The Forever Paycheck

“The clear, step-by-step plan that will help you stop guessing, stop stressing, and start using your money with confidence. I'll be sending copies of this book to my friends and my kids.”—Mel Robbins

The new roadmap to financial longevity, from longtime TODAY show financial editor and New York Times bestselling author, Jean Chatzky

Retirement is in crisis. 61% of adults are worried they won’t have enough money to support them in retirement. 84% of Gen-Xers are “concerned or terrified about having no more paychecks in retirement.” 74% of the non-retired Baby Boomers who preceded them and 79% of the Millennials who follow feel the same way.

You’ve been saving for retirement for decades: paying yourself first, maxing out your 401(k) or IRA contributions, compromising on things you want today in order to make tomorrow possible. But what happens when you get to the end of your earning years? How do you take the money you’ve amassed and not only make it last as long as you do, but do it in a way that brings you the most fulfillment and the least amount of stress?

This is something that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. If you do, you’ll either run out of money before you run out of time, or you’ll discover years too late that you didn’t use your money as much as you could have to enjoy your life.

The solution is right here. It’s a paycheck that lasts for the rest of your life: a Forever Paycheck. With the power of a Forever Paycheck comes a simple, revelatory truth: you can spend more, and do more, than you think you can.

It’s a revolutionary concept. The data shows that people entering retirement often can’t bring themselves to spend. But when their money comes as a steady monthly paycheck, they feel much more confident in using it to live life to the fullest. Many find they can spend double with no risk of running out. New research shows that a Forever Paycheck is even associated with better health, lower chances of disability, and a substantially longer lifespan.

Whether you plan to work to 50 or 75, have a small 401(k) or a large stock portfolio, like to take risks with your money or always play it safe, bestselling author and financial expert Jean Chatzky provides a step-by-step plan for making your money work for you. Written in collaboration with AARP, The Forever Paycheck is packed with the information you need to plan for the future you want.

Jean Chatzky launched HerMoney Media and HerMoney.com in 2018 to provide women with information about money they can actually trust. The award-winning financial editor of NBC Today, Jean has also appeared on shows including Oprah, MSNBC, CNN, The View, The Talk and many others. Millions have tuned into her podcast, HerMoney with Jean Chatzky, which has received shoutouts from The New York Times, Yahoo Finance and Refinery29. The best-selling author of 11 books, including Women with Money, is an in-demand motivational speaker and AARP’s Financial Ambassador. Jean is also a fierce advocate for financial literacy. In 2015, she partnered with the PwC Charitable Foundation and Time for Kids to launch Your $, an in-school magazine that reaches 2 million schoolchildren each month.

"Jean Chatzky nails the fear so many people are carrying: you can do 'everything right' for decades and still have no clue how to turn your savings into a paycheck you can count on for life. The Forever Paycheck is the clear, step-by-step plan that will help you stop guessing, stop stressing, and start using your money with confidence. I'll be sending copies of this book to my friends and my kids."
—Mel Robbins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Let Them Theory and host of The Mel Robbins Podcast

"Jean Chatzky is one of the greatest financial educators of our time, and this book can help anyone make sense of one of life's toughest problems: funding and enjoying retirement."
—Morgan Housel, New York Times bestselling author of The Psychology of Money and The Art of Spending Money

"The Forever Paycheck demystifies the hardest problem in personal finance: how to turn a pot of savings into a reliable stream of retirement income. Packed with concrete strategies, this book is a treasure trove for retirees aiming to maximize their lifestyles and make their money last."
—Christine Benz, author of How to Retire and director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar

"Jean Chatzky has built the playbook the personal finance industry should have written a generation ago. The Forever Paycheck takes the question every retiree quietly carries—am I going to be okay—and turns it into something you can actually engineer."
—Bill Perkins, author of Die With Zero

"Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy many things that contribute mightily to a happy life. In this clear, compelling, and practical guide, Jean Chatzky shows us how using our money to fund a Forever Paycheck can help us create the happiest retirement possible."
—Gretchen Rubin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Life in Five Senses

"A comprehensive and accessible primer on a daunting subject."
—Publishers Weekly