Today we have your 2026 predictions. We also cover the volatile 2025 year-end and share the extreme moves in precious metals and global geopolitical shocks as a case study for how investors should think: not politically or emotionally, but by watching price action and sector reactions. Low holiday liquidity amplified market swings, but that real signals came from how energy, materials, small caps, and international markets responded. We also think that despite macro unease, debt overhangs, and geopolitical reshuffling, the data still point to a broadly bullish environment, with diversification, attention to relative performance, and humility toward market signals being far more important than predictions.

We discuss...

• Precious metals led early-year performance, with platinum, silver, and gold behaving very differently despite being in the same sector.
• Investors should respond to global events by asking how markets interpret them, not by reacting to political narratives.
• The U.S. seizure of Venezuela's president is a geopolitical shock with significant implications for energy markets and global power dynamics.
• Oil service and infrastructure companies briefly surged as markets discounted future Venezuelan production, though sustainability remains uncertain.
• China is a key indirect loser due to rising effective energy costs and margin pressure in its low-margin industrial economy.
• Geopolitical moves are increasingly overt, signaling a reshuffling of the global financial and political order.
• Have caution because investor intuition is often wrong, and there are historical examples where markets moved opposite of popular expectations.
• Price action was repeatedly emphasized as the best indicator of what informed capital is actually doing.
• Early 2026 performance showed leadership from small caps, microcaps, and value stocks rather than mega-cap technology.
• Materials, industrials, and energy outperformed in the first week, while tech, utilities, and communications lagged.
• The "Magnificent 7" were noted as early underperformers, challenging the assumption that they always lead markets.
• Defense stocks strengthened following signals of increased U.S. military spending.
• Healthcare and other previously beaten-down sectors were flagged as areas worth watching.
• Be caution against passive overreliance on the S&P 500 due to concentration risk and historical periods of long underperformance.
• While risks are elevated, market signals remain broadly bullish and investors should stay adaptive rather than predictive.

Today's Panelists:

Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
Douglas Heagren | Mergent College Advisors

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/https://moneytreepodcast.com/2026-predictions-781

Arrash Yasavoli discusses how you should jump on investing in bitoin in 2026! Arrash's path from data engineering at LinkedIn into quantitative trading, crypto, and building Glitch, a SaaS platform that gives broader access to advanced trading strategies gives a unique perspective into possible 2026 investing plans. We also talk Bitcoin's role as a potential store of value, the divergence between Bitcoin and altcoins, the growing importance of real utility and valuation in crypto projects, the rise of ETFs and stablecoins as bridges to mainstream adoption, and more.

We discuss...

• Crypto's transition from a speculative and "scammy" perception toward broader legitimacy through regulation, ETFs, and institutional adoption.
• Bitcoin is increasingly viewed as a store of value similar to gold rather than a scalable transactional currency.
• Bitcoin's fixed supply and resilience through multiple market cycles were highlighted as key drivers of long-term investor confidence.
• Bitcoin's historical growth rates are unlikely to persist, with future returns likely slowing and volatility remaining high.
• The growing divergence between Bitcoin performance and stagnant altcoins was identified as a sign of increasing market maturity.
• Many altcoins from earlier cycles failed due to hype-driven models that never delivered real value.
• The current crypto cycle was compared to the post–dot-com bust era, where focus shifts from excitement to sustainable business models.
• Regulatory clarity, including frameworks for crypto and stablecoins, was viewed as a major catalyst for continued adoption.
• Whether investors should trade or hold crypto, with emphasis on patience and fundamentals over speculation.
• Future crypto valuation models were described as moving toward revenue, profitability, and clear value propositions.
• Arrash outlined his work on BitTensor, a blockchain designed to create and trade real digital commodities.
• Crypto's long-term value lies in practical applications that quietly use blockchain under the hood rather than hype-driven narratives.

Today's Panelists:

• Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
• Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/investing-in-bitcoin-in-2026-arrash-yasavolian-780

There are a lot of year end surprises in store with the 2025 wrap up. The year has come to an end and we are here to discuss everything from year-end reflections and personal anecdotes to a broad market outlook. We focused on the recent surge and volatility in precious metals, especially silver, explaining how futures-market leverage and exchange rule changes (like margin requirement hikes) are used to cool speculative excess, why parabolic price moves are unhealthy, and why investors should be cautious in the near term even if long-term fundamentals remain bullish. We also talked government fraud, rising debt costs, aging demographics, deglobalization, and higher-for-longer rates, arguing that bad asset allocation now carries real risk and diversification with assets like precious metals still matter.

