Google, Bitcoin & Beyoncé: What They Teach Us About Building Wealth

It's the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily. It's Friday, September 4th, live in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Today, MicroStrategy just had one of its biggest single days of the year. Yesterday, Michael Saylor called an end to a 10-week pause on Bitcoin buying. Wall Street rebounded again and the fear gauge kept falling. Google turned 28 years old. Beyoncé turned 45 on Monday. When the market is closed for Labor Day, we're going to bring you a special edition recapping the top stories of the summer. Educate, coach, plans, my mission. Let's go.

Be one of a kind with Mike's Plan.

On Thursday, the tape closed strong, the second day up in a row. The S&P 500 was up 1.06% to close at 7,746. The NASDAQ up 1.4%, 26,584. The Dow up 1.18%, 53,686. And Russell 2000 lagged the others, only up 0.51%. The 10-year Treasury yield closed at 4.76%, down another 1 basis point or 0.01%. 0.01%, cooling off for the second straight day. But one of the main stories was the volatility index, VIX, VIX down to 14.32. That's another 5.79% drop, second straight day of falling fear. Gold up 1.85%. The breakout continues. Oil was up. Bitcoin up 4.74% to $80,973. Back above 80,000 for the first time, at least for a period of time in weeks. The volume pre-Labor Day, just to continue that story and really to close it out here for the week, SPY, 85% of the normal 20-day, NASDAQ 71%, QQQ 70%. Every day this week, the volume has been below normal, but today's volume was the closest to normal. The tape is starting to thicken as investors get back in front of their screens. Now, the story of the day, Michael Saylor's company, remember him from a couple weeks ago when I profiled him on this show? His company strategy trading under the ticker MSTR, formerly known as MicroStrategy, closed at $144.82 on Thursday. That was up 17.56% in a single session from a previous close of $123.19. That's not a recommendation to buy or sell, by the way, but there's a reason we profile people on the show. The Dow's— the day's high was 144.92. The low was 127.59. The volume story is just as loud. MSTR traded at 44.8 million shares versus a 20-day average of 23.3 million on a week where volume has been 60, 70% of a normal trading week on the index. Today, MSTR traded at 192% of average volume, nearly double the normal daily flow. Why? According to The Motley Fool, Strategy ended a 10-week pause on Bitcoin buying by acquiring 4,603 Bitcoin for a total of $369.7 million. at an average price of $80,318 per coin. That is the first Bitcoin purchase in 2 months from a company that has been the loudest institutional Bitcoin bull on Wall Street. Now, you all remember the Guru profile we did on Michael Saylor back in the 10 Guru arc. He's the founder of MicroStrategy from 1989, selling business intelligence software. In August 2020, he shocked corporate America by making Bitcoin his company's primary treasury reserve, the first public CEO to do it at scale. He renamed the company to Strategy in 2025. Every buy since 2020 has averaged well below where Bitcoin trades today. The company owns hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin, and when Saylor pauses buying, as he did 10 weeks ago, Wall Street watches. When he resumes, Wall Street reacts. Yesterday, a 17% move on 192% of normal volume. That is Wall Street reacting. Now the financial planning lesson. Hear me carefully because this is where advisors miss the point. Michael Saylor did not become wealthy by chasing Bitcoin. He became wealthy by making a single defined publicly communicated allocated decision. Then, in other words, he said it out loud. Then he added it to patiently across, to be patient across timing, regardless of where the price was on any given day. He calls that discipline, quote, the treasury strategy, end quote. A financial planner calls it a written investment policy statement. Same idea, different label. Saylor made the plan. The plan was defined. The plan got executed on a schedule. When he paused, he communicated why. When he restarted, he communicated why. We're not chasing returns as much as building a one-of-a-kind financial plan here on the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily and at One Oak Financial, but we follow the stories that matter. Don't want to say that we broke, that this was coming because we do not give investment advice on this show. But there's a theme to this show, and it's a theme that we talk about in closed sessions at conference tables and Zoom rooms and Google Meets with our clients. And this was one of the stories we've been talking about for a couple of weeks. Whether the asset is Bitcoin, a total market index, a fixed indexed annuity, or a bond ladder, The discipline is the same. The plan tells you when to buy, when to hold, and when to communicate. Education only, folks. Again, this is not a recommendation to buy MSTR, to buy Bitcoin, or to copy any corporate treasury strategy. Speak to your own certified financial planner. And if you don't have one, The One of a Kind Financial Show Daily's host is one. We'll talk more about that later.

