Together with Public
Hi Everyone,
Please STAY SAFE with the massive winter storm that’s expected to impact the majority of the United States. Have a plan and stay warm!
Before you read on — make sure you’re following us on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever else you watch the show! We want you to get notified when each new episode is released.
A quick breakdown — in case you don’t have the time.
⭐ Volatility is back — and it’s headline-driven.
⭐ We had an honest conversation with legendary entrepreneur Max Levchin.
⭐ Europe is deeply invested in the U.S. — limiting how far tensions can go.
⭐ Bitcoin learned a familiar lesson about politics and markets.
⭐ Pending home sales fell sharply, posting the worst-ever December drop.
Members of the Rich Habits Network have had the opportunity to invest in the following companies over the last several months:
Ongoing opportunities include:
More to be announced in next two weeks
It has come to our attention that many of you may not fully understand what it means to invest alongside Robert and Austin in startups and pre-IPO companies.
Over the last 18 months, we’ve helped hundreds of accredited investors invest millions of dollars into over a dozen companies (including the ones shown above).
Going forward, we’ll be including this every week — highlighting the caliber of these companies and why access to these opportunities is one of the biggest perks of being part of the Rich Habits Network.
Market Overview
As of market open, 1/22/26
ETF Winners & Losers
Chart of the Week
Volatility is back — and it’s headline-driven.
Stocks, bonds, and the dollar all sold off after President Trump reignited tariff threats toward Europe ahead of meetings in Davos, while tensions around Greenland escalated. The S&P 500 fell over -2%, volatility jumped to its highest level since November, and Bitcoin dropped sharply — while gold pushed to fresh all-time highs.
Investors reacted to a sudden rise in policy uncertainty, with long-term yields climbing, the dollar weakening, and global investors reducing exposure to U.S. assets at the margin. Tuesday marked the worst cross-asset session since last year’s tariff-driven selloff.
Investor optimism entered 2026 near five-year highs, hedging demand was near cycle lows, and markets had been shrugging off headline risk — until they didn’t.
The good news is that uncertainty faded quickly. Markets roared back yesterday after President Trump struck a more diplomatic tone at Davos, signaling progress toward a Greenland deal and backing away from the proposed February tariffs on Europe. It was a reminder of how fast policy-driven volatility can both emerge — and unwind.
During our Tuesday night livestream inside the Rich Habits Network we reminded everyone how important it is to stay calm when headlines drive big swings in the markets. One of our 2026 market predictions was that the Trump Administration would run the economy and stock market hot in order to get Republicans re-elected during the mid-terms. We don’t think Trump is willing to cause another massive tariff-related sell-off in the markets this close to the mid-terms.
Today’s Rich Habits Newsletter is brought to you by Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build your portfolio for the long haul with stocks, options, bonds, crypto, and more.
Beyond the assets, Public integrates AI in ways that are actually useful. You can get real-time context on why a stock you care about is moving, instant earnings call summaries—you can even build a custom index from a prompt.
In Case You Missed It…
In this week’s Monday-morning episode of the Rich Habits Podcast (linked here) — Austin and Robert sat down with Max Levchin, Founder & CEO of Affirm, to unpack why credit is one of the most misunderstood — and most powerful — tools in modern finance.
Max, an original co-founder of PayPal, has spent decades building companies at the intersection of technology, incentives, and consumer behavior. In this conversation, he explains what’s broken in today’s credit system — and how it could be rebuilt to actually work for consumers.
Here’s what they covered…
Credit as a Long-Term Tool — Credit isn’t inherently bad; it’s a way to invest in future opportunity like education, housing, and career mobility. The real issue is systems that profit when consumers fall behind.
Why Not All Credit Is Created Equal — Revolving credit cards thrive on compounding interest and penalties, while transaction-based models force clarity and fixed outcomes upfront — dramatically changing consumer behavior over time.
Why Max Founded Affirm — After experiencing how legacy credit systems fail responsible borrowers, Max built Affirm around a simple principle: lenders should only win when consumers do.
The Future of Payments & Lending — Advances in AI and data will reshape financial products over the next decade, with the biggest wins coming from simpler, more transparent systems aligned with long-term consumer health.
Credit doesn’t have to be a trap — but incentives matter.
Here’s a link to the Q&A episode that was posted this morning.
