Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

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The mistake you make planning for retirement like your parents did Jul 21, 2026

Show notes

Personal finance journalist Brian O'Connor discusses his recent New York Times article "You're About to Retire. What Are You Doing for the Next 20 or 30 Years?" and explores how retirement planning is pivoting from a focus on the numbers to an emphasis on the lifestyle you want, noting that too many people miss out by putting the math first. O'Connor discusses how and why financial planning has changed, noting that previous generations were so focused on taking over responsibility for their retirement savings as pensions were phased out that they didn't consider what retirement meant beyond having no active paycheck.

Allison Hadley, an analyst at Digital Third Coast, discusses a survey she did for American Home Shield looking at cost-of-living concerns for homeowners, which found that nearly half are primarily "enjoying their mortgage" this summer, cutting back on travel and socializing to deal with rising costs for gas, groceries and electricity. More than half of the homeowners surveyed worry that inflation is ruining their summer.

Plus, in The Book Interview, Jack Schwager discusses his recent addition to his long-running "Market Wizards" series, discussing "Market Wizards: The Next Generation: The World's Top Young Traders Reveal How They Beat The Market."

Mark Hamrick: The hallmarks of a recession aren't here ... yet Jul 20, 2026

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Mark Hamrick, chief economic analyst at The Hamrick Brief, says that the current affordability crisis has the potential to trigger a recession, if it gets to where there's a slowdown in spending that spills over to impact employment levels. That said, Hamrick says current conditions aren't yet deserving of the label of "economic crisis," even if it feels that way for some individuals and households, effectively the bottom portion of the k-shaped recovery. Still, Hamrick says the remarkable facet of the U.S. economy is that it has been able to avoid recession for this long.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says "Mr. Market is a manic depressive," and is showing those tendencies by getting so excited by positive guidance and potential that the reaction to strong earnings reports has been horrible stock action. He expects that to potentially continue this week, when the focus of earnings season shifts to A.I.-driven companies like Alphabet, Intel and Tesla. Marolia says the market's earnings swings have contributed to an ongoing downturn for tech stocks, though he believes it's more of a buying opportunity than the start of a correction. Plus, with June's inflation reading being partly positive (better than May) mixed with negative (worse than when conflict started with Iran), "Captain Inflation" gives his take on how to best read and cope with the numbers.

David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, says that while fans may believe Jersey Mike's is "a sub above," the company's initial public offering is a deal from below. While the IPO's launch date hasn't been determined, Trainer says the expected $12 billion valuation is at least double what he thinks the numbers justify, and that the deal — particularly at that level — mostly benefits the private-equity firm that took control of Jersey Mike's in 2025.

Annex Wealth's Jacobsen: Economic expansion will drive growth at least into '27 Jul 17, 2026

Show notes

Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist for Annex Wealth Management, says there are signs of a broad-based economic expansion, which gives him a "fairly constructive outlook for the economy over the next six to 12 months," though he is concerned about policy shocks that could unsettle things. Jacobsen warns that investors should not be too excited about situations where the general feeling is "It could have been worse," such as recent inflation numbers or the impact of the war in Iran, but they should take some positivity from the Federal Reserve and its new chairman Kevin Warsh, who Jacobsen says doesn't really want "to pump the brakes on this economy" any time soon.

Scott Brown, chief strategist at Brown Technical Insights, says that the stock market just lived through the best second quarter ever for a midterm election year, which is a bullish sign for the rest of the year and getting through the standard troubles that come in midterm years. Brown says there is upside potential "but you want to be careful about where you are looking for it," warning that semiconductor names are correcting and that there is more downside risk there. Instead, he is looking at industrials, health care and financials as areas with positive potential.

In The NAVigator, Ray DiBernardo, portfolio manager for the XAI Madison Equity Premium Income fund, says the stock market's high valuation levels have increased downside risk, making it that nervous investors should consider covered-call strategies, which trade some of the market's potential upside for downside protection. For nervous investors, DiBernardo says the options strategy acts like portfolio insurance, but that it is particularly attractive in the closed-end fund wrapper where covered-call funds generally are at a discount with the market near highs; that discount helps to make up for the upside potential investors surrender when choosing the strategy.

In the Market Call, Brian Frank, manager of the Frank Value Fund, talks about absolute-value investing, noting that "nothing in the tech sector really is cheap" on an absolute basis, which has him looking more towards consumer staples and other areas that he says are trading at a discount. he also discusses the important of not just buying stocks on the cheap but having a potential catalyst to unlock that value.

