Your Financial Plan vs. Wall Street Gurus: Who Should You Trust?

It's the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily, and I'm your host, Mike Milligan. I'm on a stopover in Norfolk, Virginia this Friday after spending Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in Iowa attending not only the Iowa State Fair, board meeting for one of our biggest companies that we partner with, and meeting really, really cool people along the way. My goal today, a gallon of water, 10,000 steps, and fulfill every promise to our prospecting clients that I gave on a call this week. We've been studying or profiling some key figures when it comes to bold predictions, how they view the market, and how a capitalist is still a capitalist. We've talked about Michael Burry, Robert Kiyosaki, Jim Cramer, and yesterday, Michael Saylor. And today, the one that ties them all together is not a market commentator this time. It's a sitting Fortune 500 CEO who asked her employees to give up their August vacations for the benefit of shareholders. Wall Street, meet the calendar. And I have a question about which one gets to win. My mission is to educate, coach, plan. Never miss a moment's my motto. Let's go.

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Yesterday, Thursday, August 20th, the bounce did not hold. All 3 major averages closed lower. S&P fell 0.9%, Dow Jones 1.3%, NASDAQ down 1%. Wednesday's streak snap gave way to a broad sell-in as investors positioned for Jackson Hole, which is a meeting every year that talks about fiscal monetary policy. Bond yield— bond yields remained elevated on the long end. Even after the Treasury buyback news and traders continue to digest a hawkish set of FOMC meetings, index, index closes right at the end of yesterday. Remember, this is for educational purposes only, not a signal to buy, trade, or try to bottom, bottom feed right now. We're, we're in this to build the one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life, and that one-of-a-kind financial plan informs What investments you hold so you could sleep at night. I want to follow up on a feature story I had on yesterday's podcast. On Wednesday, Moderna closed up 176.97% at $174.38. That's the largest single gain by any S&P 500 stock This century. On Thursday, profit-taking arrived. Moderna closed at $133.32, down $41, off 23.55%, per Wall Street Journal market data. Merck closed at $148.99, off 2.11%, giving back part of Wednesday's roughly 12% gain. The educational point is a stock can post a historic one-day move and give a meaningful piece of it back the next session. Chasing the headline into the second day cost roughly 23% on Moderna if you went in at the end of the market day or tried to say there's more room today to grow. See, the written plan does not need to catch the top or the bottom. The written plan needs to be quiet enough that you do not have to catch either one.

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Today is the annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. Keynote. The Fed chair speaks Friday morning. This is one of the most watched macro speeches of the year, and it comes after a week where the Treasury doubled long-end buybacks and the July minutes leaned hawkish. Rate futures markets have been walking back near-term hike expectations and pushing the next move to late in the year. Anything the chair says today about the inflation trajectory The pace of policy will move. I'd be interested to see personally if he's going to talk about what he talked about in his first Fed meeting when he said he'd form subcommittees or action committees to be able to study what data is appropriate in the new Fed. I'm going to be interested to see if he actually lays out some of the advancements or internal conversations they've had about that. And see if any structural changes. Remember, we all assume this Fed chief is acting with the same playbook as his previous successors. I, on the other hand, think that he may be looking at data different and may not— it may not play by the same playbook as those over the last 30 years. Remember, this is education. That was my opinion. That's not a call. The written plan Your written plan that impacts your life is more important than my opinions. But we are here to educate and we are here to have collective dialogue so that we can help each other live a one-of-a-kind life.

