073 Chuck Jaffe: Your Money and Your Life

About Fun With Annuities Episode #73

This week’s co-host Chuck Jaffe is one of the most entertaining and knowledgeable financial minds in the country and host of the successful podcast Money Life. No stranger to the mic, Chuck has done more than 1,000 interviews per year on his show that originally started in April of 2012.

Chuck is a veteran financial journalist and a nationally syndicated columnist in addition to hosting Money Life. He is the author of 3 best-selling books, "Getting Started In Finding a Financial Advisor", "The Right Way to Hire Financial Help", and "Chuck Jaffe's Lifetime Guide to Mutual Funds."

For over a decade, Chuck wrote a popular column on Marketwatch called "Stupid Investment of the Week." So, I had Chuck talk about current "stupid investments" consumers need to watch out for.

Chuck pulled no punches with this nugget, "Inflation is a very much personalized thing… you could say that inflation is not bad, but a lot of houses are having trouble with inflation because of their spending patterns and where they are at in life."

We also discussed the current raging bull market, perceived low-interest rates, and his unique take on the rise of cryptocurrencies. As predicted, Chuck nailed those topics with his simple and to-the-point explanations.

I loved having Chuck on the podcast because he blends his unmatched knowledge base with a great sense of humor. Like me, he doesn't take himself too seriously but is dead serious about what he does. That's a combination that equates to a factually fun podcast. Enjoy!

Brief Bio of Co-Host Chuck Jaffe:

Chuck started Money Life in 2012, but originally hosted a show by the same name on WBIX, AM-1060 in Boston in the early 2000s until the station closed. Subsequent to that, he hosted “Your Money,” another regional radio show for about two years, and did podcasts for MarketWatch.com, where he was senior columnist.

As I mentioned above, Chuck has followed the rich journalistic history of “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” in the financial services world. For a decade, he wrote the “Stupid Investment of the Week” column for MarketWatch, highlighting the conditions and characteristics that made all types of securities less than ideal for average investors, uncovering in the process a rogues’ gallery of dreadful issues and bad ideas. He is also known for terrorizing the mutual fund industry with his annual “Lump of Coal Awards,” bestowed on entities in the mutual fund world for action, conduct, performance or attitude that is “bumbling, offensive, disingenuous, reprehensible or just plain stupid.”

Chuck has been named to MutualFundWire’s list of the 40 Most Influential People in Fund Distribution, and was the first journalist to make the list. Over the course of his career, he has won numerous awards for business and personal finance journalism.

You can follow him on Twitter @ChuckJaffe, or @MoneyLifeShow or, depending on your sporting interests, @BostonBoxLax.

Source: themoneylife.com.

In this episode, The Annuity Man and Chuck Jaffee discuss:

• Some good examples of bad investments
• Issues with cryptocurrency
• Understanding indexed annuities
• Interest rates and inflation

Key Takeaways:

• Some investments are unjustifiable and unnecessary.
• Cryptocurrency isn’t that different from gift checks, except you can actually spend gift checks. Only a handful of stores accept bitcoin payment.
• The problem with indexed annuities is that it’s so difficult to explain.
• A lot of things go into calculating inflation in your own context, like taking into account your spending habits and where you are in life.

Fun With Annuities® Podcast is hosted by America’s Annuity Agent®, Stan Haithcock, The Annuity Man®. Hear brutal annuity facts with no sales pitches from the top independent agent in the country, licensed in all 50 states. Author of 7 books, Stan dives deep on all annuity types and strategies. It’s fun, learning the contractual truths on how annuities actually work and if they’ll fit your personal retirement lifestyle.

Listen in on how you can be livin’ the reality, not the dream®. Listen and subscribe on Libsyn, Stitcher,Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, and Spotify.