July 2026 Mailbag: Year Twelve Begins

0:00Back 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.

0:45So as we begin our 12th year together, let's do what we often do best. Let's open the mailbag, only on this week's Rule Breaker Investing. It's the Rule Breaker Investing Podcast with Motley Fool co-founder David Gardner.

1:08Yep, it was mid-July 2015 when Rule Breaker Investing launched. If 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 8 to 10 minutes. And I think I did one the week after that, and I've been doing one the week after ever since. And 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.

1:57A 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 combined into a meditation on why curiosity and renewal keep both people young and also nations too, 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.

2:49And finally, last week, five idle thoughts of a Summer's Day, Volume 3. 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.

3:30Well, 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 going to invite a small group of 10 to 15 educators to join our inaugural Fredometer founding teacher cohort. Founding teachers will receive early access to the Fredometer. 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.

4:12Simply send an email to George Halaf. 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.halaf at foolfoundation.org. Halaf 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. You know, But 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.

4:57We 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.

5:33Looking 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.

6:10This one coming in from Matt Hard, who is at dollar sign 307 fool on Twitter. X 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.

6:57Double exclamation point. And Matt, I know you recently just crossed 1 ,200 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 dollar sign 307 fool on Twitter, X Matt Hart, 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?

7:36Yet, 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. After losing my dad, I realized the story I want to share isn't really about what I've done to create financial freedom. It's about what he did to create mine. When I was little, he gave me a piggy bank for every birthday. My job was to fill it with coins throughout the year. And when it was full, we'd make a special trip to the bank together to deposit the money.

8:22As a child, I just thought it was a fun tradition. Looking back now, I realize he was teaching me one of life's most valuable lessons. Before we can invest, we must first learn to save. He showed me that financial freedom isn't built with one big decision. It grows from small, consistent habits over time. As my family sorted through his affairs and papers, I discovered something I never knew. Every year he quietly donated to his old junior high school to provide scholarships for students. He never talked about it or looked for recognition. He simply believed in helping others. Those two lessons now feel inseparable to me.

9:11Build a strong foundation by saving, invest for the future, and when you're fortunate enough, lift someone else up along the way. In honor of my dad, I plan to continue his annual scholarship donations. It feels like the best way I know to carry forward not just his generosity, but the values he lived by every day. Losing him has also reminded me of something that has nothing to do with money. Time is our most precious asset, and none of us knows how much of it we have. If there's someone you want to visit, something you've always wanted to do, or words you've been meaning to say, don't keep waiting for the quotes, right time.

10:00Nothing is guaranteed. I truly believed I had more time with my dad and I was wrong. So I guess my answer to your episode isn't really about what I've done to create financial freedom. It's about what my dad gave me, the habits that made financial independence possible, and the example that showed me what financial independence is ultimately for to live generously, to make a difference, and to leave the world a little better than you found it. Thank you for all you do and for creating a community that celebrates not just investing, but the lives we build around it. I think my dad would have loved that.

10:43Foolishly, Jum, my biggest fan. Well, John, this is just the latest of many notes you've shared over the years. And each one, you've always signed my biggest fan. I am truly honored by that. And each time I read it, it makes me smile. I love the way you quietly turn my question upside down because I asked at the start of this month, what have you done to create financial freedom? And your answer was, let me tell you what my father did to create mine. You know, before there were investment accounts or portfolios for you, there was a piggy bank. and before there was wealth, there were habits. We inherit far more than money.

11:24We inherit ways of thinking. So what a wonderful, beautiful living embodiment you are of your dad on this earth. Jum, thank you for sharing that stirring reflection and it's now heard and I know loved by many. Your father is still teaching you. Thank you, Jum. Fool on On to Rule Breaker mailbag item number two This one from The Italian Fool Hi David Long time Rule Breaker here with a question about Identifying Rule Breakers today Versus how it felt When you identified yours I understand the math of the strategy The Italian Fool writes A 6 out of 10 batting average is good Losers can only lose 1x And a few 50x Or 100x monsters more than carry the portfolio.