We discuss...

• We challenge simplistic economic cause-and-effect narratives, arguing that inflation, tariffs, and monetary policy outcomes are highly contextual and often misrepresented by official government data.
• Past periods of QE and low inflation were cited to illustrate how money printing can offset deflation rather than automatically cause inflation, reinforcing skepticism toward consensus forecasts.
• Large-scale government fraud is pervasive, rarely punished, and structurally embedded, with the prediction that no high-level figures will face consequences in ongoing public scandals.
• Precious metals, particularly silver, were a major focus due to extreme recent price volatility, including sharp multi-day gains and losses while most investors were disengaged over the holidays.
• The mechanics of futures markets were explained in detail, emphasizing how leverage works, why margin requirements matter, and how exchanges can legally change rules to stabilize markets.
• Recent increases in margin requirements for silver, gold, platinum, and palladium were highlighted as a deliberate attempt by exchanges to flush out speculative leverage and cool "animal spirits."
• Governments and exchanges can escalate interventions dramatically if needed, including forcing cash settlement or changing delivery rules, which would materially alter market dynamics.
• Banks' growing discomfort with holding U.S. Treasuries and their shift toward gold are a quiet but significant signal about long-term confidence in fiat systems.
• The contrast between gold (central-bank owned) and silver (primarily investor and industrial owned) explains differing market behaviors and intervention risks.
• The hosts argued that the era of "cheap mistakes" is over, meaning poor allocation decisions now result in permanent capital loss, not just missed opportunity.
• AI enthusiasm should be thought of skeptically as large language models are becoming commoditized quickly, lack durable moats, and resemble past tech bubbles.
• Be cautious, diversify, be skeptical of narratives, have respect for market structure, and prepare for a year where volatility exposes complacency.

Today's Panelists:

Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
Douglas Heagren | Mergent College Advisors

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/2025-wrap-up

Elliot Holland joins us to explore the realities of building and sustaining a high-quality, trust-driven professional business in an era dominated by AI hype, declining marketing efficiency, and algorithmic noise. We discuss skepticism around AI's real-world impact especially in high-stakes financial decisions. We also talk marketing and content strategy, why sensationalism and clickbait may win algorithms but will always repel discerning clients. We also unpack our frustrations with modern marketing platforms like Google, Facebook, and HubSpot as they grow increasingly expensive and benefit from opacity while delivering lower-quality data. The most important thing is authentic conversations, patience, and thoughtful content aimed at a small, qualified audience that can outperform viral reach.

We discuss...

• Sustaining a professional services business increasingly depends on trust, judgment, and human relationships rather than scale, speed, or technological hype.
• There's septicism that AI will meaningfully disrupt high-stakes, people-to-people work, arguing it is largely rebranded machine learning with limited real-world adoption so far.
• Discerning clients value nuance, experience, and improvisational thinking that cannot be captured in static data sets or automated workflows.
• AI is a productivity aid for summaries and surface-level tasks, but not a substitute for deep expertise, critical thinking, or accountability.
• YouTube and podcasts are trust-building tools rather than growth hacks, with success measured by client conversion quality instead of view counts.
• Algorithms reward "nonsense about nonsense," making platforms misaligned with professionals selling high-trust, high-ticket services.
• Marketing metrics such as views, impressions, and engagement were described as misleading compared to tracking clicks, conversations, and actual revenue outcomes.
• Google, Facebook, and HubSpot are operating as "confuse-opolies," benefiting from complexity, opacity, and user lock-in rather than clear results.
• The rising difficulty of marketing has forced business owners to either deeply understand marketing themselves or risk wasting capital on underqualified vendors.
• Elliott explained restructuring his marketing around specialized vendors, strict performance accountability, and personal ownership of customer persona definition.
• Long-form, unscripted conversations often deliver more value than polished, optimized content designed for algorithms.
• Future marketing success will favor authenticity, clarity, and long-term relationship-building over funnels, gimmicks, and viral reach.

