Dream, 9, 1, 8, and more!
What's this? Have Nutella for guests? Me, it's right out.
“I've already made it to the end of the month.”
Not Nutella, it's Nutella.
Three things, sitting at the top of our rich habits radar this week include Teslas Cybercabs, rolling off the production line, White House Flying Taxi Progress, and the Fed, maybe hiking interest rates in 2026. And be sure to stick around to the end where we talk about Wendy's potentially getting taken over by a billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz.
Man, think about that. I like what's it called the Baconator? I would say that introduction makes me feel like this is a dystopian future episode. But I assure all of you watching. It is not.
We're going to dig into some really, really good things.
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Alright Robert, let's kick off this episode with our first story.
Yes, on Monday, Tesla posted a photo of the very first cyber cab rolling off the production line and its Gigafactory in Texas, this is the Autonomous 2-seater Robotaxi Elon Musk unveiled back in October of 2024. At Tesla's Wii robot event, it has no steering wheel, no pedals, butterfly doors, and wireless charging.
And at the time, most people thought it was years away and technically it was, but here we are. Elon confirmed on X earlier this week that Tesla will sell the cyber cab directly to consumers, not just as a fleet vehicle to enterprise clients, like maybe a Uber or something. For here we go, Robert, get this only $30,000. That would make it Tesla's most affordable vehicle cheaper than both the Model 3 and Model Y.
Now, volume production is expected to begin in April and Elon said the goal is to have it available to buy for individuals before the end of 2027. He even said that Tesla's production lines should eventually produce one cyber cab every 10 seconds, which is insane to think about and Elon makes some crazy promises. So take all this with a grand assault.
But also something important that took place this week is the FCC granted Tesla a waiver to use ultra high-band radio technology for the cyber cab's wireless charging system. This is a big deal because the cyber cab doesn't have a charging port. It charges by parking over a ground level pad. Without this FCC approval, that whole system couldn't be deployed outdoors,
but that regulatory hurdle is now cleared.
“So Robert, what does this mean for you and your money?”
This is Tesla making good on the autonomy pivot. For years, Musk has been saying the real value of Tesla isn't in selling cars. It's building a robot taxi network where your car makes money while you sleep.
The cyber cab is the first purpose-built vehicle for that vision and the fact that it's actually
in production is a huge deal at $30,000 in with no driver needed. The economics get really interesting. Musk has said the operating cost could be around 20 cents per mile, which is cheaper than a bus ride. If that plays out this disrupts Uber, lift, and potentially car ownership itself
for people in major cities. Now, here's where my head goes.
Why can't I just buy three of these cyber cabs for under $100?
I then start my own fleet at my warehouse in Ohio,
and I'm profiting and I'm up and running with these three vehicles making between 15 to $25,000 per vehicle per year. So this is so exciting for me.
“I think of it as like an expensive side hustle, but one that could really make people a lot of money”
and a new way to combat all of this automation and robotics and AI. And with the introduction of this new cyber cab, a depreciating asset could turn into a cash flow machine and a whole new asset class. Yeah, this is really exciting. I use Toro.
I'm sure we've all heard a Toro. Right, T-U-R-O. And I've had good experiences. I've had bad experiences. But at the end of the day, there are people on the internet.
I've watched several YouTube videos about it, where they buy two, three, four of these like Nissan Centra's Hyundai Alantra's. Right, these like sort of $30,000 cars and they do the whole thing going on on Toro and they make some profit and they do that. But what's interesting about this is it's all autonomous.
With Toro, you've got to go drive the car to maybe a drop-off point at an airport. You've got to go pick it up and like do it. Well, wash it, all the stuff, but man, how cool would it be? If you can go buy a cyber cab for $30,000, you automate the whole thing. You figure out the washing, you figure out whatever's going on there.
The charging obviously is automatic. Insurance will be through Tesla anyway. Like there'll be some nuances to you. You've got to figure it out. But like imagine spending $30,000 in having a two-year payback period.
Right, where you profit if $10,000 in the first year.
So after two years, you now have a free cyber cab essentially. That's going out and making you money every year. Almost a thousand over a thousand dollars a month on average. And there's a whole breakdown. We'll put it in the link in the show notes below.
Um, of a really cool article that we read on X. That sort of walks through the economics. If you're interested in reading more about that.
“But man, I think it's, I think it's so cool.”
