Currently

Former Senior Editor, Personal Finance

Resides In

New York, NY

Education

Bryn Mawr College, Bennington College

Expertise

Personal Finance, Retirement Planning, Consumer Issues, Careers, Health

Summary

  • Worked for Investopedia between 2014 and 2023 as the personal finance editor
  • Former vice president and editorial director of Consumers Union, editor of Consumer Reports and Psychology Today, and vice president, content for Zagat Surveys
  • Chair of the Board for the Wurzweiler School of Social Work Board of Overseers at Yeshiva University
  • Held senior editorial jobs at a number of other publications, including national editor-in-chief of Back Stage, executive editor of Working Woman magazine, health director of Ladies' Home Journal, and psychology/health director of Fitness.

Experience

A longtime writer and editor about finance for national consumer and technical audiences, Julia Kagan is the former editor of Consumer Reports and Psychology Today. Her business-book editing experience includes being charts editor of Ahead of the Curve: A Commonsense Guide to Forecasting Business and Market Cycles by Joseph H. Ellis (Harvard Business School Press, 2005) and editing The Trial of a Social Security Disability Case by Marvin Schwartz (The Social Security Disability Foundation, 1983). 

As an editor, she won a National Magazine Award (2004, Leisure Interests), was a NMA finalist in 2004, 2000, 1999 (all Personal Service) and twice in 1986 (General Excellence, Personal Service), and also won the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism (2000). Kagan was the visiting J. Stewart Riley professor of journalism at Indiana University from 1991–1993. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and holds an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars.

Education

Julia received her bachelor's from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in history and earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Bennington College.

Quote from Julia Kagan

"Today, with employer-managed pensions disappearing, responsibility for people's financial futures is almost completely in their own hands. I feel passionate about helping people understand how to take control of their financial lives. For example, it's very easy to respond to an ad and end up with a subprime mortgage when you qualify for a better one. I regard my job as making sure mistakes like that don't happen."