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Today's person feature is the CEO of the publicly traded company Accenture. Julie Sweet. She's the chair and CEO. The ticker is ACN. Here's the story. Accenture's fiscal year ends on August 31st. Bloomberg reported that, that an internal memo, it leaked, that Ms. Sweet told the firm's workforce, which is reportedly at approximately 770,000 employees, that they could carry unused August vacation into the next fiscal year, which is a one-time exception to their existing policy of use it or lose it. The reason, in her own words, as reported by Bloomberg, quote, our shareholders are counting on us to deliver a strong quarter in Q4. Everyone can contribute. This means we all need to find more ways to serve clients that create more revenue in the quarter and to originate more sales, small, large, mega, to finish strong. End quote. The math circulated on LinkedIn by a gentleman named Bill Father is worth naming for educational purposes. The public reporting cited a Q4 revenue forecast that came in roughly at $70 million short of Wall Street expectations. Divide $70 million by 770,000 employees, and that's roughly $91 per person. $91 per employee, folks. That is the price tag being placed on a family beach week, a booked trip, a mental health break, the last summer maybe before an employee's kid leaves for college. Are you, are you seeing something here? I am. But I want to be careful. Okay? Because I'm not critic— I'm not here to criticize Ms. Sweet as a person. And it's not a call on Accenture as a stock. I'm not trying to create a movement here. I'm not trying to help you. I'm just here to educate. Because every public company CEO answers To the same structural pressure. Quarterly consensus, buy-side models, sell-side reaction. That is the job. What we are studying today is the system. The one-of-a-kind life is not a fiscal year. It is 50 summers with your family, if you're lucky. And one of them was August 2026. Never miss a moment's my motto. But when you attach a math problem to it, revenue of shareholders, you cannot rebook the summer your kids are 8 and 11. A vacation traded for quarterly print is a moment traded for comp or some false security. This is the mismatch we are trying to name at the One of a Kind Financial Show. That mismatch where time traded, where every employee can book $91 more so shareholders are happy, just doesn't seem like a fair trade-off. Now, let me tie this week together, though, because the whole point of running 5 profiles across 5 days was the pattern, not any one person. Monday, I said— I talked about Michael Burry, the perpetual bear, working for— working on a subscription now with Substack after closing his hedge fund. A capitalist is still a capitalist. Tuesday, I did Robert Kiyosaki, the perpetual crash caller with a reported personal debt of $1.2 billion and a seminar funnel behind a microphone that asks people to increased their credit card limits in the middle of that seminar. Wednesday was Jim Cramer, a broadcaster on air multiple times, very, very entertaining, very entertaining. Plus, uh, the creator of the CNBC Investing Club subscription. A Wharton study on Action Alerts Plus, his charitable remainder trust, reported an annuitized 3.38% return versus the S&P's 5.59% over a 15-year window. But then there was something that came out, the inverse Cramer ETF that launched to trade against him. But that didn't last long. It closed in 2024. See, both directions of the reactive trade failed. Jim Cramer, keep doing what you're doing because you are making Americans better when they learn and they listen to you about stocks. But don't necessarily take his advice wholeheartedly. Thursday, I talked about Michael Saylor, Saylor, S-A-Y-L-O-R, the perpetual believer. His company Strategy, the ticker MSTR, reported— is reportedly holding 846,842 Bitcoin at an average cost of around $75,656. It's funded through at-the-market equity issuance, convertible notes, and preferred shares. It's a public thesis at scale, a concentration decision. Your written plan has the answer for you personally. And then today, Julie Sweet, the sitting CEO, carrying the shareholder pressure to the individual employee's calendar, to the time with the family. Wall Street, meet the family. 5 different people, 5 different business models, 5 different microphones. The common thread— none of them should be part of your written one-of-a-kind financial plan. Each one has an incentive to talk you out of your one-of-a-kind financial plan. The 5 profiles are together the whole case for building the one-of-a-kind financial plan, because a written plan quietly answers the question every one of these voices in their own way wants to keep open. Should you react? We are not chasing returns, folks. We're building the one-of-a-kind financial plan, and the plan protects the moments, including the August ones. To connect, text the word IDEAS, I-D-E-A-S, in the message bar of your cell phone to the number 600-700, or you can call our office directly at 757-909-7151. Casey will be there. Casey is amazing. And a reminder, this show is educational only. It's not personalized advice. Just as I am learning Spanish, estoy aprendiendo. You are here to learn a different take on the markets, but most of all, you're learning how important the financial plan is. I think it's the most important document that you should have in all of your finances. My mission is to educate, coach, plan, and and never miss a moment. As we close this weekend, I want to tell you what I'm doing to never miss a moment. I was supposed to fly back to Puerto Rico on the direct flight on JetBlue leaving Norfolk on Sunday. It would've gotten me into Puerto Rico around 7:30, but I changed my flight because this week there was an announcement that a certain international star was going to end his world tour at the baseball field in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We, we're going. We're going to go see Bad Bunny's final world tour concert Sunday night. More on that Monday on the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily. But never, ever, ever miss a moment. You may never get it back. This has been the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily. I'm Mike Milligan, the host. This is for educational purposes only. Nothing in this show is investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security, index, ETF, cryptocurrency, annuity, or other financial product. References to individuals on today's show, including Julie Sweet, Michael Saylor, Jim Cramer, Michael Burry, and Robert Kiyosaki, and to companies such as Accenture, Strategy Moderna, and Merck, are for educational and journalistic commentary based on public And are not endorsements by me, any of the companies I'm affiliated with, or and they're not criticism either of these individuals or their firm. Market data reflects reported closing values on the date stated and can change. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Any strategy discussed may not be appropriate for your situation. You need to consult with your own CFP, CPA. CPA or attorney before acting on anything you hear. I am a Certified Financial Planning Professional and the founder of One Oak Financial. I teach at Old Dominion University. I have a radio show called The One of a Kind Financial Show Daily, where you can go listen to this week's episode at www.oneoakradio.com. I'm also a podcast host of Ideas by Mike. No episode dropping this week. But next week, look out for that. And most of all, as the founder of One Up Financial, I believe you're unique. I believe you're one of a kind. I believe your financial plan should be one of a kind also.

Be one of a kind with Mike's plan. In a face shock growth, take a stand. Visibility strategy, take the lead. Transformation's yours, fulfill the need. 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. Mike's the guide, you'll shine bright.