And I love the future, the future's fun. And speaking of the future, uh, and just autonomous stuff in general, the White House now is fast tracking, flying taxis. And it could actually change where you live. So the FAA is expected to announce selections any day now for their EIPP.
The EV Tall Integration Pilot Program, a White House initiative that will green light at least five pilot projects across the country to get electric air taxis flying in American cities before they even have full FAA certification. And this came out of a Trump executive order from June of 2025,
called the unleashing American drone dominance. And it's designed to fast track something that's been stuck in regulatory limbo for years, EV Tall's, otherwise known as electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. I know that's a mouthful.
Think of them as electric helicopters, bequieter, cheaper to operate, and design for short urban trips. I like Austin, Robert, why are you sharing this with us? Because the two biggest names in the space are publicly traded. Right, Joe B. Aviation in Archer Aviation.
Joe B. Aviation has logged over 40,000 miles of test flights and is backed by Toyota, whereas Archer is partnered with United Airlines and has been named the official air taxi provider of the 2028 Olympics, which, who cares. Whatever that means, right?
But what's cool is both companies have submitted proposals to fly in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Miami. And we're going to find out in the coming days, maybe weeks, whose actually chosen to now participate in this pilot program. And the way the EIPP works in that cities
and states partner with these companies to submit proposals. And the FAA is selecting at least five to begin real world operations within 90 days of being chosen. That means we could see revenue generating air taxi flights in the U.S. by this summer, which is just crazy to me.
These aren't concept videos anymore. Joe B. flew over 850 flights last year across the U.S.
to buy in Japan, so Austin, this sounds amazing.
It sounds dystopian. What does this mean for you and your money? I don't know if this sounds dystopian. I feel like dystopian is more like, oh, my gosh, things are crazy. You know, like the matrix, like this is exciting.
I like this. This is fun. This is optimistic. I think it'd be cool, right?
“So the fun thing to think about this is the implications, right?”
The implications go way beyond just getting from point A to point B. Right now, these air taxis are targeting airport to downtown routes. So think like LAX to Santa Monica and like 6 or 7 minutes versus sitting in traffic for an hour. Now Elon Musk said that the cyber cab would cost 20 cents a mile on the ground, but these eva tolls could eventually offer something similar in the air.
But that's where it gets really interesting from a wealth building perspective. Because you can now, perhaps live in a suburb, 30 or 40 miles outside of a major city and get to the downtown area within 7 to 10 minutes by air versus, you know, 45 minutes,
Driving the entire calculus of where you live now begins to change.
Like for example, you know, I live in Nashville, but I'm in a suburb called Nolan'sville. And that's like, you know, 25, 30 minutes from downtown. And it'd be sick if I can go somewhere, hop on one of these taxis. And now I'm downtown in 7 minutes after being in the air versus sitting in traffic for 30, 40 minutes.
Like, now people can begin to think about, wait a second.
If I want, I can have both, right? I can live 30, 40 miles outside of the actual major city in a more affordable area, right? But I can still have that convenience of getting downtown when I want to. I think it's sick. I love the future. I do too, and I really like the take of how it affects wealth building.
Because you think about some of these interior cities, these downtowns like where I live, it's getting so expensive.
“But then if you want to live in the suburbs, you have to sit in traffic for 40, 45 minutes.”
This takes that away in the future where people can live more affordably on the outskirts of these major cities and still work in the cities, but be able to get there quickly. I love this, and I definitely am excited about this sector. And Jolby and Archer are both publicly traded and both are pre revenue.
So they're speculative, but this trend is undeniable.
Between autonomous cars on the ground and electric air taxis in the sky, the way we move is about to change. And with it, the way we think about where to live, where to invest in real estate, and what commuting distance even means keeping eye on this space in the coming years. Because it's for real, it's here, and we want to make sure you're keeping an eye on it.
So this takes us to our final headline. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its January 27 and 28 meeting. And there was a line in there that should make every investor sit up in their seat. Several Fed officials discussed, and I quote, the possibility that upward adjustments to interest rates could be appropriate.
“If inflation continues to track above 2%, let me say that again.”
Some members of the Federal Reserve are openly talking about raising interest rates, not holding them steady, and not cutting them. Yeah, the Fed putting rate hikes back on the table is very interesting. So now to be clear, let's walk through this. The Fed held rate steady at the January meeting.
We saw that that was expected. And the vote was 10 to 2 with governors, my ran and wallet actually dissenting because they want to cut rates by a quarter point, which is like, OK, cool. So you've got people on the committee who want to cut people who now want to hold, right, the 10 people who want to hold.