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/ai-hype-and-clickbait-are-failing-elliott-holland

Today we're sharing the tax loss selling secrets you need to know before 2026! We also talk understanding personal strengths and psychological limits in investing. It's good to avoid shiny-object strategies like day trading and prioritize risk management through diversification. We explore how market structure, valuations, and historical data suggest future returns may be lower and more volatile, making stress-testing portfolios and aligning risk with temperament essential. Remember long-term success comes from discipline, education, adaptability, and thoughtful strategy rather than chasing returns in overheated markets.

We discuss...

• Successful goal-setting focuses on small, repeatable actions over time rather than unrealistic short-term outcomes.
• Investors must design strategies that align with their psychological makeup, risk tolerance, and time availability rather than copying what appears profitable for others.
• Stop-loss orders can be dangerous in volatile or less-liquid markets due to slippage and market maker behavior, often leading to worse-than-expected exits.
• Markets can remain expensive longer than expected, making flexibility and balanced positioning more important than precise market timing.
• Concentration in high-performing assets like AI stocks or precious metals can lead to severe losses if momentum reverses sharply.
• Historical examples showed that long periods of weak or flat equity returns are normal following valuation extremes.
• Diversification across asset classes, regions, and styles was highlighted as essential for retirement sustainability and long-term wealth preservation.
• Static portfolios such as traditional 60/40 allocations were questioned, with an emphasis on active monitoring and adjustment as conditions change.
• Precious metals typically move in sequence, with gold leading, followed by silver and then platinum, often ending in unsustainable parabolic moves.
• Misuse of statistics, such as confusing average with median net worth, can distort perceptions of wealth and financial reality.
• Investment performance should be evaluated using geometric averages rather than arithmetic means to reflect true compounded returns.
• Emotional states like greed and fear often peak near market extremes and should signal the need for reevaluation rather than increased risk-taking.
• Political, macroeconomic, and election-cycle dynamics can temporarily suppress or amplify commodity prices, particularly in energy markets.
• Long-term success in investing depends less on prediction and more on preparation, adaptability, and disciplined execution of a well-structured plan.

Today's Panelists:

Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
Douglas Heagren | Mergent College Advisors

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/tax-loss-selling-secrets-777

Sallyann Della Casa, CEO Dubai-based "community as a service" GLEAC, joins us to share her personal journey and how collaborative leadership will thrive in our AI-drive future. She explains how access to networks, proximity to experience, and "quiet capital" are often more powerful than credentials alone in shaping opportunity, leadership, and career outcomes. We explore inequality driven by access rather than ability, leadership and gender mental models, and examines why modern society struggles to produce widely respected leaders. We also education and AI, arguing that traditional schooling is outdated, overly focused on memorization, and ill-suited for a world where AI can outperform humans on hard skills, while human skill can thrive in areas AI can't. AI will reshape leadership, investing, and management and future leaders will succeed by combining learning agility, deep expertise, strong networks, and the ability to co-lead alongside AI.

We discuss...

• Sally Ann Della Casa shares her personal story to illustrate how proximity, networks, and early access often determine life outcomes more than raw talent.
• The concept of "quiet capital" is a mix of social trust, reputation, networks, and deep domain knowledge that drives real-world success.
• The discussion examined inequality as a function of access and networks rather than intelligence or effort.
• Leadership was debated through the lens of mental models, including gender expectations, risk tolerance, and the loneliness of decision-making.
• Modern society struggles to identify and develop respected leaders across business, politics, and culture.
• Education systems are outdated, overly focused on memorization, and misaligned with how people actually learn and collaborate.
• AI was framed as a forcing function that will finally push education to prioritize human skills like judgment, creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking.
• The risks and benefits of AI are discussed, emphasizing that AI reflects human biases and represents the "gray average," not top-tier insight.
• The importance of context, storytelling, and lived experience are highlighted as something AI cannot replace.
• Leadership in the future is more agile, less hierarchical, and increasingly collaborative with AI tools and agents.

