Compound Growth

June brought rotation, not direction. The Nasdaq finished down almost 3%, the S&P was flat, the Dow was up, and small caps led with the Russell 2000 up 3.6%. Taiwan's index is up 62% year to date, but it's essentially two stocks, and that same concentration shows up in the margin debt numbers. The US just hit $1.28 trillion in margin debt, an all-time high, while Taiwan's is up...

Colin came in from fishing. Wheeler was trying to buy Olivia Rodrigo tickets mid-recording. They still got through a packed week. The Road to Housing Act passed with bipartisan support — a bill to cut red tape on home construction and limit corporate ownership of residential properties. Then the president refused to sign it, tying it to a separate voter ID bill. Wheeler and Colin get into why buil...

This week Wheeler and Colin open with a conversation about inflation — what it actually costs to travel in Vegas and California right now, why broad inflation numbers don't tell the full story, and how the experience varies dramatically depending on income. It's a grounded setup for everything that follows. From there they get into the week's biggest stories. Big tech collectively s...

In this episode of Compound Growth, Colin and Wheeler sit down with their colleague and the third leg of the stool — Shae Murray — for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about non-traditional career paths, what it really takes to build confidence in a new field, and why growth often looks nothing like you planned. Shae shares her journey from early childhood education — working across Montessori...

Did you know that in the United States, anyone can sign your tax return — no license required? Katrina Kowalski found that out the hard way when her husband got hit with a $50,000-plus IRS audit, courtesy of an unlicensed preparer who was a family friend. That moment set her on a path from mortgage industry burnout, to quitting a Big 5 accounting firm on the day after Christmas, to eventually buil...

Ferrari announced a $640,000 electric car with worse performance than a Tesla Model S — and screened the journalists who came to see it based on how they felt about EVs. It's a strange move for a brand built on confidence. It's also a pretty good lens for what's happening across a lot of big institutions right now. The bigger conversation this month is the SpaceX IPO. One theory flo...

Buy now, pay later has gone from a niche checkout option to a fixture of how Americans spend — on everything from concert tickets to groceries to medical bills. The industry processed over $114 billion in transactions in 2024 alone, and the numbers are still growing. But the conversation around it rarely goes deeper than whether a specific purchase is worth it. This episode does. Wheeler and Colin...

There's a gap between what the data says and how people feel — and right now, that gap is enormous. Wheeler and Colin sit down with Seth Buks, a market strategist and thought leader who has spent nearly two decades translating complex financial ideas into clear, actionable guidance for advisors and their clients. The conversation covers a lot of ground: where the economy actually stands on gr...

One year ago, Wheeler and Colin hit record on a podcast with no script, no audience, and no certainty it would go anywhere. This episode marks that anniversary — and uses it as a lens for the thing the show has always been about: what does it actually take to build something that compounds over time? The conversation opens with a riff on jargon — why professionals in every field lose the ability t...

April was one of the more eventful market months in recent memory, and Wheeler and Colin are breaking it all down. The S&P finished the month up 12%, the Nasdaq up 18%, and semiconductors — led by an almost impossible 116% single-month run in Intel — stole the show. But the real story underneath the numbers is earnings: more than 85% of companies that reported beat expectations, with average e...

Most people think of an IPO as a news event. A company goes public, the ticker starts flashing, and you decide whether to buy in or not. But what's coming in the next 12 to 18 months isn't just a news event — it could be one of the most consequential reshufflings of capital in stock market history. Wheeler and Colin use the story of Uber's IPO as a starting point: a company that was...

Ben Anderson didn't set out to build a community venue. He set out to buy a house near the seacoast and do more of the work he'd been doing his entire career — connecting people through music and live events. The Word Barn, located in Exeter, New Hampshire, happened almost by accident: a band needed a place to play, all the other venues were booked, and the energy that night made it clea...

Most people spend more time comparing cars than they do evaluating their financial advisor. Wheeler and Colin dig into one of the most important — and most avoided — conversations in personal finance: how to know when the advisory relationship you're in isn't working, what it actually costs you to stay, and what to look for when you're ready to make a move. They cover the difference...