12:17The six traits are how we fish in the right pond to find them. Here's my tension. When I look for the companies that best fit the six traits today, I land on names like Axon, Palantir, Shopify, MercadoLibre, Intuitive Surgical, Rocket Lab. But these have been identified as rule breakers for years. They still look like great companies, and I believe some could 5x or 10x from here, but it's hard to imagine 100x or 1000x. And if my portfolio never holds a future 100 bagger, the math that makes the strategy work starts to break down. Meanwhile, the companies that might have that potential, and the Italian Fool lists as examples, Tempus AI, Serve Robotics, goes on to say names in genomics or quantum feel fuzzy, not clearly profitable, top dog status, debatable, maybe a light four of six on the traits.

13:24Buying them feels closer to gambling than investing. So my question, when you first bought Amazon and NVIDIA, which of those two feelings did you have? Did they feel like today's obvious six of six names, clear rule breakers that then surprised you by becoming 1 ,000 baggers? Or did they feel like Tempest or Serve feel to me now unclear, uncomfortable, holding your nose a bit as you bought? The answer matters for where I hunt. Should I keep adding the proven six of six companies, even at large market caps, accepting that 10 times or 20 times maybe the ceiling? Or do I need some of the fuzzier small names to have any shot at a 100 bagger?

14:11A related wrinkle? The obvious rule breakers of this era, and the Italian fool goes on to list SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic. Will IPO near trillion dollar valuations, not the two billion dollars where Amazon started? The 1000x runway may simply not exist for them. How did your future monsters feel at the moment of purchase? Fool on, the Italian fool. A very good and very understandable question, and I'm happy to take it head on. I think my first thought back is, don't let hindsight fool you. Because today we look at Amazon and we look at NVIDIA and they feel obvious. They're gigantic companies because I would say we kind of know the ending.

14:58so when I actually recommended them to Motley Fool members Amazon in 1997 and NVIDIA in 2005 they felt exciting to me they felt visionary they felt full of possibility but they were also very uncertain and I think it's easy as stocks become mega winners everybody thinks oh it was so easy and so obvious to pick you know when I first picked Apple which I did on January 18th 2008 for Motley Fool Stock Advisor members. I thought I was really late to the party, and in some ways, I was. A year earlier, the iPhone had launched, and of course, the iPod was years before that, and I'd kind of grown up with Apple since the 1980s, since Steve Jobs had founded the company.

15:41And so even that company, as I first recommended it to Fool members, felt like, yeah, it's a little late, but let's still buy to hold. And I'm really happy to say Apple on that day was$4.89, and now that it is even larger than Nvidia, it's actually gone from$4.89 to at last count about $339. It's a 70 bagger since 2008 and that's Apple. So I think my big thought here is stick with quality. Go with the companies that you believe are rule breakers. My favorite way to judge that is to use my snap test and my cola test. Italian fool, I believe you know what both of those are. I wrote about them extensively in my Rule Breaker Investing book.

16:25I talk about them on a regular basis. I'm not going to recapitulate them here because I don't want to be boring or say the same thing too often. But for me, SnapCola remains a great guide as to which companies you really want to buy to hold. I also want to say don't underrate a 10 or 20 bagger. Thinking about what might go up 100 times in value or 1000 times in value, I didn't ask myself that of Amazon or Nvidia when I first picked them. I just thought these are promising companies. I like the CEOs. I like what the company's doing. I want to buy to hold that stock. I was as surprised as anybody when Amazon first crossed the 50 times finish line.

17:02And then when it was up a hundred times, I was astonished. And now it's up over a thousand times. And at no point in the early days, could I ever even have imagined that. So I don't think you want to get ahead of yourself and start trying to make predictions or start trying to calculate the number of multiple you think a stock can make, I think it's much better just to find companies like Shopify or more modest companies. Chipotle has been a fantastic stock. It's up 27 times in value for Rule Breaker members, not 270 times in value, but most of us are pretty happy with 10 or 20 baggers. Corning has come out of nowhere in recent months.

