Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Steve Rick, chief economist at TruStage, is forecasting slightly faster economic growth for 2027 — 2.2% real GDP growth compared to about 2% this year — "so nothing great ... good, but nothing to write home about." That should be enough to keep the economy moving forward, and Rick cautions against reading too much into some negative numbers, noting that unemployment levels reflect the classic level for full employment, and that slow job growth is appropriate given workforce trends in the United States. Rick does worry how a stretched consumer could curtail spending to increase savings, which would slow the economy; if that is coupled with a stock market suffering a sell-off due to high valuations and A.I.-related tensions, that could end the bull market and economic expansion in one disappointing turn.

In the Money Life Market Call, Wasif Latif, president and chief investment officer at Sarmaya Partners — which manages the Sarmaya Thematic ETF — discusses what he sees as an ongoing commodities "super cycle" and how that has him leaning into gold, but also oil and other physical commodities, all the while largely avoiding a lot of the technology sector and getting his artificial-intelligence exposure from A.I.-adjacent plays like energy companies.

Plus, Chuck answers a question from a listener who is eligible for Social Security but hasn't taken it yet, and who is nervous about getting their money but hearing from a financial adviser that they should wait until age 70 to start collecting. Chuck's suggestion for what the listener should do goes against conventional wisdom — and is different from what he says he and Gail will do when it comes to collecting Social Security — but that's because there's no right or wrong in the decision, only what is right for each individual who has to make the choice.

David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, put a pre-IPO Anthropic in The Danger Zone today, saying the $2 trillion valuation is "absolutely absurd" for a business that is burning tons of cash, facing vicious competition and "with no conceivable profit margin ... when it's being valued as if it will have profits bigger than the most profitable companies in the world today." He says Wall Street is using Anthropic's IPO as "exit liquidity" to cash out on the money they've invested privately in the company, but the deal is shifting the bag and pushing the trouble down the road, making it "an absolute rip-off for public investors." Trainer last used the "most ridiculous IPO" tag in 2019, on WeWork, where his research helped to scrap the launch; the company dropped its value, went public raising much less money through an acquisition and, ultimately, went to zero. Trainer says Anthropic's lack of earnings could be just as problematic.

In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, addresses Micron Technologies stock, which Wall Street has been wavering on despite its latest quarterly earnings showing year-over-year growth of 1,000 percent (yes, that's real). With skepticism driving Micron's price/earnings ratio below 15 — more than 40 percent lower than the p/e for the S&P 500 — Marolia uses his firm's five-lens approach to break down why he thinks the market is making the wrong call on one of its true stars. Marolia also digs into the job numbers and warns about reading falling jobs numbers and rising unemployment as a sign of recession when the economy is still growing and the unemployment rate has not climbed out of a level that traditionally has represented "full employment." Plus, he discusses the pluses and minuses of a recent SEC proposal that would let mutual funds charge performance fees, bringing more types of investments to the general public, but with a new level/structure for fees.

In the Market Call, David Rosenstrock, director of investments and financial planning at Wharton Wealth Planning, talks about exchange-traded funds and putting them together in portfolios, noting that "the biggest risk [to investors] isn't the economy or market risk or inflationary risk, the biggest risk is that the portfolio is not properly aligned with the owner's goals and needs."

Steve Cucchiaro, chief executive and chief investment officer at 3Edge Asset Management, says that the market is masking potential troubles, flirting with record highs despite having "more than 85% of the S&P 500 companies in bear markets." As a result, he says investors need to b e prepared to get defensive, riding with the "short-term factors that are propelling the market higher" without losing sight of long-term factors that are likely to slow the market. Cucchiaro says that the price-to-sales ratio today is at an all-time high by a wide margin; while this doesn't say when a correction or crash is coming, it does suggest that when a correction comes "the amount that we are at risk is very severe." He says, as a result, long-term buy-and-hold will be very uncomfortable for investors who try to ride it out without getting defensive.

Anthropic's initial public offering could value the company at over $2 trillion, so John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors, looks at how investors can buy pre-IPO stakes using closed-end funds, interval funds and ETFs that work in the private markets, and says that getting exposure to Anthropic and other popular IPOs isn't the hard part, paying for the right wrapper is. Scott evaluates several funds of different structures to show what investors are buying, what they're paying per dollar of private exposure and why they need an exit strategy before they get in. He also discusses which fund and structure he would use for clients, and why some investors with different goals might make another choice.

In the Market Call, Jeff Auxier president of Auxier Asset Management and manager of the Auxier Focus Fund, talks value investing and says "the shopping list is growing," though he is expecting and hoping for "rougher, better times" and at least a modest downturn to make more stocks attractive. Auxier notes that in times when he foresees some trouble, he's looking for stocks with earnings "strong enough to be tennis balls" – bouncing through downturns – rather than "chicken eggs," which fall and splat.

