What You’ve Done to Create Financial Freedom, Vol. 4

**David Gardner** (0:00)
As we welcome another Independence Week here in the US., freedom is on our minds. And for this podcast, of course, financial freedom is on my mind, and I hope yours too.
For many of us, especially Motley Fool members and Rule Breaker listeners, those two words, financial freedom, echo like a Liberty Bell. I consider liberty to be one of America's five core values. And it's on display this week when we share and riff on the dream, and for some, the reality of the liberty that comes from financial freedom. Some great notes from the Fool community to share out this week. Let freedom ring. Only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:44)
It's the Rule Breaker Investing Podcast with Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner.

**David Gardner** (0:53)
Well, happy holiday week, especially to my fellow Americans celebrating America's 250th birthday. And what an amazing country this is, and how fortunate and how blessed I am to have been born into it. And for many of you, I hope you feel exactly the same way. And I continue to take pride in the immigrants' spirit that I see around me, first-generation Americans among most of the great optimists that I know. And in a lot of ways, this country is built on constant waves of immigrants. My family, my various families, all being part of that as well. And I think that's something that I like to underline and celebrate. Some of my best conversations about why to love this country and what makes this country great, often happen with people who just got here and share with you where they came from and why they're here now. So shout out to all my first-generation Americans. Also second, third, fourth, fifth, and yeah, the list goes on. Got just a few stories this week. This won't be a long or deep podcast. We had a wonderful mailbag last week. I think there were seven items or so. We had a lot of stories last month. We had a Campfire Stories podcast during the month. So I feel like I've been hitting you with a lot of stories. So just a few. I want to start with this first one from Emily because Emily wrote in from Texas and tells a story that I hope gives anybody who's thinking about starting to invest, just starting. I hope it gives you some sense of hope, but also the fun that can come of it. Hi David and Team Motley. I'm a 36-year-old woman. I'm the only person in my life and that I know in my demographic who invests outside of an employer 401k. And that's at least in part thanks to resources offered by The Motley Fool. Today, I'm a paid subscriber, but I find your free resources especially sparkly. Emily writes for young people. Maybe you have listeners like me from seven years ago who are looking for a place to begin. Or maybe they're like me today, still putting great value in basic education, but now having fun with personal analysis and picks. Either way, thank you for making the world of investing accessible. And dare I say, Emily goes on, fun. Please keep up the great work. You are sincerely making a difference in a world that experiences great disparity. I love to break the rules. And your mission to level the playing field is truly admirable. Here's a fun story. Emily concludes, I bought my first individual stock in 2020-2021. I didn't know what I was doing, but if I don't have skin in the game, I don't learn very quickly. And I knew that the lightheartedness of your podcast made the jump in feel less scary.
I did my own research and picked a company with a future I thought I could see and understand. That first pick was Nvidia. Well, I wish I had more to put in the game at the time. It's been a wildly entertaining ride, and I've been investing consistently since.
When, Emily concludes, and in a nice postscript, she adds, working for the Motley Fool, a company aligned with my ethics and passions would be my life's next dream. Well, I always love hearing that, Emily. I've often said I'm after the good opinion of good people, and for our company, we're after the best people who have the most passion for what we can do, that we can find. And I'm never quite sure since I'm not directly in operations anymore what jobs we might have on offer. But rest assured, I'm forwarding your note to our hiring department. But I think what I want to underline from Emily's story, obviously, to start with your first stock pick, even to make your first stock pick in a world, as Emily points out, that she doesn't really know many people who are like her, that are doing what she does, investing outside their 401k. But to think the first stock you would find is pretty much the great stock of the last six years, a generationally great stock. I'm glad you picked it. I'm glad you thought about where the world is and where it's going and what made sense to you. And that's why I've always considered investing to be a very rational exercise. Rational, which sounds dry and boring, but rational and fun. And it's a devastating one-two punch. And I think you're feeling that, Emily, and I love that you're doing it, and I'm really happy for you and your story. And you clearly have made some good gains over the last year toward financial freedom. So thanks for leading off with item number one this week. Item number two is a remarkable creation from Matt The Nave. Matt, that's how you sign your name to this body of work. You just signed it Matt The Nave. So to Matt The Nave, I want to thank him ahead of time. And for the rest of you, I'm getting to share Matt's riff off the Declaration of Independence. Yep, that one that started this country in 1776 But Matt has tweaked it, of course, to make it the Rule Breaker Declaration of Financial Independence. It closely mirrors the actual declaration itself, as you'll hear, but it comes from somebody who clearly, like Emily, loves purchasing individual stocks and feels freedom, feels as if, Matt, it feels like you've been freed from the notion that you should only ever invest in mutual funds. And you are having fun with this, and I'm going to have fun reading it. Item number two, Map the Naves Declaration of Financial Independence. Dear David, thank you for the positive impact your book, your podcast, and the Motley Fool have had on myself and members of my family. I was going to tell the story of my journey to financial independence, but the idea of writing a version of the Declaration of Independence based on the principles of Rule Breaker Investing, well that didn't just pop into my head, it spiffy popped. That writes into my head. So here you go.