The Real Cost of Buy Now, Pay Later

The Real Cost of Buy Now, Pay Later

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 break down how BNPL actually works, why it's grown so fast, and what separates a useful financial tool from a mechanism that quietly accelerates debt. They dig into the credit score question — why most BNPL products don't build credit, and what that means for borrowers who are trying to. They cover the real cost of convenience when deferred payments stack up, and where 0% financing is genuinely worth taking. The bigger thread running through the episode: debt isn't inherently good or bad. A 0% BNPL plan on a Peloton is a different decision than spreading out Coachella across six payments. Context, opportunity cost, and self-awareness about your own spending patterns are the variables that actually determine whether any of these tools help or hurt you. That's true for an $8 burrito and a $3 million home purchase in equal measure. The episode also covers the history of consumer credit — including the fact that women in the U.S. couldn't open their own credit cards until 1974 — and what the rise of BNPL reflects about how the financial system is evolving for people who have historically been locked out of it. Follow Us: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod [https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod]  * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast] * TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod [http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod]  * Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/]  * Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/] Credits: Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell

The Vibesession: Why the Economy Feels Broken Even When It Isn't with Seth Buks

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 growth, inflation, and interest rates; why real wage growth over the past five years tells a very different story than the one most people believe; and what behavioral finance reveals about the decisions investors make when fear and greed start running the show. Seth breaks down the "vibesession" — the phenomenon where people feel economically terrible despite data pointing in the opposite direction — and explains the behavioral biases behind it, including recency bias, herding, and representativeness. The conversation shifts to AI and what the productivity data actually shows, why the bakery analogy matters for understanding GDP, and how to separate what's real from what's noise when every headline feels urgent. They also get into the mechanics of why markets compress: the investor psychology cycle, the buy-the-dip conditioning of the past decade, and what's been missing from recent market downturns that makes this moment harder to read. And in a candid conversation about private credit, the three explore how an investment product can start well-intentioned and quietly become something clients don't fully understand they've bought into — and what advisors owe clients when complexity steps in. The episode closes with one of the better pieces of career advice the show has heard: the asset that compounds most reliably isn't a portfolio. It's the relationships you keep. Follow Us: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod [https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod]  * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast] * TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod [http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod]  * Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/]  * Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/] Credits: Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell

One Year In: What Compound Growth Actually Means

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 to explain themselves to the people they care about most, and what that says about the gap between expertise and genuine communication. From there, it moves into reflection. What consistency really looks like when no one is watching. Why early decisions that look small — staying independent, saying no to the wrong opportunities, betting on your own voice — tend to be the ones that matter most in hindsight. Wheeler and Colin discuss the moment they turned down a well-resourced firm that had everything except room for this, a podcast. They talk about the first year of advisors and what separates the ones who last. They revisit why growth, in any domain, is less about the headline moments and more about the accumulated weight of small, repeated choices. This anniversary episode is a honest conversation about where the show started, direct about where it's going, and grounded in the same belief that has run through every episode: that money, work, and the way people build things are all worth talking about clearly, without the jargon getting in the way. Follow Us: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod [https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod]  * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast] * TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod [http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod]  * Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/]  * Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/] Credits: Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell

April 2026 Market Recap: Relief Rally, Record Earnings, and the Intel Chart Nobody Can Explain

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 earnings growth hovering around 15%. That's not a sentiment rally. Companies are actually making more money. Wheeler and Colin dig into what's driving the semiconductor surge, why Intel's chart looks like nothing either of them has seen before, and how to think about the AI infrastructure build-out without getting swept up in the hype. The conversation also covers tariff uncertainty, the resilience of the consumer despite the noise, and why the US economy continues to confound the skeptics. Then things get a little philosophical. A discussion about fractional ownership of luxury assets — partial stakes in Ferraris, art, and collectibles — turns into a broader conversation about what anything is actually worth, and whether the financialization of everything is slowly draining the fun out of life. Plus: the Survivor betting market that spoiled the office bracket and confirmed that yes, there is a prediction market for literally everything now. Follow Us: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod [https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod]  * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast] * TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod [http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod]  * Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/]  * Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/] Credits: Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell

What the Biggest IPO in History Means for Your Money

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 visionary, polarizing, massively hyped, and still managed to underperform the S&P 500 by nearly 20 points over six years. From there, they build the case for why the pending IPOs of SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI are categorically different in scale — and why the ripple effects will reach people who never buy a single share. The conversation covers how IPOs actually work, what history says about which ones survive and which collapse, why passive investors are going to own SpaceX whether they want to or not, and what happens to a market when three companies worth a combined $3 to $4 trillion try to enter it simultaneously. Colin also walks through the tax and strategy considerations for people sitting on locked-up private equity — and why borrowing against appreciated stock is often smarter than selling it. This is an episode about preparation over prediction. The IPO wave is coming. The question is whether you understand what it means before it arrives. Follow Us: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod [https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod]  * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast [https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast] * TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod [http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod]  * Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/]  * Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/] Credits: Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell