Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Wayne Wicker, president of Opal Capital, says investors "are bombarded every day with news items," and while those things are interesting, they're also "meaningless" for most people with a long-term horizon. He suggests "looking through the noise," and notes that in the cacophony of current events, he sees opportunities in mid-cap stocks and in some areas and individual issues where the market has overreacted in recent weeks. Personal finance journalist Brian O'Connor discusses the importance of looking more deeply into target-date funds — a default-choice investment that most investors pick without giving it much thought — noting that the way those funds work could leave investors subject to significant sequence-of-return risk, particularly if they are Baby Boomers planning to retire soon. O'Connor, who wrote about the subject in a recent New York Times piece, isn't saying investors should avoid target-date funds but instead advocates for a level of management and involvement that many users don't normally apply to these one-size-fits-all portfolios. Geoff Garbacz, principal at Quantitative Partners, discusses how record levels of short interest are changing the market broadly and the prospects for a lot of stocks, as he goes both long and short in the Market Call.

Joseph Shaposhnik, founder/chief executive officer of Rainwater Equity — manager of the Rainwater ETF, which focuses on buying into recurring revenue models at reasonable prices — says that the software industry "is embroiled into a controversy that is very difficult to dispute until we have [multiple] quarters of these businesses putting up very, very strong results." But because he expects those results from software firms, he thinks the market has beaten up software stocks as if they are all going to fail, making them bargain priced now with a potential rebound in sight. Shaposhnik talks about how recurring-revenue stories lead to more predictable results, which should give investors some comfort against uncertain times. With the average price on a new car now hovering near $50,000 at a time when Americans are being squeezed by higher prices at the gas pump, Robert Steenburgh, chief executive officer at AutoPayPlus talks about how consumers should be dealing with the challenges of financing a car, particularly at a time when the average monthly payment is now $735 — and more than $1,000 for 20 percent of new-car buyers — with teh average loan term now stretched to 84 months. Another way that consumers are finding their finances stretched is in home buying, and Ted Shanahan, chairman of Blueprint Financial Group, discusses the latest data from Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning & Progress study, which showed that parents now play a bigger role in helping children buy homes, and say that providing that assistance is as or more important than paying for college. Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about closed-end fund discounts, how they put stocks on sale and why discounts are appealing even when their benefits aren't readily evident when researching a fund or holding it in a portfolio.

Neeraj Khemlani discusses his new book, "The Coffee Can Investor: A Stock-Picker's Journey to Build Generational Wealth" — out this week — which tells the story of picking a few stocks and stashing them away in the same way that some people hide valuables for decades in old coffee cans. It delves into portfolio manager Matt Ankrum, who took the practice and super-charged it by researching hundred-baggers — long-term winners that deliver above-market returns — who aims to turn his own children into centi-millionaires by the time they retire. In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses how he has responded to volatility in oil markets since war started in Iran by going long on oil futures using a popular ETF and shorting airline stocks. Marolia also looks into the investing opportunities in space, noting that they go far beyond the current Artemis II moon mission and the public stock launch of SpaceX, which is expected to give the company a market capitalization beyond $2 trillion when shares launch this summer. Peter Tuz, chief executive officer at Chase Investment Counsel -- co manager of the Chase Growth Fund -- talks about finding growth stocks at reasonable prices now, and why he mostly has rotated away from the Magnificent Seven stocks in favor of small companies with solid long-term potential that the market has yet to recognize.

