July 2026 Mailbag: Year Twelve Begins

**David Gardner** (0:00)
Back in July of 2015, I hoped there might be enough ideas, enough thoughtful listeners to sustain a weekly investing podcast for a while.
Well, here we are. This month marks the beginning of year 12 for Rule Breaker Investing. One new episode every week, no skips, no reruns. And one of the happiest discoveries along the way has been this. Some of the very best episodes are the ones that you help create. Every month, I get to host my favorite co-hosts. They live all over the world. They don't know each other. They ask better questions than I would have thought to ask myself. They challenge me, teach me, make me laugh, and occasionally move me to tears.
So as we begin our 12 year together, let's do what we often do best. Let's open the Mailbag only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:59)
It's the Rule Breaker Investing Podcast with Motley Fool co-founder, David Gardner.

**David Gardner** (1:09)
Yeah, it was mid-July 2015 when Rule Breaker Investing launched. You scroll all the way back in Apple Podcasts, I assume the same is true of Spotify. You'll see our first three episodes, we pinned up all on the same day, July 8th. Each one was eight to 10 minutes. I think I did one the week after that, and I've been doing one the week after ever since. Here we are with the 129th consecutive Mailbag welcome. Thanks for joining me here at the end of July. Let's review the month that was. July 1st, the first day of the month, it was what you've done to create Financial Freedom, Volume 4 We had some remarkable listener stories revealing that financial freedom is ultimately about hope, perseverance, and passing opportunity on to others. A week later, great quotes, Volume 22, A Nation Forever Young, it was America's birthday, and I gave you five of my favorite quotations ranging from self-knowledge to immigration, that combine into a meditation on why curiosity and renewal keep both people young, and also nations to a nation forever young. The third week of the month, it was 10 years later, five Brexit-inspired stocks, a decade after Brexit rattled the world. My pal, Carl Thiel and I, just a couple of weeks ago, reopened the time capsule of my July 2016 five-stock sampler to see how five optimism-inspired investments actually fared, and what 10 years can teach us that three never could. And finally, last week, five idle thoughts of a summer's day, volume three, a midsummer sampler of curiosity. We wandered from AI to soccer to literature and beyond. I ended with a whimsical two-page story that I hope, in a little way at least, expanded your universe. So that is the month that was. We have five Wednesdays in July of 2026, and the last Wednesday is always your mailbag. Now, speaking of financial freedom, this month of July, before we get started, do you know a great teacher? Maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your child's teacher, or a friend, neighbor, someone in your local school district. Well, if so, we'd love an introduction. So this fall, the Fool Community Foundation is launching our Freedometer. It's a free interactive investing experience designed to help high school students discover the power of investing. Before its national classroom launch, we're gonna invite a small group of 10 to 15 educators to join our inaugural Freedometer Founding Teacher cohort. Founding teachers will receive early access to the Freedometer. You will work directly with our team and help shape the future of investing education before it reaches classrooms across the country. So if, as I share these words with you, if someone comes to mind, we'd love to hear from you. Simply send an email to George Holoff. George is our Executive Director at The Fool Community Foundation. A past guest on this podcast, including July 1st of this month, George's email address is george.holoff at foolfoundation.org. Holoff is spelled K-H-A-L-A-F. So it's george.K-H-A-L-A-F at foolfoundation.org.
And we'll take it from there. Sometimes helping the next generation starts with a single introduction. And we believe at The Fool Community Foundation that we can help more people become not just smarter, happier and richer, but freer too. Two other housekeeping notes. One is at rulebreakerinvesting.com, we have just added a new list of podcasts. You know, at the podcast tab on rulebreakerinvesting.com, I've grouped many of my episodic series by theme right there. So you can go back and listen if you ever want to, to all of my great quotes podcasts or great quotes number 13, if that's the one you're looking for. We've conveniently organized everything from our pet peeves to all of our authors in August podcasts. And the list goes on mental tips, tricks and life hacks. And we just added a new short list. And that's what I'm calling Signature Episodes. So these are some of the most meaningful, looking back some of my favorite episodes in the history of this podcast in celebration of our 11th year of completion. So for example, when I did 60 Thoughts as I turned 60 a few months ago, I pinned that one up. If you remember the year the market skyrocketed with Chris Hill broadcasting from 30 years into the future. That one's there too, A Road Less Traveled in 10 and a half chapters. Some of my signature podcasts are now there at rulebreakerinvesting.com at the Podcasts tab. All right, most of my mailbags have started with a Twitter hot take. This one is no exception. I have just one for you this month. This one coming in from Matt Hard, who is at DollarSign307Fool on Twitter. Matt, you tweeted this in response to my invitation for people to share what they've done to create financial freedom in the past year. You did this right around the start of the year. You came in just after I recorded my What Have You Done To Create Financial Freedom podcast this month, but not too late for me to share in the mailbag. And Matt, you wrote, 2026 has been a year of sharing what I've learned. From buying extra copies of the Rule Breaker Investing book for friends and family, and teaching teachers a class on pursuing financial wellness, I have moved from posts on X and into action. Double exclamation point. And Matt, I know you recently just crossed 1200 followers on Twitter X. Congratulations to you, sir. And I would say keep going. It's been my pleasure to learn from you, and I hope more and more of the world does too. So at $307Fool on Twitter X, Matt Hard, thank you for a Twitter hot take. We have seven mailbag items for July 2026 Here's number one. Let's get started. This is a beautiful note. Regular correspondent and friend of this podcast and fellow Fool Jum, thank you for this. Let me share it. Hi David. I haven't had a chance to listen to your episode, what have you done to create financial freedom yet? I knew it was Rule Breaker Investing's Independence Day episodic episode and had prepared a story to share, but I missed it. My dad passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, and I had to fly back to Thailand for his funeral. I'm heartbroken and in deep grief. Like so many of us, I thought I had more time.