But now some people are floating around the idea of hiking interest rates. Something that that we've not done in years. The Fed right now is deeply divided, and the minutes also noted that most participants thought the risk of inflation running persistently above the 2% target was meaningful. Progress toward the target has been in their words slower and more uneven than
generally expected. A January inflation came in at 2.4%, better than December, but it's still not that 2%
long-term goal that Jerome Powell has always talked about.
And we've always had, oh, yeah, 2% inflation, 2% inflation. It's at 2.4, but it's like, you know, it's meaningful enough to go hike interest rates and tank everything, hopefully they don't do that. But now you've got to think, OK, you've got the 2% goal, we're at 2.4, and tariffs are still working their way through the system.
So the Fed isn't confident that that number, that 2.4% number is going to come down fast enough. Meanwhile, Trump is still publicly pressuring the Fed the lower rates. He posted great jobs numbers after the January report and called for lower borrowing costs. He's also nominated Kevin Worst to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair when Powell's term ends in May and Worst has been in favor of lowering rates.
So you've got the White House pushing for cuts in several Fed officials whispering about hikes. So Austin, this is kind of back and forth and all over the place. What does this mean for you and your money? I want everyone to understand me, this is a big deal, and I don't think enough people are paying
attention for the past two years. The entire market narrative, even three really, but for the like the good 24 and 25, what's been the narrative for the market? Rates are going down, right? We're in a rate cutting cycle.
Rates are coming down, which means more liquidity.
“Lower debt, like it's good, rates come down, right?”
Don't fight the Fed is what we say all the time. These meeting minutes that we just got this week completely flipped the script. If the Fed even hints at hiking interest rates, that changes the math on everything. Mortgage rates stay elevated, or maybe even begin to go higher. Credit card APRs do not begin to come back down, auto loans stay expensive.
He locks, right? Like everything, and even the stock market now has to repricet self against the new weighted average cost to capital. So the market rallied in late 2024 and 2025 largely, because a lot of people, including myself, were betting on aggressive rate cuts, and we got them.
If we're now in a world where the next move could be up instead of down,
maybe that rally disappears.
“And the rally that was built on an expectation that never came true, right?”
It's like buckle up volatility here we come. And for your day-to-day finances, this means don't bank on lower interest rates any time soon. If you're carrying high interest credit card debt, don't wait for rates to come down, attack it now. If you're thinking about locking in a mortgage, the window of rates will be lower in the next quarter, might not play out as you think.
And if you're investing, keep in mind that a divided Fed creates volatility in the stock market. Markets hate uncertainty and right now the people in charge of interest rates, can't even agree on which direction to go, let alone how much to go in the direction they choose. So state diversified, stay patient, and don't overreact, but definitely pay attention, things are real, and things could get really bumpy if this happens.
All right, Robert, now it's time for our quick little call out on etfcentral.com. If you're not using etfcentral to do research on ETFs, you're missing out. It's a great website to go learn more about flows, holdings, performance, best, you know, all the fun stuff as it relates to ETFs, etfcentral.com.
“What we like to do is talk about the biggest movers and shakers in the ETF universe, right?”
So what thematic ETFs performed best this week? What performed worse? I talk about the best, Robert talks about the worst, and then we give you a quick little takeaway as to what we think.
So in third place, the third best performing theme of the week was US energy up to 0.1%.
The second best performing theme was US utilities up about 3.5%. And the number one best performing theme for ETFs this week are niche commodity, which if I'm not mistaken, Robert, I think niche commodity was last week as well. Unidate performance up 33% for niche commodity ETFs. Very interesting. Definitely, and that doesn't surprise me. So I'm going to give you guys the bad news. These are the three worst performing at number three is fin tech down about 4.5%.