17:38I first picked it for Motley Fool Stock Advisor in 2011. Here we are 15 years later, it's now a 12-bagger. Axon Enterprise, you mentioned, but there are a lot more modest companies. McKesson, the hospital supply products company, ticker symbol MCK, has gone up 22 times in value since we've had it for now 17 years in Stock Advisor. I hope you're picking up that most of our winners were holding for more than a decade. That's really the biggest trick that most people have a hard time doing. But I hope with podcasts like 10 years later, just a couple of weeks ago here in July on Rule Breaker Investing.

18:12I hope you can see what investing really looks like and that 10 and 20 baggers are magical for portfolios. And if you can ever get a 50 or 100, great, but you definitely don't need that to make the math work out for you. And I would also say in closing that you don't have to have all six traits of the Rule Breaker stock present to feel good about buying and starting a position in a new potential rule breaker. There's no requirement that anything fit all six of our traits. I use them as principles, as guidelines. I love it when all six are present in a stock that I'm recommending or buying, but I don't hold myself to having to see all of those present before starting a position.

18:56So there are a bunch of thoughts back from somebody who's been there and done that and seen all kinds of different winners and losers. Losers are a subject I take up other weeks on this podcast, but you were asking about what the mega winners are. And I also find myself, by the way, not particularly interested in companies that IPO at trillion dollar valuations. I do think they could go up 10 or 20 times in value, but a long hold for something starting at that high a valuation just has never interested me very much. Again, thanks for your note, Italian fool. Fool on. All right, on to mailbag item number three.

19:32This one from Amit Somani, writing in again from Bangalore, India. Amit writes, dear David, long time listener, been featured on the mailbag every time I've written in, hoping my streak continues, smiley. And I will just say back right now, you have done it again, Amit. Ka-ching. He goes on, you asked in last week's podcast how we're actually using AI. so here are three that have quietly become part of my life. Amit starts every Saturday morning. An AI agent I built goes to work on my portfolio. It knows all my positions and looks at my paid subscriptions, a few newsletters, and discussion boards.

20:17Each week, it tells me what genuinely moved the needle on my top holdings. I want to integrate watch lists, also the Rule Breaker rules, stock alerts to and more in the future. It has helped me clean up my portfolio and better align it to my version of the future that I'd like to back. The second use is what I call my chief of staff for managing my portfolio companies, my day job as a venture investor in startups. That agent, my chief of staff, reads the board decks, the financials, and my meeting notes from meeting with my companies over the last year. And then it tells me where things stand and the three things that matter most right now.

21:07It's become invaluable for my board prep, tracking what was committed, what got done, and what still needs work. and before his third, I'm just going to pause it right there and just say, Amit, those are both great uses of AI, keeping you up to date with your portfolio, making your life easier, going and grabbing updates, especially that second one, your chief of staff, that shows you off as an investment professional. Most of us listening are not investment professionals working in the venture capital world, but I can see how you're making that work in your day job, doing just what a professional should holding your portfolio companies accountable and staying in the loop.

21:47And I love how you've kind of organized it around what are the three things that matter most right now. You might or might not even agree with your chief of staff, but at least it's going out there and doing the work for you. So I think those are just two fantastic uses of AI. And the third and final one Amit speaks to is this. He says, the third is pure joy. My personal AI golf coach. I'm an aspiring golfer and a hopeless data freak, and every round I play is logged on an app called The Grint. That's G-R-I-N-T. I had it comb through all my rounds from last year to show me where I lose strokes on a course-by-course basis and how to improve.

22:31It's helped me drop my handicap, Amit says, by two or three. These are just a few of the interesting ones, but I believe becoming friends with AI is quietly, surely, helping me become a little smarter, happier, and richer Full on, Amit Samani, again writing in from Bangalore And I would just say back to you, Amit, that what your AI is doing for you is exactly what I hope this podcast is doing for you too Certainly does it for me, because I would say we're all here for each other We're all here to make each other smarter. I love things that make me smarter. That's why I love doing the mailbag every month.