Ryan Isherwood, chief investment officer at Significance Capital, says that the stock market's momentum has not been broken even as it backed away from recent record highs, which means that stocks have been correcting since last October. That makes it more of a time correction — which can last longer — than a short, steep price drop. That said, Isherwood noted that there are strong signs that the market could resume its long-term upward trend and bullish bias once the geo-political pullback ends as there is more clarity in the headlines. Yelena Maleyev, senior economist at KPMG Economics, discusses the March 2026 Outlook Survey from the National Association for Business Economics, released today, which showed that  the consensus forecast among economists has deteriorated sharply in the last few weeks, with two-thirds of the group expecting a reduction of GDP this year, and in many cases that economic activity slowdown will be big, but will stop short of recession conditions. Nearly 70% of the economists said the broadening of geopolitical conflicts is the "greatest downside risk to the  economy over the next 12 months;" just 8% felt that way about geopolitical worries just three months ago. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, turns to a diversified natural resources index fund as his "ETF of the Week," noting that a multi-sector approach involving upstream energy companies, agricultural companies and more can be a good diversifier — while providing a decent yield — in current conditions. Plus Matt Weyandt, a client portfolio manager on the listed real assets team at Nuveen, discusses how a "Halo theme" — heavy asset, low obsolescence — positions investments in real estate, infrastructure and commodities to perform well despite global headlines that are buffeting markets. Specifically, Weyandt notes that location-specific hard assets  with contractual income streams are built to deliver regardless of the broad market conditions.

David Chavern, president and chief executive officer for the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), discusses how insurance companies — who have been investing in private credit situations long before those investments were available to the general public — are withstanding the risks that critics say could cause the next financial crisis. Chavern also discusses the changing role of insurance, and specifically annuities, in financial planning as the last generations to get pensions are reaching retirement age and the next group of savers is looking for consistent, stable income later in life. Howard Dvorkin, chairman at Debt.com, discusses "pig butchering," a sophisticated financial scheme where criminals build a relationship with victims online and then persuade them to invest in fake crypto or other fraudulent schemes. The bad guys' efforts have been bolstered by the development of artificial intelligence, making it easier to connect with targets — often the elderly or young, naive newbie investors — for them to "fatten them up" before slaughter.   Stash Graham, managing director at Graham Capital Wealth Management, talks stocks in the Market Call.  In an issue related to the private-credit concerns discusses in the Chaven interview, Graham takes a particular interest now in some of the business-development companies that have been tarnished by recent lending issues and portfolio re-valuation problems, noting that their are solid long-term business reasons to ride out the current headlines expecting a long-term payoff.

Arin Dube, an economics professor at UMass-Amherst, discusses his new book, author, "The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It," noting that the federal minimum wage standard is so low that it's like having no standard at all, prompting many states to pass their own rules. Further, he notes that real wage growth happens mostly in times of full employment, so he is optimistic that sound policy and job demand can help fix problems in the current system. On way some employers get around minimum wage rules is in jobs that involve tipping and WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo, discusses the site's annual tipping survey, which found that 81% of people think tipping has gotten out of control. More than 2 in 5 Americans think the U.S. should ban tips altogether.  Stephen Dissette, founder of Stephen D. Dissette & Associates discusses how retirement savers can add "operational readiness" to financial plans, making more of their savings and getting more functionality out of their assets while easing shortfall worries.  Plus, Chuck goes off the news to discuss Monday's announcement from the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration on how it plans to expand access to alternative investments -- including private credit, cryptocurrency and more -- in 401(k) plans. The proposed rule lowers litigation risk and clears some regulatory burdens, lowering the hurdles for putting more alternatives into retirement accounts, but Chuck says it also raises some concerns and red flags.

Jim Thorne, economist and chief market strategist at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth, says that "when the Iran situation calms down ... we're going to see massive multiple expansion and the geopolitical risk is going to drop." As that story plays out, Thorne says to buy areas that will help build the U.S., and to buy into electricity generation to help support the artificial-intelligence boom. He also said that expects the Trump Administration to try to "run the economy hot" once tensions have ended, in order to help deal with the deficit. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, is also looking for a potential pick-up once the market can take its attention off of the war and the rapidly changing market sentiments in the battle between artificial intelligence and software. He says investors should back away from the headlines and keep a sharper watch on the job market, inflation and interest rates, which have the potential to take the market's focus off of the earnings numbers that drove gains in 2025. David Trainer, president at New Constructs, says that he expects a number of high-flying companies to miss their earnings projections in the next quarter, noting that Wall Street keeps "two sets of numbers, the one they show the world and the real number," and that when the street figures out the real numbers, stocks like Solventum and Advanced Micro Devices are looking at big price adjustments. Plus, Blake Gunderson of Northwestern Mutual Rockwall/East Texas discusses Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning & Progress study, which showed that a sizeable number of Americans — most notably younger adults — feel like they are financially behind and are investing in or considering high-risk speculative assets such as cryptocurrencies, prediction markets and sports betting as ways to play catch up.

