101. Irrational Exuberance: The Rise of the Dot-Com Bubble (Part 1)

We're back! And since everyone keeps comparing the AI boom to the dot-com era (and asking if we're in a similar bubble) we decided to kick off Season 3 by taking us all down another rabbit hole to see what really happened.

In this episode, Jess and I take you back to the 1990s — when optimism was sky-high, money was cheap, music was great, and anything with “.com” in its name could send Wall Street into a frenzy. We unpack the perfect economic storm that built the dot-com bubble, the wild timeline of events that burst it, and the investor psychology that led even the smartest people to think "this time was different."

Why Does This Matter To Me?
As we said in Episode 100, sometimes history haunts us, but there are lessons to learn from the past. As we release this episode heading into "Eclipse Season," we're reminded that time is cyclical, spiraled, and layered.

What can we learn as self-directed investors from the Dot-Com Bubble? We explain the details of this week's lesson and how it parallels the AI Boom of today in our Free Newsletter! ;)

Key Takeaways:

• The 1990s were the perfect setup for a bubble: Low inflation, low interest rates, and a booming economy gave investors confidence (and cheap money) to chase risk. The Internet fueled the fire. Interesting timing as we ride into the year of the Fire Horse! 
• Technology changed everything - and everyone wanted in: The fast rise of Internet companies made it feel like endless growth was guaranteed. IPOs exploded, valuations skyrocketed, and nobody was looking at profits - sound familiar?
• FOMO and vibes replaced fundamentals. “Irrational exuberance” described the collective hive-mind that pushed prices higher simply because they were already rising. Everyone was hyped up on optimism and greed, leading to risky investing, and proving that markets run on emotion as much as data. 
• The media amplified the mania: Financial news networks turned investing into entertainment. Analysts became influencers before social media existed, and market updates sounded more like sports commentary than financial analysis.