Be one of a kind with Mike's Plan.

28 years ago today, September 4th, 1998, 2 Stanford PhD students named Larry Page and Sergey Brin walked into the office of a friend in California and formally filed incorporation papers for a company they called Google, per History Channel UK and company's history, the entire company was capitalized with $100,000, a check, a check written to Google Inc. by Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim before the company even had a bank account. They had to open the bank account so they could deposit that check. Read that again. The plan was so far ahead of the paperwork that the $100,000 investor Checks sat uncashed until they could open an account to deposit it. 28 years later, Google, now Alphabet, is one of the most valuable companies in the world. Trillion-dollar market cap, multiple businesses, search, YouTube, cloud, Waymo self-driving, DeepMind AI. From $100,000 to trillion-plus in 28 years. Now here's the one-of-a-kind financial planning strategy The Google story is not about the trillion. It's about the $100,000. Bechtolsheim did not need Google to succeed. He already had money. What he had that most people did not have is a written thesis he could act on the moment the opportunity showed up. He met Page and Brin, heard them describe the plan, saw the business plan, wrote the check on the spot, and did not need to negotiate valuation or get approval from a partner. Or wait for a market signal. That is what a written financial plan does for you. When the opportunity shows up, you have a philosophy document in place, like the One of a Kind Financial Plan. A market pullback happens, a Roth conversion window opens up, a business sale lands in your lap, an inheritance unfortunately comes, or an early retirement offer. The plan tells you what to do before your emotions get involved. Bechtolsheim did not chase Google. He had a plan for what to do when opportunity presented itself. That next great founder team showed up. Google was the founder and he was ready to invest. He acted before Google was even a bank account. That is the discipline. Your one-of-a-kind financial plan is the same tool. When the opportunity shows up, you are ready. When the market drops, you're ready. When the income changes, you are ready. Not because you predicted it, but because you planned for it.

Be one of a kind with Mike's Plan.

3 big birthdays, guys. Beyoncé Knowles turns 45 today. Born in Houston, Texas, the lead singer of Destiny's Child, but oh my gosh, so much more famous than that. Solo Grammy record holder, business empire including Parkwood Entertainment, Ivy Park, with— in partnership with Adidas. Her estimated net worth is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Married to Jay-Z. Financial lessons from Beyoncé is own the master. Beyoncé is famous for demanding ownership of her masters and her production. In an industry where artists sign away their upside, she said no. This is the one-page plan for creatives. athletes and business owners. You do not build wealth by earning the paycheck. You build wealth by owning the asset that produces the check. Also born on September 4th, Louis Latimer. He would've turned 178 today. The interesting thing about him is you may not know who he is, but you know who his counterpart was. Latimer drafted the patent drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone in 1876. Then he invented and improved carbon filament for the light bulb, the key innovation that made Edison's light bulb commercially viable and long-lasting. Vladimir was one of the original Edison pioneers. The financial lessons from Lewis: the person who solves the last problem is more valuable than the person who came up with the first idea. The idea for the light bulb was already out there. Vladimir's improved filament is what made electric light affordable in every American home. For advisors and business owners, that is a career-shifting lesson. In a different time, this inventor would've probably been as famous as Alexander Graham Bell, but as a Black inventor and engineer in the 1800s, he helped. He was the second hand, but man, am I thankful for him. And then finally, birthday today on September 4th, François-René de Chateaubriand, who would have turned 258 today. He's a French romantic, diplomat, and politician. He wrote Mémoires d'un Autre Côté and Memoirs from Beyond the Grave, which he asked to have published only after his death. The financial lessons from Chateaubriand: write down the story you want to tell after you're gone. That's legacy planning. A One of a Kind Financial Plan includes the Legacy chapter, Memoirs from Beyond the Grave. What do you leave written down? What do you leave when you can't speak again for others to read out loud as if you're saying it? He wrote it. So can you. Happy birthday to all 3. And a reminder, on Monday, September 7th, it's Labor Day. The stock market's going to be closed, but we're going to be back here for the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily with a special edition. The Summer 2026 Top Stories, a recap of the biggest financial planning market and headline stories from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. 90+ days of tape on this show reviewed, planned, interpreted, all in one show to get you ready for what's to come when the market is back at full strength, when it's time to plan, when Roth conversion season hits in Rothtober. And for you to be able to help those you help or yourself build the one-of-a-kind financial plan. What to expect on Monday, the winning market, the 10 Guru Arc, the $40 trillion debt milestone, Iran strikes, oil and geopolitical premium, some news on the shutdown that didn't occur yet, the Roth conversion window that was opened all summer. And becomes even wider as temperatures cool down and what that fall Rotober campaign looks like heading into year-end. Set a reminder, Monday morning, September 7th, special edition right here.