You can submit questions for these episodes by asking them inside of the Rich Habits Network, replying to this email, or sending us a DM on Instagram.
The Rich Habits Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, iHeart, YouTube, and wherever else you get your content!
Austin’s Callout
Europe is deeply invested in the U.S. — limiting how far tensions can go.
European investors now hold a record $10 trillion in U.S. assets, according to Treasury data. Roughly $6 trillion of that sits in U.S. equities, while another $2 trillion is parked in Treasuries — with additional exposure across corporate and agency bonds.
Zooming out, Europe as a whole accounts for nearly 40% of all foreign Treasury holdings — with the UK, Switzerland, and Norway doing a lot of heavy lifting. In other words, Europe’s financial exposure to the U.S. has never been larger — and it runs through the heart of American capital markets.
That matters in moments of geopolitical stress. While tariff threats and political rhetoric can spark volatility, the scale of cross-border capital ties creates powerful incentives to de-escalate. Selling U.S. assets isn’t much of a policy lever for European nations; it’d be more of a self-inflicted wound.
For markets, this helps explain why “sell America” episodes tend to be sharp but short-lived. When global investors are this embedded in U.S. assets, compromise usually matters more than confrontation.
Robert’s Callout
Bitcoin learned a familiar lesson about politics and markets.
Trump’s second presidency was widely expected to be a tailwind for crypto, with optimism peaking around his inauguration in January 2025. Bitcoin briefly hit an intraday high above $109,000 that day — but one year later, it’s trading closer to $90,000, with the broader crypto market also modestly lower.
In many ways, 2025 was a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” year. Expectations around political support, regulation, and adoption were extreme — but legislative timelines moved slowly and several anticipated catalysts failed to materialize. The result was choppy price action, repeated sentiment washouts, and a market that struggled to sustain momentum.
Under the surface, however, the structure of the market improved. Leverage has been flushed out, institutional access expanded, and Bitcoin’s role has continued to evolve from a purely speculative asset toward something that increasingly resembles a macro hedge and balance-sheet asset.
Bitcoin’s price has dropped -29% since recent all-time highs made in October 2025, with popular altcoins falling over -50% during the same period of time. Is this time different, or are we gearing up for another “Crypto Winter” in 2026? Only time will tell.
The Rich Habits Radar
👉 Donald Trump said Vlad Putin agreed to join his new “Board of Peace.”
👉 Ondo Finance launched 200+ tokenized stocks, ETFs, bond, etc. on Solana.
👉 Trump said the U.S. would be involved in Greenland’s mineral rights.
👉 Apple to revamp Siri into a built-in chatbot across iPhone & Mac.
👉 Amazon expanded further into AI healthcare.
👉 Pending home sales fell sharply, posting the worst-ever December drop.
👉 Netflix beat earnings but trimmed forward guidance amid Warner Bros deal.
Get Free Resources w/ Our Referral Program!
Share this newsletter with 1 person and you’ll be sent our Financial Planning Workbook. Share it with 2 people and you’ll also be sent our video module explaining how Austin and Robert Analyze New Stocks.
It just takes a few moments — enjoy the resources!
Check ‘Em Out
Below is a list of our featured partners that we’ve vetted — with whom we have a personal relationship. Browse these exclusive offers curated just for you:
Real Estate — Download our FREE Real Estate Hacks Template
Budgeting — Download our FREE Budgeting Template
High-Yield Cash Account — Earn 3.3% on your savings
Public — Trade stocks, options, and crypto
Grifin — Automatically buy stock where you shop
Blossom — Manage and analyze your portfolio
Suriance — Protect your family with term life insurance
Timeshare Exit — Exit an unwanted timeshare
Video Course — Use code “Newsletter” for 15% off
Seeking Alpha — Optimize your portfolio
Credit Card Matrix — Find your next favorite card to swipe
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or a recommendation for any investment. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
Public Disclosures: Paid endorsement. Brokerage services provided by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Investing involves risk. Not investment advice. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and investment values may rise or fall. See terms of match program at https://public.com/disclosures/matchprogram. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.
Disclosure: The author of this post has an existing business relationship with NEOS Investment Management, LLC, and is also a holder of numerous NEOS ETFs. The thoughts and opinions in this written piece are solely those of the author.