6 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^ 09/UP FRONTUP FRONTLISE METZGERFROM THE EDITOR
(^) Janet Bodnar
I’m Passing the Torch
N
ot long ago, I was honored by
Folio, a magazine publishing
organization, as one of its top
women in media for 2017. When I
received the award, I was asked to
respond to this question: “What was
your greatest challenge over the past
year?” “That’s easy,” I said. “As the
editor of a print publication in the
current media market, my greatest
challenge was continuing to have a
magazine to publish.”
And my greatest achievement? I’m
still here—and so is Kiplinger’s. That is
an even bigger accomplishment when
you consider it was the same challenge
I faced when I took over as editor eight
years ago. As I wrote in my first edi-
tor’s column: “With the publishing
world in crisis, some periodicals have
dropped their print publications alto-
gether. ... But we [at Kiplinger] like
making a magazine that you can hold
in your hands. It’s portable, lighter
than a laptop, doesn’t have to be hefted
out of its case when you go through
airport security and never runs out of
juice.” After eight years on the job, I
can also tell you that producing a mag-
azine that’s so useful to readers is sat-
isfying, rewarding and just plain fun.
So in this, my final column as editor,
I’m happy that I can—quite literally—
hand over this magazine to my succes-
sor, Mark Solheim. And I’d like to say
thanks to the Kiplinger family for
hanging in there, as well as thanks to
our stellar staff and loyal readers.
In Mark, you will have an experi-
enced steward of the Kiplinger brand.
As senior editor in charge of our
Money and Living sections, he has
supervised our coverage of a wide
range of topics, including retirement,
taxes, college, banking and credit (see
page 35). And he will continue to be
supported by a crackerjack team.
In 2009, I also wrote that “we have
the most experienced, most knowl-
edgeable staff of personal finance jour-
nalists” you’ll find anywhere. That’s
even truer today. As I said at the Folio
luncheon, with all of the carnage that
has decimated our industry, Kiplinger
is noteworthy as a haven for experi-
enced journalists who want to produce
serious stories to help real people deal
with complex financial issues.
I can say without reservation that
you won’t find a better source of finan-
cial advice than the magazine you hold
in your hands and our companion web-
site, Kiplinger.com. In today’s hyper-
partisan world of fake news, 30-second
sound bites and shrieking headlines,
Kiplinger’s stands for trustworthy
advice impartially delivered, and that
tradition of civility will continue.
A new role. Although I’m retiring as ed-
itor, I’m going to continue my associa-
tion with Kiplinger as editor-at-large.
Taking a page from the late Jane Ben-
nett Clark’s stories on phased retire-
ment, I will write the “Money Smart
Women” column I introduced last
year. In that first column, I noted that
financial products are gender-neutral,
but women often use them in different
ways than men because women take a
different approach or find themselves
in different circumstances. For example,
because women have statistically longer
life expectancies than men, they tend
to have special concerns when they’re
on the brink of retirement—as I learned
when contemplating my own retire-
ment (see page 18).
What I’ve also learned over the past
year is that the gap between men and
women is more wide-ranging than I
thought, encompassing everything
from how they invest to how they plan
their careers to how they give to char-
ity. Neither way of thinking is right or
wrong, good or bad—they’re just dif-
ferent. And both sexes have a lot to
learn from each other. As I’ve said,
men and women working together on
their finances make a socko combina-
tion, and we want to make sure that
each partner feels comfortable with
the challenge. ■
janet bodnar, editor
follow janet’s updates at http://www.twitter
.com/janetbodnar.
You won’t find a better
source of financial
advice than Kiplinger’s.