In this July 2 2026 episode of the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily, Certified Financial Planner Mike Milligan delivers a market snapshot, a jobsāreport outlook, and a thematic link between the 2022 World Cup and disciplined financial planning. He then transports listeners back to July 2 1976, the day before the U.S. bicentennial, describing the economic backdrop (gas at 62 cents, S&P 500 at 104) and showing that a $1,000 investment in the S&P 500 that year would be worth about $261,500 todayāa 11.8% annualized, 261ātoā1 return over 50 years. Milligan uses this historical compounding example to argue that a āoneāofāaākindā financial plan should focus on longāterm saving and staying invested, not on predicting future events. He projects forward to July 2076, noting inevitable changes (autonomous cars, inflationāadjusted housing, new music and movies) but asserting that compounding will continue to work. The centerpiece is the newly introduced āTrump accountā for minors, offering a $1,000 federal seed deposit for children born 2025ā2028 and allowing up to $5,000 annual family contributions; at historic 11.8% returns, the seed could grow to $261,000 by age 50, and regular $1,000 yearly contributions could reach roughly $2.5 million. Milligan closes by urging listeners to use the July holiday period as a natural bookmark for creating a 50āyear family financial plan, emphasizing education, discipline, and the power of compounding.
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This podcast is for education purposes only. It's not investment advice, not a recommendation to buy or sell any specific security. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and long-term return figures are historical, hypothetical, and do not account for taxes, fees, or the ability of any real investor to have held through 50 years of market conditions. Mike Milligan is a Certified Financial Planning Professional and the founder of One Oak Financial. Good morning and welcome to the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily for Thursday, July 2nd, 2026. I'm Mike Milligan. The jobs report drops this morning. The US advanced last night. England advanced yesterday. It's 2 days until July 4th, 2026, which means 50 years ago today on July 2nd, it was the last trading day before the bicentennial. So today we're going to travel back, back to July 2nd, 1976, and then forward to July 2nd, 2076, because a one-of-a-kind financial plan is built on Both ends of that time horizon. Let's go.
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Wednesday's market takeaway is short. The 3rd quarter kicked off with the same feel that ended the 2nd quarter. The Dow near its record, tech mixed, and volatility was calm heading into the holiday. The main event this morning is the June jobs report. Consensus is looking for roughly 110,000 nonfarm payrolls. Added an unemployment rate of 4.3%. This is the last full trading day of the week. Markets close Friday for Independence Day. It is the first jobs read of Chairman Warsh's new data-dependent Fed. This is educational only, not a recommendation. On a light liquidity day heading into a long weekend, the jobs number can produce moves that get unwound the following Monday. Do not overreact to a Thursday print in a holiday-shortened week. Your plan does not require you to trade the jobs report. It requires you to keep saving through it.
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2 headlines from the World Cup round of 32 on Wednesday. The US won, England made it through. The US beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. The Stars and Stripes are on to the round of 16. On home soil, 3 stadiums ahead in the round of 16, the quarterfinals and the semifinals to make it to the championship match. This is the deepest run for the US men's national team in a home tournament since 1994, and the crowd was electric. Over on the other side of the draw, England is through. Harry Kane scored twice, a second, a late winner as England came from behind to beat DR Congo 2-1. They joined the US in the round of 16. The planning tie here is both teams did the same thing you do inside of a one-of-a-kind financial plan. They played the match in front of them. They did not chase style points. They did not chase highlight goals. They did what was needed to advance. In a plan, that is the paycheck deferral into a 401 or Thrift Savings Plan, the beneficiary review, the rebalance, the tax loss harvest at year end. It's not glamorous. It advances you. Championship games, that's the one-of-a-kind life. That's the once-in-a-lifetime trips. That's what moves forward. In order to get there, you have to do the work in the past to get to the glamour of the future. The US now waits, uh, for their next match in the round of 16, and the tournament gets bigger from here.
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Now the fun part. This segment is inspired by a longtime listener of the One of a Kind Financial Show, Jay, a longtime client of ours. 50 years ago tomorrow, 50 years ago, July 4th, actually, the US turned 200. Let's set the scene. It's July 2nd, 1976. That was a Friday. It was 2 days before the bicentennial. The tall ships were sailing into the New York Harbor for Operation Sail. Fireworks were being loaded onto barges. And somewhere in America, somebody was pulling into a gas station. Gas that day cost 62 cents a gallon, regular unleaded, US city average, official EIA data, 62 cents. Adjusted for inflation, that is roughly $3 in today's money, roughly the same in real terms of dollars at the gas pump today. as 50 years ago. The nominal price though has gone up more than 5 times. The real price has barely moved. The S&P closed near 104 on July 2nd, 1976. The index started 1976 at 96.86 and ended at 107.46. Mid-year, right around July 2nd, the S&P sat in the middle at 104. Now, here is the math that will stop people cold. If you had put $1,000 into the S&P 500 in July of 1976 and simply left it alone, every dividend reinvested, no tax drag, no fees, that $1,000 would be worth approximately $261,500 today. That is the actual historical return. Officialdata.org cross-referenced against the 50-year S&P total return data from Trade That Swing, putā and puts that annualized total return over that 50-year window at 11.8% per year, 26,000% cumulative, 261 to 1 on your money. Education only, hypothetical for any specific investor, and assumes no taxes, no fees, or the discipline to have never touched the account for half a century. But the arithmetic is real. A couple other things about that time. The number one song in America that Friday was Silly Love Songs by Paul McCartney and the Wings. It had already been at number one for weeks and would spend 5 total weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Paul McCartney, 4 years past the Beatles, telling his critics that the world needs silly love songs. What's wrong with that? ABBA's biggest hit at the moment was Fernando, released in March 1976. It had gone to number 1 in 13 countries and would spend 14 weeks at number 1 in Australia, a record that stood for over 40 years. Dancing Queen, the song most Americans associate with ABBA, had not even been released yet. That would come 6 weeks later on August 16th. The number 1 movie in America on July 2nd, 1976, was The Omen. It had opened on June 25th and was dominating the summer box office. Behind that, still packing theaters months into its run, were All the President's Men, and Sylvester Stallone's underdog boxing film Rocky was 6 months away from release.