Jessamyn Norton, senior managing director at Clearstead Trust, says we're in a "one-variable market," with the price of oil being the only thing currently moving prices, and with the commodity likely to be the determining factor daily moves until the Straits Times of Hormuz reopens. So long as the concern lifts and other variables come back into play soon, if oil concerns linger and the market stays below its 200-day moving average, she says the Standard & Poors 500 could be in for a big decline if it can't hold around the 6,000 level. Kim Flynn, president at XA Investments, a firm that specializes in alternative investments, says recent private-credit bad news events have widened discounts and raised concerns over business-development companies and interval funds, but have likely created a buy-the-dip moment in the industry.  In the Market Call, Michael O'Keefe, chief of staff at CAZ Investments, talks about his long-term thematic approach to stocks and ETFs, including how he is mixing the long-term uptrends in artificial intelligence with the more-recent downturn in software stocks. He also discusses why he currently owns none of the Magnificent Seven stocks.

Thomas Winmill, portfolio manager for the Midas Funds, says that while war typically is good for precious metals generally, the case for gold miners being able to deliver outsized returns is particularly strong now. Moreover, Winmill says the forces that contributed to gold being up more than 50 percent in the last 12 months — despite being down more than 10 percent in the last 30 days — are intact, and while war in Iran and geopolitics generally are creating a downturn, the longer-term forces will return once there is more clarity about economies around the globe. Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, looks to a relatively young, actively managed, concentrated, equity-income fund that uses an options/derivative strategy as his ETF of the Week, noting that it's an addition to a portfolio that adds stability, but that should be used in moderation. Plus, Tom McIntyre of McIntyre, Freedman & Flynn — who was the show's first-ever Market Call guest in 2012 — returns to Money Life, bringing his news-sensitive investment style with plenty of news to talk about. McIntyre was last on the show nearly a year ago, when he was positive on energy and oil stocks; he discusses where they fit in a portfolio now, amid the turmoil in the oil business due to the war in Iran.

Danielle Labotka, behavioral scientist at Morningstar, discusses her research into how retirees withdraw money from their lifetime savings accounts and found that about half rely exclusively on simple approaches, like calculating expected expenses or taking required minimum distributions. As a result, she says, retirees are short-changing themselves, leaving money in accounts and cutting back on needs and wants rather than doing the math to come up with something more tailored to their situation. Worse, she says, 98 percent of retirees say they have no intention of changing their strategy. Speaking of spending strategies, Brian Vines, an analyst at Consumer Reports and co-host of the Talking Carts podcast about shopping, discusses their comparison of the most and least expensive supermarket chains. Chuck, who considers himself a careful shopper, learns that his preferred chain finishes next-to-last in the study, so the conversation turns to how consumers can do more and better with their money if they are careful, shop around and know pricing. In the Book Interview, Brett Steenbarger, an educator and authority on trading, discusses his new book, "Positive Trading Psychology: Turning personal strengths into trading strengths." Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question on sequence-of-inflation risk, why it has just recently been coming to the fore and how it could be impacting retirees and near-retirees now.

