Jean Sherman Chatzky:
(born September 7, 1964).
American journalist, a personal finance columnist, financial editor of NBC’s TODAY show, AARP’s personal finance ambassador, and the founder and CEO of the multimedia company HerMoney.
July is high burglary season because so many people leave town.
It’s practical home-security advice rather than a proverb. The idea is that summer, and July specifically, sees a spike in burglaries because so many households are away on vacation. Chatzky’s point is that people often unintentionally advertise their absence — an overflowing mailbox, a stack of uncollected newspapers, or a house that’s dark every single night — which tips off burglars that no one’s home. Her advice is to avoid those “tells”: suspend your newspaper subscription and have your mail held, and use a timer (around $30) so your lights aren’t off for an extended, obviously-empty-house stretch.
Origin:
It comes from Chatzky’s writing/commentary on personal finance and practical money-and-home-safety tips — the kind of seasonal advice she’s known for dispensing around summer vacation time (protecting your home while you’re away is as much a financial-prudence tip as a security one, since burglary means financial loss). It’s now widely circulated on quote-aggregator sites (BrainyQuote, various “July quotes” roundups), though the original context was practical advice rather than a literary or historical saying.
Author: Jean Chatzky
– American financial journalist, author, and television/radio personality (former financial editor for NBC’s “Today” show, host of the podcast “HerMoney”).
