Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Ed O'Gorman, chief executive and chief investment officer at River Wealth Advisors, says that despite headline risks, investors need to "participate, without being overexposed" to market forces, balancing risks and approaches. He notes that recent action indicates that the market is broadening out, highlighting that an equal-weighted approach recently has delivered better results and lower returns, a sign that it's a good time to diversify and rebalance portfolios into the face of the news cycle.
Bob Powell, retirement columnist at TheStreet.com and the co-founder of FinStream TV, dives into new research showing that household spending tends to decline modestly over the course of retirement, typically by small annual amounts that turn into big money over the decades of retirement. He has created a "Retirement Reality Check" that lets investors see for themselves how spending reductions -- the standard pattern, even if not conventional wisdom -- change the trajectories of retirement savings and spending.
With the "ETF of the Week,"Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, focuses on a large-cap value fund that in its three-plus year history has accumulated what may be the most accolades and honors of any fund, getting perfect marks from both Morningstar and Lipper, with a structure and management discipline that should lead to continued future success.
Plus, Emily Fanous discusses survey work she did for Credible.com study which found that 77% of Americans engaged last year in risky financial activities.

John Kosar, chief market strategist at Asbury Research, says money managers are moving from the market's racehorses to its sure-footed burros, saying it's a sign of "the very late stages of an up move or the beginning stages of the market starting to roll over." Kosar says the market has some room to correct and stay in bull market territory, but he thinks investors want to be cautious here until the rotation is complete. "I'm not saying doom and gloom and we';re done for the year," Kosar says, "but if you want to put on more risk ... this is a lousy place to do it." He's expecting a 5 to 7 percent move down, at which point the market will be much more attractive.
In the Market Call, deep-value investor Michael Campagna, co-founder and senior investment analyst at Moerus Capital Management, discusses how the high levels of domestic stocks have him more interested in international investments, but he is finding plenty of opportunities around the globe,including, surprisingly, some that are derivative plays from the artificial-intelligence boom.
Plus, Chuck discusses the parts of Tuesday's State of the Union address that had him scratching his head about math and political processes, and digs into statements that were made about inflation, tariffs, Social Security, the level of promised foreign investments into the United States, the scope of fraud in government programs and more.

Economist Steven Durlauf, a professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, weighs in on the fallout from Friday's Supreme Court decision that the Trump Administration had exceeded its authority in declaring tariffs as being necessary under emergency conditions. While the move put an end to the previously announced tariffs, Durlauf discusses the uncertain benefits of the changes, noting that there are some monies that could flow back to consumers or prices that could decrease, but that most of the impacts will be more on the policy and economy fronts than to the pocketbooks of consumers and the coffers of businesses. 
David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs, says that technology investors could be headed for trouble as he expects the sector to roll over "and take several steps back," bogged down with more balance sheets showing an overload of debt.  He notes that tech stocks have benefitted from momentum investing and buy-the-dips thinking, but if earnings slow down — as he expects — and off-balance sheet debts hit home, the sector will lag other parts of the market.
Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital says that he expects GDP numbers to come roaring back from last week's disappointment, noting that the 4%-plus growth he sees for much of the rest of the year is more than just recovering the gross domestic product lost late last year to the government shutdown. He does not expect that growth to be derailed by continuing trade-policy and tariff uncertainty, which reached new heights last week after the Supreme Court decision. Also in "The Week That Is," Vijay discusses his experience playing around on prediction markets and how that has led him to see that those platforms — which most see as a different form of gambling — will have real impacts on investment theory and strategy in the very near future.

Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, says the economy is strong and "not looking at a recession here," but  that hot economy benefits cyclical stocks rather than the Magnificent Seven stocks, and that limits just how much the market can gain ground. With technology "set for a down year," the other areas of the market can't generate enough gains — even in a robust economy — to make 2026 positive. He also notes the market has been running in a "three year on, one year off" cycle, and he thinks that will impact tech companies this year." Torres still expects rate cuts and thinks any downturn will be relatively short lived and not too deep, but enough for where investors should adjust their expectations.
John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors, sizes up the prospects for the first new IPO the closed-end fund industry has seen in several years, and from a surprising source. Robinhood markets, the investment platform, will launch next week Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a concentrated portfolio of private companies. Scott, who also serves as chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, discusses the role private equities can play in a portfolio, as well as the challenges investors face in sizing up a fund with a net asset value entirely based on the "value" of illiquid shares that don't trade in public markets.
Billy Hensley, president of the National Endowment for Financial Education discusses the group's recent poll on how American adults view their financial well-being, which found that seven of eight respondents were feeling some form of financial stress as they entered the year, with more than three-quarters of all respondents having suffered a financial setback in 2025.

Greg Daco, chief economist at EY, says the economy has been dealing with historic and conflicting economic shocks, but if it can continue the current capital investment cycle and see the productivity gains promised by artificial intelligence, it should be able to remain resilient in pushing past wobbles and weakness. Daco, who currently serves as the president of the National Association for Business Economics, discusses his concerns that growing polarization between different consumers and businesses are increasing the fragility of what he calls "the A pillars of economic growth" — affluent consumers, A.I. investment and asset-price appreciation economic growth — and how that creates "pockets of risk" that could change the cycle. 
Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, leans into signs that the stock market has been broadening to make an equal-weight fund his ETF of the Week, noting that the balanced construction creates a very different take on the market than the traditional index fund covering the same ground.
Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners, brings his "beat and replace" methodology back to the Market Call, discussing how secular change in industries and economies creates the upgrading opportunities he looks for.