Alex Coffey, senior trading and derivative strategist at Charles Schwab, says that since the conflict in Iran began, there has been more of a tug-of-war market and that the bears have been winning the battle, and while the decline has not been swift, the longer duration of the turmoil the more traders and investors are on edge. Coffey notes that the market's short-term trend is bearish, but the market is testing the longer-term 200-day moving average and the longer-term uptrend may be breaking.    Karl Mills, partner at Cerity Partners, says in the Big Interview that investors need to recognize that there is always drama going on around the markets, and that the concerns create worries, but "You generally do best by doing the least, if you have a well diversified portfolio and a strategy of how your assets are invested and you stick to that strategy." He discusses how investors are dealing with the war and much more, and how calm is the personal commodity that most people should be investing in right now.    Financial journalist Allan Sloan discusses how one share of stock in a Detroit bank — purchased for about 40 bucks a half century ago so that he would be allowed into the company's annual meetings — has turned into about $5,000, highlighting the power of dividend reinvestments and time. Sloan — who made several small stock purchases in his wife's name over the years in order to access meetings and information that non-shareholders would have been excluded from — talks about how reinvesting turned insignificant payments into something much more meaningful.

Sean Clark, chief investment officer at Clark Capital Management Group, says that while markets tend to whipsaw around headline events like the war in Iran, the initial market reaction — historically a decline of about 7 percent — gives way to a bounce-back that helps investors a few months after the turmoil starts.  As a result, he's suggesting that investors "be cautious with their allocations and don't make any big changes" despite their nervousness over the news cycle. David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, says that recent layoffs at Meta Platforms are a signal of bigger troubles brewing, and that broader tech layoffs at companies like Oracle and Amazon are a sign of rouble. While not expecting stocks like Meta to crater, Trainer makes the case that as a weaker player in the artificial-intelligence game, the company could be looking at a lot of capital expenditures that don't necessarily boost the bottom line. As a result, he pegs the stock's value at hundreds of dollars less than its current trading range. Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says that Micron Technologies has the fundamentals to be a darling on Wall Street, but the market sentiment has soured on the company, dropping the stock prive hard despite recent guidance that was well beyond what analysts' have been estimating for the company. In "The Week That Is," he also discusses higher oil prices and how consumers should expect them to stay higher for about two months — noting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's quote about 50 days of discomfort on pricing — before expecting substantive change. He also discusses the latest wave of artificial intelligence that now seems to be taking over thinking that was current as recently as a week or two ago, and how the fast developments are an issue investors need to be aware of, even if they should not be too reactive to them.

Nick Venditti, senior portfolio manager and head of the municipal fixed income team at Allspring Global Investments, says that in a world worried about the macro picture and geopolitics, municipal bonds are a safe haven that is almost completely unaffected by global strife. The sector is delivering reasonable yields and is "fundamentally very strong from a bottom-up credit perspective," Venditti says, calling it a "no-brainer, free lunch kind of trade" for investors to move from money-market funds to short-term muni bonds, where rates are better and tax benefits create a boost on return.   John Cole Scott, President of CEF Advisors — the Chairman of the Active Investment Company Institute — says that closed-end funds are being buffeted in two directions due to current headlines, with war in Iran impacting net asset values and anchored interest rates impacting levered closed-end funds, with discounts moving as a result. He put his firm's "Trifecta analysis" to work, with four funds to consider now: ticker symbols AFB, ARDC, CSQ and MEGI.    Author Lee Freeman-Shor discusses "Stock Market Maestros: The Winning Habits, Strategies and Mindsets of the World's Best Investors," discusses how he identified a group of lesser-known investment stars and what they do that makes them great, and that individuals can do to learn from and replicate those results.

Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer at Merk Investments and the Merk Funds, says that the Federal Reserve's Wednesday disclosures were not a surprise, but do suggest a bit of a ho-hum attitude that the market has over the situation in Iran. Mostly, he says, the market is pricing things as if the tensions and resulting impacts on the oil market will remain short-term disruptions. He discusses his expectations for oil, god and more in the Big Interview.    Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, also looks at gold, with his pick for the ETF of the Week, and does it in a way that is unusual for him, because it focuses more on the fund's expenses than his typical weekly selection.     Alex Morris, chief executive officer at F/m investments, talks about the firm's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to tokenize its Treasury fund, a first-of-its-kind move that has potential to change the way ETFs trade, making them directly accessible on the blockchain. He discusses the industry implications but also why this is the obvious next step in integrating crypto into the rest of the financial world.    Plus, Chuck filled up his gas tank yesterday, and the price was 90 cents higher than the last time he was at the pump. Rather than complain, he discussed the situation with people at nearby pumps, and he describes the politically diverse conversation and his takeaways from it.

