The Personal Wealth Coach

When military threats hit the news, markets rarely wait for answers. They move on fear. In this week’s episode, Jake McClure looks at how markets have responded to war scares and real conflicts throughout history, from Greenland’s recent market shock to Ukraine, Iraq, 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and even World War I. The pattern is surprisingly consistent and often misunderstood. This is not about politics or predicting wars. It is about understanding why uncertainty causes investors to sell, why the biggest declines often happen before the first shot is fired, and how long-term inve...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on January 23, 2026. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a message...

Take a trip through economic history with Jake McClure as he uncovers the surprising roots of central bank independence. This episode starts in the 1600s with Isaac Newton, not as the scientist you learned about in school, but as the relentless crime fighter who cleaned up Britain’s broken currency and helped shape the foundations of modern monetary stability. From there, Jake walks you through how Newton’s ideas still matter today. You will hear how political interference wrecked Turkey’s currency with inflation hitting levels that sound almost fictional, why interest rates soared around the globe after the pa...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on January 16, 2026. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a message...

Think you know why U.S. healthcare costs are sky-high and life expectancy lags behind? Think again. In this episode of The Personal Wealth Coach, Jake McClure dives into the seductive danger of “obvious” conclusions and why they often lead us astray. From eye-catching global health graphs to the hidden role of obesity, we explore how missing data can flip the narrative on its head. But that’s just the start. Jake connects these insights to investing, revealing why herd mentality and surface-level trends, whether in crypto or Tesla, can cost you big. Along the way, you’ll hear abo...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on January 9, 2026. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a message...

Strap in for a whirlwind tour through one of the most unpredictable years in recent economic history. From record-breaking government shutdowns and surprise bank failures to crypto hacks that rattled global markets, this episode dives deep into the headlines that mattered and the ones that were just noise. We’ll unpack the Genius Act and the first real steps toward crypto regulation, explore how North Korean hackers stole billions, and look at why two small bank failures sent ripples through the financial system. Inflation cooled dramatically, unemployment crept upward, and the Federal Reserve pulled off three rate cu...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on January 2, 2026. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a message...

Is the economy feeling festive or just hungover from the holidays? In this episode of The Personal Wealth Coach, Jake McClure takes you behind the headlines to decode what is really happening. We break down the surprisingly strong GDP growth, why consumer spending surged even as sentiment slumped, and what the latest PCE numbers reveal about inflation’s stubborn streak. But that is just the start. Jake unpacks the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cuts and explains how they are juggling growth, inflation, and the government’s ballooning interest payments, now consuming one out of every...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on December 26th, 2025. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a...

Think you know inflation? Think again. In this episode of The Personal Wealth Coach, we unwrap the quirks behind the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE), and why this month’s numbers are stranger than your uncle’s Christmas sweater. From skipped reports and zeroed-out housing data to the baffling concept of “owner’s equivalent rent,” we dig into what these metrics really mean and why averages can be as misleading as having one foot in boiling water and the other in dry ice. We explore why the latest CPI release might be more fiction th...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on December 19th, 2025. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a...

This week on The Personal Wealth Coach, Jake unpacks a rare moment of drama at the Federal Reserve—the first split vote in years. Why did some members push for a bigger rate cut while others wanted no change at all? And why did rates drop even though inflation is still above target? We’ll dig into the politics creeping into monetary policy, the surprising role of AI in skewing job numbers, and what these shifts mean for the economy. If you’ve ever wondered why economists fear deflation more than inflation or why the Fed’s two mandates don’t in...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on December 12th, 2025. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a...

Why did prices stay flat for twenty years, then suddenly surge and refuse to come back down? In this episode of The Personal Wealth Coach, we take a deep dive into the puzzle of persistent inflation and uncover the forces that keep it hanging around. We’ll explore how decades of free trade kept costs low, why pandemic supply chain chaos flipped the script, and how stimulus checks and rehiring frenzies reshaped the labor market. From housing booms and wage hikes to tariffs, tech wars, and the chip shortage, we connect the dots on why inflation became a habit in...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on December 5th, 2025. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at advisingteam@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you can also send a...

What happens when Uncle Sam starts acting like a venture capitalist? In this episode of The Personal Wealth Coach, Jake McClure dives into a surprising trend: governments taking direct stakes in private companies. From Intel’s $8.9 billion boost under the CHIPS Act to golden shares in U.S. Steel, we explore what this means for innovation, profitability, and the long-term health of the economy. Is this smart strategy or creeping nationalization? Along the way, Jake unpacks historical parallels like Amtrak and Fannie Mae, contrasts U.S. moves with sovereign wealth funds, and asks the big question: can a government ev...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on November 28th, 2025. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at Jeff@tpwc.com or Jake@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you c...

Markets don’t just move, they mess with our minds. In this episode of The Personal Wealth Coach, Jake McClure takes you inside the psychology of financial chaos and explains why even smart investors make irrational choices when things get turbulent. From loss aversion and herd mentality to recency bias and framing, we unpack the mental traps that lead to panic selling and FOMO buying. But it’s not all theory. Jake connects these behaviors to real-world trends: skyrocketing tariffs, shifting holiday spending, and the inflationary ripple effect of consumer confidence. We explore why crypto’s deep d...

This week's market update as seen by The Personal Wealth Coach. Listen in to hear how our preferred market indicators reacted this week, followed by treasury yields and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil. This episode was recorded on November 21st, 2025. If you would like to contact us, please send an email to us at Jeff@tpwc.com or Jake@tpwc.com. We are happy to address any of your questions about Economics and Finance. If you are ready and would like to book an appointment either in office or over the phone, you c...