CFRA's Stovall: Rising volatility creates buying opportunities with a year-end payoff Jul 16, 2026

Show notes

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research says investors should "be prepared for some additional volatility" at least until and through the midterm elections, but he thinks it represents "a reason to buy, not to bail." Stovall says that he's looking for solid double-digit earnings growth into 2027, and he makes the case that the technology sector has been driving the market higher but remains trading at a relative discount in price/earnings ratio. Traditional summer market doldrums, therefore, set up chances to profit from a rally he expects once the voting is done. Further, he points to the market's expanded breadth which, when combined with a positive first half of the year, historically is a sign that the market will rise over the rest of the year. Stovall's big worry for the economy and market involves the Federal Reserve and the potential for higher rates to lead to stagflation and other condition changes, but he's not expecting the Fed to move rates this year, so he thinks those worries are further into the future.

Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, has focused a lot of his recent ETF of the Week picks on actively managed funds, but today he goes with a hot fund based on a technology-heavy index as something that would work well for investors who expect the market's uptrend to continue.

In the Market Call, Manny Weintraub, principal at Cannell & Spears, talks about how he finds "super great stocks that are not going to kill you" and whether stocks in the hottest sectors are being set up to murder investors when market conditions and sentiments change.

Freedom Capital's Woods: Block out the noise, be patient during earnings season Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, says that the market has a "Janet Jackson - What Have You Done for Me Lately" attitude, which has made earnings cycles particularly volatile, and he thinks that will be amplified with the earnings on tap right now powering market moves, especially around market misses. While he believes earnings will be strong, he warns in the Market Call that "prices may not follow them," particularly as the market enters its slowest time of the year around a mid-term election cycle. Woods says that the stock market has seen a healthy rotation, but he expects a pullback before a year-end rally; in the meantime, he warns against chasing rallies.

Adam Mead of Mead Capital Management and Watchlist Investing — author of "The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway" — talks about the evolution of legendary investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, how the company they ran is changing with Buffett's retirement and the legacy they will; have in the decades ahead. The new edition of the book was inspired after Mead saw Buffett at Berkshire's annual meeting after the nonagenarian announced his retirement.

Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about hiring a financial adviser and whether working with the brand-name firm that has renewed its nationwide advertising blitz on television would be all that it's cracked up to be. (Spoiler alert: Not exactly.)

TheoTrade's Bierman: 'Get ready for a spectacular year-end rally' Jul 14, 2026

Show notes

Jeffrey Bierman, chief market technician at TheoTrade — where he runs the Genesis Cog and Burn Signal platforms — says the stock market remains "ridiculously strong," but that won't allow it to sidestep a summer slowdown and a difficult fall, before picking back up with a tremendous rally near the end of the year. He makes it clear that current conditions are not looking like a bear market or a bubble, and while the market has gotten a bit ahead of itself, he's thinking it's mostly choppy with maybe a small setback before it starts the next leg up.

David Leiter, who runs The Ultimate Investor website, discusses his new book, "Stop Making Stupid Investments," and gives his take on everything from initial public offerings — and pre-IPO investments — to cryptocurrency and more, and focuses on the emotional control that helps investors avoid the key blunders that can bring a portfolio crashing down.

In the Market Call, Max Wasserman, co-founder and senior portfolio manager at Miramar Capital, talks about how everyone is jumping so hard into technology stocks that it's "hard to find a great company at a good price." He discusses where he is finding the right valuations for his dividend-driven investment style, and what kinds of companies fit his long-term buying perspective now.

Argosy's Stewart: An 'under-housed' country is creating opportunities Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

Andy Stewart, co-chief executive officer at Argosy Real Estate Partners, says that housing affordability issues that have made headlines are real and persistent, but there are some solutions over time, coming from building smaller homes, changes in interest rates and in public policies like the new affordability legislation that became law on Friday. It also means there are big opportunities in the single-family build-to-rent market and more, and those opportunities should be persistent and long-term. Stewart also talks about issues in data center construction — and whether the opportunity is moving too fast — and the continuing evolution of commercial real estate, where he sees "a generational buying opportunity" for patient, long-term investors.

Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says the record domestic IPO for SK Hynix last week and ASML Holdings on Wednesday, should remind investors to balance big numbers with appropriate caution, because the profit potential comes with white-hot volatility. He also looks at how financial and banking stocks could be in for a rough earnings cycle when they start reporting results this week, with their numbers reflecting how right or wrong they were in anticipating how the Federal Reserve and new chairman Kevin Warsh would respond to economic conditions. Plus, he also looks at housing affordability and how new legislation may impact the picture.