Cheryl Smith, economist at Trillium Asset Management, says she is seeing "more economic warning signs," and worries that one of them — interest rates going up, but much later than might have been anticipated based on headlines — could be setting up a compressed timeline for increases, with the rapidity of the move creating more problems than would have surfaced in a slower uptrend. On the stock market, Smith says the rising interest rates will have an impact that, coupled with slower earnings and turns in the artificial-intelligence market make it that "You will see a considerably more difficult path for equities in 2027."

In the Market Call, Eric Marshall, president of Hodges Capital Management and co-portfolio manager on three of the Hodges Funds, talks about bottoms-up stock-picking and the small-cap market .

Plus, Stan Haithcock — best known as "Stan the Annuity Man" — returns to the show to answer questions, including one from a listener who is nervous about the stock market and looking to take some money out without losing the income stream that those dividends have been delivering.

Kristian Kerr, head of macro strategy at LPL Financial, says that the market has shaken off the impact of higher oil prices, leading investors to a sense of complacency, where they think only a much higher spike in crude prices will upset the economy. He feels, however, that "the longer we are at these levels the harder it becomes to ignore," noting that the same kind of thinking can also be applied to rising bond yields, where the market is deciding just how real the fears are, but where they can't ignore the issue indefinitely. Kerr isn't calling for a major market reversal, but more for caution and diversification, because he believes that at some point many of the fears over headline risks will be realized.

Author Daniel Goldie discusses his new book, out today, "The Retirement Answer: The 6 Key Decisions Every Retiree Needs to Make," which covers timing, Social Security , Medicare, distribution strategies, investments and legacy choices

In the Market Call, Aniket Ullal, head of ETF data and analytics at CFRA, discusses exchange-traded funds, which sectors appear to be in favor now, the difficulties in evaluating newfangled funds with options overlays or leveraged, single-stock strategies and more.

John Kosar, chief market strategist at Asbury Research, says this is "one of the oddest markets" he's seen, with stocks nearly at record highs, two-decade highs in the yield of long-term Treasury bonds, a war, tariffs, oil priced at over $100 per barrel, and yet less stocks are making fresh highs and the Magnificent Seven stocks are carrying the load for the entire market. If the "big gorilla stocks" falter — which Kosar says is likely at some point — the market could topple like a Jenga tower. Kosar isn't out of stocks yet, but he's watching volatility and more, prepping to play defense soon.

Josh Wein, portfolio manager at the Hennessy Funds, says that oil prices -- rather than Federal Reserve rate hikes — are "the big wildcard for the market" right now, noting that he expects the market to easily absorb the first two increases, and maybe more. One reason for that, Wein says, is that it's now earnings — rather than the Fed -- that are driving the market and investor sentiment. Wein, who manages 10 funds at Hennessy, says he expects a small rally as third-quarter earnings come out, getting better into the end of the year.

Jeff Muhlenkamp, portfolio manager for the Muhlenkamp Fund, explains in the Market Call why his fund is holding a larger allocation to gold and gold miners than ever before in its long history, discusses valuation concerns around earnings and talks about why the "hold" decision is as important as the buys and sells.

David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs has been cautious about artificial-intelligence stocks for a long time, noting that few of them pass his firm's rigorous evaluation criteria to be "attractive" investments, but he now says that liquidity concerns for the big-name A.I. players have him convinced that the market is in an A.I. bubble. That doesn't mean a crash is imminent — he notes that "Bubbles can go on for a long time" — but he says that once liquidity dries up, trouble will come quickly. Trainer says recent signs of shrinking liquidity include: delayed IPOs, "skyrocketing borrowing costs," a rapid rise in the cost of default credit swaps (which protect investors against default), " and a "risk-free rate" that's saying it's way more expensive to borrow. It adds up to a building problem that he says is closer to the edge, but is largely ignored in the other, more popular conversations about what's potentially wrong with A.I.

Joanne Bianco, senior investment strategist at BondBloxx, says that the surge in Treasury yields to levels not seen in decades "is beyond most people's expectations," but she says higher rates haven't been scary yet because strong economic conditions have kept the market stable. That will persist for at least one more rate hike by the Federal Reserve — which the market already seems to be pricing in — but how she says it is less clear how the market will respond if there are more hikes down the line. She discusses the parts of the yield curve and risk spectrum she finds most attractive right now, given the rate picture, inflation and more.

