Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

Dan Sotiroff, associate director of passive strategies at Morningstar goes "Off The News" discussing the firm's just-released "State of US ETFs 2026" report, which found that heightened competition is increasingly pushing fund firms to open "complex, narrowly focused strategies that may resemble gambling more than long-term investing. He says that the issues are strange and getting weirder, citing examples of ETFs now tied to everything from election results to hockey scores, and while many of those new funds have not opened to investors yet, they are the logical extension of single-stock funds and other new issues that offer investors new ways to play the market. While Sotiroff notes that there have been sound improvements in a few of the newfangled funds, there are more potential gambles than real investing.
Ian Cassel, founder of MicroCapClub, discusses his new book, "Stock Picker: How to Develop the Mindset, Temperament, and Strategy to Outperform Wall Street," and the importance of finding solid fundamentals and profits to select tiny stocks with the potential to beat the odds and grow into big profits and status as a large- or mega-cap company.
And in "The NAVigator," Young Choi, portfolio manager for the XAI Floating Rate & Alternative Income Trust, says the explosion in specialty ETFs dedicated to investing in collateralized loan obligations has changed the CLO market, compressing spreads and changing some buying opportunities. In "The NAVigator," Choi also  discusses differences between the private credit and CLO markets, noting that any blow-up or problem in the private space could have spillover effects that create buying opportunities in CLOs.

Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at Manulife John Hancock Investments, says that investors have been making themselves miserable while living through "the greatest four-year bull market in S&P 500 history," which may make them too worried about interest rate hikes. She says the market and economy are strong enough to push through rate hikes, at least until the Federal Reserve moves them up at least three times, and the interest rate on the 10-year Treasury gets to about 5.5%, which she thinks could be "the line in the sand" where the market stops shrugging off the hikes. "Economic cycles don't die of old age," Roland says, "they're killed by the Fed." As a result, she is recommending investors lean into high-quality bonds in the middle of the yield curve, noting that "Every stock on the planet is loved and every bond on the planet is hated right now; I will tell you from experience that investors tend to hate bonds right before they love them again."
In the Book Interview, Lindsay Crouse discusses "The Case for Quitting: The Surprising Benefits of Opting Out," which is as much about personal habits as it is jobs and work. Crouse says people learn about themselves just by considering breaking habits, giving up things that "they've always done" that no longer play the same role in their lives, and just by considering what would happen if they simply stopped doing certain things in their lives, noting that it can reaffirm their commitment or help them see the benefits of change.
Chip Lupo discusses the latest retirement savings survey from WalletHub, which found that 7 in 10 people believe a pension is better than a 401(k). To that end, more than half of Americans say they would prefer to pay a 12.4% Social Security tax to get double the benefits rather than the 6.2% tax that delivers current benefits levels. Lacking the stable, consistent support of a pension and dealing with current Social Security benefits levels is why 43 percent of survey respondents believe it is not realistic for the average American to expect to retire comfortably.

Jonathan Treussard, founder of Treussard Capital Management, says "the market is playing chicken with itself" by pushing interest rates on long Treasury bonds above 5 percent, but it's not quite ready to live with tighter economic conditions and he is not sure if the rate picture is the "something that breaks" to create a market meltdown. Treussard says that the market can continue powering forward, even as he lays out the case for real worries about how the current cycle will end. Still, he points out that it's not ending now, largely because of the high level of capital expenditures for artificial intelligence. As long as that eprsists, he says investors should "Read the news, but watch the earnings."
Roy Schwartz, co-founder of Axios, discusses his new book out this week, "Simplify: Do 50 Percent More with 50 Percent Less, which is about simplifying decisions to get some of yoyur time back, because "if you can become more efficient, more successful, more productive if you can simplify other areas of your life, that for sure will help you compete against A.I. and stay on top of it." Schwartz, who wrote the book with Axios' other co-founders, discusses the "Confront. Delete. Amplify." strategy for improving your life.
Stan Haithcock, better known as "Stan the Annuity Man," returns to the show to answer a question from a listener who recently got an early retirement offer from his employer, which has him trying to figure out if he should take a lump-sum payment or stick with his pension, and whether he would be better off leaving the pension in place or potentially buying an annuity to build his own pension to help him in retirement.

Ryan Redfern, chief investment officer at Shadowridge Asset Management, expects the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this week, "but I don't think the market cares at the moment," so while there may be some short-term jitters over the move, it is more likely setting up a rally starting in November, carrying into the best eight months of the four-year presidential cycle, the period after mid-term elections running through June that has been positive for the market in every cycle dating back to the 1940s. Redfern says he does worry about the market turning, but that change is not showing up in the charts, and he plans to remain mostly invested until he sees a catalyst for a downturn. since he does not see a catalyst for downturn. Further, Redfern notes that he will stay invested in stocks because the bond market has started a 40-year cycle in which, long-term, bonds will be "garbage."
Eric Zwick, co-author of "The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There," discusses his book's stories of people living the American Dream at a time when many people believe that ideal has become impossible to reach. Zwick notes that the American Dream "is more alive than you think,  but it's not necessarily where you're looking." He says it's a nationwide phenomenon — with the stories mixing intention, drive, desire and luck — but that the path to achieving the American Dream this way may be different now than it was in the past. 
Steve Nicastro discusses research from Clever Real Estate which showed that just one-third of surveyed homeowners who had sold a home recently had asked their agent to lower commission costs, but that more than 90 percent of the sellers who asked for a discount got one. The savings for those who asked were real, with nearly all agents who agreed to lower commissions cutting at least 0.5% off their rate, and almost half agreeing to give a full percentage point discount.

Jeff Mortimer, chief investment officer at Elyxium Wealth, says he continues to lean into market weakness and is comfortable with heightened volatility, but he says the strong earnings that are under-pinning the market will keep most downturns looking like buying opportunities. "We remain in a mid-cycle bull market," Mortimer says, "which is important for listeners to understand in that it can change what you do with dips, and weakness that show up in any mid-cycle market phase." These conditions tend to breed a market that shrugs off bad news, jumps at positive feelings and that generally has the momentum to keep going higher. 
Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, looks at the calls made last week by some A.I. power-brokers to slow the development of artificial intelligence technologies, and discusses whether those warnings will amount to much in a market where the players are all pushing for the next breakthrough. Marolia also looks at whether the latest inflation news released last week puts the Federal Reserve in position to hike interest rates this week, and whether an increase will derail the current market rally. Plus, he puts  puts Lululemon Athletica under his five-lens view to discuss whether the company — which has seen its shares lose more than half of their value in 2026 — is a falling knife or a well-timed buy.
David Trainer, founder and president at New Constructs revisits Klarna stock in The Danger Zone. The buy-now, pay-later company was first in the Danger Zone before it went through its initial public offering in September 2025, but it's back in now because Trainer worries that a big recent drop in the stock could convince some investors to go bargain-hunting. With a negative economic book value on the stock, Trainer thinks Klarna investors will indeed pay for their purchase later if they buy the stock now.