The US Just Attacked Iran — Here's What It Means for Your Money

The Trump administration just attacked Iran, and everybody's talking about the political side of it, if this is right, if this is wrong, but that's not what I want to do. Instead, I want to talk about the financial side of this, because this affects everybody. Now, to be clear, this is not an easy thing to do when people are losing their lives. However, it is important for you to understand this, because anytime you hear the news that the United States is attacking another country, it is going to impact the economy, it can impact your gas prices, it can impact the value of your dollar, and that's why it's important for you to understand this, because if you're thinking about retirement, you have money invested, these things get impacted when these types of geopolitical events happen. So I'm not here to discredit the impacts of a war, I'm here to educate on what that means when it comes to things like money. So let's break this all down, because as soon as the news came out that the United States attacked Iran, we saw a lot of money move immediately. We saw oil prices shoot up. Oil prices grew at one of the fastest rates we've seen in a day in years. Gold prices shot up. We saw the stock market in general go down, while certain stocks went up. We saw defense stocks, which are the companies that are providing military equipment, those stocks went up. And we saw other stocks, like airline stocks, go down. And that's where the financially savvy, when these types of things happen, they immediately start moving their money, because what Wall Street does is they don't care about the emotion, what they do is when things happen, they ask, where is the money moving? And that's what they start to do, is they want to identify where the money is moving, that way they can change where they park their money, because that is then an investment opportunity for them. Now, again, I'm not here to be the judge of your moral compass, I'm here to help teach what Wall Street does, I'm here to teach how these things impact the economy. So let me explain this one by one, and I do want to let you know that this is why, on March 18th, I'm hosting my live investor workshop, because we have so many changes happening in our economy right now, that thinking about retirement can be a little bit stressful. Because there's changes in the stock market all the time, there's concerns about what's happening with gold prices rising so fast, there's concerns about geopolitical tensions, there's concerns about the value of the dollar, all these things create concerns for people that are investing their money, and that's why on March 18th, I'm having this workshop to educate how you can use these changes in the economy to your advantage, to be able to grow your investments by finding opportunity through research. I'm going to be presenting a lot of research that my firm has done, it's live, it's free, it's virtual, I'm doing it twice on March 18th, once in the morning at 10.30am Eastern Time, again in the evening at 8pm Eastern Time, if you'd like to register, it's free, I have the link for you down in the description below should you be interested. Now, anytime you hear of uncertainty, especially when you hear of war, people want safety, and safety in the investment world means gold. That's what it has meant for decades, and that's why as soon as we got the news that the United States is attacking Iran, we saw gold prices go up. At the same time, we saw some movement down in the stock market because people get concerned of if we're going to spend all this money in a war, could that push us into a recession? And that's when we saw the general stock market go down, and certain stocks got hit a little bit harder than others, like airline stocks, because we saw a lot of airline closures, especially near the Middle East because of this, and if airlines are not running, well that means they're not going to be making money. That's why those stocks get hit. At the same time, we saw oil prices boom. Now, this one is extremely important, and this one impacts many people in many different levels, it's not just gas prices, but let me explain why. The Middle East is a big hub of oil, but it's not just a big supplier of oil, it's also big in the supply chain of oil, because there's something called the Strait of Hormuz, and this is where a big chunk of global oil goes through, and Iran controls what happens in this strait, in this supply chain of oil, and they have threatened to close this passageway many, many times, and if they close that passageway, that makes it more difficult to transport oil, which makes the price of oil go up, because now all of a sudden it's a lot more expensive to get oil from one part of the world to the other. Well, now what we've seen happen after this attack is that Iran has been pushing away ships, essentially shutting down the strait. Now, we'll see how long this stays and what this actually means, but investors are looking at this saying, if we continue to keep the supply chain of oil down, it's going to make getting oil to other countries more expensive, oil prices are going to go up, and that's why we saw oil prices rise at one of the fastest rates we have seen in years. Why does that matter? Well, that can obviously impact gas prices, but higher oil prices can impact the price of everything, because when you go to buy avocados at the grocery store, those avocados have to be shipped or driven by a semi-truck from the farm to the warehouse to the store, and so when you have higher oil prices, that means now the grocery prices go up as well, because the cost to get the groceries into the store is more expensive. It also means vacations become more expensive, not only because you have to pay more gas for your car, but also because the airlines have to pay a higher rate for their fuel, so airlines become more expensive, and so when you have higher oil prices, it impacts the price of everything. Why does that matter today? Because today there's already been concerns about inflation. Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve Bank essentially said that the inflation problems might not be getting better the way that a lot of people thought, because we got a new inflation report this week which said that producer inflation, meaning inflation for businesses, is higher than expected. Why does that matter? Because if businesses are seeing a higher cost of raw materials, then they generally pass that cost down to consumers, to you when you go to buy products, because if businesses have to pay more money to produce their stuff, they have to charge you more money to sell that stuff, so inflation is already a problem. If oil prices go up, gas prices go up, the prices of things go up, well that can make the inflation problem worse. Why does that matter? Because we're seeing a lot of changes when it comes to money right now, and I'm going to shift gears a little bit to understand the full picture of what's happening, because the central bank here in the United States is called the Federal Reserve Bank. Now, although they're called the Federal Reserve Bank, they're actually not a bank because you and I cannot go there to deposit money, they're not a reserve because they're because it's not a part of the federal