Speakers

She currently posts twice-weekly columns for this blog and CBS MoneyWatch.com. and a monthly column for the AARP Bulletin. She is the editorial director of Main Street Connect, a national community news company that she founded with her husband, Carll Tucker. MSC’s reporters bring communities their local news and events online — today’s equivalent of the great local of the past.

Her career includes one of the country’s most successful newspaper columns, published twice-weekly and syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group to more than 250 newspapers. It was still growing when she retired it, after 27 years. She wrote a biweekly column for Newsweek magazine for 30 years. She has also written a biweekly columns for Bloomberg.com and long-running monthly columns for Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping.

Jane worked extensively in television. She hosted her own program on the Public Broadcasting System, a personal-finance series called Take Charge! She co-hosted an investment series, Beyond Wall Street, which also ran on PBS. She worked ten years for CBS News, first on the CBS Morning News, appearing twice weekly, then on The Evening News with Dan Rather. She has also been a regular on ABC’s The Home Show as well as a guest on Good Morning America, Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and many other programs.

She contributed to the top-selling software program, Quicken Financial Planner, a personalized guide to saving and investing for college and retirement.

Jane’s best-selling book, Making the Most of Your Money, is a comprehensive guide to personal finance, named by Consumers Union as the best personal finance book on the market. The first edition, published in 1991, has been in print and popular ever since. The third edition, Making the Most of Your Money NOW, was published in December, 2009. In 2006, she wrote Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People, her personal list of the best, low-cost strategies for saving more money, finding good insurance, planning for college tuition, investing for retirement, and other personal financial topics.

She is a frequent speaker for business, civic, and educational groups, discussing the current economy and what it means for managing money.

Jane has many awards to her credit, including the Emmy Award and the Janus Award for outstanding coverage of news on television. She received the Gerald Loeb award for distinguished lifetime achievement in business and financial journalism. She’s a two-time winner of the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism and a three-time winner of the National Press Club’s Consumer Journalism award. In 1997, she was named one of the “100 Most Influential Business Journalists” by The JournalistandFinancial Reporter newsletter.

Jane graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College in Vermont. After college, she worked as a reporter, then as co-editor, of The Insider’s Newsletter, a consumer letter published by Cowles Communications. She co-founded The Business Week Letter, a biweekly newsletter on personal finance from McGraw-Hill.

She currently serves on the board of Bloomberg LP, the financial services company. She has also served on the board of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Jerome Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and her alma mater, Middlebury College. She’s a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Jane is married and has two children and six stepchildren. She was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y. and lives in New York City.