Paul Christopher, head of global investment strategy for the Wells Fargo Investment Institute says that a short conflict in Iran remains his base case, noting that the war has been proceeding at a slightly faster pace than he might have expected. Facing a limited but intense war with economic consequences, Christopher suggested investors should rebalance a portfolio more than make moves designed to try to take advantage of short swings caused by the conflict. If the Iran War lasts more than a few months or pushes oil prices past $150 per barrel, Christopher says that could change the game and create a deeper, lingering downturn. MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends discusses the thinking behind his recent column on why he doesn't expect oil prices to top $150 per barrel. Dave Brown, chief executive officer at Hays Staffing discusses the firm's 2026 Salary & Hiring Trends Report, which talked about how disruptive artificial intelligence has become for the job market. The annual study showed that A.I. is changing not only the way employers are hiring but the way workers are applying for jobs, and why that doesn't necessarily improve conditions for either side. Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about his side gig as a lacrosse referee, and about finding the right side job in general.  

Jeanette Garretty, chief economist at Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, says that rising oil prices and higher inflation have increased the possibility of a recession. While she says the operating outlook for investors is that the war in Iran will last a few more weeks, with oil starting to flow again quickly, which will make current events quickly forgettable as the economy returns to its pre-war growth path. But she notes that the path is uncertain, and the longer war persists and sours economic numbers, the more it draws out potential problems. "The challenge," Garretty says, "is the recovery ... if it doesn't look like what everyone expects."    Veteran technical analyst Adam Grimes,  president of MarketLife, says the market has reached "a point where I would want to be raising capital, where I would want to be defensive with long exposure. This is not a point where I want to put capital to work." Grimes says he sees the potential for a bad short-term downturn, noting that "[my] definition of bad is 50 to 60 percent." Grimes acknowledged that he sounds "like the raving crazy person at the top of the mountain," but he says that market cycles and enormous moves do repeat itself and the market is making a big decline a more-realistic possibility, which hasn't made him move out of the market but has made him more defensive.    Mark Burrage, senior vice president at PenFed Home at PenFed Credit Union, discusses the wide range of factors that are making homebuyers uncomfortable, and what families can do to overcome the issues they are facing in buying a home.

Bill Davis, portfolio manager for Stance Capital and the Hennessy Sustainable ETF, says that current events have contributed to some market rotation back towards mega-cap tech names, because the market views them as comparative safe names that are not correlated to oil prices. That represents what he expects to be a short-term reversal in trends because the market had been moving broadening out, with the Magnificent 7 stocks struggling. He expects that trend to resume and continue as the headline risk subsides, when he expects the market to continue moving the market away from communications services and big tech toward more defensive and value-oriented stocks.    David Trainer, president at New Constructs, focuses The Danger Zone on "residual value guarantees" — which hide debt off-balance sheets allowing companies to spend money and to have liabilities that it mostinvestors will not know about until or unless a problem makes them surface. He says the says the phenomenon is particularly acute with artificial-intelligence companies, where a lot of money is being invested into construction that is backed by residual-value guarantees, and he singles out Oracle and Meta Platforms as two examples where the practice adds to New Constructs' unfavorable opinion of the stocks.     Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says that he expects oil prices to remain elevated until there is more clarity in the Strait of Hormuz, but that prices should snap back quickly to lower levels once the supply chain is clearly restored. In waiting for that clarity, he suggests oil tankers as a play on the situation, noting that it's a picks-and-shovels play on the industry, and that the tankers are making money even as they sit filled with oil waiting for resolution. He also discusses why Microsoft's recent decline is not something long-term investors should worry about, and more in "The Week That Is."

