. She's
1:12.4	intentional about her budget, committed to saving for a house, not easy these days, and
1:18.0	really thoughtful about what she chooses to bring into her life. This week, Zoe's going to talk
1:25.1	to us about what it's like, sharing finances with a partner,
1:28.9	skipping some of those impulse buys and indulging in a little self-care.
1:34.0	We're going to take a very quick break.
1:36.8	We are back with Zoe.
1:39.8	Zoe, I loved listening to your week.
1:42.5	Thank you for being here.
1:46.2	Thank you for having me. It was great tracking it. We don't hear that it was great all that often. So that's actually very, very nice to hear.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jean Chatzky Her Money, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jean Chatzky Her Money and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.