About

Deborah L. Jacobs is a lawyer and award-winning journalist with a broad range, from service-oriented columns about legal matters to quirky features about far-flung destinations. She has contributed to many national publications, including The New York Times, Bloomberg Wealth Manager and BusinessWeek. A former senior editor at Forbes, where she wrote for the “Money & Investing” section of Forbes magazine and was a key contributor to its bi-annual Investment Guide, Jacobs also launched a popular personal finance blog on Forbes.com.

Her book, Estate Planning Smarts: A Practical, User-Friendly, Action-Oriented Guide, now in the fourth edition, has become what one reviewer referred to as "a category killer." The Wall Street Journal called it "a terrific guide for people who are just beginning to grapple with estate planning, as well as those who have (or think they have) their affairs in order."

Four Seasons in a Day: Travel, Transitions and Letting Go of the Place We Call Home is her latest book. It chronicles her misadventures after she quit an oppressive editorial job, rented her Brooklyn, NY townhouse and planned to Airbnb her way through France with her husband. The book is a memoir about their escapades; a story of career reinvention; and a candid assessment of the homesharing economy.

Featured Work

Four Seasons in a Day: Travel, Transitions and Letting Go of the Place We Call Home

2017

Deborah Jacobs quit the job from hell, rented her house and planned to Airbnb her way through France. Alternately humorous and poignant, this inspiring memoir chronicles her misadventures as she and her husband cook in quirky kitchens, struggle to speak French and shop like locals in outdoor markets. With candor and optimism, Jacobs transports readers from the grape harvest in the Loire Valley to an exuberant chile pepper festival in Basque Country and, ultimately, to Paris, where she witnesses history in the making. En route, she does the pintxo bar crawl in San Sebastián, Spain, develops an affinity for sheep s milk cheese and cultivates new friendships.
Four Seasons in a Day, an expression used to describe the changeable weather in the Pyrenees, also captures the author s extreme resilience. Her grit and determination in the face of every obstacle give us the courage to chart our own course, carve out a new life and embrace the unexpected.

Other Works

  • Estate Planning Smarts: 4th Edition: A Practical, User-Friendly, Action-Oriented Guide

    2015

Awards and Recognition

  • "Four Seasons in a Day" was chosen as a 2017 award-winning finalist in the “Travel: Guides & Essays” category of the International Book Awards and in the travel category of the CIPA EVVY awards.
  • "Estate Planning Smarts" has placed in the 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Awards