March was a rough month for markets — and it came with a lot of noise. Tariffs, geopolitical tension, and a sharp sell-off in tech had a lot of investors watching their portfolios and wondering what to do. In this episode, Wheeler and Colin walk through exactly what happened in March 2026: where markets landed, which sectors got hit hardest, and why the headlines you were reading probably weren&ap...

Most people want to talk about investing. Stock picks, portfolio allocation, whether they're positioned right. Those are real questions — but they're the wrong starting point if the foundation underneath isn't solid. In this episode, Wheeler and Colin go back to basics: knowing what you actually spend, building reserves that can absorb the unexpected, and protecting your income agai...

The economy looks fine on paper. But if you're young and trying to build a life in America right now, it doesn't feel that way. Bryce Gill, economist at First Trust, joins Wheeler and Colin to explain why both things are true at the same time. Bryce breaks down the structural forces quietly reshaping who gets ahead in this economy and who gets left behind. The conversation covers the wid...

Have you ever looked at a job offer and felt overwhelmed by the alphabet soup of RSUs, ESPPs, and vesting schedules? In this episode of Compound Growth, Colin and Wheeler break down the complex world of equity compensation — moving beyond the raw numbers to explore how these benefits actually impact your long-term financial freedom. Using real-world examples from Google and Amazon, they pull back...

The way we build wealth is shifting — and the speed of that shift is unlike anything we've seen before. In this episode, Colin and Wheeler tackle the idea that we may be living through the last great window of traditional wealth-building, and what that actually means for the average person. They draw a direct line between today's AI and robotics boom and the original Gilded Age, when Car...

February's markets told a story of contradictions. US stocks sat mostly flat while energy names surged 30%, Nvidia posted 73% year-over-year growth and still couldn't please the market, and software stocks got crushed on AI fears. Wheeler and Colin unpack why — and whether the selling is justified. They also dig into Blue Owl and the private credit unraveling that Jamie Dimon warned abou...

In this episode, Colin and Wheeler take a hard look at the FIRE movement—Financial Independence, Retire Early—and ask if its rigid rules still make sense in today's world. We revisit the movement's origins in the 2008 financial crisis and the influence of figures like Mr. Money Mustache. We break down the different "flavors" of FIRE, from the extreme frugality of "Lean FIR...

In this episode, Colin and Wheeler break down the buzz surrounding the newly proposed Trump Accounts. We cut through the political noise to examine the core of the proposal: a government-seeded investment account for every child born in America between 2025–2028. We discuss the profound impact of compounding from birth and how these accounts could fundamentally shift the way families approach gene...

In this episode, Colin and Wheeler sit down with Dr. Daryl Appleton, a renowned psychotherapist and executive coach, to explore the complex psychology of high performers. We dive into a paradoxical truth: the very traits that propel us to the top—grit, perfectionism, and relentless ambition—can often become the biggest barriers to long-term fulfillment. Dr. Daryl Appleton explains how to recognize...

As we move through January 2026, the markets are at all-time highs, but the "smooth sailing" narrative is starting to show some cracks. In this episode, Colin and Wheeler explore the "lull" currently happening under the hood of the economy and why diversification is finally proving its worth again after years of US large-cap dominance. We dive deep into the sudden, parabolic ri...

How much of your life is run by systems you didn’t actually choose? In this episode, Colin and Wheeler dive deep into the invisible frameworks that govern our daily lives—from the "crutches" we lean on to the digital noise that drains our focus. We explore the idea that growth isn’t just about setting massive goals; it’s about auditing the small, repetitive habits that either move us for...

In a world where the most valuable assets are no longer physical factories but "invisible" ideas, how do we measure what truly matters? In this episode, we sit down with Kai Wu, founder of Sparkline Capital, to explore the shift from a tangible economy to an intangible one. We dive into how data science and natural language processing are being used to quantify human capital, brand value...