Robert Gilhooly, senior emerging markets economist at Aberdeen Investments, discusses the adage that the first shots of war are a time to be buying investments, and he says investors might want to take more of a wait-and-see approach, at least until they get more clarity on how the war in Iran will impact oil prices. While President Trump has moved to keep the price of oil below $100 a barrel, Gilhooly makes a case that if the tensions drag out, oil could quickly rise to $175 a barrel, a level high enough that it might cause a global recession. In the end, he expects a quick return to pre-war economic activity levels, including one interest-rate cut later this year -- if hostilities subside quickly.    Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott says that headline risks are diverting attention from a bond market that, in the long run, should be driven by positive economic conditions and decelerating inflation. The war in Iran is creating what he thinks will be more temporary conditions that scare investors but that don't amount to much long-term change in the market's outlook. LeBas expects corporate profits this year to be roughly 12%, which is strong enough to help the corporate bond market, which he also thinks will be buoyed by the hyper-scalers needing to borrow money to put it to work to keep up in the development race.     Bernie Horn, manager of the Polaris Global Value fund, returns to the Market Call to discuss stocks and international markets in the face of current events. Like Bill Smead -- a value manager who was on the show earlier this week -- he talks about how value investing suffered while the stock market was in hot-growth mode led by the Magnificent Seven. Now, however, market valuations are high, which is setting up a rotation that he says will favor value-minded investors moving forward.

Jay Jacobs, U.S. head of equity ETFs at BlackRock, says that the artificial-intelligence revolution has delivered massive spending, but not at levels that have been spent relative to gross domestic product, during other generational shifts like the introduction of the automobile. As a result, while he understands the bubble concerns, he expects AI to continue holding its place among BlackRock's global thematic trends. Also on that list of trends is geopolitical shifts, which were well underway before current events evolved into a war in Iran; because those trends were in place before today's developments, Jacobs says he doesn't expect markets or outlooks to be dramatically impacted by headline events. Jacobs also discusses the new iShares Staked Ethereum fund, a new development in the crypto space, which the firm is launching today. Wade Pfau,  professor of retirement income, at The American College of Financial Services, discusses his revised, third edition of "Retirement Planning Guidebook: Navigating the Important Decisions for Retirement Success," which includes a new section covering sequence-of-inflation risk. Pfau says that concern -- which financial advisers mostly overlooked -- is particularly important now given growing concerns about sticky inflation, and that it may be as important for retirement savers as sequence-of-return risk, which Chuck typically says is his biggest retirement-savings worry. Plus, Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, leans into global turmoil this week, picking a diversified international fund as his ETF of the Week.

Bill Smead, manager of the Smead Value fund, says that by nearly every indicator, the stock market is at valuation levels seldom seen in American history, with the Standard & Poor's 500 trading "at more than 220% of GDP, the most dangerous number, virtually, we have ever seen." That does not make him want to get out of the market, however, as he says in the Market Call that "the problem everybody's got is that most of the money is in the place that is likely to do the poorest over the next 10 years, because it has done the best the last 15 years, and that is our opportunity."    Ed Cofrancesco, chief executive officer at International Assets Advisory, says that investors have good reason to be skittish right now because the market has dropped off of highs, but he doesn't expect things to get really bad so that further market drops are an opportunity to dig in and make tactical purchases. In The Big Interview, Cofrancesco talks about his concerns about inflation — which he calls "an insidious tax on the working class and the poor" — noting that if it stays higher for longer it can change retirement-spending trajectories that investors need to plan for.    Jennifer White, senior director, banking and payments intelligence at JD Power,  discusses the firm's recent report showing that the financial health of American consumers has reached a 12-month low. She notes that the firm is classifying more consumers as financially unhealthy, in large part due to the stubbornly high cost of consumer goods, noting that current events which could create a spike in oil prices and which threaten more inflation weren't yet factored into the numbers, making the outlook for consumers that much more troubling.