Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

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.

Matthew Timpane, senior market strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research, says he expects the market to rally once the midterm elections are through, particularly because the third-year of the presidential cycle tends to be the most bullish, most notably the first half of those years. For the short-term — as the market finishes a September in which it has shown none of the usual seasonal signs of distress and rolls into October — Timpane sees a market that could get to roughly 8100 on the Standard & Poor's 500, with downside support at 7500, and growing firmer at 7,250 should some news trigger a slightly bigger sell-off. 
David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group and owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, discusses his new book, released today, "Inside the Owner's Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports." In a wide-ranging interview, Rubenstein also discusses the impact that gambling generally and prediction markets most recently have had on sports, on how measuring success as the owner of a sports team is different than weighing it in the ordinary business world and more.
In the Market Call, Elliott Gue, editor at Energy & Income Advisor, discusses how the buildout of artificial intelligence and its seemingly insatiable need for power is impacting energy stocks. Gue, who publishes the Free Market Speculator on Substack, notes that the capital expenditures boom may force energy/income investors to decide if they want to trade some steadiness of income for the hope of a higher total return.

Alex Edmans, author of "The Madness of Markets: Why Smart Investors Make Crazy Decisions - And How to Exploit Them," says that even smart investors sometimes make poor financial decisions, noting that overconfidence, fear, excitement, and the tendency to overreact to market news can cause investors to trade too frequently and buy high/sell low. Edmans says the financial industry is amplifying these mistakes by making trading easier (encouraging activity that generates fees or spreads), and recommends identifying and acknowledging psychological weaknesses and favoring simple strategies such as diversification, long-term investing, and broad-market index funds. He also discusses how seemingly irrelevant emotions -- including reactions to sports results -- can influence investment decisions in ways most of us would never consider as possible.
 
In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses whether the creation of an "A.I. Force" and appointment of an "A.I. czar" could control and improve the development process or slow it down and set it back. Speaking of setbacks, Marolia also discusses Anthropic's plans for an IPO that could be valued at $2 trillion, and whether the company whose CEO set off a lot of the alarm bells on A.I. should pause its offering until there is more clarity on the future regulation of the industry. Plus, personal finance guru Robert Kiyosaki has had some setbacks and is $1.2 billion in debt; the amount is crazy, but Marolia considers whether the best-selling author behind "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" is crazy like a fox.
Kyle Guske, investment analyst at New Constructs, says that one overlooked aspect of the A.I. build-out is that all of the ballyhooed capital expenditures are starting to show up on company books, but they're doing it in places that mostly go unnoticed. Guske says that if the AI companies in the top 25 of the S&P 500 wanted to earn an adequate return on invested capital on their trillions in new AI-related debt, they must generate $1.4 trillion in new profit on top of what they already earn, and says he doesn't think most investors are pricingin that risk. As a result, he put "the most wanted earnings manipulators" in The Danger Zone, and documented how the A.I. buildout is ballooning the balance sheets of some of the world's largest companies.