And — in an interview that goes in directions opposite to the others — Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, says he's not buying A.I. panic stories, noting that he believes they are mostly about the industry's powerbrokers trying to create "regulatory capture," using rules where the real purpose is to protect their current competitive advantages. He also discusses the sudden rise in bond yields and the potential risk that poses to bond fund investors, suggesting they'd be better off holding bonds directly, planning to capture the yield to maturity, and using a laddered approach so that higher-rate paper is routinely being added to the portfolio as rates climb. Plus, Vijay talks about the rise in 401(k) millionaires, and how it's more a phenomenon of market growth and inflation than a meaningful milestone, noting that savers should focus on their needs and whether their plan and savings level will get them to a level of sufficiency.

Brian Levitt, chief global market strategist at Invesco, says investors are watching dual forces at play: a structural growth story in artificial intelligence and a cyclical upswing in the global economy. That has allowed the market to "absorb all of this," from higher oil prices and rising Treasury yields to the first of what will likely be multiple interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Levitt discounted most of the worrisome factors investors have been focused on with the market, saying "The onus is on the bears at this point" to show that potential troubles will play out. He doesn't believe that stocks are overvalued or that higher energy prices or borrowing costs will break the artificial-intelligence development cycle, which he thinks remains in its early stages of powering the market higher.

In The NAVigator segment, Matt Kence of Aberdeen Investments, discusses the current state of the high-yield market and how it has been responding to rising interest rates. Kence, the portfolio manager for the Aberdeen Credit Income Strategies fund says fundamentals remain fundamentals remain surprisingly robust, leverage levels overall are moderate and interest coverage remains strong, with defaults in the high-yield space well below long-term averages. Kence also discusses the impact that artificial intelligence is making on the market, noting that A.I.-adjacent industries like power generation feel stable but have narrow spreads, making A.I.-direct companies the better pick for attractive opportunities right now.

Plus, Natalie Iannello of Digital Third Coast discusses survey research done for BPG Inspections which found that 44% of Americans have experienced a moving issue or scam. Among the most-common problems encountered during moves: hidden fees or unexpected upcharges, belongings damaged without compensation, and delayed delivery.

Paula Pant, host of the Afford Anything podcast, says there are reasons why Americans feel like they can afford nothing these days, despite a stock market and economy that clearly are representing good times, noting that individuals are stuck in the contrast between rising asset values and stagnant income. "Your 401k balance might be doing really well, but you can't eat that," she says, which creates some level of financial strain. Pant also covers the importance of understanding inflation, setting spending priorities so that you can, indeed, afford anything while recognizing that you can't afford everything.

Personal finance expert Jean Chatzky discusses her latest book, "The Forever Paycheck: The New Retirement Strategy to Spend More, Worry Less, and Never Run Out of Money," and how she has come to see that much of conventional financial planning is focused incorrectly on how much someone needs to save rather than centering on how to generate sufficient income to live out their lives comfortably and without compromising on the things they most value. Beyond discussing how to create a lifetime paycheck using bank accounts, bonds and annuities, Jean highlights research showing that people with a structured income feel free to spend more of their money, rather than keeping their life savings tied up out of a fear of running out of money.

Plus, Melissa Stephenson discusses survey research done for CGTrader.com, a 3d model marketplace, which showed that rising costs have been impacting home repairs, with more than 60% of homeowners recently delaying repairs due to cost, and the same percentage saying that those higher costs make them more likely to try fixing something on their own rather than hiring an expert. Nearly half of the respondents said they could not comfortably cover a $250 surprise repair out of pocket.

Joe Saul-Sehy, host of the Stacking Benjamins podcast, visits Money Life to catch Chuck up on the things he missed at FinCon 2026 — held last week in California — but also to discuss how the personal finance world is changing in the face of lingering inflation, rising interest rates, increased influence from artificial intelligence, Robert Kiyosaki's $1.2 billion debt problem and much more. Saul-Sehy also discusses so-called "safe withdrawal rates," and says the "4 percent rule" drives him crazy, because it puts the focus on accumulating wealth rather than "creating a fulfilling life."

Author Renee Bryan discusses her book "The Morality of Money: Remove Fear and Discover Financial Freedom Through Simple Economic Principles and Universal Truths," and the intersection of faith and finance. Bryan talks about how economic principles can align with being a good person, and advocates for using moral principles to guide financial decisions, suggesting that a positive mindset can lead to personal prosperity.

Plus, Carlo Versano, director of politics and culture at Newsweek, discusses their recently reached American Dream Index, which examines how Americans perceive their ability to achieve success, prosperity, and upward mobility, looking at the issue from perceptions for the whole country down into attitudes in cities and states. The overall scores indicated a struggle across the board and, in fact, no state achieved a score above 70 on a scale of 100. That doesn't mean the American Dream is dead — far from it, according to Versano — but it does mean that people may need to choose different paths and different locations to have the best chance of achieving it in their lives.