Whoa.
The summer of the horror movie, the political thriller, The Tall Ship. That was July 2nd, 1976. Now, let me put a one-of-a-kind financial plan overlay on this. Nothing in that scene, not the gas price, not the S&P level, not the pop chart, not the movie marquee, could have told you what the next 50 years would look like. Nobody standing at that gas pump on July 2nd, 1976 could have predicted the personal computer, the internet, the iPhone, the fall of the Soviet Union, the 2008 financial crisis, or the pandemic. Nobody. And yet the plan of showing up, saving, and staying invested delivered a 200-fold return over the half century. That is the thesis of the One of a Kind Financial Plan in one sentence. You do not need to predict the future. You need a plan that works when the future does what the future always does, surprises you.
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Dow, Imagine July 2nd, 2076, 50 years from now. I will be almost 100 years old. If you're listening to this show at the age of 40, you will be 90. If you're listening at the age of 25, you'll be 75, younger than my parents are right now. The people hearing this show today at age 50ā at 15, are high school sophomores. They'll be 65 in 2076, contemplating retirement. We cannot know what the world will look like. I can guarantee you a few things. Gas may or may not exist as a consumer product. Cars may drive themselves. The US dollar will still have purchasing power, but at a very different mix of what you may buy. Housing will cost dramatically more in nominal terms and probably the same in real terms. That is what 50 years of inflation does. The number one song will be by an artist not yet born. The number one movie may not be a movie. The Federal Reserve may look completely different. Chairman Warsh's 5 task forces we talked about on Monday are already redesigning it. There will be a World Cup on US soil again, but at some point, statistically speaking, and there will be a one-of-a-kind financial plan for every family that wants one. Here's what we know with mathematical certainty. If history repeats itself, compounding will keep working. And this is where I want to zoom in on one of the most exciting financial planning tools of the year, the Trump account, 530 accounts for minors. Contributions open July 4th, just a couple days from now. Here's what a Trump account looks like through the lens of what we we just walked through. Every eligible child born last year, this year, January 1st, 2025, all the way through December 31st, 2028, receive $1,000 seed deposit from the federal government. This is educational only, not a recommendation, but if that $1,000 is invested in a broad US equity index, in the next 50 years look anything like the past 50, that seed alone could grow to $261,000. by the child's 50th birthday. That is the same 11.8% long-term compound math we just walked through. It's applied forward. But here's where this gets really remarkable. The Trump account allows for up to $5,000 per year in family contributions. Even if a family sets a modest habit, $1,000 per year, every year for 50 years, and, you know, eventually that child will have to pick up the discipline of that. And apply those same long-term historical returns, that account could grow to approximately $2.5 million. $1,000 a year, 50 years, $2.5 million. This is educational only, hypothetical. Past performance is not indicative of future results. No guarantees, no taxes accounted for, and every real investor has years that they may make miss a contribution. But this is why financial planners like me are excited about this account. For a child born in 2025 or 2026, a family that funds a modest annual contribution along with the federal seed is essentially handing that child a fully funded retirement before they graduate high school. The plan is not a bet on gas prices or interest rates or even the next FOMC statement or which country wins the World Cup. The plan is a bet on compounding, the one force in finance that has never taken a 50-year break.
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Tomorrow's July 3rd, 2026. 50 years ago tomorrow, the eve of the bicentennial, 50 years from now, it'll be July 3rd, 2027. Or 2076, the eve of the tricentennial. 9 days from now, America will turn, or just a few days from now, America will turn 250 years old. That's halfway between 2, but behind 2 Fourth of Julys, the bicentennial and the tricentennial. If you're ever going to sit down and write a one-of-a-kind financial plan, this is a week to do it. It is the natural bookmark between 2 anniversaries, between 2 generations. Between where compounding got us and where compounding could take us. If you'reā it's going to be a barbecue this weekend for many of you. I bet, you know, I bet you may cook steaks, some may cook chicken, but somewhere between the burgers and the fireworks, ask one person, what is your plan for the next 50 years for you and your family? Not the next quarter, not the next FOMC meeting, the next 50. That is the conversation that changes a family tree. We're not chasing returns. We're building a one-of-a-kind financial plan. I'm here to educate, coach, plan. Never miss a moment. I'm Mike Milligan. Markets are closed tomorrow. I'll be back with a light show tomorrow. Have a beautiful 4th of July. We'll see you soon. This has been the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily with Mike Milligan. I am an investment advisor representative with Advisory Alpha LLC. Ideas by Mike, doing business as One Oak Financial, and Mike Milligan, LLC, doing business as One Oak Collective, are unaffiliated entities of Advisory Outlet, LLC. This is for educational purposes only. Any indication of what I have told about the stock market's past is not indicative of what will happen in the future. Please consult with a licensed financial pro before making any decisions. Learn more about the Trump accounts. Go to trumpaccounts.gov. To learn more about One Oak Financial, go to oneoakfinancial.com. That's the number, oneoakfinancial.com. Don't forget to tune in to oneoakradio.com to hear the special edition of the One of a Kind Financial Show dedicated to America 250 this weekend.
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