Number two, e-commerce, that surprises me a little bit down 4.5% as well. And then the number one worst performer, and this one is shocking to me, but hey, it's okay. There's been a pullback on these record runs, metal X gold at 7.7% down this week. So that's my three worst performers in these themed ETFs. Yeah, it's kind of funny, because inside the rich habits network, you know, we host these weekly live streams. And I don't remember the specific date. Maybe it was
like what was it maybe early January or something like that. Maybe late January. But anyway, we're hosting a live stream and we saw the craziest volume ever on silver. It was going vertical and I'm over here pound in the table during this live stream. Do not chase this. It's going to come down. I think it's blowing off the climax top right like this is it. Please do not like go re-morgad your house by silver bars right now. This is not the time to do it. I think we're going
to have a meaningful pullback. And we have, and I'd be surprised if silver hits new all-time highs this year. Gold, maybe it's a different story. I think gold is a very different asset than silver. Thought of differently, right? As we think about, oh my gosh, what's happening in the Middle East, do I want to have my money in silver? Or do I want to have my money in gold? And I think people kind of see gold more as that safe haven. And you know, that big silver thesis was a lot of the
utility behind it. So regardless, it seems like metals are coming back a little bit this week. But you're today performance cylinder green. But again, that's excluding gold. I think, I don't know. What do you think, Robert? What should take away here on the metals excluding gold performance? Yeah, I think overall it makes sense. If you think about the markets as a whole, you know, everyone was chasing Bitcoin for a few years. Then it gets to $120,000. And we haven't
seen that number again. And it's down, down, down. Everyone was chasing AI after that. Now everyone's talking about an AI bubble. Then everyone moved their liquidity over to silver and gold and copper. And they chased that and ran that up to the top. And now that's pulled back. And that is why we
here in the rich habits podcast and rich habits network always tell you to take profits along the way,
because nothing goes up into the right forever. I think long term silver and gold are going to be great. So is copper. But you're right, Austin. I agree with you. I think silver needs some time to cool off and really figure out where it lands. It's up so much over the last three years that I could see it not seeing another all-time high for months and months down the road. But we'll wait and see. Yeah, someone called us out on a earlier podcast episode. We did. I think it was back in 2023.
“You were talking about how important silver was at 15, 20 bucks. I think what an ounce, right?”
And I'm like, no, no way. Silver's not going to 30. Get out of here and we 100 and something, right?
It's crazy.
Go check out all the fun thematic ETFs over there. But more importantly, we want to call out some of
“our favorite show-in-tell headline news. Here's what's come across my desk that I thought everyone should”
know about. I've got the potential buyout of Wendy's. I'll be talking about Amazon becoming the largest company in the world surpassing Walmart. And finally, here's another one. Kind of
come back to the autonomous vehicles. I'll be highlighting Uber's hundred million dollar investment
in charging stations. So let's talk about Wendy's first billionaire activist investor Nelson Pelts filed with the SEC on Wednesday saying that Wendy's stock is currently undervalued and that his firm trian fund management is in talks with financing sources and co-investors about a potential acquisition that could give him control of the fast food giant Wendy's. This guy must love him some baconators. Wendy's forward PE ratio is currently at 11 times versus McDonald's at 24 times and
young brands trading at 24 times as well. Pelts clearly sees a turnaround play with Wendy's.
“There's a very classic activist investor playbook. You buy something that's broken, but it”
happens to also still be a very great brand. You then come in. You fix the operations and either
you flip it back to the market or you just run with it. So if you enjoy yourself some Wendy's,
maybe this is one to watch. Robert, my next story is Amazon outselling Walmart to become the world's largest company. So Walmart reported Q4 earnings this week and when the dust settled Amazon officially passed Walmart as the biggest company in the world by sales. Amazon, here we go, ready. Amazon brought in 700 in 17 billion dollars of revenue last year outpacing Walmart's 713 billion. I can't even like comprehend these numbers. Okay, revenue, not profit. Their profit margins are like
one to two percent. It's nuts, but I'm about revenue here. So Walmart actually had to held the top spot for Fortune 500 companies as the largest company of speaking of revenue
“for the last 13 years. But now both companies are competing for the same shoppers. Amazon is”
pushing for lower prices. Walmart says high income shoppers are their fastest growing segment. We've talked about the K-shaped economy for a while now, Robert. And Walmart actually just reported
24 percent growth and online sales. So Walmart is nuts going down quietly. And finally,
my last call out is Uber investing 100 million in charging stations for their autonomous vehicles. If this will be a network of fast charging stations for their autonomous vehicles initially in Los Angeles, Dallas, and San Francisco's Bay Area. Here's a quote from their CEO. With the benefit of learning from multiple AV deployments around the world, we're more convinced than ever that autonomous vehicles will unlock a multi-trillion dollar