government. Well, the Federal Reserve Bank is going to go through one of the biggest changes that we have seen in the last decade, in the next couple of months, because the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank is going to be replaced by a new person that President Trump has just appointed. Why does that matter? Because like I said a minute ago, the Federal Reserve Bank is not federal. Trump cannot fire the chairman of the Fed. He can only replace the chairman because the chairman's term is expiring, and President Trump has said time and time again that he wants lower interest rates, and so he wants to appoint somebody, the guy he's appointing is named Kevin Warsh. He wants Kevin Warsh to lower interest rates. Now, will he do it or not? I don't know, but the reason why this matters is because lower interest rates generally lead to higher inflation, and generally, in order for the Federal Reserve Bank to continue cutting interest rates, they need to say, hey, inflation is not a problem, so we can justify lowering interest rates because lower interest rates can make inflation worse. Why? Because if you can get a 2% mortgage tomorrow, everybody and their moms will be buying a house again, and when you have everybody trying to buy a house, you have more bidding wars. When you have more bidding wars, home prices go up. That's how it works. So now we have a situation where we don't know how long this conflict is going to last. We don't know what the domino effect of this is going to be. We don't know what the things, the markets are going to look like tomorrow or the next week. There's a lot of uncertainty, but what we know today is that oil prices have gone up, and if oil prices stay high, that can make the inflation problem worse, which will make it more difficult for the Federal Reserve Bank to cut interest rates, which will make it more difficult for the Federal Reserve Bank to help drive down mortgage rates in the economy. Now you can start to see how many different parts of the economy get impacted, because on one hand, President Trump wants lower mortgage rates. Well, if you want lower mortgage rates, one of the things that can help is the Federal Reserve Bank cutting interest rates. But for the Federal Reserve Bank to cut interest rates, they need inflation to be under control. But if oil prices are going up, it's harder to control and manage the prices of things. Now, there's a case to be made that the United States is effectively in control of Venezuela right now. If you remember earlier in 2026, the Trump administration also went into Venezuela and captured the president of Venezuela. Venezuela is also a very large producer of oil, although they haven't been able to produce that oil because of their very bad supply chain, very outdated supply chain. President Trump wants to bring more American oil companies into Venezuela. That way they can start drilling for more oil and start bringing more oil out and make some money for Venezuela, but then make money for the American oil companies as well by bringing more of this oil back to the United States. But that's not something that's going to be happening today or tomorrow. That's why this oil move is so important. And so there's a lot of geopolitical changes happening. And you also want to be paying attention to the value of the dollar. Because when people are concerned about the dollar, that can create more effects and impacts to the economy and the prices of stocks and the prices of gold. Because we've already been seeing a flight of investments away from the United States. Why does this matter for you in the United States when you think about your retirement? Because if you have money sitting in a 401k, the money in your 401k is sitting in the United States stock market. But what causes stock prices to go up? Well, you might say, Jaspreet, if companies are making more money, if their earnings are growing, stocks are going to go up. And that's partially true, but that doesn't give you the full picture. At the end of the day, the price of a stock or any asset for that matter isn't just how good it is. It depends on supply and demand, meaning it depends on how many buyers there are for that stock. When there are more buyers than sellers, the price of the stock goes up. When there are more sellers than buyers, the price of that stock goes down. So now when we think about concerns about the dollar, well, what we've been seeing happen for the last 10 years is investors have been looking for alternative places to invest their money outside of the United States. And it's been accelerating over the last 12 to 18 months. If investors globally look for investments outside of the United States, that means less money is going into the United States stock market. If less money is going into the United States stock market, that means less buyers in the United States stock market, which means less dollars going in, less upward momentum. That doesn't mean the stocks don't keep going up. What that means is, well, if there are very high valuations, it becomes harder to support them if we don't continually have more buyers coming in. That's why you want to pay attention to this, because anytime you have these geopolitical events, it can impact many different things, including your retirement, including your 401k, because the United States is the world's reserve currency. The dollar is. The United States economy is the world's superpower. It is the world's economy. And so when anything happens in the United States, it impacts so many parts of the globe. But it also impacts every part of our economy here in the United States, because if oil prices go up, that impacts the prices of all things. If the prices of things are going up, well, that can impact how inflation is perceived. If inflation is perceived differently, that changes what the Federal Reserve Bank can do to stimulate our economy. That can change your mortgage rate. That can change your car loan rate. That can change your credit card interest rate. And now, when you have all of these things happening together, this then impacts the stock market, which can then impact your 401k, and it can impact your retirement. That's why it's important for you to understand what's happening, not just so you can capitalize on an event, but so you can understand how different changes in the economy can impact different parts of your wealth. Because at the end of the day, it is important for you to be able to take care of yourself, regardless of what's happening in the economy. I know there's a lot of crazy things happening, but it's still up to you to take care of yourself, your family, and your community. And it is very helpful when you have the education to be able to do that. And that's why, again, on March 18th, I have my Live Investor Workshop. If you haven't registered for that, I have the link for you down in the description. But I'll be keeping you posted here. There's going to be a lot of changes coming in the next days and weeks, and we'll see how things progress. But that's what we have today. So thank you for watching. If you got value out of this video, the best thank you is a referral. So if you could, please share this video with a friend, family member, colleague, or fellow investor. That way we can continue to spread this type of financial education. Thank you.