Today's Panelists:

• Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
• Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance
• Phil Weiss | Apprise Wealth Management

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/collaborative-leadership-in-an-ai-driven-world

Should you be buying this precious metal this Christmas? Find out what it is today as we reflect on how instant gratification, social media, and shifting consumer behavior mirror broader economic changes. We also talk practical year-end investing discipline, including portfolio "hygiene," investor psychology alignment, rule-based decision making, and tax-loss harvesting strategies. We explore assesing holdings as if investing fresh today, managing oversized winners and stagnant losers, watching natural market turning points around year-end, while also exploring inflation trends, shrinkflation, housing affordability, and generational cost pressures. We also urge listeners to use the final weeks of the year to review risks, taxes, family financial clarity, and opportunities ahead. Thoughtful preparation, not momentum or emotion, drives long-term investment success.

We discuss...

• The importance of year-end portfolio assessment, emphasizing reviewing holdings as if investing fresh today to determine alignment with investor psychology.
• Manage oversized winners, stagnant losers, and follow disciplined, rule-based investment practices rather than ego-driven decisions.
• Tax-loss harvesting is a key strategy, including the special advantage that crypto is treated as property and not subject to the 30-day wash-sale rule.
• Monitoring natural market turning points, particularly around year-end, to identify potential buying opportunities in beaten-down assets.
• Gold's leadership in the rally, silver's sharp recent gains, and the implications of JP Morgan shifting from short to long silver positions.
• Basel III banking regulations and the possibility of global banks increasing gold holdings if U.S. deficits rise above projected thresholds.
• Strategies for buying gold and silver, emphasizing buying for weight to minimize premiums and potentially profiting from historical spreads in coin pricing.
• Have caution with rare coin premiums, only experienced investors should consider numismatic factors, otherwise stick to weight-based purchases.
• Inflation indicators, using Campbell's Soup can pricing as a proxy for quality-adjusted inflation over decades.
• Shrinkflation and the rising cost of essentials for younger generations, noting housing, insurance, and other expenses have outpaced wages.
• Recent trends in housing, including declining new home prices but smaller home sizes, illustrating hidden inflation and cost pressures.

Today's Panelists:

Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth

Douglas Heagren | Mergent College Advisors

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/santa-clause-rally-ahead-775

Economist George Economou joins us today to share why stocks and gold are soaring in the modern global market. He talks about his global outlook on markets amid rising economic and geopolitical uncertainty, AI-driven growth narratives, stock buybacks, and deep investor anxiety fueled by a multipolar world. We also chat on trade tensions, and escalating conflicts across the globe. He explained how falling interest rates continue to prop up U.S. and European stocks despite stretched valuations, why gold is surging as central banks and investors hedge geopolitical risk, and why tariffs are unlikely to succeed economically over the long run.

We discuss...

• George Economou outlined his background as a Greece-based macroeconomist, financial consultant, academic, and economics educator.
• Rising tariffs, shifting trade policies, and the growing independence of BRICS nations are major sources of macro instability.
• Europe is particularly vulnerable, with echoes of pre-2008 risks despite strong headline equity performance.
• U.S. equity markets are being driven by AI-led profit growth, excess liquidity, and falling interest rates rather than pure fundamentals.
• European equity strength is largely attributed to corporate stock buybacks rather than underlying economic health.
• Falling interest rates globally were highlighted as a key driver pushing investors away from bonds and into equities.
• Gold prices were said to be surging due to geopolitical uncertainty and aggressive central bank accumulation, especially by BRICS nations.
• Geopolitical risks involving Russia–Ukraine, the Middle East, and China–Taiwan are central drivers of market anxiety.
• Tariffs are a political tool aimed at reshoring U.S. production, but one that economic theory suggests will be inefficient long term.
• AI investment is comparable to early smartphone adoption, requiring heavy upfront spending before productivity gains become visible.
• CEOs' frustration with AI returns is linked to poor implementation rather than a lack of long-term potential.
• Extremely high global equity valuations are attributed to investors avoiding bonds and real estate due to unattractive risk-reward dynamics.
• Sustained market valuations is questioned, with the warning that expensive assets eventually decline when buyers step away.

Today's Panelists:

• Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
• Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance
• Diana Perkins | Trading With Diana

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/stocks-and-gold-are-soaring-george-economou-774