opportunity for Uber. Autonomous vehicles amplify the fundamental strengths of our program, global scale, deep demand density, sophisticated marketplace technology, and decades of on the ground experiencing matching riders, drivers, and vehicles all in real time. If that doesn't get you excited to own some Uber stock, Robert. I don't know what does. I love me some Uber. Yeah, definitely something to keep an eye on to see who wins this
autonomous driver race. Because, you know, obviously we just talked about the Tesla cybercabs. There is a lot of change of foot, and I would be really nervous if I was a traditional US auto manufacturer right now because they're so far behind in this race. I don't know what's going to happen, but we'll definitely keep you guys all abreast of what we believe is happening in the markets and in the automotive industry in general. Well, not just keeping them abreast
if they want to know what's in our own portfolios, they need to go check out blossom. At its core blossom is a beautiful portfolio tracker. You link your brokerage account in everything sinks in automatically with the clean visuals, clear performance, and dividends tracked automatically, but you can also see other people's portfolios on the platform, including mine and Roberts. Yeah, the UI alone is worth it for sure. It's one of the few investing apps that
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We're both on there, our portfolios are on there, and people can follow along in real time, it's transparency done right. So if you want a clean portfolio tracker, a genuinely great user experience in a way to learn from real investors with real money, go check out Blossom, go search up Blossom in the App Store. There's also a link in the show notes below, or you can just visit BlossomSocial.com on your computer. Now Robert, share with me your three radar points for this
week's episode to round us off. I'm ready. Here we go. I am stoked, prediction market odds surge as better as way in on the digital asset market clarity act for crypto to get approved as of mid-February 2026, the prediction market odds for the clarity act being signed into the law have been highly volatile with recent surges placing the likelihood of 70 to 90% for 2026, while optimism is high with some forecast suggesting an 80% chance of it getting passed by April of 2026, others indicate
potential for delays due to disputes over stablecoin provisions because the government is fighting back that they don't want people to make interest on their stablecoins, and that is one of the best things about stablecoins is providing liquidity between transactions and being able to earn money while you have it parked. And if you recall the CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong was one of the ones that recently opposed the bill stating it was worse than before and would stifle growth and innovation
“in the crypto space. So I'm excited to keep an eye on this. I think once it gets approved and I believe”
it is going to get approved anytime now in the next few months this will give a clear pathway for the crypto space in general and really help you know kind of draw line in the sand of where we're
going here. My second one today is of course I'm always keeping an eye on the real estate market
is mortgage rates drop to the lowest level in nearly four years rates fell sharply this week as tensions between the US and Iran stoked the possibility of military conflict so inflation concerns also lingered as evidenced in the minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting last week and the 30 year fixed mortgage rate fell 8 basis points to 6% for the week ending Wednesday according to Freddie Mac and that's the lowest in September of 2022 and the 15 year fixed dropped 9 basis points
to 5.35% I think this is all great news for those of you that are considering buying a rental property you want to diversify your investing into the real estate market this is good news because as I've been saying for many months I think it's a buyers market right now in too many people are sitting on the sideline waiting for these COVID rates of 23% I don't think we're going to see those
if ever again for a very very long time so that leads me to my third point and I really really
“like this when I think it's important a buy partisan bill to cap credit card interest rates at 10%”
is gaining real momentum I think this is so cool for everyone out there that's been living with credit card debt and I think these companies can withstand this cap because they're making so much money on credit card debt and on these interest rates and Josh Hawley Bernie Sanders and Anna Polina Luna that's about as bipartisan as it gets are all pushing the 10% credit card interest rate cap and Trump campaigned on this and the White House has listed it as one of his
365 wins and for a little bit of context the average credit card APR right now is around 24% and banks borrow from the Fed at under 4% and researchers at Vanderbilt estimate the cap would save American consumers $100 billion a year in credit card debt so I love this for the country I hope it gets pushed through and it's great news to see that it's looking really good that this could happen everybody thanks so much for joining us on this week's episode of the rich
habits radar a new Friday episode of the rich habits podcast where we are breaking down the biggest headlines impacting you and your money every Friday morning don't forget to join us inside the rich habits network if you want more of Austin and Robert every Tuesday night we host a two-hour live stream
we are always offering new investment opportunities inside of there I think just so far this year
we've invested into like three or four different companies and it's literally the middle of February
“like it's it's going to be a blast here in 2026 and if you want to learn more about our first”
in person event the rich habits retreat be sure to join us in the rich habits network because our network participants are going to get the invite first as being our biggest fans thanks everyone and have a great rest of your week and we'll see you on Monday
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