David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, looks at current earnings trends and sees some ugly misses coming during the second quarter, not because companies are sandbagging earnings expectations, but because they're not as solid as the Street believes. He says a number of those stocks — and he singled out Fidelity National Information Services — are headed for trouble when the street figures things out after seeing an earnings miss.

Stack Financial's Jonson foresees a 'bear market waterfall' ahead Jul 10, 2026

Show notes

Zach Jonson, chief investment officer at Stack Financial Management, says the stock market is building towards "one of the biggest or largest bear markets of our generation," but he says that decline will impact passive, broad-index investors the most. "We see a true long-term, 12- to 18-month, 45 to 50 downturn, and that's in the S&P; if you look at the Nasdaq, you could really see some losses that are in excess of 70 percent," Jonson said. He's worried about a "bear market waterfall" — where every decline is not met with a quick return back to new highs — that makes it emotionally difficult for investors to buy into dips, but he does say that being patient and strategic should allow investors to find pockets of opportunity amid the decline, positioning them to profit when the pendulum swings back to the upside.

Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer at Merk Investments, discusses Saba Capital's activist campaign that recently saw him booted as portfolio manager for ASA Gold and Precious Metals Ltd., a closed-end fund that was up nearly 200% last year and that was at the top of its peer group since Merk took it over in 2016. Still, the activist shareholders labeled it a poor performer, and are working now to capture the fund's discount. Meanwhile, Saba has installed new leadership which Merk says has no experience running a gold fund. He filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and made other efforts to save the fund, but acknowledges that a change in status is unlikely. Merk also discusses his outlook for gold in the interview.

Adam Gebler, head of wealth for the Americas at FTSE Russell, discusses the firm's 2026 U.S. Wealth Pulse Survey, which showed that private markets — both equity and credit — are continuing to move into the mainstream with affluent investors, driven largely by financial advisers pushing for their adoption and acceptance in portfolios.

Evanston Cap's VanGelder: Complicated global picture creates intriguing opportunities Jul 09, 2026

Show notes

Kristen VanGelder, co-chief investment officer at Evanston Capital — a firm that manages hedge funds built out of hedge funds — says that sophisticated money managers have very different sentiments about current market conditions than Main Street investors, noting that where average investors are showing lousy sentiment numbers, sharpies are leaning into the market's increasing "dispersion" and the ability to play one thing against the next to turn volatility into profits. She says that global macro investors "have the glimmer in their eye," because the pressure of war and a complicated global inflationary picture are creating opportunities beyond what investors can fund sticking with fundamental investing domestically.

Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, goes away from his long-running trend of focusing on actively managed ETFs and turns to a new Vanguard high-yield corporate bond index fund as his "ETF of the Week," noting that the ultra-low fees on the fund and the outperformance of the index make it something to consider now.

In the Market Call, Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager for Globalt Investments, discusses his earnings-driven investment style and what to make of the volatile market reactions around perceived "sand-bagging," where companies meet profit projections but the Street doesn't think expectations were set high enough.

Calamos' Freund: 'It's very hard to be pessimistic about the broad market' Jul 08, 2026

Show notes

Matt Freund, co-chief investment officer at Calamos Investments, says a resilient economy is producing "shocking numbers for a mid-cycle economy," powering through problems in a way that puts the Federal Reserve on hold, avoiding interest rate hikes this year and returning to a bias towards cutting in 2027. Freund thinks that it's "back to the future" for the Fed, with new chairman Kevin Warsh bringing the central bank to where less information and guidance makes for more policy flexibility, even if it results in some additional volatility since the policy path will be less well-defined. Freund says the chances of recession in the next year are low, but that investors have to remain cognizant that "every mountain has two sides and, at some point, the string of good years can't go on forever."

Meb Faber, chief executive and chief investment officer at Cambria Investments, returns to the show a day after his Big Interview appearance to discuss his new book, "Investing in America: The Rise of a 250-Year Bull Market." He discusses what he expects the future to look like and why the bull market can continue almost indefinitely but why investors may not want to focus entirely on domestic investments in the future.

Plus, Chuck answers a listener's question about the cheap, small-dollar life-insurance policies advertised regularly on television and whether seniors are better off going for the convenience of those policies or looking for other ways to protect their families.

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