23:12And I also love AI. It was my pleasure to share 10 or more ways I use AI in last week's podcast. Thank you for sharing yours. All right, on to mailbag item number four. You know, last week, among my idle thoughts, after we talked some about AI, it was time to talk about how to improve World Cup soccer. and I got a wonderful note about this. Now, this one didn't come through our mailbox, which I think you know, dear listener, is rbi at fool.com. If you want to be on next month's mailbag or react to anything I'm doing today or in the coming weeks, Authors in August is what we're doing together this coming month.

23:50You can always write us at rbi at fool.com. But this mailbag item was a text because it came from a dear friend of mine of 40 years, Carter Newbold, who was one of my groomsmen back in the day. Carter was listening in last week and shared several thoughts, all of which I have to say I am quite taken by, for ways to improve World Cup soccer. So here we are, Carter's soccer thoughts, mailbag item number four. He started following up on your thoughts on soccer. These ideas have occurred to me, all of which I'm sure have previously been much discussed, says Carter. And I will just say, from my own standpoint, that's humble of you to say I haven't really discussed any of these.

24:36I'm sure people who know the sport much better have kicked them around, Carter, but I love this list that you've come up with. Let's go through them one through seven real fast. Number one, change the value of a score to six, like a touchdown in American football. At the World Cup, the average per game goals was 2.96. so converted to touchdown value that would be 17.75 points per game that would still be far below the average national football league total points last season for american football fans of 43.9 but perhaps it would feel a bit more productive another scoring thought carter provides here for number one is to make long distance goals more valuable just as with the three-point shot in basketball, more long shots might be taken.

25:29Well, I'm not going to comment on each of these, but I will briefly just comment on this one. I think it's kind of a zany idea to change the score. I don't think it'll ever happen. I don't think Carter would expect that either to call a goal six points or a touchdown in soccer. And in fact, thinking about that made me realize that in American football, they don't even score that often themselves. But somehow it does feel more productive when all the numbers run up into the 20s. All right, let's move to number two. Again, quick list here. Number two, put more refs on the field. The field is huge and there aren't enough eyes to see it all.

26:04Three, take timekeeping away from the on-field official and stop the clock during actual stoppages of play. Four, eliminate offsides within the six-yard box at the mouth of the goal. If the attacking team has built an advantage that close to the goal, the primary purpose of the offside rule has been effectively negated. I think this is worth perhaps one more score per game. Five, never conclude a 0-0 game with penalty kicks. A scoreless game should always be ended with a scored goal, no matter how long it takes. Number six, require and allow refs to send players off the field for 60 and 90 second intervals in something similar to ice hockey's penalty box.

26:59And finally, number seven, separate player ejections from the size of the team. For instance, if you foul out in basketball, somebody else comes in to replace you. In soccer, by contrast, of course, people are permanently removed from the game and not replaced. Carter goes on, if you separated player ejections from team size, that would allow refs to briskly send off players for diving or complaining. And the team size advantage would only exist for a short time related to the infraction itself, not for the remainder of the whole game. This would allow refs to briskly send off players for diving, complaining, and the team size advantage would only exist for the amount of time related to the infraction.

27:46Carter concluded his text to me saying, similar to you, I don't think the world much cares, but couldn't soccer quite easily become a more beautiful game? Well, Carter, thank you for your note. Of course, I loved it. I'm sure plenty of soccer purists are shaking their heads right now. Yet. This note is actually a beautiful example of rule-breaker thinking. Too often, I think we treat long-standing institutions as though they were handed down on stone tablets. In reality, every sport was invented by somebody, and every rule was chosen by somebody, and every one of those rules can be revisited by somebody.

28:27So to me, it's curiosity that asks, Why is it this way? And I would say rule breakers add, might there be a better way? And a quick example before we move on to rule breaker mailbag item number five, Major League Baseball here in the United States was about as opposed to significant rule changes as any other league in the world. And yet within the past few years, it has significantly improved its game and the resulting entertainment, thanks to what I would say are a bunch of rule breaker moves to wit a pitch clock that keeps the game moving faster a restriction on defensive shifts that keeps fielder's position closer to their yeah to their actual named position uh bigger bases too and of course my favorite recent one and that is the opportunity to dispute ball and strike calls just seconds after an umpire has ruled or sometimes misruled and that is the automated balls and strikes system.