Be one of a kind with Mike's plan.

To close, Michael Saylor made a plan in 2020. He's still executing in 2026, and those shareholders Had a nice day yesterday. Larry Page and Sergey Brin made a plan in 1998 with the help of a $100,000 check. They have turned that into a trillion dollars and countless number of jobs, countless number of millionaires, and a company that we use on the regular today. Beyoncé had a plan when she demanded her masters. Louis Latimer had a plan when he perfected the filament instead of chasing the light bulb. And Chateau Tiburon had a plan for what he would leave behind after he was gone. And it's the inspiration for the legacy and the one-of-a-kind financial plan. We're not chasing returns, guys. We're building the one-of-a-kind financial plan. As the author of that plan and the founder of One Oak Financial, where that is found, my mission to you is to educate, coach, and plan. So that together we can build the answer to why is money important to you, the vision for your retirement, and the one-of-a-kind financial plan for you to go live the one-of-a-kind life. I got a little mouthy today on the show, a little bit longer than possible, but I can't tell you how excited I am for what's to come in this fall and what's to come for you as we continue to build that plan. Text ideas to the number 600-700. Call 757-909-7151. Talk to Casey. Ask him to speak to a member of my team and subscribe to this. We're on a march to 1,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Be one of them. I'm Mike Milligan. See you Monday, Labor Day edition. This has been the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily. This has been for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Investing involves risk, including the loss, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. References to any person, company, index, or security, including but not limited to MSTR, Bitcoin, SPY, DIA, QQQ, the NASDAQ component, Russell 2000, GLD, USO, Alphabet, Google, Adidas, Parkwood Entertainment, Sun Microsystems, and any named individual living or deceased are for illustration and education only and are not recommendations to buy, sell, or hold any security or digital asset. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and could involve substantial risk of loss. Corporate treasury strategies of public traded companies are not appropriate templates for individual retail investors and do not replace personalized advice. Historical characterizations of Google Incorporated Michael Saylor's career or any historical figure named or drawn from public reporting or as presented. They're presented as educational context, not as endorsements. That in quotes attributed to The Motley Fool, Yahoo Finance, Timothy Skese, History Channel UK, Companies History Britannica, Wikipedia, UPI. And on this day are those sources reported and not those of Mike Milligan, One Oak Financial, the affiliated companies or unaffiliated companies, Mike is a partner with. Consult your own certified financial planning professional, certified public accountant, or attorney before acting. I am a certified financial planning professional. Those marks are owned by the Certified Financial Planning Board. I'm also the founder of One Oak Financial, where we build one-of-a-kind financial plans for your one-of-a-kind life.

Be one of a kind with Mike's plan. In a face-shot growth, take a stand. Visibility, strategy, take the lead. Transformation's yours, fulfill the need.

Ooh.

Mike's got the way to help you rise and stay. Leadership impact you'll find in your one-of-a-kind mind. Be one of a kind, take the flight. Mike's the guide, you'll shine bright.